Was this an OBE? If so, OBE's as we know them may not exist...

[LiveInTheDream]

Personally, I don't know a whole lot about OBE's, despite the fact that I have researched them a bit. It just seems like nobody really knows what they are...only that they find themselves in an experience when they can look back on their own body and it feels completely real. And that much happened to me last night, as you'll see in this quote from the entry in my dream journal: Within moments, I saw light flashes, then images. Memories. Flashing by like lightning. Then there was this huge tingling sensation that overtook me. It was so powerful it almost hurt! And then...sounds, tons of different sounds all mixing together. Voices, mostly. I felt myself being pulled out of my body and into my dream body. Unintentionally, I rolled out of my physical self into my dream self. My eyes were still shut, though. But since I knew I was in a dream, I tried to open my dream eyes. Instead, I opened my real eyes. I tried to just let my mind drift and relax and re-enter the dream, but nothing happened. So I stood up, shook my head a bit to wake me up enough to get fully out of the dream state, and then went back down to the floor and tried to force my mind into a dream, all within a few second. It worked. Lights, memory flashes, voices, and then the sensation of a second body all came back. My vision came to me, but I was still in my room, laying on the floor. This time I stood up in the second body, and I could see my real body laying on the floor. It was a remarkable feeling, that transition from body to body. The dream body felt colder, yet not in an unpleasant way. Certainly not like the cold of a dead body. On the contrary, it was a vibrant chill that felt far more alive than what I feel during waking life. And since there's no dust or dirt whatsoever in dreams, the dream body felt clean in a way that's impossible to achieve IRL. But anyway, there I was, in the dream. I was still in my room, looking down at the body I'd just left, and so I did an RC, and I could breath through my pinched nose easily. I trusted the RC to be true, but I couldn't believe how real everything around me was. That last bit is very important. If this was a genuine OBE, then all OBE's ever have been is a bunch of highly detailed lucid dreams. I did a reality check and tested to be dreaming, and then was able to go on like any lucid dream (as you can read in the full entry). Certainly, those without lucid dreaming experience would not reality check, and thus believe everything they saw to be real, and without any level of dream control, they probably would just continue to look down at themselves and thereby never find other means to conclude the true nature of their 'out of body experience'. So...let the discussion commence!

[killguta]

I don't know wheter you had an true OOBE or an lucid dream, but you should REALLY read my big toe (ok, I had to say that ). "My big TOE" (T.O.E. standing for Theory of Everything) is an book written by an physicist called Thomas Campbell. He and some people were really interested in OOBEs and they were doing lots of experiments to see if this is just in your head or you're actually out of your body. His conclusion was that it's real. Just read the first section of the book and you'll understand everything. It's not "fluffy" and it's written in an objective and scientifically way (even tho I don't believe in science and spirituality mixing togheter ) Read it here. As for my own experience, it definitely made me a believer. I don't remember anything of the previous dream, I remember suddenly waking up and staring at the ceiling. Nothing really strange there. I tried lifting myself up so that I could see what's the time on my TV's clock. I lifted myself at 45 degrees and started feeling an VERY intense sensation of heaviness. I stood at that degree for a few seconds after colapsing to the overwhelming sensation. The sensation was of spiky needles. Now, believing I was having an lucid dream, I said: "Awesome, an lucid dream! I should do something interesting". I closed my eyes and wanted to teleport somewhere (yes, I am an horny teenager and I was thinking about sex...). *poof* I was hovering outside my neighbour's house, I intended going inside the house where I could find his hot mother and have an pasionate night . "Ok, so you've had this 'lucid dream', how do you know it was an OOBE?" The thing is that I don't know. But I do know that I can induce this tingly sensation in my whole body sometimes and, if focused enough, it would start feeling like I'm catapulting myself out of my body. The feeling is happening while 100% awake, not even with my eyes closed! I definitely believe in the soul, but not God.

[Baron Samedi]

That's really cool! But, I don't understand the title of the thread.

[The Cusp]

Personally, I don't know a whole lot about OBE's, despite the fact that I have researched them a bit. It just seems like nobody really knows what they are...only that they find themselves in an experience when they can look back on their own body and it feels completely real. And that much happened to me last night, as you'll see in this quote from the entry in my dream journal: That last bit is very important. If this was a genuine OBE, then all OBE's ever have been is a bunch of highly detailed lucid dreams. I did a reality check and tested to be dreaming, and then was able to go on like any lucid dream (as you can read in the full entry). Certainly, those without lucid dreaming experience would not reality check, and thus believe everything they saw to be real, and without any level of dream control, they probably would just continue to look down at themselves and thereby never find other means to conclude the true nature of their 'out of body experience'. Not much to discuss, you're absolutely right, OBE are just dreams. Especially in a WILD like your case. Dreams are a direct reflection of what you have your attention on. So when WILDing, the last thing you had your attention on was being in your room in bed. It's no surprise that the resulting dream would reflect that.

[Dannon Oneironaut]

OBEs are a kind of dream and dreams are a kind of OBE where you go into your subconscious imagination.

[LiveInTheDream]

That's really cool! But, I don't understand the title of the thread. Well, so far everyone I've come across that talks about OBE's mentions them like a separate thing from lucid dreams; truly being out of your body, not just feeling like it. But, they all have also mentioned stuff that sounds just like a WILD to me, and since I was quite obviously in a lucid dream, I thought maybe this would serve as evidence to the true nature of OBE's. I'm willing to be proven wrong about them at this point, but so far they really just seem like lucid dreams to me.

[JamesLD]

i agree with WakingNomad, i didnt understand the title either, the title should be "was this a lucid dream? if so, OBE's as we know them may not exist..." the title you wrote doesnt make sense and contradicts itself

[Baron Samedi]

Well, so far everyone I've come across that talks about OBE's mentions them like a separate thing from lucid dreams; truly being out of your body, not just feeling like it. But, they all have also mentioned stuff that sounds just like a WILD to me, and since I was quite obviously in a lucid dream, I thought maybe this would serve as evidence to the true nature of OBE's. I'm willing to be proven wrong about them at this point, but so far they really just seem like lucid dreams to me. Well, no one can prove to you anything about dreams and OBE's and if they are different. You have to just induce more OBE's and see for yourself.

[Dannon Oneironaut]

Maybe dreams don't happen entirely in the body. Maybe there is a spectrum of experience happening in and out of a mind/body interface? Some mundane dreams happening in the body, more fantastic dreams leave the confines of the body. I have had many experiences similar to yours, just because you could breathe with a pinched nose doesn't necessarily mean that it was only a dream, as if we understand the total nature of dreams and define it and confine it to the limitations of the body. If whatever can leave the body hypothetically, call it an astral body, a dream body, a subtle body, or what have you, obviously doesn't need air to breathe also, so it would continue to live with a pinched nose. Only the body needs air. I am not saying that it was not a dream, I am saying that the realm of dreams is much vaster than we assume, more vast than the realm of waking life, not less.

[LiveInTheDream]

That's a good post, Dannon. Interesting points, there. And sorry about the title, guys! I see your point now that you mention it

[Goatboy]

Ive had a friend thats had an OBE in his waking life, though it was most likely drug induced. Actually, he cant even lucid dream, so that can be ruled out as the sole explanation of OBEs imo.