My first OBE?...

[Matchbook]

Before I went to sleep I was doing some reading on OBEing, having never done it. Then I went to bed, had a couple hours of dreamless sleep, then about 6 hours after going to bed I woke up for the second time. I immediately closed my eyes again and began to feel vibrations, which were incredibly euphoric. Then I opened my eyes momentarily, only to see that my bedsheets were rippling and sparkling heavily, and my whole field of view was waving around. Probably like what a high dose lsd trip would be like. I'd seen hallucinations on my bed before, but never visual distortions like that, considering I was still definitely awake at that point. Then I closed my eyes once more and then the image of my arms in front of me with blackness behind it began to appear, and I focussed on my arms and tried to lift myself outward (wasn't even thinking about an OBE). Then my whole room appeared, and I felt myself float out and upward until I was nearly at the ceiling. At that point I began to wonder if this was an OBE. I forgot to look in my bed to see if I was still in there. But I kept rising and eventually I was looking down from a slightly aerial view of the rooms in my house (the roof had little or no opacity). I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't think of what to do. At this point I began to feel what seemed like a LD superimposing itself over my OBE, and I began to float downwards now, and into someone's backyard (which should have been mine). And there were some people out there, etc, but I don't remember what happened after that, because I lost lucidity soon afterward. Eventually I woke up and remembered what happened, and was pretty excited. Then I tried inducing WILD again and closed my eyes and felt SP overtake me. I was ok with the feeling, but suddenly I noticed that I couldn't swallow! This was very alarming, because I felt like if I fell asleep I could choke on my own saliva. I couldn't figure out why I could blink, but not swallow. I tried to eject SP, but only managed to roll to my side, where I felt a little better, and fell asleep with no other interesting reports thereafter. Does this sound like an OBE possibility to any of you? I was a little upset at myself for not being ready for it.

[onlysleeping]

It sounds like an experience worth more than just mentioning nonchalantly Similar to mine it is. Watch the boundries dissolve

[TheUnknown]

Originally posted by onlysleeping It sounds like an experience worth more than just mentioning nonchalantly Similar to mine it is. Watch the boundries dissolve Yoda? Is that you?

[Leo Volont]

Dear Matchbook, Congratulations! That was an OBE alright... and it stayed OBE the entire time. A misunderstanding people have is that they think that the lowest level of the Astral Place that roughly corresponds to the Physical World IS the Physical World, but, no, ... at best it only roughly corresponds to the Physical World. I once OBE'd in a small Korean town in the middle of the night. Nothing was going on, and so I went to the center of the town's activity, the square adjacent to the Train Station. There were strange little spirits wondering about. Oddly, there was a Statue in the middle of the square where in actuality there is none, as though there had been one there in the past, or will be one there in the future. To achieve anything very interesting with Astral Projection (which is how Old Men refer to OBE's) it is almost necessary to go to the Higher Planes, but, then, one finds one's self in the same places to which our Dreams can take us, if we chose to go to the Higher Planes, and can get past the guard mechanisms (which is why I admire Aquanina to such a high degree, because she seems to have a Membership Pass to the highest levels)

[Kaniaz]

Haven't posted here for a while. Guess I might as well be the one to effectively poop on the little cosy party you've got going here. I can't really say anything that hasn't been said before. It sounds alot like a dream to me, and it's what I would expect. Bed covers certainly don't ripple and sparkle "heavily" in real life. That's undebatable. But - lo and behold - they sure can ripple and sparkle in a dream! As much as it is very tempting to think you just had some otherwordly experience, it's almost defintely a dream. Espcially since you say that you just read about OBE'ing before going to sleep, it puts your mind, that can dream up amazingly real sounding scenes as you'd expect, in that frame of thought. That's my two cents, anyway.

[nina]

Yeah I have to agree with Kaniaz there. If you were hallucinating then you did not have a real OBE...because in an OBE things should look exactly as they do in real life (because essentially you are there in real life just "outside" your body observing). The other thing that makes me think it was in fact, just a dream or a fake OBE is that you had this during VERY light sleep, after you woke up from 6 hours of sleeping...felt the vibrations of a WILD...then probably had some hypnogogic hallucinations...then began to float out of yourself (which can be very typical in that tracelike state between consciousness and lucid dreams) then eventually you entered a lucid dream. You think that the LD "overtook" your OBE. Nah... I have had this experience several times...where I have gotten out of my body during this stage between consciousness and lucid dreaming...I have forced myself out of SP...I have floated out of my body and around my room (bumped into the door in fact), floated up through the ceiling of my house and all the many levels...but they ALWAYS turned out to be dreams. I think Kaniaz is right in that because you were reading about OBEing your mind caused you to have these hallucinations during HI that brought you to think you could be having an OBE. But congratulations on a successful "unintentional WILD" as I like to call them. Oh and if you don't believe me, just try to prove it for yourself. I had a very simple technique for proving whether or not I was OBEing... Originally posted by Aquanina But yeah D.O. you are absolutely right. I was one of those people who thought I was experiencing OBEs this way until I tried to actually PROVE it by using a photo album. I would lay down and place the photo album on my nightstand and flip to a random page without looking. Then I would try to look at the photo during my \"OBE\" experience and would prove to the whole world that I WAS HAVING OBEs!! * Well let's see...one time the book wasn't even there. Other times I couldn't get my head to turn to look at the photo album...other times I would float up off my bed and would completely miss even a chance at looking at the photo. Then...this ONE TIME I was having an \"OBE\" and I remembered to look at the photo album...but instead...there was a 4 foot tall jack rabbit wearing prison stripes leaning over my bed, staring at me with this awful creepy grin. Reminds me of a character from Dark Wonderland (see my sig below). Anyway...think it MIGHT have been my subconsious saying...HEY DUMBASS!!! THESE ARE JUST DREAMS!!!!!!!! * Anyway, I let go of any though that I was experiencing obes. I hope that you guys who think you have experienced an OBE during light sleep, just try to prove it...for yourselves. And I hope you guys realize that real OBEs can only occur in the deepest stages of sleep, where few are truly able to become consious. I do believe that they exist, but I think ALOT of people are misguided about them. I have never had a real one. Feel free to disagree all you want guys.

[nesgirl119]

Originally posted by Aquanina Yeah I have to agree with Kaniaz there. If you were hallucinating then you did not have a real OBE...because in an OBE things should look exactly as they do in real life (because essentially you are there in real life just \"outside\" your body observing). The other thing that makes me think it was in fact, just a dream or a fake OBE is that you had this during VERY light sleep, after you woke up from 6 hours of sleeping...felt the vibrations of a WILD...then probably had some hypnogogic hallucinations...then began to float out of yourself (which can be very typical in that tracelike state between consciousness and lucid dreams) then eventually you entered a lucid dream. You think that the LD \"overtook\" your OBE. Nah... I have had this experience several times...where I have gotten out of my body during this stage between consciousness and lucid dreaming...I have forced myself out of SP...I have floated out of my body and around my room (bumped into the door in fact), floated up through the ceiling of my house and all the many levels...but they ALWAYS turned out to be dreams. I think Kaniaz is right in that because you were reading about OBEing your mind caused you to have these hallucinations during HI that brought you to think you could be having an OBE. But congratulations on a successful \"unintentional WILD\" as I like to call them. * Oh and if you don't believe me, just try to prove it for yourself. I had a very simple technique for proving whether or not I was OBEing... Feel free to disagree all you want guys. Well, I am just going to have to take your side Aquanina, b/c I think they are only dreams.....yet I sometimes mistake real time for a dream, too . I happen to know that if you are well experienced in a LD, it is highly possible to read an open book you left sitting on the counter (& BTW, it is very fun, but don't forget to RC!), that is, if you believe you can! BTW, you are very smart, Aquanina!

[Matchbook]

Thank you for all of the responses! I noticed a few days ago that no one had responded, so I didn't think to check it again, having figured that the thread plummeted into oblivion. I just wanted to hear some opinions, because of course there will be no "real" answer. There will always be disagreement over something like this, especially because my experience wasn't anything definite.. it could be argued either way. But what matters is that I enjoyed it. I do want to learn more about what it is, though. Leo, I'm curious of something you said regarding levels of the astral plane. What would be the difference between the lowest level and the highest level of the astral plane? Are any of them directly corresponded to the "real world" where the OOBer could travel through it and observe real time events? Is the highest level something completely different? Thanks again for sharing your opinions.