First attempts at Out of Body Experiences

First attempts-

 

I started slow. I waved my arms and legs around. You do not just jump into a swimming pool if you do not know how to swim, and this is no different. You get used to the vibrations, and the effort it takes to feel movement that is not physical. I always seemed to have a problem with my head being stuck in the early days of attempting to separate. But, in the early days, I thought of the process of getting out each time I wanted to try to get out. Now, I just do it. There is no thought. Just like the advice that Yoda gave to Luke in Star Wars. There is no thinking, there is just doing. Thinking of being “in” traps you into having to feel as if you are “out,” or getting out. For me, even with my experience so far, and the extra help of having lived through a few experiences that I had not initiated, it still took me a long time to get to the point that I could initiate an experience that to me, felt like I was leaving my body, in control and awake.

 

By now I was in college. Once, before telling my girlfriend JM about any of my experiences, I woke up to the familiar sensations. I had been working at this point to move the vibrations around over my body, just to be aware of them everywhere, and make them stronger than they were. I worked them up to my head, and down to my toes, and back to my head. Soon, they were oscillating back and forth pretty much on their own, with me just adding to the power of it. At some point, I started thinking about JM, and then the entire mass of power that had been building exploded out of the top of my head. I actually thought I saw a ball of energy leaving me. The sensations quickly faded, and I opened my eyes. I could see JM’s window from my room. I glanced up towards her room, and the light came on. JM appeared at her window, and l could tell she was looking down towards me. When I asked her the next morning how she had slept, she told me that she slept OK up to a point. She said she suddenly woke up out of a sound sleep, thinking about me. I mentioned I had seen her light come on, and after this, I told her about the funny experiences I had. I also promised not to wake her up that way anymore.

 

She was intrigued by my story, but her science training would not let her think of it as anything more than dreams, even though she related an experience to me that made me wonder. When she was younger, she had wanted to stay up with the grown-ups instead of going to bed but had been told she could not do that. She “dreamed” she got up, and went to the kitchen, and spent time in there listening to what the grown-ups were talking about. She had thought it odd that they did not see her, or tell her to go back to bed. I am not sure at this point if she had verified that she had actually heard anything they had discussed after she had gone to bed. I think she was a bit nervous remembering as much as she had remembered.

 

Later on, during a phone call, my mother told me that she had heard a guy on a radio talk show on KGO, San Francisco who was talking about experiences he had, that reminded her about those I had talked about one night at home. She did not remember his name. She just wanted me to know that there was someone else who was just as crazy as I was. No, she did not think I was crazy. Not because of this anyway. I think she must have heard an interview with Robert A. Monroe publicizing his new book about what he had termed “out of body experiences” or OOBEs. But, I did not know about him or that book then.

 

Sometime later, JM and I were passing one of the many book stores near campus. I glanced at a display of books in a window as we passed. The cover photo on a display of books made me stop in my tracks. What had stopped me was a copy of Monroe’s “Journeys Out of the Body.” I went in and found the sales area for this book. I opened a page at random, and read a description of my own experience, happening to someone else. His description of the experience was so much the same as mine; I thought I could have written it. Reading this hit me hard. I started to shake right there in the store. I can not emphasize enough how this felt to know that I was not alone in having had this experience. I bought the book, and suddenly, other reading assignments I might have had were forgotten for a while. I can’t possibly recreate all of the experiences I have had over the years since then. But, I will touch on a few that are memorable, just to describe their range.

 

Around the time of reading Monroe’s first book, I had a typical start to an experience. I was aware of hearing my roommate talking out in the hall. In this experience, instead of my trying to get out, “someone” was there to get me out. It seemed I did not have a choice this time. I remember being grabbed and the sudden rush from increasing acceleration out of the top of the dorm complex, seeing the city recede quickly under me, then the earth. The acceleration was so great; I actually felt the heat from going so fast. And then I (we) were out in the far reaches of the solar system. We stopped. I was turned to my left, and there was a huge screen showing a representation of where we were, and where the earth was compared to us. An object appeared on the screen and moved a short distance towards the sun. A brief notation was displayed above the object, and it moved a short distance towards the sun. Another description appeared above the object- as if they were showing me the trajectory change of an object approaching earth or the sun. This was repeated as if to reinforce it as being important. I was suddenly back in my room, opening my eyes.

 

I am not sure what any of that meant. In my notes I took at the time, I entered that sometime later, they announced the discovery of a new comet that was supposed to put on quite a show around Christmas. It was a dud though. Either the course they had was not accurate, or something changed they had not been aware of. Sure, I did it. No, I do not think that. Maybe I just somehow picked up on the fact that the trajectory they thought was true was not. Or maybe it is just a coincidence-. After all, I did not know the name of the comet from my experience.

 

Next, with my friend JB’s OK, I was attempting to visit her in this odd dream state. One trip, I remember being first out on the street, and then going towards a building, and into it. It was obvious to me it was a restaurant. It had brick walls and separate walled booths with tables. I got to one booth finally, and there JB was with a couple of other people. I do not remember recognizing them, but in my original notes, I mentioned seeing a woman with long red hair there that night. In the experience, JB looked at me, and asked me what I was doing there? It quickly ended after that. She had no memory of seeing me in any place like that or knowing a woman with long red hair, but there was a restaurant where she lived at the time which she did go to regularly. When I eventually visited her, I saw this place, and it did seem a bit familiar to me. Maybe she had been dreaming she was there that night? Ah, this brings up the possibility of shared dreams. Would that be possible?

 

Once I had a feeling as the sensations started that I was supposed to meet someone, but I was not to go to them. If I was to meet them, they had to attempt to get to me at the same time. I have no clear memory of this being anyone I knew at the time. I do remember finally meeting with a woman who had long reddish hair. I remember being taken out, with her- almost like we were on a shuttle bus or commuting to a job or school. At present, my “significant other” JR has red hair, I am not sure if this was JR. Although she knows I have these experiences, I am not aware that she has ever had a memory of anything like it ever happening to her. That does not mean it could not have been her. Who knows? Maybe I was just registering a subconscious thought that I liked women with red hair, or with names that start with J.

 

One time when I was trying to get to JB, I found myself in a yard outside a small bedroom window. Of course, thinking it must be JB in there, I went in. It was not her though. I might have thought it was initially. I remember a multi-colored cover on the bed. I told the woman occupant, that I was out of my body, and to prove it, I floated up to the ceiling and back down again. She laughed, like that was the neatest trick they had ever seen. I did it again. I talked to her for a short time, and it ended. I only mention this on the odd chance that it may have been JR I had seen that time. When I met her years after this, she had a multi-colored quilt on a bed that may have been what I had seen. She also had a very small bedroom with a narrow window. When I later was outside that window for real, it did have a feel to it that seemed similar to what I had seen that night. The first time I visited the town; quite a bit of it seemed familiar to me in an odd way.