How To Have an Out-of-Body Experience Intentionally: Complete Intermediate and Expert Guide
This post is written for individuals who already have some experience with OBEs or other dreamtime phenomena. Before diving into the exercises in this post it is highly recommended that you read my Beginner’s Guide to OBEs.
Click here to read more about the science of OBEs, how they occur, and what to expect.
The Two Bodies: Soul and Physical created by the author with Midjourney
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are, in my opinion, the most powerful form of self-expansion and spiritual connection available in the human experience.
Defined as a phenomenon in which a person perceives themselves as conscious but located outside of their physical body, OBEs engage a level of awareness unobtainable through any other avenue aside from near-death experiences. When achieved, OBEs can result in a renewed sense of purpose, deep self awareness, knowledge of the universe, internal peace, spiritual connection, and everything in between.
After two decades of recurring nightmares with frequent episodes of fear-based sleep paralysis, I’ve worked through psychological and spiritual obstacles to emerge as an experienced out-of-body explorer. I have conquered my deepest fears, engaged my dream practice to increase the probability of experiencing dreamtime phenomena, and welcomed an intuitively-led OBE beginner’s program which eventually led to intentional and frequent OBE engagement.
In this post, we build off of my OBE Beginner’s Guide to introduce you to intermediate and advanced methods. We’ll discuss how to access OBEs from within lucid dreams, use lucid dreaming techniques to engage OBEs, and how to consciously enter the OBE state from wakefulness (the most potent experience, in my opinion).
To learn more about the beginning of my journey from recurring nightmares to fulfilling dreamtime phenomena, check out my book How to Heal Your Nightmares.
Understanding the Importance of the Physical Body During OBEs
As a review from my Beginner’s Guide, it’s important to understand that the physical body plays a crucial role in OBE engagement through the activation of sleep paralysis.
Contrary to popular belief, sleep paralysis is not exclusively negative! In fact, everyone on the planet experiences sleep paralysis every time they sleep to some degree, regardless of their awareness of it.
During sleep, chemical processes activate total body paralysis with a single goal: keeping you alive. Known as REM atonia, this physical paralysis of the body is engaged by the release of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and its interaction with glycine. Together these chemicals suppress your nervous system and motor function during sleep, operating as an evolutionary system to prevent you from physically acting out your dreams and potential injury.
This paralysis of the body is necessary to engage out-of-body experiences. Its purpose is to suppress external sensory processing while simultaneously producing a surge of activity at the temporoparietal junction in the brain—the seat of consciousness.
Essentially, the body’s natural production of neurochemicals to induce sleep paralysis can engage your center of consciousness and trigger the “release” mechanism harnessing the soul to the body, allowing you to de-couple and engage what lies outside of the human experience.
Simply understanding this physical component can help you overcome fear during the exit process.
OBE Rope Climb, created by the author with Midjourney
Ways to Exit the Body
Before we dive into the intermediate and advanced techniques for accessing OBEs, let’s briefly talk about how to consciously exit the body, when you’ll know that it’s time to do so, and what the exiting process can feel like.
The first step is becoming aware of sleep paralysis sensations. This physical feeling is different for everyone but individuals often describe feeling a buzzing or vibrating sensation in their limbs that spreads to other areas of the body. For me, it feels like a TENS unit spread across my entire body. Other people describe physically feeling lighter or floating upwards, tingling sensations, or even feelings of heaviness.
Once you've identified what sleep paralysis feels like for you, you’re ready to begin exiting the body.
Various exiting techniques include:
Rolling out of your body to one side
Lifting one arm up out of the body, followed by the other
Shifting sideways to lie next to your physical body on the bed
Floating upwards or pulling yourself out with a rope
Sinking through the bed to rest on the floor
There are a myriad of different ways to exit the body and you might find that some work for you while others do not. This trial and error can be a fun part of the learning experience!
From Lucid Dreams to OBEs (Intermediate Technique)
The more I've observed, recorded, and worked with my dreams over the years, the more I've experienced lucidity. And recently (within the last two years), I’ve begun to experience a deepening transition of consciousness within my lucid dreams that can lead to OBEs.
A lucid dream simply means being consciously aware that you're dreaming—you don’t need to have any level of “control” or direction over the dream for it to be considered lucid. This partial activation of consciousness makes lucid dreaming an excellent intermediate avenue for accessing the full aspect of consciousness required for an OBE.
The key to engaging an OBE from a lucid dream is simply to know that it’s possible and to direct your consciousness toward that goal.
When first becoming lucid, it's common to think, "Oh! I'm dreaming!" After experiencing this awareness, try to follow that thought with the desire to expand your sense of consciousness in order to access an OBE. Active lucid dreaming is about following your thoughts and desires to shape the dream. Directing yourself toward the desire for an OBE is very similar.
As your conscious awareness expands in the lucid dream you’ll become aware of the physical sensations of sleep paralysis—a necessary part of accessing OBEs. During this transition, it's important to let yourself feel the sensations fully. The acceptance of the transition can be the most difficult part of accessing an OBE from a lucid dream.
After transitioning through the activation of full consciousness and the acceptance of physical paralysis you are ready to exit the body. This may occur spontaneously with little effort. If the dream imagery persists, look for or visualize a doorway or exit point within the dream.
Personally, I often experience myself floating straight up and out of my lucid dreams when transitioning to an OBE. After doing so, I’ll usually find myself hovering above my body in my bedroom or floating above the roof of my home.
Lucid Dreaming Techniques for OBEs
Many lucid dreaming techniques can be used to access OBEs. This section describes subtle changes to these techniques that you can use to achieve your OBE goals.
Reality Testing
Often associated with the 2010 movie Inception, reality testing is exactly what it sounds like: constantly testing your waking reality to see if you’re dreaming or not.
Reality testing involves checking the physics and logic of your waking reality multiple times per day. The simple question, “Am I dreaming?” can be used as well as anything physical such as seeing if you can push through a wall, float upwards, or spin a top like Leonardo DiCaprio to see if it eventually stops… or doesn’t.
The more consistently you reality test while awake, the more likely it is to carry into your dreams. This increases the opportunity for activating consciousness through either lucid dreaming or straight into an OBE.
Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB) Method
This method is my personal favorite and works for me most often! Built on intentionally waking in the middle of the night, the WBTB Method can be exceptionally effective.
If you regularly wake in the middle of the night, this is the perfect method for you! If not, set your alarm for about 4.5–5 hours after falling asleep. This timing ensures you get at least three sleep cycles and most of your deep sleep out of the way, though any time can work. After waking, stay awake for 20-30 minutes before attempting to fall asleep again. Essentially, disrupting your sleep brings a thread of waking consciousness into the process of falling back asleep.
In my personal experience, I find it exceptionally easy to step directly into an OBE after utilizing the WBTB Method. You can also combine this method with other techniques to increase the probability of accessing an OBE.
Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming (MILD) Technique
This technique is built upon the intention-based process of prospective memory, the ability to remember to do something you desire in the future.
There are two ways to use this technique for achieving OBEs:
Setting the intention to OBE before falling asleep. The mind can be an exceptionally powerful tool and, with the right amount of determination and desire, it is possible to simply think about having an OBE while falling asleep and then entering the experience. However, I've found it can take several consecutive nights of setting this intention before achieving results.
Setting the intention to enter the last dream you remember and predetermine reality testing cues from that dream to activate your consciousness. This one may be especially potent if you combine it with the WBTB Method. After waking in the middle of the night try and remember your last dream in as much detail as possible. Identify elements of that dream to associate with reality testing and consciousness activation. When you see those elements in the dream, you’ll be more likely to initiate the consciousness level of a lucid dream which you can then use as a trampoline for accessing an OBE.
From a Lucid Dream to OBE, created by the author with Midjourney
My Most Memorable Lucid Dream-to-OBE
October 1, 2024
This dream was preceded by 3 separate extremely vivid dreams. I woke after each to write it down and noticed they were becoming more unhinged with each sleep cycle. I felt like I was experiencing multiple realities, memories from other lifetimes (both on and off Earth), and traveling experiences but they were only dreams and difficult to process out the events from the imagery used… until the 4th dream:
I'm standing in the middle of "Nona's House" completely naked (this is not a familiar house to me, nor do I know who Nona is in this context). The windows are open and traffic is outside. A bit of consciousness hits me and I feel exposed. I try to close the doors and windows and turn off the lights so no one sees me but it doesn't work. The door keeps swinging open, lights keep turning back on, and I'm still butt-ass naked. It’s a completely jarring experience.
I look over at a mirror and see that I have a massive lower back tattoo that's “moto as fuck” (a way to say “aggressively patriotic” in the military) depicting a tank with a giant eagle perched on top holding two blazing M16 rifles. I think to myself in horror, “OMG this is disgusting! Why the fuck do I have this tattoo and how the fuck has Brandon (my husband) never mentioned it before?! I must have been drunk when I got this but… good lord!”
Suddenly, it clicks. I’m in a dream and all of this ridiculously absurd imagery is just trying to get my conscious attention. I snap out of the dream’s hold, grasp my sense of consciousness, and stand straight up in the middle of the room, now able to ignore my nakedness because it’s just imagery. I feel my limbs buzzing with sleep paralysis, immediately accept the OBE process, surrender to the sensations, and lift off through the ceiling.
It happens very quickly—they're testing me again to see if I can step into this (an OBE) on a dime. I do. I go up, up, up and glance down just for a second to see my house at least two miles below me. I begin to slow my ascent before gently stepping onto a craft hovering in the upper atmosphere…
I chose to share this lucid dream because it depicts another method of achieving the OBE state via lucidity: through absurd imagery.
Essentially, the powerful intention I had to OBE that night permeated my dream space through ridiculous and humor-filled imagery which triggered my consciousness to know, without a doubt, that this was not real. Once I knew that it was easy to welcome my consciousness into the dream, initiating lucidity. The transition to OBE followed quickly after with little effort.
From Wakefulness Directly to OBE (Advanced Technique)
Also known as the Mind Awake, Body Asleep technique, the ability to go from wakefulness directly into an OBE most often requires deep mental and physical discipline.
I identify this technique as “advanced” not only because of the discipline required but because it's easiest to achieve after you've explored other methods to OBE and have a general sense of how the process works. Additionally, when entering an OBE directly from wakefulness, the potency of the experience can feel tenfold. Entering an OBE from sleep allows your consciousness to dismiss it as "just a dream," but entering from wakefulness leaves no room for disbelief in what you have experienced, which can be jarring for some individuals (myself included the first time I tried).
To begin, you’ll want to lie down in a comfortable position as you might for an extended nap or a period of sleep—you can absolutely begin this technique at your regular bedtime. However, instead of allowing yourself to fully fall asleep, the goal is to separate the physical sleep function from the mental sleep function. You want to allow your body to go through the physical process of falling asleep but remain mentally alert. This is where the necessity of discipline is required.
To achieve an OBE this way, you need to remain mentally alert and perfectly still for 30 to 90 minutes (roughly the length of a sleep cycle) without moving. That means no micro adjustments, no scratching your nose, no itching that spot that suddenly flares up… perfectly still.
The discipline of stillness tricks the body into believing you are mentally asleep which initiates the physical sleep processes to include the physical paralysis of the body necessary for OBEs. During this process, it can help to recall a time when you had to exercise discipline.
Personally, when I was in Marine Corps bootcamp on Parris Island, I remember a day where we were ordered to sit down in a giant sandpit without moving. The sandpit was filled with these small black flies that crawled into our uniforms and marched themselves across our bare skin. If we moved, we’d be IT’d (a form of intense physical training as punishment). I remained still for the duration, but the feeling of tiny bugs crawling across my skin still gives me the heebie-jeebies. It’s this memory that I tap into when struggling to remain still with the goal to OBE directly from wakefulness.
Remaining conscious through this process is also a matter of discipline but there’s little I can advise here: find what works for you and your unique thought structure. It might help to recount a particularly exciting day in your memory or to think of yourself as in an extended meditation session. 90 minutes can initially sound like a long time to practice mental and physical stillness but the more you practice, the easier it will become.
Eventually, you’ll feel the buzzing/tingling sensation of that physical paralysis and will be able to begin your exit method to initiate the OBE.
I first came across this OBE technique in Robert Monroe’s 1971 book Journeys Out of the Body, which I followed up with general internet research into others’ practices and finally came across another viewpoint of the technique in Darius J. Wright’s AYDA Method. These resources are excellent avenues for exploring more about OBEs in general.
The Call to OBE, created by the author with Midjourney
Seeing My Body (First Direct from Waking OBE)
The first time I achieved an OBE directly from wakefulness, I freaked the fuck out.
It was in late November 2024 and it was the first time I was attempting to enter this way (previously I only entered spontaneously through sleep and dreams). My military training in physical and mental discipline helped, and I soon felt the buzzing of sleep paralysis but I tried to exit too early. Instead of lifting my soul body's arm, I moved my physical arm and woke myself completely.
Sitting up, I noticed that 1 hour and 27 minutes had passed since I first laid down. I got up to use the restroom and laid back down to try again.
This second attempt came much more quickly but this time I waited too long after the feelings of sleep paralysis tingled through my body. Instead of sitting up out of myself, my whole physical body sat up and I was once again completely awake. Only 57 minutes had passed.
But the third attempt was successful! I laid down, practiced my self-discipline and felt the tingling sensations of sleep paralysis. I waited for what I thought was just long enough (but not too long!) and decided to roll my soul body out of my physical body to the left.
I did it!
However, this was very different from entering an OBE spontaneously through sleep or dreams. My conscious mind kept trying to move my soul body the way it would move a physical body which didn’t really work… During the sleep and dream process, our conscious minds relinquish some of their hold on the concepts of how our reality works, making OBEs accessed from those states a bit easier to navigate, but this was a different type of experience.
My soul body slumped to the floor in what felt like a puddle. I struggled to regain my “footing” but eventually got the hang of simply thinking myself upright. My next thought was, “You did it! But now we have to bite the bullet… better look at your body on the bed while we have the chance.”
In all of my previous OBEs I had been aware of my physical body but had never wanted to look at it—I was afraid of what I might see.
Moving through my fear I turned to look at myself on the bed and saw my body from the perspective of my soul for the first time. It looked kind of like a shell or a husk because the real me wasn’t in it. But it was still alive, the bare-bones functions were performing exactly as it should.
Then I consciously realized what I was seeing and I knew, I knew, without a doubt, that I was a soul in a human experience. I knew that “death” wasn’t real, the body could cease functioning but the soul was eternal. And I knew that I was much, much more than just Meg.
I felt something break in my mind—a protective wall, no longer needed, shattering—and immediately snapped back into my body, bolting out of bed wide awake.
A Life with Greater Knowing
Through my progression in out-of-body exploration, I've come to know myself on the deepest level. I know that I am more than this single human perspective, that I am a soul in a human experience, and that there is so much more out there to explore.
This greater knowing has given me both a renewed sense of purpose and freedom in this lifetime. The more I experience OBEs, the more I am invested in every waking, physical moment. I care more for the planet and souls around me than I ever have before and I can see the bigger picture which gives me hope in what might otherwise be considered “dark times.”
I share this from my personal journey, hoping you too can explore the vastness of yourself and the universe to expand beyond the constructs of our time.
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