OBE - Auto Pilot Mode

[Alex-Anderson]

I often will have an OBE where I will awaken into the experience and my body appears to be in control of itself, on a course of its own and completely unaware that I'm conscious.
 
These OBE's are strange as the experience is not a single approach but from an alternating point of view - me but not me. And occasionally I will simultaneously be in my body and at the same time viewing it from the outside doing all the driving.
 
For example every so often I will view myself exiting from my bed and I always exit like a snake sliding across the covers, bending over at the bottom edge of the bed and then sliding onto the floor. I will experience this from the ceiling looking down at myself making the exit but at the same time being inside my body making the journey. These types of exits only happen when my body is in this cruise control mode, otherwise when I have a conscious exit I will leave my body somewhat less gracefully!
 
In these situations my body appears to have an agenda of its own, and it's a bizarre opportunity to view what I get up and how smooth I appear to move. However there is a point during the experience where I feel like my body somehow becomes aware of my snooping or being a backseat driver making comments such as why I'm doing this, where am I going etc? Eventually the alternating points of view align back into first person – i.e. me in my body doing the manoeuvring.

Doesn't happen all the time, but when it does it can create some confusion identifying and putting trust into who you actually are during an OBE, or if there is more than one of yourself during an OBE.  

[Xanth]

I believe it was Albert Taylor, author of "Soul Traveller" who would "wake up" into his projections and notice that he was going around helping other people during the time he slept.  He'd wake up, notice that his non-physical body was doing this stuff... he'd stick around for the ride, then his non-physical body would then become aware that he was watching it.  O_o  Kinda strange.

Another idea that I have is that you just don't have much control over your thoughts and emotions.
You're in an area where what you experience and where you are is directly related to your thoughts/emotions/expectations/intention... so, if you have a fleeting thought, for even a SPLIT SECOND, that thought will take you to the astral result. 

Try closing off your thoughts and emotions when you find yourself zipping around like that.  See what happens. 

[Alex-Anderson]

Thanks for the interesting reference to Albert Taylor; I read it as almost identical to my experience. I have only listened to Albert Taylor on some podcasts but I have never read 'Soul Traveller' yet – that will have to be my next book purchase!
 
Regarding to the emotions - I would say I have fairly high emotional awareness/intelligence and would not see that as perhaps a cause. In fact I think most people who have continuous OBE's, AP's, and/or Lucid Dreams etc would develop or naturally have a higher emotional response/intelligence than the average person that would not have these experiences.
 
Based on the occasions that I have viewed myself I'm tending to lean on the notion that perhaps OBE's occur through their own intelligence, and we step into the process becoming absorbed by the actions but only as an 'intelligent' shadow copy. And perhaps the shadow copy can exist as numerous copies, with visualization from numerous simultaneous angles, and conscious awareness from numerous simultaneous positions all with their own agenda – no such thing defined as a single unit. But then again this notion conflicts with my other OBEs in which I'm a single person (i.e. me) with my own agenda such as leaving my body, heading somewhere and then returning.

The ambiguity that surrounds this phenomenon makes you wonder what should be the baseline and/or benchmark in trying to understand and develop your experience.  I suppose the advantage to this forum is the opportunity to set a baseline and/or benchmark.

[Greytraveller]

Hallo Alex
A truly interesting account of some exceptional OBEs. I have read a few accounts of OBEs by other people who also saw themselves from a third person point of view --- they saw their own physical body during the OBE AND also saw their astral/ethereal body from a third person point of view.
Here I would like to comment that this MIGHT encourage the belief that each of us is MORE than a physical body and an astral/ethereal body. The Hindus, for example, believe that there are 3 (or more) bodies for every person. Hindus believe in a physical body, an astral/ethereal body. a causal body, a mental body (etc, etc). And yes this can get rather confusing. More simply put is a Judeo-Christian idea of a separate physical body, soul and spirit, each existing independently of the other. I am not particularly endorsing any of these religious views but thought that it was an appropriate chance to comment that such views DO indeed exist.

Regards 
Grey