What is an OBE?

koala · Site Admin Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 712

Out-of-body-experiences (OBEs) are those curious, and usually brief experiences in which a person's consciousness seems to depart from his or her body, enabling observation of the world from a point of view other than that of the physical body and by means other than those of the physical senses. Thus, an out-of-the-body experience can initially be defined as 'an experience in which a person seems to perceive the world from a location outside his physical body' [Bla82]. In some cases experients claim that they 'saw' and 'heard' things (objects which were really there, events and conversations which really took place) which could not have seen or heard from the actual positions of their bodies.

OBEs are surprisingly common; different surveys have yielded somewhat different results, but some estimates indicate that somewhere between one person in ten and one person in twenty is likely to have had such an experience at least once. Furthermore it seems that OBEs can occur to anyone in almost any circumstances. Researchers have approached the question of the timing of OBEs by asking people who claim to have had OBEs to describe when they happened. In one of these, over 85 percent of those surveyed said they had had OBEs while they were resting, sleeping or dreaming [Bla84]. Other surveys also show that the majority of OBEs occur when people are in bed, ill, or resting, with a smaller percentage coming while the person is drugged or medicated [Gre68a, Poy75]. But they can occur during almost any kind of activity. Green cites a couple of cases in which motor-cyclists, riding at speed, suddenly found themselves floating above their machines looking down on their own bodies still driving along. Accidents did not ensue. Pilots of high-flying airplanes (perhaps affected by absence of vibration, and uniformity of sensory stimulation) have similarly found themselves apparently outside their aircraft struggling to get in. One might well struggle frantically under such circumstances.

More curious still are reciprocal cases of OBE and apparition: the OBE subject, aware that he is operating in some kind of duplicate body, travels to a distant location where he sees a person and is aware of being seen by that person; this person confirms that he saw an apparition of the OBEer at the time that the OBEer claimed to be in his presence. Thus the two experiences corroborate each other.

Not all OBEs occur spontaneously. Using various techniques, some people have apparently cultivated the faculty of inducing them more or less as desired, and a number have written detailed accounts of their experiences. These accounts do not always in all respects square with accounts given by persons who have undergone spontaneous OBEs. For instance the great majority of those who experience OBEs voluntarily state that they find themselves still embodied, but in a body whose shape, external characteristics, and spatial location are easily altered at will, and an appreciable number refer to an elastic 'silver cord' joining their new body to their old one. A much smaller percentage of those who undergo spontaneous OBEs mention being embodied, and some specifically state that they found themselves disembodied. The 'silver cord' is quite rarely mentioned. It is hard to avoid suspecting that many features of self- induced OBEs are determined by the subject's reading and his antecedent expectations.

Common aspects of the experience include being in an 'out-of-body' body much like the physical one, feeling a sense of energy, feeling vibrations, and hearing strange loud noises [GT84]. Sometimes a sensation of bodily paralysis precedes the OBE [Sal82, Irw88, MC29, Fox62]. OBEs, especially spontaneous ones, are often very vivid, and resemble everyday waking experiences rather than dreams, and they may make a considerable impression on those who undergo them. Such persons may find it hard to believe that they did not in fact leave their bodies, and they may draw the conclusion that we possess a separable soul, perhaps linked to a second body, which will survive in a state of full consciousness, perhaps even of enhanced consciousness, after death. Death would be, as it were, an OBE in which one did not succeed in getting back into one's body.

Such conclusions present themselves even more forcefully to the minds of those who have undergone a 'near-death experience' (NDE). It is not uncommon for persons who have been to the brink of death and returned -- following, say, a heart stoppage or serious injuries from an accident -- to report an experience (commonly of a great vividness and impressiveness) as of leaving their bodies, and traveling (often in a duplicate body) to the border of a new and wonderful realm. Reports suggest that the conscious self's awareness outside the body is not only unimpaired but enhanced: events which occurred during the period of unconsciousness are described in accurate detail and confirmed by those present. The subject sometimes 'hears' the doctor pronouncing him dead when he feels intensely alive and free from physical pain, and finds himself returning unwillingly to the constrictions of the physical body. If OBEs show the capacity of the conscious self to have experiences and perceptions outside the physical body, near-death experiences seem to suggest that this capacity still obtains when the physical body is totally unconscious.

The idea that we all have a double seems to spring naturally out of that of the OBE. If you seem to be leaving your physical body and observing things from outside it then it seems natural to assume that, at least temporarily, you had a double. It also seems obvious that this double could see, hear, think and move. This interpretation is not necessarily valid. As Palmer has so carefully pointed out [Pal78a] the experience of being out of the body is not equivalent to the fact of being out.

According to the English psychologist Susan Blackmore the definition of the OBE as an experience may not be a perfect definition but one of its major advantages is that it does not imply any particular interpretation of the OBE. The consequences of this definition are important. First, since the OBE is an experience, then if someone says he has had an OBE we have to believe him. Conceivably in the future we might find ways of measuring, or establishing external criteria for, the OBE, but at the moment we can only take a person's word for it.

golam · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 34

That would be soooo strange.

mrx3010 · Joined: 18 Nov 2006 Posts: 579

My first research into the "paranormal" came from an OBE that I had. I later learned to induce the experience almost every night at times. In the begining I experimented with sensory deprivation using light and sound to induce a calm state after which I would slip into a vivid darkness. In this darkness I would begin to open my eyes and see the world in a new light. Although it was nightime and the room was dark everythign was lit by a pale white glow. Sometimes I would float up or roll out, othertimes I would fall through the bed and through the floor. It was amazing, going through walls flying into the sky at amazing speeds.

One time I landed in the back seat of a car and sit there and listened to the entire conversation of two women who had no idea there was a phantom in their back-seat. After several months of research using these methods something happened though. One night as I lay in bed asleep a harsh buzzing sensation began the buzzing in my head and turned into a violent vibration which felt as though it would shake me apart. I separated as I had many times prior and stood in my room, however unlike times before I was not alone. These were SOBEs Spontaneous Out OF Boby Experiences and up until then I had read nothing of them.

I began to sense a strange presence there I could not see them but I felt them. Later I would continue my research further, after learning about the Gov't "Stargate Program" (the real one) In which participants were taught to remotely view and area. I decided it was so similar and I had to try the techniques. I did and as I did so I stood face to face with something. Long story short, I was warned not to meddle in these affairs and that in essence I was not ready for that step. After this every time I tried to have an OBE I could not usually "get out" and if I did I could go no further than the room I was in.

Im not clear on exactly what these beings are, but I can tell you that they are not to happy with inexperienced children playing games in there domain.

A true story-take it for what it's worth or don't.

flossy · Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:21 pm Post subject:

me and my sister used to share a room when we lived at home, and one night my sis woke up and she swears she saw me standing up on my pillow, she asked me what i was doing, then she glanced down at my feet and she saw me flat out fast asleep, she said it spooked the hell out of her, i cant remember a thing though, strange or what?

mrx3010 · Joined: 18 Nov 2006 Posts: 579

Not scary at all, most of the population have had OBEs or SOBEs. However facinating as I have never heard of a report of someone seeing the double of another person. Could be perhaps you and your sibbling were on the same sort of psychic wavelength. Are you twins by any chance? Or have you had any other psychic experiences with each other?

flossy · Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 9:59 pm Post subject:

it was for her, she is 2 year younger than me, nothing else has happened since then

Angelwings · Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Posts: 120

robbey · Joined: 11 Apr 2008 Posts: 4

asowm dude Shocked

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????/

mrx3010 · Joined: 18 Nov 2006 Posts: 579

"have you ever thought what was happening to you was actually spirit !! maybe there way of letting you know "your not ready" like you say,or maybe preventing you from potential danger."

I don't believe these are "spirits" at all, in fact I consider them extra-dimensional entities and I agree I and "we" are not ready for that level just yet.

Aiden · Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Posts: 244

It believe it's something which males experience...but not females? Shocked

I don't leave my body, but my body leaves me!!!! Shocked

moblock · Joined: 30 Dec 2014 Posts: 3 Location: london

Flossy, your sisters experience would have spooked me now and I'm an adult, great example though!