Humans and animals have Outer of Body Experiences - sometimes aware of them and other times oblivious as time is an illusion and consciousness moves in and out of physical (linear) time.

An out-of-body experience (OBE) is a phenomenon where a person feels as though their consciousness or self has separated from their physical body. During an OBE, individuals often report floating above their body and viewing themselves and their surroundings from an external perspective.

There are physical and non-physical reasons why OBE's occur. They can be spontaneous or planned. They generally happen to bring a message to the person who is having the experience - perhaps something as simple as "you exist in more than one reality".

An out-of-body experience is characterized by subjective perception from a vantage point outside of one's physical body. It is sometimes associated with near-death experiences, hypnopompic or hypnagogic dreams, mystical trances or occult phenomena and psychoactive drugs.

An OBE may be contrasted with astral projection, which does not require the perception of one's own body from the outside. Astral projection does not typically posit that one's consciousness or soul is actually traveling through our day-to-day physical reality. An OBE may also be contrasted with dreaming, lucid or otherwise, by the intense perception of being awake and aware of the reality of the experience.

Not every OBE has exactly the same aspects, and it may be that there are several different types of OBE that have different causes and meanings. Some observations can be made based on collections of firsthand accounts of "spontaneous" OBEs - those that were not part of a planned program to induce the experience.

In the great majority of cases, the subject reported being asleep, on the verge of sleep, or having been asleep shortly before. A fairly large percentage of these cases refer to situations where this sleep is not particularly deep (due to illness, noises in other rooms, emotional stress, exhaustion from overworking, frequent re-awakening, etc.).

In some cases, the feeling of being outside the body is something that is suddenly realized after the fact; they see their bodies almost by accident. In other cases, they either will themselves out of their bodies or find themselves being pulled from their bodies (these are usually preceded by the feeling of paralysis).

The OBE is not generally long; on the order of a minute or so. Those who experience OBE may note that the subjective experience is much longer than the objective time passing.

The OBE may or may not be followed by other experiences which are self-reported as being "as real" as the OBE feeling; alternatively, they may fade out into a state self-reported as dreaming, or they may wake completely.

The OBE is sometimes ended by a fearful feeling of getting "too far away" from the body.

Many of these OBEs end with a feeling of suddenly "popping" or "snapping" back into their bodies -- Thuup.

Some people experience spiritual epiphanies; others experience a general feeling of peacefulness and love; still others experience fearfulness and anxiety. Finally, some experience only the OBE itself, with no direct spiritual experience.

Comparing the experience to that of lucid dreaming, it feels more real.

Opinions regarding the objective reality of OBEs are mixed. An appreciable number of people believe the phenomenon is exactly what it feels like, and that the soul is leaving the body and exploring. Many OBE accounts are positive that the usual explanation, that the experience was a dream, is insufficient; and often cite the experience as having a spiritual effect.

While the subjective experience may be very compelling, most skeptics discount the idea that the phenomenon is somehow linked to an actual physical relocation of consciousness. They note that, in the absence of the typical conviction that the experience is real, these experiences would simply be considered dreams; and that lacking hard evidence to the contrary, the simplest explanation would be that the experiencer's sense of heightened reality, however powerful, is a subjective one.

In support of this idea, some neurologists point to experiments in the context of treatment of epilepsy involving electrical stimulus of a particular part of the brain, the right angular gyrus located in the parietal lobe, which produce subjective experiences having all of the hallmarks of an OBE, including the sense of enhanced reality and extreme disembodiment. This evidence, as well as similar results involving use of the drug ketamine, support the hypothesis that at least some OBEs are caused by an unusual but natural brain state in which one's body perception and sense of reality are altered.

Skeptics also point to the increasing body of evidence which ties mental functions such as perception and memory to exclusively physical processes which occur in the brain; and note that no known mechanism would account for how these processes could occur at a distance (the mind-body problem). However in some instances, such as patients during surgery, people describe out of body experiences in which they see something they could not possibly have seen while under anesthesia (for instance, one woman accurately described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as conversation that occurred while she was clinically dead).

OBE's cannot be disproved, but there is no solid evidence that anyone has actually left their body. Many experiencers have made detailed observations they reportedly could not have made by any other means, but these have not yet been studied to the satisfaction of the scientific community.

Messages received from out of body experiences generally are in the form of symbols or archetypes that you may or may not recognize at first.

Voluntary OBE's take time and practice. Remember that we are all having multidimensional experiences and that there is no linear time - therefore your consciousness can travel anywhere in the grids that form our reality matrixes. Simulation Theory

External Perspective. People frequently describe looking down at their physical body from near the ceiling or another vantage point in the room.

Vivid Realism. Unlike standard dreams, OBEs are typically remembered as feeling intensely real, clear, and waking-like.

Sensory Sensations. The onset is sometimes accompanied by sensations of floating, vibration, spinning, or a rushing sound.

Researchers in neuroscience and psychology view OBEs as perceptual illusions generated by the brain rather than a literal separation of the mind from the body.

Brain Integration Errors. The brain constantly combines signals from sight, touch, and the inner ear (vestibular system) to map where the body is in space. When these signals fail to integrate properly, the brain can create a false sense of location outside the physical body.

Temporoparietal Junction (TPJ). Studies show that stimulating or disrupting the TPJ - a region of the brain responsible for self-location and spatial awareness - can reliably trigger out-of-body sensations.

Sleep Transitions. OBEs frequently occur during states between wakefulness and sleep, such as sleep paralysis or hypnagogic hallucinations, when the mind is awake while the body remains in REM sleep.

Extreme physiological stress, sensory deprivation, fainting, general anesthesia, migraines, and certain medications or psychoactive substances can also trigger these experiences.

Outside of clinical science, OBEs have been documented across human history and hold significance in many traditions.

Messages from OBEs can come from anywhere in the grids and are subjective in interpretation: It's like plugging into a switchboard and getting the message.

- Another aspect of your soul

- Grids, akashic records, matrix (consciousness)

- Deceased people whose energies remain in the grid

- Someone you consider a teacher in a higher realm of consciousness

- Spirit Guides

- Ascended Master

- Extraterrestrials - Angels - God Figures - all the same and all in the grids that create the illusion of reality.

Scientists Find Out-of-Body Experiences May Occur Between Sleep And Waking   Science Alert - November 12, 2026

The liminal space between sleeping and waking could be where the human brain conjures the uncanny. It's there, in a state that is somehow both or neither, that the sleeping brain may extend tendrils into consciousness, or the waking mind jostle uncomfortably at the edges of sleep. Such overlap, researchers have now found, may be behind some of the strangest experiences humans report, from the terrors of sleep paralysis to the apparent ability to send one's mind away from the body and wander around without it. And, in turn, that could tell us something about the very nature of how we experience living in our bodies. Not everything we experience is easy to explain. We understand itching, and hunger, and jealousy, for example; but some people report sensations or experiences that do not match what we know the body can do.

Out-of-Body Experience Is Traced in the Brain   Live Science - May 5, 2015

What happens in the brain when a person has an out-of-body experience? A team of scientists may now have an answer. In a new study, researchers using a brain scanner and some fancy camera work gave study participants the illusion that their bodies were located in a part of a room other than where they really were. Then, the researchers examined the participants' brain activity, to find out which brain regions were involved in the participants' perceptions about where their body was.

The findings showed that the conscious experience of where one's body is located arises from activity in brain areas involved in feelings of body ownership, as well as regions that contain cells known to be involved in spatial orientation, the researchers said. Earlier work done in animals had showed these cells, dubbed "GPS cells," have a key role in navigation and memory.

You've had an out-of-body experience, but what kind?   PhysOrg - June 12, 2013

Have you ever felt as though your sense of awareness was outside of your physical body? That you were looking back at yourself from another place in the same room? If so, you've probably had an out-of-body experience (OBE). But not all OBEs are the same. Research suggests OBEs are more common than one might think, with around 10 per cent of the population having reported at least one such experience in their lifetime.

Some people experience their usual physical surroundings from a different spatial perspective; others report traveling out of their body to imaginary dream realms. For some, out-of-body experiences or OBEs occurs spontaneously, while for others it is linked to dangerous circumstances, a near-death experience, a dream-like state or use of alcohol or drugs. One theory is that it is down to how people perceive their own body - those unhappy or less in touch with their body are more likely to have an OBE. Their work suggests a disconnection between the brain circuits that process visual and touch sensory information may thus be responsible for some OBEs.

Out-of-Body Experiences Simulated Using Virtual Reality   Live Science - August 23, 2007

New virtual reality experiments show the brain can be tricked into believing it's outside the body, lending credence to the strange claims of some patients and shedding light on how the brain might generate its "self image." Researchers equipped subjects with virtual-reality goggles that showed images from a stereoscopic video camera setup two cameras spaced like a pair of eyes. When placed behind the person wearing the goggles, the cameras acted as a "virtual self" that looked at the subject's back. As subjects watched themselves from behind, an experimenter prodded their chests with one hand while prodding the air just below the cameras at the same time. Because subjects could see the experimenter's hand but not the spot it was poking, researchers said subjects felt as if they were being poked in the chest - outside of their body.