How would I know if my OOBE is 'real'?

[LazyPanda]

This morning was maybe the closest I ever got to an OOBE. At least that's what I'd like to believe, but I cannot say for sure if I haven't just been dreaming.

I've felt vibrations often in the last 2 years but things always stopped there for me.
There were many different approaches that I tried at this stage - this time I tried imagining that I'd appear on the street in front of my house. And yes, it came as a surprise to me how much willpower it required from me to actually have any effect with this. Either way I felt pulled in that direction and for a moment was hovering through my room towards the window. I didn't feel any extremities, I was like a formless blob of gelatine being pulled through ... a world of gelatine. Kinda like being underwater and not being able to swim. I believe I 'saw' the outlines of my room, however very darkish and unclear and it was more of a feeling of -knowing- my surroundings rather than -seeing- in any literal way. I don't remember what happened afterwards.

The problems I'm having:

What was different this time however was that I barely was concious, while I usually was fully aware during the vibrations in the past. It is different than just remembering a dream you had when you wake up, yet the whole thing felt like a dreams environment. It happened quite often to me lately, that I actually 'wake' up while the vibrations are in progress. Could this be some sort of false awakening?

Secondly, I can't say that I was really myself in that moment and I know that sounds strange. I knew who I was and what I had wanted to do. I was more aware of myself than I am in my dreams, but it still was like only part of me was there and the other part of me was dormant. I wasn't there to the full extent as I am right now for example, while I'm writing this. I felt so detached from everything...

And on a side-note:
I tried asking for clarity multiple times to improve what I see and it didn't help at all. How exactly would I do that? Just say 'i would like clarity' to myself in my head, like when reading some text in a book?


Would love to hear your opinions.

And thanks for reading my probably hard to understand gibberish.

LazyPanda

[justin35ll]

Seems like you're on the right track. A lot of times I get obe by doing what you described, imagining yourself "there". You could imagine yourself anywhere, but I prefer somewhere that is close to my physical body and somewhere I am very familiar with. I just posted a thread about my card experiment and I describe what I do there. I've found it works when you imagine you are actually in the environment and walking through or feeling things in it (in my experience I would be walking down and feeling the walls of my hallway) And once I reach my living room by this point it is still mostly all blackness with maybe a few vague outlines of the walls like you described. I've found what works for me is that I actually have to imagine opening my NPMR eyes and it really does look like I am opening them as my living room comes into full colored, clear view in front of me.

And it did take me some time to learn that, I failed a lot of times and sometimes still do. Sometimes I'll loose the experience before being able to open my NPMR eyes. It's just a matter of learning what works best for you, but from what you described I can relate to pretty well so I would say give that a shot.

As for boosting your awareness I usually do this immediately after opening my NPMR eyes as sometimes I can be very unbalanced and would like to ground myself in the experience right away. I usually do this by bringing my hands up to my face and looking closely at them for a second or 2. Then I'll either say something like Clarity now! or recently I've been saying something like "I'm now OBE in the nonphysical" to reassure myself.

[Szaxx]

If you were a little more assertive you may find things change.
If you simply asked not really expecting a result, that's exactly what you'll get.
If you commanded 'CLARITY NOW' and really expected it to work immediately, it would.

You switch on the light in a dark room expecting light don't you?
It's this immediate expectation you need to have. You or rather your thoughts are driving the experience.
Go do some NP driving.