Yeah ok, I've used this photo before. But it's on topic!
I have a kind of evolving relationship to esoteric happenings such as out of body (OOBs, or OOBEs) experiences. On the one hand, PRESENCE is the main and only “goal,” “desire,” want, etc. Everything else is…content. On the other, metaphysical evolution can facilitate the ability to hold greater awareness of the present moment. OOB’s are a good example.
Don’t know if I’ve mentioned it in this forum or not, but ever since my early teen years, I experienced occasional sleep paralysis. Usually it would occur on my way to sleep…and I’d “get stuck between asleep and awake,” and end up struggling to move and even breath. It would take a LOT of effort to move some finger or twitch a didget or make some facial movement to break the spell. Even then, if I didn’t entirely change my physical position, I was likely to slip back into the horrid experience. It particularly happened if I was perhaps napping on a couch…an enclosed, cozy space.
So…what to do. In my meditation school, we have an exercise called “Night Practice.” It involves a lot of common relaxation procedures, and for several years I attempted to avoid getting too deep into it because I didn’t want to have the sleep paralysis step in, which it did here and there. Then, something dramatic happened…
In the summer of 2009 I was at my meditation school for a week-long retreat. We were doing a night practice in the temple, and I began to feel that familiar feeling of paralysis coming on. However, something subtle shifted in this instance, and instead of becoming paralyzed and ceasing breathing, I simply slipped out of my body. I found myself floating with clear momentum up…toward the ceiling and the rafters.
Shortly, of course, I panicked, which is a typical response when one realizes, “I’m out of my body…oh, shit…!” This whole experience opened a huge door, and I realized: all of these years I was actually trying to pop out of my body, but instead I was having some subconscious anxiety attack about it, and the result was being “stuck.”
Since then, whenever I feel that familiar feeling of paralysis coming on, I can now just freekin’ relax! Usually then I get so excited about the fact that I might–oh my gosh!!–have an out of body experience, and thus undo the possibility of it. BUT…here and there I “chillax” enough that it actually happens.
I would note that…there is this interesting overlap between lucid dreams and OOBE’s. First, you’re in what my meditation teacher refers to as “fluid dimensional” reality, so sometimes door and other features of the space are in different locations. Second, like this morning, you encounter noises, voices, etc. that are just “in the space” that aren’t there when you’re in your body and “conscious.” Third, I’ve had what seemed to be dreams while also being somewhat aware of being out of my body. On the one hand, it’s an unmistakable sensation when the peeling apart happens, and you’re floating about. On the other, the “spaces” of dreams and out of body spaces are very interchangeable, if different at all.
Ok, so I’m not an expert. What I can say is that it’s an excellent exercise in PRESENCE to–again, as my meditation teacher instructs when you realize you’re out–DON’T PANIC. That’s usually the first thing that happens, and then *poof!* you’re back in. Also, reading two books in particular were absolutely indispensable in order to “normalize” the experience:
- D. Scott Rogo’s Leaving the Body
- Robert Monroe’s books on the topic…I read Far Journeys (far out!)
As these books *may* cover, a common, freaky experience is a lot of fireworks during the initial peeling away from your body part. This morning I experienced a series of intense waves coming from back to front horizontally through my body of energy…like as if I was being blasted with some vibration laser gun or something. *…vvvvvvVOOOOOMMMMMMMmmmmmm…* *…vvvvvvVOOOOOMMMMMMMmmmmmm…* *…vvvvvvVOOOOOMMMMMMMmmmmmm…* Other times, it’s been like being hit by lightening. And still others it’s silent and simple as a feather…
In any case, there’s nothing like having an experience like this one to convince even the most dogmatic recesses of your oh-so-smart mind that the universe of possible human experience is way, way, WAY! vaster than it may think…
