One of the things that intrigues me about “the other side” is the possibility of moving out of my body.
The first such experience happened sometime around the year 2000. I was working as a safety consultant for a company that made large, very powerful lasers used in the semiconductor industry. My job was to help them design enclosures, interlocks and controls that would allow them to use these lasers safely. I would visit their facility in Santa Clara once a week or so to talk to their engineers, inspect the equipment or attend meetings. Since it was just a part time job, I wasn’t issued a security badge, so I had to be escorted to enter the building past the lobby.
On one occasion I showed up at the scheduled time, but my escort was not ready to see me. I was asked to wait in the lobby for a half hour or so until he could come and get me. This was fine with me; I get paid the same sitting in a lobby as I do actually working. The lobby was a fairly small room that opened directly off of their tree covered parking lot. There was a security desk, but no guard. Four or five chairs lined each side of the lobby. There were a couple of certificates and other business related documents hanging on the walls, but nothing of interest. I was the only one waiting that day. It was a fairly stark and uninteresting place to sit and wait.
Since it appeared that I would have a little time, I decided to meditate while waiting. I sat in one of the chairs, closed my eyes, and sat following my breath. After a few minutes, I felt myself separate from my body. It was like my attention slipped right out and hovered near the ceiling. I opened my eyes and found that I was near the ceiling, looking around the room, and looking at my body sitting in the chair. It was a very peaceful experience, I had no desire to change anything, I just remained in this separated position until all of a sudden the door opened and my escort came in to get me. This created a crisis of sorts because I could see him going over to greet me, but I wasn’t there. I managed to force my “real” body to open its eyes and acknowledge the person, but couldn’t really talk or anything because I was in the wrong place. With a very large effort, I managed to force myself back into my body in time to be able to stand up and say hello – but could barely do anything else.
When he talked to me it was like it was from an immense distance, I was trying to communicate to him across some sort of barrier. We were not in the same place at all. Luckily, he didn’t demand much communication at that time. He gave me a temporary badge and led me off to a meeting room. By the time we got to the meeting room I was solidly back in my body so could carry on normal communication. I remained in a very “spacey” state for the rest of the day, but was able to talk and act more or less normal if I concentrated hard enough.
The second time I had an out of body experience I was lying in bed, getting ready to fall asleep – but was having a difficult time doing that. One of my normal tricks when this happens is to lay on my back and let my attention move to all parts of my body. I start with my face, near my eyes, and feel myself. Then I move slowly down my face, to my neck, arms, chest, legs, feet, then back up to my buttocks, back, neck, head and back to my face. By the time I do that I am very relaxed and can feel my entire body as one unit, it helps me to be aware of all of myself. I finished the trip around my body and just lay there relaxed, when I felt myself separate from myself. I just sort of floated up out of my body and hovered about a foot over myself. It was quite comfortable and felt good. I was not really amazed or anything like that, it seemed like a natural thing to do. After awhile I decided to turn over onto my side and go to sleep. When I rolled, I was surprised to find that I rolled under my hovering self, but it stayed in place. For some reason I had expected that it would move with me, but it didn’t. I could switch my attention between the two me’s, changing my point of view at will. I finally decided to just go to sleep, leaving the second floating above me. When I woke up, I was back together again as if nothing had happened.
Both of these experiences were very quiet and subtle. There was nothing really dramatic or earth shattering about them. The most unusual aspects of them were that they seemed to be so “normal.” It was like this is a normal state of affairs, something that happens all of the time, but for some reason on these two occasions I happened to pay attention. I think I may have had more of these experiences, but I just don’t recall them because I didn’t notice them. They felt like the normal, and correct, way to be.