Messages

Congrats on your first OBE! Although brief, it was an important experience nonetheless! All the common "symptoms" were there, from the vibrations, to the sleep paralysis, and of course the final climax in which you saw yourself laying there.

There are cases where it becomes difficult to distinguish between very lucid dreams that depict OBE's and an actual OBE. But from your description it seems like it was a clear cut OBE. It must have been extremely difficult to focus with the sounds of music, and weeping going on, and the initial shock of seeing your body.

As the previous posters have said, there are no real documented dangers of OBE..that initial fear that people experience is definitely a hard thing to overcome, but from your post it doesn't seem like you were too shaken up from the whole thing. That's great!

Interesting topic...aha, I'm a little rushed right now in writing this, so please excuse disjointed style of my reply.

I think perhaps the question is better asked as, "Does my conscious self OBE every night?". At the onset, the question can be answered on a purely subjective basis that is self-evident to each individual proposing the question. However, there are a few things we must take into consideration.

In keeping with Frank Kepple's notions of consciousness, the Astral world is existent at all times, whether awake or asleep. It comes down to a matter of how often we can phase through our levels of consciousness. Given that it is common knowledge that the Astral is absolute, it is ever-occurring, the question then becomes "How often are we consciously aware of Astral?"

Although it is quite possible that a certain aspect of our unconscious-self projects every night, we remain unaware of it and cannot account for the experience. I would not go as far as dismissing the importance of unconscious projections, however the significance of unconscious projection -in my opinion- does not require a great deal of attention.

"Do I actually OBE every night?" Hmm... it depends what we consider to be the "I"/self. We know from subjective experience how often our conscious self projects, and chances are the common answer for the majority of people is "No". Of course there remains the possibility that the unconscious self projects every night. Interestingly enough, a few questions are raised in light of this idea. Are the nightly projections we have -that we remain unaware of- purely set on auto-pilot? Is there perhaps another conscious self within us that controls the nightly OBE's we have? Are we to dismiss unconscious projections that are not initiated by the conscious self?

Again, let's refer back to the notion that the Astral is always existent. Our conscious self, the "I" , that is reading these posts right now is aware that the astral world exists, and yet is not projecting because our consciousness self is focused purely on this physical reality. It is not until we make the conscious decision to enter the Astral that we become aware of it. Perhaps the same line of thought applies to us while  in our slumber. Our conscious self while asleep is focused on something other than the astral, whether it be dreaming, thought etc... Unless we make that conscious decision to project -just as we do in our waking life- we remain outside of the Astral realm.

It just comes down to a matter of shifting our consciousness (as Kepple proposed), if there is no conscious shift to become aware of the astral, then perhaps we are not OBE'ing at night. So, my answer to whether we OBE every night would be "No", simply on the grounds that to enter the astral, we need to make a conscious shift, or become aware of it. And in sleep, where we remain unaware, or do willfully initiate the shift of consciousness, our self remains in physical reality. The shift can be spontaneous, or self initiated; either way, what is of importance is that we consciously shift from one realm to another.

Now, I will be the first to admit that there are other possibilities that are contrary to this argument, and I am definitely in position to say those are right or wrong. For example, perhaps there are two separate conscious modes, one reserved for the astral, and one reserved for the physical. In this case, the astral consciousness is forever projecting in the astral realm even if we are not aware of it. This would mean that every night we do OBE, as the astral self is always in that realm.

But for me, I find the notion of consciousness to be crucial to OBE'ing. In my opinion, there remains one governing consciousness that solidifies our existence, it is the "I" that we are always aware of. And depending on what the conscious "I" experiences, results in whether or not we are in the astral, or the physical. So if we are not consciously aware of our self projecting, then we are not projecting at all. Now, just a quick note, I should stress that I do not mean that if we are not conscious of the astral that it does not exist. Again, the astral is forever existent, it is always around, however we do not experience it until we consciously enter it.