Forums → WEPR → Out of body experiences.

(Another thing that is really impressive is the lucid dream.)

I kinda know the steps but there are some bad dreams you can get with thying to get the lucid dream.

i personally know someone who had a OBE when she was close to death few year ago. befor that happened she wasn't spiritual or religious. but since then she is assured that there is more (spiritually). she didn't describe it as a dream tho. she was fully aware and conscious and saw herself from the other side of the room. (a point of view she couldn't have seen before as it was to high.) she tries now to go back in that state sometimes but without luck.

i personally think is just your brain &quotlaying games" with you. for example, it is known that when people see heaven, god and/or angels when they are close to death. that these people have always had such ideas about what the afterlife would be. and the the combination of these hard printed expectations and the chemical mixture that can occur in the brain that causes for hallucination, lose of body control and unconsciousness, gives them the experience of having seen heaven.. i think that something similar to that happens in your brain aswell during a OBE. and that people that claim they can enter that state at any time, are either liars or people that somehow (probably unconsciously) can create this chemical mixture in their brain. i dont think you should use techniques given to you in books to get back into it. if it is possible for you (i hardly doubt everyone is able to) then there is probably a unique way for you the achieve this. and copying other peoples techniques would only delay your search.

I dunno, regardless of our opinion on it, an old and pretty universal caution in all things esoteric is to be wary of conceit.

Well, I tend to suffer from sleep paralysis, especially if I take afternoon/evening naps. They say that the state of sleep paralysis can often lead to OBEs, but thankfully, I've never experienced that. Not after watching Insidious.

Well, I tend to suffer from sleep paralysis, especially if I take afternoon/evening naps.

They say that the state of sleep paralysis can often lead to OBEs, but thankfully, I've never experienced that.

Sorry to burst everyone's bubbles. If you want to continue having cool OBEs, don't read on.

There are 5 stages of sleep. The first is when you're still conscious of your surroundings but thinking and comprehension skills are limited. The second is when you cross from consciousness to unconsciousness. The third is a light sleep. The fourth is when you're in a deep sleep and dreams begin to develop. The fourth is, of course, REM. In the final stage of sleep detailed dreams are created.

When you're sitting in class and you have one of those dead stares going on, you are not having an out of body experience. You're experiencing the first stage of sleep, most likely due to being in a comfortable environment, lacking arousal and being somewhat sleep deprived. When you listen to relaxing music or whatever, you're putting your body into a pre-sleep. The "floating effect" is due to lacking comprehension and rationalization skills.

There are a lot of theories as to what dreams are about, such as this or this. If you're dreaming about something that may have happened in real life, it may be due to activation-synthesis or semantic encoding. Basically, when you're sleeping, the areas of your brain that control rationalization are turned off. Activation-synthesis (known as the "Freud" way) is a theory where the id is trying to show itself during a dream. The id supposedly disguises itself symbolically, known as latent content, and hides in the storyline, known as the manifest content. But this theory is a bit outdated and discredit. The second theory, and more accepted theory, is that dreams repeat things that you've seen during the day in the form of a dream. This is supposed to help with semantic encoding. How curious!

I love psych.

i agree with that salvi if it comes to the general is just feeling asleep a little.
but i dont think that nearly dieing is in the "comfort zone". also do i not think that nearly falling asleep would turn a atheist in a spiritual person. just a dream couldn't do that.
we could write about this forever. but as long we have not experienced it we can only speculate.

we could write about this forever. but as long we have not experienced it we can only speculate.

I take it some people, like you, are more prone to sleep paralysis than others?

why thankfully? what is the worst that can happen? i think it would be interesting to have such a experience. even if its just for the sake of experiencing it. =)

Personally, I think the benefits of relaxation during meditation, for example, are genuine, but from a purely mental/neurologic point of view.

Oh....well it seems a tad bit frightening to me!

i wonder what is scary about it..? =S

Aye; and even those appear to have been mitigated in a recent study.

Well, sleep paralysis usually causes hallucinations, and the feeling of being watched, so I hate to think what could go wrong with OBEs.

I remember Mage telling of an experience during sleep paralysis, where he saw a shady figure. Seems pretty fitting when considering sleep paralysis most likely inspired the folklore about (night-)mares.