Most researchers of this phenomenon postulate that everyone has OOBEs. They claim that these are forgotten because they usually occur within dreams: it is quite rare (in Western cultures at least) for waking consciousness to observe these states as they unfold. “Lucid dreaming,” (the insertion of waking consciousness into dream awareness) in fact, is commonly regarded as a useful precondition for anyone’s ability to leave the body “at will.” It is not surprising then that only a small minority of individuals claim to have such experiences very often, and fewer still say they can initiate them on demand. Robert Monroe was one of these latter, and we are fortunate that his scientific curiosity led him to record the phenomenon for posterity.
Those who do remember an out-of-body experience usually regard it as either the most terrifying or most ecstatic adventure of their life. Few label it as an illusion: an OOBE is as numinous as anything life has to offer – if nothing else, it is proof positive (for the subject, anyway) that consciousness can exist outside of the physical body.
In order to attain to the Dream of Knowledge we must arouse the critical faculty which seems to be to a great extent inoperative in dreams... Before going to sleep I must impress upon my mind the desirability of not allowing the critical faculty to slumber; it must be kept awake, ready to pounce on any inconsistency in the dream and recognise it as such.
Because so many OOBE descriptions sound just like vivid dreams, it is not easy to impart their uncanny reality, their “otherness,” to someone who has not shared the experience. No, it was NOT “just” a dream: it was very different!
OK, so what? What’s the difference between this and any vivid dream? The difference is that some portion of the mind knows it is dreaming and has the ability to influence the dream by taking conscious action: the way we do in normal waking life.
The question posed most often is: How do you know you aren’t dreaming, that what you experience is nothing more than a vivid dream or a hallucination of some sort?... The most certain statement that can be made is that when the condition exists, you are as aware of “not dreaming” as you are when you are awake... The ultimate proof of such affirmation is to experience one’s self in this state of being.
What independent evidence do we have that might confirm such anomalous experiences? The first data we have, and it is considerable, is found in the literature on shamanism. Anthropologists studying tribal cultures describe the shaman as a ubiquitous (albeit unique) human figure, found worldwide, who is distinguished by his ability to function in the out-of-body state. Indeed, it is precisely this ability which defines him as a shaman:
Shamans can voluntarily enter altered states of consciousness... in these states shamans experience themselves leaving their bodies and journeying to other realms in a manner analogous to contemporary reports of some out-of-body experiences.
For most shamanic cultures, the universe is believed to be composed of at least three levels: the Middle Realm is the world as we know it, the world of normal human events; the World Below, the Underworld, can be associated with the dead and dangerous spirits; and the Over World, the Celestial Realm, is frequently characterised as the abode of the Sun, in some places the realm of transcendent consciousness ...