Out of body experience...what was I supposed to feel?

[SunCat]

I'm new to this group and pretty new to talking about these kinds of topics with others. I've never told anyone about this experience before except for my significant other and they redirected me to here to maybe get some insight. 

When I was about 14/15 years old (25 now) I used to practice making faces in the mirror... I just like being able to mimic others expressions to see if I actually could. One day I just got the random idea to stare at myself in the mirror until something happened. I knew something WOULD happen, but I didn't know what. I can't remember how long it took, but I started "slipping upwards". I could still see myself looking at my eyes in the mirror, but I also got another view of myself looking diagonally down at myself. It was pretty peaceful and I didn't mind that I was going, until I got the thought that I might not "come back". So that kinds of shocked me back to my reality. Ever since then, I've been....fine??

I've been told it's common to feel depressed after one, but I've always been the type to be bored with the reality we all mutually perceive and have always hoped (or sort of known) that there's more to life than everything I'm seeing through my eyes. So...can anyone tell me what that was? I haven't tried to do it since, mainly because I just don't feel the desire or need to. After that first time, it's only happened once more and by accident. Woke up in the middle of the night in a trance, thought I was dreaming but realized I wasn't, started slipping away and forced myself out of it. 

[WelcometoReality]

@SunCat  It was an out of body experience and whatever you felt was what you were suppose to feel.

These kind of supernatural experiences can make us open to the possibility that there is more to life than what we currently are experiencing. Sometimes fear can be a gateway to something greater than you if you are willing to meet it.

 

[silene]

Greetings @SunCat  and welcome to the forum   Yes it sounds like a spontaneous OBE,  I can understand how it was a bit disconcerting if you were young and didn't have any context or knowledge about this experience. I'm not an expert on this subject, but I think they're fairly common; I have had them a couple of times when doing intensive retreats; but I don't look for them either. If you don't want to have any more, that's perfectly fine. It may help if you do some reading around the subject so you can know what to do / not to do, to avoid it in future. There are some similar things like lucid dreams and sleep paralysis, which can be a bit scary if you aren't prepared for them. 
   
There is certainly more to life than the 'normal' level of consciousness which most of us are brought up to have. But it sounds like you have a very healthy attitude of not chasing these 'occult' type of experiences just for the sake of it. Some folks on this forum are into them, others not. Love and Compassion are the highest values IMO. Your heart and intuition are the best guide; you don't need to have OBEs to be a loving person, but for some people this is part of their path. Others not. It's about learning what's the right path for you to help raise your consciousness. We're a diverse bunch in some ways, but Love and Compassion are what unites us. 

Edited December 4, 2019 by silene

[cetus]

@SunCat Welcome to the forum.   @Emerald may be able to help you.

[Emerald]

@SunCat This is an out of body experience. I've only ever had them when I'm asleep, except once when I was really stressed and dealing with some trauma that just occurred. 

 

 

[cetus]

@SunCat I have never had an OBE as in floating above the body or viewing from a remote location but I have experienced consciousness liberated from the physical body location. It was very freaky when it first happened but now I welcome it.

[EddieEddie1995]

@Emerald When i was in my teen years the most of them happen when i was in a lot of stress.Especially  when my Perents were arguing a lot, and my mother had really nasty  epileptic attacks. I think that was kind of a escape... I recently after many years had one more, and im exited to experiment more on this subject Astral Projection/Lucid Dreaming/Paralyses Im now looking around how to trigger them again even though im kinda scared hehe

[cetus]

@EddieEddie1995 That almost sounds like the onset of shock where the stress becomes so unbearable that you are somehow partially removed from the situation.

[EddieEddie1995]

@cetus56 Well it didn't happen when i was awake and facing these stressful situations in my life, it happen when i was about to fall a sleep i guess. 

 

[cetus]

@EddieEddie1995 Thanks, that helps to put more of it into context.

[Forestluv]

7 hours ago, cetus56 said:

I have never had an OBE as in floating above the body or viewing from a remote location but I have experienced consciousness liberated from the physical body location. It was very freaky when it first happened but now I welcome it.

That’s a nice description. I think I’ve had similar. It’s not like a new point of attention/perception. It’s more like the dissolution of awareness in a localized body. And then a general non-localized awareness. Like being everything in the cafe I’m with it observing itself. I call it a “collective consciousness”. I was also freaked out at first and had a few panic episodes. Yet now when I feel it coming on, I’m like “Ooohhh yea, here it comes. . . “ ?

[SunCat]

@silene hi and thank you! I am interested in doing things more along the lines of meditating and going into trances, but I never do this things if I dont feel like them or if I feel they will not serve me at a particular moment of my life. I think my main "concern" (I'm not actually concerned, but more so curious) is to figure out why I was more disturbed when this happened when I was young. It seems that I induced it at will, but after that i just sort of went on my merry way. I didn't feel any better or any worse...I just though "well that was weird, but kinda cool" ? 

[SunCat]

@Emerald Hi, thanks for your response! I'm wondering if it's at all normal for people to induce it at will...and why I didn't feel any different after it. After all these years, I do wonder why it happened and why it didn't seem to change me for the better or worse. I just thought "that was strange, but cool"! 

 

Ohh I have also had very lucid dreams and sleep paralysis with hallucinations after some trauma I've had. Those were extremely different from the OBEs I've had and just plain awful ?