Possible OBE? Please give me your opinions.

Hello. A few days ago I had a very strange experience and am having trouble deciding if the event really happened or whether I just dreamed it. I'm leaning more towards it did actually happen however I'd like other peoples opinions as if it was real I'm not sure exactly what happened to me.

I was feeling tired so I decided to goto bed and have a quick nap. After a while I started to hear a buzzing / static electricity like noise, not unlike the sound made in the matrix when entering / exiting the 'virtual world' (watches everyone start to roll their eyes hehe).

I sat up so I could listen better to work out where this noise was coming from. However when I tried to get out of bed I couldn't move. It felt like there was a force trying to push me back down onto the bed. The harder I tried to get up the louder this static sound became and the harder this force seemed to be trying to push me back down on the bed. The best I could do was resist it enough to continue sitting upright.

I tried opening my eyes but for some reason was completely unable to. Once again, the harder I tried the louder this static sound became and I noticed the hairs on my body were starting to stand on end like they do when you are charged with static electricity.

By now I was starting to panic a bit, not knowing what the heck was going on, and I remember trying to work out if I was dreaming or not. Anyway, I kept trying with all my might to open my eyes and eventually I was able to see around the room, but everything was in black and white.

However (and this is a bit ... odd), even though I felt completly unable to move, I quite easily was able to lift my arm and check that my eyes were actually open because even though I could clearly see, my eyes were (or at least at the time i thought they were) still quite firmly closed. When I ran my hands over my eyes I realised that they were quite firmly closed, so I put my arm back down to help hold myself up and once again was completely unable to move.

I remember being scared witless, telling myself to keep calm, thinking "I need to leave my body" and straining with all my might to at the least bring my head forward.

At that point the static sound turned into more like a deafening cracking and I felt like I was being electrocuted (not a particularly pleasant feeling...) and this force trying to push me back flat onto the bed got almost too strong to resist.

Next it felt like my head became free to move around, but it wasn't my head. It felt like I can only describe it as my soul leaving my body, and it was my ... spiritual (??) head I was actually moving and using to look around the room. I could feel something tugging my 'spiritual head' back towards my body, at which point I must have blacked out, because the next thing I remember is opening my REAL eyes, my heart pounding and my body tingling like I'd just had an electric shock. One of the reasons I am finding it hard to believe this was just a dream was when I opened my REAL eyes, it wasn't the same as when you have just woken up, still feeling slightly groggy etc. I was fully awake, my limbs weren't stiff as they usually are, my tongue was asleep, as usually happens (usually takes a good 30mins after I've woken up before I can say something more than mmmdfslkdfmmmdfldudgm )

Also, normally I basically bounce out of bed but it took me a good 10minutes just to get my body to wake up so I could move. For the rest of the day I was unusually charged with static electricity.

It may have been my imagination going beserk but that night I could have sworn I kept seeing a dark shadow of no concernable lingering out of the corner of my eye, and since then (4 days ago) I've felt constantly drained and all the muscles in my legs feel stiff like I'd just run a marathon. I've also had this feeling there is a (bad) presence with me.

However I have always had a presence of one sort or another for as long as I can remember, especially one that brings a feeling of fear over me that has been with me since I was a child but its never caused me harm or done anything overly freaky apart from ocassionally sliding a drawer open and shut which I'm pretty used to by now... It seems to prefer to watch....the dirty lil bugger But anyway that's an entirely different issue...I think.

Anyway, back on topic, what do you guys think? Do I need prozac, a psychiatrist, brain scan, exorcism or something else?

If this was just a dream, then what could the explanation be for my whole body tingling as though I had just had an electric shock? (it definately wasn't pins and needles :S), and the shadow that I've been seeing lately?

I've tried to be as descriptive as I can. Also when I was seeing things in black and white, I managed to look around the room, and the only thing I saw that was out of the ordinary was a dark shadow which seemed to stay in the very corner of my vision. Apart from that the room was exactly in the condition it was when I "woke up" and looked around it with my real eyes...

And no there was no electrical equipment near the bed (I'm so poor I don't even have an alarm clock lol *sighs*), and no power points nearby so that rules out some sort of shortcircuit or touching a live wire.

One extra piece of information that might send the loon-o-meters through the roof the night before I read a thread on this site about a member who managed an OBE by asking for help from someone else on the astral plane, spiritual world, whatever the buzzword is this week, so just before I went to bed that night I asked for a GOOD person / creature / thing to help me have an OBE. Is it possible this was all some VERY realistic nightmare because of what I'd read the previous night? Or did something of not entirely pure intentions answer my request?

If it did, then it's something a heck of alot stronger than anything I've encountered before. Usually I can basically just tell the presence to either show itself and tell me what it wants or go away, but this presence that I feel, feels different. It feels ALOT bigger than anything I've felt before...maybe it's the son of satan come to claim my soul to be forever tormented by 1000 young virgins who are forever just millimetres out of my reach

All of those things you described - hard to move, seeing while eyes closed, strange sounds/visions, black and white vision, vibrations/jolts of energy (electricity?) - are things i've read about in OBE experiences. None of them seem to be uncommon.
To me, although i'm certainly no expert, it sounds as if you had an OBE. What caused it? well you'd have a better idea of that than anybody else.

As for the presence that you've been percieving, you say it's never caused you harm. Do you think perhaps it could be some sort of spirit guide or something?
Maybe something did answer your request, but as long as you're not being hurt in any way, i wouldn't be too quick to say it's necessarily a negative entity. Fear can be caused by many things, not necessarily because this presence is a bad one.

Just my thoughts

sometimes ppl wake up half asleep and are unable to move and feel as if there is someone sitting on there chest , alot of flase alien adbuctions are linked to this , but in your case it seemed like u had that and you were fighting agaist it and caused yourself to have a Oobe experince , now i 've had a experince like that was was really scary i'm going to post it in a sec but in it it seemed at begining more like a lucid dream rather then a oobe even tho everything else in it felt like a oobe

this is true a phenominon alot of 1st oobes start like that
nightscares are a possibility also
lucid dreams are a form of oobe
only this isn't the whole body outing
it is the mind leaving your body for a moment
an astral projection so to speak
i have had many a vision that involves my mind leaving my body
i believe there are 3 parts to the human body
the mind
the soul
and the flesh
we are cursed to be trapped in our bodies unless we overcome the barriar

lucid dreams involve your mind wanting a release from the soul and flesh
an oobe is the soul looking for a momentary retreat from the same
now there are also times when your body wants to do its own thing
I.E.
have you ever walked somewhere and wondered how you got there?
thats the body not listening to the mind or soul...
and wanting it's own experience...

as for the entity that u speak of
i believe its a spirit left there with you to
help u find an answer for something you yourself have been struggling with since childhood not a bad spirit in any means
when it does the droor thing it is just letting u know it is still there..
i wouldn't worry to much
the minute it stsrts to harm u is the minute you should seek a spectrewitch
or ghosthunter...
so the spirit can be vanquished

I'm pretty sure it wasn't night terrors because generally in the rare instances I remember any dreams / nightmares I have within 30mins of waking up I've basically forgotten them but I can still remember what happened clear as day.

As for the presence, the one that has been with me my whole life is different from the one I have been feeling since the 'event'. As it's been with me my whole life, it's quite easy to distinguish it from any other presences that are around at the time (I like to think of them as spirits... don't want to go down the evil, menacing demons-coming-to-eat-your-soul path...I'd like to sleep tonight hehe).

This thing I've been feeling lately is different somehow. It doesn't 'feel' the same as all the other spirits that I've encountered. With other spirits if I haven't been able to see them at the very least I've been able to pinpoint a rough location of where they are, but I can't tell with this thing. It feels like it is everywhere.

If it was an OBE, are they meant to be so traumatic? I had already read a little about them so that's why I tried not to panic when it was happening in case it was an OBE, as I read that panic & fear can prevent an OBE experience from happening. Is it normal for your body to feel like it's being electrocuted?

edit:

ps. lossoffreedom it's strange you mention that about unresolved childhood issues as a friend I confided in over a totally seperate incident (and more traditional, non weird paranormal event) said the same thing...and yes quite a few times I have "zoned out" and had complete conversations with people, gone places etc with absolutely no memory of them and in the case of going places once I got there having absolutely no idea as to why I went there... but that could just be alzeimers kicking in

[edit on 25-8-2004 by LordGoofus]

do you have a digital camera handy
if these are spirits u see... you can point it in the direction of the presence you wiil definitly get an odd distortion of some kind with the camera and maybe even possibly an orb of some kind even a weird fog on part of the camera's film it works i've done it myself...

i have a nightvision camera that takes some amazing pics of spirits and spectres

a nightvision camera will probably run u a good 350 dollars but well worth it...

well dreams are calling
night all
loss of reason

LordGoofus, what happened to you was most likely an OBE.
When you ask to be pulled out of your body by a higher being, sometimes they respond. But there are also dark beings outthere, they feed on your fear and doubt, these emotions attract them. Their influence, however, is only on your mind, they can't physicaly harm you, they can't really harm your soul. There are ways to protect yourself from these entities, the best way is to control your fear. No matter what you see out there, it CANNOT physicaly harm you. They mess with your mind, make you see things that are not there, like monsters, they cause fear and doubt, but thats about it. If you learn to control your fear and to protect your mind, they have no real power over you.

From what I can tell, they stopped you from completely leaving your body.

It's interesting that you mention feeling a 'presence' during this experience.
Every single time I have had an OBE there is always a presence, or multiple presences in the room.
I sometimes feel that this 'presence', in some way, assist me in my out out of body experiences. I think it's good to take a hard look at whether you are just purely frightened of them, or they are in fact negative. Based on my experience, I don't find my 'presences' as being negative.
Sometimes I have become afraid, but that was me manifesting my own fears. It has never been anything to do with whether the 'pesence' was negative, as I believe they are not.
As for the cracking sound you hear, that's not a sound I can recall hearing. But often before I begin to leave my body, I hear something that sounds almost like a radio transmission garble, like as though someone is moving a radio dial across.
For me, I relate this sound to the 'presence' in my room. There seems to be a connection between the two.
I'm also curious as to how old you are. Have you had this experience when you were a child as well?
If you can't recall whether you had or not, I would be asking myself, 'what in my life has triggered this now, or why am I able to remember this now'.
Could it be that your investigations into this has triggered you to open up a little, or that the experience just happend, and this then lead you to find out more.

This experience can take some getting used to, and over time, that will happen.

Thanks everyone for your opinions. Considering while I have come across a few negative feeling presences myself nor anyone / anything around me has been damaged (although there was one that had a bad habit of literaly shaking the entire house but it didn't follow me when i moved thank goodness). I can believe they can't really hurt me in any way other than play my own fears against me . It makes sense in a strange way.

And yes I've been considering for some time about setting up my webcam on motion capture once I figure out how to get the thing working ... bit nervous about what i might capture though. Will definately post pics if anything interesting does come up.

Although I have been trying to do the whole oobe thing for a while I doubt this event was my own doing because to be honest if it was all me, I have no idea how I did it What are some suggestions to help me control / develop it? I've tried meditation but all that gets me is a good nights sleep.

dolphinguy, the only experience that I can clearly remember from my childhood was waking up at night and seeing a shadow of a woman nursing a baby next to my bed and then feeling something grab my hand....but I was young (bout 6 or 7) so it was probably just my imagination getting the better of me and then grabbing myself out of fright hehe.

Also approx 18months ago I had my first experience where I was lying down and could see a VERY dark, vague outline of the room I was in even though my eyes were shut. That prompted me to look into astral projection and try to develop this ability but things got to the point where I couldn't sleep at night because even with my eyes closed I could still see the outlines of the things in the room, regardless of whether i wanted to or not. So I stopped and this 'ability' seemed to go away until my experience I described in my first post.

So anyway, thanks everyone for your comments. I'll try to setup a webcam and if anyone out there feels like 'visiting' me, and giving me a grand tour of the astral / spiritual plane or whatever the proper term is feel free to do so...just don't keep me up too late...some people have work in the morning

Is there a Hitchhikers Guide To OBE? No? Anyone?

lord goofus give this a try it may work for you
there are many methods to do this

Find a quiet place . . . free of distractions. . .


Adjust the lighting and room temperature. . .


Adjust clothing . . . footwear . . . eyeglasses.


Sit down or lie down . . .

Find a position that is comfortable for you . . .


Quiet your mind . . . Still your thoughts . . .


Relax your body. . .

Your face . . . your jaw . . . relaxing . . .

Your shoulders . . . your neck . . . relaxed

Your arms . . . your hands . . . feel at peace . . .

Your torso . . . your hips . . . letting go . . .

Your legs . . . your feet . . . totally relaxed . . .



Focus on your breathing . . .

Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose . . .

Retain the breath as long as is comfortable . . .

Exhale through the mouth slowly and completely . . .

Repeat for two more breaths . . . or as is comfortable.



Let go of the fear of leaving your physical body.

Remember you astral project when you sleep.



See yourself floating away from your physical body.

You may feel as release or perhaps hear a sound as you leave.



If you get fearful, please stop as you are not ready for astral projection.

Anything done in metaphysics should feel comfortable and easy.

If it is stressful, let it go for now, as you are not ready.