[NZartfulskux]

Hi and greetings from New Zealand! I'm very interested in OOBE's and have been reading most of the posts in this forum. The thought of traveling out of your body is so intrueging that I'm definately considering trying it! I've read that they can be incredible experiences with the feeling of absolute freedom, but in other cases the proccess of going out of your body or the start of an OOBE can be extremely terrifying. This last one scares me a bit and so I've decided to buy a book on OBBE's and how to have them, and joined this site to post in this forum so some of you experienced OOBEers can give me some advice. I've come to the conclusion that I'll have to be very careful what and how I do things, and make sure I have enough info on OOBE's before I try anything. I'll just share with you all a quick experience of mine, and would appreciate your opinions on whether it was the start of an OOBE.

When I was at primary school, on a couple of occasions when I was home sick from school in the winter, I'd have these weird things happen. So it would be raining and I'd have the flu or whatever so I'd just be in my bed all day and sort of doze for a bit now and then, but didn't really need sleep because it was during the day. Because it was cold I'd have the heater on in my room and that coupled with me watching the endless rain sort of put me in kind of trance like state you might say. Anyway, I'd end up having a doze, but it was never anything deep as I said before, because it was during the day and I'd always found it hard to sleep during the day. After some time of dozing, I'd start hearing these whispers (obviously this was a while back so I can't recall what they were actually saying - and don't even know if I could understand/remember at the time what they were saying). These whispers would vary in volume and go up and down and down and up almost to normal talking volume. I was obviously aware of these whispers, otherwise I wouldn't be describing them to you now, but it's hard to decribe, as soon as I was CONSCIOUSLY aware of them, I sort of jolted upright and was fully awake again thinking "****, what the hell was that?", but I wasn't really scared, more curious. I just thought it was my mind creating them while I was in that sort of deepish alpha state (and it probably was), but I'm wondering if it was more than what I took it for (eg the start of an OOBE). I also experienced vibrations to some degree (I have read that you can experience these before an OOBE), but the whispers were the things that stood out in my memory.

So my questions are. 1) Do you think that that story had anything to do with an OOBE? And 2) Can you guys please give me some advice/tips on what to do/what not to do and what to expect when voluntarily trying to have an OOBE.

I have to say I'm a little nervous and apprehensive on the whole thought of leaving my body, so won't try anything until I've had a decent number of replies and have read the book that's got very good reviews on Amazon.

Cheers guys, much appreciated.
Stephen.

[Nat]

Hi

1. To be honest, no I see nothing to suggest you were having obe's, ... you may tho have been experiencing some of the things that can (not always) preceed one. eg: a hypnogogic state causing auditory hallucinations, vibrations, etc.

2. If you only buy one book on this topic, I recommend it be 'Astral Dynamics' by Robert Monroe (tho do ignore the idiotic statements about crossing water - he sooo let himself down with that nonsense ..lol) ... or for a concise freebie, look for Robert Bruce's 'Treatise on Astral Projection' which is available on the net. It's only a few pages, but better pages than some people come out with in entire books.

Goodluck and have fun practicing.

Nat xxx

[NZartfulskux]

Thanks for that. Yea I heard that Robert Munroe's books are a bit...well I don't know but I have been recommended as a beginner to stay away from his books. Thanks anyway, I'll try that ebook aswell.

Oh and one more question. Is there anything you recommend I do to help the proccess of OOBEing? Eg to make it more pleasant and less terifying at fist.

Cheers.

[chevere]

im not into obe/s because i think its out of control, got it alot when i was little, just trouble, my experince with it ..thats how i felt. then again some people have good experinces. I feel you should do meditation, get to know a guide/ask for your guide etc, and it get to take you/show you places/things. Theres other ways of travelling so to speak.

[Nat]

Originally Posted by NZartfulskux

Oh and one more question. Is there anything you recommend I do to help the proccess of OOBEing? Eg to make it more pleasant and less terifying at fist.

Generally it is the fear of the unknown that put's the wind up people, so I suggest you keep doing what you already are and seek knowledge so it is not so unknown. If you have any specific questions about this, (coz I am not sure what exactly it is that you find frightening) please ask and I will try to help you if I can.

Nat xxx

[NZartfulskux]

Yea thanks Nat. I suppose yes it's the fear of the unkown, and I know that will go away the more I read on the topic and listen to your guys experiences, but more the fear that I'll have one of these terrifying experiences like ear-spliting roaring, whispers and footsteps, uncontrolable spinning with the feeling that you cannot get back into your body. I realise many of these things you will experience with the start of an OOBE anyway...but all at once would be a bit too much. What are your experiences? Have you had many bad ones?

Cheers
Stephen.

[NZartfulskux]

Oh yea and I'd hate to experience that terrible jerking when you re-enter your body. That would be terribly frightning I'd imagine.

[Nat]

Coming back in is not bad at all, ... and you don't necessarily do it with a jolt either, (I hardly ever do) ... but if you do, the jolt is like nothing more than a big twitch and not even remotely un nerving imo.

If you end up in a spin, think of a specific action to stop it. Just 'stop' does not seem too effective as stop is not technically an action. Thinking, something like, fly down the street, or hover over the bed, etc seem to work better imo.

I think one of the hardest parts initially is the split second black out that can (not always) occur as your consciousness shifts vehicles so to speak from the physical to the astral/spiritual body. You can tell it is like your brain is shutting down or something (feels similar to fainting or dropping into a deep trance very suddenly) and you have to be willing to submit to that sensation and allow that switch off to occur. You might be able to feel like you are going to black out for a bit, but you can hover on the edge if ya want indefinitely, .... that complete letting go of the last thread tho is not as easy as it sounds, ... but it really is only a split second - like you had a mind stutter or something - and you are all up and running again.

Most of the time we just scare ourselves, so I have only had one what I would consider to be a 'bad' experience oob, and I can't even say what it was exactly that scared me. It looked to me like black mist tho, but had the effect of striking fear through the heart of me on sight. I just dropped an expletive and high tailed it back in body tho, ... and that was that. On the other hand, some of my mst treasured memories come from oob experiences, and one of them even ranks in my top 3 all time ever experiences in life. Sounds a good trade to me ..lol.

Nat xxx

[windigo]

A good place to start is the stories of the Taoist immortals. Astral projection is one of the main meditative techniques of Ba Gua taoism. Basically the body is placed in a tranced "off" state like Nat was talking about. Our chi is then free to wander. Some of the legendary masters were said to be so strong at this that they could even teleport........

[NZartfulskux]

Originally Posted by Nat

Coming back in is not bad at all, ... and you don't necessarily do it with a jolt either, (I hardly ever do) ... but if you do, the jolt is like nothing more than a big twitch and not even remotely un nerving imo.

If you end up in a spin, think of a specific action to stop it. Just 'stop' does not seem too effective as stop is not technically an action. Thinking, something like, fly down the street, or hover over the bed, etc seem to work better imo.

I think one of the hardest parts initially is the split second black out that can (not always) occur as your consciousness shifts vehicles so to speak from the physical to the astral/spiritual body. You can tell it is like your brain is shutting down or something (feels similar to fainting or dropping into a deep trance very suddenly) and you have to be willing to submit to that sensation and allow that switch off to occur. You might be able to feel like you are going to black out for a bit, but you can hover on the edge if ya want indefinitely, .... that complete letting go of the last thread tho is not as easy as it sounds, ... but it really is only a split second - like you had a mind stutter or something - and you are all up and running again.

Most of the time we just scare ourselves, so I have only had one what I would consider to be a 'bad' experience oob, and I can't even say what it was exactly that scared me. It looked to me like black mist tho, but had the effect of striking fear through the heart of me on sight. I just dropped an expletive and high tailed it back in body tho, ... and that was that. On the other hand, some of my mst treasured memories come from oob experiences, and one of them even ranks in my top 3 all time ever experiences in life. Sounds a good trade to me ..lol.

Nat xxx

Yea thanks Nat. I've actually had that sort of experience. I was meditating and was going quite deeply when all of a sudden I was plunged into this black void of pure bliss. It didn't last long because I was so excited about it but yea I know what you mean by the shift in consciousness.