hi, can anyone tell me more about the link between OBE (out of body experience) and buddhism? i've experienced OBEs for some time now, and it seems to me that meditation and OBE is linked.
thanks !
whatever expirienced good or bad in meditation all dont be attached can le .
OBE is common .
OBE is very a common phenomenon among meditators and non-meditators.
However it is not something we seek in Buddhist meditation, and therefore we do not deal with this phenomenon very much. In fact we aim to transcend our 7th consciousness rather than access and gain control over this state.
A way to explain it in Buddhist terminology is that the astral body is due to accessing the subtler 7th consciousness which we all do during sleep. It is the sense of an individual self that is present even when 6 conscious experiences subsides (five senses + mind). We experience OBE especially when we have lucid dreams or sleep paralysis where the 7th consciousness may experience an astral projection or out of body experience. I had a number of experiencs from the past. Felt like floating a feet above my body and knowing the surroundings of my room. In fact I just got a lucid and OBE like experience last night with seeing bright white light. I remember I was doing some concentration or awareness exercise within the lucid dream. I was just noting and perceiving my auditory experience (I was hearing strange noise) to the finest details until a flash of bright white light came. The more I concentrated in that 'dream' the brighter the light became. The white light came with a sense of bliss and exhilaration. I'm guessing this might be what the Vipassana meditators called the "Arising and Passing Away event". (A&P) which I did have previous experiences with. I also remember having a sense of leaving my body in that experience. But soon afterwards, I woke up.
Anyway like I said previously we access the 7th consciousness during sleep. It is this same 7th consciousness that experiences the (up to) 49 days in the bardo/antarabhava state after death waiting for opportunities for rebirth.
This also explains why some people communicate with the dead during dream. There's a true news story from Taiwan about a family whose grandfather got lost and died. Nobody knew where he died until one of the family members had a dream where his grandfather appeared and told him the location of his body and asked them to collect his body. They went to that location, and found it.
Why is it possible? Because the bardo or antarabhava is accessing the 7th consciousness in his afterlife experience. You are also accessing the 7th consciousness in dream. It is the same realm. In fact that is why Buddhist scriptures say every night we enter the bardo and it is a similar situation at death. All 6 consciousness subsides and you enter into the 7th consciousness.
Similarly linking back to meditation, we can access subtler states of consciousness lucidly and therefore give rise to OBEs. However, this is not the aim of our Buddhist meditation.
If we practice hard, we can dissolve this 7th consciousness into an oceanic experience of our own nature, where the sense of individuality is lost. We ultimately aim to transcend rebirth.
Eight Consciousnesses - 1) eye-consciousness or seeing, 2) ear-consciousness or hearing, 3) nose-consciousness or smelling, 4) tongue-consciousness or tasting, 5) body-consciousness or tactile feeling, 6) mind-consciousness or cognition, 7), the defiling mind-consciousness which is the faculty of mind, and 8), or storehouse, consciousness.
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First six are conscious mode, seventh is sub conscious, eighth is pre conscious.
okay, thanks a lot for your answers, im not a meditator thou :)
Originally posted by poeple:okay, thanks a lot for your answers, im not a meditator thou :)
So how did you induce such experiences?
while im sleeping.
but i have to say i was heavy on inhalants for a year around 5 years back.
Originally posted by poeple:while im sleeping.
but i have to say i was heavy on inhalants for a year around 5 years back.
Drugs can induce such experiences. One of my friends experienced it while using drugs (I think should be legal type because its sold in a new age store). But it is very bad for heath (especially when abused) and definitely not recommended.
In any case in Buddhism we do not seek these kind of experiences, we seek to deepen insights on our own nature and attain the most profound bliss, wisdom and freedom from sufferings.