Precursor to OBE - Getting Out?

So there I was feeling tired after being awake for a while, though it was the middle of the afternoon, so I decided to lie down for a little while and practice some breathing exercises. Well after finishing, my cat decided to curl up by my legs and I was feeling really relaxed with the first stages of hypnagogic imagery clouding my mind. A pleasant cloudy sky shone dimly through my open windows and I began to drift off for a short sleep.

Now this frequently happens when I go to sleep during the day and am overtired, I soon realized I had some dreams or was following hypnagogic imagery and was in between waking and sleeping states with the usual feeling that accompanies it, I am talking a very weird feeling, as the body experiences pressures on all sides of it (especially my head where you hear the blood rushing through the ears...or that is what I assume it is) and a shaking feeling slightly.

Unfortunately this feeling isn't quite related to other OBE-esque experiences I have had. I have experienced really intense vibrations in the past, seeing through closed eyes, and floating feelings. This wasn't that. This was the partially paralyzed, pressured feeling, slight shaking struggle between wake and sleep.

I can NEVER turn such experiences into full-blown lucid dreams or OBEs. I either drift off to sleep shortly thereafter or wake up entirely as the shaking and pressure gets uncomfortable.

Any suggestions from people who actually do this stuff? I am not nearly proficient enough to do a conscious exist strategy so situations like that when they arise, I would like to exploit.

I can also assure people this is not some disease. Anyone familiar with the states between wake and sleep and the subtleties of the process know it is a common feeling to some degree.

reply to post by Evanescence


"Funny" how I stumbled upon your post synchronously after I had just watched this Graham Hancock video:

www.disinfo.com...

Deals with altered states of consciousness n' such. Starting to expand my ideas on what "Aliens" may be. (Pretty much figured they were most likely interstellar travelers. Still a big possibility.)

Anyway, that was only a minor synchronicity compared to reading what you were doing.

I was meditating/striving for altered consciousness when my cat decided to curl up on my lap. After this I fell asleep unintentionally. My cat is friendly but that's one of the few times its done that, probably the first time in a few years. (I haven't lived here for a few years until September when I moved back)

Sorry I don't have anything to say that could help you achieve an OBE, just felt I needed to comment on the synchronous nature of our experiences + the odds of me seeing your post among the others.

P.S.- I have had lucid dreams and OBE like events. I have had green "ball lightning" or "a luminosity" in my room BEFORE I knew of anything of that nature and have seen multiple "UFO-luminosities" years following that first experience. Would love to learn how to control my ability to change my perception/reception greatly without the use of substances (although they work too )

reply to post by Evanescence


Note: Watched Graham's video after I woke up from my unintentional nap.

Hey there, I am also a novice in this OBE business and I have been really working on it over a year now. In my limited experience, I would suggest that the best time to attempt it is right after you have woken up and before you have moved too much.

I am interested in finding out if it is a real event. I can't even find a solid consensus on what an OBE actually is. Some people say I am in the astral plane, that I can visit Mars or something. Others say I just become a ghost and kinda float around without a body seeing the world move normally. Some people say I need a spirit guide, or I will meet my guardian angel or something, it gets really confusing. What most people describe just sounds like a lucid dream, err I guess that would be a half-lucid dream.

But some say that they can see and hear things in an OBE that they otherwise would not be able to. That's really what I am going for, I want that evidence that supports the idea that this is not just dreaming. So far I have had four out-of-body experiences. At least one was definitely a dream, because the evidence I thought I had gathered wasn't true at all. It's possible that they were all dreams, although they felt real.

Only in one of them do I recall the moment I actually left my body, I just kind of twisted out of it. I also heard the "whooshing" sound that some people describe. I was able to float around freely and touch walls but I couldn't see anything. When I tried to open my eyes I was just back in my body. Who knows. If nothing else, then at least all these meditative techniques I have learned have been good for me.

Originally posted by MrAndy
Hey there, I am also a novice in this OBE business and I have been really working on it over a year now. In my limited experience, I would suggest that the best time to attempt it is right after you have woken up and before you have moved too much.

I've heard something akin to that as well.

I know one book (that I never really get more than one chapter through) that advocates waking up after sleeping for five to six hours then try OBEing or lucid dreaming due to the way sleep cycles work and taking advantage of natural states. I've also heard the morning recommendation and to do certain exercises in the morning.

The truth is though that I just am not a morning person. Once I wake up, I can't continue lying down and I certainly can't do other stuff because my entire mood is blase due to there being work or classes after waking up at 5 or 6 AM. It's just me really, but mornings never work for me.

Originally posted by MrAndy

I am interested in finding out if it is a real event. I can't even find a solid consensus on what an OBE actually is. Some people say I am in the astral plane, that I can visit Mars or something. Others say I just become a ghost and kinda float around without a body seeing the world move normally. Some people say I need a spirit guide, or I will meet my guardian angel or something, it gets really confusing. What most people describe just sounds like a lucid dream, err I guess that would be a half-lucid dream.

I consider myself a skeptical individual. I am not convinced it's 100% "real" as in the astral plane either.

I always want to find out first-hand though and there have been some recommended tests to check the objectivity of the environment once one is experienced enough. Some tests involve cards (Robert Bruce mentioned such a technique that I intend to try if ever actually can have an OBE, as opposed to to a semi-OBE) and others involve shared dreaming or things of that nature which would objectively prove (to me, given enough success) that dreaming is not an individual thing entirely and hence science does have it wrong there. But I don't enter with those assumptions.

I call it OBE but it does not have to be that, just mental olympics, I don't know. Science recognizes elements of the sleep process (like the falling sensation known as the hypnic jerk and the existence of sleep paralysis and hypnagogic imagery) but oneirology is still much debated.

Though I tend not to rely on anecdotal evidence too heavily, I have experienced the "exit sensations" so many talk about so I am 100% sure there is truth in that respects. Sadly I have had only a few experiences where my dreams were so lucid as to evoke a "real" feeling. Those times are never from a waking state though and always involve me waking up in my dreams...so it is inherently biased and soon I lose that state of awareness and drift back into the chaos of the dream.

And yes, people can only be experiencing lucid dreams. The mind can be very convincing in terms of perception of reality and everything else. The only real way to separate mind from reality (which if the theories of the astral plane are right, is really hard given the nature of the dimension itself) is to either train your mind to be so aware as to maintain a lucid state and then explore and/or to find some objective element in those dreams that would be impossible otherwise, like shared dreaming or statistically improbable predictions of card suits/values, things like that. You'll likely never prove it to others, but to prove to oneself that there is more to consciousness within the body is pretty much the most amazing thing one can gain knowledge of. Not "prove" as in "have faith" which most people do, I mean actually be convinced of it due to some evidence that is almost impossible to be a coincidence and can possibly be replicated by yourself.

Originally posted by MrAndy

But some say that they can see and hear things in an OBE that they otherwise would not be able to. That's really what I am going for, I want that evidence that supports the idea that this is not just dreaming. So far I have had four out-of-body experiences. At least one was definitely a dream, because the evidence I thought I had gathered wasn't true at all. It's possible that they were all dreams, although they felt real.

Only in one of them do I recall the moment I actually left my body, I just kind of twisted out of it. I also heard the "whooshing" sound that some people describe. I was able to float around freely and touch walls but I couldn't see anything. When I tried to open my eyes I was just back in my body. Who knows. If nothing else, then at least all these meditative techniques I have learned have been good for me.

I hate that "dream evidence" for me too as it's all so subjective and disappoints me upon waking. I have had some VERY vivid lucid dreams in places that very much mimic my room (with some elements added or missing, though even if it were an objective realm such things could happen given mental impressions on it and a disheveled state of mind) and have experienced some sensations that make reality's seem trite in a very "concrete" environment. The sad thing is that those are random occurrences with no pattern aside from happening randomly to me and that they usually go from very vivid back to a normal dream so I have trouble separating the two upon waking; continuity of consciousness is difficult. On the bright side, I am sure when I practice more concentration and meditation exercises, I will be able to eventually get a hang of conscious dream entry. That's really hard though, but what is reassuring to me is that when I practiced these types of things with this goal in mind most significantly, I actually had a lot more experiences than usual and was a lot more aware of the sleep process in general.

At this point in time, I can identify consciously when my mind is in the hypnagogic state seeing random images. Sleep is very close to that time, sadly I can't stay conscious past that point. An exercise to get used to entering that state (though I do it without this a lot of the time) is to go to sleep with one arm resting on your bed elbow up so that your hand arm is raised. As you enter the hypnagogic state the arm will fall and wake you somewhat so you get used to entering that state and recognizing it.

And yeah, a lot of the OBE stuff is notoriously touchy. I have experienced blackness as well and when you try to do something you'll either end up in your body or dreaming lol. In fact I have problems exiting probably because I can't relax well and when I am well enough to exit I'm usually already dreaming.

I frequently use binaural beats as an aid to get me into a relaxed state. It definitely helps. I am much less distracted by wandering thoughts and I can focus more easily. Maybe that will be helpful to you? Sometimes I'll also use hypnosis, which works much better, but they all seem to end by bringing me out of the relaxed state, which I don't want!

I've never experienced a full lucid dream before, although I have had dreams where I was suspicious that I might be dreaming, lol.

Originally posted by MrAndy
I frequently use binaural beats as an aid to get me into a relaxed state. It definitely helps. I am much less distracted by wandering thoughts and I can focus more easily. Maybe that will be helpful to you? Sometimes I'll also use hypnosis, which works much better, but they all seem to end by bringing me out of the relaxed state, which I don't want!

I've used The Monroe's Institute's Gateway Experience Hemi-Sync stuff for chair-based relaxation.

Worked very well, but I haven't really put forth the effort to utilize it fully and lying down.

And bringing you out of a relaxed state? I would think it would do the opposite if done right.

reply to post by Evanescence


Hi! I'm not sure if it will help you or not but I'll share my one obe with you.

I was young, really young. About 12 or so. I fell asleep on the downstairs coach right after school like I normally did when I did not have football practice. Oprha Winfrey was on tv as my eyes shut.

The next thing I know - I'm floating at the ceiling near a vent. I see myself down on the coach. I look over and see the tv.

I start to get a little scared and then I look down and see a cord attached to me. I felt that the cord kept me attached to my body.

I feel if I go any further up the cord would break and I wouldn't be able to come back to my body. I start to float a little bit more and get really scared.

The next thing I know, I wake up. Wide awake. I remember what happened and talk to my mother what Oprah was talking about and it was exactly what I had seen.

I had no idea what had happened. I have never even heard of an obe. Let alone how to have one.

Later in life, around 16, I did start trying to induce an obe. But honest to God, as I was on the ground trying to get in to one my belly started rumbling and started speaking - lol - yes - speaking to me. It made a rumbling noise and it made the noise of - stop - don't - stop. I know it sounds crazy but it scared the # out of me so I stopped and never tried to have one again.

That's my first time of ever telling these things in public. I hope it helps you somehow.