Well lets start with Oobe's
thelmadonna,
Well, that's one that I didn't mention, but ok. In the old, now dated, 'new age movement', OOB was/is known loosely more or less as being Astral (Sanskrit) projection. In Rosicrucian (mystry school) doctrine, there are essentially two types of Astral Projection taught. The reason I capitalize the "Astral" word, is mainly due to the fact that virtually any word delineated from Sanskrit and-or the descendant language, Hebrew, are words that describe a form of divinity...a manifestation of God. The reason Astral projection is taught, is that the conscious awareness of self while aware of self in the Astral or the Yetzirah (Hebrew, same dimension) plane is essential to one's continued ascension. We are not intended to remain within the re-incarnation cycle that most Humans find themselves but about which most are completely unaware. The mystery schools, of which there are several, when one becomes sufficiently awake, will become aware that schools exist, and when one becomes further sufficiently awake, those persons are psychically 'invited' into the other schools which otherwise are unfindable.
The first form that is taught is what most uninformed refer to as being OOB or Astral travel. It is the process that enables one to become aware, 'metaphorically', of leaving one's physical manifestation to travel about inside the Astral plane but only 'slightly above' the physical plane, so that the self is aware of both planes simultaneously. This form of out-of-body travel is rudimentary. The more advanced forms of Astral travel enable true bi-location, (which incidentally is what the ET luminous-orbs use to transit within Earthian consciousness space). Another example, I saw my mother, standing in two places simultaneously, she was practicing advanced forms of Astral travel, or what is taught in Rosicrucian literature as being Targeted Astral Projection, or the ability to become conscious of self in multiple locations. Another, more commonly known form of TAP is known and taught as Remote Viewing. The military version of OOB travel has been constrained to an impositional form however.
The Mystical Qabalah reveals, that every night, each physical conscious being on Earth (and likely everywhere else through out the cosmos aswell), transits consciously through the four Worlds, eg., we move from the Asiyah (where we are now, reading this sentence), up into the Yetzirah (Astral plane), then in deep sleep, into Briyah, and then into Atziluth, and each night we return down through those dimensions of YHVH's (transliterated as "Jehova" in the Latin Bible) Mind, until we return to the Asiyah. It is in the Asiyah that we are considered to be asleep, because our eyes are open and we have become wholly reliant on brain consciousness.
The mystery schools teach self awareness in Yetzirah/Astral travel to enable one to remain conscious on both sides of the 'veil'. One reason for teaching Astral/Yezirah self-awareness although not necessarily the most important, is when our shells of embodiment breakup, in other words our physical bodies begin to transition in the process of body death or 'dying', our consciousness of 'self' for most remains in an unawakened state in Yetzirah. It is important to be experienced in the wakeful state of self while awake and aware of self while in the Yetzirah state of consciousness while the body is incarnate...alive. Most Humans require guidance/training to do so. The mystery schools teach that process, so that when our temples crash, we remain functionally conscious. We never die, we just forget that we have lived.
Humans have been successfully indoctrinated to 'know' that it is our birth-right to die while being forbidden to know anything of the process or any of the strategies to remain functionally conscious between the natural life-death cycles.
Now we have a bit of an understanding of OOB.
I began my training at around 4yro, as my parents were both practicing members of the Rosicrucian (AMORC R+C) Order. I joined the adult order at 18. Although I dropped out when I was around 25yro. Those teachings no longer resonated with me, although my mother remained an AMORC R+C until her transition, in 1992. Thirty years later I rejoined another R+C mystery school. I went out in search of ET, and I found Humanity, and I found the Hebrew Mystical Qabalah, to which I have added the moniker, the "Escape Manual for Humans".
While receiving AMORC mystical training, I learned how to wakefully Astral Project, eg., leave the body. Initially, it is a process of learning how to relax the tension of the brain awareness and this is accomplished by being taught various breathing practices. Some folks can accomplishe the pop-out very easily, for me, everything takes time. My brain is too active, so I am forced to quiet it using the various mental strategies of turning it off. But essentially, one just lays there, in a comfortable position, and begins to comfortably breath in the Blue Light through the nostrils, exhale the White Light through the lips, and while doing so, envision the White Light, moving into each part of the body, and then to learn to discern the feel of the sensation of the Nous (the active Chi, Ruach (Hbr) or Vital Life Force) that is contained in the air) as it invigorates those cells, awakening each of the cellular consciousness of each of the organs of the body. I see each of the organ beginning to become illuminated from within, via a bright white light. Eventually one works down, moving down through the neck, stopping at the shoulders, filling it with white light, then the arms, the hands, fingers and then down the legs, and finally all the way down to the toes. For me my entire body tingles with the white light. Most folks fall asleep during the initial learning periods, but it is a wonderful rest that ensues. When one is able to awake the entire body, while relaxing the brain, the problem becomes how to prevent psychic body, the Nefesh (Hbr) from popping out of the physical body, the Neshema (Hbr).
It is really fun to Astral travel. For myself, I remember the first time I did it, I pop'd out, I actually felt and heard a 'muck' kind of sound and I found myself floating above my bed. It was a wierd feeling, as though I were falling upward! At first and with some struggle, I learned how to move. Moving one's legs or arms does nothing, one must 'urge' one's self to move somewhere, and in so doing eventually one learns to urge themselves anywhere desired. Night after night, I'd be flying along up over houses, over other countries, I'd drop down through the ceilings, down over a family sitting together at the dinner table eating, chatting, and as I tried to listen to what they were saying, I'd pop back up through the ceiling rapidly traveling to the next place. Time and again, I'd try to focus upon people, their faces, their voices. After much work I was able to focus on their faces to see the features clearly, and then later voices, I could actually hear their voices, but it was much easier to hear their thoughts. It is fascinating to realize both at the same moment, to realize how Humans actually speak, what is being thought, reasoned, and then spoken.
Since I began Astral projecting, other features of the awareness of self in Yetzirah has become strengthend and prominently evident. Hearing people's thoughts is a matter of being self-aware in Yetzirah, eg., the Astral plane, as though it were a background mental process, which is for me seems mainly to always be 'on'. As Gus says, it is hard to turn-off. I do not have full control yet, but I am working on it.
Another aspect of Yetzirah awareness is the ability to see creatures which exist in the side columns of consciousness, and also the recently 'departed'. I have seen many. Some are attracted to me because I can see and hear them, and often they convey messages to me, to be given to their loved ones who are grieving....those messages are very priviledged. I also frequently see elementals among other things. One fellow, a friend, a movie director, who was house guest, residing in our home while he was making a movie, died of an embolism, a clot that formed between his lungs and the heart. He collapsed in my living room, I adminstered CPR which was continued when the paramedics arrived. He technically died at the hospital, although I 'saw' him pass while I was administering mouth to mouth resuscitation.
A few days later, I saw him, he was the room where he slept, standing on the ground the floor around his waist, as though he was unaware of the difference between the elevated wood floor mounted above the ground!! He was standing on the ground not the floor. Interesting. I've also seen thought-atmospheres which I believe are the essential elements of what other's refer to as being "ghosts". Those repetitive sightings of apparitions that persist for many years. Its as though an essence of the being becomes imparted into an area, which reminds me of errant heaps of programs that have become discarded but not purged, and so when ever those become energized, the ghost re-appears, re-running the old program, a loop that repeats. At times I can see the fear cloud surrounding beef meals and cooked chicken. It appears to me as a very shiney "blackness" along with a feeling of dread.
In 1992, I was resting, asleep at home, as it was two weeks before my first open-heart valve surgery, I was quite ill at the time. Mom came to me in a death vision, just as mom promised that she would do when she would die. I was asleep, and I saw a beautiful, slender young woman with long goldie-lock hair coiled about her head. She appeared to lying flat on a star-field against a black sky full of white stars. The shape of the form that mom appeared to be lying on, reminded me of rounded top door, it looked like a door, while she was laying down on it, full length the door seemed to be oriented vertical. She was covered in fine white sheer silken sheet, I could see her body outline clearly impressed throught the sheerness of the sheet. She looked like Isis. I saw her reaching her arms out toward me, she was saying something yet I could not see her face. She said, "I love you."
There is more to that story. But I can not continue at the moment.
You wanna know what that rythmic vibration is that one can feel in everything one touches? Practice the QBLA.
Sincerely...plutronus