Out of body experiences

kucala

kucala

The Chameleon Sponge
MBTI
INFJ
Enneagram
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Not sure if this is the right section for this.

Taken from Neuropedia's blog...
Dragon said:
Okay, you can have an out of body experience by doing what pagans call 'astral projection'.

What it really is, is tricking your body into falling asleep while you remain conscious. It is very difficult to do and takes many tries to be successful, but you can have full blown out of body experiences doing it- the kind of stuff that makes people think they were abducted by aliens or visiting a spirit realm.

What you do basically is lie in bed and do not move. Don't scratch itches. Nothing. At some point, your body will fall asleep, and you will enter the hypnagogic state. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

It is scary because you will feel like you are not breathing, but you are actually fine. At some point, the part of your brain that determines where exactly your body is will shut off, so you wont be able to determine the location of your body. Entering the state is a very weird and powerful sensation; it is like a tingling that envelops your entire body. If you relax and start dreaming at this point (as opposed to freaking out and waking up), you can essentially have dreams while awake and have a self-induced OBE. You can be floating all over the place. Some people get pretty good at it and do it for fun. Some do it for religious reasons.

I personally have no desire anymore to do it, so I don't. I would recommend reading up on it before attempting. Also, if you want it to stop (the floating, that is), just think of your feet, or keep trying to move something small like a finger and eventually you will move the finger on your real body instead of your dream body.

If you have ever woken up and been paralyzed and unable to move, that is the state that you will be trying to put yourself in to. You have to be comfortable with having your body fully paralyzed to do it; however, it is what your body does every time it goes to sleep, but you're just not conscious of it.
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Have you? Would you? Why or why not?
 
I've played around with it before, but usually I got too weirded out to do anything with it. I work midnights and go to school during the day, so I haven't had a sleep schedule for a long time. Because of that, I get sleep paralysis a lot. The fear associated with it has completely subsided, now it's just annoying. I don't have any desire to be in the the state that is required for astral projection, however, so I don't have much experience with it. The one time I was actually able to break through I just floated around my room before "returning" to my body.
 
Hey Teracat,

I've been in the stage where you start to sleep while you're still conscious, but I did freak out when I noticed my breathing start to really slow and 'woke' because of it.

So no, I haven't had an obe, but I know a few who say they have experienced it. I'm skeptical, so I guess one day I'll have to 'see it to believe it'.

-Sam
 
I've actually tried that... the breathing thing made me stop because I thought I stopped breathing every time.
 
Just so you all know, this took me many tries to actually accomplish.

I've had it happen on its own too though.

I personally don't think it is very interesting after you've experienced it. You just get to float all over the place.
 
Sounds fascinating. I will definitely be trying this out, even if it is fairly boring.
 
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Yeah, I've had a couple, and they were purposely done, it was very weird.


I was lying in bed with my eyes closed and slowly drifting off to sleep, I suddenly notice that my eyes have re-opened, I was somehow looking through my eye lids and I could not re-close them, I decided to look at my projection clock that makes a red clock on the my ceiling appear, the colour of it was green! It was 10:17am on the clock, I decided I should try and get out of bed in my astral body, I slowly sat up and felt myself peeling away from my bed/body but then something disrupted me as I was getting up and I woke up. I forgot to do an RC as soon as I woke up…I also noticed that my projection clock wasn’t even projecting on the ceiling as I turned it around so I couldn’t see it on the ceiling before I went to bed. When I woke up I checked the time and it was 10:30ish So this was a very accurate time seeming as I went back to sleep after this experience, and then checked the clock.

That seemed more like a lucid dream, but it is the first time i've become consciously aware whilst being in my bed that something isn't right.
 
mf said:
I've played around with it before, but usually I got too weirded out to do anything with it. I work midnights and go to school during the day, so I haven't had a sleep schedule for a long time. Because of that, I get sleep paralysis a lot. The fear associated with it has completely subsided, now it's just annoying. I don't have any desire to be in the the state that is required for astral projection, however, so I don't have much experience with it. The one time I was actually able to break through I just floated around my room before "returning" to my body.
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This interests me very much.

I have had "dreams" let's call them where I was out of my body and in my house. These dreams where not normal dreams, though. I believe I may have been viewing the nearby environment as a spiritual entity. The reason I believe this is because during these dreams I communicated with dead relatives, and my gf (now my ex) who was sleeping next to me in bed. Upon waking-up, our dreams matched perfectly as far as the sequence of events unfolded, but each of us viewed the dream from our own perspective. The majority of the dream took place in the immediate surroundings.

I've had several of these "dreams" that weren't exactly fiction generated in the confines of my mind. The problem I had with them was usually that while I was in such a state, my left brain was turned off. This drastically impairs my cognitive functioning during the experience. I'm frankly not that decent of a person without my left brain because it regulates base motivations, making me a civilized person.

If I were able to "break-through" as you described it; I might actually be able to consciously enter such a state without supernatural assistance. I am just curious if the left side of our brain is still turned-on while in such a state? If mine turns on during a dream, I usually wake-up shortly afterward. So there might be a five to ten second window of me being fully conscious in a dream state before I awake.
 
Free Mind said:
Yeah, I've had a couple, and they were purposely done, it was very weird.


I was lying in bed with my eyes closed and slowly drifting off to sleep, I suddenly notice that my eyes have re-opened, I was somehow looking through my eye lids and I could not re-close them, I decided to look at my projection clock that makes a red clock on the my ceiling appear, the colour of it was green! It was 10:17am on the clock, I decided I should try and get out of bed in my astral body, I slowly sat up and felt myself peeling away from my bed/body but then something disrupted me as I was getting up and I woke up. I forgot to do an RC as soon as I woke up…I also noticed that my projection clock wasn’t even projecting on the ceiling as I turned it around so I couldn’t see it on the ceiling before I went to bed. When I woke up I checked the time and it was 10:30ish So this was a very accurate time seeming as I went back to sleep after this experience, and then checked the clock.

That seemed more like a lucid dream, but it is the first time i've become consciously aware whilst being in my bed that something isn't right.
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Haha... You know, I did this the other morning and did not realize it until I read this. I knew the time was 2:07 somehow because I had looked at the clock and saw it... but I never moved my head. I then moved my head to double-check and I was right. This didn't really astound me that much, I just figured a spirit had told me the time; it never occurred to me that maybe I saw it using this method described... which I think is more likely because if a spirit tells me something while conscious, I generally don't *see* it, I'm more likely to hear it or just know it.

-------

As a side-note, I can't really see the clock either without squinting really hard because I'm near-sighted pretty bad. When I looked at the clock the first time, it was pretty clear which makes me think my spiritual body has better vision than I do. Just an odd fact to consider.
 
Razare said:
This interests me very much.

I have had "dreams" let's call them where I was out of my body and in my house. These dreams where not normal dreams, though. I believe I may have been viewing the nearby environment as a spiritual entity. The reason I believe this is because during these dreams I communicated with dead relatives, and my gf (now my ex) who was sleeping next to me in bed. Upon waking-up, our dreams matched perfectly as far as the sequence of events unfolded, but each of us viewed the dream from our own perspective. The majority of the dream took place in the immediate surroundings.

I've had several of these "dreams" that weren't exactly fiction generated in the confines of my mind. The problem I had with them was usually that while I was in such a state, my left brain was turned off. This drastically impairs my cognitive functioning during the experience. I'm frankly not that decent of a person without my left brain because it regulates base motivations, making me a civilized person.

If I were able to "break-through" as you described it; I might actually be able to consciously enter such a state without supernatural assistance. I am just curious if the left side of our brain is still turned-on while in such a state? If mine turns on during a dream, I usually wake-up shortly afterward. So there might be a five to ten second window of me being fully conscious in a dream state before I awake.
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It sounds like you're well on your way to achieving it. What you've described sounds similar to my experiences.

Getting into the state required for it can be challenging though, especially the first few times. Thinking you're suffocating is no fun, nor are the sights and sounds that come with the first few paralysis experiences. I remember the first time I had sleep paralysis was in high school. I was trying to take a nap, but couldn't shut my mind off. I didn't move my body for well over two hours, and it fell asleep on it's own. Your body starts to release the chemical that paralyzes you, and if you don't recognize what it's doing your mind goes into panic mode. I was convinced I was dying/being possessed, and I'm not that much of a spiritual person at all. I still vividly remember the demonic voice telling me I'd never escape, and the overwhelming feeling that my chest was caving in. I did some research on it, and realized what it was so the fear over time dissipated.

The next part I had to get used to was the vibrations. Once you go paralyzed, you start to feel as if your body is vibrating uncontrollably, and a buzzing sound becomes louder and louder. For me the two would compete and increase until they were essentially in tandem, and there was just one high pitched ringing matching up with the body sensation. I don't know if you have any experience with opiates, but it's similar to the opiate itch.

At this point, you just kind of lift yourself out of your body. You can also try rolling out. You don't have any real control over your physical body, and although your eyes are closed, you can see the world around you perfectly. I never got the hang of it, but the one time I actually lifted myself up everything came naturally. I felt like the same person, but the environment around me had an extra...feel?...to it. Akin to some other 'experiences' people might be familiar with.

As for the left brain thing, I couldn't really tell you. I never got good enough at it to really experiment, although I did always feel like 'me'. Getting back to your body is really rather simple. If you think about moving a finger or toe, you pretty much wake up. The trick is to actually get out of bed though, because there have been plenty of times where I thought I woke up when I was actually still in the limbo state.

However, there really is no fear in getting stuck in the state. I've had sleep paralysis so much that moving fingers and toes doesn't generally work, but if I have an alarm set it always jolts me out of what ever state I'm stuck in. The keys are not to panic because you will wake up, and to try and have fun.
 
Oh and as a final note, should you ever be in astral travel and see a stairway going up into the sky, DO NOT CLIMB them. >.< Especially if two kids in their teens are leading the way.
 
mf said:
Getting into the state required for it can be challenging though, especially the first few times. Thinking you're suffocating is no fun, nor are the sights and sounds that come with the first few paralysis experiences.
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Yeah, whenever that happens to me, I force myself to wake up pretty quick.

See, I didn't realize I could do this stuff in that state. I've always done it in full dream-state, which I think requires outside help to even do. It's a lot nicer to do it that way because you don't feel like you're suffocating, but obviously, you don't have much control over whether a spirit decides to have a chat with you while you're dreaming.

I don't think I'll try it this other way though, I'm too impatient to lay around for 2 hours.
 
How do you get into waking sleep paralysis? I've tried many times, and i've never experienced it, well, atleast I don't think I have. I did when I was young, but not anymore lately.
 
It would be very interesting, alright. I used to do something similar after reading an (ahem, fictional) book. I'd close my eyes, go completely limp, then imagine a place I felt calm. At one point, I wouldn't feel my arms or anything. I'd be completely awake though, and look around the calm place in my mind. The first time I did it, when I was done with it, I opened my eyes and it was really weird. Like I was being "poured" into my body. It was cool. I couldn't replicate the feeling, though.

Y'know, I may just experiment with that slightly later.
 
I have, was not something I "learned" how to do, it's innate in me and I've been able to do this since I was a young child. It's so natural to me that I do it on a regular basis.
 
I literately just tried this as purely experimental and science based to see how the brain works. While I didn't get full obe I got to the part where your breathing slows and you feel tingly. Very interesting. Then my adrenaline kicked in, I felt my heart rate increase, and because I was getting a little nervous and tired for real sleep I woke up. Weirdest part was I had to stand up and move around after the fact because I wasn't completely sure I was really awake. Guess I need an Inception totem thing. :p
 
... or you guys could just do shrooms.
 
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