From: sfl@muttley.ucsd.edu (Susan Fichera)
Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body
Subject: Signposts to oobe
Date: 24 Nov 1992 01:45:55 GMT
Organization: Department of Music, UC San Diego
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: muttley.ucsd.edu

 Greetings!

 As a person who has managed to have an oobe-type experience on more
 than one occasion, I am in the process of compiling a list of "signals"
 or indicative phenomena which let me know I am on my way "out". It is
 easy to dismiss these signals in the beginning, passing them off as
 various forms of physiological noise. I've found that every oobe-type
 experience is accompanied by these happenings, which now serve to alert
 me and make me conscious of what is about to occur, hence the lucidity.

 [As an aside, I'd like to comment on the use of the phrase "out-of-body".
 Is there anyone reading this newsgroup that still thinks there is an
 actual movement out of the physical body of something that can be detected?
 "Out-of-body" is a misnomer. I would describe the process more as a shift
 of attention. It's as if you are in your living room, with eyes glued
 to the TV screen, and suddenly you turn your head and look out the window.
 At that moment, you remember there's another world out there. That's what
 oobe is like.]

 Anyway, back to the signals. Here are the things that happen to me, in more
 or less this order though some variation is possible. I start to contemplate,
 then I hear a high-pitched sound in my left ear. After awhile, the darkness
 of my visual screen starts to show some colors, swirling like watery
 paint. I may notice a point of blue or white light, very small, as if far
 away in the distance. If I focus my attention in a relaxed manner on
 either the light or the sound, my visual screen will begin to segment.
 By this, I mean, I will start to see a repeating geometric pattern,
 a checkerboard of some kind. This usually means I'm pretty close. If I can
 watch this pattern, continuing to breathe calmly and chanting HU or some
 other word that has meaning to me, the visual image will start to look
 as if I am moving very fast into space, or that space is moving very
 fast into me. This is accompanied by a very distinctive auditory 
 pattern. I hear a loud buzz that crosses inside my head, from one side
 to the other, as if in an X. The buzzing continues faster and faster
 until the 2 sides meet in the middle of my head and form a circle.
 When the buzzing forms the circle and begins to spin, my Third Eye
 opens at that point. The buzzing can be so strong that I feel it in
 my teeth. Once the Third Eye opens, I'm travelling. The experience
 can be brief, or go on for sometime. I have described some of my
 experiences in other posts, will not repeat them now. When the experience
 comes to an end, I will again hear that distinctive buzzing pattern,
 but in the opposite sequence. The buzz will go slower and slower, ending
 with a lazy buzz from side to side in the X pattern.

 I may become aware of the buzzing at various times during the
 experience, as well. I have not yet correlated whether this is
 accompanied by a change of "location", but it always serve to make
 me lucid in the moment.

 I believe the key elements to success in oobe is regularity of practice,
 and an attitude of love.

 Good Luck,
 Susan
Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body