The 365 Commitment

Day 258 – Out of Body

When I was growing up in the 70s, I remember this hoopla around “out of body experiences.” These came from all sorts of sources. From exorcism tales, to mystic meditation chants, to guided spiritual quests aided by peyote, and near death experiences in which people hovered over their bodies in the hospital. These stories and beliefs still circulate in our society and I am not going to say whether the are true or not, I simply do not know.

One thing is for certain, that all of them end in a similar theme – once the person has an out of body experience they are able to disconnect from their lives and look down upon themselves and see things from a new perspective. When they return they are born again and have a new outlook and perspective on life. I have been doing this morning and evening meditation routine to accompany my 365 list review and prayer everyday for 75 days in a row now.

As I have got better at meditation, meaning the ability to let my mind drift without distraction, I have started to improve my ability to visualize myself and take a look at what I really am, what I really am doing and where that will lead me in the future. I do not think this qualifies as an out of body experience, but I think it is critical for spiritual perspective and mental health.

I never believed this before 75 days ago, but I do now. Being able to step back and disconnect from reality is really important. You need perspective to relieve anxiety and stress. Perspective allows you to disassociate from the immediate problem and clearly see the future. So we need to get out of body, maybe not Shirley MacLaine style, but definitely enough to take you of thinking exclusively with the frontal lobe of the brain.

Suspending deliberate conscious thought in lieu of the quiet suspension of reality is something we are designed to do. Our bodies naturally sleep and we dream. We have out of body experiences in normal, healthy, routine sleep. It certainly makes sense that there is benefit to calming the mind and removing thoughts of the past events of today from your immediate consciousness. The challenge is that it takes practice. Lots of it.

Guy Reams (258)
365 Member

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