OK, Strange Question: Has Anybody Ever Felt Like They Have Left Their Body

[smirkymonkey]

When they were falling asleep? This happens to me often and I have asked friends and nobody has had this experience.

Sometimes, when I am about to fall asleep, I feel like I am leaving my body and I jerk myself out of my sleep because it feels like I am about to die. It actually feels like my soul is leaving my body. This happens about every few months or so. Just curious if anyone else has ever had this experience because it is extremely frightening and disturbing.

Is this related to a sleep disorder? Does anyone have any experience with this? It would be nice to know that I am not alone with this. Thanks!

[uriel1972]

1. yeah I used to have it a lot...

And the "other person in the room" thing. It could have been my sleep apnoea or my psychotic depression, both started being treated properly at about the same time. I can't really tell which was responsible.

Sorry I can't be of more help

[smirkymonkey]

8. Thanks! It's just nice to know that I am not alone.

[orleans]

28. i don't think that happens to me

but i've read about how, sometimes, as we drift off, our spirits/souls go on travels.

[Generic Brad]

2. Not for a long time

It has occurred to me that the last time I had that sensation (and it used to happen routinely) was back when I smoked cigarettes. Perhaps it is related to breathing?

[smirkymonkey]

9. I don't think so. My breathing seems to be ok.

However, when I have that sensation, I do feel like my heart stops. It's very strange.

[Lochloosa]

3. It's called astral projection and I have done it many times

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_projection

I learned about as a teenager. I had insomnia and learned to self hypnotize myself to fall asleep. It's kind of cool actually.

[smirkymonkey]

6. That's really interesting. That is exactly what it feels like.

I tend to be very scientific, but I really can't explain what happens when it feels like my soul leaves my body. It is such a bizarre feeling. I actually feel like I am leaving this world.

[Lochloosa]

11. It's really fun when you are are in... Ahem. Other states of conscious

I would recommend The album Children of the Son by Billy Thorpe for further reflection.

http://m.

[arcane1]

4. Once, when I was a kid. But I've read that this is relatively normal

I wish I could remember the name of the phenomenon. The brain usually has a good idea of its location in space, but it can be fooled, especially when one of the several steps involved in falling asleep doesn't line up just right.

[arcane1]

5. Ah, here it is! See "Other Sensations". I think I've had at least half of them :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

[smirkymonkey]

7. I have had many of those experiences as well.

I feel that when I fall asleep, I live a different life. It's just too strange. It disturbs me so much in my waking life because I remember so much of it. I wish I could turn it off, but once I fall asleep, I don't seem to be able to control it.

[a la izquierda]

36. I have both hypnagogia and hypnic jerks

They are particularly troublesome right now, as I'm under tremendous stress. At first I thought I was losing my mind, but my doctor said they're not indicative of schizophrenia or psychosis.

[edgineered]

10. The first time was spectacular.

On one of my first motorcycles I watched myself weave through the dense trees at 45 mph as I ran off the logging road. As soon as we (me?) saw the bike stop I was back inside myself and calmly drove away. I liked it!

[NJCher]

12. it happens a lot to me

It's a little different than your experience, but here's essentially what happens:

I think I'm perfectly awake and I hear someone breathing or snoring lightly. I think it's my husband, but most of the time he's away on business trips and I'm sleeping alone, so it can only be me.

It is so weird because I am fully cognizant when I hearing the breathing/snoring.

I've been wondering about this for awhile and I intended to post a thread on it to hear the experiences of others, but you posted first.

I'm not sure I really am fully cognizant when I hear this, and the reason is that I can never recall what I was doing just prior to becoming aware of the breathing sounds.

The other interesting aspect is that sometimes I am a distance away from the breathing/snoring sounds. like the other side of the room.


Cher

[smirkymonkey]

16. That is very interesting. Do you think it is a dream or does it seem like something more?

For me, it doesn't seem dream-like. It seems real. I think that is why it frightens me so much.

[NJCher]

24. Not a dream

Once in awhile, at some point in my day, I will recall a glimpse of where I was.

It is always very intriguing. It is haunting, ephemeral, and evocative. I want to know more but it is beyond my grasp.

Sometimes I get feelings of people, or should I say beings, that I was with. These beings have an effect, kind of like what one might feel after being in the company of a person with a powerful, enigmatic, and charismatic presence.

There's nothing about this that makes me afraid, just curious and I want so much to know more.


Cher

[mackerel]

13. I used to get that when my sleep apnia was really bad.

I mostly use a sleeping device now but occassionally I'll be so tired I'll forget to put it on and still sometimes I will wake up suddenly and start gasping for air like I'm about to die.

[RebelOne]

14. I had a friend who was having open heart surgery.

She said that she left her body during the operation and saw the doctor bending over her. The next thing she remembered was the doctor calling her name. This person had 5 open heart surgeries and she died at the age of 35.

[smirkymonkey]

15. I'm so sorry about your friend.

I think she had an NDE. I hope that it brought her some peace before she finally passed. Peace be with you and your friend.

[TuxedoKat]

17. I had been attempting an OBE

and finally succeeded, but scared myself so much that I went right back in. Am planning to try it again though.

[haele]

18. I've had it happen occasionally -

Usually when I'm halfway in between asleep and awake when I'm either very busy or otherwise emotionally occupied in real life and went to sleep in a mental state where I was anticipating something major happening the next day.
It's as if there's an habit or expectation involved; usually I've either been vivid dreaming that I'm waking up and going through a morning routine just as I'm in the process of waking, or I feel "out of body", where part of my subconscious seems to rise up and "see myself" while waking up. I also sometimes wake up with a jolt at the end of falling of flying sensations in similar circumstances.

I'm pretty sure there's a scientific explanation for it.

Haele

[smirkymonkey]

21. Thank you for sharing your story!

If there is a scientific explanation I would love to hear it. The mind is such a mystery.

[Feral Child]

19. WIKI has a nice article on OBE.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience


I really don't believe there's anything mystical about OBE, and I have experienced the sensation.

[smirkymonkey]

23. Thanks for the link!

Very interesting!

[panader0]

20. Not since I stopped doing acid

I had a few very vivid out-of-body, or astral projection experiences while tripping. Not scary, but fascinating.

[Chan790]

22. Yes, it's not uncommon.

Something like 1 in 20 people experience it with a frequency of once a year or more. About half of those have no recollection of it after their subsequent sleep cycle however. It's related also to the phenomena of sleep paralysis which I also suffer from. Most hold only dim recollection of its occurrence after a few days. The more frequent the incidence, the more likely you are to remember it. It's common enough that most people will have 1-3 incidences of it in a lifetime...it's a known cause of alien abduction delusions, sensations of rapid motion while sleeping, OBEs, and sensations of presences in the room. (Like people who think there's a ghost or invader in their room.) It can be an indicator of sleep apnea.

Try changing your sleeping position. If I had to guess, you sleep on your back...most sufferers do. Try sleeping on one side or the other.

[chknltl]

25. Regularly as a child up through my early 20s

I am 60 this month and have not had the experience since my early 20s. I believe what I was doing back then was indeed astral projection. As a child it scared the hell out of me but as I grew older I started to experiment with it. I never once could initiate the experience, it happened randomly and like you said, came on just as I was drifting off to sleep. Everything you described fit my experience, it always had that element of fear to it and the part of me that floated out was some sort of a soul or spirit.

When I was 18 and in the Army I confided with a roommate about this and he suggested that I try waking him as a 'ghost' if I could so could see me that way. I did as he requested, he was in the next bunk so I 'floated' (floated is best description, locomotion in that 'form' was like walking underwater), and pushed my 'arms' right through him very much ghostlike! What was very cool to me was that I felt his 'spirit' in him but sadly I had no effect on him so I could not awaken him at all.

He suggested other experiments, (nothing kinky, we were friends but not THAT friendly), and if you wish I would be willing to discuss any of my experiences and what research I have done on this topic over the decades, PM me if you wish and I would be happier than hell to talk about it.

I have read informal reports that this experience is nothing more than a hallucination prompted by our brains drifting off to sleep. Perhaps this is what really goes on but... well, from my own experiences it is not so much a belief, I am pretty much convinced that we do have SOMETHING conscious and controllable that floats outside our body on occasion.

[grahamhgreen]

26. yes. One time I got to this place where I came to a veil,

and there were freindly beings on the other side.... then I woke myself up!

[oregonjen]

27. I have hypnic jerks almost every night while falling asleep

http://yoursleep.aasmnet.org/Disorder.aspx?id=17

[Art_from_Ark]

34. I get those on occasion

Usually they happen when i am dreaming that I am losing my footing, like tripping over something or slipping on ice.

[intaglio]

29. Yes. Check the Wiki article for an overview

Out of Body Experience

IIRC there has been a fair bit of modern research on this and the paranormal explanations seem to have fallen apart

[kairos12]

30. Only once. That was after drinking Russian moonshine in the Caucasus Mountains. Maybe that was just

me wanting to leave my body.

[callous taoboy]

31. My brother took mescaline one time

and was driving down a winding country road going 60 or so. He saw his car from above, could see up ahead a car getting ready to pull out onto the road. He floated back down to the car and saw a road perpendicular to his road up ahead, so he put the brakes on and the car he had seen pulled out in front of him.

[Worried senior]

32. I had the sensation a couple of

times when I was young.

I knew I was there but like I was watching from a distance.

Very strange and haven't had it anymore.

[840high]

33. You're not alone.

[kentauros]

35. I've been having OBEs off and on most of my life.

The ones in the beginning do instill that fear that your death is near. As you have more of them, that fear kind of goes away, if you let it.

I've had some interesting experiences, just none as far-reaching as some folks, such as Robert Monroe.

There are some good aids out there (guided meditations, and so forth) worth trying and many are free. Good luck and have fun!