OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES
While this is not a Biblical term it does fit the description of what sometimes accompanies a visionary state.
Medically speaking almost any type of trauma can induce a state often referred to as an OBE (out-of-body experience). For example a doctor in La Fayette, Georgia USA was attacked and badl y beaten up. This sudden trauma caused him to leave his body momentarily until his medical staff brought him round.
Along with trauma there are other ways of having an OBE, such as drugs, both prescribed and illicit. At first glance the use of drugs to hasten an out-of-body experience seems to be acceptable to many people, even today.
While Hindu “holy” men sit in yogic contemplation for years trying to achieve Nirvana (Paradise) many Westerners see drugs as a quick way to experience the spiritual realm. For many drugs is the poor man's form of yoga. Both produce a similar state, but the drugs are without any form of internal discipline.
Listen to this seemingly glowing report of an out of OBE after taking drugs.
“LSD opens the mind and releases an enormous amount of awareness energy. Here is a key to the mystery which has been passed down for over 2,500 years; the consciousness expansion experience, pre-mortem death and re-birth. It is possible to get behind the ego of consciousness, to tune into the neurological processes, which flash by at the speed of light, and become aware of the treasure of ancient racial knowledge, welded into the nucleus of every cell in the body. Drugs can open this door.”
Although the LSD craze of the 1960s was the most popular form of encountering this state, it certainly wasn't always with good results. Today's drug culture is a child of that era, but the OBE's are decidedly more dangerous - as well as more common.
Eastern religious meditation techniques can certainly provide a way of tripping out into other realms. My own experience of <