The sense of being outside your own body and seeing it, often from above.
Usually shortened to OBE. People who have one describe finding themselves floating above the bed or in a corner of the room, with a feeling of lightness and a clarity quite unlike a dream. It happens most often on the edge of sleep, but also in meditation, at moments of intense stress or close to death. Spiritual traditions read it as a journey of consciousness; research studies it as something the brain does. This entry covers both readings.
How spiritual traditions see it
In many cultures, leaving the body is a sign that consciousness is not the same thing as flesh. The shaman who travels while the body lies still, the soul that wanders at night and returns by morning: these are old and widespread images. Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, occultism and Theosophy gathered them under the name of astral projection, crediting the journey to a subtle body, the astral body.
Practitioners often describe the same sequence: a buzzing or vibrations as they drift off, a feeling of lightness, then the separation, and a familiar room seen from somewhere else. For these traditions the experience is not an illusion to be explained away but an exploration to be undertaken with respect: a way of knowing yourself beyond the habit of feeling enclosed in a body.
What the research says
Neuroscience studies it as something the brain does. In 2002 a team of neurologists in Geneva led by Olaf Blanke described a patient with epilepsy who, while doctors stimulated a specific area of her brain with electrodes, reported seeing herself from above, lying in bed. The area is the temporo-parietal junction, where signals from balance, touch, sight and body position come together. When those signals disagree, the sense of "where I am" can drift outside the body.
Similar illusions have been produced in healthy volunteers using virtual reality. Spontaneous OBEs, meanwhile, have been linked to REM sleep, the stage in which most dreaming happens, spilling over into waking, and to sleep paralysis. Research explains how the experience arises; it does not settle what it means to the person who has it.
Frequently asked questions
Does consciousness really leave the body during an OBE?
This is where the two readings part ways. For many traditions it does, and that is the whole point of the experience. Research has shown that the brain can produce the experience on its own, though for many people that does not close the question. Studies that tried to verify perception at a distance, for example with hidden images visible only from above, have so far been inconclusive.
Are out-of-body experiences dangerous?
There is no evidence that they cause harm in themselves: for many people an OBE is a rare event, sometimes frightening, that mostly leaves a vivid memory behind. It can, however, go along with sleep disorders or, more rarely, neurological ones. If it happens often, distresses you, or comes with fainting, heavy daytime sleepiness or other symptoms, it is worth talking to your doctor.
Can you learn to have an out-of-body experience?
The traditions that work with it say you can, and they suggest similar practices: deep relaxation, close attention to the moment of falling asleep, a clear intention before bed. None of them guarantees a result, and they are best approached calmly, without forcing and without cutting into your sleep. A dedicated area, with an illustrated step-by-step guide, is on its way to SideraMea.
Keep a dream journal
Writing your dreams down as soon as you wake is the first step to remembering and recognising them. In the SideraMea journal each dream stays next to the sky of that night.