Experience description:

I want to start by saying I do not know what really happened to me. It can be called an out-of-body experience. Did I actually leave my body? Is it all in my head? I don't know. Neither the scientific community or new age literature have provided me with an sufficient explanation. I will try to give the facts about what happened and leave out any bias I might have. This all started when my friend had my read "Journeys Out-of-Body", by Robert Monroe. The book very much interested me. It all sounded so amazing. Suffice to say, it peeked my interest which is what I think caused it. The experiences occurred in the months after I read the book.

���� The first odd things that began to occur happened when I lived in Omaha. One night I was awakened by a strange sound. The sound startled me, so my nerves were on edge and I was fully awake. It sounded like a ringing bell. Not like church bells or anything. It was weird because it was loud. Then I realized I was experiencing sleep paralysis. At first I thought the sound was coming from the kitchen, but as I listened it seemed like it was all around. At this point I will add that I have many lucid dreams. I've had lucid dreams all my life. Whenever I am fearful in a dream, I just wake myself up by trying to move my body. Hearing this sound kinda scared me so I instinctively tried to shake myself out of it. It worked and the sound immediately stopped and I had control of my body again. I will stress that I do not believe I was dreaming. I believe I was fully awake. My dreams always blurry and unconvincing, i guess this is why I become lucid. So I cannot mix up what happened with any dreams I've ever had. I can say with great confidence that I was fully awake during this episode. I cannot explain what happened. That was only the beginning.

���� Another night sometime later I was awoke by the sound of water rushing. The sound was loud and seemed like it was in my head. This time I felt strange sensations throughout my entire body. I was once again paralyzed. It felt like great surges of electrical energy were flowing in my body. It didn't hurt. I was very scared and with difficulty I shook myself. The sensations and sounds went away.

���� I was awoke on several more occasions by some sound or another. One time it was yelling. No, it wasn't my neighbors. I cant count how many times I awoke to strange sounds and sensations.

���� By this time I had moved from Omaha to St. Louis. The experiences happened in both cities. The most important experience happened in St. Louis. One night I awoke to something very strange. I have to stress something. When I awoke I was very tired and wanted to immediately go back to sleep. Its like when someone calls you in the middle of the night, you don't really want to talk you just want to go back to sleep. This is how I felt when I awoke. I don't know what woke me up. I didn't hear any sounds, but I had a strange sensation. I saw the lower half of my body floating about a foot and a half above the rest of me. I felt the lower part of me (lower torso and legs) floating in the air while it seemed to be anchored by the upper part of my body to the bed. It was to say the least weird. I put on sweat pants before bed, but the legs I saw were naked and had a better appearance. Not only that, they were visible in a completely dark room and were a grayish-white. Not only were they visible they seemed to glow. They looked like my legs, but were much sexier. How amazing it may seem now, at that moment I just wanted to go back to sleep. So once again I shook the sensations off and went back to sleep. Not much has happened since then. Every once and awhile I will have a vivid (very rare for me) dream where I am soaring through outer-space. Well, there it is.

Any associated medications or substances with the potential to affect the experience:� No
Was the experience difficult to express in words?� No

At the time of the experience, was there an associated life threatening event?� No

What was your level of consciousness and alertness during the experience?� Except for the one time, always fully awake.

Was the experience dream like in any way?� None were dream like.

Did you experience a separation of consciousness from your body?� Yes

Describe your appearance or form apart from your body:� Yes, but only the lower half of my body. I saw my legs floating above me, but they were different. The legs I saw floating above me were beautiful and perfect.

What emotions did you feel during the experience?� FEAR!
Did you hear any unusual sounds or noises?� Many different noises: ringing bells, rushing water, growling, screaming.

Did you pass into or through a tunnel or enclosure?� No

Did you see a light?� No

Did you meet or see any other beings?� No

Did you experience a review of past events in your life?� No

Did you observe or hear anything regarding people or events during your experience that could be verified later?� No

Did you see or visit any beautiful or otherwise distinctive locations, levels or dimensions?� No

Did you have any sense of altered space or time?� No

Did you have a sense of knowing special knowledge, universal order and/or purpose?� No

Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure?� No

Did you become aware of future events?� No

Were you involved in or aware of a decision to return to the body?� No

Did you have any psychic, paranormal or other special gifts following the experience you did not have prior to the experience?� No

Did you have any changes of attitudes or beliefs following the experience?� Yes
����� Describe:� I never really feared death. This reinforced my belief.

Has the experience affected your relationships?� Daily life?� Religious practices etc.?� Career choices?� I tend to grieve a little less when someone dies. I think it is likely I will see them again.

Have you shared this experience with others?� Yes
����� Describe:� Mom, girlfriend, brother.

My mom is religious. She thinks I'm crazy.

My girlfriend is supportive, but I think she is skeptical.

My brother has also had strange experiences. So he believes me. The strangeness of his experiences are not of the same kind as mine.

What emotions did you experience following your experience?� Fear. Awe. I could never get past the fear of hearing weird sound and feeling strange sensations.
What was the best and worst part of your experience?� To me it shows that medical science has a long way to go when it comes to explaining the human mind. Calling such experiences hallucinations or very vivid dreams just doesn't cut it. It very well may be that it is all in my head and that once you die, your dead. But medical science needs to devote more research to such experiences to explain the case either way.

Has your life changed specifically as a result of your experience?� No
����� Describe:� Not a lot.

Following the experience, have you had any other events in your life, medications or substances which reproduced any part of the experience?� No

Did the questions asked and information you provided accurately and comprehensively describe your experience?� Uncertain
����� Explain:� There are a few experiences that I left out due to time constraints, but I have told the important stuff. Although, it is a little hard to fully illustrate the partial OBE that I had.

Please offer any suggestions you have to improve the questionnaire?� No suggestions.