Ever the friendly helpful well-dressed sort, Max left me with the impression that he was self-assured, intelligent and caring, almost to a fault. Short and bald, the shining top of his head would reflect whatever lights were in the vicinity. I've never seen him moody and, instead, a perpetual smile greeted me whenever we met and that was daily. The snappy little bowties he always sported seemed a bit weird to me, but they blended well with colourful dress shirts, nice slacks and jackets and the ever-present shiny black shoes.

The only overall description I can come up with on Max was 'natty'.

I'd known him about a year now, ever since joining the company as an accountant. Max and I had worked together on many files over the past year and his shared expertise made me feel very comfortable in that field. Liking him immensely came quite naturally to me.

Today, a Monday morning, I came to work as usual at 8AM, but felt a little dragged out. Maybe there were circles under my eyes, maybe it was my posture... I don't know, but Max picked up on it within minutes of me sitting down at my desk. I'd barely even booted up the computer and he was over asking me how I was.

So I told him what had happened.

On Friday night, after work, instead of heading back to my apartment, I'd decided not to make myself a meal, which was usual, but instead drop in on a little Somali restaurant I'd heard about. There, I had the lamb, rice, lots of mango juice and an obligatory banana. I left the place absolutely stuffed for about $14.

That night, however, I hardly slept at all. I began cramping up severely by midnight and, starting in the early morning, had a terrible case of the runs. Returning to my bed after each episode, I'd try to sleep all through the day, but it was completely impossible and no true rest came to me at all. Laying on my bed as the approaching dusk grew long shadows in my bedroom, a strange new feeling crept over me.

How to describe it... (?) First, there was an eerie silence, like all sounds were muffled and then I felt I was in the process of shrinking, literally. At the same time, an incredibly pleasant sensation of lightness also came upon me, as if I could easily float off the bed. I closed my eyes then and, in my weakened state, allowed myself to enjoy this strangeness.

And enjoy it I did. The more I concentrated on both the shrinking and the lightness, the more pronounced it became. Very cool, I thought, very, very cool.

Then I opened my eyes and looked down upon the bed and there I was below me. That's right... I was near the ceiling and looking down at myself lying on that bed where I lay with my eyes closed, my arms and legs splayed out, the sheet pushed aside and my mouth agape like I was a dead man.

The shock I felt after realizing what was going on had an immediate effect and the next thing I know I was sitting up in bed wondering what in hell had just happened.

Not hard to understand that getting back to sleep after that little episode had me more worried about my precious sanity than the obvious case of food poisoning I'd suffered from over the past 24 hours. Even though the runs had ceased and my guts weren't aching anymore, I couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling that seeing my body stretched on that cot was no dream. It really had happened.

I did manage to get a few hours of sleep late that Sturday night, though, likely more out of exhaustion than anything else, and by Sunday afternoon, I'd sipped some water, ate some toast and was fairly well on the mend. Enough to watch the World Series anyways.

So, that's the story I told Max at my desk this morning and, you could guess it already... he smiled, touched his nose and told me that I'd had an OBE (out-of-body experience).

I looked at him incredulously for a bit, but he stood up and said that he was quite serious. The next thing he asked me was if I'd noticed the cord.

Well, I never saw any cord and wondered what he was talking about.

Max then said that every time anyone astro-projects, a cord ties the spirit to the body and that if the cord is ever broken, the body would quickly die. I looked him in his clear blue eyes and noticed he was quite serious before he turned and went back to his own desk.

The day went well enough, considering, and I did eat some extra at the company cafeteria. Throughout the day, I often caught Max looking at me inquisitively from his work station and an uncharacteristic sombreness eminated from him. I wasn't used to seeing that emotion in his face, it was like he was studying me and mulling something over.

Then, just before quitting time, as I was shutting things down, he came over one last time and said, "Hey, Mas. I know I've likely put your mind in a state today, but what I told you is the absolute truth. You did OBE and I know quite a bit about it. You see, there's a small group I'm a part of which meets once a month and we have trained ourselves to astro-project whenever we want."

I just looked at him.

He went on; " It's not an easy thing to accomplish and it can be quite dangerous. That it happened to you without your knowing about those dangers scares me a little. Would you like to come to our meeting a week from Tuesday?"

I stumbled out something stupid... don't really know what but it was neither a yes or no.

Max just smiled at me and softly patted my shoulder.

"Think about it, Mas. Let me know by next Monday and I'll tell you when and where."

A very interesting story. I don't really know what to say and have zero experience with such things but thanks for sharing it anyway.

Will you be going to the meeting to invstigate further and post your findings here?

And I can't resist this one. Will you be visiting the Somali restaurant again? $14 is, to my ears at least, a cheap price to pay for a meal but not for food poisoning. It might just have been a reaction to food/spices you were not used to?

Oh and what does the D&G stand for in the title please? Dreams and ...Ghosts?

Doh! Facepalm and groan I just didn't notice that this was in stories. Please delete my post to stop me looking like a complete and utter dork. Its the eyes see, I have to zoom the text so much on my monitor that I need to scroll in all directions. No really!

Good story in any case. Keep up the good work I like a bit of doom and gloom, I guess that was the diarrhea part.

Very interesting. I'll be on the lookout for future installments.

Reminds me of something that happened to a friend a decade ago...........He was so unnerved, he called me at three a.m. to tell me what had just happened.

Life is a puzzlement.

*Anyway, I was able to see the poor thing all through his sickness and OBE, and his bald friend Max as well.
Good story.