Chapter Four

Out of Body Experiences

 

Introduction

 

An out of body experience (OBE) is one where a person feels their mind, their awareness, their perceiving, thinking consciousness is separated from their physical body at a location in perceptual space other than the body’s head and brain, and yet they still perceive events with a vivid and real sensory perception characteristic.  Further, during an OBE there is no clouding of consciousness or perception as would occur during a dream state, but rather perception is considered to be near perfect and distinct; sometimes even described as more conscious or more aware than during normal waking conscious.⁽¹⁴²⁾  During an OBE, the ego may see its physical body from a separate vantage point, or realize that it is observing events from a location other than would be possible from the body’s physical position.

The term “out of body experience” was coined by C. T. Tart in 1960 to avoid alternative names that were present in the literature at the time, and implied a negative judgmental connotation concerning some nonexistent knowledge of etiology of the experience; for example, such terms as astral projection, astral travel, ESP projection, doubling, etc.⁽¹⁴³⁾

To a person experiencing an OBE, the experience is real – beyond a dream or hallucination – and, again, may be described as more real than waking reality.  In an OBE, an individual is totally conscious, as we would typically define the state.  Much of a person’s physical sensory perception is also replicated.  They can see, hear, and touch, though the senses of smell and taste are generally muted or nonexistent.  The person’s perspective will be from a position outside of their physical body, either near or distant.  If near the body, it will usually be from a vantage point that would be impossible to observe from within the physical body, such as floating against the ceiling.  The starkest difference is the extreme reality of the OBE that sets it apart from dreams.⁽¹⁴⁴⁾

An OBE can be a life-changing event because it can affect a person’s perceptions of reality both through the effects of the experience as well as experiences or knowledge gained during the OBE.⁽¹⁴⁵⁾

Most OBEs are once-in-a-lifetime events, usually triggered by accidents, illnesses, stress, or other physically and psychologically traumatic events that take a human to the brink of death.  Many OBEs may occur during sleep, or more commonly during the hypnogogic state: the natural transition point between full wakefulness and sleep.⁽¹⁴⁶⁾  The hypnogogic state is often associated with a state of increased susceptibility to inspiration, occurring at a point of complete relaxation as the consciousness slips through the threshold between conscious awareness and the dream state.⁽¹⁴⁷⁾  Many contend the hypnogogic state is more susceptible to spiritual encounters, experiences, and inspiration because the ego is quieted as it slips into sleep, allowing the subconscious to commune more directly as a bridge between the super-conscious and the ego-based waking-conscious.

More rarely, OBEs may be experienced through conscious, deliberate efforts.⁽¹⁴⁸⁾  Many training programs and some technological inventions have been designed in the hopes of being able to increase a person’s chances at successfully achieving a deliberate attempt to enter the out-of-body state.  The pretext of these training programs and technological inventions is often to help the person achieve the hypnogogic state while maintaining a heightened state of awareness.  Robert Monroe labeled this state as mind awake/ body asleep.⁽¹⁴⁹⁾

A 1954 study by H. Hart found 27% of his survey respondents had experienced an OBE in their lifetime.⁽¹⁵⁰⁾  Celia Green’s 1968 study similarly found 34% of her survey respondents had experienced an OBE.⁽¹⁵¹⁾  J. Palmer and M. Dennis’ 1975 study found as many as 25% of their survey respondents had experienced an OBE, with experiential data highly dependent on the age of the survey respondent where younger persons were more likely to respond in the affirmative.⁽¹⁵²⁾  Buhlman’s book, The Secret of the Soul, described his own out-of-body experiences as well as those of more than 16,000 other survey respondents from around the world.⁽¹⁵³⁾  From the wide body of available data, OBE experiences will be described throughout this chapter.

The inevitable conclusion of these findings is that OBEs are natural experiences that have been experienced and recorded since the beginning of historical records.⁽¹⁵⁴⁾  Some OBE researchers even contend that every night all humans separate from their bodies during sleep to learn, experience, and recharge energetically and spiritually.⁽¹⁵⁵⁾  However, the nature of the sleeping state of consciousness almost always prevents one from remembering this everyday experience.

Hospice caretakers have long known that those approaching death may begin to have spontaneous OBEs, or deathbed visions as a natural prelude to their ‘permanent’ transition of consciousness from the physical to the spiritual.⁽¹⁵⁶⁾  Some on the cusp of death may experience an OBE quite like a near death experience, and many have provided a statement or description of their vision of the afterlife.  Daniel Webster noted on his deathbed, “I still live…pretty.”  Momentarily emerging from a coma at the end of his life, Thomas A. Edison stated definitively, “It’s very beautiful over there.”  Similarly, King Louis XVII provided during his final moments of life,            “I suffer much less.  The music is so beautiful… Listen, listen.  In the midst of all those voices I recognize my mother’s!”⁽¹⁵⁷⁾

 

Out of Body Experience Description and Common Traits

 

Providing definitive proof of OBEs is not an easy matter, and indeed there is more support for the validity of NDEs than OBEs.  However, the sheer number of OBEs tends to normalize the experience, thus lending it some weight as a credible body of anecdotal evidence.  Unfortunately, an out-of-body experience does not necessarily correspond with an ability to relate accurately events or descriptions of seemingly observed locations in the physical world in the time period of Here-Now.  Still, this negative proof neither supports nor detracts from the perceived reality of the out-of-body experience for those who have had an OBE.⁽¹⁵⁸⁾

Robert Monroe described aptly the difficulties of proving the validity of the OBE, though he himself experienced thousands of OBEs in his lifetime.  He noted most knowledge about OBEs stems from reports of once-in-a-lifetime experiences, which places the possible extent of that knowledge at a serious disadvantage.  First, most people cannot reproduce an OBE at will, which limits the ability to study OBEs under precise laboratory conditions.  Second, when a person suddenly experiences a brief OBE, the thrill of being in a novel environment quite different from their normal experience does not help them serve as a reliable or deliberate observer.  That person will typically be too excited and too busy just trying to cope with the strangeness of the experience.⁽¹⁵⁹⁾

In the out-of-body state, time, by the standards of the physical world, may seem to be non-existent, or simply cannot correlate with events that occurred in the physical world while the consciousness was incorporeal.  The human awareness may perceive a sequence of events; a past and a future, but no cyclical separation.  Both continue to exist co-terminously with Now.⁽¹⁶⁰⁾

I once interviewed a person who experienced a spiritually induced OBE during an intense prayer session.  The interviewee was holding hands and praying with a disturbed young woman who was having difficulties in life due to drugs and negative influences from her peer group, and they intensely sought intervention through prayer to help the young woman.  The interviewee described feeling a jolt of electricity that seemingly knocked both of them physically unconscious though the interviewee’s sense of awareness seemed to suddenly be above and separated from the physical body.  The interviewee could see the body while in this state of awareness, but there was no positive correlation with any other physical items that had been in the room where they had been praying.  For example, the young woman’s physical body was unseen, and the only remarkable item was an intense blue-white light shining in the distance.

The interviewee described the experience in the out-of-body state:  Time seemed not to exist.  All of the past, present, and future was resident in one moment, the “Here-Now.”  The interviewee felt as if all the knowledge of the universe was accessible and life suddenly made perfect sense.  Unfortunately, this knowledge was not brought back once the veil of amnesia returned upon regaining consciousness; merely the impression of having had access to that knowledge for a brief period of time, and how wondrous it had been.  Humanity’s purpose was clearly understood for that brief moment, as well as an enduring feeling of connection with all reality as if we were all part of “One” entity.  While in the out-of-body state, the interviewee could see with perfect 360-degree panoramic vision.  However, though the interviewee did not detect any other conscious presences in the out-of-body state, an intensely bright bluish-white light was observed that seemed to captivate one’s attention.  There was no telling how much time elapsed because one moment felt equivalent to an eternity.  The interviewee described the experience as more real than life, and quite unlike a dream – one could sense, think, feel, and experience with perfect mental acuity; a feat no dream could rival.

Once back in the physical state, the interviewee learned 20 minutes had lapsed and the church group had found the praying pair lying unconscious on the floor so they called an ambulance.  The girl shortly returned to consciousness just before the interviewee, and she described a similar, though even more intense spiritual experience bordering on a near-death experience with a life review and engagement with “beings of light.”  The girl cried from joy of the experience and remorse at her past life habits, and thanked the interviewee for helping to cause that experience through their prayer.  She noted the experience had affected her deeply and she intended to change her life permanently for the better.

Dr. Twemlow’s study of OBEs found that many experiencers shared similar traits with the interviewee’s case, above.  Comparing common traits of OBEs with their precedence, Dr. Twemlow found: ⁽¹⁶¹⁾

 

Percent of experiences who shared a common OBE Trait:

94% - More real than a dream

62% - Environment same as physical body

51% - Saw physical body from distance

50% - Passed through objects

38% - Felt vibrations in body preceding event

37% - Heard noises in early stages of separation

37% - Aware of presence of nonphysical beings

33% - Change in sense of time

30% - Saw brilliant white light

26% - Tunnel experience

21% - Felt attached to the physical body

18% - Able to sense touching physical objects

4% - 360-degree panoramic vision

 

Dr. Twemlow similarly found people generally felt calm and reassured during their OBE, mimicking descriptive experiences of people who reported near death experiences.  Comparing common emotions during OBEs with their precedence, Dr. Twemlow found:⁽¹⁶²⁾

 

Percent of experiences who shared common OBE Feelings

72% - Sense of calm, peace, quiet

68% - Freedom

63% - Sense of life purpose

55% - Joy

36% - No special feelings

29% - Sense of power

 

Similarities to the Near Death Experience

 

Reported experiences between NDEs and OBEs share many similarities.  Monroe opined the difference might lie only in the perception of the events and situations encountered.⁽¹⁶³⁾  Dr. Moody’s assessment that the depth of experience during an NDE was likely attributed to the manner of death and amount of time a person was clinically dead, could almost certainly carry over to the depth of experience within an OBE as well.⁽¹⁶⁴⁾  Out of body experiences that last seconds or a few minutes are probably unlikely to proceed beyond momentary visual impressions of observing one’s body from a vantage point other than normal, as typified by the interviewee’s out of body experience, above.

Indeed, traumatically induced OBEs may share the closest approximations to the NDE simply because they may be preludes to an actual near death experience, albeit the experiencer did not actually die.  Traumatically induced OBEs may occur during violent accidents, physical attacks – such as rape or physical altercations –severe illness, highly painful experiences, stress, or sleep deprivation.⁽¹⁶⁵⁾  The scientific- and descriptive-literature are full of accounts of these traumatically induced out of body experiences.

Military fighter pilots and astronauts may experience induced out-of-body experiences if they are rendered unconscious during flight due to excessive G-forces, known as G-LOC (Loss of consciousness).  NASA conducted experiments on US military pilots, utilizing a powerful centrifuge to render the pilots unconscious from excessive G-forces.  Each of the experimental subjects reported he had passed out and then described a detailed out-of-body state of awareness during the time they were otherwise physically unconscious.⁽¹⁶⁶⁾

American author Ernest Hemingway described his own traumatically induced OBE after being injured in combat as a member of the Ambulance Corps in World War I.  Injured, he tried to breathe but could not and suddenly felt himself rush bodily out of his injured physical form.  The process was swift, and he suddenly realized he was dead.  He realized as well the concept that one’s experience ended at death was in error.  He floated around the WWI battlefield for a time, but suddenly felt an impossible tug pull his spirit back into his body.  Inexplicably, his body breathed and he had been instantaneously called back to the pain of mortal wounds.⁽¹⁶⁷⁾

Buhlman described the story of Sam P. of Maryland who related his own traumatically induced OBE.  When Sam was about twelve he had an OBE that occurred when he was being severely beaten by a gang.  When the pain seemed unbearable, Sam suddenly found himself floating outside his body from a vantage point that allowed him to observe his body being beaten.  From this external vantage point, Sam realized he no longer experienced pain, and realized as well that at that point he had no sense of fear about what would happen to him or his body.  At that point, he felt an overpowering sense of peace.  When the gang eventually lost interest and stopped beating Sam’s body, he was shortly pulled back into his body and the pain immediately returned.⁽¹⁶⁸⁾

For those experiencers who have been able to purposely recreate the out of body experience a number of times, and potentially extend the experience through conscious effort, they have been able to achieve experiences incredibly similar to those of extended near death experiences.  Robert Monroe was one such gifted OBE traveler who documented hundreds of his own OBEs, most achieved through conscious effort, including attempts to validate the experience under laboratory conditions.

During some of his longer OBEs, he intentionally journeyed to an area of the spiritual world one might liken to a description of Heaven and an encounter with the Creator.  He described his experience as thus (paraphrased from the original):  You are Home; you are aware of the Source of the entire span of your experience and of your true nature, as well as the vastness beyond your ability to perceive and/or imagine; the Father, the Creator of all that is or was.  You are one of His countless creations.  How or why, you do not know.  You are one with and integrated as a part of the whole.  At our core, there are no differences in sex; everyone is both male and female, positive and negative.⁽¹⁶⁹⁾  Each of the three times Monroe visited this locale in the spirit world he did not return voluntarily but was forcibly guided back.  After each experience, he suffered intense nostalgia, loneliness, and homesickness for days.  Back in his physical body, he felt as an alien among strangers in a land where things were not right when compared to his ‘real home’ with the Creator.⁽¹⁷⁰⁾

Such in-depth out of body experiences are exceptionally rare, but the experiences show similarities to near death experiences, which may help normalize the anecdotal experiences in the concept of their validity, especially for our discussion herein. 

 

NDE-Like Transformative Qualities

 

Similar to NDEs, out of body experiences often have life-changing transformative qualities.  An OBE is usually one of the most profound experiences of a person's life, and therefore may radically alter a person’s beliefs about the nature of reality and their own relationship with the world around them.  Monroe summarized this type of transformation as the difference from no longer simply believing in survival after death to knowing one will survive death.⁽¹⁷¹⁾  Because the person will have directly experienced continued waking conscious without need of a physical body the person is assured of their continued survival after bodily death.

Dr. Twemlow quantified these post-OBE transformative qualities through his study of the experience.  He found the following precedence of common aftereffects and transformative qualities of OBEs:⁽¹⁷²⁾

 

Percent Occurrence of Common Transformative Qualities of OBEs

85% - Became interested in psychic issues

60% - Felt their life had changed

55% - Felt a spiritual experience from the OBE

43% - Felt they possessed psychic abilities

27% - Felt confused following the OBE

25% - Kept the experience secret

 

Percent Occurrence of Longer Term Impacts of OBEs

89% - Wanted to experience an OBE again

86% - Developed a greater awareness of reality

78% - Felt the experience had a lasting benefit

66% - Changed belief in life after death

43% - Felt the OBE was the greatest thing that had ever happened in their life

 

The qualitative character of the aftereffects of OBEs is very similar to those of NDEs, as listed in the previous chapter.  Buhlman’s study of more than 16,000 respondents found persons who experience an OBE will likely develop:⁽¹⁷³⁾

- An increased respect for life

- An increased spiritual connection

- Reduced feelings of hostility and violence

- An increased interest in the search for knowledge and wisdom

- An increased self-respect and sense of responsibility

- Personal verification of immortality

- Expanded awareness of our interconnection with others

 

The point of the above descriptions of the nature of the out-of-body experience and its aftereffects on the human conscious has been to normalize the experience so that the reader may consider a temporary incorporeal state of experience to be a legitimate, if unique aspect of the human experience.  If one accepts the validity of the out-of-body experience, then there are many lessons learned from the experience that can be applied to the discussion presented in this book concerning the nature of reality.

 

Comparison to quantum physics: Energy Principles

 

Arguably, the most important lessons learned from the collective body of OBE literature are the principles of energy, which define the ‘rules’ by which reality is created and experienced, both in the incorporeal and physical states of reality.  In order to understand this conjecture, energy principles must first be considered from the incorporeal state, and then comparisons can then be drawn to the physical state.

Robert Monroe’s decades of experience in out-of-body research determined the power of thought, i.e. the focus of one’s intentions, provided the energy inputs required to accomplish any perceived need or desire while in the out-of-body state.⁽¹⁷⁴⁾  He noted one only had to think movement, and the thought became a fact.⁽¹⁷⁵⁾  If one intends or expects – perhaps subconsciously – his surroundings to appear as the physical environment in which his physical body is still resident, then that is what he will perceive.  This explains why experiences in the out-of-body state may not correspond exactly with the physical realm: they are totally separate locations and any perceived similarity is a falsehood imposed by one’s own expectations that a similarity needs to exist.  In other words, our thoughts intending the area around our dissociated spirit to appear as the physical realm near our body creates a visual impression of the same.

If one believes they have died and have a preconceived notion of heaven and hell, and feels (even subconsciously) they were sinful during that life and thereby deserving of a harsh judgment, then their experience in the astral realm will likely not be pleasant.⁽¹⁷⁶⁾  Conversely, if one projects feelings of love, or asserts that they deserve only pleasant experiences, then their experience in the astral realm will match their preconceived notions of the experience.⁽¹⁷⁷⁾  In the out-of-body state, like attracts like, or in other words, one’s thought projects and expectations becomes one’s perceived reality.⁽¹⁷⁸⁾

Buhlman summarized these findings as the laws of Basic Energy Mechanics:⁽¹⁷⁹⁾

 

Basic Energy Mechanics

 

1. The nonphysical universe is progressively less dense in substance and increasingly thought-responsive as we explore further toward the spiritual source of energy.

 

2. Our thoughts are a form of creative energy and have a natural tendency to interact with and affect the nonphysical environments we encounter.  The farther within the multidimensional universe we explore the more rapid and pronounced this thought reaction becomes; i.e. we think change and change happens ever faster.

 

3. Our thoughts, both conscious and subconscious, will influence the nonphysical energy that we observe.  The degree of influence we experience is in direct proportion to the intensity of our thoughts and the density of our surroundings.

 

It is important to understand that the unseen, incorporeal world that surrounds us has direct applicability to our experiences in physical reality.  Thus the direction of our thoughts in everyday life can affect our physical reality and experiences.  Following the lessons of quantum physics, this can be attributed to the fact that all matter, form, and substance is derived from energy that originates from the unseen dimensions of the universe.  Pure consciousness is highly thought-responsive and takes shape first in incorporeal form.  As we direct our focus and attention towards an intended outcome, we help that consciousness attain permanency of form in the physical world.  In the same way, we can manipulate and change outcomes in the physical realm through deliberate, focused intention, though solidified energy transforms more slowly to meet our intentions than would occur in the spirit world.⁽¹⁸⁰⁾  Significant patience may therefore be necessary to observe changes in the physical world as a result of focused thought-intentions.

This idea supplements our other findings in quantum physics.  If consciousness is the base of all reality, both seen and unseen, and the light of the Creator is both conscious and a part of everything in existence, then the conclusion of Physicist David Bohm must be valid; i.e. That all matter is but frozen light.⁽¹⁸¹⁾  Therefore, an intense effort at directed, conscious thought concerning our desired intentions should have the capability to mold consciousness’ experiences within physical reality.  Indeed, Magnus concluded the physical realm can respond to one’s thoughts and intentions though the slow speed at which changes may occur in physical reality might not always seem directly attributable to one’s own efforts.⁽¹⁸²⁾

This idea carries forward as well into subconscious thoughts and groupthink.  One does not have to realize their thoughts have impact in order for it to be so.  Indeed, the very idea may seem ludicrous, but many would contend it is time for humanity to realize the power of positive and progressive thinking so that the human species may move forward peaceably.⁽¹⁸³⁾  Further, the more people who think the same way, the greater the chances for the focus of their attention to actually occur.  Still, proving this contention is as likely as being able to ‘prove a negative.’  Some efforts and progressive towards this proof has been conducted utilizing random number generators and then monitoring those generators for anomalies during mass societal events, such as the attacks that occurred on September 11th, 2001.  However, a further examination of this effort and its merits and pote