Abstract
This
paper is a narration of a unique experience, that which is arduous to
circumscribe as an out-of-body experience; ambiguously to-be called a
fractional out-of-body experience or a partial autoscopy. It was an experience
in the presence of observers who were naive of what the individual was
experiencing. This experience has surely helped the individual plummet into
imagining the existence of an form beyond the body; the existence of a soul;
that which is conscious; that which can think like the mind; that which resides
within the body and that which can detach from the body when death advances.
There is a possibility of it being a neuro-psychological or
neuro-parapsychological experience; an experience whose actuality is grim to
prove or construct in third person, but certainly subsists for the experiencer;
the experiencer being myself.
Key Words
Out-of-body, Experience, Soul, Consciousness
The
experience of being out-of-my body
It
was a beautiful day; I was with a few friends sitting on the over-head water
tank of my 6 storied building, approximately 90 feet high. This place was our
regular hangout, as it always felt great to be up there, as the view till today
is always amazing. I was 18, with an eagerness to enjoy and explore life; with
an enthusiasm to do things that would defy life, but the least I knew that this
day would change my perception of life forever. As we chatted, jokes filled us
with joy and play, which somehow lead us into trivial games; games that one
should never play. The over-head tank is laden with water-pipes and has a large
water-pipe approximately 2 inches thick, that runs along the tank, where one
could attempt to balance on it; an insane thing to do at such a height, but
definitely gave a feeling of achievement if completed. It was not something new
that I was doing, as I had been repeatedly doing it whenever I would go up
there and therefore was confident about completing it without tripping over.
Excited
and with my adrenaline all pumped up, I challenged my friends that I would
complete the walk in one go and I decided to attempt the task, not knowing what
I was about to experience. Over-confidence made my strides wider and faster,
and with everyone cheering, it heightened my confidence and inadvertently my
ego. While balancing on the water pipe, I missed a step and slipped, I lost my
balance and at that point I felt my body fall off the water tank; I felt my
body being pulled away from the tank and with nothing there to cling on to, I
knew that it was the end; I was aware that my body would fall 90 feet to the
ground and death was approaching. My confidence and ego was shattered as my
legs left the ground and my hands precipitously moved around to grab whatever
came my way, but all that I felt was nothingness. That moment resulted in an
experience where in a flicker of a second a life review began; my past flashed
in front of my eyes and I saw images as one would see it in a personal scrap
book; my life story in frames flashing in front of my eyes.
As
my life review began, I somehow felt being detached from my body and lost
sensation of being within it; a feeling of weightlessness. I felt as if I was
rising rather than going down. My life review stopped and I could see myself in
a form emanating out of the body from the face till my chest and at that moment
I felt someone grab me and pull me to the ground. It was my friend who did this
as part of his reflex and therefore I owe my life to him. I was back again in
my body when I hit the ground and passed out. All of a sudden my eyes opened
and I saw all my friends staring at me, all perplexed. It felt as if I had just
woken up after a long night sleep, to see my friends looking at me. The
frightful feeling of falling didn’t seem to exist and at that moment I felt a
feeling of joy and happiness; a feeling as if I had learned something.
As
I woke up, my friends asked me what happened, but I did not know where to begin
or rather I could not put it into words; I was confused. I asked them how long
did I pass out, and they said that it was just a few minutes, but for me the
whole episode seemed to have lasted for almost half an hour. The trip, the
fall, the review, the experience of the departing form, all of it happened in
just a few minutes, but for me it seemed like a long period. As I narrated this
experience to my friends, they laughed and joshed about it. It was a personal
experience, a beautiful experience where I defied death. If that was my soul,
it was definitely nimbler than my body, and in case I would have fallen, that
form would have taken off from my body. It was my experience and I felt no one
and neither did I see anyone; all that came as a flash in front of me was my
past in the form of images.
It
seems that my nimbler form exists within my body and knew the limitations of my
body as I felt it ripping out of my body, for it knew that my body would not
survive the fall; a mutilated body is definitely no place to reside. The moment
I was held and pulled back, it realized that my body is safe and it pulled
itself back, putting me into a deep sleep. It is an experience that bought a
significant change in me; a change that has made me fearless of death; changed
my perception of death. I have been very reluctant to share this experience,
but my endeavors to understand the existence of a non-local soul or consciousness
or mind has made me more open towards sharing it. The vividity and richness of
the experience still persists that only I as the experiencer could experience.
Conclusion
My out-of-body or fractional out-of-body experience fortified the
feeling of the presence of a form that resides within me; call it my soul,
consciousness or mind. Based on this first experience, it can be said, but not
concluded that this form that resides within me is aware, it thinks and
sustains. This event could be easily passed-off as a neuro-psychological or
neuro-parapsychological event associated with the dysfunctioning of the brain,
where the brain in mental shock could possibly result in such an event. But for
me as the experiencer this event will always remain phenomenal until proven
within the realms of scientific explanation. It is definitely a difficult
experience to understand and explore from a scientific perspective, but surely
a vivid experience that made me realize the beauty that lies within; for it
remains as my experience and therefore is purely my opinion. 
Contzen Pereira, Ph.D. Independent Scholar, Mumbai, India. Email
Address: contzen@rediffmail.com, contzen@gmail.com
