It’s easy to misinterpret the nature of an out of body experience because our brains search through stored memory to assign meaning to the experience. Whichever experience from our memory resembles the sensory input of an out of body experience best, will then embody the moment through sounds and images we are familiar with. This is the mechanics of hallucinations as well as the source of our nightly dreams. Dreams happen naturally while we sleep. Hallucinations occur when we are awake but disconnected from reality. When anesthesia is used, measurable brain activity decreases to a level where it is more receptive to external frequencies. Norepinephrine levels drop inhibiting memory but during the process of being put under and waking up again norepinephrine flows and we are subject to experience hallucinations.

The nature of such experiences are likely narrated by a person’s state of mind prior to the event. For example the feminine psyche as understood in Jungian psychology is more open to embracing archetypal images of a fantastical nature. Therefore depending on how balanced or unbalanced your Anima/Animus is, your brain may associate being anesthetized with notions of spiritual visitation. On the other hand the stress and confusion of trauma may cause a patient to experience waking nightmares that can linger for weeks in a condition known as ICU Syndrome or ICU induced psychosis.

People in search of a less distressing break from reality may experiment with things such as LSD or DMT and come away thinking they have had a spiritual awakening. However the only way to experience an authentic spiritual awakening is when it happens both naturally and accidentally. Recreational pharmaceuticals can bring a person to the verge of realization but it is more of an enhanced experience of qualia than an authentic revelation. Just as a young Buddhist monk must endure the practices of his temple, no amount of solving Zen koans or years of meditation will induce an awakening. What it can produce is a brain that functions similar to a person high on LSD. This is because a monk with a lifetime of training can experience more conscious moments per second than an untrained mind. In this state of mind qualia is more defined and reality appears in slower motion, granting the monk swifter reflexes as well. When a true awakening occurs you will know it without a doubt because the sensation will last for months, years or even in rare instances for a lifetime. How to acquire such a long lasting awakening is beyond me. You might want to ask a Hindu scholar because they teach of the 114 chakras, 112 of which are said to exist within the body and so there are 112 ways to obtain spiritual awakening, of which only one is practiced by Buddhism. Why is it so damned hard to obtain? Because like the sound of one hand clapping it is a freak thing to experience as opposed to an actual accomplishment.

So what happens when we dream or hallucinate? The process may be doomed forever to be shrouded in woo and mystery; I can only speculate. Quantum mechanics theorizes that a wave function is a cloud of probability that collapses to a position upon observation. Not an observation in the way we normally think of it but merely the interaction of two physical systems. So if we think about the particles that we are composed of perhaps there is a slight shift in our quantum structure during sedation or suppression of the central nervous system. Could such a state alter our quantum composition just enough to be more receptive of non-local consciousness? It doesn’t seem too far of a stretch to imagine a switch from local to non-local consciousness.

What are we being exposed to when we switch to non-local? Well if cosmic consciousness exists it is somehow related to vibration. On a broad spectrum it might be the quantum software which brings order to all living things through frequencies that we resonate with. Such frequencies can be observed as intricate patterns when sand is vibrated atop a flat surface. Perfection of qualia is coveted by humans and in mating we always prize the most symmetrical faces. Subconsciously we know that an error in coding can cause the software to crash, so we try to weed out the bugs by aspiring to beauty. This helps instill a moral compass because we must take measures to preserve beauty in our communities and our environment. Thus it is said that beauty will save the world.

Out of body experiences are often brief and unpleasant. At best they motivate us to question reality, at worst those questions can lead us to the wrong answers. If you have recently had an experience and are feeling lost, I suggest avoiding the advice of anybody claiming to have answers. Fortunetellers and astrologers will gladly escort you to Woo Central, relieving you of all your hard earned coin along the way. There are absolutely no part-time working mothers that can heal you with crystals or see the future with tarot cards from the basement of their suburban homes. The best medicine is to be pragmatic and try to stick to a healthy diet. If you really need answers you might find them best by studying psychology, philosophy and quantum mechanics.

Conan De Moe 1/7/2020