It happened precisely at 7:34 am.
I fell back asleep and felt my body become paralyzed. Then I sat up, and felt “myself” lift out of my physical body. I floated above my bed and melted into the window. I entered the thin pane of the glass and hovered inside its boundaries.
Pictoral representation of an OBE
Then I woke up.
What I experienced was an out-of-body experience (OBE). These experiences happen all over the world and their descriptions are similar across cultures. In new age circles, the experience is known as astral projection whereas more indigenous cultures call it soul flight. Some instances are spontaneous while others are initiated through ritual dancing and drumming.
What all these traditions have in common is the insistence that out-of-body experiences are real, and some part of “you” moves away from our material existence, having a life of its own. Having had many realistic OBEs, I can respect that worldview.
But what exactly is an OBE? If they happen cross-culturally, what exactly is going on inside someone during an OBE?
When is a Dream not a Dream?
Scientific interest in the physical underpinnings of OBEs supports what dream researchers have suspected for years, namely that most out-of-body experiences occur when you are falling asleep or coming out of sleep.
According to my Zeo, at precisely the time when I was floating above my bed, my brain was in REM sleep. This supports what Kevin Nelson MD noticed, namely that OBEs come with REM sleep.
OBE - Zeo caught it
Yet an OBE is not “just a dream.” The realistic sensation of moving out and/or away from the physical body “feels” real because the mind is alert and thinking clearly while simultaneously aware of the sensation of bodily paralysis that normally comes with REM sleep.
Swiss researcher Olaf Blanke suggested that the cause of OBEs can be traced to a breakdown in communication in a part of the brain known as the temporoparietal junction, or the TPJ.
Location of the TJP region of the brain
The TPJ essentially acts as a bridge that links body sensations from the vestibular system (your balance and spacial orientation system) with visual information and higher order thinking processes from the prefrontal cortex. When the bridge collapses, our sense of self is untethered from the constraints of the senses. Hence, that “floating” sensation.
Vestibular System
No Sleep Required
While most OBEs are instigated from sleep (I have had dozens of them through my experimentation with sleep paralysis), they can be spontaneously generated as a result of life stresses such as shock, illness, and trauma.
German philosopher Thomas Metzinger believes that the evolutionary origin of the OBE is shock, as part of the paralysis reflex in mammals when attacked by prey. As carnivores don’t like to eat dead animals due to the risk of contamination, animals who “play dead” are more likely to survive a sudden attack.
I wonder if the gazelle has an OBE when being eaten by a lion? It’s a tempting idea.
Gazelle: Think happy thoughts /Think happy thoughts
Perhaps one of the best example of an OBE due to shock or trauma is that associated with a Near Death Experience (NDE). It’s been postulated that those who have NDEs are also more likely to have sleep paralysis and out-of-body experiences, with the implication being that REM sleep plays a role in all three.
REM intrusions in Sleep Transitions and Near Death Experiences
However, just like ritualized OBEs in more indigenous cultures, many who have had a NDE report a positive effect, impacting their lives for decades after the event. Far from inducing terror and fear, the experience actually give them extraordinary insight. As such, many Dream researchers (myself included) suggest that OBEs could be integrated into counseling efforts.
Personally, my OBEs have been less sublime (floating in a window, while neat, didn’t yield any mind blowing insight) but the experience is certainly up there with one of the strangest things that might happen while asleep.
Ryan Hurd is a dream researcher, educator, and a contributing sleep expert to Zeology. He is editor of DreamStudies.org and author of the ebook Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer’s Guide.
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Personally, I reject the materialist explanation. My first OBE was in full consciousness and clarity, nothing nebulous or malfunctioning about it. Nor was it an episode of sleep paralysis, a different phenomenon. It’s likely that we leave the body during sleep when body and mind reach a particular threshold of relaxation.– but most do not observe the separation or rejoining process because they’re asleep! At best they may remember symbolic impressions such as going down in an elevator or falling from a great height and then floating the last few feet. If you can master the trick of remaining aware while the body relaxes very deeply, yet without falling asleep, the conditions are right for a conscious OBE.
I am really interested to your post. It is really impressive. You gave me a lot of information about it.
Thanks
Momy Roxy
“Sleep Store USA Beds”
My obe occured after i had fallen asleep.I was awaken by a loud banging noise only to find my self hovering over my body and witnessing my body convulising while my head banged against the headbored repeadately.I became istantly enraged ready to take on whatever was causing this.I noticed after taking focus off my body the sezuring stopped and assuming my vision became blurred because of me being very upset,before me being upset my vsion was clear.I floated over to my window and saw my neighbor run into her house from the car,i also noticed her left headlight was out.It was raining and windy and my window was mid way up.I noticed that there was a utility bill sitting in the window it had become wet from the rain.I made a few attempps to grab the bill but i couldnt i had to keep telling myself grab it u can do it grab it and rip it, after about the 5th try i did it.my hands moved so fast and i ripped it in many pieces.I felt as if i could leave my room but was weary about leaving my body alone i felt like i had to protect it like i could lose it or something.I became a lil nervous and wanted to get back into my body with that very thought i did.I was in the fetal position i sat up and was drenched in sweat my head didnt hurt in fact i felt relieved.I turned over to my window and saw all the bits of paper i had torn when i was oob.I heard voices coming from outside an saw my neighbor getting back into her car and pulling off.I wasnt afraid at all ileft the room got something to drink headed to my bed a fell asleep.I even forgott about it till years later when i was falling asleep and felt a pulling sensation that startled me at that moment i remembered my obe…Ive had trouble sleeping sense than afraid of what might happen…ugh crucial
I have been interested in OBEs for awhile, and have in the past attempted to make myself have one. I’ve tried keeping myself conscious as I fell into sleep, but have never had an experience- until last night. (more like this morning- cause I slept, woke up at 5am and went back to sleep.) Anyways, it was so weird, I kept having dreams within dreams. I’d think I was awake, and realize I’m still dreaming over n over. Then I felt myself lift out of my body. It felt so real. I felt aware that i was pulling out of my body, and I started encouraging myself to keep doing it, and told myself “It’s ok, you do it all the time.” It felt like a vacuum… there was this vacuum like force I was pulling myself out of sort of. I felt like I really was awake in my apartment, and I was floating up on the ceiling, then my brother was standing in the kitchen, I thought i was awake, but it was odd cause I called to him and he could see me floating on the ceiling, and hear me talk to him- but he was how I knew I was dreaming because his face didn’t look right. It was like where his forehead normally was there was a window, with two angry faces. He himself didn’t seem angry but these window faces made him appear angry- this oddity made me realize hey I am dreaming. But then I left the kitchen and could make myself fly- it was a bit difficult to pull myself up to fly, but I was doing it, and though the events around me and things weren’t normal, The pulling out of my body, hovering on the ceiling, flying all felt so real. I’ve also had other flying dreams that have felt so real. I’d love to study these things. I’ve considered going for a degree in Neurobiology.. does that encompass dream research? How do you get into dream research? ~ Thanks.
I have also experienced an OBE. I like how you looked into the biological processes that could explain the reasoning for having an OBE.
i was 16 years old i was fasting ,for 3 days the last night of my fast i wake up used bathroom ,when i got to bed and as i was about to pull my covers over my head i slittered out of my body and through the louver window i spyraled upwards I saw myself still holding the covers up over my head i then experienced myself halfway over my little village then i noticed i was seeing all the stars up close[so i said ok if this is the rapture why no one else is around ] i noticed a bright light so i kind of looked accross to notice a city made of gold and crystals just floating out of the eastern sky after i passed the view of that city i keep going up towards a big light i was so scared and within myself i said no no no iam not ready i then started praying over and over asking God to foegive my sins i was upset and keep fighting saying i know that that big light is Jesus i am not ready then suddenly i pulled the covers and i noticed i was back in my body .[but for years and years i fasted and pulled the covers over my head did all kinds of ritual all in an effot to have that OBE i never had a duplocate] I had dreams of flying over iceland and europe but not that dream.
You are 16? Your spelling needs GREAT improvement!!!
I few months ago I had a very weird sort of spiritual dream. Just to add that a few months before this dream I started experimenting in meditation with binural beats and Qi Gong techniques. And the results were very positive in that I could remember almost every dream or multiple dreams I had that night, with an added bonus sensational feeling I will reveal in my dream.
My dream starts out me going into the hallways of and arena greeting and meeting some famous people. I go into this privet dinning room to have a meal with the owner and his wife of the arena. We all sit down to eat and I notice I’m dozing off and eventually pass out. When I come back around, I notice the meal was over but I’m still sitting or lying on the table end. Slowly I start to float upwards in a lying down position and go threw the ceiling. Then I come back around and find myself lying down on bed with two older women praying at my bare feet. At the same time I see my mother sitting on the right side of the bed praying. Then I start to levitate about five feet and slowing come down and doze off. I come back around and I’m in my room by myself. I start to float and come upright. While still floating, I start to realize it’s a dream and start to feel tingles and intense chills and body shakes in my real body. I start going around the house slowing opening doors just by thought. I feel my feet slightly drag as to stop myself from crashing to a door that is closed. I go in reverse, the door opens and I continue and pass through to the kitchen. I glance to the right and see religious candles. I continue to my mother’s bedroom and see her sitting on a mattress facing the wall. I go out as if trying to avoid contact and go into and empty room. I look back into the hallway and see my mother going by. I go to meet her. While still floating, I approach her but I feel she’s afraid of me since she has her head down as if not wanting to make eye contact. So I extend out my right had and I say, “It’s OK”. She looks at me and takes my hand. And when she touches my hand, I wake up from my dream. I’m lying down face up still in bed contemplating and feeling a constant tingle or chills going through my body but not as intense and I felt as when I was floating around in my dream. I also I remember that I was wearing a white gown type of clothing with my long hair down behind my ears, which I always wear in a ponytail.
OBE?
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