What I think OOBEs actually are

I have been thinking of writing about this in a long time and I have finally decided to do it. This article that I am writing will contain my views on dreams as well as out of body experiences. All that I am writing here is based on my own experience and research.


First of all, I would like to point out again the differences between Out Of Body Experiences and Lucid Dreams. There are many beliefs which say that OOBEs take place in higher astral realms and that LD's only in the mind or in lower astral realms. However, I find this information a bit flawed as one can transit between Lucid Dreams and OOBEs as much as they want, without having to change anything, but awareness or lucidity. The terms astral, higher or lower realms are only metaphors used by people to better explain the difference between the different states they were in while in the experience. Although, they are the same phenomena, therefore occur in the same place, the mind, it does not mean that they need to feel the same way. Everyone can feel the difference between LDs and OOBEs.

After an LD you can only remember how you got lucid and what your dream was about. When remembering the experience, lucid dreams may come like images and not like REAL "PHYSICAL" ACTIONS. You don't feel like you did something, but you just see how you imagined yourself having done what you did. I usually call this a 2D experience.

As for OOBEs, however, they feel as real as this world. You can remember everything since you became aware, how you became aware, why, how you separated, when you separated, what you DID, when you returned to bed, almost everything. It is not "imagination" anymore, it is REAL EXPERIENCE. You will remember it as you remember what you did 5 minutes ago. I am not talking about vividness, but how you, as a being with a body feel. I also call this a 3D experience since there's no difference between real life and OOBEs. They are the same, even when you wake up, you won't notice the difference.

Another way I used to put it was:
normal dreams - in the box, unaware of it
lucid dreams - in the box, however, aware of it
OOBEs - outside of the box.

You will find more details here, if you are interested: OOBES=LDS=DREAMS

Now that I have already explained why OOBEs, Dreams and LD's are the same phenomena, I would like to share my opinion on OOBES, the "realest state" of the experience. Both in dreams and OOBEs your body senses are cut off and it is only your mind that is awake. This usually happens in REM, but you do not always need REM to get to this. I will post a link to methods on how to OOBE at the end of the article. Anyway, since the body senses are cut off and it is only you and your mind without any environment to live in, with practice you will realize that we are in fact just a point of consciousness. The magic occurs once we interact with information from the external world and get the illusion of being one with the information, when in fact we are not. Now, since in an OOBE, at first, there is no environment as you receive no data from the body, you could say that the mind uses a back-up plan in which it creates you a FALSE environment based on all the things you've experienced throughout your life. A fish would have an OOBE in the water, or what it "thinks" it is like on land.

In other words, everything in the OOBEs is caused by your mind. It is now the creator of the universe you are in. It creates the rules, what/if you feel, hear, touch, taste or smell. One may ask however, why we always know where to separate from when we become aware. One reason, though, why we usually separate from our bed and NOT from somewhere else is because of sleep paralysis or EXPECTATION. We know we are in bed, since we are "very" aware, therefore we will separate from there. If the OOBE is involuntary, you may OOBE from the place you are the most used to. I once moved my bed on another side of the room and when I got in SP I still thought/felt that my bed was in the old place. I didn't realize I had moved it until I woke up. Since we are all so used to SPACE, our mind will automatically look for a place to give you, whether it is your closet (I have been there).

This having been said, I will conclude with the methods I have used since I got into OOBEs so that you may get to experience OOBEs too and let me know what your opinions on them are:

How I have induced and currently induce OOBEs
My method for lucid dreaming
Old article on how to OOBE. Similar to the one above.
Sleep paralysis.