Out of Body Experiences (OBEs) are not to be confused with Near Death Experiences (NDEs) – the former is about self-preservation during times of crises; the latter is the result of reaching death, or coming very close to it, only to return a thoroughly transformed human being with a new – usually more spiritual – lease on life.

Types of OBEs

There are three types of OBEs:

1. Your spirit, or soul leaves your body, travels somewhere up high (e.g. the sky, the ceiling, the roof and so on), looking down on whatever is going on below involving your physical self (those who have had NDEs often report having this experience straight after death).
2. The recalling of past OBEs by your body where you begin to feel yourself kind of drifting away but you are no longer watching anything from above – you simply feel like you are “not all there.” This is often accompanied by an inability to move or speak, and a very foggy sensation around the head.
3. A deep spaced-out day-dream-like feeling, in which waking up takes much effort.

The Purpose of OBEs

These experiences can be frightening when they are occurring but they have the profound purpose of keeping you sane. Your soul will leave your body in order to protect you from whatever horror is going on around you – whether or not it is directly happening to you is not always relevant. What determines if such an experience will manifest is how traumatic you find the occurrence itself.

Examples of traumatic events likely to bring on the main type of OBE (type 1.):

• Rape, or any other kind of physical violence.
• An injury resulting from an accident (e.g. car, airplane etc.).
• Watching someone die, especially a loved one.
• Witnessing some kind of atrocity, such as, torture, abduction, bombings, etc.

An Atypical OBE

One of my cousins once had an OBE when he was in the midst of losing both of his parents within the space of about eighteen months – his mother had already died of cancer and his father was about to leave the planet from the same disease. While he was driving home one day after visiting his father, he left his body, traveling upwards toward the sky, before stopping to look down on his car. He simply thought he was going mad. This was an unusual OBE because he was not at the scene of any trauma – he had just left the scene.

Self Help Tips for OBEs

Speaking from personal experience, I have found that the only way to deal with OBEs is to wait for them to pass. Your soul will know when it is safe for you to return to your body and it will do so without any conscious effort on your part. Tell yourself that this too shall pass, that you are not going mad nor are you about to die. Once you know that these occurrences serve a therapeutic purpose they will be much easier to handle when they arrive, especially when you have been through multiple traumas because, in all likelihood, you will have several future episodes of the second and third types of OBEs. Be patient with yourself, and let it ride.

Helen