Okay I will just share one, due to the amount of experiences i have had in my life time. This might be long, as i didn't write the experience out before typing it up.
6 years old.
I was 6 years old, i have been dealing with a chronic illness that was located in my lungs. I was asleep, and on bed rest for many days then. I remember sitting up and walking out of the bedroom, i looked back and seen myself curled up and sleeping.i kept walking until i looked down to check my clothes, i didn't see anything, i was nude but seen no skin just blank. I thought it was weird until i lifted off of the ground slightly. (to mention, i did not feel the carpet like i did before) I didn't need to breathe, or blink which i thought was weird too. I went outside, to see the neighborhood kids playing in the snow. i looked up and it was sunny. I was immediately thrown back into my body, like a major pulling force. when i got back in and woke up, my body jerked.
Out of body experiences have always been a difficult concept for me to incorporate into my path in particular. I've had some instances of reaching other planes, such as seeing spirits and glimpses into their realm, but most of my out of body experiences in the sense of leaving my body and looking around the physical plane have been due to severe dissociation rather than any spiritual phenomenon. I'm interested in if there's a way to distinguish between the two.
I used to have a lot of these when I was much younger. A lot of times these would occur right before I woke from a dream, and would feel like my body was falling as I was waking up. The most vivid was when I was I middle school and became sick. One night I felt that I was surrounded in darkness and paralyzed I felt an evil voice kept telling my it was going to end me. Usually I could tell to some degree when there was a nightmare occurring (according to my parents I used to have a lot of night tremors growing up.) This instance felt so horrifying as I could physically feel distressed and in pain even though I could move. Eventually darkness washed over. I dont recall the point of when I regained consciousness and returned to a normal state. Looking back many years now I believe it was a state of dissociation and hallucination due to having an extreme fever. Yet,the sensation I had then still haunts me a bit today.
Wait, so when you have the falling feeling in your sleep and wake up with a jerk you were astral traveling? That makes sense why it's not common anymore.
As we develop and grow our pineal gland (third eye) produces dimethyltryptamine to allow us to dream and astral travel. However as most kids drink tap water containing flouride (which damages the third eye) we don't dream as much or travel as much. Makes senses maybe?
As for my first experience when I was 14 I was trying to lucid dream and ended up having sleep paralysis. I couldn't move my body and got scared. As you do in dreams, I created these entities with my mind to scare me during my paralysis (well I'm still not sure if they were real but they say it's common to see things during this which aren't real) and I decided to calm myself remembering from research that sleep paralysis is the next best step to lucid dreaming if you focus. So I did and meditated. Suddenly I realized I could move again and the things were gone. I got up to go to my refrigerator and turned back to see my body. Then I plunged back and woke up. Was the coolest and scariest thing ever.
I actually haven't astral traveled that much. Been busy I guess. I do lucid dream often though. (technically they're the same and connected but yeah)
Thank you Neulife for the explanation! I think you hit the nail on the head. Your experience sounds very intense. That is interesting that you were able to gain a sense of control through meditation. Ill have to keep that in mind.
My dreams early on were basically divided into two categories. The first was more of the astral traveling that I described earlier. Often during these dreams I could feel myself being transported from one stage or sequence of the dream to the next. During these transitions I usually couldnt move yet had a feeling of free falling while I traveled through the air. The sensation in my dreams was almost like having vertigo, where there sense of balance and depth perception is very skewed.
The other type of dreams were usually shorter but much more intense. Usually during these dreams I was stuck in that sequence and was rarely transported out of it. These dreams usually featured a dark and harmful presence or spirit (similar to the one I described in my earlier post.). These dreams usually included a lot of symbolism. The underlying theme was myself trying to escape the evil spirit or demon. I think these dreams were attributed more to my childhood in real life. When I was younger my father was very domineering ( weve mended since) and caused me to be very timid. As a result I unconsciously transferred this negative energy into a spirit that I felt often in our house. I could feel its presence even when my father wasnt home. Many times I could feel it grip my shoulder when going up the stairs, sometimes stopping me dead in my tracks. Keep in mind this would be when my father was at work and my mother was in another room.
I believe this spirit or energy may have manifested itself in the astral plane, which is what I often encountered while dreaming.
Ok i never astral projected but ever heard of haze walking. I use to do it quite often when i was a kid. it was a state i use to get into in the middle of the night. it is simalar to sleep walking only i am half awake. during this state i would see a black red eyed cat and i would follow it through the house. it happened so often my parents used to put oblects in the middle of the floor in order to snap me out of it. sound familiar to anyone?
Never slept or haze walked myself. My sister used to sleep walk on a regular basis. She was fully unconscious when it happened. When I asked her about it she never had any recollection of it. Sometimes we would find her crying in another room. Id usually have to carefully redirect her to bed, as it could be almost traumatic to wake her during these episodes.
One time we were staying with my grandparents. My grandmother had remarried after my original grandfather died. My second grandfather on that side had also lost his spouse previously before they remarried. My sister and I of course had to sleep in the loft where his first wife had literally passed away. Every night my sister would sit up in the middle of the night and start talking in nonsensical phrases for thirty minutes or more at a time while she was still asleep.Needless to say I did not sleep much during that trip.
Also after my "nightmare of my future" at age 7 i stopped seeing the cat and stopped haze walking. Instead I sit in my bed and see a black red eyed figure standing over me with a protective aura and a worried look in its eyes. And all i hear from it is "Don't be afraid. Go back to sleep. I will always be here." What it is or why its around i don't know but i find i am never afraid of it.
