Lucid dreamers tend to report a fairly high frequency of out of body experiences (OBEs). This is probably because they have learned the trick of self-awareness and become more attuned to their naturally shifting levels of consciousness.
OBEs which start from the dream state can last a long time, whereas a typical waking OBE tends to be brief and spontaneous, as in this example from Celia Green’s book Lucid Dreams, where a mother is leaning over her little son’s cot reciting nursery rhymes with him:
Suddenly I was suspended in mid-air a few feet from the bottom of his cot, looking down at the scene of myself still leaning over the cot. I felt very puzzled and bewildered but it was all over in a couple of seconds. When I got back in my body my son was still repeating a line from the nursery rhyme. (p.17)
Are OBEs a kind of lucid dream?
There can be experiential overlap between lucid dreaming and certain types of out of body experience. This makes sense if we consider that whenever we are asleep and dreaming, we are ‘out of body’ in the sense of not acting out in our physical body and being cut off from it to a large extent on the sensory level. The physical body is naturally paralysed during sleep, so we take on a ‘dream body’ through which we experience the dream as a multi-sensory reality. Sometimes I read a person’s report of an OBE and I think: Well, if they hadn’t explicitly said that this was an OBE, I would have assumed it was a lucid dream. So it can seem open to interpretation. However, other OBE reports definitely do not describe dreams in any way or form as they do not arise from sleep.
In terms of onset, the out of body experience (OBE) differs from lucid dreams in that an OBE might arise from the waking state, trauma, meditation, fainting, or in the midst of great physical danger. However, the OBE can also arise from sleep states such as hypnagogia, sleep paralysis, non-lucid dreaming, and lucid dreaming.
– Dr. Clare R Johnson, ‘Surfing the Rainbow: Fearlessness and Creativity in the Out of Body Experience,’ Consciousness Beyond the Body (ed. Alexander De Foe).
Are OBEs dangerous?
OBEs can be beautiful, transformative experiences. Weightlessness and painlessness can provoke a sense of great freedom and joy.
Yet there are still plenty of fears surrounding out of body experiences. People have contacted me to say that whenever they have OBEs, they panic and think they are dying. They ask: What if I can’t return to my body? Are OBEs dangerous? How do I stop them? Of course, other people are not fearful but curious, and they want to know: How do I induce an OBE?
Out of body experiences (OBEs) can involve powerful physical sensations such as being swept up by a giant wind, being shaken by earthquake-like vibrations and hearing a roar so loud it’s as if an aeroplane is taking off right by your head.
– Dr. Clare R Johnson, ‘Surfing the Rainbow: Fearlessness and Creativity in the Out of Body Experience’
The sensations sometimes involved in OBEs can be frightening when they happen for the first time. But when we realise that there is nothing to fear from an OBE, and that we will return safely from the experience, we can relax and go with the flow just as we can in lucid dreams. An attitude of respectful curiosity goes a long way.
For blissful guided meditations to take you directly into an out of body experience, see the video and audio course: “Dream Yoga: Conscious Sleep for Wake-Induced Lucid Dreams, OBE & Manifesting Your Heart’s Desire”. 7 video lessons, six one-hour guided lucid journeys with beautiful other-worldly music.
Inducing and enjoying OBEs
- Visualisation is a great way of inducing OBEs. Lie down, relax with closed eyes, and picture yourself rising out of your physical body. Anyone who does yoga nidra (the relaxation) will already be adept at floating between sleep and waking.
- Meditation works well for the same reason – the mind and body are stilled and awareness is raised. Regular meditators are likely to experience OBEs more frequently than non-meditators.
- Once ‘out of body’, relax! Breathe. Observe. Enjoy the feeling of weightlessness. Know that you are safe and will return safely from the experience.
- Remember the lucid dreaming rules of expectation and intention: if you expect to have a bad time you probably will, so why bother? Instead, expect something lovely to happen. Using your intent, you can move around and play.
- Experiment: head through a wall or simply explore your surroundings. Try flying to the stars, or just look down at yourself to see what kind of ‘body’ you have in this state.
- Follow a guided meditation to take you directly into an OBE – the video clip below gives an example and demo clip of my Dream Yoga course.
Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming explores OBE, the Lucid Void, Lucid Dreams, and how to reach the spiritually enlightening Lucid Light.
Consciousness Beyond the Body (ed. Alexander De Foe) is a fascinating book on OBEs, written by a group of authors and experts,is open access so everyone can read it for free. For more information and the free PDF of the book, click here to read Dr. Johnson’s chapter – or to download the whole book as a free PDF.
Hey, my name is Sanne, I’m a 15 year old girl from Holland. I once had an OBE. I was terrified cause I thought I was dead. I stepped out of my own body and I could walk trough the house and watch my family sleep. I even saw my cat which just stared at me. But no one could hear me. I saw my sister wake up when I touched her but she couldn’t see or hear me to. I was so calm and terrified at the same time. I thought I died. I ran back to my own room, to my own body and layed back into it and that’s when I woke up in real life again. I was crying and a little bit in shock because of not knowing what happened.
I wanted to share my story with someone cause I still think it’s like so awesome and scary at the same time.
Hi Sanne, thanks for sharing your OBE. Yes, often when it happens the first time there can be a lot of fear. But like you say, it’s awesome, too. I hope if it happens again you’ll be able to fully relax and enjoy it 🙂
Clare
Hi , i had very similar dream. I was in a bath tub and thought my soul or i had entered another body. I was curious to look at me and my arms were So vividly heavy and flabby and i was feeling so light and free. i turned to look at my lifeless face. My wyes were so dead still. I got scared and prayed that the body stayed fine till i got back. So i quickly rushed back to the tub and next thing i hear lot of bubbles and i wake up from my sleep feleing thankful that i havent lost my body.
-al
Hi Sanne,
thanks for sharing this. I’m not sure if you dreamed you were in a bathtub or if you were actually in one.. a real bathtub isn’t the safest place to have an out of body experience 😉
Releasing fear helps us to make the most of any state of consciousness.
Clare
So I’ve had the OBE like 5 times but each time I’m scared 😨 todays experience was joined with sleep paralysis because after I entered my body back it took me quite sometime to move my body because it was stiff. Please how can I stop it 😔
Hi Uzzy, it can feel scary if we aren’t used to these sensations, I know. It took me a long time (as a child) to understand that we need to release fear in these states, and when we manage that, we open up to incredibly beautiful experiences 🙂 If you are desperate in sleep paralysis, hold your breath to shock your body into waking. But I would advise relaxing and taking slow deep breaths. You can still control your breathing in SP and calm breaths send a message to your brain that all is well. It’s vital, as these are thought-responsive states. I give many practical techniques in my book The Art of Transforming Nightmares (also available as an ebook) and in my video courses, especially The 30-Day Power of Dreams class. Good luck, and please know that you will wake up safely in your bed.
Clare
I’ve had what I think are OBE’s, I’ve felt the loud buzz a slowly pulling myself away from my body which is laying down and now it’s happening more were I just know to pull myself up.
The strange thing for me is most of the time I’m in my own home and I’m not floating but walking around and experience my kids there when I know they are somewhere else and also see things that I know aren’t there in my home or not actually happening so I have trouble discerning wether I’m in an OBE or lucid dream there has only been a couple of times were I have been to space and travelled with the stars and also come across a planet, most time end of so excites that I just end up back in my body or I scare myself and end up back in my body but I know I’m safe.
I think I had my first OBE. I also thought I was dying. It was the scariest thing! I saw this dark tunnel in my bedroom and this scary voice was trying to get me in as I was being sucked into it. I pleaded for my life and then was able to go back to my regular life. Since then I had two more experiences where I felt like a pulling from my body and I was able to stop it. Are you saying that if I just went with it with a positive attitude everything would be okay? I was so worried because I’ve read stories about people who were clinically dead for a few minutes and they had a similar experience during the time they were dead
Hi Annie,
thanks for sharing your scary experience.
This could have been the start of an OBE or it could have been a sleep paralysis experience.
It was not a near-death experience as you were not clinically dead, but sleeping in your bed.
I understand your fears, it can feel incredibly frightening if we are not aware of what is happening, but this kind of sleep experience is not going to kill you or harm you.
So yes, my advice would be to relax and go with the flow, knowing that you will wake safely in your bed after the experience.
I’d advise you to actively practice deep, calming breaths while awake to train your body to stay calm, and use this breathing technique to calm you down should it happen again. It’s important to release fear, because sleep experiences are thought-responsive, which means if you are scared, they reflect this by getting scarier. If you are calm and fearless, they reflect this by calming down too, and negative imagery will often change to something beautiful and healing.
Also, take with you a memory of safety or happiness, and bring this to mind if you feel yourself getting sucked in again.
Finally, practice creating a protective shield of light around you, just in your imagination. Then create the shield again if you feel frightened during any sleep experience.
I hope this helps, please try to release fear and instead adopt an attitude of curiosity – sleep experiences are so fascinating! There is so much to learn.
Lucid wishes,
Clare
Hi my name is Venus and my story is a bit different. I was dreaming that I was in a large grassy field dancing to the beat of drums and then I started to spin round and round, I closed my eyes and I could feel everything (the sun, the breeze, myself, spinning) I Suddenly I opened my eyes and was elevated about 25- 30 feet in the air still twirling. I looked down and I saw my other self still on the ground dancing round and round. My Astral self was suddenly wearing a white dress, it felt so real, beautiful and peaceful. I did not know I was dreaming. I woke up never making it back to my body. Or maybe I don’t remember doing so. Was this just a dream or is this OBE within a dream or something else? Thanks so much for your time.
Hi Clare. I am a huge fan of your books and I love all of the amazing information you have gathered over your years of research. Thank you for sharing what you know with the world.
Astral projection is one of my interests as well as lucid dreaming (though, I am not entirely sure which one of these I experienced). Before learning about how thought-responsive the dream/astral world is, I decided to try to astral project. I began by meditating and I felt vibrations start all over my body. My heart began to race as I have never felt this before and I had no idea what I was I about to experience. I felt as if I was being sucked into a vortex. Once the vibrations ended, I was standing in a room that looked similar to my own. I saw a body in the bed but I paid no attention to it, I thought I had become lucid because I was consciously aware of my dream body and got very excited. I wanted to experiment with a dream orgasm, just to see what all the hype was about. But, I kept getting this eerie feeling like I knew someone terrible was downstairs. I tried to shake it off and remember what my goal was. Once I was became to scared, I fled to a closet where I found body parts of a man who had been chopped into bits. I heard the man (by this point I was convinced this was a demon or some evil entity) say behind me, “I see you have found my secret”. I turned around to see a tall dark figure, no face, but wearing a long dark hood & robe. I closed my eyes so tightly that I woke up.
This experience was so terrifying that I have had a hard time trying to get back to it, even though I know now that your thoughts create the reality in your dream/OBE.
Are you able to help me decipher if this experience was a lucid dream or an OBE? My room did not look like my real room exactly. My house was not quite the same, which leads me to believe this was a lucid dream. What are some techniques that I can try to help rid my mind of the terrifying experience and go into these things with an open and positive attitude?
Hi Courtney,
so lovely to hear you enjoy my work 🙂 Thank you.
This could have been a WILD (wake induced lucid dream) as they often involve buzzing and sensations of falling.
I would use the LINS nightmare solution technique from my Complete Book of LD to re-enter that dream and discover more about the disturbing imagery – but only try this if you feel it would be the right thing to do.In the book, I give loads of different possibilities for alternative actions (see lucid imaging options, p.206).
And/or try Lucid Writing.
This is because once you gain insight into this fearful experience you will understand what caused it and you can work also on techniques for feeling safe and relaxed in any state of consciousness. Try calming breathing by day (you can alter your breathing in any SOC) and try creating an egg of protective white light around you.
Good luck, be brave, be curious, stay lucid!
Clare
Great article Clare! I can totally relate. I too, have been studying my own OBEs, Lucid Dreams and the subject of ‘Consciousness’, for many years.
On a note about non-lucid dreaming, I’ve often wondered why it is so difficult for avid lucid dreamers to become lucid in dreams on a regular schedule, such as every night. My ultimate goal in this physical experience is to gain complete continuity of consciousness and memory — whether having an OBE, a common dream (playing in the collective astral realms) or experiencing physical wakefulness. It’s really quite an ambitious goal, but knowing that I am Infinite Consciousness dreaming myself in this physical/denser plane of awareness, I think it’s absolutely attainable. That’s what it means, in my view, to be fully multi-dimensional. Complete Lucidity in all planes/realms [of consciousness].
What I’ve found in my own experience is that when I enter the R.E.M. state, I shift into another mode of consciousness which tends to be more subtle than my physical ‘waking-consciousness’. Critical thinking fades, as does ego awareness and I become an observer until some dream-scene grips my attention. Then, I become mesmerized and totally forget myself. In addition, I get what I refer to as ‘false memories’ and false scenery that, from my physical waking perspective is totally unfamiliar, but from my dream-scape perspective, is very familiar to me. In other words, I don’t have much ability to discern that I am simultaneously existing in a physical body, while, at the same time, experiencing another plane of shared consciousness. This false familiarity combined with false memories in the dream scene inhibits me from questioning my current state of [dream] consciousness. It seems the more you learn new ways to increase your awareness during dream-time, the more the ‘great trickster’ (the mind) finds ways to keep your potential for lucidity at bay.
To offset this dilemma, I’ve decided to make it a habit of re-centering / reviewing my state of consciousness at intervals during the day while experiencing both familiar and unfamiliar events. This habit should cure the problem. I’ll keep you posted!
I’m curious if you have noticed that in non-lucid dreams, your dream-scape and dream characters always look ‘normal’ or ‘familiar’ in some way, from the perspective of your own dream-body’s perspective? However, when you awaken and shift your awareness into the physical body/mind, you realise that you’ve never known or seen any such dream-scape or people before.
Could it be that we know everyone and every possibility when the confines of our physical dense body is temporarily subdued and lessens its weight on our infinite consciousness?
Something to ponder… 🙂
P.S. LOVE, love, love your book!!
Hi Benny,
I like your goal and it’s definitely achievable! We are always, always conscious on some level so all we need to do is raise our level of consciousness at the times when it usually sinks to low levels – and for most people, this is during the deeper sleep stages.
Continually reviewing your state of consciousness is an excellent habit for greater lucidity, one that accrues over years of practice so that dream lucidity no longer comes as a surprise – it happens automatically and frequently, but this doesn’t sap it of awe – it’s just as awesome and glorious as ever.
Yes, I think it’s very common for people to feel deep familiarity with dream people and then realise upon waking that these are not people we have met in physical reality. Yes, maybe we know every other soul on the planet and beyond, that’s a possibility 😉
I’m so happy you’re enjoying my book! I assume you mean Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming, as that discusses out of body experiences and the deeper, cosmic aspects of lucid dreaming.
I wish you many lucid adventures and I hope you achieve your goal in this lifetime!
Clare
Hi Clare,
Thank-you for your response!
My apologies for not mentioning the name of your book. Yes! It is, indeed, “Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming” A great book and it affirms much of what I’ve observed and experienced during my own OBEs and lucid dreams over the years.
In fact, I wrote you a Five-Star review on Amazon.ca that you can read about at the following link, if you wish:
https://www.amazon.ca/Llewellyns-Complete-Book-Lucid-Dreaming-ebook/dp/B01N5RVXTF/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1568133531&refinements=p_27%3AClare+R.+Johnson&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=Clare+R.+Johnson
On another note, myself – having been tired of the unpredictability of reliable forms of lucid dreaming over the years, I have been working on a few meditation techniques for attaining a lucid dreaming state that is both predictable and reliable 90 – 99 % of the time, every night, and works without fail. It involves entering deepened altered-states of consciousness and actually reversing the habitual roles of the Mind and the lower (R-complex, limbic) sensorial body inputs. We seem to be doing everything in reverse in our collective ‘physical’ dream of almost 8 billion other souls on this planet. Clearly, our Higher Minds are not in control of this dense physical plane. Look at our world – it’s obvious. Our physical sensorial attributes are running the show here, for the most part.
For example, our thoughts (MIND) has been subjective to all or most of our sensorial inputs on this physical plane. This is a collective habit that’s been going on for generations. Naturally, we carry this habit into the subtle (thought responsive) realms during OBEs, physical ‘death’, and our natural dream-time.
When we enter into a consensus ‘reality’ in the astral dream worlds, we easily become hypnotised by the overwhelming sensations, and our Mind/Higher Self/Wisdom is completely thwarted and identifies with the lower senses. We are quickly caught up into a feedback loop, (usually determined by fear) which has been determined, not by logic or reason and wisdom, but by all the lower attributes/beLIEfs/emotions of fear, etc., and there’s not much of a chance of becoming lucid in any realm while in that kind of a state!
Time to reverse this trend. I think we have to learn to put our MIND first (the medium through which Higher Self/Wisdom is brought into manifestation – logic, reason and wisdom of the Higher Self). Then we need to re-program all of our sensorial inputs (sights, sounds, etc.) to take a more submissive role and follow the MIND/Higher Self.
Having done many OBEs and obtaining naturally induced altered and deep states of consciousness studies over the years, I developed a technique for myself that I use to shift my emotional body into ‘Neutral’ whenever it falls into a fear vibration. I call it E-B flat-line visualization and implementation. It works well for me during OBEs and during my dreamtime. I learned this because I found that my emotions had a tendency to get in the way of my ability to really observe, discern and navigate effectively and in a purely positive way, during OBEs and dreamtime. It became EXTREMELY important for me to learn to have as much control over my emotions as possible. This is especially beneficial in a thought responsive realm.
Anyway, I won’t take up your whole blog with details. I am going to see how I do after a month and, if I am able, with absolute determination, to become lucid during almost every dream I have in a predetermined period, I will keep you posted.
There may be others who are interested in attaining continuity-of-consciousness to bridge the gap between this dense ‘physical’ collective-dream and the many other, more subtle, thought responsive ethereal realms. No more to become ‘lost’ in any ‘reality’.
Until such time Clare, cheers and happy dreaming to you!
Benny Keenan
Thank you Benny! Somehow I missed this message, sorry for the late reply 🙂 Thanks for all your thoughts on OBEs, how did you get on in the end? Lucid wishes, Clare
Hi. I’m bikram 38 years old.. i have many obe and lucid dreams in my life. Now i can controll them easily..
Today i just woke up from a obe .. where i first sensed it as lucid dream. Then i left my body by saying to me. This is obe now..and went out of my bed and walked out…
Then i was at my old place garden. Running. Then i jumped and try to flyway as much… Then i came back.. wrote a fellow friend. That i jusr came back from. Obe.. turned my fan off.. and went to sleep..
But i never turned it off. And i woke up in my old house. Telling my mom sister dad. About my obe.. and then there was some relative leaving my house in morning..
After that we all get dressed as we have to attend some function.
While on the way. There was someone driving wrong way of road with h his family.. on scooter. I shouted hey . You gonna crash.. and boom they crashed.. i jumped out of my car. Saved the little girl…and then that uncle came met us.. said we all are going to same place. Let’s meet there.. keep my daughter with you… Then few other non important things happened..
We don’t have car. A tuktuk autoriksha type stopped .. and i saw my mom’s brother coming out… Then i realized it’s still a dream.. as he is not with us anymore…
I asked my mother is this a dream.. she said yeah now go hug your uncle..
I cried and hugged him.. but he didn’t recognise me.. then my ma shouted from background sayiing. Let him look at you.. then he did. He laughed like he used to… And we all sat in the riksha .. and we drove.. everyone was there. I was cramped sitting. As due to accident in dream i was having pain… So my told me to do the ball exercise…yoga thing.. then i told him about new venture. He didn’t responded. But as usual ..he offered me a drink.. then he dropped everyone. And asked me to stay back..with my elder brother..
After that he dropped us someplace… And my brother got some car.. and while i sat down.. i told him.. this is the end of dream.. and I’m literally thirsty. And i woke up .
Only thing i wanna understand.. can we also travel or get connected to spirits..while doing obe?
Thanks Bikram for sharing your experience! What was the ball/yoga thing? I’m a yoga teacher so would be interested to know.
I think we can connect to deceased loved ones in dreams/OBE, there are many examples in the literature of people being warned about things by deceased people in dreams, and those things then happen in waking reality. But we do not always connect with the actual spirit, I think many times we connect with a memory of what that person was like (which can also be powerful and healing). So it depends on the feel of the dream/OBE. If it has a strong sense of realness and connection, it could be a connection to the spirit of that person.
Clare
Hi… my name is Mark and I am disabled and have been since the age of 2, I am now 67. When I was very young ,around 10, I had an experimental operation which had me in a cast from my chest to my feet for several months. I believe to this day that I was sleeping, but I’m not certain. I found myself outside sitting on the wall next to our driveway, welcoming my father and brother home after they had been shopping. All of a sudden I found myself leaving my body, and rising above myself as I watched the interaction between my father, brother and myself. Everything seemed like reality to me including colors, feeling the temperature of the air, and hearing the conversations .I dont remember waking up, but the next thing I knew, I was back in my bed, in the cast, and not being able to move.
Hi Mark,
thanks for sharing your experience. OBEs can occur from the sleep state, and when this happens it can be hard to discern whether it was an incredibly vivid dream or an OBE. The wonderful thing is that even if we are encased in a chest-to-feet cast, we can escape these physical confines and float, fly, explore… Lucid dreaming (and dreams in general!) can bring a wonderful freedom, especially for disabled people. One disabled man had an OBE where he flew around in utter delight as he realised he didn’t have to be confined within his physical body. He only wished he had discovered this talent earlier in his life. Studies have been done with paraplegic dreamers, who share their dreams of running, flying, leaping around in an intact, flexible dream body despite being unable to move much during their waking hours.
I wish you many exciting nocturnal adventures to come! 🙂
Clare
So this happened last night and just now. I have this feeling of floating around my room and really intense vibrations in my body. Last night it was just in my lower back but just now it was all over. I always close my eyes because i’m not too keen on the idea of seeing some entity and be scarred for life but i’m also not scared when it happens. I’ll sit back into my body and open my eyes but I can’t move which i’m sure is just your classic sleep paralysis. I’ll try to get up but then i’ll realize that my arm is just a hologram or something and see my real arm still laying there. After trying to wake up for a few minutes unsuccessfully I let myself sink into it. When I did I started to feel like I was falling and be transported to these different worlds that were all just made up of completely random things. The first one was a cartoon or something and there was no real storyline or depth that I can think of. Everyone was playing and one guy who seemed to have a certain aura of dominance was playing some cooking mobile game on a tablet. I then went into this huge huge tunnel full of colors and when I asked to see other people, I then saw a whole bunch of people flying around. I asked to see someone in particular and I realized this wasn’t actually them but more the image I have of them in my head which I was totally cool with because it was still fun. Then at some point I was in an office space and I went into this room where this woman was reading from a paper lines from a tarot reading or something. I was like this is wack and I started floating up higher and higher until I got into this library with a bunch of passive aggressive employees and I found this piece of paper with a bunch of random writing on it and pictures from my childhood. I went up to them and was like do you have more of these and they were like yeah. I followed one who gave me a few bags of stuff and when I was looking through them I knew that my body was ready to wake up and went back and here we are. Last night I didn’t have control over my floating, I felt like something was moving me but after tonight’s I realize that it was just me floating aimlessly and my ego pulling me back to my body because that seemed to be where I was going. I never feel very scared because I just imagine myself surrounded by golden light and stay positive. I keep in mind that i’m protected. Everything is always really fuzzy when I look around and I seemed to be under the impression that I took benadryl to fall asleep but when I woke up I knew that didn’t happen. I’m not sure what it is but i’m pretty sure it’s a mix of sleep paralysis and my own mind but it’s still pretty cool.
Golden light is a great visualisation and very helpful in these liminal states, thanks for sharing.
I had an obe a few nights before i was having a few lucid dreams and trying to reality shift in them and they started looking more and more realistic the next i asked someone almost like a spirit if they could show me what reality shifting feels like they where like ok if you’re brave enough and all of a sudden i felt like i was thrown off the edge of my bed and onto something soft like a mattress and started rolling really fast it felt so clear and it was real it felt like real life i was so surprised someone then said this Is just to get prepared i then had a very vivid dream and suddenly woke up and fell back to sleep half asleep right after that i accidentally thought of obe and felt my legs float up and then my whole soul i opened my eyes too soon and I was lying there i saw my arm everything was colourless i tried not to get up and closed my eyes really tight and woke up I’m too scared of it happening again i don’t handle obe right and can’t go to sleep every night in fear of it happening again also i can’t remember what happened the past few days and I’m having dreams if places I’ve never seen is this whats supposed to happen
Hi,
As a young child, 8-10 years old I had several OBEs while I felt like floating around in our home, watching my brother sleeping, I saw myself from above and distinctively remember the feeling of floating. I had similar sensations sometimes even when I was not sleeping.
I was convinced for many years I have the ability to float.
I have no neurological issues, apart from severe anaemia had no medical issues either. As a child I thought everybody had similar experiences so never discussed it with others.
Fast forward 30+ years and I felt like that again. Only 1-2x.
Until a few nights ago.
A noise woke me and I sat up in bed and looked to my right where the noise came from and I saw a translucent figure looking right at me and hovering over my husband’s sleeping figure and moving back into his body. It took me a bit of thinking to realise the face was my husband’s face. I looked at him, he’s sleeping, breathing and his leg just moved. I laid back on the pillow and listened out for the noise and my husband’s breathing for a while before drifting off to sleep again.
This was unusual as I saw myself as OBE several times.
But I have never seen this sort of astral body of someone else.
I usually have vivid dreams with colours, sounds, smells and feelings and sometimes I am an observer, sometimes it is me but in a different body. Some dreams are like movies and I remember them well after waking.
I now wonder how much is dreaming and what might be something very much else..
Mine are not as exciting as some of these. I have one or two a year usually in the sunroom on the couch. Commonly there is no one around and I am unlikely to be disturbed or interrupted. Often they last for 2-3 hours and are completely distinct from a ‘normal’ nap. Often someone will visit, or the phone will ring or one of my children will return home from school. I will get up and engage fully aware that I am asleep but the voices sounds and conversations are real and very clear, audibly. My sleeping body feels weighted down and I can feel myself trying to drag my sleeping body up to meet the circumstance but cannot. They are surreal and extraordinary feeling dreams. I can pick things up move to the phone, or knock at the door but it takes extraordinary effort like I am dragging myself there in super slow mo. I wake up from these dream feeling completely washed out but I love having them? I had one today. It was wonderful. My wife came in I could hear her distinctive walk and she just let me sleep. My son came home and we chatted. None of it was real but my out of body made it feel so. They were both away.
Dear doctor!!
I am reading one of your books and it is really wonderful. I wanted to ask you a question. Many people experienced in obes say that they are one more form of lucid dreaming… and that they are a reality created by our mind. And they say that the proof of this is that when they leave the body and see their body in bed they see it in one position and when they return to the body it is always in another position. On the other hand there are always people who visit unknown places where they had not been there preivously and when they go to that place it is exactly the way they saw it in their obes. Is it a real experience??? My intutions tells me that when the experience is not fully lucid we see things that are not there.
Hi Victor, OBE and LD are not the same but there are experiential overlaps. If the book of mine you’re reading is Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming, you’ll find a chapter in there deveoted to OBE, and others devoted to the lucid void and the Lucid Light, all of which are OBE. Enjoy!
Thanks a lot Clare!
The book I have is The Art of Lucid Dreaming, the one with over 60 practices.
But I will buy the one you tell me, because I see that it is the most complete of all.
Lately I feel like it’s hard for me to remember… it’s been a few days now that I don’t remember dreams to write down in my journal, I guess I have to reinforce my intention.
I feel that dreams are a wonderful path of self-discovery and self-therapy. I hope I can master them a tenth of what you do.
Need to know more, years of obe. Get in touch