Out-Of-Body Experiences - Paranormal or Neuroscience?
What can out-of-body experiences teach us about ourselves?
As you lie in slumber, your spirit body snaps free and drifts upward while your physical shell is left lonely on the bed below, connected only by a fragile, silvery cord. You turn and observe yourself peacefully sleeping. Could this be evidence of the soul? Could it be proof of life after death?
Reports of out-of-body experiences (OBEs) vary. Some consist of little more than a fleeting feeling that body and mind have come loose, while others recount tales of floating far from the person's physical body and traveling to otherworldly plains. Either way, OBEs have fascinated humanity for centuries, entering folklore, spiritual belief, and mythology.
In the 19th century, for instance, OBEs became a popular topic of the romantic literary movement, and unsurprisingly, they were eagerly discussed by early psychical researchers
"I suddenly seemed to divide into two distinct beings. [...] One of these beings remained motionless on the sofa; the other could move some little distance, and could actually look at the motionless body on the sofa."
-Journal of Society for Psychical Research, July 1894
According to surveys, around 10 percent of the population have experienced an OBE at least once - so there must be more to it than a desire to live forever or an over-charged imagination.
Although, historically, most research into OBEs has come from the unkempt fringes of science, it has attracted a little more serious attention over recent years. In this article, we will discuss some of these findings
When do O.B.E's Occur?
OBEs have been documented in a variety of situations. These can be split into two categories: spontaneous and induced.
Spontaneous OBEs
A variety of factors could trigger a spontaneous OBE. These include:
Sleep: Spontaneous OBEs are most commonly reported as occurring just before falling asleep or just prior to waking. They are more likely to occur when sleep is not particularly deep - due to noise, stress, or illness, for example.
Physical effort: OBEs have also been reported following or during extreme exertion.
Near-death experiences (NDEs): OBEs sometimes occur alongside "light at the end of the tunnel" visions
Other spontaneous OBEs have been reported during meditation, non-life-threatening accidents, anesthesia, hypnosis, child birth, when suffocating, after being shot, while dancing or talking, or, as one 36-year-old police officer relates, during her first night at work:
"When I and three other officers stopped the vehicle and started getting [to] the suspect [...] I was afraid. I promptly went out of my body and up into the air maybe 20 feet above the scene. I remained there, extremely calm, while I watched the entire procedure - including watching myself do exactly what I had been trained to do."
Induced OBEs
From a scientific standpoint, induced OBEs offer a more tantalizing glimpse into the physical basis of OBEs. They include:
Drugs: Hallucinogenic drugs, and dissociative hallucinogenics in particular - such as DMT, MDA, LSD, and ketamine - can give rise to induced OBEs.
Sensory deprivation or overload: Either too little sensory information (floatation tanks or listening to white noise) or too much (torture) can also trigger them.
Strong G-forces: Pilots and astronauts occasionally experience OBEs. For instance, when extreme G-forces are encountered, blood can partially drain from certain parts of the brain. This, it seems, has the power to induce an OBE.
In this instance, OBEs occur as part of a phenomenon called "gravity-induced loss of consciousness." The more surreal parts of this experience are not freely discussed by most pilots, but some give vivid accounts.
"I was there. But I, like, wasn't there. I was floating. I was looking at myself from outside of myself."
-Col. Dan Fulgham
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of OBEs is veridical perception, which is the claim that during an OBE, the viewer is able to literally float out of their body and witness something or someone that they could not have otherwise seen.
A well-known example is the case of Pam Reynolds, a brain surgery patient who underwent a highly invasive operation to remove a brain tumor.
Following surgery, Reynolds was able to describe aspects of the procedure that had happened at a time when she was clinically dead. She claimed to have surveyed the scene during an OBE.
Although skepticism abounds, proponents of the afterlife have repeatedly used this story as "evidence" of an ability to float beyond the body.
Some of these stories are intriguing and compelling
A study from 2014, titled Awareness during Resuscitation (AWARE), was the first serious large-scale investigation to look at NDEs. The study addressed the possibility of veridical perception during OBEs.
The research involved multiple hospitals and hundreds of interviews with cardiac arrest survivors. To investigate whether any individuals had genuinely floated above themselves and viewed their surroundings, researchers placed pictures on shelves that would only be viewable from above. In this way, they could test whether people experiencing OBEs really could leave their bodies.
Although there were only two veridical OBEs during the study, neither could accurately relate the images from the shelves. We eagerly await the next phase, known as AWARE II. As the authors write, "Another veridical recall is a real possibility in the 1,000+ monitored cases, and who knows, that ever elusive visual recall may yet be found."
Continued- Source:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318464.php
I have tried several attempts at astral projection (along with meditative steps on how to achieve it)
Each time---- I find myself going through pretty violent shakes that seem to paralyze me when trying to 'leave the shell'... Scary seizure like feeling. I know I'm suppose to let go and roll with it in order to achieve it, but something fights back, causing me to wake and go right back into the turbulent sleep continuously, without control over self.
Does anyone have any suggestions or tips how to make this a smoother transition..or perhaps tell me why I can't bring myself to let go?
I feel as though there is some reason I must explore this way..like I'm missing a piece to a puzzle or looking for an answer, to a question I haven't asked. Odd. .Frustrating. ....
Maybe someone else knows what I'm looking for...
First things first: What works for me/others will not necessarily work for you... You will develop your methods that work.
I'll try to give some generalizations -- given that we both have minds and bodies at the moment -- in order to achieve some analogs for shared results.
1.) The realization of the physical body must be muted mentally. If your body experiences pain, you should find a way to manage the pain with sobriety. If you cannot, wait until the pain has been managed. Light exercise and stretching may provide a baseline of neutrality for you. Make sure that you are not hungry; eat something light an hour beforehand so digestion is complete. Also assure that you do not have to use the restroom.
2.) Be comfortable in your mind. Assure that your mind has worked through all of its stresses first and/or has done its categorizations it needs. Sleep/naps with NREM/REM sleep are good for memories and stress reduction. Your mind should have very little it needs to tell you or feel it needs to express/play with. Write out/type out all of the garbage words you need until the words are finished speaking if necessary and throw them away/delete them. Take care of all your duties and responsibilities for the moments to come. Assure you can commit to your study of your self. You are your focus.
Remember that every time is the first time. There are no failures; only experiences. Impossible is impossible.
3.) Find a comfortable pattern. If you like to lay down or sit up, it's up to you how you start the process. You can use music or have quiet... Be comfortable, calm, and quiet. Tell yourself over and over, in multiplicity, in your mind statements/mantras of will and ability... Only statements of your desire and abilities are your attention and attitude: "I am everything." "I am limitless." "My will is done." Assure all statements are positive in nature. Eventually you will start to hear multiple choruses of your words in your mind over and over.
Personally, I picture myself digging a hole through the earth with a shovel; each shovel I sink lower and lower. My mind/soul falls through my body and goes wherever I desire. (Sometimes a sensation of falling back into my body will jolt me as if I'm losing balance.)
Some people climb a ladder; pull on a rope; etc. Make sure it's a continuous pattern to reinforce your meditation and focus of self. When you realize self, you become all things and a part of the "Self."
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Another trick that sometimes works is turning a lucid dream into OOBE (Out of Body Experience)...
If you realize you're dreaming you can look at your mental body in your dream and focus on it... During this focus you can realize that it's not physical by allowing it to fade away. At that time with a calm confidence simply open your energy body's eyes and travel while your physical body's eyes remain closed.
Your mental body and energy body can travel as fast as you accept. My method is to realize that speed doesn't exist but is a perception; as there is no distance. Everything is connected. We can go anywhere instantly without travel.
At some very uncomfortable times I have existed out of body as three different perceptions of body. Sometimes we can get stuck in "walls" or travel through different mental universes and lose focus... That's OK. Explore and escape your concepts of expectation.
You are everything.
The army uses people who can astral travel as spies. I think there is plenty of scientific proof of OBE/Astral travel/Remote Viewing, just is not allowed in the main stream.
I believe I had it happen twice when u was 18. Although it was not intentional. I remember being at my parents house and walking around in my parents house, it had the color of night vision green. I went back to my room and say myself lying on the bed. I sat down on the side and laid back down into myself my eyes opened and I was back. The second time was a few months later when i found myself standing in the girl i was seeing bedroom doorway. I described t to her the next day what she was wearing and was spot on. So I Believe it definitely possible
I read the AWARE journal article. This was an article published in a peer reviewed journal, not some blog Several of those interviewed described in detail what was happening to their clinically dead bodies. This to me is irrefutable proof of life after death. The researchers took the proper precautions- those doing the interviews had no idea what happened in the resuscitation room. They asked a standard set of questions. How many "eyewitness" accounts does it take to convince you?