In its simplest terms an Out of Body Experience – OBE – is when one experiences their consciousness at a location outside their physical body. Some researchers are quick to point out that the experience of being out of your body is different from the facts involving it. For those who have experienced an OBE believe that there is something to it and their spirit does leave their body. To add some substance to OBE claims, scientists could set up serious experiments to see what is behind the matter at hand.
Throughout history OBE’s have been reported in all cultures, religions, belief systems and social classes. In Second Corinthians 12:2 Paul wrote of a possible OBE. He wrote of a man who 14 years previous was caught up to the third heaven but wasn’t sure whether the man was in his body or out of it.
There are different phenomena concerning human consciousness and its ability to transcend the physical body. Some claim that Astral Projection is an OBE experience where ones consciousness is located in the astral plane rather than in the physical world. The Near Death Experience includes other occurrences that doesn’t happen in an average OBE such as a life review. Strictly speaking NDEs happen only when the physical body is near death. A lucid dream is when a person is completely conscious and realizes they are in a dream. Remote viewing is when ones consciousness remains inside their body but can “view” events at another location. How far away they can “view” remains to be seen as far as I’m concerned. Bi-location is when one can be located physically in two places at the same time with both bodies able to be seen, touched and both voices can be heard.
I have two experiences of lucid dreams while meditating and one regarding an OBE. One lucid dream had me swimming under water with brightly coloured fish. Eventually I surfaced and approached a fair sized house. During the second lucid dream, I was at the edge of an overgrown field just under some trees. I was watching men and women, wearing Amish style clothing, approaching their meeting house. I was a youngster when I had my OBE experience. I was at a furniture store with my parents. I sat in a recliner, my parents and salesman to my right. Next thing I know I standing across the aisle, watching myself in the recliner with a smile on my face. My parents and salesman were to my left. I wasn’t aware of leaving or re-entering my body.
Another story had one fellow who got up in the middle of the night to get himself a glass of water. His hand went through the door handle when he tried to turn it. When he looked back at his bed he saw his body still there, sleeping peacefully.
It seems that the vast majority of OBEs are a positive and uplifting one for those encountering them. There have been occasions where a person goes through a negative one which may be influenced by their belief system. This may be where a person needs to control their fear and believe in their power. A person can end the OBE and return to their body or surround themselves with a white light of protection while involved with an OBE. A person can call for helpers, such as Guardians Angels, to protect them.
This is a field where it is hard to take a persons word for it until one experiences it for themselves.
Ron Murdock
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