OBE experiences

Before some years, I tried a software program that produced a sound according to the "binaural beat" theory. I will not step into details, but imagine sth like hypnosis induced by sound.

I was listening to the sound and falling asleep. Then, suddenly, just before I lose consciousness and sleep, I felt a vibration through my body, like mild jolt and woke up. I removed the sound and took a nap. I had very vivid dreams, almost lucid dreaming and after that, when time came to wake up, I "woke up" but not in my flesh body. It seemed like floating and being very light but also I was fully conscious. I haven't opened my eyes yet but felt my legs and arms floating at very strange positions. I thought this cannot be true because I was under a blanket. I tried then to open my eyes and peek where my limbs are. Upon opening, the feeling of the floating light body was lost and I saw my arm at its expected position, under the blanket (phew hehe).

Throughout the experience I felt very comfortable, like being "home" and had no fear at all, but upon opening my eyes, I got scared from what happened because at that time my mind was still very fixed to rigid traditional ideas and wouldn't accept the experience easily. I felt that something was supporting me during the experience, like a tour guide full of motherly love, and left me upon waking.
This was my initial experience. From then and on, I had some more spontaneous OBEs during midday nap or early morning which I may describe later.

I know that this thread may not fit here because it has nothing to do with the elixir, but posted it because I wanted to share the experience and because nobody seems to writes here sth (probably it will take some months yet till somebody makes the elixir). So, if I'm mistaken, please feel free to remove it.

I can see you had alot of experiences with astral projection and being sensitive to all things metaphysical. Sounds like you needed protection (on many levels) at that age. I had similar experiences until age 4, and as a Pisces it sucked even more to feel other people's emotions and crap all the time, which they were oblivious to. I also used to talk to my Spirit Guide as a little girl, but the difference was it wasn't like now whereas its only mental/telepathic. Back then it was truly audible! I think socially I learned to stop doing that, or that it was not 'real', so eventaully we lost that audible connection.

In preparing the alkahest I keep having more vivid dreams. I am not astral projecting or anything but doing alot of traveling in the dream state and seem to go up and down elevator-like things frequently. I also have been meeting alot of people in the dreamstate. I still have the same crazy symbol filled dreams which seem to be replicas of things I was thinking about that day, but I feel as though alot of preparation internally and outwardly is underway. Its been a while since I've had an experience on the astral plane and the times that I did was when I was much more spiritually engaged in life doing concentration and meditation daily in a metaphysical school I was in. I am definitely looking forward to the future and inner development in the work. Also the transmutation possibilities are truly mind boggling..absolutely awesome

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I had similar experiences until age 4, and as a Pisces it sucked even more to feel other people's emotions and crap all the time, which they were oblivious to.

I think I'm aware of what you mean here, I felt it more like being very sensitive to "programming" coming from other people.

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Its been a while since I've had an experience on the astral plane and the times that I did was when I was much more spiritually engaged in life doing concentration and meditation daily in a metaphysical school I was in.

It takes a lot of continuous effort in order to be able to have a conscious and controllable projection. Spontaneous projections occur easier but, as usual, when you stop practicing something, it fades away.

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I am not astral projecting or anything but doing alot of traveling in the dream state and seem to go up and down elevator-like things frequently.

Those experiences belong more to lucid dreaming, I agree. Usually, when I have the chance to become lucid in a dream I try to "elevate" from it. If I manage to "elevate" enough, I perceive the whole scenery of the dream like a small world floating in nowhere, like a Hollywood movie. Usually "elevation" brings me to a luminous, light-world where I cannot stay much. Then I may "descent" to a more mundane, gray place.

But I would like to focus here on OBEs specifically. How can one tell objectively that an experience is an OBE and not a lucid dream? For the person living it, the difference is obvious but are there any common signs applicable to all human beings? I would list here some, out of my experience:

- Feeling of vibrations through body just before the separation occurs. This happens just before someone falls asleep.
- Feeling that your body is light and floating. A numbness throughout the body.
- The limbs may be at unnormal positions (eg. bent, twisted) or "stretched".
- You feel that you are in your room (or, lets say in normal earth) and not in a dream world.
- You can sense the physical world around you (like walls, furniture).
- Spontaneous OBEs occur easier during midday naps or early morning naps.

I sincerely appreciate this thread for the sharing of experiences as I too have more questions than answers at this moment in time. I feel the same as you Traci when you say that a lot of preparation internally and outwardly is underway by simply preparing the alkahest. From the very moment I was guided to your site Beloved Nicholas D. Collette, I received a flood of transformational joy and liberation knowing that this is the portal to the life I’ve always believed achievable. And like you say theFool, these beginning talks have nothing to do with the results of the Elixir because yes it will be a few months for those developments, but perhaps our pre-Elixir experiences will give us a language for those coming experiences.
I have experienced both astral projection and nde. The near death came first. I was driving too fast in the rain and when I applied the brakes to slow down approaching a bridge, my car hydroplaned, spun around, slammed into the bridge so forcefully that the front seat passenger door was crushed nearly to my right elbow. The force of that impact flipped my car upside down and over the side of the bridge. I cried out to God for help. I was told to ‘take a deep breath’. I do not remember the impact, but when I opened my eyes my car was upside down at the bottom of a stream. My seat belt was on. All the glass in the car had broken and my car was filled with water. The first thing I noticed was the absence of time and space. I was most definitely upside down in my car filled with water, but in another dimension of that reality. As I looked around I felt no fear whatsoever, I felt calm and safe and warm and at home. Everywhere I looked I saw what looked like colorful bursts of bright energies. I knew I was dead and began to telepathically speak of missing my children. At the same time, I was thrilled to be home. I was told that I had more work to do. I was specifically instructed to take of my seat belt and get out of the car. I was shown something that was only in my thoughts for that moment that gave me the desire to return. I took off my seatbelt and crawled through the space where the window used to be. As I began to rise I ask how long do I have to hold my breath and immediately the answer came ‘as long as it takes’. When I surfaced and took in a breath, in that moment, I was fully back in this dimension. Time, space, cold, and wet. I decided I wanted my purse and I tried to go back into the water but it was so cold, it took my breath away and I could not do it. An angel pulled me out of the water, and I say an angel, he looked like a truck driver, but as he pulled me out of the water he said he had called the police and ambulance and explained he was there to help me. He ask if there was someone else in the car and I said no, I just wanted my purse. He laughed and helped me up the hill to the bridge where the police and ambulance had just arrived. I had a cut on my forehead and as the ambulance driver was applying a bandage and the policeman was saying it was a miracle that I survived, the truck driver/angel walked between the two and handed me my purse! In the literal blink of an eye, the truck driver and his truck were gone.
The astral projections began to happen a year or so later. They are always spontaneous. The similarities I experienced during these times are some of what you describe theFool:
-Feeling of vibrations through the body just before separation, but also for me an electrical charge during re-entry.
-Feeling that the body is light and floating
-Feeling of normalcy, this is most definitely an experience, not a dream
-I would also add the time/space aspect, the experience can seem to last a long time but in this reality only moments have passed
I genuinely look forward to your forthcoming books Beloved Nicholas D. Collette, the expansion of our experiences, and the extraordinary accounts soon to fill this thread that will be full of experiences that result from the Elixir…

Angel, pretty courageous of you to share this touching experience. Thanks God you got through this. As I see, those kind of experiences seem to happen to many people, but we just don't talk them out in our ordinary life. And there seems to be some similar paterns to all those experiences, which means that those phenomena can be studied and understood. After reading your story that OBEs occured after the nde, an excerpt from the book Kundalini Vidya, (by Joan Harrigan) popped into my mind. According to her theory a nde can cause a kundalini rising to throat chackra. This kind of rising is stable and produces OBE experiences. Just mentioned it because I found it interesting that her "prediction" applies to your case.
Also, according to those theories, the alchemical preparations actually raise the kundalini, a well documented phenomenon in eastern literature.

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The astral projections began to happen a year or so later. They are always spontaneous.

Wish you to have strength through those experiences. I remember me being pretty challenged at the times I had OBEs, especially when they occured spontaneously during sleep. And, God, you can encounter many strange things in the astral field. Interesting yes, but not recommended to go after them if sb is not financially secure and ready to follow a spiritual path. Thanks for your input to the list of OBE signs. The time dilation effect is sth I 've experienced also but forgot to mention.

yes theFool, thank you kindly, your words ring true. and yes, I have been on a spiritual path since early childhood.

the un is presenting some interesting videos and lectures re nde and obe as a part of their ‘human consciousness project’ that took place last sept 11 in nyc. if anyone is interested.
http://www.mindbodysymposium.com/

I became interested in psychic phenomena about 2 or 3 years ago and since the question plagues me "where do the limits truly lie". I had read about other peoples OBE's and wanted to experience it firsthand. I had tried for months in order to push myself out of my body, sometimes working for 3-4 hours at a time. I would lie flat on my back on my bed, hands at my side or gently folded over my pelvis and mentally try to push myself up and out, making sure I don't tense up. After a while my body would slowly numb until I had no feeling whatsoever from the neck down, it would sort of feel like floating on a cloud. I could only really try when I had no obligations the next day as it took a minimum of an hour or 2 and the need to do it would make it harder. It became a great relaxation technique but I wanted more and there was a point after I'd go numb that I'd feel a pressure in my head and I would get the feeling like I was going to die which stopped me a couple times. I kept persisting and decided to just let go and see what happens, I got to the point where I became totally numb, great, and I began to feel a pressure build up in my head, good, and my head began to spin and felt at though I was floating up and out and my whole body was spinning a couple feet above my bed. I stood up and I was in a back room with all these jars on a shelf but I couldn't make out the writing. "awesome I'm in a dream, lets see what I can do". I turned around and opened the door that lead into an office building, full of cubicles. I started to push myself through the cubicle walls, I could feel the walls move through my body as I passed through the wall. I pushed through a second wall, a third, a forth, this was exhilirating. I hit the back wall of the office, a think white wall, I got half way through the wall and I got stuck in the wall. I pushed harder to get through but the more I tried to push the more I felt the experience fading into black. "Relax, I told myself" and pushed through the wall. I was in the front office of the building, second story, looking out onto the city. I ran and jumped through the glass window, and felt the thud as I landed on the street below. The world around me began to fade and I was back in my own bed.

Upon reflection, I think that it was not astral projection but it was an OBE. I think there are several states in which you can travel in. First in regular dreaming in which you cannot remember the dream, second is remembering the dream once you awake, next comes participating in your dream (lucid dreaming) in which you bring your conciousness into the dream state with you and you have all of your senses and partial or full control over the dream. The next step, which I still have to get to is control of where my conciousness (astral body) goes when I get to the lucid dreaming point. Thefool mentions about elevating from this point, well a man I met once told me he had enough control of his astral body that he could find people or places (remote seeing). He said that it took him about 5 years of constant practice but when he went to sleep he would have 1 defininite goal to travel to just before going to sleep, he said it wouldn't work if he had and either/or senerio.

I have achieved more lucid dreams since then but it has been a few months since I have had one this way. For me, it only works when I don't have any obligations the next day (I have to get up in 6 hours for work) and work though it, no matter how long it takes.