Learning from my Out of Body Experience (OBE)

Learning from my Out of Body Experience

(Re-produced from the Journal Entry made on Good Friday, 6th of April 2007)

Here's something I'd like to share with you. It would appear the time to share it with you is now, due to the interest I see in some of the on-going dialogues on death, after-life, near-death- experiences (NDE) and out-of-body-experiences (OBE).

I experienced an out-of-body (OBE) experience with awareness, recognizing it for what it is, about 7 years ago, about one year into serious meditation. I know it happened from my mind “abandoning memories and intentions regarding household life, by which the mind became steadied internally, quieted, brought to singleness and concentrated” as a result of practices much like what is stated in Note 2 below. 

I have had several OBE as a child. It didn't make much sense then but it was often, vivid and seem to have been triggered-off by a few incidents from the past. And in most cases I would first faint and then wake in to a different time and place. Sometimes I would be conscious of leaving the body but forget about it soon after, only to either black out and wake up or get reverted, more like a yank back, to the body when it ended. The occasions that I was aware of the here and here-before were few. As far as my family was concerned, I was a frequent fainter at one time, but I was a strong well built child, the strongest of the children, and our family doctor who had known us even before I was born just did not have an answer for it. 

What appeared to set off those OBE were certain activities that came together at the same time (three is particular, I will state one here: open field, large trees at periphery, beating of drums and the cry of birds, hundreds of them that dwell in the branches. I was regularly exposed to this during my scouting days. 

When this kind of experience happens to you, you know time is relative, that you can live in a time before but in the now. What I wrote titled "All is Nothing" is with this insight.  (It is something that I am increasingly seeing now, that is that out side of our "little" conceptual world time can have a different dimension as well as you can step outside the time dimension altogether). 

I am sure most of us may have experienced some or more than what I have, but what I think is important is to be able to navigate ourselves through it and not be consumed by events just like in a dream, like what I experienced as a boy. But however when you are confronted by it with awareness as I did today you can be awed by it, as it did to me; in my case I just did not know how to deal with it. There are some among us who can just go through it, just like in a dream. 

I reproduce here what I had penned in my journal a few hours after, on that day in 2007. I used to document my experiences and emotions in my early years of practice and study of the mind, which I used to read and reflect on later in the day so I could better understand my mind.

It is well before dawn, one morning, say about 3.30am. It was Good Friday, the 6th of April 2007, in the 47th year of my birth. I had woken up and as I usually do had begun to observe my mind, which I do for between 10 to 30 minutes before I put my feet on the ground and haul myself up. Sometimes I have a keen sense of awareness, of mental alertness. And sometimes I tend to drift in to lucid dreaming, or just imbibing in pleasant feelings from relaxation. I have found the mind before sleep has a strong influence on the nature of the mind in the morning. 

It is the same with meals before sleep. It wouldn't take you long to realize that having no solid food after lunch gives you an alert mind in the morning, that meat for dinner makes you mentally and physically lethargic and sleep late, that starch for dinner makes you sleep well, usually without much awareness, and that heavier meals, or meals close to sleep can give you a combination of all of this. If you must have a meal after lunch the best is a light early meal and if possible a walk before sleep, a purposeful walk – a meditative walk (walking meditation). All this may see arduous but once you cultivate a practice for it, it becomes a part of daily life, a pleasant and beneficial routine.

On this day I had mental awareness. I was able to pick up where I had left off before sleep, a pleasant moment of mental nothingness, which I had experienced long after I had lain down to sleep, in which state of lucid sleep I had been until I lost awareness. And then, quite suddenly I was transported back in time. It was lucid dreaming. I call lucid dreaming when I am aware of dreaming and continue to dream knowing that it is a dream. 

At this stage I think I need to state something about the various theories out there, which I have seen. These are all very interesting – from Aristotle to Gestalt. Then there is Dream-initiated-lucid-dreaming (DILD), Wake-initiated-lucid dreaming (WILD) and Rapid-Eye-Movement Sleep (REM).  But all these theories do not originate from the base of “no-self and “impermanence”. The Mahayana practice of dream yoga, the yoga practice of Yoga-Nidra is useful in understanding the process better. The Pali sutta (Kayagatasati Sutta – see Note-2 below) that talks of the importance of the constant awareness of the position of one’s body, in particular – of the 4 postures and of the jhana moments.

I was in a place at a period back in time, most probably somewhere in Europe. I am strongly inclined to pick on France. The building had a large hallway and the walls were of earthenware color but of polished surface, of a yellow pinkish color, with intricate work on pillars. The floor had square black and white tiles, each about 4 inches square. The ceiling was very high, maybe several modern day floors tall. The building had dim lights or no lights. And, I was looking for a toilet. As I walked on, or say glided on to the end of this hallway I saw a door and upon entering another room sprang to light. This room too looked the same. 

I was with another person, a woman, of slender build and Caucasian looks. She was familiar to me, not a stranger, I cannot say if she was my wife of that time. I remember these details vividly. Then my attention was drawn to the fact that I was dreaming and in an awake or half-awake state I found that I was suddenly becoming very aware and alert. 

I had kept my hands, arms folded, on my chest. I was getting goose bumps and then it happened. I suddenly felt a noise, somewhat like but of much higher volume, of the fluttering of insect's wings. I could hear and feel it very well, not a violent vibration but a subtle one (like a large winged insect, a cockroach or a dragonfly fluttering around my ears and neck). I could feel myself trying to extricate from my body. It was not easy. It was something like trying to get out of a hollowed sleeping bag with the arms bound and no holds. 

Then I heard this distinct loud noise, clangs like tin plate on tin plate, or more like the sound you would get if you were to push a cupboard full of pots and pans. I realized that I was bucking myself and this was creating the din. It felt so clumsy. This clang-clang noise went on for what seemed like 3 or 4 times, duration of about a half-minute each and a slight pause in between. And then I was out of my body, head and body first, legs last. 

Everything around me was whitish/grayish in color, not smoky but a color of powder gray. But I could see very well. I saw what appeared to be me, my lifeless body. I did not venture out or for long for I suddenly realized that I may not be able to return back to my body or that someone else may creep in to mine. I felt a great desire in fact to return back to my body, as fast as I could and I did that. This was an unexpected event for me, one I had not been prepared for and had little knowledge on how to respond. I had heard all of the wonderful stories about clairaudience, clairvoyance, omnipresence, omniscience, OBE and NDE, all of which I had brushed aside as being far beyond my own reach.

The entry was strange. It was like going through an eggshell but the shell did not crumble. There were two things that came to my mind. One was that my body was like that of a mummy and I was getting back inside. It felt like the rustle of mummification tapes. I do not know why this image sprang to mind. The second was that it seemed so easy and I knew very well that I had done this innumerable time before. It all seemed too familiar. This second feeling I got when I was firmly back in place. I then looked around, I looked at my mobile phone which I keep at my bedside for the time, which read 3.47am. I was sweating and it was hot especially body downward to the legs.

And, I knew, somehow that I could do this again, but how? I normally get up several times a night. I generally sleep 3 bouts of about 1.5 to 2 hrs of each. Some of the time I am aware of lucid dreaming that takes place in these sleeps. Some other times I don't but it maybe that I do dream but I am completely unaware. 

Usually when I sleep I practice penetration of the sex organ channel wheel, a secret mantra in mahamudra meditation in vajrayana Buddhism. I do it by concentrating on a single point in front of me with eyes closed, which point is the after image of a black ball between my thighs, at the end of my genitals. As said it is so, as I have come to realize that this is one of the doors to the central energy channel that enables the winds in the right and left channel to enter through it and when I am, always, gently lulled in to lucid sleep. I fall in to sleep within 5 minutes or so, a sleep with awareness, a sleep of mindfulness.

But yesterday when I did this I did something more. I combined another meditation techniques later, to see what happens. I shifted my concentration to meditating on the secret place, 4 fingers below the navel,. At that time I only felt very comfortable, as when it is, always, when the secret place is involved. I had felt like I was lobbing a ball high in to the air with every stroke I played, which is a feeling that any tennis player would relate to. My breadth became very long and drawn. So this could be the means to making regular out of body sojourns.

There were something that I realized almost immediately after.

1. How clumsy the human body was. It appeared to be just a piece of meat that could do very little for itself with its 5 senses. Our consciousness actually parks itself in this body. It creeps in and stays there until the body dies. We do this by choice, in fact we crave for it. 

2. That I was not ready for these experiences, yet. When I was out of my body I felt lost and afraid, not knowing what to do. I wanted or had more like a great desire to creep back in to my body. I have to examine this in greater detail. Although I had been confident of facing any event it was obvious my practices had not yet conditioned me to face this. I see it would be the same at death, in the stage of clear light (dharmata) and after. I would be of one mind, and that would be to find a body and creep in to it. And if that were to be so then what a waste of effort and a waste of this lifetime it would be. I have before me the perfect opportunity to liberate myself. I may not have this same opportunity the next time (life). My circumstances today seemed to be tailor made for me to achieve liberation.

3. I think I was in France in my dream, just before I shook myself awake and had my OBE. I have come to the realization of the idiocy of human conduct. Yesterday I seemed to have been French. Today I am something else. We have always been some race else in our past lives. But today we have aversions towards other races. We discriminate against anything that is not of our own, when we may have been all that before. 

4. During the OBE my body felt as if it was mummified, so much so, that when I crept in I felt as if the tapes that bound my body were crackling. I saw my right hand with folded arm atop my breast. Later it dawned on me that perhaps when the Egyptians mummified their dead they in fact did it with these experiences, that one day the soul could creep in and the body be brought back to life. They were no doubt doing it with some insight. But I could not see how that could happen once the body disintegrates, maybe they saw how!

5. I realize the purposelessness of physical embellishments to our physical body. I see little point in adorning ourselves with jewelry or ornaments or of painting up our faces or putting on muscle at the gym. It seems like dressing up the animal for the circus. We think we know it all but we are not much better than what newborn babies are. What we need is a sound body for a sound mind so that we could use this body as a vehicle for our liberation. We could of course get distracted and get engrossed in the meaningless, experience countless minds and physical formations that we create, and go on and on in this sansaric existence. The human-form although is physically and physiologically complex is one of limited abilities. It requires the improvisation of aids for the most basic of activity, ones that can be carried out in the other dimension without any aids, as I have been shown today.

6. I have always been an aloof person, never so inseparably attached or close to anyone but always hovering around those I like, more like a protector. This was what I saw in my dreams and the few occasions I had regressed. I was with this woman, who appeared to be my wife or companion. A woman of slender build and pale countenance but my vision of her features was obscured. I knew her name was Helene, what came to mind spontaneously was the name Helene Dupont. The woman was a first for today but I had been in this environment several times in previous dreams. She is very familiar to me. In fact I seem to have an attraction to women with similar features. I had vaguely seen her about one year ago, on 21st February 2006, when I had regressed to the past, I saw myself as a Frenchman, 45 years in age by the name of Le Mercier in the year 1927. I have noted this entry in my diary. The image I saw then resembled me today except that the hair was ginger in color. Until today I had been seeing buildings and places but never people with such clarity where I could see facial expressions. The story with Helene and France does not end here. There is a longer story to this, which I could, perhaps, validate it one day on a visit to Marseilles and a small area called LeMonde which I had seen but later failed to locate in a map.

Note-1 

Since of late I have found that meditative absorption can lead to OBE without much effort and without much vibration. However if there is no meditative absorption the vibrations are still experienced, sometimes in greater intensity than other times. If you are wearing a zipped up jacket a great intensity vibration can make your zipper slider flap, making a sound.

Note-2

Kayagatasati Sutta (Mindfulness of the Body) (MN 119)

One develops mindfulness of the body by training and abiding thus, resolute, ardent and diligent abandons memories and intentions regarding household life, by which the mind becomes steadied internally, quieted, brought to singleness and concentrated.

• Mindfulness of Breathing - exercising mindfulness of breadth, experiencing the breath and physical body, tranquilizing bodily formations.

• Four postures - exercising awareness of the disposition of the body: "When walking, the monk discerns, 'I am walking.' When standing, he discerns, 'I am standing.' When sitting, he discerns, 'I am sitting.' When lying down, he discerns, 'I am lying down." 

• Full Awareness - exercising full awareness of going forward and returning, of looking ahead and looking away, when flexing and extending limbs, when wearing robes and carrying the outer robe and bowl, when eating, drinking, consuming food and tasting, when defecating and urinating, when walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking and keeping silent.

• Foulness – The bodily parts – reviews the body up from the soles of feet and down from the top of hair bounded by skin as full of many kinds of impurities

• Elements – reviews the body as made up of earth, fire, water and air – however is it placed, however it is disposed as consisting of element. 

• Nine Charnel Ground Contemplations – see the second sub-headed paragraph under Distracting Thoughts - Five Ways for Their Removal

• The Jhanas – 

(1) “quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states…enters and abides in the first jhana which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought with rapture and pleasure born out of seclusion – which he makes the whole body drench, steep, fill and pervade so that no part of his whole body is unpervaded. “…just as a skilled bath man heaps bath powder in a metal basin and sprinkles it gradually with water and kneads it so it pervades inside out but does not ooze ….” (note: rapture and pleasure born out of seclusion does not ooze). This is how mindfulness of the body is developed”.

(2) “with the stilling of applied and sustained thought …enters and abides in the second jhana which has self confidence and singleness of mind without applied and sustained thought but with rapture and pleasure born out of concentration – which he makes the whole body drench, steep, fill and pervade so that no part of his whole body is unpervaded. “…just as a lake whose waters welled up from below and it had no inflow from east, west, north or south and not replenished from time to time by rain, then the cool fount of water welling up would make the cool water drench, steep, fill and pervade the lake so that no part the whole lake is unpervaded ….” (note: rapture and pleasure born out of concentration). This is how mindfulness of the body is developed” 

(3) “with the fading away as well of rapture …abides in equanimity, mindfulness and fully aware, still feeling pleasure with the body, enters upon and abides in the third jhana ..and has a pleasant abiding : one that has equanimity and is mindful makes the pleasure divested of rapture drench, steep, fill and pervade so that no part of his whole body is unpervaded. “…just as lotuses in a pond that are born grown and thrive immersed in water without rising out of it and cool water drenches, steeps, fills and pervades them from tip to root so that no part those lotuses are unpervaded by cool water ….” (note: pleasure divested of rapture .. .abides thus diligent…). This is how mindfulness of the body is developed” 

(4) “with the abandoning of pleasure and pain and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief ….abides in the fourth jhana, which has neither pain nor pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. …and sits pervading this whole body with pure bright mind so that no part of the whole body is unpervaded. “…just as a man were sitting covered from head down with a white cloth so that no part of his body is not covered..”.   Abides thus, diligent, ardent and resolute the memories and intentions based on household life are abandoned, with their abandoning the mind becomes steadied, internally quieted, brought to singleness and concentrated This is how mindfulness of the body is developed” 

Benefits of mindfulness of the body – 

When mindfulness has been repeatedly practiced, developed, cultivated, used as a vehicle, used as a basis, established, consolidated, and well undertaken :

(1) Conquering discontent and delight

(2) Conquering fear and dread

(3) Easy to bear cold and heat, hunger and thirst, contact with gadflies, mosquitoes, wind and sun, creeping things, ill-spoken unwelcome words, and arisen bodily feelings that are painful, racking, sharp, piercing, disagreeable, distressing and menacing to life

(4) Attainment of the four Jhanas without trouble and difficulty, that constitute a higher mind, and provide a pleasant mind here and now.

(5) One wields Manifold supranormal powers– bodily mastery such as walking on water, walking through walls

(6) Supernatural hearing – which is purified and surpasses human and so hears both divine and human sounds near and far

(7) Psychic powers - knowing the awareness of other beings – one understand minds affected by lust….and so on

(8) Recollection of past lives

(9) Seeing "by means of the divine eye, purified, surpassing the human – sees beings passing away and reappearing, inferior and superior, fair and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate and understands how beings pass according to their actions

(10) One enters upon here and now and abides in the mind free of destructive taints that has been delivered by his wisdom that is realized by oneself with direct knowledge.