I know exactly what you mean.  Sometimes I see my hands, body and the surroundings and I feel detached, like I am observing things.  I can see my hands typing - but looking at them, they appear as part of their surroundings, not particularly my hands or something unique to my being.

This is a key state of mindto a feeling of unity with all things (I thnk).  The boundaries begin to fade.  I also think what you describe borders on an oob experience.

The more I think about oob experiences however, the more I am sure that having them may not be the answer to our questions.  The astral body is as much of an illusion as the physical body.  We create it as another vehicle for our consciousness to ride in.  I have heard it said that Monroe and others who travel say the astral body resembles our physical bodies initially - because simply this is what we are used to.  Eventually, the shapes change as we realize we are not confined to a human form astrally. 

It is our consciousness itself that is outside of normal space time, connected always to the universe and the great consciousness of G-D or all there is. 

In some way, the surreal feeling may be an expression of that.

Best regards,
Matthew

I can confirm Mathews statement so well. as, just once I became a simple orb of light who knew itself as myself..like dual consciousness..I knew my body sat in a chair, but I was also bouncing down the cliffs of Long Beach Calif acting like the biggest fool you would ever find!  it's one of my road signs in the book. simply delightful to be the divine fool of the universe! love, alysia

Ryan, I feel in many ways you will be a leader in all this.  By that I mean that you will have discoveries that will not only open doors for you but also for others as well.  Your enthusiasm is not so much part of your age as it is part of your unique and special talants that makes you who you are.  You have plenty of time to discover and develop them, and in the meantime we will all learn from them too.

Love,
Vicky

Luke, every obe, every lucid dream every imagination trip method is so different from the one that went before that it is hard to set up guidelines for others to follow. mainly everything I learned was from Monroe and Moen gave me so many clues that I could notice I was able to resonate with what he teachs in a way I could not accomplish with other obe books. I think the imagination method is a new way of the future and the obe is just a beginning method.
I don't wish to lead others on that I am out there as an orb all the time kicking up my heels. that only happened once and there was a spiritual lesson attached to it before I got "to play." so I can assume I had a guide with me, and that we all have these guides with us sort of just observing us, but not to interfere with our learning.
the method I used during this orb situation was simply to relax every muscle consciously in my body for a period not to exceed 20 minutes of effort. pretty soon I found more muscles I could count, even eyebrow muscles...lol...apparently when you are completely releasing energy from the muscles, this energy you release can enter another astral vehicle if the intention is to obe...make sense? if a muscle is tight, must be some energy to relax there...just when I was going to give up, I popped out of the forehead and nearly got too excited to blow the whole thing when I heard guidance say "stay cool and collected".
I know I had a guide as my intentions were being monitored all the while..I was going to calif. to play a surprise joke on my brother...a guide put thoughts in my head, that what I was doing was not out of love for him, but too mischievious, so I stayed on the beach and conceded I was a little devil! that was the spiritual lesson, and the reward for changing my mind was to be able to stay and play for awhile..I think our spirits out there are so playful and free, that is what I learned also, that I should make sure to do no harm when I'm out. he would have thought I was dead, and that was harmful to worry him.
so that now I think relaxation techniques and various methods are less important than the intention for going obe, that if you have right intention that is not a harmful one, but a more loving one, than your success is nearly always assured sooner or later. love, alysia

I agree all is within, but I also witnessed a kind of current or wind, which may be the nuerons actually of the brain projecting a "film" in which awareness enters this film and receives all the impressions and sensations as if in flight. then there is energy portals to consider, where I heard the sound of a "click" in the forehead chakra and that is when the sensation of moving outward from that area as in the sense of being something small with body form, which body form slowly dissolved into orb form, and other beings were aware of me in this instance which I seemed to communicate that I wished to not talk to them. I was too excited to be out to talk to anyone. so we could say the universe is within rather than without and taking place on this screen; but then physical reality can be reduced to energy construct anyway.
remote viewing also could be seen as within rather than going to the location itself, perhaps it it that awareness just becomes aware of the details at the physical location by a tuning process. like a tuning to a channel process with the dial knob of the intention.
the going within and projecting an image to someone would account for my sister seeing my image in her room, and I failed to remember all but the intention I had set the night before.
I always did say it's just all a movie here! love, alysia

I've been feeling that recently too!

I just stare at my arm, move it about, grasp and un-grasp my hand and think "Whose controlling this thing? It's not me!"

I feels like I'm hitch-hiking on the back of some guy, and viewing the world through his eyes.

I've read material that suggests we're ascending as a race. We are currently experiencing 4D and will soon be in 5D. The gradual loss of Ego is what is creating this surreal feeling.

This IS one of the 'symptoms' of the Shift of Consciousness. You're feeling it and seeing it yourselves. That is so great.

with Love, Mairlyn