Saturday, March 20, 2004
Out-Of-Body Experiences
"Outside looking in,
Getting over my fears and under my skin,
Tearing myself apart,
To feel whole again, outside looking in..." ~ 'Outside Looking In' - Fates Warning
There come times in your life when the natural order of things takes a slight detour into the unexplainable and unknown recesses of nature; a darker side of nature that is rarely if ever perceived by the Common Man. These incidents and/or symptoms of the Universe serve as a reminder of how fragile that human existence is, and of how insignificant that human beings are in relation to the Grand Scheme Of Things.
Which brings me to the subject of out-of-body experiences. For those who may not be familiar with this phenomenon, it is (apparently) a state of mind and perception when the mind and/or self-awareness appears to drift outside of the human body. If this concept confuses you, then I offer you this suggestion: look at everything that is around you at this very moment; now imagine that you are looking at everything around you from somewhere else in the room while your body remains at the point where it sits right now.
Confusing, yes, I know. But that is why they call it a phenomenon. *wink-wink*
Now before you dismiss me as utterly crazy for bringing this subject to light, bear in mind that there are countless books and websites dedicated to this brand of phenomena. Phenomena that is based entirely in scientific fact and research; call them kooks if you want. I call them visionaries.
I suppose that I should cut to the chase here. I have been a member of the proverbial elite class of out-of-body experienced people for a long time now. My first excursion into the realm of the supernatural began during my sophomore year of high school. I had subscribed to a Time Life series of books called Mysteries Of The Unknown. And one of those books dealt with the "Voyages Of The Mind". I thought it was some pretty cool shit, as any 15 year old kid would. Anyway, one of the chapters in that book contained some quotes from this dude who was apparently some kind of "expert" on out-of-body experiences and how to induce them upon oneself. Being the natural skeptic that I am, I had at first dismissed this dude's procedure as utter bullshit. But just for kicks, I decided to try it out just to see if it actually worked. I won't go into details as to what the procedure is, only that it involves a form of (seemingly) meditation in which you become inert and aware of every part and extremity of your anatomy. You then attempt to "will" yourself out of your body by imagining yourself as floating upward and forward.
A weird concept, certainly. But after about 20 minutes or so of actually trying it out by remaining perfectly and utterly still on my bed with my eyes closed, lying on my back, I began to feel a rather soothing sense of calm. It almost felt like sleeping, only I was 100% aware of everything around me, and I seemed to feel a literal draining of my extremities, as if the life was being drained out of them. Then I felt as though my body was rising a bit, and admittedly, this freaked the shit out of me. I panicked, and attempted to sit up, only to find that my body didn't want to move. I could actually move, but my body felt extremely sluggish; like a lot of dead weight. After about 5 seconds or so, I shook myself out of that sluggishness and was alert and upright. But what happened that night after I went to bed, I will never forget.
Those episodes repeated themselves almost constantly throughout the night as I tried to sleep. I'm not certain what I did, but apparently, after I had seemingly unlocked this new ability to project myself out of my body, the fucking experience wouldn't stop. Every time I fell asleep, my awareness or whatever would project itself, to the point where every time I had to shake myself out of it, I began to literally dread falling asleep again. Needless to say, I had almost no sleep that night.
These episodes repeated themselves countless times afterward, to the point where I felt as though I was going literally insane. There were times when I saw and/or heard things, strange things, while I was experiencing these out-of-body excursions. Strange people, transparent in look and nature, who would appear or seem to be standing above or next to me while I was having these experiences. Almost as though I was looking at shadows of people that obviously shouldn't have been there, but were. They were people who were at times malevolent, at other times passive, but always looking directly at me, meaning that they were aware of my presence and I of theirs.
There was another, very important presence that had stuck in my memory for all these years, since August of 1995 to be specific, that I had seen while caught in one of my many out-of-body experiences. But the identity of that presence will have to wait until one of my later blogs, which shall be called "Splitting The Time Atom".
So what are out-of-body experiences, exactly? Who really knows? To me, they are as significant and relevant as dreams themselves. And one can easily dismiss them as simply that: dreams. Images induced by a relaxed yet imaginative mind, which isn't too far from the truth.
My out-of-body experiences have always happened while I was either asleep or on the verge of sleep. My theory is that in that particular state of mind, the brain becomes so relaxed that it literally begins to wander; the brain's "defenses", so to speak, are literally let down and the mind is left unguarded.
What occurs afterwards is subject to dispute. What I honestly believe, is that out-of-body experiences are simply a figment and symptom of the subconscious mind's rather annoying habit of tricking the conscious mind into believing something that is not really happening. Translation: out-of-body experiences are simply figments of over-active imaginations.
The human mind is capable of so much, and yet its actions are forever observed from only our own perspective. Meaning that what you perceive isn't always what is true. Take for example, when you go to a hockey game and see something interesting happen out on the ice. You have your own perspective of what happened, but talk to 10 different people about it and I GUARANTEE you that you will get 10 different opinions and/or perspectives of what happened. And there will undoubtedly be times when you are either proven wrong or at odds with someone else who saw things differently than you did.
Thus, the human mind is not 100% reliable when seen from your own perspective, since your own perspective is simply what your own mind's various senses are relaying to your overall awareness. And that awareness is what ultimately forms conscious thought and subsequent translation into resulting decision.
Does my theory answer the question of whether or not there is an actual Soul? Well, yeah, if you believe that your Soul is your absolute awareness of all that you see, smell, taste, touch, hear, and beyond. While the fantastic mind within me would love to embrace the fact that my Soul had indeed left my body all of those countless times, the skeptical mind that shares the vessel of Zelmo tends to believe otherwise; that the Soul may indeed exist, but is anchored to the living and breathing human body like a dead weight, and tends to imagine itself as leaving the body to go elsewhere simply because it believes that it can.
But that is simply my own belief.
Perspective can be the mother of all fuck-ups.
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Getting over my fears and under my skin,
Tearing myself apart,
To feel whole again, outside looking in..." ~ 'Outside Looking In' - Fates Warning
There come times in your life when the natural order of things takes a slight detour into the unexplainable and unknown recesses of nature; a darker side of nature that is rarely if ever perceived by the Common Man. These incidents and/or symptoms of the Universe serve as a reminder of how fragile that human existence is, and of how insignificant that human beings are in relation to the Grand Scheme Of Things.
Which brings me to the subject of out-of-body experiences. For those who may not be familiar with this phenomenon, it is (apparently) a state of mind and perception when the mind and/or self-awareness appears to drift outside of the human body. If this concept confuses you, then I offer you this suggestion: look at everything that is around you at this very moment; now imagine that you are looking at everything around you from somewhere else in the room while your body remains at the point where it sits right now.
Confusing, yes, I know. But that is why they call it a phenomenon. *wink-wink*
Now before you dismiss me as utterly crazy for bringing this subject to light, bear in mind that there are countless books and websites dedicated to this brand of phenomena. Phenomena that is based entirely in scientific fact and research; call them kooks if you want. I call them visionaries.
I suppose that I should cut to the chase here. I have been a member of the proverbial elite class of out-of-body experienced people for a long time now. My first excursion into the realm of the supernatural began during my sophomore year of high school. I had subscribed to a Time Life series of books called Mysteries Of The Unknown. And one of those books dealt with the "Voyages Of The Mind". I thought it was some pretty cool shit, as any 15 year old kid would. Anyway, one of the chapters in that book contained some quotes from this dude who was apparently some kind of "expert" on out-of-body experiences and how to induce them upon oneself. Being the natural skeptic that I am, I had at first dismissed this dude's procedure as utter bullshit. But just for kicks, I decided to try it out just to see if it actually worked. I won't go into details as to what the procedure is, only that it involves a form of (seemingly) meditation in which you become inert and aware of every part and extremity of your anatomy. You then attempt to "will" yourself out of your body by imagining yourself as floating upward and forward.
A weird concept, certainly. But after about 20 minutes or so of actually trying it out by remaining perfectly and utterly still on my bed with my eyes closed, lying on my back, I began to feel a rather soothing sense of calm. It almost felt like sleeping, only I was 100% aware of everything around me, and I seemed to feel a literal draining of my extremities, as if the life was being drained out of them. Then I felt as though my body was rising a bit, and admittedly, this freaked the shit out of me. I panicked, and attempted to sit up, only to find that my body didn't want to move. I could actually move, but my body felt extremely sluggish; like a lot of dead weight. After about 5 seconds or so, I shook myself out of that sluggishness and was alert and upright. But what happened that night after I went to bed, I will never forget.
Those episodes repeated themselves almost constantly throughout the night as I tried to sleep. I'm not certain what I did, but apparently, after I had seemingly unlocked this new ability to project myself out of my body, the fucking experience wouldn't stop. Every time I fell asleep, my awareness or whatever would project itself, to the point where every time I had to shake myself out of it, I began to literally dread falling asleep again. Needless to say, I had almost no sleep that night.
These episodes repeated themselves countless times afterward, to the point where I felt as though I was going literally insane. There were times when I saw and/or heard things, strange things, while I was experiencing these out-of-body excursions. Strange people, transparent in look and nature, who would appear or seem to be standing above or next to me while I was having these experiences. Almost as though I was looking at shadows of people that obviously shouldn't have been there, but were. They were people who were at times malevolent, at other times passive, but always looking directly at me, meaning that they were aware of my presence and I of theirs.
There was another, very important presence that had stuck in my memory for all these years, since August of 1995 to be specific, that I had seen while caught in one of my many out-of-body experiences. But the identity of that presence will have to wait until one of my later blogs, which shall be called "Splitting The Time Atom".
So what are out-of-body experiences, exactly? Who really knows? To me, they are as significant and relevant as dreams themselves. And one can easily dismiss them as simply that: dreams. Images induced by a relaxed yet imaginative mind, which isn't too far from the truth.
My out-of-body experiences have always happened while I was either asleep or on the verge of sleep. My theory is that in that particular state of mind, the brain becomes so relaxed that it literally begins to wander; the brain's "defenses", so to speak, are literally let down and the mind is left unguarded.
What occurs afterwards is subject to dispute. What I honestly believe, is that out-of-body experiences are simply a figment and symptom of the subconscious mind's rather annoying habit of tricking the conscious mind into believing something that is not really happening. Translation: out-of-body experiences are simply figments of over-active imaginations.
The human mind is capable of so much, and yet its actions are forever observed from only our own perspective. Meaning that what you perceive isn't always what is true. Take for example, when you go to a hockey game and see something interesting happen out on the ice. You have your own perspective of what happened, but talk to 10 different people about it and I GUARANTEE you that you will get 10 different opinions and/or perspectives of what happened. And there will undoubtedly be times when you are either proven wrong or at odds with someone else who saw things differently than you did.
Thus, the human mind is not 100% reliable when seen from your own perspective, since your own perspective is simply what your own mind's various senses are relaying to your overall awareness. And that awareness is what ultimately forms conscious thought and subsequent translation into resulting decision.
Does my theory answer the question of whether or not there is an actual Soul? Well, yeah, if you believe that your Soul is your absolute awareness of all that you see, smell, taste, touch, hear, and beyond. While the fantastic mind within me would love to embrace the fact that my Soul had indeed left my body all of those countless times, the skeptical mind that shares the vessel of Zelmo tends to believe otherwise; that the Soul may indeed exist, but is anchored to the living and breathing human body like a dead weight, and tends to imagine itself as leaving the body to go elsewhere simply because it believes that it can.
But that is simply my own belief.
Perspective can be the mother of all fuck-ups.
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