An Out of Body Experience

Taylor was living in Manchester, England, in 1989 when she left her body.

“I was sitting in my lounge, usual 9 p.m. coffee in right hand, alone, relaxed,” she said. “Suddenly I experienced splitting into two; me, and a ‘copy’ of myself.”

Taylor could only sit and watch from the couch as someone who looked like her stepped out of her body and stood in the living room.

“This other me put out their left hand, leaned on the arm of the sofa and got up to standing exactly as I normally would,” she said. “While this happened I could feel the movement of their limbs, see out of their eyes. This was insane.”

Taylor may have had an out-of-body experience. All cultures, from the ancient Egyptians to today’s modern West, have reported OBEs, whether it be bilocation (a person being in different places at the same time) or astral projection (traveling outside your body).

“I couldn’t believe it was happening, but it was,” Taylor said. “I could still feel my own limbs as before.”

Taylor’s “other me” walked through her fireplace wall. She could see through this being’s eyes to the point it passed into the brickwork, then she snapped back into her own body.

“I did wonder if the neighbors had been in next door, might they have seen this ghost of me?” she asked.

OBEs usually occur spontaneously – such as Taylor’s – and sometimes they can be seen by other people, according to “The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits,” by Rosemary Ellen Guiley. People experiencing an OBE can sometimes find themselves in another reality quite unlike our own. OBEs also often happen multiple times to the same person. Much like with Taylor.

Taylor was standing in her living room again when her second OBE occurred. Her right hand was resting on the same sofa when she exploded from her home.

“I found myself suddenly up in space having been apparently launched as if shot from a gun,” she said. “I was hurtling through space at warp speed. It was very arrrrggggghhhhhh but not scary or uncomfortable.”

She could see stars shooting past as she hurdled through the sky.

“I didn’t have any problem breathing,” she said. “It was exhilarating. I would love to do that again.”

She later felt herself “crashing” back into her body as the OBE ended.

In many OBE cases, people report being accompanied by a guide. Whether that guide be a departed family member, an angel or something demonic, is a matter of debate. Taylor experienced an unseen companion on her third trip.

“Again in my house, looking out of the back window to the garden; just relaxed and surveying my enormously long garden, wondering what I could do with it,” she said. “When suddenly I found myself to be looking out over a completely new landscape. It was overlaid on my visual field; I could see both things now at the same time.”

Taylor’s new reality included a large expanse of calm water, low hills and no trees. The light was different than the current light in Manchester, “very beautiful, calming.” Then someone pushed her.

“I felt a pair of invisible hands push me right in the middle of my back,” she said. “Now when I say this I mean I felt physical hands on me. I could not perceive this as different from someone being in my house and doing this.”

She toppled forward and fell into the water. Then her surroundings changed again.

“Before I was pushed in I could see no one,” she said. “But after I surfaced in the water I saw lots of people all very happy. At the end I suddenly, inexplicably, knew you couldn’t drown in the water.”

Water has long been associated with birth. In the book “The Children Time Forgot,” by Peter and Mary Harrison, a boy remembers his pre-birth saying, ‘you have to go into the water to be born, some people jump, others are pushed.’

Whether Taylor’s visions – she says alcohol and drugs were not involved – are lucid dreams, a revisiting of her birth, or touching the astral world, it’s impossible to tell. But Taylor knows one thing – the things she experienced were real.

Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Include your name, address and telephone number. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason's book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri's Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: https://tsup.truman.edu/store/ViewBook.aspx?Book=849 or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.