Pip said: I see no reason to take this other than exactly as described. A great story. I have had several such major "exteriorizations" as an adult, perhaps a dozen and probably more that I don't recall, and many more dazzling experiences that I only recall very vaguely. I cannot leave my body at will, I can only increase the odds of it happening during sleep. None of my experiences had anything to do with Scn but one did happen during an Idenics session. I would note also that it is difficult to express these types of experiences in a way that fully conveys their textures, emotions, depth and life changing quality - they are non-ordinary in many ways. As for the 40%, if true, it may or may not be significant. If life in general induces an OBE in 40% (or more!) of people at some point then how significant is it, and what exactly about auditing can stimulate this? More than 40% of everyone I know has had a major OBE at least once and none had anything to do with Scn, and a few in SPITE of Scn. But I know a lot of unusual people. Leaving the body is really not a rare thing but it does get suppressed heavily (the memory of it, the reality of it, the communication of it, and the affinity for it) - that's the real problem. But I think these exteriorizations just happen and no one has figured out a formula for it. But if Scn actually improves the odds then that changes things. However many things can improve the odds. There are people who can exteriorize at will with varying degrees of perception, and there are ways to optimize oneself to have, or increase the frequency of, spontaneous exteriorizations. There is an extensive and growing body of documentation and realistic instruction in having an Out of Body Experience (OBE). Below are some of my more significant adventures. Don't try this at home. When I was 13 I fell and hit my head at school at the bike racks while trying to show off. My body went into convulsions. Suddenly I found myself 20 feet up in the air with full perception. I saw my body on the ground and the people watching and I could hear and see perfectly but I could also hear through the body's ears and see darkness through the eyes. But from my exterior viewpoint I didn't care about any of it because I was deliriously overjoyed that I was free! The genie was out of the bottle. The body seemed like someone else and I had no concern for it. I thought I could now do anything I wanted. But a voice behind me reminded me that I couldn't leave, that I had some kind of contract or promise to fulfill, and I knew it was true. Next I was back in the body but couldn't walk straight and had to be helped to the nurses office. I recalled the OBE briefly in the nurses office and I remember crying because I couldn't have that freedom. I blocked the whole thing from my mind until 1991. In 1969 while in my early twenties I started doing Zen meditation. I chose the Koan "who am I" and at one point I was aware of this question continuously 24 hours a day for about two and a half days. Basically the question became a non-verbal awareness of looking into my own being and was present even during sleep! On the third day I was walking through the house and there was a sudden shock - all I remembered was that everything went black and the black became a tiny black dot in front of me and vanished - and I didn't attempt Zen meditation again for 22 years. What actually happened was that my awareness had suddenly expanded and my center of awareness was above my body so that I could see my body, the entire house, the entire neighborhood for several blocks and I saw several spirit entities (people) around me looking at me. Some looked surprised, some looked afraid, and some looked happy - I had no idea who they were or what was happening. Perhaps if someone had asked "did you exteriorize?" I might have handled it - as it was I chose to suppress it totally. Black dot. In 1976 I had what I thought at the time was my first OBE. It occurred as the result of nightly deep relaxation meditation I had been doing for about 2 weeks while at the same time practicing various (non drug) techniques gleaned from the books of Carlos Castaneda such as breaking my routines, erasing personal history, not-doing, and basically living as a kind of free spirit. One day I took a nap on a bean bag and was awakened by what sounded like air rushing into a vacuum sealed container being opened. I was suddenly aware that I was seeing the room from above my body - it was as if my head had popped out of my physical head. I was aware of complete silence - I mean utter silence - and it was amazing and beautiful, peaceful and indescribable. Visually I could see as if I had eyes but much clearer and everything was very bright and colorful. I was seeing the room just as it was. But as I looked at objects in the room they started to morph into different shapes and colors, as if everything was just paint floating around me and I had been holding it in the particular pattern called "my room". It was like a balancing act and I was losing my balance. I didn't know what was happening and it all frightened me - suddenly I was back in my body looking through my physical eyes. I was shaken and got depressed because I thought I was going to develop spiritual powers. I found out why this depressed me many years later. That night and every night for about 2 weeks I had very intense OBEs which were both exhilarating and terrifying. And I began to remember 'OBEs with full perceptions' from early childhood - hundreds of them! Robert Monroe's books help me through this. Dream Weaver was a hit song at the time. My Idenics OBE happened in 1991. When I was a child I had 360 degree vision, I could see all around me without using my eyes, but lost it at age 5 via an invalidation by my father. We were working on this event. After following a particular auditing command I suddenly experienced myself rushing forward through gray clouds at a high rate of speed. This was a fully lucid absolutely real phenomenon. I could still speak and informed the auditor. The clouds just visually appeared and although I could feel my body in the chair, I felt somehow detached from it. It was somewhat similar to the common "flying through a tunnel" effect many people report as preceding an exteriorization and which I have also experienced. Suddenly I "broke though" and the room came into view. Reminds me now of the scene in Avatar where Jake first enters his Avatar body. I experienced the room from the center of my chest but with perfect clarity - I recall hearing and seeing from there. I was looking up at the auditor but he was looking over me at my physical face. Objects seemed solid and transparent at the same time. My physical eyes were closed at the time and this lasted less than 6 seconds. It simply overwhelmed me and was kind of sucked back into my normal viewpoint. While the childhood ability seemingly emerged for a few seconds, it didn't remain. I have hundreds of stories. I don't believe for a moment that exteriorization is the most significant spiritual achievement of any person or group. Being stably exterior does not mean you can move objects with your mind, find your true love, or win the lottery. It's just a piece of a puzzle. People have been reporting exteriorization since the dawn of time and everyone exteriorizes simply because we are not bodies and our bodies don't last long anyway. Exteriorization is a spiritual phenomenon and anything spiritual gets suppressed generally. And the most common way to suppress anything spiritual it is to control it through organized religion. That we can know with certainty what we are (One with God, the Universe, AllThatIs) and be eternally free is the most significant and the most suppressed achievement and it started over 3000 years ago with the Vedas. I have no reason to believe that Scn has any dominion or claim of achievement with regard to exteriorization more than any other but I will give it credit for having openly discussed it, studied it, worked with it in greater volume probably than any group before. That's a great thing and no small achievement. It could also backfire e.g. through Ad-Hominem-ism. There are a great many things that can induce an exteriorization in certain people, like drugs, accidents, auditing, counseling, trauma, meditation, sex, hypnosis, hyperventilation, sleep deprivation, love, fasting, dancing, music, sports, etc., etc., but control and stability is another matter altogether. However it can certainly be an enlightening and motivating experience, as Roland notes, and everyone should experience it and be validated by others. To reiterate, leaving the body is actually a common thing but it does get suppressed heavily on a personal level and on a social level - the memory of it, the reality of it, the communication of it, and the affinity for it - and that's the real problem. And there are many things in the way of going stably exterior, not the least of which is our agreement to play this game of Meatball. Clue: games have rules. One must understand that all experience is a dream. When you experience more advanced things like leaving the body, psychic powers, materializing objects, time travel, living multiple simultaneous lives, teleporting oneself to another galaxy, and raising the dead, these are all happening in a dream state; they are equally part of a dream and only indicate which level you are at in this huge online video game called "Existence". Playing well, becoming powerful and free within the confines of the game is fine, it's what the game is about - the adventure, the fun, the aesthetics - Heavens and Hells. Maybe there are better games, easier games. Maybe when you win (or lose) you just compulsively start over - ouch! Perhaps as the computer Joshua in War Games said, the only way to win is not to play the game. We are unconsciously creating our own virtual reality. How to wake up? That's the real question. Then maybe we'll know what's what. Pip >>From: Roland >To: CLEAR-L@lightlink.com >>Subject: Account of Exteriorisation with Full Perception >>Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 08:09:32 +0100 This is a repost of my account of exteriorisation with full perception. By Roland Rashleigh-Berry. This is the story about my experience in Scientology known as "Exteriorisation with Full Perception". What this means is leaving your body and having normal perception such as sight and sound available to you. This happens when you are fully awake being "audited" usually and happens in the same room as your body in nearly all cases. Essentially you ~see~ your body from the outside. This experience is fairly common for people receiving Scientology processing. From talking to people about 40% of people experience it at some time and usually early on in their auditing. It happens most frequently with "objective" processing which is to do with orientating a person in the "objective" universe. (You go around touching walls and holding them still and finding parts of your body etc.). In my case is happened during auditing with an E-meter during the process called "ARC Straightwire". If anyone comes across this they are free to copy and web the page as well as connect my name with the page. This conflicts with my business interests (I have pages on the Internet devoted to a shareware product of mine) however what I will write here is the truth and that truth ought to be broadly known to people. I will present my story next and at the end will include some analysis of the experience. I was being audited in one of the auditing rooms at St. Hill Castle in southern England about June 1994. The process was "ARC Straightwire". It was the evening about 8 p.m. I was becoming rather bored with the auditing which did not seem to be getting me anywhere. It seemed to be an almost endless series of questions, an experience to endure rather than to benefit from. I looked through the window. The sky was darkening with clouds. It looked as though there would be a thunder storm shortly. I returned my attention to the auditor who seemed to be more disinterested in my auditing than I was. The auditing command was "Recall Prevented Sex". I had exhausted all the examples some time ago and so was just repeating them. The auditor continued with the command though even though I could think of nothing. This means that he was getting a persistent read on the E-meter. This can mean that there was something I was refusing to reveal that bothered me about this. Alternatively it could mean that there was something underlying this topic that was inaccessible to my conscious mind. Anyway, the same question was repeated with my repeating the same examples. I was bored. It was then that my previous thoughts regarding a thunder-storm seemed to be fulfilled in a most spectacular way. The single ceiling light in the auditing room flared up to an incredible brilliance. I would say it seemed to be about ten times brighter than normal. I was very surprised the bulb did not blow. I thought a lightning bolt must have struck the local power station. I turned to the auditor and said "Did you see that?". I got no reaction but then auditors are trained not to react to things like that. I was surprised though that he did not at least acknowledge my comment. It seemed as though he had not seen it which to me seemed impossible. The light had reduced in intensity but was to me at least four times as bright as normal. I was still very concerned about it. I asked him "What=92s wrong with the electricity in here?". Again I got absolutely no response. An instant later I experienced what I thought was a landslide. The whole room slipped forward by about two feet leaving me behind. It was a bit like the feeling you have when you are in a fast lift (elevator) going downwards though extremely more so. The room had slipped forwards leaving me behind. I was absolutely shocked. I could see the room from outside my body. I was about the height of the top of my head but about two to three feet behind and slightly to the left of my left shoulder. I wanted to be where my body was. I did not understand what was going on. I was about to ask the auditor to help me but realised I had no mouth with which to speak. No sound came out. I then thought that I could probably still use the mouth of my body. I found I could. I said to him "I can still use my body=92s mouth. I=92ve slipped two feet forwards. Could you push me back two feet back in my direction?" (I know this is self-contradictory). The auditor had at last worked out what was happening. He said "In the last auditing command, did you exteriorise?". Then, and only then, could I make any sense of what had happened to me. I was exterior! I started taking a more leisurely look round. The light now seemed duller han usual rather than brighter. I could see fairly clearly and the 3-D seemed more pronounced than normal (I have a defective left eye which effectively destroys my 3-D vision with normal sight). I looked at the back of my head. It did not seem like it was me any more. I was going to ask the auditor "who=92s that other person in the room?" but then I remembered it was my own body. I remember thinking to myself "How am I seeing? If I have no physical eyes then I have no lenses to focus the light. Am I actually projecting the world from my own mind?". I then started feeling sorry for myself and for other people. I was thinking "Is this what we are? Invisible spirits too weak to act on their own and now we are trapped in bodies to suffer the experiences of pain and death". I looked at the back of my head again. I wondered if my body were a living thing that was once a spirit. I felt sympathy for my body. At that instant I shot towards the head of the body, not of my own volition, and into it like a bullet. I was back in my body. I was feeling exhausted. The auditor, who I had been ignoring for the last half minute, ended the session without further ado as is standard procedure when an exteriorisation occurs. Though I was tired I began feeling elated. I thought "That was it, exteriorisation with full perception. It=92s happened to me". When I got up to leave the auditing room I discovered that my balance had been severely effected. I could hardly manage to walk. Going down the corridor I was repeatedly bumping into the walls. I had to put my hands out to steady myself. The auditor takes you to another room where another person checks you out on n E-meter. It is called "exams". In the outside room I sort of overshot and went crashing in to a table. I sort of fell into the exam room and caused a small surprise. I was happy. When I went back to the place I was staying at my balance was still affected. I walked there which was in retrospect rather stupid since the road outside was an unlit narrow country road and I could not walk in a straight line. However I wanted time to absorb what had happened to me. Walking back I felt I was surrounded by invisible humming machines. I was tired but I had the feeling I would not sleep well. When I got back it was as I expected. I could not sleep well and must have got only two hours sleep all night. My thinking was confused. Next morning my balance had thankfully returned to normal. That is the end of my story. I will keep a copy and update it if I remember any more. I think I have it all down though. My memory is very good. Now follows some thoughts on this experience. Exteriorisation happens to about 40% of people who receive Scientology auditing and it tends to happen early on in auditing. It is little wonder that thereafter the person becomes a supporter of Scientology. "If this is what happens early on then think of what there is to come" is a common thought. The problem is that the experience is non-repeatable (well certainly I cannot do it and I know of nobody who can do this at will). As for better things to come this is unfortunately just wishful thinking. It is perfectly obvious to me that L. Ron Hubbard went off the rails in the early =9160s. He created a group of followers around him who believed every word he uttered must be true. He also created an absurd system called "ethics" (which was nothing of the sort) that accused those of not getting good results from auditing as having crimes against him and Scientology. In so doing he robbed himself of all negative feedback from his research and he became the victim of his own fantasies. His later "research" led him to believe in such nonsense as Lord Xenu who 75 million years ago turned the populations of planets into "body thetans" which now infest our bodies and need to be telepathically audited out. The "upper levels" of Scientology are largely concerned with this. To my thinking we should return to this phenomenon of "exteriorisation" and forget the rest of Hubbard=92s material. It is a field that requires a great deal of further research. Even if this experience is not repeatable then at least it should be further understood. I am no longer a member of the Church of Scientology. I am now opposed to its very existence. Their "Bridge to Total Freedom" which they sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars is the Bridge to nowhere but financial ruin. That Hubbard went mad in the =9160s and degenerated further, both in his research and his relationships with other people, during his remaining years is obvious to those who care to read into the subject (see the book "Bare-Faced Messiah" on the Internet). However, at an early stage, I believe his intentions were good. The phenomenon of exteriorisation is to me the most significant spiritual and scientific achievement of the last thousand years. I believe that this phenomenon, if researched enough, will be the jumping-off point for the spiritual evolution of mankind in the next millennium. Roland Rashleigh-Berry, 26th December 1996. Sat May 8 18:32:18 EDT 2010