Out-of-Body Experiences

by Robert Peterson

  03/19/81 Thu

  …I was eating supper with my Dad and I wanted a napkin. I decided to do a psychic experiment. I tried to put the word “napkin” into my Dad's mind. A little while later, he reached up and grabbed a napkin for me. That's not too strange. But then he asked, “Were you just thinking ‘napkin'?” Then I told him about my experiment.

  10/21/85 Mon

  …PF is a local computer dealer. During the previous week, he had ordered some computers from our company. He never went through with his order, and all of us wanted DB to call PF and ask him about his order. DB didn't want to call PF back. At a particular time in the day, I said to everyone, “Since DB doesn't want to call PF, we'll have to get PF to call us!” JS asked, “How are we going to do that?” I replied, “Well, we'll think about him really hard, and then he'll pick up on it and call us.” Amused, JS said, “Okay.” A few minutes later, PF called, after about a week of not hearing from him. JS said, “It worked!”

  Clairvoyance

  Clairvoyance is the power to perceive something out of the range of our senses. For instance, it was common for me to “know” what song was playing on the radio before I turned it on, or to “hear” the next song to be played, before the current song was over. It was common for me to brush these experiences off as “coincidence” to a certain point, but when these coincidences started stacking up, I started writing them down in my journals. I couldn't ignore them any longer.

  This ability was very helpful. Often I knew when the telephone would ring. Sometimes I would also know who was calling, which helped me avoid people I didn't want to talk to. In playing cards, I would “know” which card was best for me to play, without knowing or needing to know what the other players had. Sometimes I had fun with this ability. Here is an example:

  05/31/84 Thu

  …I was talking with my friend and fellow programmer, WB, about names. He said, “I bet you could never guess my middle name—it's so strange.” I calmly said, “Otto,” and he said “Wow! How did you know? I never told that to anyone, and it isn't on my job application or W-4 forms either!” Then he said, “But I got another middle name, but you'd never guess this other one in a million years.” I calmly said, “Gerhard?” to which he replied, “How did you know that? That's not a common name!” I just said, “Just a guess,” to which he replied, “I don't believe it!”

  Visions

  Although visions are similar to clairvoyance, I list them separately because there is a difference. With clairvoyance, I just seemed to “know” things out of the reach of my senses, but with visions, I saw clear-as-day pictures in front of me. 1 had to draw my own conclusions from those visions. Here's an example:

  05/06/80 Tue

  A couple of weeks ago, I was going to sleep one night and…suddenly I saw a vision. In the vision I saw a very clear picture of my Aunt K. lying down with her eyes closed. I knew she wasn't dead, but asleep or passed out in the vision. When it was over, I got out of bed and walked to the living room where my mom was reading. I asked her, “How is Aunt K?” She said, “Why?” I told her of my vision, and she said that she hadn't talked to Aunt K. for a long time.

  Last Friday I heard the story. Aunt K. fell out of bed one night. When she fell, she hit her head, and for a while she was blinded. Now she is out of the hospital after several days and is recovering her sight.

  As close as I can tell, the vision took place on or near the day of her accident.

  Psychic Dreams

  I discovered that dreams can be a source of psychic information. On 08/02/81, I had a dream that started normally: I was at the university bookstore. Then the dream took on a strange quality, and I was paged to come to the information desk. At the information desk, a lady handed me a telephone. A woman's voice told me I should come home because there had been a death in my family. I asked the woman who had died, but she said she couldn't tell me; all she could tell me was the person's social security number over the phone. When she told me the Social Security number, I “knew” it was my father who had “died” in my dream. I was shocked and sad, so I consciously decided to end the dream (which led me to an OBE). My father was in perfect health, but not for long. This was the first “warning” I was given about my father's death.

  Precognition

  Precognition could also be classified as clairvoyance, but instead of the ability to “know” the present, this is the ability to “know” the future. On November 2, 1981, I had a certain “feeling” or “knowing” that my father was soon to die. I wrote it down, but I didn't tell anyone my feeling. My father was still in good health. Soon after that, my dad became ill and died on January 13, 1982. A better example of precognition is the following:

  11/26/80 Wed

  I took a 94B bus home from work today. On the bus ride to downtown Minneapolis, I thought about many things, but the main thought that kept nagging me the whole way home was: “I'd better relax more, in case we get in an accident.” I would feel the need for relaxation, then I would realize I was tense, then I would relax again. When I'd tense up again, I'd tell myself to relax again, and so on. The thoughts kept nagging me until I decided to pursue them. I thought about the prospect of my bus being in an accident. I kept reassuring myself, “No way could it happen.” But the thought nagged. I looked around me to see how cushioned I'd be if I were to get in an accident. I was sitting sideways, next to another man who would cushion me in an accident. I looked to see how everyone else was cushioned. There was only one person better cushioned than I. I thought about having an accident for about five to ten minutes. Then I relaxed a final time, and I stayed relaxed for the rest of the bus ride. Sure enough, my bus then hit a van from behind.

  Déjà Vu

  Déjà Vu is similar to precognition; you have a certain sense of knowing what the future will be, but there is also an overwhelming sense of having done it all before. It is as if the whole scene was rehearsed countless times in the past. It is typical to ask yourself, “Haven't I done this before?” These experiences tie into psychic dreams. Here is an example from my journals.

  07/05/84 Thu

  I've had two déjà vu experiences recently. The first I'll mention was today. I was at work, at CC's terminal. CC was on the phone, and I knew every word she was going to say before she said it. I broke out laughing, but she didn't understand why I was laughing.

  The other experience was last Tuesday. Again I was at work talking to SB about the BASIC computer language when I remembered I had done this once before in a dream, and I knew everything SB was going to say. In the dream, my boss DJ walked in and saw me talking with SB about BASIC. I was embarrassed because I don't normally use BASIC in my work. I thought, “Oh, no! DJ will be coming in here any instant, and I'll have to explain myself. I've got to get out of here fast!” So I tried to excuse myself and leave. But when I tried to leave, SB asked me some question, which delayed me further. I answered and tried to leave again. He stopped me again saying, “Hang on, let me show you something.” I tried to escape a third time and fourth time, but each time SB came up with a reason to keep me there. Then DJ came in the room and said the same thing he said in my dream. I was indeed embarrassed, and I had to explain my interest in BASIC and how it pertains to my current work.

  The example mentioned above lasted a long time—about twenty minutes. Both experiences were “remembered” from a dream. At times I would dream the future quite often, and the dreams would give me a déjà vu experience later. My personal belief is that we use our dreams sometimes to plan the future. The dreams were the plans, and the plans were carried out perfectly. In these cases, my efforts to change the planned events were continually thwarted.

  Apparitions

  The main problem I had with most of my psychic experiences is that they were not very concrete. Often they were just “feelings” I had about situations, or “stray” thoughts in my mind. I had a hard time believing in these phenomena. I found out there were other, more concrete types of psychic phenomena, such a
s apparitions. An apparition is the physical appearance of a nonphysical entity or object. The following is an example.

  08/19/83 Fri

  Wednesday I had read an article in The Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology on the subject of mediumship. The article talked about physical manifestations of all sorts, and I was interested in it. I wished right then that some spirits would do a physical manifestation, to prove their existence to me.

  Later that night I woke up startled, with a sense of danger. I opened my eyes, and much to my shock, I saw a hand materialized in midair near my head, and the hand held something. I was so shocked and frightened that I jumped and shook the bed violently. Whatever was in the hand went flying, and the hand withdrew from me and went up and disintegrated. I fainted and my consciousness gradually fell into nothingness, although there was a slight delay.

  Psychokinesis (PK) or Telekinesis (TK)

  Psychokinesis is the physical movement or alteration of an object by psychic means. One day I had just left my place of work at about 8:00 P.M. I was very excited about many things. The book I was reading was exciting, I recently had had an exciting OBE, and other exciting things were happening. For some reason, as I waited to catch my bus, I felt very psychically strong. I felt as if I could do anything. I'm never idle with such feelings; I had to find some way to test out this feeling of power. I looked around for nearby objects. “If I really have this power,” I reasoned to myself, “I can probably walk over to any parking meter and open it up with my mind.” I walked over to a random parking meter, slipped my hands gently around it, and it opened effortlessly! Shiny coins spilled all over the ground. For a second or two I stood there in shock. What if someone saw me? What should I do? I am a very honest person. I tried to close the meter, but spilled coins were preventing the door from closing. I quickly cleared it out, closed the door, and started frantically plugging coins into the meter. Occasional drivers must have thought I was crazy, plugging handfuls of coins into a parking meter, long after parking hours—especially since there wasn't a car in that spot! I picked up all the coins from the ground and plugged them one by one into the meter. My heart was still pounding as I got on the bus, and a long time after that.

  Here is another example from my journal:

  09/24/84 Mon

  Weird things are starting to happen again. After work I wanted to do some drawing, but I haven't seen my drawing pencil since our trip. I tried unsuccessfully to find the pencil many times since. The last time I looked was Saturday when I searched the house and JP's apartment.

  Today I searched again for it, but without success and while I was searching, my inner voice said, “try using your psi to find it.” I didn't find it, so JP and I decided to go shopping for one. Before we left, I sat in the middle of his living room next to the biggest chair, waiting for him to get ready.

  We went shopping, but I didn't buy a new pencil since JP offered to lend me one. When we got home, I went up to JP's apartment. While he got on the phone, I wandered into the middle of his living room. There, in the middle of JP's biggest chair was my drawing pencil! I asked JP about it, but he said it was impossible because he had been sitting on that chair just before we left! Therefore, before we left the pencil had not been on the chair, or in fact, anywhere to be found. But when we returned, the pencil was lying on the chair. There is absolutely no possible explanation of how that pencil appeared there or where it came from. It had to have been teleported there because JP was never out of my sight from the time we left until the time we returned. That chair was empty when we left.

  Clairaudience

  Clairaudience is the ability to hear voices of people who are not physically present. Experience would suggest this can happen between two living persons as well as the traditional “spirit voices.” This is different from telepathy. In telepathy you “pick up” the thoughts of others. In clairaudience, you hear a voice as plain as day. When it has happened to me, it's been so loud and clear that I've looked around to see who was speaking, but no one was in sight. Here are two good examples:

  10/14/83 Fri

  One other remarkable thing happened a couple of weeks ago. I was at the university campus, walking to one of my classes, and I was thinking about an article in The Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology that said the term “inner voice” refers to clairaudience. Suddenly I spiritually heard a female voice. The voice said, “My name is Julia, and I say it's not important where the wisdom comes from, but rather, it's the wisdom itself that counts!” That was the first time I ever heard a voice that claimed to have a name! Also, that voice didn't need translation like my inner voice does. Instead, the words came through directly. Naturally, it shocked me quite a lot.

  07/05/84 Thu

  Today I was working at one of my employer's customer sites. I had arranged for SO to meet me at P Company at 6:00 P.M. At 5:40 P.M. I looked at my watch and thought, “I have plenty of time; SO won't be here for twenty minutes.” So I started entering data into their computer. At 5:45 P.M. I heard SO's voice—loud and clear—yelling something like, “Hello? Anyone there?” I couldn't believe SO would be there so early, yet I heard his voice. It sounded as if he were yelling from outside, yet I was sitting in the Parts Room in the middle of a big building. All the windows were closed and locked about a hundred feet away.

  I ran to the big doors, opened them, and ran outside, only to find SO just getting off his motorcycle, taking off his (full) helmet. I asked him if he had yelled anything and he said he hadn't; he had just now arrived. He said he tried to mentally send the message to me! I checked; there was no way he could have yelled loud enough for me to hear him in the Parts Room (especially with his motorcycle helmet on!) The alarming thing about this was the clarity of his “voice.” It sounded as plain as day. I should also mention that I had a radio playing at the time, and I “heard” his voice over the sound of the radio. It was that clear. SO remarked, “Either you're very sensitive, or I'm a very strong transmitter.”

  Other Experiences

  Some experiences just don't quite fit into any categories. Here are a few examples:

  09/27/80 Sat

  A large moth came into my bedroom. I mentally commanded it to enter my cupped hands. It immediately fluttered directly into my hands, and I cupped my hands around it. Then I promptly ushered it out of the house without harming it.

  04/17/81 Fri

  For some reason or another, I was trying to think of the German word for “tired.” I wracked my brain. I was still trying to remember it when I heard myself physically say “müde!” Then I thought, “Yeah, that's it.” Then I realized what had happened. I remembered the word only because my body had just said it. I had no intention of saying anything, nor did I remember the word until after I said it. Weird!

  Conclusions

  Of course, there are also many psychic things I haven't experienced. I've never experienced mediumship, automatic writing, or anything like that.

  When most of these experiences were happening to me, I wasn't really expecting them or even wanting them. I wanted OBEs because they were concrete and indisputable in my own mind. They couldn't be brushed off as coincidences or delusions of grandeur. They were undeniably real to me as a participant. Still, when I practiced my OBE techniques, I was exploring altered states of consciousness and meditation. And that was enough to unlock all these other “psychic” experiences, and more.

  Therefore, I warn you: if you do plan to try out-of- body experiences for yourself, be prepared for a possible barrage of other psychic experiences. On the other hand, if your aim is to develop psychic abilities, practicing OBE techniques may work well. You may get a few OBEs out of the deal too!

  The possibilities of psychic experience are as wide and varied as normal experience. But a person's psychic abilities don't make him or her more spiritual or better than anyone else. Rather than aiming to induce out-of- body experiences or psychic experiences, I would prefer that you strive for spiritual growth (whatever th
at means to you). I believe that working on your own spiritual growth will naturally make you more psychic as you progress.

  EXERC1SE 25

  developing psychic skills

  As I learned more about psychic experiences, I discovered that my psychic abilities fade in and out in cycles. At times they are strong, and at other times they seemed to fade out completely. I also learned that it's possible to increase psychic abilities. Here are some exercises that may increase your psychic abilities.

  • Practice meditation and OBEs.

  • Give yourself suggestions just before sleep and when you first wake up. For example: “I am psychic.”

  • Visualize yourself pouring love out in all directions.

  • Imagine extending your awareness until you're trying to feel the emotions of your whole neighborhood.

  • Try musical meditation and listening to hypnotic songs.

  • Give yourself reminders (“post-it” notes or whatever) with messages like, “I am psychic” or, “I can leave my body.”

  • Make pacts with your higher self. Here is an example.

  I am psychic. I know that the universe responds to my needs and desires quickly and completely. In return, I promise to cooperate with my oversoul, follow impulses, act on intuitions, share knowledge, spread love, and cooperate with my higher self.

  CHAPTER 26

  questions and answers

  Certain questions are frequently asked about the out-of-body experience. Here is how I would answer them, in no particular order:

  What do you do during an OBE?

  Mostly, I explore. I experiment. I have an insatiable curiosity, so I just go out and try things. I also love to fly.

  Can you lose your body?

  If anyone has lost his or her body, they obviously haven't lived to tell about it. But all indications are that you can't lose your body for good. I believe that your oversoul has invested a great deal of time and energy in creating and maintaining a physical body for a purpose. Your oversoul is not going to give up your body until your purpose has been fulfilled. Thousands of people have experienced OBEs and wandered thousands of miles away from their body. After a certain period, they usually just lose consciousness and find themselves back in their body again.