It must be a strange thing to consider looking at the world from outside of your own body. We have all heard some stories that are terrifying of people undergoing surgery and feeling everything or watching everything happen from the outside. People share near-death experiences of watching everything happen as if in a movie. Or the strange sensation of being in your dream but watching yourself carry out actions and movements that are removed from your consciousness. This is known as an out-of-body experience (OOBE)
One can experience an OOBE in multiple ways, but a near-death experience or hallucinogens are not the sought-after ways. Instead, one can experience a safe and purposeful projection of one’s inner self into a higher spiritual state by using meditation techniques to achieve an astral projection.
Achieving an out-of-body experience is difficult to explain and can only be explained by someone who has actually experienced the separation from their physical body. While you may not be experiencing one presently, let us delve into the processes and inner workings of an out-of-body experience.
What is an Out of Body Experience?
An OOBE is a dissociative experience whereby your spirit being, or consciousness, leaves your physical body and no longer experiences the world through its physical being, and through the five senses of the body. There is a temporary separation that occurs between the body and the spirit.
Experiencing an OOBE is most likely to be a spontaneous occurrence. It has been experienced during near-death experiences, by utilizing certain substances, before or during sleep, and through electric brain stimulation.
While these methods are not ideal and may be harmful, there are ways to experience an OOBE that isn’t because of a negative stimulus, but rather as a way of achieving a higher spiritual state.
The Difference Between an Astral Projection and an Out-of-Body Experience
Through our dreams, we may experience an OOBE. While dreams may take on many forms, lucid dreams are a way that may increase your chances of experiencing an OOBE. A lucid dream is when you are aware that you are dreaming, and you can somewhat control your dreams and all the variables and subconscious elements that are at play in your mind.
Unlike lucid dreaming, or even experiencing sleep paralysis, an astral projection is done with a spiritual intention. It, too, is not spontaneous, but rather is extremely controlled. During an astral projection, your soul or spirit leaves your body and explores the astral plane. Many people describe this feeling as traveling.
Unlike an OOBE whereby one may need to use harmful means or experience a near-death experience to achieve, astral projections are achieved through intense meditation.
To have an astral-like OOBE, one needs to be able to clear their mind entirely and envision the plane they would like to explore. More often than not, people are most likely to envision and visit a place with which they are familiar.
Meditation helps clear the mind and through clarity and a calming state, one may achieve astral projections a lot easier.
What Does an Out-of-Body Experience Feel Like?
An OOBE may be something fleeting as it is believed to not last very long and to happen very rarely. Many people may only ever experience an OOBE once, if at all, in their lifetime.
Those who have experienced an OOBE have described it as a feeling of floating, and the strange sensation of viewing oneself from the outside. This is a strange perception when one considers that we never actually see ourselves, but only reflections and images of ourselves.
It has also been described as a feeling of profound awakening and realization, as well as seeing one’s surroundings from a unique perspective, such as from an ariel point of view.
Out of Body Experiences in Psychology and Medicine
OOBE is a concept that is difficult to explain from a medical perspective. Because of this misalignment between medicine, science, and the OOBE, many people immediately mark it up to being a spiritual occurrence.
While brain imaging may even notice changes in the brain during an OOBE, it is unknown where the line can be drawn between spiritual and medical. It has commonly been seen, however, that patients in hospitals experiencing cardiac arrest and resuscitation, experienced some sort of dissociative awareness of what was occurring.
Stress or trauma, even the extreme stress associated with childbirth may lead to an OOBE. This may be why most women don’t remember the pain of childbirth.
People who experienced trauma may also find themselves experiencing sleep paralysis which often leads to hallucinations and may resemble the feeling of an out-of-body-like experience.
Conclusion
While experiencing an OOBE may be unsettling at first because you are unable to control yourself and your surroundings, many may find themselves on the pursuit of something resembling an OOBE. Whether it is to gain a new perspective on your life or on the world, whether it is to experience a profound change in your world views, or whether it is the urge to feel something more than what you have been constrained to in your own physical being, perhaps an astral projection is just the guided and spiritual OOBE you need.
