Out-Of-Body Experiences
- real cases of out of body experiences.
Welcome to the OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES section of this website. These true accounts of paranormal phenomena have been collected over many years through the "Your Psychic Experiences" newspaper columns by the psychic medium Craig Hamilton-Parker.
Traveling in the Body of Light
Extract from "What to do when you are dead" about Out Of Body Experiences
 A great many people write to me at my newspaper and Internet columns and claim to have traveled outside of their bodies. Out-of-body-experiences (OBEs) are surprisingly common. Surveys have yielded differing results showing that between 25% and 60% of people questioned claimed to have experienced an OBE. Whatever the true figure, it is clear from surveys and my bulging mailbag that this is certainly not an uncommon experience. Here is an example from one of the many thousands of letters and e-mails set to me:
“A few years ago I had an extremely painful operation without anaesthetic. I left the hospital twenty minutes after the surgery in a state of shock, anger, and mixed emotions. My centre of vision suddenly changed. I stood about three stories higher, above myself, looking down at the scene below. I could see the pedestrians walking by, the cars and buses, the flat rooftops of the buildings. I even saw myself stop at the curb, look both ways, and cross the street.
I have a bald spot on the top of my head and I noticed that there was a small scar on it that I did not know was there!”
This is an unusual case because the Out of Body Experience OBE happened while she was walking along the street. Celia Green, the UK psychical investigator, cites a couple of cases in which motorcyclists left their bodies while driving at high speed. (Fortunately, they did not have accidents.) Pilots have also had had similar experiences, finding themselves apparently outside their aircraft struggling to get in. One of the most famous examples of this happened to  Charles A. Lindbergh in 1927 as he made the first ever flight across the Atlantic in his plane The Spirit of St Louis. “I existed independently of time and matter. I felt myself departing from my body as I imagine a spirit would depart--emanating into the cockpit, extending through the fuselage as though no frame of fabric walls were there, angling upward, outward, until I reformed in an awareness far distant from the human form I left in a fast-flying transatlantic plane. But I remained connected to my body through a long-extended strand, a strand so tenuous that it could have been severed by a breath.”
Most out-of-body experiences happen spontaneously. Often a period of severe stress or shock or fatigue can induce the astral body to temporarily separate from the physical body. Reports also come from people who say they have had an out-of-body experience OBE while they were resting, sleeping, or dreaming. The majority of out of body experiences occur when people are in bed, ill, or resting, with a smaller percentage coming while the person is drugged or medicated. There is a high incidence of out-of-body experience during puberty. Of course, some of these “experiences” may be fantasy, but there are a great many cases on record now that give empirical proof that such experiences do exist, because the astral traveler has seen and described things from the journey that he or she could not have known. For example, out-of-body travelers have read off numbers from random-number generating machines placed in a room separate from their physical bodies, or seen target objects placed at a distance, even on the roofs of buildings.
OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES
What To Do If You Leave Your Body
 The experience of leaving the physical body is usually a pleasurable one. I have had a number of out of body experiences OBEs myself and it always feels natural and an enjoyable experience. However, my first OBE, which happened to me during my adolescence, was frightening. As I was falling asleep, I felt myself rise to the ceiling. I looked around and saw myself on the bed. My immediate thought was that I had died in my sleep and I panicked. Instantaneously, there was a feeling of great shaking and I felt myself shoot back into my body like a whip being lashed. There was a huge bang and a flash of light, and I awoke with my body drenched in cold sweat.
Nowadays, if the same thing happens, I remain calm and enjoy the experience of being free of the body. I realize that it is a natural experience and is safe to consciously practice. Although, perhaps, there are those who have had “one OBE too many” and ended up in the spirit world permanently. Their being dead, there would be no conventional way for them to let us know what had happened! Nonetheless, through experience, I believe it to be safe and know of no cases where communicating spirits have warned against it. There have also been no reported cases of people dying while practicing out of body experience OBE experiments under laboratory conditions.
INDUCING OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES
It is possible to induce an out of body experience and I have described these in detail in my other books: The Psychic Workbook (Random House), The Hidden Meaning of Dreams (Sterling), and Remembering your Dreams (Sterling). The simplest methods of out of body experience OBE induction require you to deliberately relax very deeply and visualize that you are being pulled towards a point in the room, such as a light fixture. As the physical mechanism of the body becomes quiescent, the body of light continues to remain active. Instead of resting in the physical body, it goes out of the body and into the astral plane. The body of light lays aside the physical body like we lay aside our clothes. It is also possible to use lucid dream techniques to trigger astral flight.
If you take a nap and find yourself out of your body, don’t panic. Enjoy the experience. It is likely, at first, to last only a few moments, but with practice the experience can be sustained. Some mystical teachings say that everyone astral travels every night--it’s just that we forget that we’ve done it once we wake up. Part of the art of astral travel is being able to recall the experience when you return to the body. If you have used a sleep technique, you may lose awareness of the experience in the same way you forget your dreams on waking
Traveling in the body of light is easy, provided one practices. It takes perseverance and patience.
Initially, you may indulge yourself in the enjoyable sensations that arise as you free yourself of your physical form. The physical body feels sluggish in comparison to its astral counterpart. It is like clay compared to light. The body of light is pure life force.
You may see your physical body laid on the bed as I did and decide now is the time to venture further afield. Perhaps you will travel to places you know, or move to far-off countries on the other side of the world. Imagine the feeling of soaring high above the world and seeing the landscape moving below you.
When I was a young man my grandfather was very ill. Coming close to death, he spoke to me about an experience he had while in the hospital. His eyes were shining with delight and excitement as he spoke. “My whole bed lifted up and floated down the corridor over there,” he said. “It was wonderful, I flew out of the hospital and all over the world. I even saw the continent of Australia laid out below me. Craig, I will never be afraid of dying. You must never fear death.” Those few words, from someone so close to me and whom I could trust implicitly, had a profound effect upon me.
RELATED SECTION: THE SPIRIT WORLD
SEE ALSO ASTRAL BODY & CAUSAL BODY
This is an extract from Craig's book
What to do when you are dead
RELATED ARTICLES, VIDEOS AND WEBPAGES:
OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES - COPYRIGHT NOTICE These true casebooks are examples taken from the newspaper columns and books by Craig Hamilton-Parker. Please note that the stories listed here and on other official websites of Craig Hamilton-Parker are COPYRIGHT. Journalists and writers wanting to source material need to contact the author for permission to quote. |
EXPERIENCE SECTIONS 
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
