Aug 25, 2002
A Failed Out-of-Body-Experience
Location 
: Toronto, Ontario (province), Canada
Sleep Paralysis
While sleeping, my body tensed up and I couldn't break away from it. In other words, I had what a lot of people occasionally experience - sleep paralysis. To the uninitiated, this is a horrifying experience...like having a waking nightmare you can't free yourself from because you can't move. It feels like you won't come out of it alive. I get this occasionally...like twice a year and unlike my previous struggle to free myself, I simply let go this time and allowed the sensation to take me wherever. It turned out to be a thrilling roller coaster ride, taking me on an unknown journey into the expanse of my subconscious.
Astral Dynamics
After having read a chapter in my Astral Dynamics book that touched off on this, I was quick to think that it's possible to use this sleeping paralysis to trigger an out-of-body experience (OBE). Since waking up from sleep paralysis is a form of lucid dreaming, I gained awareness that I was inside a dream and had full control of my mind.
Separating from the Body
While being "awake" inside my dream, I tried to break free from my physical body but I could not. It felt like there was an elastic band pulling me back. At that moment, I was trying to remember what I read in the book: look at your hands. I did and I saw my forearms without my hands...as it dissipated into black space - that's a good sign. While struggling to break free, I tried to look back hoping I would see my physical body. For some odd reason, I couldn't even turn my head.
Reality Check
Long before this happened, I left a stack of cards on top of my storage shelf with the top card facing up. I didn't look at the top card. The whole idea was to look into the deck of cards during an OBE, remember the top card and go back immediately to the body and wake up. You then go see what the top card is. If it matches what you saw during your OBE, then that essentially confirms that you had an OBE and not just dreaming. That's what I was aiming to do. While struggling to break away, I had my focus on the deck of cards above the shelf, just in front of me...almost within reach. And suddenly I woke up!
Ending Thoughts
I came so close to having an OBE with the means to confirm it...but no cigar. Heck, maybe I was just dreaming all along...dunno.
--- Gigit (TheLoneRider)
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Reader Comments:
Faz 
(Aug 30, 2002) While I have never experienced sleep paralysis I am some one who regularly dreams and remembers dreaming. On occasion I have lucid dreams and some of these take an all together different sort of format. I am dreaming lucidly but I am not me. I have a these few occasions "woken up" to find that I am conscious of my actions and surrounding but situated in surroundings unfamiliar. On these occasions I had an immediate awareness of a different sense of who I was and yet a certain retention of I. I have even ventured to mirrors in on these occasions to see a reflection that is indeed not the one I typically think of as mine. I cannot confirm or even support these states as OBEs apart from the lucidity of them and my own feelings. I can accept that they were in fact just particularly odd and vivid dreams but I do not believe so. On still more occasions I have felt similar sort of departures without the lucidity of control. These are indeed frightening and I have torn myself from them forcefully to awake terrified and disoriented. We still know so little about the frontiers of our minds and the reality of consciousness. It is an exploration fraught with fear and full of wonder. Sweet dreams and happy landings.
Steve (Aug 29, 2002) I've read a number of books by Carlos Castaneda, and he talks about lucid dreaming, and the ability to find your hands in your dreams. I've found that when I read one of his books, I have an easier time attaining awareness in my dreams. I've only once been able to 'see' my hands in my dreams, and when I did, they were very blurry. I sometimes think that may be due to the fact that I wasn't wearing my glasses/contacts!
Astral Projection Videos
Charlie Morley: The Lucid Dreamer
Spirit Science: The Basics of Astral Projection
Robert Monroe: Journeys Out of the Body
Binaural beats and Isochronic Tones for Lucid Dreaming
3 Steps to Lucid Dreaming
Websites about Lucid Dreaming
- lucidology 101 - a website devoted to astral travel through lucid dreaming with focus on Exit techniques
Astral Projection Tips
- do it early morning like 5am when the Seratonin is high instead of at night when you are tired and likely to fall into normal sleep
- do not attempt to Exit during the vibration phase. Stay relaxed and let it settle down. When it gets quiet, that's the time to induce the Exit
- OOBE is likely to happen if you sleep in your normal position - it doesn't have to be on your back. You can sleep on your side
- keep the room completely dark and quiet
- meditate for about 10 minutes before going to bed. This relaxes the body and mind and allows better sleep
- while going to sleep, visualize the environment you want to be in...see the colors, feel the texture, smell the air. Or, read your dream journal and relive your previous night's dream. Tell your mind this is not real and that you are already in a lucid dream. Give yourself permission to live your fantasies - fly, stay under water, etc. As you fall into sleep, keep saying that you will have a lucid dream.
- set up an alarm around 4am. Wake up and do some work for about 20 minutes and go back to sleep. This return to sleep hastens lucid dreaming.
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