Morphine-induced OOBE during spinal tap

This was back in 2001. I had back surgery on 9/10/2001 and woke up early the next morning groggy from the meds but unable to sleep. By coincidence, I had a subscription to New Yorker magazine at the time and was reading a copy in my hospital bed starting at about 530am (Pacific time). Just before 6am, I looked up at my suitemate's TV, which had been on all night, and saw the first tower burning. I immediately called my wife to let her know something bad had happened to the towers in New York. We were both watching the feed, she at home, me in my hospital bed, discussing what might be going on, when the second jet came into view making a hard left turn at full speed into the second tower. The whole thing seemed like a dream to me, but unfortunately I was wide awake. I told my wife to get over to the hospital and get me out of there as soon as possible.

Things went down hill from there. Within three days I had developed a complication from my surgery involving a tear in my thecal sack and a spinal fluid leak that forced open my surgical incision and caused an excrutiating condition called low-pressure headaches combined with radiculopathy. My surgeon's protocol for this situation was to first patch me up and see if the leak stopped on its own. It didn't. Then he suggested I return to the hospital for a spinal tap to take pressure off the leak and see if it would heal that way.

I'd had the spinal tap in for a day or so and was really struggling with it when, on the second night, my nurse asked if I would like some vicodin or morphine for the pain and discomfort. By now I had developed a cyst full of spinal fluid under the (closed) incision, and any pressure on my low back sent a lightning bolt down my leg. I had been switching off between vicodin and morphine depending on how bad it was, and this time I asked for the morphine. We discussed the dose, because I didn't want too much, and she gave me 2cc's. She left the room and I must have nodded off because the next thing I knew, I was up around the ceiling and headed out the door of my hospital room. I didn't realize at first that I wasn't in my body, and I never looked back into my room or anything. I went out the door of my room and took a left down the hallway. I made a right into what turned out to be the pharmacy or break room. I realized at this point that I wasn't in my body because I went right through the door without opening it. There were some open cupboards full of what looked like linen and gowns across the room in front of me, and to my left were two people standing over a small countertop or mini-refrigerator. There was something on the countertop between them I could just barely make out. My perspective was up high, like from the ceiling or something. One of the individuals was my nurse, and the other was a male with his back to me. My nurse became aware of me somehow right away, and prompted the male with his back to me that I was there. I got the feeling that I had interrupted them, and wasn't welcome. The male turned and looked up at me, kind of hunching his shoulders and leaning away, and my nurse was looking at me, too. Both pairs of eyes were a blazing electric blue. It kind of freaked me out. The male waved his arm at me, and I couldn't hear anything, but I could swear he hissed. The message I got was 'get out of here'. I must have moved backwards out the door, through the hall, and into my room because the next thing I knew I was in my body again, awake, and asking myself what on earth just happened to me. A few minutes later, the male nurse that I had seen during my OOBE but not up until that point from my body looked in the door and asked if everything was ok. I recognized him immediately, except his eyes weren't glowing electric blue anymore.

In the days that followed, I was able to get up and around a little. I re-traced the route I took in my OOBE, and looked in the window of the room I had entered. Sure enough, there was an open cupboard full of linens and gowns across the room, and a mini-refrigerator with a little counter on top inside to the left. Weird. There was no way I could have seen any of this on my way into the hospital. I had been in excrutiating pain and immediately admitted through the ER to my bed, where I lay down and was immediately medicated.

The spinal tap didn't work, either, and I ended up having corrective surgery to seal my thecal sack and stop the leak. I've always wondered what was I doing up by the ceiling like that, and why were the nurses' eyes glowing electric blue? Any thoughts or feedback or sharing of similar experiences from other members would be greatly appreciated.

peace out

The very first time I had an OBE was after taking opiates and that was what led me to this site and an interest in OBE's and astral projection. I was taking a far less potent opiate called codeine when i had my experience. I find that drugs like cannabis and opiates make it much easier to relax and get strong vibrations and whenever i have attempted projection under the influence i have got results. I strongly recommend avoiding projection after taking alcohol though, i had a few bad experiences with that.

By you recognising the male nurse and the room you saw during your OBE proves that it was real, however i wouldnt rule out the possibility that a mild visual hallucination could have occured aswell which would explain the electric eyes.

You said that the male nurse somehow acknowledged your presence in the OBE did u ask him about it afterwards?

I hope your backs much better mate

Peace- JoeyC

Originally posted by JoeyC
I strongly recommend avoiding projection after taking alcohol though, i had a few bad experiences with that.

yeah, alcohol is a depressant, not a stimulate, plus if your taking a walk on the astral plane i'm bound to think that you may stagger your way through the experience seeing double of everything.

Originally posted by TrueLies

Originally posted by JoeyC
I strongly recommend avoiding projection after taking alcohol though, i had a few bad experiences with that.

yeah, alcohol is a depressant, not a stimulate, plus if your taking a walk on the astral plane i'm bound to think that you may stagger your way through the experience seeing double of everything.

No i didnt mean it was bad in those ways...

A depressant would actually be preferable to stimulants for projection attempts because depressants relax you whereas stimulants would make you restless. As for staggering around the astral plane and seeing double i'd doubt that- that is how alcohol can affect your physical body and your physical body does not enter the astral planes.

Originally posted by Icarus Rising
My surgeon's protocol for this situation was to first patch me up and see if the leak stopped on its own. It didn't. Then he suggested I return to the hospital for a spinal tap to take pressure off the leak and see if it would heal that way.

I would consult a different neurosurgeon. Spinal fluid is also Cerebrospinal Fluid meaning that your spinal cord was leaking brain fluid. The spinal cord is often referred to as the 'tail of the brain'.

You should of had an MRI and immediately been referred to have a shunt inserted.

Sanc'.

That is so friggin scary! Not the OOBE part, but the medical stuff...Good cripes. Okay sorry thinking out loud here!

Anyway I took regular ol painkillers (percocets I believe) several years ago after getting my wisdom teeth out and I had a lot of the "flying dreams" while in the nodding off state, and it certainly seemed like an OOBE but more in the sense of drifting in and out of states of consciousness while still in my "flying dream"...

Anyway I am wondering if your experience could have been more about the freaky brain/spinal fluids (posted by last poster) and have been much more than morphine-induced? I also wonder if there is some mechanism that knows the pain centers were being worked on and opted to "check out?"

Very interesting experience!

The thing that gets me the most is that the nurses seemed to acknowledge you when you were hovering over. I don't quite know what to make of that. Is it possible there was a fly in the room or something that they saw and were looking at?

I've never had an OOBE, plenty of sleep paralysis and lucid dreams, but I've never left my body. How many of you have had experiences where you were OOBE and someone you were watching over was aware that you were there?

Thanks for sharing your experience and I hope that your back is no longer an issue.

Jemison

JoeyC - no I didn't mention it to the male nurse when he checked in on me. Thought I better not.

Sanctum - I did get an MRI the following week. It showed a 4cm spinal-fluid filled 'psuedomeningocele' (cyst) subcutaneous at the incision, and another 11mm one right at the source of the leak, crushing my sack against my cord, with a canal between the two. I'm glad you knew the cerebro- part, like I said the low-pressure headaches were excruciating - I wouldn't wish them on anyone. I think my guy was using the tap as a shunt. Anyway, I did consult with two senior partners in the same group (thanks HMO), and they all wanted to wait and see if the cysts would resorb. They didn't and, like I said, I had the corrective surgery to fix the leak. But this post was more about my OOBE than my back problems.

duh squared - I think the fluctuations in pressure in my spinal sack (the freaky brain/spinal fluids) had alot to do with my OOBE, and the morphine was probably just the trigger or something.

Jemison - the blazing blue-eyes definitely noticed me, not a fly, although who knows what the two nurses did or didn't feel or see on their existential reality level at that moment. The electric blues were aware of me and not happy that I was there, like I had interrupted something they were doing that I wasn't supposed to know about.

Icarus Rising:

Shouldn't you be on board one of these vehicles?

I'd bet, it's your primary wish to see one from the Business Class cabin... in order to come back later delighted and filled with joy.

Originally posted by Icarus Rising
Both pairs of eyes were a blazing electric blue. It kind of freaked me out. The male waved his arm at me, and I couldn't hear anything, but I could swear he hissed.

According to believers in the 'Reptilian Theory', the eyes of Reptilian entities are just as you explained. I also believe that another supposedly Reptilian trait is the ability to see the 'astral plane' - hence they could 'see' your astral body). And if they were Reptilians, the hissing is self explanatory.

Woah, that's weird...especially the part about the electric blue eyes. Anyways, I think your experience might have something to do with the morphine you took because I remember when I was in 7th grade(I'm in 10th now) I smoked pot with some of my friends for the first time( I know everyone says you don't get high the first time but I got pretty damn high) and afterwards we decided to walk to the town library and play tag in the basement. So, on the way to the library I didn't really know what we were doing so I just kinda followed behind everyone and I remember watching myself walk from like up above behind me( like in 3rd person view in a videgame). It wasnt like that the whole way there, I think I went in and out of my body every few minutes for probobly like 15 minutes and then when we got to the library and started playing tag it stopped and hasn't ever happened again high or sober. I just think what happened to you might have had something to do with how much morphine you took, isn't 2cc's kinda alot?

I think, this whole issue has more to do with Aliens than drugs. Those under the affect of drugs would never be able to reach any state of advanced mind capabilities, that prove to be fascinating day by day.

Those under the affect of drugs are the total loosers of the entire human community, and deserve nothing good or genuine.

Originally posted by Vertu
I think, this whole issue has more to do with Aliens than drugs. Those under the affect of drugs would never be able to reach any state of advanced mind capabilities, that prove to be fascinating day by day.

Those under the affect of drugs are the total loosers of the entire human community, and deserve nothing good or genuine.

How would you know? it sounds to me like you have never taken any drugs, so you wouldn't know what it is like to meditate under the influence. I know that some drugs help you to relax far better than you could is you were completely sober.

Some drugs may even induce Out of Body Experiences- have you heard of ketamin? Ketamin was once the drug commonly used in hospitals as a general anaesthetic. They had to stop using it after many patients had been freaked out by the drug causing them to have a OOBE's.

And your very quick to condemn drug users, Have you never drank alcohol? smoked a ciggarette? taken painkillers? do your parents? are they losers as well? or were you just reffering to the 'bad' drugs you've heard about on TV? but then again you wouldn't know what you're talking about anyway would you...

We are talking of the drugs of the Underworld, not medical aid. Big difference.

No, I'm not smoking, not drinking, and I don't take drugs or medicine. But I know more about paranormal phenomena than you do, and I don't need drugs to perform things that are far beyond your imagination.

Also, I think drugs are just useless if you want to e.g. perform telepathic transfers on another person . Some guys are feeding your mind with lies, and you buy them. Well, I think you are on the wrong path.

But on the other side, I get the feeling that you have some idea of my previous post... it has the basis of Truth.

Countbracula23 - young people must be very careful using illegal drugs. Smoking pot in seventh grade raises risk factors and exposes you to influences that can be very detrimental to your development and long term viability as an individual. Please be careful with yourself. I in no way advocate illegal drug use. What happened to me was the result of the interaction of prescription drugs administered by a medical professional with my grave medical condition. It wasn't fun. It was fascinating and confusing and profoundly affected me.

By the way, 2cc's was half of what the nurse originally offered.

Oh, and Vertu, I didn't understand the post with the jet picture very well, can you elucidate?

[edit on 13-2-2005 by Icarus Rising]

Originally posted by Icarus Rising
Oh, and Vertu, I didn't understand the post with the jet picture very well, can you elucidate?

I think you do understand me...!

Originally posted by Vertu

Originally posted by Icarus Rising
Oh, and Vertu, I didn't understand the post with the jet picture very well, can you elucidate?

I think you do understand me...!

Vertu, I get a feeling of egotism and arrogance from your posts. I don't believe you can do anything more special than I, or anyone else here. And i'm also firmly in belief that your stance on drugs is more than likely from a bad parental situation involving drugs when you were young, or a situation involving friends, and not from actual first hand experiences. Could you clarify a bit? thanks.



edit: fixed.

[edit on 13-2-2005 by forsakenwayfarer]

can someone please give me steps on how i could experience an out of body experience???

please no drugs though, i am only 16

Originally posted by Vertu
We are talking of the drugs of the Underworld, not medical aid. Big difference.

No, I'm not smoking, not drinking, and I don't take drugs or medicine. But I know more about paranormal phenomena than you do

Big difference between medical drugs and drugs of the 'underworld' ohhh they sound scary now don't they...

If you thought about what you were saying then you would have realised that almost every drug in the 'underworld' has uses in medicine:

Morphine is one of the strongest painkillers known to man.

Codeine (also an opiate) is a strong painkiller.

Even heroine was once used in hospitals before it was deemed to be too addictive.

All forms of cannabis is currently being researched for its medical uses.

When you have a tooth taken out at the dentist he injects a form of coc aine into your gums for local anaesthetic.

Ketamin i mentioned earlier was used as a general anaesthetic

Steroids are used to help people with weak muscles/asthma

As for the hallucinogens such as '___' and Mushrooms little or no research has been done but i believe they could have a high potential for use in serving patients with psychological problems.

Hmmm sorry i fail to see the big difference you mentioned earlier...

But apparently you can tell that your knowledge is far superior to mine after reading just 3 of my posts

Everybody knows that hardcore drugs are used in medicine, too. But the way comsumers use them, and the things they do to finance the drugs, all that system adds up to produce a person with criminal mind. His aim won't be the out of body experience in paranormal terms, instead, he will be dieing for the illumunated experience.

Now this has nothing to do with paranormal phenomena, and there are no researchers on this planet observing mind control and OOBE under the influence of drugs.

The fact that I am not a consumer, doesn't mean that I lack the knowledge and experience regarding other consumers, and drug dealers.