What happened to me?

Hiya! This is my first post, so bear with me.

I would appreciate it if anyone could explain what is happening with this recent experience of mine.

First, I'll provide a little bit of a background: I've always been prone to nightmares, even as a child. Today, as an adult, I'll go through periods of non-stop nightmares, sometimes to the point where I'm having three or four in a single night. In an attempt to remedy this, I thought I would pick up lucid dreaming. Well, I worked at it on and off for a few months with little success, and recently started trying to lucid dream again. Before a few days ago, the closest I ever got was realizing I was in a dream, but instantly forgetting that I was in one not a second later.

So, a few days ago, I was taking a nap in my boyfriend's apartment. During this nap, I thought I woke up. I opened my eyes and had a conscious train of thought, but then when I tried to move, I could not. I started to freak out, and I could see my boyfriend playing video games across the room with his back to me. I started shouting his name, shouting at him to help me, and when he didn't respond, I realized that I was dreaming.

I then tried to sit up. It was the weirdest feeling ever...I felt like I rolled up into a sitting position, but I could still see my body lying on the bed. I couldn't keep an upright position for long - I kept 'snapping' back to my body.

Finally, after a minute or so, I started yelling at myself to WAKE UP! And I did. Waking up was the freakiest part, because everything was EXACTLY how I'd seen it in my dream. My boyfriend was playing video games in the exact same spot, and I was lying on my back in the exact same position. There was no way I could have known the exact way he was sitting and holding the controller - I had been sleeping for a good 2 hours. The scene before me was eerily identical to what I saw in my dream.

Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I would consider myself logical-minded. I have a vivid imagination (I love to draw and write), but I also like the science of things - science is something concrete and, I guess in a sense, comforting. So when this happened, I couldn't really explain it, and it's been bothering me.

Is this what astral projection is? Or was it a crazy lucid dream?

Thanks~

[wolfgaze]

Welcome to the site/forum...

It sounds as if you had an OBE (Out of Body Experience)...

You may want to conduct some research regarding OBE's and the sleep state...

One night a year or two ago I had been sleeping for a few hours when I suddenly had the awareness of being outside my body and looking down on it... Just as soon as I experienced this, my awareness zoomed back into my body and I awoke in bed, unable to move... I fell back asleep several seconds later... When I awoke in the morning, I had a clear memory of what had been experienced the night before...

I think what you can take from your experience is that consciousness (or awareness) extends beyond the confines of the physical body... Such an experience can be extremely eye-opening and serve as inspiration to explore consciousness in a whole new light...

[Azmond]

Hi SeaBreezy =)

I agree on it most likely being an OBE. I recognized the part where you said when you tried to sit up, that it was the wierdest feeling ever =) When I seperated It celt really funny and wierd too. I would described it like someone would grab me by my head and just peeled me of from myself like a skin =D I fell behind my bed and hughe wardrobe which was funy because there was no space between them. What you describe sounds totaly like an authentic OBE.

[Aguia]

Hello SeaBreezy,

well this was actually an OBE, you were about to seperate from your physical body.

You could not move because your body was in the sleep paralysis state. This is a natural mechanism known to modern medicine, which prevents your body from moving while you are dreaming; it means: the signals of your brain, sent to the arms/ legs etc. are not performed with your body. Your muscles are simply in an extremely relaxed state (muscle atony).
Now, we do not only have the physical body, it is known through theosophical scientists (e.g. Leadbeater) and traditional systems like yoga, that we seem to own a couple of bodies of a substance which is finer than the material substance. You have been in the etheric body. This is the body of vital energy which connects your physical body to the astral body. While falling asleep, your consciousness has "wandered" into your etheric body. This is a normal thing which happens to everyone of us, but mostly we don't realize this for we are dreaming. You were not dreaming but fully awake, so you realized what was going on. Firstly you were still bound more to the physical so you still felt the sleep paralysis. When you sat up, you actually seperated from the phycisal body. That you kept "snapping back" to your body is normal too - as long as you are not fully seperated, your etheric double is still connected tightly to the physical through the so-called silver chord (I have seen and felt this cord my self in several occasions and it is described by many people). I know that feeling of "snapping back" very well, too. But with a little bit effort it is possible to separate fully.
Yeah, and as you woke up, you did not "wake up" really for you never have actually slept :-) Your consciousness just got back into the physical body. And everything looked exactly like the physical because you were on a layer very close to the physical and saw the lower astral "copy" of the physical surroundings. So it's logical you saw your boyfriend at the same spot etc.
It can NOT be a lucid dream in my opinion because you clearly realized how you seperated from the body. In lucid dreams you do not have that (at least this is my experience).

So, congratulations! You managed to get out of the physical body. You do not have to fear anything, nothing can hapen, although I remember I was freaked out at the beginning too. But there is no reason it is just a new world that opens to you ready for you to discover.

If you are a kind of person who likes science (I am too) I recommend to you reading a bit about the theosophical researches of Leadbeater, Durville, Reichenbach etc. If you want, I can send a few links to you via PM. Just tell me.

[wstein]

Welcome

Originally Posted by SeaBreezy

So, a few days ago, I was taking a nap in my boyfriend's apartment. During this nap, I thought I woke up. I opened my eyes and had a conscious train of thought, but then when I tried to move, I could not. I started to freak out, and I could see my boyfriend playing video games across the room with his back to me. I started shouting his name, shouting at him to help me, and when he didn't respond, I realized that I was dreaming.

I then tried to sit up. It was the weirdest feeling ever...I felt like I rolled up into a sitting position, but I could still see my body lying on the bed. I couldn't keep an upright position for long - I kept 'snapping' back to my body.

Finally, after a minute or so, I started yelling at myself to WAKE UP! And I did. Waking up was the freakiest part, because everything was EXACTLY how I'd seen it in my dream. My boyfriend was playing video games in the exact same spot, and I was lying on my back in the exact same position. There was no way I could have known the exact way he was sitting and holding the controller - I had been sleeping for a good 2 hours. The scene before me was eerily identical to what I saw in my dream.

This is sleep paralysis, its completely normal though rare for most people occurring only a few times in their lifetimes. Its medically documented. Yes its scary and uncomfortable but not dangerous in itself. It tends to be triggered by unusual sleeping positions. Much is written about it on the forums (and internet), use the 'search' (in menu above) to find some threads on it.

[Azmond]

I would agree so far that the sleep paralysis, was and is indeed a part of her and others experiences, but I really do not like the way, how the science explains it. What she experienced was also a partial body separation and it differs from sleep paralysis in the way they (science) don't want to see. This being a spiritual forums I think its important not to brand her experience as a sleep paralysis and nothing more because in the theory of SP, there is no talk about leaving your body. Its all just in your brains and hormones (if you accept to believe that) I experienced two sleep paralysis and left my body two times, and the first can lead to another, or not. I encourage you SeaBreezy to go and explore what you just found a bit more, though be careful. I once read a published work of some author that assured that there is nothing malevolent or there are no other beings in the realm of astral, because he saw non, but my common sense and guidance and information tells me he could not be more wrong. Life is everywhere. I wish to learn AP again or at least do it successfully, because I have some goal I want to achieve, so if you are still interested in ap, I would be more then glad to share my experience.