Out-of-body Experiences
Out-of-body-experiences may be more common than you imagine. My first out-of-body experience happened to me unexpectedly. Before this happened, I had been meditating regularly for a few months, and when it occurred, it was utterly shocking; I found myself out-of-body in a void of pitch-black darkness. You can read more about this experience here: Entering the Void for the First Time.
What is an Out-of-body Experience?
When you first hear of it, it can be a strange concept to understand. So, what exactly is an out-of-body experience? An out-of-body experience is when you are experiencing a reality outside of the physical location of your body. For some people, they may find themselves in their bedroom, and when they turn to look at their bed, they see their physical bodies there asleep. This isn’t always the case, and you could be in a different location or reality. Where ever you are, it feels just like real physical reality—if not more so. In these kinds of experiences, you have all of your senses, such as smell, taste, touch, sense of gravity, and sometimes extra senses. The world may feel very physical, but in many cases, you can walk through walls and even fly around.
Near-Death Experiences
Some who have experienced traumatic injuries, such as in car accidents or cardiac arrest, may find themselves in an out-of-body experience; they may be standing outside of or floating above their body. What they experience is reminiscent of becoming a ghost—being able to witness events around them but unable to communicate or interact with the world. A near-death experience is essentially the same as an out-of-body or astral projection experience; it’s hard to know the full extent of difference between them, as near-death experiencers usually don’t have a whole lot of time to experiment with that ‘world.’
Astral Projection
Astral projection is another way to describe an out-of-body experience. It is what happened to me, as I wrote at the beginning of the article when I found myself being ejected out through my feet and hurled through a wormhole; this can happen spontaneously to people and can even be consciously induced. It has a closer connection to lucid dreaming, in the sense that sometimes you can enter an out-of-body experience through lucid dreams, and vice versa.
My Personal Experiences Out-of-body
Enlightenment
My second out-of-body experience happened while I was in my seat at a convention. At one point, I started to feel a strange sensation at the base of my spine. It felt something like electricity, although not quite the same. Immediately, I felt that something must be wrong with my health, and as I tried to adjust my position, the energy started to build up greater and greater. Before I knew it, it was shooting up my spine. Just as it reached my head, my body lost consciousness.
I say my ‘body’ lost consciousness because I was still very much aware, but I wasn’t in my body anymore—I was somewhere else entirely. What had happened with my body, after I left, was that my head fell backwards, my jaw hung open, and my body slumped back in the seat. My body was unconscious for at least two minutes. So if I wasn’t in my body, where did I go?
As soon as the energy travelling up my spine reached my head, I found myself in a void. This void was intermixed with diffused light—it wasn’t too dark nor too bright. There were no longer thoughts nor worries, and I felt at complete peace. It was as if I had reached full enlightenment, yet there was no excitement, only exquisite peace. When I think back to the experience, I can imagine being in that heavenly state for trillions of years without any boredom. I don’t know if I even had a body in that place, though I felt complete and whole, at one with myself.
Some who have had out-of-body experiences, describe feeling as one with the universe. They may even go on to say that we are all one, perhaps we are all individual thoughts of god. This has never been my experience, though, while out-of-body. Also, each time I’ve had these experiences, I’ve always been alone.
Rainbow Stargate
In the middle of the night, I suddenly woke up in sleep paralysis hearing strange, loud sounds in my head; these sounds sounded machinelike or that of buzzing. It frightened me because I thought something might be seriously wrong with my health. Within ten to fifteen seconds of the sounds blaring in my head, suddenly, my astral body shoots out through my feet; I am now travelling through an invisible wormhole that twists and turns. Eventually, it leads me to a black void.
My body continues forward, and a rainbow archway appears before me, and the old theme song from the Looney Toons cartoon starts to play. In a short time, I pass through the archway into a bizarre new scene. On the other side, I find myself in a cartoon world, and I’m standing in something like a roller coaster cart; it was hovering over a street in a cartoon city, and it takes me on tour. My first thoughts were, “Is this what I dream about?”, as I was somewhat disappointed in what the experience turned into; I was never even a big fan of the Looney Toons. At this moment, I felt a strong disconnection with my subconscious mind.
This experience above may be a bit controversial. It starts out as a full-blown out-of-body experience, but after I pass through the stargate, it turned into more of a lucid dream.
Conclusion
Some may debate as to the differences between out-of-body, astral projection and near-death experiences. They all are an experience outside of the location of your physical body. However, as to the vividness and abilities one has in these experiences, it depends on the individual’s state of mind when it occurs. Over time, the lines between my astral projections and lucid dreams have started to blur, and it only gets more complicated to describe. Whatever this mystery is, or what exactly is happening, it’s such a fascinating subject to explore!
If you have had any out-of-body experiences, please feel free to share them in the comment section below.
