May 27, 2011, 4:48am
After several attempts, I was able to sit up and out of my body. I sat up and moved to the middle of my living room. I raised both my hands in the air in silent victory. Unsure of what to do, I looked around a bit and just took in the scene. I felt like there was something I had planned to do, but I could not recall what it was. I was happy just to have had a smooth process. I tried a few Buhlman style “clarity now” commands. I tried saying it very loud with a great deal of emphasis (I even clapped my hands as I said it). Things got a bit more clear, but not much. I glanced over at the couch several times to see if my body was there, but only saw the couch. Once when I looked, it seemed like there were sheets on the couch (which was not the case in actuality).
I decided to float down the hallway toward the bedrooms. For some reason, I had sunglasses on. I think this happened because my expectation was that the hallway was going to be dark. I went to the end of the hall. Satisfied with my ability to travel, I turned around and started heading back to the living room. The hallway was a bit longer that normal and even darker now. I realized that I was still wearing the sunglasses, so I took them off. I did this several times until I had a handful of sunglasses. I silently laughed at this and realized what I was doing. At that realization, things seemed to stay at the expected brightness.
Back in the living room, I looked at the couch again to see if I could see my body. Again, there was nothing. I tried to focus harder... almost to make my body appear. I began to see a slight outline of dim light around where my body should have been. The thought crossed my mind that I could make my body be there if I really wanted to. It did not seem productive though so I let it go. I turned toward the den. I knew there was something that I was going to do or ask, but I had not established it clearly enough before falling asleep. My main goal was to instigate another smooth transition and exit... so really I had already reached my goal. I starting to check my watch to help me come up with something to ask or some test to conduct. I was starting to take the watch off, when I realized what I was doing. I don’t normally wear a watch and even if I did, I wouldn't look at it to come up with ideas. The more I think about it, I should have looked at the watch; maybe it could have given me an idea after all. The idea popped into my head to go in the den where our little dogs sleep at night and see what type of interaction might take place. I floated into the den and they came right up to me in their normal excited manner. The room and the dog area looked different enough though that I realized that I was probably creating the dogs and their reaction. I said hi to them and talked to them for a minute and then floated back to the living room. I say floated because my movement was very smooth. I was upright like I was walking, but I was not walking per say.
Back in the living room, I decided that I wanted it to be brighter, so I said, “It is daytime”. I did this several times, but little seemed to change. I went to the front door to go explore the outside. The door was solid and did not have a window like the actual door. I decided that I would float through it. I put my hands out in front of me, finger tips extended, and started to head through the door. My fingers thudded against it though. It was totally solid. I tried a few more times, but could not pass through. I thought about the idea that I was either being encouraged to stay or that I just needed to focus more. Eventually the experience ended and I woke up.
This was a good experience for several reasons. First, the exit was smooth and easy; no sleep paralysis required. Second, things were much more clear than my past explorations in the vicinity of my sleeping body. I should add that I don’t necessarily think that I am actually near my body or even separated from it at all. Frankly, I don’t think that it matters. These things will reveal themselves in time. I have to just carry on being open-minded and skeptical, and take one step at a time. I know that many others have found that 3 - 4 am is somewhat of a magic hour. Such has been true for me as well. I will certainly be setting my alarm for 3:30 again. Something else to note is that I was sleeping on the couch. Buhlman recommends getting up to an alarm and then moving to a new location that is not directly related to sleep (example: moving from the bed to a couch).