I've never experienced an OBE before. My brother has experienced them all throughout his life and quite frankly, I've always been glad that nothing similar had happened to me. Sometimes he'd wake up and be scared out of his mind. Nowadays he says they're just 'annoying' and something he'd rather not have to deal with.
Yesterday morning, it happened to me. I described the experience to my partner who immediately came up with OBE ... I thought it was just my mind spazzing out from falling asleep 'wrong' (I've experienced the falling feeling thing and assumed this was similar). He is as cynical/skeptical as they come ... doesn't believe in anything spiritual etc. but he found my experience highly unusual. He also said he'd never heard of anything like that before (he has suffered night terrors quite frequently in the past and is a lucid dreamer so has some experience with odd sleep phenomena).
In any case, it was about 8.30 in the morning and I was trying to get a few more hours before my university lecture, but I wasn't really tired anymore. I get this a lot and often force myself to go back to sleep even when I don't need it, but this time was different. Before I knew it, I found myself in a state that I can barely describe in words. It wasn't sleep paralysis or a night terror - I was conscious but for some reason aware that in some way, I wasn't either (not sure that makes sense). I could look all around the room but at the same time I was hearing things ... voices and music that were definitely not coming from the physical world. I must add that my vision was sharp and focused as well, which is unusual because I am short-sighted. After a few seconds of literally thinking, "what the hell is this?", I 'pulled myself back in' (this is literally what it felt like). It happened four times in total.
Does this sound crazy? It's never happened to me before, the experience was strange so it frightened me. Now I wonder whether I could explore it further. Any thoughts? Why has it just started to happen now??
Doesn't sound unusual in the slightest.. Sounds like my first experience too.. It was terrifying in the moment because I had never experienced it before.... But right after I wanted to explore it more... Now a year and a half later I have experienced them countless times, and they still fascinate me... Is such an enlightening experience... It completely changed my perspective on life, "reality", death, and spirituality. It does seem almost random... That it happens random... But I started having mine as soon as I asked to be more "open". I wanted to be opened up to everything and there it came.
Congrats to opening your eyes to this new world. :)
It sounds like you experienced a "false awakening" (well four of them to be precise!). It's a well known phenomenon related to OBE. Basically you feel as though you have woken normally, but things feel "different". A sense of presence in the room is common. Also strange noises. You are not actually physically awake when this happens, but rather in an altered state of consciousness. If this happens again, I recomend that you try to get out of bed. With a bit of luck, you will leave your physical body in bed and have an OBE...
The first time it happened to me I did it about 4-5 times in a row. I can also relate to how everything was sharper as well being that I normally wear glasses.
Coincidentally, this morning I had a lucid dream (I realised in the dream I was dreaming). So I wandered down a busy street in my LD and, remembering the comments about visual acuity, I looked into one shop window to see how well I could read some details printed on a card. It was very easy. I also noted how sharp my eyesight was and how clear the text was. So I moved closer and closer to the card to see what would happen. When I was about 3 to 4 inches from the card it became difficult to focus. Normally, I am very long sighted and no way could I read anything without wearing glasses. I wasn't wearing glasses in the LD. I think the only thing which stopped me from reading at less than 4 inches was the fact that I didn't believe I could do it.