Last night I went to sleep and immediately felt a presence near me trying to manipulate my body.  Since this has happened before I decided to go with it.  The presence then lifted me out of my body and I floated upwards and then to a standing position on the floor.  I looked around for the being who lifted me out but saw no one.  I decided to walk to my daughter's room to see if she was ok (I could see in the dark, by the way).  I looked in, she was sleeping.  I turned the light switch on and off several times (the light was not coming on) but I felt weird about it because I was expecting that my hand would go right through it since I was out of body.  Then I walked to the front door to check that and was able to open and close it several times.  I felt odd about this too.  If I'm OOB how can I manipulate physical things?  Then I saw a screen door and a dog (which I don't have).  It seems as though my experience was becoming an ordinary dream and then I woke up.  30 minutes had passed on the clock.

How do you classify this type of experience?  Is there something I should have done differently after going OOB?

Ryan,
Yes I had normal waking consciousness throughout.

As soon as I began to wonder if I was dreaming then I woke up. 

I think I need time to sort it out.  Some more experiences would help too. Then I can practice using different techniques to help clarify what I'm seeing visually.

Thanks for your input

mediastreamer wrote on Jun 24^th, 2006 at 9:41am:


It's called an astral projection:

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research12.html

Don't worry, it's normal. It happens to everyone. It's true.

Very, very interesting suggestion, Vicky.  When I get the chance to do that I'll let you know how it went.  Keep me posted if you get the chance too.

Hi there Rick.  I have not had this experience but I think Ryan has had experiences where someone is pulling on his feet. 

Yoo hoo, Ryyyannn....   

It is my guess that some people may think this kind of experience is an astral part of yourself helping you out of your body.  What are your thoughts?

Vicky

Hi Lucy,

By normal waking consciousness I mean the kind of self awareness you have at your disposal every day.  You can focus very little on what you are doing or focus a lot, but your normal waking consciousness is what you use to think, make decisions, remember, etc.  It is "the real you" in the physical world.  For instance, in a regular dream all sorts of crazy stuff can happen but you just accept it as normal, and then when you wake up you think, "wow what a crazy dream that was".  Even during a lucid dream consciousness usually comes and goes and it is necessary to remind yourself to remain consciously aware.  But during OBE's and during the normal waking world you don't have to remind yourself to stay conscious.  Your conscious awareness is just automatically operating.  There's no lapse in awareness. 

My main idea of normal waking consciousness is that you think during an OBE the way you think in your normal life.  You have the same personality, fears, shyness if you are shy, politeness if you are polite, etc, and it means that you are aware of your surroundings and situation while it is taking place.  For instance, in some of my OBEs I think "how did I get here?  This doesn't make sense.  I know this isn't the physical world but I know this is really happening and this isn't a dream".  Sometimes that is the thought process I go through.  Most of my OBEs have been in a place that is very closely aligned with the physical world so it therefore feels very physical.  In this place it is easy for thoughts to become things.  Thoughts become reality.  It is also very easy for things to appear that are not really there in the physical world.  Another concept that takes place is like what Bruce talks about in the Perceiver/Interpreter concept.  What we perceive we interpret into the nearest similar thing we have in our memory stores to associate with that perception. 

I have a perfect example of my own about this:  In an OBE one morning I floated out of bed into the living room and saw my son watching cartoons.  I stood behind him on the couch just observing, looked out the window and saw wonderful stormy clouds over the neighbor's yard.  I made the remark, "Wow, look at the weather over there!"  When I physically awoke, I went into the living room, not yet remembering my OBE just moments earlier.  My son was watching cartoons on the couch and I stood behind him, looked out the window, and saw a weatherization truck in my neighbor's driveway.  The company name was Energy Savings Partners and their logo was ESP.  Once I saw that it clicked in my mind and the memory of the OBE came instantly back to me.  (Got a good chuckle from the play on words there). Everything else I observed was exactly like physical reality except for the stormy clouds I saw.  My mind had perceived the weatherization truck but I interpreted it into the concept of weather, which I am facinated with, by the way.  I love storms, clouds, the sky...

I have read of people having OBE's where they are in their house, what seems like their real physical house but there is an extra door, or an extra window, that doesn't really exist.  This factor does not mean that the experience was not a real OBE.  The change is a manifestation of your thoughts. 

I once moved a non-physical fan while out of body.  I thought I was physically awake and moving my physical fan, moved it right up against the bed because I was hot that night.  Everything seemed exactly like physical reality.  When I did finally physically awaken in the morning my first thought before opening my eyes was "Oh yeah, I moved the fan last night.  I need to be careful I don't trip over it".  When I opened my eyes and got up the fan had not been moved at all.  I realized I had only performed the action astrally.  So, my thoughts of being hot and really, really wanting to move the fan closer manifested in my performing that action in an OBE.

I hope my personal examples can help make some things clear.  I don't know all there is, so don't take me like I think I know it all.  I just like to help if I can. 

I've emailed Ryan to explain what he knows, so hopefully he will join us soon!

Love, Vicky

Hey Rick, Vicky, everyone

I've only had one experience of a helper trying to get me out of my body. I didn't get to meet this helper unfortunatly. I was trying to go OBE and was getting to the point where i feel frustrated nothings happening and begin to get a bit restless, i kept relaxed and tried to deepen my relaxation when suddenly two hands grabbed my feet! It didn't scare me though, at first I was slightly shocked, suprised but felt nothing but friendly vibes coming from whoever it was. It was scary how physically real the hands felt, for a second I even considered the fact that it was physical! But ruled that out. I decided to "go" with the pulling of my feet and it was a weird feeling, i still felt my physical body but felt my second as well slipping? off my physical except for my head which didn't seem to let go so i was unable to get out. After about 5 minutes i decided it wasn't going to happen and mentally thanked whoever was trying to help me and that i appreciated it, i focused these thoughts in the direction of where the person would be so hopefully they got them.

Throughout the experience I had no vision at all and only had a presense of the entitys hands, nothing else whatsoever. From what I've read we do have helpers out there who help us but I agree with Vicky as well, I think its our intention that sometimes manifests itself into somthing, like an astral part of ourself to help us get out maybe?

I would love to meet my helpers/guides. Has anyone here met any yet? I have met two i believe, one is a monk who I have no idea of his name, another one is Jasmine who I met in a very weird OBE some time ago! I've never been able to get in contact with either again yet to find out who they are and why they are helping me and what I can do and to thank them!

What were you experiences like with helpers rick?

I don't know if helpers are common or not, ive only had one experience in all my travelling so far but i guess they are always there for us even if we don't know it watching over. I wish they could help me get out every night lol!

Ryan