Commonly called OBEs
What are OBEs?
Out of Body Experiences, or OBEs as I shall henceforth refer to them, are experiences which occur occasionally to some people, perhaps only once in a life-time To a very few people they can occur more frequently. Unlike NDEs, they occur to normally healthy people who are not on the brink of death, though occasionally the experiencers imagine they are, when they find their consciousness located outside the physical body.
In an OBE, the person simply finds himself outside his or her physical body, either looking down at it in a bed or on a chair from a vantage point near the ceiling, or standing beside the bed or chair and observing that their consciousness and viewpoint has separated from the physical body. They often observe that they have another body, what Spiritualists would call a spirit body, which is not unlike their physical one, and usually clothed in a similar way. This can cause immediate panic, if the person has no knowledge of these experiences. Such panic usually has the effect of pushing the spirit body immediately back into the physical body, where normal experiences are resumed. Seasoned experiencers or those who have read much about these states are likely to be calmer, and feel inclined to explore the environment in this new mode of being. They find that their spirit bodies can pass unhindered through walls, doors, windows and roof spaces. Normally onlookers would not be aware of the separation of spirit body from the physical body, though many mediums and other sensitives would be aware of the change of state, some being able to see the spirit body clearly. It has been claimed that some pets, particularly dogs and cats, have also been aware of the separated spirit body and jumped up at it or run away in fear. Such independent corroboration is important and shows that the Out of Body Experiencer, (OBEr), is not hallucinating
OBEs are usually spontaneous personal experiences that generally cannot be produced to order. Yet there are a few people who have trained themselves to have these experiences at will. An American called Robert Monroe was one such person. His great contribution to the study of OBEs was to discover a method, which he called "Hemi-Sync", which could induce an OBE in almost anyone. Like NDEs, OBEs usually give to the experiencer overwhelming evidence that the essential part of them, their "I-ness" and conscious awareness, is not identical with the physical body, but is the conscious awareness, called by some the mind, others the "soul", encased in another subtler body that Spiritualists call the "spirit" or "spirit body". The OBEr is temporarily discarnate in the same way that his or her deceased friends and relations permanently are.
As was said on the previous page, Spiritualism teaches that it is this subtler body that will carry the soul into the next dimension and beyond. It is wonderful to have so much evidence from OBErs that this spiritual body is real and can separate from the physical body. However, unlike NDEs, OBEs usually lack a spiritual component to the experience. They are usually not much more than an experience of being separate from the physical body. The experiencer does not usually go off into other dimensions and encounter other discarnate beings, though this may happen. The experience is usually located in the vicinity of the physical body. Thus they are not quite such profoundly transformative experiences as NDEs. However, once a person, through such an experience or experiences, realises that his/her essential self is not the physical body, but the consciousness or mind carried by a spiritual body, with different qualities, characteristics and properties from the physical body he/she has temporarily left, the fear of death likewise diminishes, and the person may become more spiritually curious. The methods of "The Robert Monroe Institute" have been developed to gradually introduce the experiencer to other dimensions of reality. It is a carefully controlled programme, which gives the OBEr much support. In such instances, the OBE begins to approach the level of spiritual enlightenment commonly found in the NDE.
To be continued.
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