People often ask me, do you ever meet anyone while you're out of your body? Yes, I have, but not often. Maybe 10 percent of my OBEs have had interaction with other people. There are two categories of people you are likely to meet during an OBE: physical and nonphysical. A physical person is inside their physical body during your OBE. A nonphysical person can be someone who is also having an OBE, or a person who is without a physical body--"dead."

When you meet someone on the astral plane, it's easy to tell if they are physical or nonphysical. The physical people usually seem preoccupied with trivialities. If you meet up with a physical person, they will usually be busily preoccupied with reading, doing dishes or another physical activity. They don't seem to notice you. You can speak with them, but usually they won't look at you while they speak, although sometimes it may seem as if they look at you. Physical people are always affected by gravity. Also, physical people usually have irregular or discolored auras.

On the other hand, nonphysical people are not preoccupied. They usually notice you, and look at you when they are talking. They often wear out-of-place clothes. And they can be found perched in midair or just about anywhere. Quite often in my experience, I've been able to hear or "feel" the presence of discarnates, but haven't been able to see them. Also, their auras are mostly clear, regularly shaped and evenly colored.

There may also be cases where nonphysical people don't seem to see you. A good example of this is OBE #116, mentioned in chapter 16, where I saw a group of people in my room, dressed in 1950's style clothes. In these cases, I'm not sure if I am seeing spirits from a different "wavelength" or some sort of psychic afterimage.

Physical People

In Robert Monroe's first book, he believed that when we are speaking to a physical person, we are talking with their subconscious minds. He described elaborate conversations with people while out of the body, but when he went to verify the experience, nobody remembered the conversations. His theory seems to fit perfectly with my experiences. Talking to a physical person is strained, as if they are too preoccupied to talk with you. Or perhaps their conscious minds feel uneasy having their subconscious talking with a "spirit." It seems as if physical people are so focused on their daily lives that they feel uncomfortable turning any portion of their consciousness away from that focus. For example, during OBE #21 mentioned in chapter 18, when I tried to rouse my mom from sleep, she just seemed to ignore me. Here are a few more examples from my journals:

05/02/81 Sat - OBE #39
...I walked through the living room of JP's apartment and entered JP and CA's bedroom. Both JP and CA were in bed. CA was laying down with her eyes closed. JP was sitting up in bed with some reading material. I jumped up and down and waved my hands to try to get JP's attention. He looked up at me. Then he nudged CA and she stirred. He pointed at me and said, "Look. I think there's something there." She looked, but didn't say anything. I didn't want them to be afraid of me, so I said, "It's me, Bob. I'm projecting." JP then said, "It's probably Bob projecting," as though he didn't hear me. He went back to reading. I said, "How can I be sure I'm going to remember this? What if I forget? I've got to remember." JP said, "Don't worry, we'll remember for you." I said, "How can I be sure you will remember?" He said, "We're awake. We should remember." I said, "Okay, but I may still forget." He said, "Don't worry about it; you'll remember."

When I asked JP and CA about this incident later that day, they didn't remember anything. JP was reading at the time. CA was awake but doing various things around the apartment. Several times, she reclined on the bed to relax for a few minutes. Here's another example:

07/30/81 Thu - OBE #44
...Well, I turned around and saw my father sitting in a kitchen chair with a sad expression on his face. I didn't want to speak, but I tried to get his attention by waving my hands in the place he seemed to be staring. I was about six or seven feet away from him. He finally looked up and said something like, "Oh. Hello." I said, "Hi! Look! I'm projecting!" With that, I decided to continue on, not wanting to waste any projecting time; and Dad didn't seem interested.

Non-Physical People

The experience quoted above happened when my father was alive. The following experience happened after his death:

12/20/81 Sun - OBE #60
...I twisted and reached for the window. I tried to pull myself toward it with my mind. My consciousness was dimmed again but this time I thought I saw a small boy of 12 or so [years old] watching me from the northeast upper corner of my bedroom (by my window). I felt two or three older people that were on the other side of my bedroom wall. The boy said something to me and then he talked with the older people for a while. I don't remember what was said. The boy had dark brown hair, sparkling eyes, and a grin that seemed to indicate that he was pleased and adventurous because I was out of my body....The older people were standing up. One was male, one female, and I didn't see the third well. These older people were about 35 to 40 years old [in appearance] and were more serious [than the boy]. I only became aware of these older people when they spoke to the boy and he answered. Just as I lost consciousness I saw the boy slide down [what appeared to be] a ladder.

In this OBE, there seemed to be several people watching me, and speculating about me. They seemed to know me, as if they were my spirit guides, but I didn't consciously know any of them. The grinning boy seemed as if he were pleased with me. He acted lively and mischievous, with his big grin and sparkling eyes. However, none of them seemed to want to communicate with me. It was like they were scientists during an experiment, and I was the subject.

Animals

Some animals have more powerful senses than people. Dogs and cats can often see flying insects that our eyes miss unless we look closely. Animals also seem to be naturally psychic. I've talked to many people who have said their pets exhibited unusual behavior, such as staring off into space or circling their heads as if they were seeing spirits. Those people have looked for insects and other possible "normal" explanations for such behavior, without success. My family never had a pet by the time I was experiencing OBEs, but JP had a cat named Zack. During one OBE, I encountered Zack in JP's apartment. It was my only encounter with an animal, during an out-of-body experience:

10/21/83 Fri - OBE #98
This happened on 10/18/83: I've only had a chance to write it down now. I was having strange dreams, and I became semiconscious. Then I noticed I was weightless and that realization brought me to a fuller consciousness: I woke up. I was in JP's living room and I saw JP's cat Zack, and he seemed to see me. I decided as long as I was a spirit, and I was near Zack, I should try to frighten him to prove to myself that he saw me. So I stood up tall, raised my arms, and started to run, reaching toward Zack. That cat ran very quickly away!

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Exercise 21 - A Ship's Bow

This is similar to the theater chair method. Relax completely. As vividly as you can, imagine you are standing on the bow (front) of a ship in the middle of the ocean. Imagine the water is completely calm and you are looking out over the water. You are completely at peace. Slowly, waves start to kick up and the boat starts to rock up and down. As the boat rocks up, feel yourself lift up. As the boat rocks down, feel yourself gently set down again. Gradually, make each wave bigger until the waves are ten feet high. With each wave, you rise and fall rhythmically. As you fall with each new wave, try to "feel" that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, as if you are really there.
Again, this can call the vibrations and pull you away from your body.

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