The other night, I had an out of body experience (OBE). Or I dreamed I was having one; it’s hard to tell. For a long time, I have been interested in having OBEs while simultaneously afraid to experience them. The fear cam from a vague idea that when I left my body unattended, demons or some sort of malevolent entities might try to get in, maybe possess me. Seems pretty paranoid, but then again, the whole concept of an OBE is a deep delve into the unknown.
I no longer have that fear, and perhaps that’s why I was finally able to experience an OBE. The key to relinquishing that fear came just a few days ago, when I began to feel the presence of my true self. My atman, as Hindus call it.
The false self, the identity created by ego is for most of us the only self we are aware of. It is constantly in fear of destruction — of bad things happening to it, what people think of it, of losing itself through cultural or personality change. Its biggest fear may be the atman, since the true self is free of egoic attributes of self-identification. That is, the true self is free of fear, worry, guilt, shame, personality quirks… free of OCD. It is even free of language. Our mind may identify it as atman, higher self, observer or witness self… but labels are misleading because they are limiting and the true self is unlimited. It’s better thought of simply as I am.
