My History of OOBE

From: roberta lindsey (redhot420@yahoo.com)
Story type: Out of Body Experience
Location: in my home
Source: Form Submission
Date submitted: Mon Mar  1 01:27:02 2010

When I first began having out of body experiences(OOBE),I did not know that that is what they were. I had experienced them many times during several years and thought of them as "night terrors" due to the fact that they happened while I was asleep and they terrified me. It wasn't until I was telling a friend (who was familiar with OOBE) about what happened to me, that I found out what they were. I explained them to her like this: It's always right after I have fallen asleep (sometimes when I awake from them and look at the clock only 5 minutes has passed, so I know that I am not "dreaming", like in REM). I also know I am not dreaming because there is no "plot" or "storyline", there is never anyone else present, and the setting is always whatever room I happen to be sleeping in.

It is ALWAYS the same...I fall asleep and the next thing I know I hear a humming kind of noise and feel like I am vibrating. My heart races, I either hold my breath or cannot breathe, and I am scared. Then I am looking down on my body, which is laying on the bed or couch,wearing whatever it is I am wearing when I fall asleep. I am filled with a frantic feeling that "something bad" is about to happen and I must wake up. It is at this point in my conversation with my friend, when I am saying that I feel like I must wake up, that she says over me "you feel like you must get back in your body". Until she said that I had never thought of it that way, but that was exactly what I felt. And with that I realized that what I have been experiencing is not night terrors but OOBEs.

I have read several stories about what a "happy" experience these are for people, but I do not enjoy them at all. I go as far as being aware of whoever is in bed with me, be it my boyfriend or one of my children, and doing whatever I can to get them to wake me up. I try to yell out to them or hit and scratch them. I have gone as far as trying to throw myself off of the couch I was sleeping on in an attempt to wake myself up.

One time my 18 year old daughter was sitting on a couch in the same room with me when I had an OOBE. I knew she was there in the room with me so I kept trying to say "wake me up..wake me up", but my lips would not move. I was vocalizing, but unable to enunciate the words clearly through closed lips. I woke up to my daughter sitting on the floor in front of me, shaking me. When I asked her what she was doing she told me that she had heard me mumbling and came closer to see if she could make out what I was saying. Since she, as well as my other 3 kids, is aware of my OOBEs, she figured out what I was saying and woke me up.

I have been having OOBEs for 17 years with no apparent pattern or trigger that I can figure out. I have read accounts from many people with similar stories, which helps me to know I am not crazy, but it doesn't take away the fear and panic I still feel.