This morning I had what I think was my first out of body experience that I witnessed with full consciousness from start to finish. Some of you probably won’t believe me or think that I’m crazy. But I’m going to try to describe it.
Update Jan 6, 2015: Listen to my interview on the Pillowtok Podcast with Gossipist where I speak about out of body experiences and lucid dreaming
Meditation
Let me preface this with the fact that I have been meditating every day for about 2-3 months consistently. I’ve been learning about spiritual enlightenment, the ego, the mind, and even the science behind what we believe to be Heaven.
While my mediation practice is about discovering my true self and detaching myself from my emotions and thoughts, I have been able to experience a few mild states of peace and bliss, sometimes accompanied by sensations of energy pulsing through my veins and a pounding heartbeat and shortness of breath. I think my desire to have an out of body experience or transcend into some spiritual existence ends up preventing me from actually experiencing it. That’s kind of the way mediation works – if you try hard or want it, it won’t come.
So my meditation this morning wasn’t very different from any of my other sessions. In fact, I felt like my mind was pretty distracted and jumping all over the place. I observed a slight annoyance grow into a severe agitation and desire to quit. I noticed a heap of nausea and a sensation to throw up and I quickly stopped and went and laid down hoping I wouldn’t barf. I chalked it up to being something in the smoothie I ate earlier which has consistently given me stomach aches lately and I am not sure why.
I watched an episode of The Wire on my laptop and then afterward I closed my eyes and didn’t care if I drifted off to sleep. What came next was extremely fascinating.
Sucked Out
As I lie there with my eyes closed, I wasn’t trying to meditate or be present. Suddenly I visualized a rectangular black box. It could have been a memory of the TV screen in the room. My awareness started to move into the black box and then out of nowhere I was literally yanked or sucked out of consciousness. Like a noticeable change of dimension that takes about a second to occur and it is very hard to miss. This is not drifting off to sleep!
Night Terrors
Now this effect has happened to me in the past but often in the middle of the night while I’m half asleep. And it’s typically accompanied by an extreme state of fear and dread. When I’m half asleep (or already asleep) I would have experiences which I think are called night terrors. Or moments where I am semi-conscious and aware of my surroundings but unable to move. I’m overwhelmed with extreme fear with no distinct source. When I have these night terrors, all I know is there is a supremely evil presence in the room and I just have to get the fuck out of there but I can’t. I would try to yell for my wife to wake me up but she just hears an increasingly loud groaning coming from me. It freaks her out and she has to shake me awake and when I finally come to I feel like she saved my life!
Sometimes, during these night terrors, I would try to attack the evil presence. It felt like me floating and diving into the darkness in a rage of suicidal fury. Only eventually I would get shaken awake by my wife and realize it was not real. I would attempt to go back to sleep but instead of drifting peacefully off to sleep, I would feel the sensation of being sucked back into this terror state and I would try desperately to avoid it. I would turn on lights and listen to music because I was so afraid of falling asleep.
Controlling my Awareness
What I’ve learned in my meditation practice is mindfulness. To simply observe without judging or reacting. So I vowed next time I would have a night terror I would try to sit and live with the fear and surrender to it calmly without trying to escape. Where would it lead me? What would happen?
So this morning when I felt that sensation of being sucked out of consciousness, I witnessed a rush of fear take over me. But this triggered me to be mindful and I immediately “woke up” and became conscious that this was happening. I recognized the feeling and the associated fear and when I brought the feeling into my awareness, I witnessed the fear melt away in an instant. Just like that. What followed was a slightly cool sensation of energy rushing through my arms and legs. Like a shiver or chill but it lasted longer and felt wonderful and tingly.
Woah, Something is Happening
I immediately started to get excited and think, “Is this the beginning of the enlightenment experience? Am I going to start hallucinating and seeing angels and meet God?” I quickly noticed my wanting and refocused on the sensations. I started to become light and noticed that I was tipping over to the left and it was like I was floating. I then was able to navigate my way through the living room with full consciousness. Like I was a floating spirit. I was so excited that I was experiencing this!
I floated down the hallway and into the office where my wife exited the doorway and passed through me and I was curious if she noticed me or not. She didn’t. She was in her bathrobe and she went into the office as I was hanging out in the hallway. I was still so excited I wondered where this would go next.
Before I could go any further I started to come back to earth so to speak. I “woke up” laying on the couch just like I started. And my wife ended up coming out of the bathroom and into the room and obviously had no clue that I was just having this experience. She was still in her pajamas, not her bathrobe so my vision of her in my OBE was a hallucination. It was not real. She was in the bathroom getting ready the whole time this was happening to me on the couch.
What’s Next?
I’ve had lucid dreams before where I realized I was dreaming and could control myself and make decisions for a while before I woke up. I’ve had night terrors and woke up before sleep paralysis wore off and felt like I couldn’t move. But none of those have been truly conscious. In fact, I really couldn’t understand what was happening.
This time I witnessed everything from start to finish and was not a dream or a middle-of-the-night foggy memory. To me, this is really cool and interesting. I feel like I could recreate this experience. Next time this happens I’ll tame my excitement and continue to observe. Perhaps a deeper experience is out there.
Update: 8/28:
I was able to do it again last night. I woke up after about 2 hours of sleep and was lying on my back in bed. I noticed the sensation of being pulled back, but it wasn’t as strong. In fact, it’s like it tried a couple times before it finally “got” me. I did feel a slight fear and was nervous about it but I let it go and sure enough, I floated up and out of my body.
This time I remembered to look back at my sleeping body to see if I was there and I was. I even tried to touch my face. That was totally weird. I feel like my mind creates what it wants to see in some ways though because I felt I “knew” my wife was in the bed too and I saw her there. but in reality, she hadn’t gone to bed yet.
I continued to navigate down the hallway into the living room and out my front door. I was thrilled that I was able to get here so easily it seemed. I decided I was going to go run down the street! I remember choosing to lock the door behind me thinking the cat might get out. Then I started blissfully running down the street in the darkness and rain! It was amazing! Then I saw an older african american man running on the sidewalk as well but he didn’t notice me. I ran along side him for a second before I ended up coming back to reality.
When I came back to reality, I had a slight feeling of satisfaction but a little uneasiness which causes me to want to pull the blankets over my head and sort of hide until I fall back asleep. And that’s all I remember from last night.
Very interesting! I’ve gotten to the vibrational state on two separate occasions, one of those involving multiple vibrational states that I resisted and fought to end due to fear. I’m thinking about spending some time meditating and striving to be in a very pure and positive state of mind and maybe trying to get back to the vibration and let go. I’m in a very happy place so maybe this time will not involve fear.
Thank you Jeff, I really appreciated your story.
I would like to ask: you say that you can actually see the environment when you are out, but that feeling of “seeing” is really indistinguibile from the natural ‘seeing’ when you are in? Or do you feel that it is a sort of mental construction?
It’s definitely “seeing” in the same way you think you see in waking reality. Like your reality is being formed instantaneously right in front of you. While there are no physical eyes you see out of, it’s the same experience. Just like a dream basically, except you are self aware and able to engage with it knowing you are in a different dimension of reality. Now sometimes my vision would be diminished – like the environment is darkened or hard to see. But then I can also amplify the clarity, and things become even more vivid than waking life. Colors are brighter, more vibrant, etc. Like you just switched to HD. It’s really awesome.
Hi Jeff please can you tell me if you think that I may have experienced a form of astral projection. I suffer from sleep apnea. What usually happens is that I think that I’m awake thereafter I can’t breathe and that’s when I realize I’m experiencing an attack. Last night I experienced something completely different. I was asleep for about an hour, I then thought I woke up but the atmosphere was different like a mirror dimension is the best way to describe. So I put my hands infront of my face and I notice that I cannot see my hands so I realized that I’m not awake and I thought maybe its one of my sleep apnea attacks but I noticed that I was able to “breathe” so I decided to explore because I always had this feeling that what if I have the ability to astral project and I’ve been confusing it with sleep apnea. Anyways as I woke up from my bed and I began to leave the room, I felt something grab my ankles hard like an attack and I automatically had a visual of black demonic hands and I had this bad vibe like it was an evil entity, instantly I woke up screaming but could still feel the residual pain on my legs. When it grabbed my legs I didn’t feel it grabbing my legs in my dreamstate while standing but I had a mental image of it grabbing my legs laying on the bed. I know it sounds confusing, I’m finding it hard to explain it. I need to know did my soul leave my body for that brief period and was there an entity that made contact to my body and not soul ?
Sounds frightening that’s for sure. In OBE/Astral state, so many can happen. For some that experience demonic or frightening attacks like this, I would wonder why you are a match for that experience. Why is your soul showing this to you? How does it relate to your waking life? Did you suffer trauma as a young child or can it be some deep, unresolved issue in your subconscious? There’s a lot it could be.
I’ve had many outer body experiences since a very young age. The first time I remember I was sitting on my bed and floated out of my body. When I look down at myself I got frightened and I was immediately back in my body. When I was in high school I would sit in the cafeteria and do it on purpose. As I got older and had my son this power went away. It came back when I meditated and I would receive a lot of spiritual knowledge.
Few years ago I decided to get Reiki certified. I had learned about Reiki when I was at a health mission in Nigeria. I was able to heal a young woman who had no mobility. My hands got hot and my goal was just to get some movement from her until the physical therapist was able to take over. When they came to check her rage of motion, She had full mobility. It was the most euphoric feeling. I’ve often healed myself, friends and family but never understood it. I decided to get Reiki certified when I got back to the states.
After my Reiki certification I had an uncontrolled out of body experience. I heard a voice, it kept saying relax. I was out of my body and afraid. I and couldn’t get back in. I was thinking to myself I’m always able to get back in my body when I’m scared. Why couldn’t I now? I was terrified.
Then I did what I often do to heal myself….love and light. I did a burst of light within myself and I was back in my body.
The knowledge I received was that the only truth is LOVE…anger, regret, guilt, jealousy, hate, blame, fear and so on are lies.
I had carried guilt for loosing my parents when I was five years old.
Our conscious self may not understand and we don’t need to understand to heal. Give yourself love and the divine light and watch miracles happen. Maybe even your sleep apnea will get cured.
BTW-I don’t practice Reiki or heal people. I’m constantly filling myself with love and light.
I often have night time terrors and sense an evil prescence. What is this eveil prescence, Im terrified by this. I fight it and evenutally wake up. I gues thats why I never go to the next step. I never wanted out of body experiences and dont want them. How do I get rid of the evil presence that seems to occur? How do I stop having these things from happening?
I don’t know how to simply get rid of it or make it stop happening. Although I hear calling in the presence of Jesus Christ works for some people
Hello Jeff, I wanted to thank you for sharing your experience. Just feeling inspired (listening to that podcast you mentioned as I write this) and believe it’s the true energy floating in your space here that’s attracting people to keep reading. Interesting how I ended up here. Hope you are well these days :)
Hi,
I suffered with sleep paralysis for a while and they were truly frightening experiences. First it would be pure fear but then I felt an evil presence in the room with me. Eventually i’d feel incredible pressure on my back or chest depending on my sleeping position. But on one particular night, there was no fear – instead I found myself floating around my house. It was very surreal.
May I also ask, you stated that you had been meditating. Did you meditate in silence or would you listen to something like music?
I use to have the same experiences in my teen years, ” I’m 43 now” and am now just learning about what was happening to me. Night terrors, sleep paralysis, feeling like i was tumbling through my walls, hyperventilating from feer would wake me up. The last time it ever happened to me was in the afternoon by the pool, i felt safe so i went with it, i was lying on my stomach, and floated right out ofy body, saw myself laying there and started hyperventilating from fear and woke up, and realized that was amazing! I haven’t had another experience since.
Thank you for sharing your experience Jenifer!
Thank you so much you have helped me so much. I’m 19 but since I was about 14 I’ve been having out of body experiences filled with dread and fear. It’s been getting better sometimes but I haven’t gotten the hang of accepting the fear yet. And yes it’s like you can see different things when you’re in that thicker state but when you wake up you realize that the different things weren’t there. It’s so confusing
Hey Kapri, go slow and be mindful. Hopefully the fear diminishes with more awareness. Keep doing your research and learning about it and it will help the fear go away. You might benefit from listening to my interview on Gossipist podcast http://gossipistmag.com/out-of-body-experiences-pillowtok-65/
You mentioned floating, I wonder if you could fly between continents, just out of curiosity.
I believe so Tiberiu, you could fly anywhere you can *think* to
Hello Jeff,
Thanks for sharing your experience. It made my doubts clear of my own experiences which are similar to yours. I have not gone out of my body because of my fear but next time I will try to be awake & mindful. I hope to get OBE like you did.
Please sharing more.
Hello, Jeff,
It’s 2017. Last night I had that weird feeling, probably slept into a meditative state, what you discribed above. It’s like being sucked in( but really is out) in a vortex, made me sick, was a very complex thing, and felt like fighting for my life at some point…Thank you for the clarity. Will be looking into this more.
Bless youX
Andrea
Hmm… Awesome! :) Weren’t you afraid you might have seen some weird entities? When you say you felt “uneasiness” did it feel like someone was watching you or a weird tingle that you to put the blanket over your face?
Hi Nellie! I wasn’t afraid I would see weird entities because that thought never crossed my mind. I was euphoric to be quite honest! It was exhilarating to be “out of my body” for the first time. And I zapped back into my body rather quickly, so I didn’t have time to worry about weird entities on that particular journey.
However, when I would have those night terrors before I learned to embrace sleep paralysis, yes I definitely would feel like I was being watched or there were evil beings in the room. I would cover my whole head in the blanket because I was pretty scared.
But now that I’m much more experienced in this area (probably had 25-50 OBEs now), I haven’t met any weird entities yet. Almost everything has been positive and interesting. I think it has a LOT to do with my emotional state or mental makeup. If I’m full of anxiety and fear, those will manifest into my out of body state and I would encounter scary stuff. But that hasn’t happened yet.
Does it happen while awake?