Out of Body Experience

From:  
Story type: OBE
Location: My childhood home
Source: Form Submission

This happened to me when I was a child, before I had ever heard of near death experiences or any other kind of psychic phenomena. I must have been around 6 years old. My two brothers (one 2 years older, other 2 years younger) shared a large bedroom and we each had our own bed. My bed was the one next to the window, farthest from the bedroom door.

In the middle of the night I wake up, look towards the bedroom door and see my grandmother motioning for me to come and offering me a glass of orange juice. (Except for the time of night, this would not be unusual for her to do. She had her own apartment in our building and sat for us while our parents were at work. She was also very health conscious, always offering fresh-squeezed organge juice considering vitamin C to be one of the most important vitamins for anyone.)

Anyway, when I see her I get up from the bed and walk to her. I'm barefoot and on my way I feel the cold of our polished stone floor on my feet. I pass by my brothers on their beds. I get to where my grandmother is. She offers me the glass of orange juice and I take it. I can see and feel the condensation on the glass and notice the small particles of pulp in the juice. I feel the coldness of the glass. I drink it and taste the fresh orange juice and feel the bits of pulp as I drink it down. I drink it. I taste the sweetness and coldness of the juice and feel the pulp particles in it. I feel the coolness of the juice as it slides down my throat. I hand her back the empty glass and turn to go back to bed and notice that there is someone sleeping in my bed. Intrigued and curious (I'm not afraid at this point) I calmly and slowly walk back to my bed and see myself lying there, asleep with my head to one side, turned away from me. I marvel at how I look from another person's point of view. I know it's me somehow. I reach down to touch my body and suddenly I'm back in my bed, with my eyes closed but "awake" trying to open my eyes but unable to. At this point I'm frightened, trying to wake up. I can't open my eyes and shortly I fall asleep again.

In the morning I asked my parents and my grandmother if she had come over the night before but I get no answer--I don't think they took me seriously but thought it was just a dream. The experience felt totally normal and real--there were no strange elements and distortions as in a dream. My senses told me it was real--touch, vision, taste. Were it not for the seeing my body in the bed part I would have thought it had all really happened. The only unusual thing, when I think back about it, though is the lighting. In the middle of the night the room should have been dark and I should not have been able to see, since we were not allowed to keep the light on and did not use a night light and there was no light that could come from any other room or window. It was soft and seemed to have a fluorescent quality about it. It seemed to come from above and behind me.