OOBE - out-of-body travel

 As unusual as it sounds, journeys involving leaving one's own body happen more often than one might think. People who have experienced this type of adventure do not always feel like sharing their findings with others. Usually, when they tell about it for the first time, they are met with disbelief or even a suspicion that "there must be something wrong with them".


It is hard to believe that someone who is fully conscious, not dreaming, not fantasising, would see himself lying on the bed below, penetrating the walls with his hand, etc. Just like in a sci-fi movie. It turns out that similar memories of OOBE episodes (the abbreviation for "out of body experience") are experienced by different people, regardless of where they live, what culture they grew up in, whether they are religious or not.

Sometimes people experience out-of-body experiences when they are in a somewhat weakened physical or mental state, seriously ill or lonely and at the same time feel a lot of mental pressure, fear or stress. Certain elements of the out-of-body experience are somewhat reminiscent of borderline death experiences. There is surprise and often a great deal of fear and uncertainty about how such an experience will end. A person leaves his or her body and, in an immaterial form, is in no way limited by space and time. He or she can move freely, although he or she usually does not decide on the direction and destination of the journey. Most often, he also returns to himself, or rather his earthly shell, without much difficulty.

We are aware of the spiritual element in ourselves, but for many such a complete, total separation from their bodies, while retaining the gift of hearing, understanding and observation, is really quite a shock, at least at first.

As already mentioned, out-of-body experiences are more a reaction of the body and psyche to temporary extreme conditions or emotions. This, at least, is the case in most cases. However, there is a view according to which the long-term meditative exercises of monks in the Far East may have led them to a state in which they were able to induce states similar to being out of body.

Somewhat contrary to this, the book 'Journeys Outside the Body' by Robert A. Monroe can be testified to. In it, the author describes his experiences of trying to induce out-of-body states on his own. He was an educated person, not particularly religious, but extremely inquisitive. Despite his initial scepticism, it was precisely this quality that made him investigate the phenomenon that occurred to him, a phenomenon he did not initially understand. It was only by searching and digging into the subject that he came across an explanation for the phenomenon of leaving the body. Further searching and experimentation led him to experiences with attempts to leave his own body. As part of these experiences, he came across, in his own words, a kind of alternative world, also inhabited by human beings. How can this be understood and explained? Or is it a link to the curvature of space-time?

Robert A Monroe also experienced the presence of a deceased friend as part of his experiments with states of the body (he called the moving body the second body), seeing him as he was when he was young. In a way, then, he also attests to the existence of another kind of existence after death. In fact, the experience of being out of the body is in a way similar to passing into another dimension. The similarity lies in the fact that with an OOBE (as with an NDE, a near-death experience), one returns and continues to live. Although it can certainly be said that the experience of being out of body somehow tames the ultimate experience that awaits everyone anyway.

It seems that even if similar experiences initially surprise, distress or even frighten, they ultimately bring some good. They become, for those who have lived them, a certain milestone in their understanding of spirituality. Having experienced a moment or more outside of themselves, outside of their bodies, they change their perspective and open up to giving kindness, they are more understanding, warm, welcoming.