hypnogogic sleep almost leads to obe...thoughts?

[fishguy]

This is somehting that happened to me a little while ago...I was going through a period where i was having a very difficult time falling asleep for about a month or so. during this time i had some very vivid and unnerving hallucinations during the hypnogogic stage. The most memorable was a scene from an old maintenance house i actually work in on a property i maintain. The scene was looked just like a black and white picture of this house, and there was a crow flying by just overhead. other than that everything was still. as i saw the crow, i thought, i want to follow it, and started to will myself to leave my body. as i did, i could feel myself starting to leave, but heard my wife's voice in the background begging me not to...saying she would miss me. instead of having an obe, i became fully awake, and a little rattled. i have had three obe's in the past, two spontaneous and one that i willed during a lucid dream. is it normal for hypnogogic sleep to be a stage between being awake and an obe? any thoughts on me hearing my wife's voice telling me to stop? a lot of times i notice when i become lucid during dreams, i have an overwhelming urge to leave my body....anyone else experience this? any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated

[Xetrov]

Hey Fishguy, I have had these experiences aswell. To me, nothing points to the fact that they are really experiences where we "leave" the body. The mind is an extremely powerfull machine that can (re)create almost any expereinces, especially at those time we are (falling) asleep. Hearing your wife might have been part of the dream, or maybe she said something IRL and you picked it up and incorporated it into your dream. Hope that helps.

[fishguy]

appreciate the response. everything helps actually since there is so much i don't understand. just want to get as many opinions as possible.

[Jabrol2001]

Im no doctor, but i will say what i believe and know. If you have an obe. You have an obe, this is up to you to determine, and well you only. I have left my body before in dreams, and i dont think that it is an obe, it just makes me lucid, and feel funky ha. I have had one actual obe that i still believe is an actual obe, It wasnt in a dream, i was in my room, and crawled from my body to see an amazing change of my room, and well i saw my body laying there sleeping. Hope this helps.

[fishguy]

Thanks for the response jabrol. i have had similar experiences. once i was in the midst of a lucid dream and conciously made a decision to have an obe. i felt myself spinning on the bed and the next thing i knew i was by the window in my room looking at myself lying there. i immediately shot back in, almost like a yoyo. another time i was trying to fall asleep and spontaneously felt myself floating above my body in bed, and saw what i believe to be a spirit floating slowly toward me. i was so scared that i immediately was shocked back into my body. it felt like i had electricity running through me, and after each of my obe experiences for a day or more i felt oddly out of place in my body. something about it just felt strange...i am also of the mind that an obe really is an obe. i just don't have anyone to talk to about these things, so it's good to hear some peoples thoughts

[mentalenforcer]

I had an experience similar to an obe. It started with a lucid dream. I awoke from it, and unlike most times, realized it was a false awakening. Then I jumped out of bed, ran down the hall to the front door and prepared to explore the neighborhood. Then I realized I hadn't looked back and wondered if I'd see my body in bed. I went back to the bedroom, and sure enough I was laying there asleep. Just as I was thinking I should be careful not to wake myself, I saw myself start to wake up. I was concerned by this, but everything felt okay, so my worries passed. Then I proceeded to have a conversation with myself. The sense of elation being there with myself was unparalleled. I was literally "beside myself with joy". Since that experience, I assume that's where the saying comes from. After I was done talking with myself, I went outside and things seemed to become a normal lucid dream. I don't think this was a pure obe, but it was wonderful nonetheless.

[fishguy]

sounds awesome! although to me they are definitely different experiences, i think that lucid dreams and obe's have a connection between eachother. i have actually had non lucid dreams about having obe's....very vivid, to the point that i really believed i was in the middle of an obe, but not lucid. and as i wrote earlier, in probably half of every lucid dream i've had i can recall trying to will myself out of my body, an inner voice yelling "go! go!" strange stuff. thanks for the response mentalenforcer.