OBEs with the Body Awake?

[dreamosis]

How many of you have had OBEs while your body was awake?

The vast majority of OBEs happen in conjunction with falling asleep, awakening from sleep, and sleep paralysis. Or, you could say, they happen during the type of trance in which the body is deeply relaxed to the point of heaviness.

How many of you have had OBEs from a light trance while sitting up? Or in other ways with the body relatively active?

All of my OBEs have happened from a state of full or deep trance.

I remember in Astral Dynamics Robert Bruce describing a "remote-eye" type of projection during a time in which he was entranced but actually standing and moving around slowly.

I've had one experience, which I would probably call an astral projection, which was induced by trauma. Once, when having my blood drawn, I passed out and immediately found myself floating over the planet. I was confused and could feel and hear voices(/information) coming from the Earth that sounded like a news cast. It felt very much like an astral-type projection. I wouldn't call it a dream because I wasn't even remotely sleepy or falling asleep at the time -- and you can't really say I was unconscious, I was perfectly awake! I did totally lose awareness of my physical surroundings and when I regained awareness of my body, I had amnesia for about thirty seconds. I panicked because I had zero idea where I was or why there was blood all over me and the table (the needle had come out and spilled when I passed out.) I thought the nurse was trying to hurt me.

Dreams are possible in non-REM states, but at the very least this was a lucid dream entered from a full, physical awareness in about ten seconds as I got woozy.

Has anyone had OBEs/astral projections/lucid dreams that came on very quickly, with the physical body not resting?

[Alienor]

I just sit down and close my eyes, that is what people call "phasing", I think.

And if your question was not about OBE, but about projecting, I came to realize that people do project very often without even noticing. So it is not an experience of being out of body, but someone who is seeing the astral can see the projections.

Therefore it seems to be not that much the projecting, what is difficult, but the part of shifting ones awareness.

[dreamosis]

Therefore it seems to be not that much the projecting, what is difficult, but the part of shifting ones awareness.

Sure, I get that. And yes, I might have been unclear, but my question is about OBEs -- that is, the experience of leaving, or feeling like you're leaving, the body.

So, when you "phase," what do you feel? Do you feel vibrations? Hear noises? Or, with phasing, are you talking about an OBE-like experience at all?

[CFTraveler]

How many of you have had OBEs while your body was awake?

I do, but it's something that developed sometime last year. It's annoying, because I have to focus on not moving.

The vast majority of OBEs happen in conjunction with falling asleep, awakening from sleep, and sleep paralysis. Or, you could say, they happen during the type of trance in which the body is deeply relaxed to the point of heaviness.

That is correct. I think the thing that makes it happen is the state the brain is in- the thing is, that when you get some experience you can reach this state without the paralysis, which actually makes it more difficult, if faster.

How many of you have had OBEs from a light trance while sitting up? Or in other ways with the body relatively active?

Me, me and me.

I remember in Astral Dynamics Robert Bruce describing a "remote-eye" type of projection during a time in which he was entranced but actually standing and moving around slowly.

I would characterize this as phasing.

I've had one experience, which I would probably call an astral projection, which was induced by trauma. Once, when having my blood drawn, I passed out and immediately found myself floating over the planet. I was confused and could feel and hear voices(/information) coming from the Earth that sounded like a news cast. It felt very much like an astral-type projection. I wouldn't call it a dream because I wasn't even remotely sleepy or falling asleep at the time -- and you can't really say I was unconscious, I was perfectly awake! I did totally lose awareness of my physical surroundings and when I regained awareness of my body, I had amnesia for about thirty seconds. I panicked because I had zero idea where I was or why there was blood all over me and the table (the needle had come out and spilled when I passed out.) I thought the nurse was trying to hurt me.

This is not rare- I would say it was an OBE related to trauma, or even a mini-NDE. Who knows, but trauma does cause this type of thing.
I think you tapped into the M-Band.

Dreams are possible in non-REM states, but at the very least this was a lucid dream entered from a full, physical awareness in about ten seconds as I got woozy.

The last I heard, dreams happen in all sleep states, but they are not remembered unless the person wakes up afterward.

[dreamosis]

...when you get some experience you can reach this state without the paralysis, which actually makes it more difficult, if faster.

I'm not sure I know what you mean here. Are you saying having OBEs without paralysis are more difficult to have, but the projection process happens faster?

I think you tapped into the M-Band.

Is "M-Band" a reference to Robert Monroe's research? Mental-Band?

[CFTraveler]

I'm getting a weird Deja-Vu with this thread. But never mind me.

...when you get some experience you can reach this state without the paralysis, which actually makes it more difficult, if faster.

I'm not sure I know what you mean here. Are you saying having OBEs without paralysis are more difficult to have, but the projection process happens faster?

I mean that the trance state necessary to project happens earlier than when I started projecting consciously, but more difficult to achieve or to keep, because any little movement can break the trance, so there is a dual awareness that is constantly 'on'. You don't dissociate from your body as you do when 'a beginner'.
For example, when I began consciously projecting, I would be able to project as soon as the vibrations began (and I was paralyzed)- and there was a state of 'not being a body'- but the trance and it's disassociation from the body made the exit easy.
Now, I am barely in trance and already seeing (clairvoyance/hypnagogics) I can be hearing sounds and voices and not be ready to project- and when I do project from this state, I am completely awake and have to keep very still. The exit is difficult if I want to have an RTZ OBE because of the 'movement related' exit techniques- phasing is easier as long as I don't try to 'lean into' the environment too much and actually move.
The state comes on quickly, almost too quickly, and I have to be careful not to move. The good thing about it is that I can come back to trance fairly quickly after breaking it, but I don't always have the time.

I think you tapped into the M-Band.

Is "M-Band" a reference to Robert Monroe's research? Mental-Band?

Yessir. Or Ma'am.

[Alienor]

I'm getting a weird Deja-Vu with this thread. But never mind me.

...when you get some experience you can reach this state without the paralysis, which actually makes it more difficult, if faster.

I'm not sure I know what you mean here. Are you saying having OBEs without paralysis are more difficult to have, but the projection process happens faster?

Same here, I think the same kind of question and answer by CFTraveler I did read some weeks ago

@Dreamosis: You have not been unclear, guess I was - as I meant to say "if your question would not have been about OBE, but more general", being aware, that it is about OBE. I found it interesting myself, when I noticed how people are "out of body", but not aware of it. Some people are even aware, but think they are just having some kind of lucid dream - it took me a while to realize that.

So, when you "phase," what do you feel? Do you feel vibrations? Hear noises? Or, with phasing, are you talking about an OBE-like experience at all?

With phasing I do have a body in astral, do feel, hear, see things which my astral body feels, hears and sees - that is what I call an OBE. But I can still also feel my physical body and even scratch myself or such, that just does make concentration/focus much more difficult, that did need some practice.
Exit vibrations are more rare with phasing - I do not have those. But I did read, that even with the other techniques the vibrations after a while might not come anymore.

[dreamosis]

I have had very "smooth" OBEs in which I didn't feel much in the way of vibrations at all. Usually noises are prominent with me. I know I'm close to an OBE when I hear rushing like wind.

I don't think I've ever had a phasing exit into the RTZ; although I have, while in trance, suddenly developed RT sight along with a "smooth"er transition out.

This thread of conversation is intriguing to me because I've recently been talking with skeptics of OBEs who are concentrated on the fact that OBEs happen with sleep paralysis or in or out of sleep, like lucid dreams. One friend of mine, who's recently become a self-described militant atheist (I mentioned this in another thread), tried to dismiss many of my experiences with the catch-all categorization of "dream." What I attempted to convey to him is that there's a lot of nuance between these types of experiences, even if there's also a lot of overlap.

Much of the skeptical review of OBEs, challening their reality, focuses on the concept of dissociation from the body's sensory input -- but, as this thread shows, while that is a common feature of OBEs, it doesn't describe all OBEs. Just as paralysis isn't a feature of all OBEs. Just as hypnogogia isn't a feature of all OBEs (I've had OBEs without any "dreamlets" beforehand whatsoever).

Also, the fact that the way in which OBEs happen, and feel, changes over time, especially with conscious focus on having them, is significant. I've noticed it myself, but haven't paid a lot of attention to it.

A meditation teacher of mine once said that the ability to astral project is very related to one's ability to run energy through the energy body. If that's true, it makes sense that as one achieved more flow, that astral projection would be easier and smoother.

Edit: @Alienor: I have felt what it seems you mean about some being "out of body" when they're awake and talking, but I've never seen this.


PS: @CFTraveler: it's sir.

[Korpo]

Hello, dreamosis.

How many of you have had OBEs from a light trance while sitting up?

I was sitting on a chair in my office. I closed my eyes, I counted myself into Focus 12. I had no expectations, I just wanted to trance a little. Suddenly I had the feeling of the room vanishing and changing over into a vast space. I could switch perspectives from the body and how it felt the space in the room it was sitting in and whatever body I was in and fully touch on the sensation of being in a wide space of indefinite proportions. It took an act of consciously shifting awareness to perceive what space my physical body was in while doing this.

I had similar shifts in light trance while riding on trains (so when sitting again). Suddenly the feeling of the presence of others would change. One by one the felt presence of others sitting next to me would just go away. It felt like bit by bit the persons I felt in my vicinity (whose presense I wasn't consciously aware of before) would vanish.

I would say this is a symptom of shifting consciousness into another energy body and to its senses.

Cheers,
Oliver

[Beekeeper]

How many of you have had OBEs while your body was awake?

One for certain through focus on the heart centre with lots of noise and difficulty getting out and a hooded dweller on the threshold. This was in the early days of attempting OBES deliberately and I had taken some decongestant medicine that might have messed things up (or helped them along, you never know. )

Another time I didn't leave the body but I was meditating with a group. We were chanting and my legs became waves of energy and parts of my body seemed to cease to exist.

The vast majority of OBEs happen in conjunction with falling asleep, awakening from sleep, and sleep paralysis. Or, you could say, they happen during the type of trance in which the body is deeply relaxed to the point of heaviness.

This is more typical for me and works better because I can just float out without difficulty and without noise and drama.

I've also had fairly frequent astral sight during trance and I've seen people (perhaps projectors, maybe deceased folk) without even being in trance and they've been as solid as living people look. I've also felt others as energy bodies while I've been in trance, dreaming and out of body, even finding myself sandwiched between my physical husband and an astral visitor who wanted to cuddle up a couple of times.

I've had a few episodes of realising that there are two of me: one in a dream body and one in an etheric or other astral body. It's then been a matter of transferring to the etheric/astral body, though the dream can still intrude. Last night, for example, I became lucid in a dream where I was taking roll call in a classroom because I heard the M band kind of noise where people are talking and I detected a voice just like my deceased stepdad, saying something over and over (which I forgot but I know wasn't very important).

Dreams are possible in non-REM states, but at the very least this was a lucid dream entered from a full, physical awareness in about ten seconds as I got woozy.

I've found myself out of body suddenly and not as a result of a dream or a deliberate attempt to get out. It happened to me as a child and as an adult, always in the real time zone and in verifiable ways where I've seen things that existed but sometimes of which I was not previously aware.

Has anyone had OBEs/astral projections/lucid dreams that came on very quickly, with the physical body not resting?

Not as such but I've remote-viewed this way and experienced clairaudience, again accurately, sometimes spontaneously, sometimes deliberately.

I haven't managed phasing probably because I tend to fall asleep . Theoretically it should be possible because I do get vision screens with moving hypnagogics. The best I've managed is a game of tossing a ball. The ball came towards me and I sent it back with my mind and it returned and so on. Sometimes I've felt etheric limbs move in response to hypnagogic imagery.