Hi bazza,
I would say yes, it is. There are some different sorts of obe's, that one chilipepperflea recently shared and those which are often suspected to be just imaginations. Take it as it comes and don't worry too much about "what" it is or how to label it. Try to experiment with it, like going to a specific place, or person, or ask a question or sth, do the funny things first would be my method.
And, I'm really NOT having the impression that you're going nuts!!
bye, spooky

hi Bazza. congratulations, you are sane and yes the obe's are real. I took the same route you took. I bought Monroe's books 20 years ago. I had always been interested in going obe but never got past the vibrational state although I would often try to force it, I'd just fall asleep after the sensations, btw, for me anyway, just to feel those head vibrations whirling like that may have been an end in itself? it was ecstasy. I don't have them anymore. I'm just "there." phasing I guess. it's all good. so at the time of acquiring Monroe's books, I had been involved in gaining an obe, but didn't think just reading about it would help any. it did. yet it happened spontaneously after reading and becoming curious, intensely so, about a hitchhiker on Monroe while he was obe. I wondered if someday if I were out there traveling as Bob did, that I too, would pick up a hitchhiker? for I thought Bob had done a loving service to allow the small curl to ride with him. as I went into this space, just wondering about obes and about Bob, I was awoken in the night and a guide told me to come with her. that night I did my first retrieval out of body and brought the memory home with me. for years, I didn't know what I had done until I came here and everyone agreed it was a retrieval. and the rest of the story is I started exploring with retrievals and gathering some experiences of a self defining nature out there.
Bruce will tell u in his books that the hardest part of exploration is believing that u are actually doing it. this is true. How can we be so lucky to actually come to "know?" yet there is no such thing as luck. if you begin to trust yourself, that what u are getting is useful to yourself, to begin to know who and what you are aside from what logic dictates you are, then you begin to get more and more truths about yourself. it is my belief that when we explore, either obes, imagination or phasing or dreams we are exploring our own selves, and in this we are all connected as one. yet the minute you say "I am crazy" it shuts down the areas u want to sail into.
I can confirm the feeling of riding a motorbike swiftly, as my awareness, light body if u will, came out of my forehead chakra, making a popping sound and sped away, lol, to Calif. I was consciously trying to project to my brother, but changed my mind once I landed on the beach area; he wasn't ready to receive me. I did however, show up in my sisters house once and she told me about it. I had been trying, so I felt good I showed up. some obes you are fully aware, some not fully, but still know you are out. Enjoy yourself! I think that's what the ability is there for!  Kardek, I think I can help you; ask yourself where you would like to explore and then start imagining what it would feel like, what you might discover, why you would like to explore there, etc. think about it a long time..then watch out! you may sometime open your eyes to find yourself in non-familiar surroundings and then it has begun.....
love, alysia

Kardec, it's your tag..."we all need each other." it's true. some of us don't know this truth. I learned it the hard way. I had no family but my twin daughters. I did not need my mother or siblings (I thought) because they acted like they didn't need me. now, I come along and read your tag and it reminds me that we are the family of mankind, and that the blood or genetic family is just a practice run for becoming a member of humanity within the heart area.
so thanks and yes I need you too. love, alysia

hi there again Ricardo. nice to see you here. maybe in truth age is just a myth after all? I have a very special friend who "retrieved " me once. he says that I appear to him as 19 yrs old. ha ha!   what a complement eh? I'm 56. but like I said age is well, just part of the illusion we deal with. yes obes are very scary at first, I can vouch for that. but that changes to phasing and phasing is just a little mind shift not scary at all.  too bad they didn't teach this stuff in high school, huh? love and light Ricardo. alysia