The following OBE seems to suggest that OBEs are, to some degree, interpreted by the right hemisphere of the brain, but we have the power to control our brain during the experience:
04/13/85 Sat - OBE #112
I went to bed at 2:00 A M. and was awakened by the telephone at 8:00 A.M. When I went back to bed, I decided to try to have an OBE. I practiced until I felt tired, then I rolled over and decided to try going to sleep with OBE on my mind. I fell asleep. I woke up a few times, rolled over, and went to sleep thinking about OBE again.
Then at about 10:50 A.M. I became conscious, but I felt strange, and I thought I might be out of my body. I became fully conscious and decided I was out of my body.
I lifted myself slowly into the air about two feet with my mind. I didn't notice anything in my bedroom because my eyesight was strange, but when I was about three feet away from my body, I noticed an object. The object was off in the distance and hanging in midair.
I didn't recognize the object right away, but it was shaped almost like a human head: it was white, and it had dark prongs on top, as though the head were wearing a crown. I thought, “I can go anywhere I want now…but if I don't find out what that object is, it will bother me the rest of my life.” I stopped my forward motion and floated weightlessly in the air. I turned toward the white object and looked at it. It appeared filmy and transparent.
At first I thought it was a materialized head with a crown, all made of ectoplasm, similar to the objects and faces seen in “spirit photography.” I focused on it more and started to notice certain details: the “chin” area was square. I became very determined to solve the mystery of what it was, regardless of whether or not it was dangerous. I mentally pulled myself toward the object and tried to focus on it more.
I figured I was seeing it with my emotions, as if I were using the right side of my brain. So I tried to engage my intellect, or the left side of my brain [by solving mathematical problems in my mind]. As I did this, the object became clear—it was my nearest aloe vera plant, sticking out of its white pot. As it came into focus, the rest of the room also came into focus, and I could see everything in my bedroom clearly.
I decided to get up and walk out of my bedroom. I started to upright myself and headed toward the door. Then my consciousness became dim, and I was pulled into my body and came to.
The aloe plant, sitting in its white vase, was an everyday object in my bedroom. In waking life, I could have recognized it in an instant. However, at the beginning of the OBE, I could tell its size, shape, and color, and yet was unable to “recognize” it or see its texture. It seemed almost two-dimensional and without depth. I should also mention that there were two other aloe plants, in dark brown vases, sitting next to the plant in the white vase. The three plants were sitting in a row on top of my dresser. Until my vision became clear, I only saw the one plant, and it looked as if it was hanging in midair.
When I tried to purposely engage the left side of my brain by solving mathematical problems, the other objects in the room came into focus, and I recognized the plant for what it was.
At face value, it seems that out-of-body experiences are profoundly affected by our use of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Our OBEs may be valuable on a soul or spirit level, but if our physical brain is unable to interpret the experiences in its own terms, we might not return to our bodies with much of value. And we might not be able to describe the experiences to others. This right brain/left brain idea is very intriguing, and I feel it needs more investigation. This may lead us to discover why our brains are divided into parts.
EXERCISE 19
workout and visualized books
Here is an exercise to help you focus your consciousness. I have noticed that my mind is less “muddy” after I have been exercising for about a half hour to an hour. Try exercising vigorously for about an hour in the middle of the day, and then make your OBE attempt.
There is a fine line between too much exercise and not enough. Too much exercise will make you too tired, and you'll drop off to sleep. Too little exercise, and you are likely to be too focused inside your body. Try different combinations to find out what works best for your metabolism.
Lie down after your workout, and visualize a book in front of you. Mentally open the book and try to visualize words on the pages. You can imagine the book any way you want with pictures and writing in various colors. Strive to make the printing look clear in your mind's eye so you can read the pages. Of course, the visualized book has nothing to do with OBEs; this exercise is merely to help you learn to focus your mind down to a single thread.
After holding this visualization for a while, you may be suddenly “zapped” into a state of intense awareness. Then the vibrations may sweep over you, separating you from your body.
CHAPTER 20
the fantasy trap
In my attempts to explore the out-of-body state, I've discovered a psychological “trap” that can stop or delay an OBE. I call it the “fantasy trap,” and it's caused by daydreaming in the OBE state. I can explain it best by giving an example from my journals.
11/29/81 Sun - OBE #58
…My consciousness was starting to get dim, so I wrestled with it for awhile and took hold of a clean, clear consciousness. I thought to myself how strange it was that my projection was lasting so long.
I wanted to get away so strongly that I started to use my mind to pretend to go to places. In essence, I started to fantasize. It was very much like the normal dream state.
In the first fantasy I walked out into the living room. JP, CA, Mom, and Dad were there, talking. I walked out and sat down. I said something like, “You can see me!”, then they said, “Of course we can see you.” Then I thought, “This can't be right; I'm projecting.”
Just then I came out of it and came to realize I had been fantasizing. I was still stuck to my body in the same position.
I tried again to use my mind to get away and slipped into another fantasy. In this fantasy I walked up to my bedroom door, opened it and went through. I walked to the nearest window and tried to walk through it. But it seemed very solid. So I very quickly went to the back door, ignoring everything else. I opened the door and walked outside. I went to the nearest clearing and jumped up into the air in a Superman pose. Then I fell flat on my face! It seemed so very physical that I began to doubt I was projecting. I thought, “Well, now I've made a complete fool of myself. I must be physical.” I started walking toward the house again but I never got there. It was then I came to realize that I had been fantasizing again.
I was dumbfounded by my own wishful-thinking fantasy. Then I was fully conscious and compared the fantasies to my awakened state. I thought, “Well, that use of my mind will only lead me to self-deception. I should stick to getting away using my astral body.” So I tried to pry my astral body free, and managed to get unstuck for a while. I crawled over to my bedroom window and tried to press through it. I couldn't press through it; it seemed solid. Just then I blacked out and woke up in my physical body. I looked at the time and it was 10:20 A.M. My experience must have lasted fifteen or twenty minutes.
The fantasy trap can be quite persistent and annoying, as you can see from the following example.
04/16/83 Sat - OBE #93
…I quickly discovered that I was now stuck to the physical body, and I struggled to get free of it. I struggled for what seemed to be ten or fifteen minutes, using only my mind to try to free myself. After that I started thinking of other things and, because I was very tired, I eventually lapsed into a daydream, which led me into a state of hypnogogic imagery again. I was now semiconscious. At some level of consciousness, I was still aware of my OBE condition. It was only a minute or two before I “caught myself' and re-established full consciousness.
Once again I tried to unstick myself from the body. I tried several things. I tried to pull myself up to the ceiling and send my consciousness to the ceiling by imagining the point of view of looking down at my body. I got a
brief “clairvoyant” image of my body down on the bed, but I didn't actually travel up there. I pondered the image for a while; my body looked rather beat. I wanted to float up and get a real look at it from my actual astral body's point of view. I tried for a while longer to get free, but once again I lapsed into semiconsciousness. After a long time of dream-like short scenes, I finally snapped out of it again, and I was still out of my body but stuck to it.
I thought, “I'm really out of my body!” Then I said, “Wow! I'm really projecting. I'm even speaking aloud while out of my body!” Then the humor of what I had just said and the fact that I was talking to myself caught up with me and I chuckled aloud. I laughed a while longer, then set out to free myself again. This time I was sitting up, but was still stuck to the body by my lower half. I tried desperately to float myself up to the ceiling, but couldn't. Again, I started thinking hard about how to get free, but fell into semiconsciousness again. After several short scenes, I caught myself yet again.
I was still out of my body, and this time when I awoke out of it, I spent a few minutes “comparing” the two states of mind, the semiconscious (fantasy) state…and the pure waking, out-of-body state where I had full awareness of everything. I thought about the differences for awhile, and I finally resolved not to fall prey again to that delusive state of semiconscious OBE-mind. But after a few minutes, I fell back into it anyway.
I awoke again, still out of my body, and was surprised the experience was lasting so long; it seemed like at least an hour since the initial jump out of my body. I also noted how easy it was for me to fall into that semiconscious state, although I had made a firm resolution not to. So I perked up my consciousness, as I normally do to keep myself from sleeping (e.g., while driving). “What should I do now?” I thought (and I thought about it for several minutes) and finally fell prey to semiconsciousness yet again! This time I did not catch myself, but instead allowed my subconscious to take complete control.
I entered the physical body while still semiconscious and started to dream. I woke up in my physical body when the telephone rang, startling me considerably.
I took great notice of another phenomenon when I was first out of my body#x2014;my heartbeat. Throughout the experience of leaving the body, I paid special attention to my physical heartbeat. Just before I left the body, my heartbeat had slowed down considerably. It remained very slow until the vibrations hit me. With the coming of the vibrations and the “trauma” of leaving the body, my heartbeat sped up to a very rapid pace. It was as if I had just received a terrible fright and my heart was beating wildly from a “fight or flight” response. Once I was out of my body, I listened very carefully for my heartbeat. Although it had slowed down again, it was still much faster than my normal waking heart rate. After that, I didn't notice my heart rate; I was totally oblivious of my body.
Most of the OBE books say that you can travel in the blink of an eye, just by thinking about the person or place you want to visit. Therefore, I would think about a place I wanted to visit, and I would visualize that place and imagine I was there.
I learned this form of idle imagination can easily turn into an unproductive OBE-daydream. Instead of being transported, the visualization takes on a life of its own, and my consciousness slips into a dream-fantasy state. The fantasy is entirely subjective, as far as I can tell, and can be as wild as any ordinary dream. But once the fantasy is over and my consciousness returns to normal, I know I've been dreaming.
When I return to full consciousness, I may still be out of my body. Waking up out of body (and comparing the former dream to the now-OBE state) convinces me that the OBE was real (objective) and that the fantasy was not real (subjective).
If you fall prey to the fantasy trap, there are certain clues that you are no longer in the proper state: fantasy objects (such as doors and windows) might seem solid, fantasy people might see you, and your fantasy body might not be able to fly.
If you wake up in the body from a dream fantasy, you might be left with a sense of “Was that just a dream?” I usually say something like, “this is real!” during OBEs so that I'll have a conscious point of reference. Of course, I only say that after I examine my state of consciousness and detect that I am fully aware during the experience. That way, I leave no doubts that I was conscious at the time, and not involved in a dream fantasy.
EXERCISE 20
breathing
Many people claim that a key factor in inducing out-of-body experiences is breathing properly. Famous OBE researcher Robert Crookall devoted a book to the subject, called Psychic Breathing.
Breathing exercises have many benefits. Deep breathing will help you to relax your body for the OBE. Breathing exercises, if done correctly, can bring you energy that may prolong the experience. Also, it can improve your ability to focus. I recommend doing breathing exercises before you try to induce an OBE, and not during the induction.
Here are some pointers for your breathing exercises. Babies breathe naturally because they haven't learned our bad habits. If you've ever watched a baby breathe, you may notice its belly rises and falls, but its chest doesn't. Babies breathe using their abdomens, not by forcing their lungs to rise and fall. Try to do the same: breathe from your abdomen, not from your lungs.
Du ring your breathing exercise, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. As you inhale, visualize that your lungs are being filled with white light. As you exhale, visualize that all your fears, worries, problems, and health problems are flowing out of your body.
Some people believe that visualizing a flow of energy can activate your chakras (energy centers), which can help you achieve OBEs. In some forms of Taoist meditation, people are taught to visualize a stream of energy flowing in a circle that starts near the navel, travels down to the groin, up the spine, over the head, down the chest and back to the navel. Kundalini yoga teaches a similar thing, but the energy doesn't flow in a circle, it flows out through the top of the head. I don't recommend the latter method because some Taoists claim that it's dangerous to push the energy out your head.
When you try to induce an OBE, just relax and let your breathing become normal again. Don't try to breathe differently in any way. It may be helpful, however, to quietly listen to the sound of your own breath.
During the OBE, it may suddenly seem as if you have stopped breathing. If this happens, don't be alarmed. Your body is still breathing, but you have lost awareness of the body.
CHAPTER 21
people and animals
People often ask me, do you ever meet anyone while you're out of your body? Yes, I have, but not often. In perhaps ten percent of my OBEs, I have had interaction with other people. There are two categories of people you are likely to meet during an OBE: physical and nonphysical. A physical person is inside his or her physical body during your OBE. A nonphysical person can be someone who is also having an OBE, or a person who is without a physical body—”dead.”
When you meet someone on the astral plane, it's easy to tell if they are physical or nonphysical. The physical people usually seem preoccupied with trivialities. If you meet up with a physical person, he or she will usually be busily preoccupied with reading, doing dishes, or another physical activity. They don't seem to notice you. You can speak with them, but usually they won't look at you while they speak, although sometimes it may seem as if they look at you. Physical people are always affected by gravity. Also, physical people usually have irregular or discolored auras.
On the other hand, nonphysical people are not preoccupied. They usually notice you, and look at you when they are talking. They often wear out-of-place clothes. And they can be found perched in midair or just about anywhere. Quite often in my experience, I've been able to hear or “feel” the presence of discarnates, but haven't been able to see them. Also, their auras are mostly clear, regularly shaped, and evenly colored.
There may also be cases where nonphysical people don't seem to notice you. A good example of this is OBE #116, mentioned in
chapter 16, where I saw a group of people in my room, dressed in 1950s-style clothes. In these cases, I'm not sure if I am seeing spirits from a different “wavelength” or some sort of psychic after-image.
Physical People
In Robert Monroe's first book, he believed that when we are speaking to a physical person, we are talking with their subconscious minds. He described elaborate conversations with people while he was out of his body, but when he tried to verify the experience, nobody remembered the conversations. His theory seems to fit perfectly with my experiences. Talking to a physical person is strained, as if they are too preoccupied to talk with you. Or perhaps their conscious minds feel uneasy about having their subconscious talking with a “spirit.” It seems as though physical people are so focused on their daily lives that they feel uncomfortable turning any portion of their consciousness away from that focus. For example, during OBE #21 mentioned in chapter 18, when I tried to rouse my mom from sleep, she just seemed to ignore me. Here are a few more examples from my journals.
05/02/81 Sat - OBE #39
…I walked through the living room of JP's apartment and entered JP and CA's bedroom. Both JP and CA were in bed. CA was laying down with her eyes closed. JP was sitting up in bed with some reading material. I jumped up and down and waved my hands to try to get JP's attention. He looked up at me. Then he nudged CA and she stirred. He pointed at me and said, “Look. I think there's something there.” She looked, but didn't say anything. I didn't want them to be afraid of me, so I said, “It's me, Bob. I'm projecting.” JP then said, “It's probably Bob projecting,” as though he didn't hear me. He went back to reading. I said, “How can I be sure I'm going to remember this? What if I forget? I've got to remember.” JP said, “Don't worry, we'll remember for you.” I said, “How can I be sure you will remember?” He said, “We're awake. We should remember.” I said, “Okay, but I may still forget.” He said, “Don't worry about it; you'll remember.”
Out-of-Body Experiences Page 14