Has Anyone Here Ever Had An Out Of Body Experience? (soul, spirits)

[MontanaGuy]

Once when I was about twenty years old I was just waking up in the morning and for a split second I had one of the strangest sensations I've ever had in my life. It felt like my consciousness was located two or three feet above my body and I was looking down at my legs. I don't believe this was an out of body experience because I realize that my consciousness resides in my brain and doesn't have the capability to just wander off but it was a strange event that I've never forgotten. I have the feeling that when we're in that state when we're not quite asleep but haven't quite woken up that our mind can play tricks on us and that's all that this amounted to. Of course many people claim that they have looked down at their entire body including their head and that this often takes place when they've suffered a life threatening accident and are at the brink of death.
Have any of you experienced what you consider to be a real out of body experience and if so could you describe it in detail and if possible provide information that you sensed in this state that you shouldn't have been able to detect. This would include such things as viewing the activities of individuals that were out of sight from where you body was situated or something of that nature. Thanks.

[SeekerSA]

Yeah I had a few of those when I smoked the green stuff

I have had them also in my teens. IMO I do not believe dreams happen real time and the ones you remember oddly enough are followed by immediate consciousness.

I read somewhere that the brain still develops till we are 25 IIRC so maybe these teen dreams are a result of external influences that are in our unconscious state are reshuffled in our "memory banks"

I stay on a busy road and when the buses pass my house at five in the morning I find I get weird dreams but it is all in the process of waking up.

When I was a teen, I often had dreams of falling and floating then gently into bed awaking in a cold sweat. I am told this may have come from when I was 4 or 5 visiting the Vic falls and my dad was an amateur cinematographer. We were on the bridge and I apparently started climbing the side rails to get a better view. I was snatched by one of my parents just before I got to the top or something and psychologists made that connection, of course that was many years ago. Who knows?

Of course, there are theories, one can leave the body and that opens it up to possessions by evil spirits when you are "away" but I kinda think that is campfire boogyman stories.

[Lionsdale]

MontanaGuy:

Not deterring from the spiritual aspect of these things if they really do occur, but there is a name in Medicine to what you described in your post, and it is very natural.

It is called a Hypnopompic hallucination, as is known clinically to occur upon waking. It's sister hallucination, is called a Hypnogognic one, and that occurs right before falling asleep.

[Reverend1111]

Out of body experiences are normal for all humans although most humans don't let go of the material long enough to experience this. Your soul does indeed travel. As long as the "silver cord" is attached, you are alive and can go anywhere, even to the spirit worlds. When that cord is severed, you are dead.
It mostly happens in the alpha state. As you described, it only happens inbetween wake and sleep. Most people travel in their sleep and don't realize it and say it's only dreaming.
It is a gift from God so don't let fear guide you to believe otherwise. I would start a journal if you haven't already. i've not experienced it yet but someday, when the things that brought fear into my life are gone, I hope to live it.

[JetJockey]

Originally Posted by Reverend1111

Out of body experiences are normal for all humans although most humans don't let go of the material long enough to experience this. Your soul does indeed travel. As long as the "silver cord" is attached, you are alive and can go anywhere, even to the spirit worlds. When that cord is severed, you are dead.
It mostly happens in the alpha state. As you described, it only happens inbetween wake and sleep. Most people travel in their sleep and don't realize it and say it's only dreaming.
It is a gift from God so don't let fear guide you to believe otherwise. I would start a journal if you haven't already. i've not experienced it yet but someday, when the things that brought fear into my life are gone, I hope to live it.

When I read that, the first thing that popped into my head was the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Pullman... have you read them? If not, you might enjoy them.

[Reverend1111]

Originally Posted by JetJockey

When I read that, the first thing that popped into my head was the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Pullman... have you read them? If not, you might enjoy them.

No, but I can check them out. I like to read.

[b. frank]

I had about 4 when I was a teenager and none since. Each were about the same kind of thing: I was asleep (dream? I believe that is likely but I was and am open to other possibilities) and I would "wake up" and leave my body there in the bed. I could see it and the rest of my room just as I would if I were awake - darkened by the night. My "astral body" seemed to be floating but also have weight. Like it would hover around the floor unless I willed it to move upwards. Each time I floated along the floor right out my bedroom door (left ajar for the cat) and move into other areas of my house. It was aways dark as if it were real-time. Each time I would kind of float around my house looking up close at things like the fireplace and mantle. I could move around kind of like a helium balloon -- slowly but generally in the direction that I wanted. During the 2nd or maybe 3rd time, I had the thought that maybe I was experiencing astral travel or whatever and I got really excited thinking that maybe I could just float out the door and then...who knows where. Then I would get gripped with fear - kinda panicky - and then I would wake up in my body, in my bed. That same thing happened twice. And then never again. It was so real that I always wondered about the possibility that I had projected astrally. But it could also easily have been simple dreams. Hasn't happened since I was probably 15.

[effie g-tad]

Originally Posted by Lionsdale

MontanaGuy:

Not deterring from the spiritual aspect of these things if they really do occur, but there is a name in Medicine to what you described in your post, and it is very natural.

It is called a Hypnopompic hallucination, as is known clinically to occur upon waking. It's sister hallucination, is called a Hypnogognic one, and that occurs right before falling asleep.

oh great, thank you!

it's always good when some established profession attaches a name or a label to something otherwise only suspect.