Simple question regarding OBE

[RealityShifter]

I respect those who believe OBE is more than just a dream, but from my experience here we are minority(25% vs 75%) and I have no idea why the rest are here at a Spiritual Forum. It seems these days skeptics are everywhere.

Originally Posted by RealityShifter

Are folks around here believe 1)OBE = Lucid dream or 2)OBE = genuine experience out of the body?

I had an OBE at four months old and it's the most vivid memory of my life. I was also awake. The interesting thing is I have no recollection of what baby me was thinking, only what awareness was witnessing from outside the body. It was also just witnessing/experiencing, having no thoughts, opinions or even emotional reactions.

It was at the family summer camp in the mountains. Baby me was being cradled and soothed in mom's arms because it was crying up a storm. She was sitting at the kitchen table with dad sitting on the other side. It was midnight and the radio was playing its going off the air melody. The only thing I know about baby me was that song irritated the heck out of it. I was over and behind mom's right shoulder, soaking in the entire room.

The first time I told this story to anyone was to mom when I was in my early twenties. She was stunned, saying I couldn't possible remember that because I was just four months old, but I described the scene in detail, even humming the cheesy going off the air song and mentioning dad was chucking. It's still fresh in my mind like it was yesterday.

So no, I don't think an OBE is a lucid dream. Some years back I devoted five or six months to lucid dreaming and had some success. I know what they feel like. I'm in my dream body but with waking consciousness.

Best I can tell it's a genuine experience outside the physical body, however I'm not certain what aspect of me was outside. It didn't seem to have personality, thoughts or emotions but maybe that was just because I was so young? However I did have intelligence way beyond that of an infant. I understood exactly what was going on in the room.

[RealityShifter]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

I had an OBE at four months old and it's the most vivid memory of my life. I was also awake. The interesting thing is I have no recollection of what baby me was thinking, only what awareness was witnessing from outside the body. It was also just witnessing/experiencing, having no thoughts, opinions or even emotional reactions.

It was at the family summer camp in the mountains. Baby me was being cradled and soothed in mom's arms because it was crying up a storm. She was sitting at the kitchen table with dad sitting on the other side. It was midnight and the radio was playing its going off the air melody. The only thing I know about baby me was that song irritated the heck out of it. I was over and behind mom's right shoulder, soaking in the entire room.

The first time I told this story to anyone was to mom when I was in my early twenties. She was stunned, saying I couldn't possible remember that because I was just four months old, but I described the scene in detail, even humming the cheesy going off the air song and mentioning dad was chucking. It's still fresh in my mind like it was yesterday.

So no, I don't think an OBE is a lucid dream. Some years back I devoted five or six months to lucid dreaming and had some success. I know what they feel like. I'm in my dream body but with waking consciousness.

Best I can tell it's a genuine experience outside the physical body, however I'm not certain what aspect of me was outside. It didn't seem to have personality, thoughts or emotions but maybe that was just because I was so young? However I did have intelligence way beyond that of an infant. I understood exactly what was going on in the room.

If you have been honest, then welcome to the club. That is because, you didn't carry the baggage of your yet not formed Ego.

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Best I can tell it's a genuine experience outside the physical body, however I'm not certain what aspect of me was outside. It didn't seem to have personality, thoughts or emotions but maybe that was just because I was so young? However I did have intelligence way beyond that of an infant. I understood exactly what was going on in the room.

It sounds like you were experiencing this as conscious awareness, which is not restricted by the limitations of the as yet undeveloped mental and emotional bodies of the baby.

The difficulty of human birth is that conscious awareness finds itself trying to function through a helpless body with limited ability to move or communicate. The physical, emotional and mental bodies of a baby function at a very basic level. It must be very frustrating for consciousness, which has its own intelligence and awareness - perhaps this is why babies spend so much time sleeping. It gives consciousness a break.

I sometimes think that the conscious awareness of the baby must get very frustrated with the surrounding adults. They pull silly faces and make silly sounds, treating the baby as if it were an imbecile rather than an intelligent aware human being. The joys of human birth!

Peace

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by iamram

OOBE is not lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is a real-life dream in where you know that you are in a dream. But OOBE is a real experience when your soul actually goes out of your body. It's a completely different experience where you don't have to carry the heavy body, it's lighter, lighter than the air.

If we are experiencing a subjective environment, created by ourselves, then that is a dream. Any other people we encounter are our own creation, perhaps projected expressions of different aspects of ourselves.

If we experience an objective environment which is not created by ourselves, then this is an OOBE. Any other people or entities we encounter are separate beings with their own intelligence.

We may become lucid in a dream and realise that we are dreaming. If our lucidity remains within the self-created subjective environment then our lucid dream is still a dream, although rather more exciting and fun. But becoming lucid may open a gateway from the subjective creation to an objective reality. Then the lucid dream becomes an OOBE.

Just one perspective.

Peace

[Altair]

Once your dream becomes lucid you can go and test other people. Ask them simple questions. If they answer correctly than proceed to ask more difficult questions, such as ''what colour do tigers have?'' or personal questions, like ''what show did I watch on television?''

Originally Posted by iamthat

It sounds like you were experiencing this as conscious awareness, which is not restricted by the limitations of the as yet undeveloped mental and emotional bodies of the baby.

That's my impression as well. I never gave it much thought until I related it to mom, but ever since I've given it thought and a lot of thought the last ten years.

Without a doubt it's the one aspect of me that's never changed. It's the exact same today as back then and all the time between, and meditation is the icing on the cake confirming it. That deep meditative state when everything except awareness is stripped away is exactly it.

[DTS1210]

Originally Posted by RealityShifter

Are folks around here believe 1)OBE = Lucid dream or 2)OBE = genuine experience out of the body?

I used to believe that an OBE was simply a lucid dream until I had my first real experience with it. I was doing a meditation laying down and I fell asleep and began to dream. All of a sudden it was like I snapped out of my dream and immediately was in sleep paralysis. During this I became 100% aware and felt the “vibrations” that people speak of. I applied the rope technique, and got out of my body. The experience did not last long, it was my first time and I think the excitement woke me up. But I’m telling you it is a whole different ball game from lucid dreaming. I truly believe I left and went somewhere. But where to, I do not know.

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by DTS1210

I used to believe that an OBE was simply a lucid dream until I had my first real experience with it. I was doing a meditation laying down and I fell asleep and began to dream. All of a sudden it was like I snapped out of my dream and immediately was in sleep paralysis. During this I became 100% aware and felt the “vibrations” that people speak of. I applied the rope technique, and got out of my body. The experience did not last long, it was my first time and I think the excitement woke me up. But I’m telling you it is a whole different ball game from lucid dreaming. I truly believe I left and went somewhere. But where to, I do not know.

Yes, there seems to be two potential difficulties with such experiences.

The first difficulty is remaining calm and focused during the process. The initial tendency is to become excited, as in "OMG I've done it!" Over-excitement is a sure way to end the experience.

The second difficulty is to bring back the complete memory to waking consciousness. As Robert Bruce says:

Everything experienced during out-of-body experience must eventually be downloaded into the physical brain in base-level understandability format, if it is to generate any kind of recallable and enduring memory at all that might be accessible to the awake conscious mind.

He writes at length about this issue if you are interested.

Peace

Originally Posted by iamthat

It sounds like you were experiencing this as conscious awareness, which is not restricted by the limitations of the as yet undeveloped mental and emotional bodies of the baby.

The difficulty of human birth is that conscious awareness finds itself trying to function through a helpless body with limited ability to move or communicate. The physical, emotional and mental bodies of a baby function at a very basic level. It must be very frustrating for consciousness, which has its own intelligence and awareness - perhaps this is why babies spend so much time sleeping. It gives consciousness a break.

I sometimes think that the conscious awareness of the baby must get very frustrated with the surrounding adults. They pull silly faces and make silly sounds, treating the baby as if it were an imbecile rather than an intelligent aware human being. The joys of human birth!

Peace

Come on, iamthat, awareness loves to laugh surely!

And agree, treat the young as intelligent, aware, independent, sensitive beings....and remind them to put on that jacket!

Jl