OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES

It wasn't until September 9, 1979 that the subject of out-of- body experiences came up again. My brother Joe knew
my dad was interested in the occult, so for Father's Day, Joe gave him the book Journeys Out of the Body by
Robert A. Monroe. I remembered searching the card catalog as a child, so after my dad had finished reading it, I
asked him if I could borrow it, and he said yes.

Monroe explained his OBEs in such a logical, scientific manner that I read the book faster than I'd ever read
before. I didn't really believe Monroe's claims, but I liked his approach. His book urged me not to take his word for
it, but to try it myself.

I decided to take Monroe up on his offer, and follow his techniques to see for myself if these experiences were real or just hype, fantasy or dreams. That night, before I went to bed, I attempted astral projection for the first time. I had memorized Monroe's method earlier and I decided to close my eyes and try it.

The first step was to relax. I spent a long time relaxing completely. The next step, which was quite a bit harder, was
to drift between waking and sleeping consciousness. I found myself drifting into sleep once or twice, and I yanked
myself back to full consciousness each time, being careful not to move my fully relaxed body. It took quite a while
before I felt comfortable enough to go on to the next step: clearing my mind of all thoughts.

This was harder yet. Every time I heard a noise I would be distracted and my mind would start to wander. Then my
body started itching in the most distracting way. As soon as I'd scratch an itch, another new itch would take its
place. Even after I conquered most of my itches (and ignored the rest) it was hard to keep my mind from wandering.

At one point, I found I could hold my mind blank for several minutes, and I decided that would be long enough to go
on to the next step: using imaginary lines of force to call "the vibrations." I followed Monroe's method to the letter,
carefully pausing between each step in the process. I was just about to give up when I felt a heavy "TWANG" in
my head. If felt as if the lines of force had somehow become real and had touched a 110-volt power line. I thought,
"Oops. Maybe this isn't such a good idea." I tried to pull myself back to normal consciousness by retracting my
imaginary lines of force. I quickly pulled the lines of force back toward me, but much to my surprise, the
"electricity" I felt at the end of those lines was also being pulled toward me. It was like I had been fishing and I felt
a sharp bite at the end of my fishing pole: I quickly tried to pull my fishing line out of the water, but I only managed to set the hook, and pull in a fish. And it was quite a fish: A kind of electrical "vibration" violently swept into my body, filling my body with an electric-like shock and a terrible roaring noise. I thought I was being electrocuted and my first reaction was sheer panic. I could hear my heart beating wildly in mad fear, but I was powerless to control it.

Somehow I could see through my closed eyelids. I looked up and I saw a blue ring of electrical fire flying right
toward my head. It was about a foot in diameter, with the energy sparks about an inch-and-a-half thick, and it was
bright blue. I instinctively tried to raise my arms to protect myself from the impact, but I found myself paralyzed and
unable to move my arms. The ring of blue energy started to slip over my forehead and I looked away, afraid to see
what would happen next. I started fighting wildly to regain control of my body and the "vibrations" slowly smoothed
down and died out. When the vibrations faded completely, I could move my body again.

I shook my arms and legs, and rejoiced that I hadn't lost the ability to move them, happy that I was completely in
my body. "My God," I thought to myself, "It worked! Monroe wasn't lying! There ARE other worlds!"
 

After my experience with the vibrations, I got up out of bed and walked out into the living room to tell somebody,
anybody, that it was all real. My mom was in bed sleeping already, and my dad was asleep in his favorite chair in
front of the television, and I didn't want to wake him. I walked into the kitchen and got a glass of water, occasionally
shaking my arms and legs to make sure I was completely inside my body. After a few minutes I walked back to my
bedroom and lay down, but I could not sleep. I could not stop thinking about the encounter and its implications.

First, it was the most terrifying experience of my life. It felt like the vibrations were harming my body, and the
roaring, hissing sound only scared me more. I had confronted mankind's two biggest fears: fear of the unknown and
fear of death. My scientific self couldn't make any scientific sense out of the experience--it was not part of the
physical universe that I knew. I tried to think about it based on my Catholic beliefs that insisted I could only leave
my body if I died. Did I just have a close encounter with death? After several hours of trying to make sense out of
the experience, I fell asleep without any answers.

I spent the next day arguing with myself about the experience. My whole belief system was blown to pieces. Seeing
is believing, and I could not deny that I had experienced the vibrations, the hissing sound, the paralysis and the blue
ring of energy. I even "saw" through my closed eyelids. I knew I was not hallucinating, I was not insane, I was not
dreaming and I was not under hypnosis. My experience was very "real" to me, as real as my normal waking
consciousness, if not more real than that.

My first observation was that some kind of nonphysical reality existed. That observation was a direct contradiction
of my scientific beliefs because science had been leading me to believe there was no such thing as a nonphysical
reality.

Furthermore, I reasoned, Einstein's theory of relativity says that matter is the same as energy. If a person could
consciously leave their body and enter a truly nonphysical world, they wouldn't exactly be "matter," or "energy" as
we know it. Science left no room for "consciousness" or "spirit" in their formulas. Science led me to believe that
there were only three basic dimensions of experience (plus time) and five senses. Everything else was labeled
superstition, nonsense, hallucination or possibly religion.

There is a fact of logic that when a premise is wrong, any conclusions made from that premise are also wrong. Since
I had discovered a premise of science that was wrong, or at the very best incomplete, I deduced that many or all of
the conclusions made by modern science were also wrong. At the very least, they were ignoring some major facts.

My own scientific training had led me to distrust science itself! I could no longer trust the textbooks I loved as a
child! Nevertheless, I believe that if a system works, it is okay to use it until you find something that works better. I
decided that I would still use the scientific method as a tool but never completely trust science again. Meanwhile,
the only thing I could do to find peace of mind was to try to induce more out-of-body experiences and learn more
about the nonphysical world.

My inner turmoil didn't end with my scientific belief system. I was Catholic. And that caused its own complications.

The Catholic system taught me to believe in one "Heaven," one "Hell" and one Earth. On judgment day, they said,
God judges a person to be either "good" or "bad." The people labeled "bad" go to hell forever, and the people
labeled "good" go to heaven forever. And of course, until you die, you spend your days on earth.

I could guess what the Catholics would say about a nonphysical reality. The liberal Catholics would probably say
that I was being absurd, and they had science to back them up. Fundamentalists would probably say that any such
experience must surely be the work of the Devil, trying to lead my soul into sin.

Still, I refused to believe I was being tricked: Seeing is believing. I had seen that a nonphysical place existed and it
wasn't "heaven" or "hell." Therefore, I had also found a basic premise of Catholicism that was wrong. I decided
not to trust what the Catholics had taught me because they were just as ignorant of this nonphysical world as I had
been.

I continued going to church for a while, but I started an intense examination of my Catholic beliefs. Hoping to find
some answers, I found a Bible that I got as a confirmation gift, and I read the entire New Testament and much of
the Old Testament. The Bible convinced me that Jesus was a good man, and taught good lessons. In fact, I agreed
with everything that Jesus was supposed to have said.

But even what I read in the Bible didn't agree with my Catholic belief system! Heavy  questions nagged in my heart.
Why does the Catholic church insist that Jesus is the son of God, when Jesus called himself the "son of man"
repeatedly? Why do they pray, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you" then immediately they receive him? Why do
they pray for their own petty interests instead of entrusting that God would take care of the world? Why do they
preach about needing to fear God? Why do they hold carnivals and bingo games when Jesus said not to use a place
of worship in these ways, and even kicked moneychangers out of a temple? Why, indeed, do they pass a money
plate in church? Why do they spend millions and millions of dollars on grandiose churches-- have you ever seen St.
Peters Basilica? --when people are starving? Why do they call the pope, "our holy father" when Jesus said not
to call anyone father (Matthew 23:9)? Why do the Catholics go to church and pray in public when Jesus said, "when
you pray, go into a room by yourself...in your secret place" (Matthew 6:5). Why do people go to church on Sunday
and are unspiritual the rest of the week? It seemed wrong that, as a Catholic, going to church was my obligation
and, once fulfilled, I was free to be as mundane and unspiritual as I wanted. Just one out-of-body experience blasted
that whole hypocritical concept out of the water: During my OBE, I saw that I was a spiritual being--in fact, I was a
spirit--and the thought of dying without some real relationship with God was scary. Before my OBE, it was enough
to recite prayers I didn't even understand. After my OBE, it was clear I needed to do more.

Eventually I came to realize that my Catholic belief system was not spiritual at all. The closer I looked, the more I
understood. So I stopped going to church and embarked on a truly spiritual path. I don't mean to imply that all
Catholics are unspiritual. It's just that I needed to find my own answers.

Since my OBE taught me to have a real concern with spiritual matters, I realized that my OBE had taught me to be
more spiritual, not less. I decided that God would not send me to hell for leaving the church and finding my own
spiritual path.

I resolved to ignore the pain, ignore the fear, ignore the danger, and take my chances with death and damnation to
discover the truth. I decided to keep trying every night, until I got more results. Meanwhile, I decided to "raid" the
Minneapolis Public Library to find more information on OBEs, and other methods of producing them.
 

The morning of November 1, 1979, started out normal. I woke up around 7:00am, did my usual morning routine and
caught a bus to the University of Minnesota. I got to the University at 9:00am, walked into my favorite computer
lab and started programming. I worked furiously on a microcomputer game for several hours until it was time for my
Thursday class. I hurried off to class, took copious notes during class, then hurried back to the computer lab.

This time I logged into the University's timesharing computer and started working on another game I wrote. A
hockey game was playing on a radio in the back of the lab. I worked on that computer game until 10:00pm that
night. After twelve hours of intense programming I started getting tired and hungry. I hadn't eaten since breakfast.
I signed off the computer and caught the next bus home.

When I got home at 10:30pm, I was hungry. I looked in the refrigerator and found a big pan of lasagna. My mom
must have made me a big lasagna dinner and I missed it by staying late at the University! I took out a big slice of
lasagna, heated it and wolfed it down. Ordinarily I would have made my usual attempt to leave my body, but that
night I was just too tired. I went to bed at 11:30pm and was asleep the minute my head hit the pillow.

I fell into a deep sleep and started dreaming a programmer's most hated and feared dream: the programming
dream. The same dream plagued me for hours: I was sitting at a computer terminal, asking myself, "How can I
make this program better?"

I put up with that dream for four annoying hours. That was all I could stand. I became so annoyed by this dream that
I couldn't take any more. Slowly I turned my attention away from the dream. I slowly forced myself to become
conscious, but as I did, I noticed the dream was still going on! Somehow I was awake and asleep at the same time!

What happened next is hard to describe. My consciousness was split into five parts. Each part was separate and
unique, yet I was each of them simultaneously. Each was thinking its own thoughts, and communicating with the
other four. All five of "me" were arguing about the computer game and how to make it better!

The feeling was beyond words: I was five personalities at the same time and I was talking to myself! One of my five
selves asked, "Well, how can we make the spacewar game better?" Another "me" said, "Well, I think we should
allow more interactive communication between space ships." Yet another "me" replied, "No, I think it's more
important to improve the fighting ability of the computer-controlled opponent ships." One of my five selves was
bored to tears watching this whole conversation and tried to force itself to consciousness. Now that "I" was
conscious, I was fascinated at what was happening: I was conscious and split into five parts and each of them were
taking turns talking.

At first I tried to follow the conversation, but something strange started happening. As I became more conscious,
my four other selves seemed to speed up! I tried to keep up with the conversation, but the talking became faster
and faster. Soon they sounded like a tape player in fast-forward mode, and I lost track of what they were saying.
Meanwhile, the voices faded into the distance and seemed to disappear.

My consciousness was no longer split. I was completely awake and aware of my surroundings, but I knew
something was not normal. My body felt unusual. It felt odd to be conscious and yet still asleep.

Just then, I got a strange feeling all over, like a shiver over my whole body. I listened to see if I could hear what
caused the strange feeling. I heard what sounded like a hockey announcer in the background! I thought, "Now
that's odd. Where could that be coming from?" I wondered if the sound could be coming from the bathroom where
we kept a small radio. It sounded a little bit too loud for that; the radio had to be closer to my bedroom.

I wondered if a radio was playing in our dining room, which was next to my bedroom. That didn't make sense
because there weren't any radios in that room. Besides, the radio seemed a bit too loud for that, too. I figured the
radio must be in my bedroom somewhere.

I thought for a moment that my little alarm clock/radio might have turned on in the night, but it seemed too loud
even for that. It was loud enough to be my stereo, but I remembered turning it off before going to bed. Besides,
when I listened closer, the hockey announcer sounded even closer than my stereo.

As I listened, the sound of the hockey announcer's voice grew louder and louder as if someone were turning up the
volume steadily. I started to worry as the sound became louder and louder, until finally my ears were hurting and I
was ready to scream with the pain.

Suddenly it stopped and I experienced complete and total silence. Another strange feeling came over me: I felt like
I was completely separate from my body, although I was still occupying the same space. I decided to try to get out.

I had read a few OBE books by then. Some of them had good techniques to separate the consciousness from the body, but none of them said what to do next! How could I get away from the body I was laying in? Since I was in my astral body, gravity didn't affect me, so I didn't just "fall" out of the body. My astral body could pass right through physical matter, so I didn't think I could grab onto anything to pull myself out. I didn't think I could push my way out either; what could I push against?

I thought about the problem for a few minutes. Then I examined my physical body and noticed that it seemed solid
on the outside edges. The edges looked like a barrier of gray. My physical body seemed like a bottle; it was solid
on the outside, but hollow on the inside. I was like the liquid inside the bottle, fluid and elastic, but there was no way
out of the bottle!

At first I tried to twist myself inside the physical body so I could climb out the stomach. I wiggled my astral arms out
of the physical arms, like taking off a tight sweater. Then I squirmed until I was under the rib-cage. I reached my
astral arms up, and tried to claw my way through the stomach. I clawed and clawed, but some barrier, some
force-field, was holding me back. The harder I struggled against the barrier, the more impossible it seemed to
move. I managed to inch my way for a little while but gave up and lay down again.

I decided to try another way out. I lifted my legs over my head, and did a backward somersault over my head and
out of my body.

I felt free and weightless. I wanted to float slowly up to the ceiling. With that thought, I started to float gently up.
Then I looked up and thought about my destination, the top of the ceiling. Suddenly, I whooshed up to the ceiling. I
looked around the room with a sense of delight.

I looked straight down at my body. It was under the bed covers, but from what I could see it lo>

I rolled over and looked at the time. It was 3:45am in the morning.

I recalled the whole incident three or four times in my mind, so I wouldn't forget to write down any of the details
later. During the experience I was perfectly cool, calm and collected. That is, until I crashed into my body. Now that
I was safely in my body I felt the full realization of what had happened: I had literally been outside my body. The
more I thought about it, the more scary it seemed. My heart was still pounding with excitement. However, I was
more tired than I was afraid, so I managed to calm myself down enough to drift back to sleep.

The next thing I knew, the computer conversation dream started again! This time I realized right away what was
happening and I was immediately "zapped" out of my physical body again. Like before, I was separate from my
body, but still laying inside it. I was too cautious to get up and walk around outside my body, but I didn't want to
waste the opportunity to explore. I decided to do some experiments while still laying inside my body.

The first experiment was a simple one: I wanted to see if I could lift my astral arms and look at them. If I could see
them, what would they look like?

I bent my astral arms at the elbow and looked at the arms. They looked and felt perfectly normal and natural. They
seemed so normal that after shaking them a few times I convinced myself I was back inside my body! I thought,
"There's nothing unusual about this; I'm perfectly fine. I'm not out of my body--how silly of me." I tried to lower my
arms, but I couldn't! It seemed as if held in some kind of force-field! I pushed and pushed, trying to force my arms
down to their normal position, but the harder I tried the more resistance I felt: I could only move them two inches in
a circle at best. Then I really panicked! I drew up as much strength as I could to use it against the force-field. With
all the energy I could muster, I forcefully slammed my arms back into place.

I blacked out for a second and went back to full body consciousness. Again I asked myself, "Was it real?" It was so
real that I convinced myself I was inside my body! Why did my arms get stuck? I'm not sure. Perhaps I was so sure
I was in the physical body that I became part physical and part astral, and my arms were held in limbo.

As I thought about the experience over and over, I wondered, "Why don't the OBE books mention anything about
this?"

My first two out-of-body experiences were achieved by becoming conscious during a dream. This is known in
today's literature as Lucid Dreaming. This method of leaving the body was documented in the early 1900s in books
and articles by Oliver Fox (a pen name for Hugh Calloway) and Yram (a pen name for Marcel Louis Forhan). I
hadn't read those books until after my first experiences. At that point I thought the only way to have an OBE was
through conscious effort. I will say more about lucid dreams in chapters 12 and 26.
 

The out-of-body experience was analogous to a party happening in a neighbor's apartment. Up to now, occasional
psychic experiences were like party noises; I did my best to ignore them. Dabbling with altered states of
consciousness was like walking upstairs and putting my ear up to the door. The pokes and prods were like party
noises I heard from outside. My first OBE was like opening the door and walking into the party. What happened
next was like going in, getting drunk and inviting everyone back to my place!

The day was November 26, 1979. Twenty-four days had passed since my first two out-of-body experiences of November 2. It had been two and one half months since I started exploring altered states of consciousness, trying to learn about the OBE. My playing with altered states had shaken me up quite a bit because of the pokes, prods, sounds and sensations I hadn't expected. My first OBE shook me up even more; It was undeniably real and made the pokes and prods seem trivial in comparison. Little did I know that my dabbling had opened some kind of psychic door.

I was living at home, while attending classes at the University and working part-time. That day, my mom had a
friendly, nonalcoholic birthday party, and JP and I started talking about OBEs. He asked me to try a quick
experiment: he held up his right index finger about an inch away from the space between my eyes, and he asked me
if I felt anything. I felt a strange sensation there, as if part of my astral body was being pulled out of my forehead. I
tried to explain what I felt, and asked him what it was. He said he didn't know for sure, but the space between his
eyes worked the same for him. I hadn't read anything about the "third eye" yet, so I didn't pursue the matter.

After the party, I went to bed and made my nightly attempt to induce an out-of-body experience. After a few
minutes of practice I opened my eyes and saw movements and lights in midair! I was frightened, and to make
matters worse I started drifting away from my body! I panicked and tried my hardest to stay in my body! Once I
was securely in my body I closed my eyes and decided not to continue. I eventually managed to fall asleep, but
much later than normal.

The next morning I woke up tired with the alarm clock. I had to get up early to go to my 8:00am class at the
University. I realized I was too tired to pay attention at class, so I decided to get some caffeine in my system to help
wake up. Since I hated the taste of coffee, I went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of soda pop, opened it up
and sat down at the breakfast table. I took a sip and sat there trying to wake up and get motivated. Without warning
I felt the bottle accidentally slip out of my hand and my hand closed into a fist. I was startled and expected to hear a
loud crash as the bottle hit the floor, but there was no sound. I quickly looked at my hand, and the bottle was still
there, securely in my hand! It wasn't psychokinesis; My astral hand had accidentally "let go" of my physical hand,
but the physical hand held tightly onto the bottle. I knew right then it was going to be a strange day.

I caught my usual bus to the University and went to my usual classes. My last class got out at noon, and I needed to
be at an important meeting at work by 1:00pm. I debated whether to stop for lunch. Something deep down inside me
said, "It's okay, you have enough time." The thoughts seemed to be my own, and yet separate from me, like a
deeper source of knowledge. I dismissed it; "That's just my stomach voicing its hunger."

I walked over to a local sit-down restaurant. I looked at the menu. Their specialty burger looked great, but it was
served with a small portion of potato chips. I was very hungry for french fries, but short on cash, so I ordered the
burger "as is." After the waitress left I thought to myself, "I have enough money and I'm hungry; I should have
ordered the fries. I really want the fries." I didn't want to bother the waitress by changing my order, so I didn't say
anything.

A few minutes later, the waitress brought my burger with a large serving of french fries! "Something strange is
happening here," I thought, "This is getting weird." Was it a psychic experience? "No," I thought, "It was just a
coincidence."

When I was almost done with my lunch, that same "something" deep down inside me said, "You better hurry or
you'll miss your bus for St. Paul and miss your meeting." Again I dismissed it, thinking, "That's just me, worrying
about being late for the meeting." Nevertheless, I rushed to the end of my meal and paid my bill. I wasn't charged
for the fries.

I ran across the street to the bus stop and my bus was just pulling up. How convenient! I got on the bus and looked
at my watch. It was 12:15pm. The trip from Minneapolis to St. Paul usually takes 45 minutes, so I felt confident I
would not be late for the meeting. Then it occurred to me: If I hadn't rushed through my lunch, I would have missed
that bus, and I would have been late for my meeting. Was it a psychic experience? "No," I thought, "It was just a
coincidence."

I wasn't late for the meeting, but the meeting kept me from working on an important project, so I decided to work
late. I worked that night until 9:40pm, then I went to catch my bus back to Minneapolis. By "coincidence" a bus
pulled up almost as soon as I got to the bus stop. I got on the bus and sat down. I needed to catch another bus in
downtown Minneapolis, so I got out my bus schedule and looked up when the other bus would be at my Minneapolis
bus stop. The bus slowly pulled away from the bus stop and started sluggishly lumbering down the street at 15 miles
per hour. My other bus was due to arrive downtown at 10:15pm and the next bus after that was 11:40pm. The driver
kept driving at 15 miles per hour, for the next five city blocks.

Since it was 9:45pm, I only had 30 minutes to get to Minneapolis to catch my 10:15pm bus, and it was usually a 45
minute bus ride. To make matters worse, the bus driver was driving 15 miles per hour! I started to get very
discouraged. I was brooding. I thought to myself, "I wish there were some way I could make this bus driver
understand that I need to be in Minneapolis by 10:15pm." One block later the bus pulled up to the next stop and
another passenger got on board.

Then something strange happened. The bus pulled away from the bus stop like a bat out of hell! The bus kept
accelerating until he was ten miles-per-hour over the speed limit! He drove to Minneapolis at breakneck
speeds--speeding the whole way--and passing up half of his bus stops! He even ran through a red light! He pulled up
to my Minneapolis bus stop at 10:10pm. That was twenty-five minutes; a new world's record! I got off the bus and it
tore off into the distance. "Wow!" I thought, "That's incredible!"

As I patiently waited for my 10:15pm bus home, I thought to myself again, "Was it a psychic  experience?" How many coincidences can pile up before you believe that something extraordinary is happening to
you? If someone off the street, or even a respected scientist, were to tell me of a series of psychic experiences like
that, I would have laughed in his face. But since they were happening to me, I couldn't laugh. "All right," I admitted
to myself, "things like that don't just happen 'by coincidence.' That's an excuse I've been using too long."

I had asked for Out-of-Body Experiences, not psychic experiences. Somehow I had got them both. Somehow I was
becoming psychic, whether I wanted it or not. I absolutely loved the psychic things that were starting to happen, but
I started to worry about my sanity: What's next--delusions of grandeur? Psychotic behavior? Paranoia? Just how
important are my thoughts anyway? Can this power be abused?

"Should I tell anyone what is happening to me?" I asked myself. "If the experiences were not mine, I would never
have believed them in a million years. So how can I expect anyone to believe they happened to me? No way!" I
not to tell anyone.

As a skeptic, I didn't want to believe in psychic experiences. I thought it was all a load of rubbish. But in the years
ahead, as I kept practicing OBEs, I also kept having psychic experiences. Most days I would have three to five
experiences I would classify as "psychic." They happened so often that I couldn't deny they were real.

I doubt that the psychic experiences were directly related to the out-of-body experiences. Rather, I think they were
more related to the practice, during which I would induce altered states of consciousness. I discovered that when I
became too wrapped up in daily life, I would have fewer psychic experiences. And if I took the time to meditate and
explore altered states of consciousness, I would have more psychic experiences.

I was disappointed in the many OBE books that never mentioned the connection between OBE practice and psychic
experiences. People brave enough to try to induce OBEs should be aware of the connection: When you try for
OBEs, you may get more than you expect! Some of these psychic experiences can be alarming, unnerving, and
sometimes even scary.
 

Out of Body Experiences --  This link is to the site at which the Out of Body Experience was originally accessed