Out of Body Experience
Discussion
A rather odd thing happened to me the other night. I was asleep then I kind of wasn’t. Then I was falling then I had the sensation that I fell into my own body.
I’d kind of forgotten about OBEs, 30 odd years ago a friend of my mums reckoned he could almost do it at will.
Anyway I’ve ordered a copy of Robert A Munroe’s ‘Ultimate Journey’ so I should know a bit more soon.
Anyone got any experience of this?
I’d kind of forgotten about OBEs, 30 odd years ago a friend of my mums reckoned he could almost do it at will.
Anyway I’ve ordered a copy of Robert A Munroe’s ‘Ultimate Journey’ so I should know a bit more soon.
Anyone got any experience of this?
Yeah, once in my early teens. It was absolutely amazing, very lucid, and had a profound and lasting impact on me. I tried and tried to recreate it, but never did. I'm sure it was just a moment of being stuck between dream and awake, and nothing supernatural or spiritual, but what an experience!
The falling into your own body sensation could be a 'cyclonic jerk'. As you start to sleep the brain starts ignoring messages from the body saying 'I'm lying on something soft' so if you are aware at all you feel you are floating. Then if you return to being fully awake the floating sensation is suddenly replaced by a lying on mattress sensation, which feels as though you've fallen.
Dr Jekyll said:
The falling into your own body sensation could be a 'cyclonic jerk'. As you start to sleep the brain starts ignoring messages from the body saying 'I'm lying on something soft' so if you are aware at all you feel you are floating. Then if you return to being fully awake the floating sensation is suddenly replaced by a lying on mattress sensation, which feels as though you've fallen.
Yeah I think that's what I've had sometimes when just falling asleep.This was different
2ZZ Top said:
Yeah, once in my early teens. It was absolutely amazing, very lucid, and had a profound and lasting impact on me. I tried and tried to recreate it, but never did. I'm sure it was just a moment of being stuck between dream and awake, and nothing supernatural or spiritual, but what an experience!
Sounds like it didn’t really have a profound effect if you’re sure it was nothing supernatural or spiritual. I’m not saying what it was or wasn’t, but if you left your body then that sounds pretty much like a spiritual experience, how can you say you’re sure it wasn’t?
I had some strange experiences when I was younger. The best I can say is maybe it was my imagination, but I certainly wouldn’t say I’m sure I know what happened as I still can’t explain a couple of them.
Edited by Douglas Quaid on Tuesday 19th July 22:15
Douglas Quaid said:
Sounds like it didn’t really have a profound effect if you’re sure it was nothing supernatural or spiritual.
I’m not saying what it was or wasn’t, but if you left your body then that sounds pretty much like a spiritual experience, how can you say you’re sure it wasn’t?
I had some strange experiences when I was younger. The best I can say is maybe it was my imagination, but I certainly wouldn’t say I’m sure I know what happened as I still can’t explain a couple of them.
How can I say it wasn't? Because I'm a rational thinker and not a religious fantasist? There are a million billion things we don't know about how brains work. It's infinitely more likely to be a hormone chemical cocktail doing something weird to my consciousness while I'm sleeping than proof of the existence of gods or ghosts. I’m not saying what it was or wasn’t, but if you left your body then that sounds pretty much like a spiritual experience, how can you say you’re sure it wasn’t?
I had some strange experiences when I was younger. The best I can say is maybe it was my imagination, but I certainly wouldn’t say I’m sure I know what happened as I still can’t explain a couple of them.
Edited by Douglas Quaid on Tuesday 19th July 22:15
Dr Jekyll said:
The falling into your own body sensation could be a 'cyclonic jerk'. As you start to sleep the brain starts ignoring messages from the body saying 'I'm lying on something soft' so if you are aware at all you feel you are floating. Then if you return to being fully awake the floating sensation is suddenly replaced by a lying on mattress sensation, which feels as though you've fallen.
I get this regularly, at least once a month I'd guess, and never knew it such a thing that it had a name. So thanks for that, something learnt. When I do this though (and this may be the same for everyone), I feel like I've really spasmed hard or actually fallen on to the bed, it felt like such a strong experience, then I notice that my wife hasn't even registered it, so although it feels strong, I'm guessing externally to me it's hardly noticeable.Douglas Quaid said:
2ZZ Top said:
Yeah, once in my early teens. It was absolutely amazing, very lucid, and had a profound and lasting impact on me. I tried and tried to recreate it, but never did. I'm sure it was just a moment of being stuck between dream and awake, and nothing supernatural or spiritual, but what an experience!
Sounds like it didn’t really have a profound effect if you’re sure it was nothing supernatural or spiritual. I’m not saying what it was or wasn’t, but if you left your body then that sounds pretty much like a spiritual experience, how can you say you’re sure it wasn’t?
I had some strange experiences when I was younger. The best I can say is maybe it was my imagination, but I certainly wouldn’t say I’m sure I know what happened as I still can’t explain a couple of them.
Edited by Douglas Quaid on Tuesday 19th July 22:15
You guys ought to read H G Wells’ short story Under The Knife.
http://www.telelib.com/authors/W/WellsHerbertGeorg...
http://www.telelib.com/authors/W/WellsHerbertGeorg...
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I had an operation where my heart stopped beating for ten minutes. In ICU I was out cold, not waking up for four days. I clearly remember my wife sitting by my bedside and a doctor being beside her. I remember an argument I had with the doctor and my brother coming in to see me. None of these things happened. All false memories. I remember conversations: doctor and nurses/trainee whatevers, and my wife telling me stuff. These did happen but then, they would have done.
Very strange experience.
On discussing the matter with my two anaesthetists, I asked, as anyone would, if I had died. I was told, 'It depends what you mean by died.' I thought that a clue as to why I'd had problems; neither anaesthetist knew what dead meant.
Just as i go off to sleep, have dreamt i'm falling which wakes me up with a start. Not the same thing i guess. I've also woken up mid air where i've jumped out of bed.
Weirdest thing i get lately (as in past 5 years or so) is as i'm drifting off, everything gets very loud and i'm in a sort of cafe environment with cutlery sounds and conversation. I can find some of the conversations drifting in and out of focus, its usually women talking, and the most banal stuff like eastenders. Not had it for a while until the other night when it was complete silence apart from two spanish guys talking. It was crystal clear, like i was eavesdropping on a phone call. I don't speak spanish so couldn't understand a word, but one seemed flustered.
Weirdest thing i get lately (as in past 5 years or so) is as i'm drifting off, everything gets very loud and i'm in a sort of cafe environment with cutlery sounds and conversation. I can find some of the conversations drifting in and out of focus, its usually women talking, and the most banal stuff like eastenders. Not had it for a while until the other night when it was complete silence apart from two spanish guys talking. It was crystal clear, like i was eavesdropping on a phone call. I don't speak spanish so couldn't understand a word, but one seemed flustered.
Some mornings where I have a lie in I get similar things, where my body goes completely numb and I don't feel like I can move.
I looked it up, and can't remember the exact science or explanation, but in layman's terms - your body/brain is releasing the chemical that prevents your jiggering about when you're asleep and dreaming, but you're not actually fully asleep and so you're conscious of the feeling. It's half amazing and half terrifying.
I'm sure your experience was a similar type of thing.
I looked it up, and can't remember the exact science or explanation, but in layman's terms - your body/brain is releasing the chemical that prevents your jiggering about when you're asleep and dreaming, but you're not actually fully asleep and so you're conscious of the feeling. It's half amazing and half terrifying.
I'm sure your experience was a similar type of thing.
bmwmike said:
Just as i go off to sleep, have dreamt i'm falling which wakes me up with a start. Not the same thing i guess. I've also woken up mid air where i've jumped out of bed.
Weirdest thing i get lately (as in past 5 years or so) is as i'm drifting off, everything gets very loud and i'm in a sort of cafe environment with cutlery sounds and conversation. I can find some of the conversations drifting in and out of focus, its usually women talking, and the most banal stuff like eastenders. Not had it for a while until the other night when it was complete silence apart from two spanish guys talking. It was crystal clear, like i was eavesdropping on a phone call. I don't speak spanish so couldn't understand a word, but one seemed flustered.
Did wonder if your neighbour was watching Better Call Saul with the volume turned up, but those Spanish speakers tend to be rather more than 'flustered',Weirdest thing i get lately (as in past 5 years or so) is as i'm drifting off, everything gets very loud and i'm in a sort of cafe environment with cutlery sounds and conversation. I can find some of the conversations drifting in and out of focus, its usually women talking, and the most banal stuff like eastenders. Not had it for a while until the other night when it was complete silence apart from two spanish guys talking. It was crystal clear, like i was eavesdropping on a phone call. I don't speak spanish so couldn't understand a word, but one seemed flustered.
bmwmike said:
Not had it for a while until the other night when it was complete silence apart from two spanish guys talking. It was crystal clear, like i was eavesdropping on a phone call. I don't speak spanish so couldn't understand a word, but one seemed flustered.
Was it Tuesday, and was one saying "scorchio"?'Myoclonic' (not 'cyclonic') refers literally to the involuntary contraction of any muscle(s). Hiccups are technically a form of myoclonic jerk.
I do get that 'dropping' feeling now and then just before waking myself with the muscle jerk, much to the annoyance of my other half. When I settle down to sleep again, I sometimes begin hallucinating but remain perfectly awake -- my ears ring with a regular tone almost like a siren, any features I can pick out in the [dark] bedroom such as the door, curtain rail, lamp, anything in fact, become very small like I've zoomed right out from a camera lens and the only way to 'snap out of it' is to get up and do something active like go downstairs for a glass of water, go to the bathroom, flick the light on for a few seconds and it's all over. It doesn't appear to be more prevalent when I've eaten any particular foods, been watching screens before bed or anything else -- it's spontaneous as to when it occurs, and I remember having it as a child too.
OP should definitely look into 'lucid dreaming' though. Essentially, you would be fully aware and immersed in your dreams, and even be able to influence them and steer them, but not everybody's brain is wired for it. Very interesting subject nonetheless.
I do get that 'dropping' feeling now and then just before waking myself with the muscle jerk, much to the annoyance of my other half. When I settle down to sleep again, I sometimes begin hallucinating but remain perfectly awake -- my ears ring with a regular tone almost like a siren, any features I can pick out in the [dark] bedroom such as the door, curtain rail, lamp, anything in fact, become very small like I've zoomed right out from a camera lens and the only way to 'snap out of it' is to get up and do something active like go downstairs for a glass of water, go to the bathroom, flick the light on for a few seconds and it's all over. It doesn't appear to be more prevalent when I've eaten any particular foods, been watching screens before bed or anything else -- it's spontaneous as to when it occurs, and I remember having it as a child too.
OP should definitely look into 'lucid dreaming' though. Essentially, you would be fully aware and immersed in your dreams, and even be able to influence them and steer them, but not everybody's brain is wired for it. Very interesting subject nonetheless.
Off piste;
That moment that you wake up & your whole body is locked in position... no matter how you fight it, you just cannot move.
It’s even more frightening if you are wrapped up in your bedding.
NB: I have had an ‘out of body’ experience... but that was self inflicted.
( Too much falling down water).
That moment that you wake up & your whole body is locked in position... no matter how you fight it, you just cannot move.
It’s even more frightening if you are wrapped up in your bedding.
NB: I have had an ‘out of body’ experience... but that was self inflicted.
( Too much falling down water).
Edited by Milkyway on Friday 22 July 17:46
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