[Editor's note: We have never before had someone submit a description of what it feels like to experience an OBE. This is a beautiful attempt on the part of one writer to do so.]

Swimming in an ocean of Light. Being filled up from head to toe with so much Love that it overflowed from what I perceived to be a tiny "myself" swimming in this huge ocean of Light and Love. It seemed personalized. I could feel loving arms enfolding me. I swam closer in. Everything appeared empty. I wondered: Where was everyone else? I swam farther in but it became too hot. I couldn't go any farther. A gentle cool breeze blew me back and loving arms enfolded me. I came to consciousness, woke up back in my room where I had been resting on the bed. I felt I had been with God.

The experience with the Light made me want to stay there forever. I really and truly felt so absolutely complete that I didn't want to leave. The love that flowed into me and through me seemed to include various types of love - agape, eros, tenderness, etc.

Some years before this, I "dreamt" that I was flying over a green field with my husband. I was worried I would fall. I could see all the landscape and buildings below. I became scared and flew back and went into my body. I actually lay on top of my body on the bed and "slotted" myself in. I felt happy to be "home in my body!"

My husband and I didn't have time to talk to each other in the morning. But the experience was so vivid that I told a friend about it during the day. In the afternoon when my husband came home, I asked him if he could remember what we had done the night before. I expected him to say "no" or to comment on dinner or the television show but, with my friend as a witness, he said, "We were flying around together," and he told the exact same story. I was amazed and so was my friend.

I wonder if there are other people who have had a similar experience. I have had several very distinct experiences of being out of my body, all of them seemingly spontaneous. No matter how carefully I choose my words, I cannot convey the feelings of the experience as well as I would like.

I know these are often called "Near Death Experiences," but I was not ill nor had I had an accident of any kind when these things happened. I am now doing Zen Buddhist meditation and have not had these experiences recently.

Noreen Harbecke
norsca4@hotmail.com

Posted Aug. 25, 2007