Navigating the Out-of-Body Experience

by Graham Nicholls

  There are also many ways to create raw versions of your favourite foods, leaving you feeling fresh and not overly full. One of my favourites is a raw vegan version of a tomato and basil pasta. In place of pasta noodles, cut thin strips of zucchini with a slicer or peeler. Chop a few large tomatoes, some fresh basil leaves, and a small amount of garlic and onion. Blend the ingredients with seasoning to taste, pour them over the zucchini noodles, and add olives, olive oil, and a few more pieces of torn basil leaf. The result is a really delicious meal. To enhance the basic recipe, you can also add sprouted seeds, nuts (ground or whole), and nutritional yeast, which is a vegan source of many of the B-group vitamins. There are many more recipes like this available online and in books, all of which help to promote optimal health and maintain energy levels for OBE training.

  Fasting

  Reducing or going without food for a period of time is one of the oldest spiritual disciplines. I recently heard an experienced expert on fasting say that it is not necessarily the fast itself that is the most powerful aspect of the process, but instead it is the point at which we begin eating again that really has the greatest impact. This is because, after a period of abstinence, our relationship to the food and to the impact of the food on our body has changed. We become aware that the energy from that food is being utilised by the body. We can literally feel the sensation of our body transforming the food into energy, and our relationship to food may never be the same. Rather than seeing food as simply a sensual pleasure with no deeper implication, we come to see it as the sustenance for our whole spiritual being. We learn to see our mind, body, and spirit supported by what we put into our body; we make a link between how we experience the world and what we do to our body.

  It is, of course, best to seek medical advice when considering any type of fast, and it is also a good idea to have someone present throughout the process for support and in case of any issues that may arise. Fasting is a generally safe practice, but it is best to be cautious and not take any unnecessary risks. Many books are available that go into far more detail about the process than we have room for here.

  If you’re inclined to try fasting, I suggest that you start slowly with a juice or soup fast. Once you feel more comfortable, move on to a water-only fast, starting with one day, then two days, and eventually a few days—but no more than this, as it becomes counterproductive if you push yourself beyond a few days. It is extremely important to drink liquids constantly during a fast. During a juice fast, you will replace your usual meals with a nutrient-rich juice or smoothie. I recommend that you focus on the dark green, leafy vegetables and fruits mentioned earlier. I would start with a two-day fast, making sure that you have a good variety of (preferably organic) fruits and vegetables easily available. You will want to keep your fluids high, so at least a liter is ideal for each sitting. For a smoothie, I recommend using a selection of berries, such as blueberries, raspberries, and sea-buckthorn berries (if available), plus bananas for a thick, smooth base. I also often include celery and spinach. Of course, there are many other variations you may wish to try, and many recipes for blended juices and smoothies are available in books and on the Internet. A soup fast is basically the same as the juice fast, but instead of juice you eat only soup. If you take this option, be sure that you don’t opt for a soup that contains large solid vegetables; it should be a light blended soup that will act in a similar way in the body as juice or a smoothie.

  Physical Exercise

  As we all know, diet is not enough to attain optimal health; we must also exercise regularly. There are many ways to approach this, depending upon your current state of health and your interests. Practices that offer a low level of stress for the body, but which also condition and promote a sense of well-being, are best suited to our goal. Yoga, as well as some of the Japanese and Chinese martial arts, fit well into this category. Any practice of the physical yogas, such as variations of hatha yoga, is best accompanied by pranayama, or the yoga of breathing. Like yoga, tai chi has been known for generations to benefit body and mind as well as to enhance the state of mental stillness that is ideal for leaving the body.

  If these Eastern approaches do not appeal to you, there are many more ways to achieve the well-being that will benefit your OBE practice. Hiking and climbing, for example, are beneficial because they combine a high degree of spatial awareness and a connection with nature, while at the same time strengthening the body. This is the core of what someone looking to develop nonlocal perception in general, not just OBEs, should be looking for. Any practice you choose should prepare your body for the mental disciplines of consistent practice and awareness of your relationship to your environment. The more you can move away from the distractions of modern living and engage with what your body is telling you, the better.

  A couple of years ago, when I was living in East Sussex in the south of England, a friend and I decided to do a thirty-mile hike across the local area. We set off in early morning and didn’t reach our destination on the coast until well after dark. When we finally made it back home, my body felt almost numb from the miles of walking cross-country and over several large hills along the coast. I lay there, my mind in a heightened state quite unique to this level of exertion. Moments later, I felt waves of soothing energy that felt much like the sensation of warm sunlight on the body, before I lifted out of my body and up through the roof of my house. I could make out the deep grayish-purple of the nighttime sea in front of me and the lights dotted along the curve of the coast in the distance. I let myself be drawn toward the lights and the delicate clouds on the horizon before drifting off over the countryside to unknown parts of the area.

  I believe that experience was brought about by a day of engaging with the landscape and pushing my body to a state in which my mind became paramount. The usual concerns of my body, such as food and comfort, were placed into the background, while my consciousness came to the fore. It is an extremely liberating state of being and, even without the out-of-body aspect to the story, it shows why people are drawn to push themselves in their physical activities. We reach a sense of our own core self; we have taken control and defined our wants for ourselves.

  For many people, their bodies may not be capable of the kinds of activities mentioned here. The important thing is to cultivate the notion of wellness and deep relaxation or physical calm. If this can be achieved, the OBE can allow those with physical disabilities or limited mobility to experience a level of freedom that cannot be achieved through any other method I am aware of. For example, there are many cases in the literature of near-death experiences of blind people suddenly being able to see when out of their bodies, or people normally unable to use certain limbs having the ability to do so.

  Relaxation

  Relaxation is of central importance to success in out-of-body exploration. In the context of OBEs, the goal is to separate your mental activity from your body awareness. For most people, these functions go hand-in-hand; when someone is physically tired, they are also mentally tired. For that reason, mentally taxing or stressful areas of life are more detrimental to the process than physical exercise. There are some minor exceptions to this, however, like when you are extremely emotionally heightened. Nerves, emotional longing, and excitement are examples of this. You may be tired in any one of these states and unable to relax, but still in a good condition to have an OBE. Perhaps surprisingly, a state of physical exhaustion actually can be conducive to OBEs, provided you are not also mentally exhausted. This reveals that the use of the word “relaxation” can be a little misleading; many people assume relaxation to be a completely passive, inactive state, although it doesn’t have to be.

  Some readers may actually be unaware of what a true state of relaxation is, but there are tools that can help us identify what is going on inside our bodies. For example, biofeedback devices measure physiological responses, such as electrical activity in the skin, for the purpose of bringing these responses
under one’s conscious control. These devices are essentially a way to get feedback from our bodies. The first one of these devices I ever owned was a very simple plastic dome that you held in your hand with two of your fingers in contact with metal plates on the surface. This allowed the device to pick up the subtle electrical signals in the skin and turn them into a tone that you could hear through simple headphones. As you listen, you can relax your muscles and alter your breathing until the tone begins to grow lower and lower, until eventually it stops. You would then be in a highly relaxed state.

  I learnt a lot from that little device about basic relaxation and understanding the tensions in my body. There are now much more advanced versions on the market that use neuro-feedback, which monitors brain activity rather than simply electrical activity in the skin.

  Brain waves and neuro-feedback

  Understanding brain waves and their effect on your brain state will allow you to effectively control your state of being in ways that general meditational practices take years to yield. The known brain waves are delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma. Alpha waves relate to a brain frequency in which both relaxation and mental focus are present; the alpha state is highly apparent in experienced meditators. Entering an alpha state using meditation or biofeedback can help with overcoming fear, as discussed earlier. It can also be an excellent tool to cultivate alongside whatever relaxation technique you decide to use in your program.

  Theta waves are often associated with enhanced learning and may also be effective for some aspects of OBE training, but at this time it is unclear whether this approach is useful. One of the issues is the lack of a clear definition when OBEs are referred to; some researchers categorise the out-of-body state as being the same as a lucid or conscious dream, while others put it into the same bracket as remote viewing. This can be confusing, because while these types of experiences seem to be clearly related, they are generally much milder than an OBE and take place without the full sense of separation from the body—without which we are blurring the line of what constitutes an OBE to an unhelpful level, in my opinion.

  Nevertheless, training yourself to enter different states of awareness using neuro-feedback or biofeedback devices gives many benefits that will support your OBE program. If you have the resources to explore such devices, I recommend it; however, it is important not to rely on it as your sole method. Some people find that an approach using sound frequencies or binaural beats alongside neuro-feedback is effective in inducing OBEs, but many others only experience a state of relaxation or a “spacey” feeling. This may be most effective for those who rated as a more auditory person in the questionnaire in Chapter 4.

  Sleep

  Many people find that an OBE is easier to achieve from sleep, usually by waking up outside of your usual sleeping routine and practicing a series of techniques at that time. The fact that you are already in a half-asleep state means that part of the relaxation side of the process is already in place. Some also report that they can induce the vibrational state more easily at this time, and that the visualisation techniques are easier. However, elements of sleep paralysis may also sometimes be present.

  The most relevant fact about sleep paralysis is that it can cause a state of awareness while the body is essentially still sleeping. For this reason, if you have undergone something like sleep paralysis, you should definitely explore using the Sleep Interruption Technique of leaving the body. To most effectively interrupt your sleep, use an alarm system that does not jolt you abruptly awake. There are many variations available, such as wristwatches that vibrate and alarms that use gradual increases in volume or light to wake you up. Some devices even claim to monitor the stage of sleep you are in and wake you up either in deep sleep or during the dreaming phase of sleep. You can also easily use an ordinary alarm set to its lowest effective volume.

  If you are waking up to do your practice at a time when there is daylight in your bedroom, I advise that you use a simple eye mask. Daylight can lead to you becoming too awake to gain any benefit, and also the eye mask will make it easier to do your visualisation techniques.

  While I don’t advocate sleep deprivation for an extended period, a small amount can be useful. You may wish to try staying awake much later than you would normally, or even for a twenty-four-hour period, and then go through your OBE programme hourly. There is some danger of falling asleep when you do this, but if you can remain awake, you may find that some of the energetic techniques become easier. Your sensitivity may be raised and, if you’re working with a partner, you may find that perceiving his or her state of awareness is much easier. I’ve found that the period between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. is an excellent time to practice and experiment.

  Sound

  Sound has a huge impact on the human state of awareness; I believe this is why monastic communities across the world have used sound-based practices as the cornerstone of their traditions for thousands of years, and continue to do so today. A few weeks ago, during a gathering at my home with a few friends, I picked up a singing bowl, the type used by Tibetan Buddhist monks. I began to play the simple brass bowl and almost instantly the entire room’s energy changed; the people became quiet, and they shifted their attention to what I was doing. This is just one of many examples I could give of the power of sound to impact human awareness.

  Singing and chanting are probably the oldest forms of using sound to change our state of consciousness. I particularly like chanting, since it requires no instruments or special skills, simply the voice and a willingness to experiment. There are, of course, more advanced forms of chanting, and the practice of overtone chanting in particular can be very effective, but merely using the voice in a rhythmic pattern can be powerful. It is liberating and even cathartic to express yourself in such an unlimited way. I advise you to start by allowing your voice to make any sound that feels good to you—your own unique language, so to speak. You can change the tone and close your eyes and go with the sound. You can increase and decrease the speed as you practice. You may find a natural rhythm that leads to a useful technique for changing your state of awareness. If you find you enjoy chanting, you may wish to explore more structured chants or complex techniques.

  Music, when focused on religious or spiritual awareness, can set in motion those same shifts in consciousness. Many classical compositions, which expand the imagination through complex beauty, have a similar effect. I find that listening to the sounds of the planets can transport me in my imagination in a way that can be suggestive of an OBE. These sounds are actually radio waves emanating from the planets in our solar system, which are then converted to sound. They have an otherworldly quality about them, and they also have an added benefit to our goal of working with the out-of-body state—they make us focus, even if unconsciously, on the vast expanse of space and the areas that we can reach, at this point, only via the out-of-body experience.

  More conventional forms of music can also be used to expand the imagination and develop our awareness. But it is sound, especially when produced by our own bodies or very simple instruments, which seems to hold the greatest potential. Simple repetitive rhythm supplies a basic framework for our minds to project onto. This expansiveness of mind leads us back to the very core of what the OBE is about: it leads us away from the everyday experiences and the limited understanding that surround us, and leads us toward the realization that our consciousness can reach to the planets and stars and maybe even witness the birth of the universe itself.

  [contents]

  8

  * * *

  the extended

  mind

  From the time that our earliest beliefs about the world around us were formed, human beings have proposed the idea that within each of us is a spirit or soul. This spirit is generally described as having much the same qualities and appearance as our physical body, but it is made of some mysterious form of energy and it appears to survive bodily death. In this chapter, we
will explore what this means in relation to the out-of-body state.

  Most books on OBEs assume the existence of an astral, etheric, or other kind of subtle body. In this book I want to avoid such assumptions as much as possible—not because there is something wrong with these ideas, but because we have the possibility of learning something new when we look with fresh eyes. This chapter is about asking questions and examining what you personally experience without preconceptions. In the past, I’ve held beliefs about the out-of-body experience that hindered my progress; before we move on to practical matters, I want to help you avoid such limitations.

  So let’s start by exploring the question: Does the subtle body, promoted by the adherents of Theosophy and other traditions, exist? Or does the theory of the extended mind, briefly explored earlier, provide a better explanation for the out-of-body experience?

  What Is the Subtle Body?

  In modern writings on the subject, some theorize that the spirit or energy body could be made up of “dark matter” and “dark energy.” Dark matter/energy is a mysterious substance that some claim makes up 90 percent of the universe, yet it is all but invisible, since it does not give off light nor absorb light.1 It exerts gravitational force on visible matter, yet atoms are unaffected by its influence. This offers a fascinating possibility: that physical things, such as our brain and body, may have a “dark” or invisible copy. This sounds very much like a spirit, and that is exactly what some parapsychologists have put forward as a possibility.

  I first came across the idea in a book entitled Shadow Matter and Psychic Phenomena by Gerhard D. Wasserman. For many years, this seemed a beautiful connection between modern physics and the OBEs I had been having. Then, as I explored the idea further, I came across the work of Rupert Sheldrake and his theory of morphic fields. Sheldrake has spent many years exploring whether evolving fields of influence exist, and showing that our mental processes are not limited to the inside of our brains.