Some Questions

Some things to ponder upon. These are my thoughts on various OBE questions:

How do you induce an OBE?

I cannot induce one at will, unlike some people. However, what I do find is that having the intention to have an OBE usually results in one occurring within a few nights. I also find that they most commonly take place if I wake after about four hours sleep and then stay awake for an hour or two. This usually results in an OBE or two after I fall back asleep.

Is `out of body' travel dangerous?

I don't know! All that I can say is that I've never had any problems with physical safety. Of course, it could be mentally dangerous, if one finds the prospect of a wider reality too unsettling. I have (rarely) encountered unsavoury entities, and I know other people who have encountered them regularly. The way to overcome any peceived threat from such an entity is to control your fear.

This sounds like something not easily acomplished! I did it by adopting an `I don't care' attitude in the face of an entity. This resulted in the entity disappearing. They seem to feed on our fear. Are they just projections of our consciousness, anyway, or do they exist in their own right?

The other fear that some newcomers to the OBE have is that of not being able to get back into the physical body. I have never found this a problem. Sometimes the moment of entry can be a little turbulent and prolonged, but locating the body is something that happens automatically. I believe that this is because a a part of our consciousness remains in the body at all times. This would explain the `dual consciousness' OBE that I had, where I have experienced myself being in the body and out of it simultaneously, see: Dual Consciousness

Have you seen your body, whilst out of it?

Many times I've seen myself laying in bed just before returning to body. On one occasion, when I had an OBE whilst awake, I looked down and saw my body below, opening a door. During an OBE dream, I can only ever remember seeing part of myself once; on that occasion, I saw my hands doing something.

If you are out of your body, how can you `see' without eyes?

I've no idea.

How do we distinguish between lucid dreams and OBEs?

Hmmm...this is a difficult question. To be honest, I haven't yet made my mind up! I think I find that an OBE definitely feels a little more `real' than a lucid dream, but the only way I can be sure is if the experience is followed by experiencing a return to body.

When you have an etheric projection, don't you ONLY see PHYSICAL reality, with just the physical events that are actually happening around you being visible to you? For example, you may see your own body sleeping there....unlike an astral projection, where what you see seems close to dreaming, doesn't it?

Attempting first to define the two terms used:

Etheric projection (EP) - This is also known as a `real time' projection, because one is closely aligned to the physical `realm' and one's awareness is synchronised to physical time - one sees everything that goes on in the physical AS it happens.

Astral projection (AP) - One experiences something much more akin to `dreamland' - removed from what we think of as `reality' - NOT synchronised to physical time; we are told that what seems like a long dream to us actually takes place in a short time, just prior to waking.

So, during an EP, does one ONLY see PHYSICAL reality? This is a crucial question, and one I really don't know the answer to.

During AP, I believe that one is focused upon a completely different region of reality – another`plane' (as it is commonly described) - a different world. Whilst focused there, one is largely unaware of physical reality.

However, I believe that this is true only insofar as how `close' you are to `physicality'. I don't think there is a point at which one changes from EP to AP, or vice versa; I think it gradually changes by degree. I also believe that the width of one's perception varies, that it is possible to sometimes widen one's perception so that one can focus in both realms simultaneously.

Suppose one has been astral projecting and one starts the return `journey' to body. When one is hovering right beside one's bed, immediately prior to bodily re-entry, one is close to `physicality', so things are seen as they physically are. However, when en-route back to the bedroom, say downstairs, it is a commonly reported phenomenon that things are seen pretty much as they are, but maybe with minor changes, differences in the room, like, for example, an extra door being present.

I believe that this is because one is seeing physical reality as it is, but also it is infused with some of one's internal reality (imaginary mind-stuff). One is less `close' to `physicality'.

At some point in an OBE, one may deem one's self as in the `astral' state because events seen have little resemblance to reality - one may be somewhere one doesn't recognise, with weird things happening, just like a dream, but it feels more real than a dream, because one is lucid and one has come from being `out' in an etheric projection. This is my guess as to what's happening, based upon my experiences over the years.

Mind you, this begs the question “How real is a dream and how unreal is an astral OBE where we are dreaming?”

This is all very difficult to answer, as the `evidence' that we have to support our concepts is very nearly all experiential and via the uncertain cognitive territory of sleep/altered states. The only evidence that we do have is that is a little more certain is if two people can meet in the astral and each of them verify the details of the meeting, or, in the case of EP, if someone can leave their body and see something that is physically there but could not be seen by them in `real' (physical) life.

When one dreams, doesn't one experience one's consciousness as in a different location than our physical body?

What I see in a dream is not so vividly real as what I see when I'm in an OBE, but, nevertheless, I think I experience a dream as if I'm in it, rather than detached from it.....don't I? Hmm. The sense of being in it is definitely not as strong as when I'm actually having an OBE, but it is the sense that I get. However, I've remembered a particularly vivid transition from dream to OBE that I experienced once.

I was dreaming - a normal dream, and I came into my back garden, in the dream. It was at this point that something happened. I became lucid, because I recognised the garden, as `home'.

Now for the interesting bit: At the moment of recognition, the clarity of my view of the garden increased, colours became more pervasive and...yes...I actually felt my centre of consciousness drift from my sleeping body and out to the garden! Whilst dreaming I WAS located in my body and then I went out - I felt it happen!

Now, I know that I HAD actually gone `out' into the garden, because the next thing that happened was I floated back to the bedroom and entered into an EP state, seeing my body laying in the bed below me, and then `entering' my body very distinctly. So, it would seem that there IS a difference in location of the consciousness.

Isn't being in the astral a state where mind can permeate everything and, hence, you can `travel' anywhere instantly because you are already there, in a sense?

I think that our thoughts are `everywhere', in a sense, because they are outside of physical space. A thought is not a physical thing, therefore, couldn't we think of our thoughts as being with us where ever we go?

Also, if telepathy is for real (it seems to be), doesn't this suggest that, in terms of space and time, they are not only with us but everywhere else? Using the example of twins, who are said to have more advanced telepathic powers than most people, if your twin in Australia can pick up your thoughts, while you are on holiday in Alaska, doesn't that suggest that your thoughts can be regarded, from our physical understanding, as enveloping the entire earth?

Can we say that a dream is a creation of the mind, but it HAS a `reality' insofar as other people's minds can resonate with your `mind creation' and `meet' in a shared imaginary reality?

Isn't this another example of our consciousness existing universally? Not only can it transcend distance, but it can permeate other people' minds.