Muscat home, early morning

Today is Devi Saptami, Durga puja, so dear to all Bengalis. A good day.

I had been reading up on Out of Body Experiences (OBEs) on the internet and was amazed by the proliferation of people who have had these experiences - some involuntarily, others through training. There are schools for OBEs!

So I decided to try my hand at it.

I woke up briefly at 5.30 am when my wife's alarm went off. I went back to sleep again, with the determination and background awareness that I had to catch the point between REM sleep and wakefulness, when about to waken next. The next couple of times I woke too fast to be able to try and separate. The third time around, I was aware that my mind had woken up but my body had not.

I was lying on my right side (I sleep on the left edge of the bed). I tried mentally to move my left arm and I could feel it swing heavily through the air. I could see only darkness, though. I was lying slightly curled up, so I mentally straightened and could feel my body straightening. Then I rolled on to my back, sat up and swung my legs to the floor. That was a clear "separation" from my physical body. I still had no sight, but could hear voices around me, though indistinct, as if inside my mind. I remembered that I had to "deepen" this reality by enhancing my senses and started to feel my body all over, Movement felt sluggish but the sense of touch was quite heightened.

However, the "pull" of my physical body was perhaps still great and I woke up in my physical body. I could not come close to sleep again before my own alarm went off at 6.30 am.

How do I know it was a small OBE and not a dream? I don't, except that it felt like an OBE is supposed to feel. On some later occasion, if I am able to do the 'unseen playing card' trick, that should be a confirmation...