May/June 2003 Spirituality
Children and Out-of-Body Experiences

by Matt Guest

When I was a small boy, my parents used to take me to the shopping mall on Saturdays. I really enjoyed eating out and getting new things, but on many occasions the crowds and the noise were just too overwhelming. I could tell at the time that it wasn’t just the noise of people talking that was affecting me, but also the ‘psychic’ or mental noise of all the people – I felt like I was being bombarded by sensory input. Within a few minutes of feeling overwhelmed, my physical body would become very hot, and my arms and legs would start to feel thick, heavy and far away. I would then experience a buzzing, ringing or rushing sound in my ears as they plugged up. Suddenly, the being that I normally knew as ‘me’ would rise up and out of the top of my head, and my physical body would become cold and foreign to me. When this occurred, I would become very withdrawn, nervous and feverish, and sometimes feel like I was floating above the crowds.

I spent nearly thirty years of my life trying to understand what these episodes were all about. My sister, having been to a therapist, said that it sounded like a clinical condition known as Dissociation – being ‘split-off,’ or the experience of fragmented consciousness. Finally, while exploring the world of the dreaming body, I understood that what I had experienced was a significant number of out-of-body experiences.

The world of the dreaming body has many, many different aspects, and an out-of-body experience is only one. Many are familiar with stories of people who suddenly wake up during surgery to see their physical body on the operating table. Many people who have found themselves in life-threatening situations say that an angel or other being helped them to escape from the situation. In reality, what they have witnessed is their own dreaming body.

The dreaming body rises up out of the physical body when it is ejected by fear. This is a built-in life-saving mechanism that human beings have always possessed. When the dreaming body rises up out of the physical body, it is freed from the slower physical senses and thought processes. The dreaming body, being pure energy, is then capable of anticipating and defusing the negative situation, and directing the physical body in an unencumbered way. This is why a person doesn’t feel present in their body, or why a certain frightening situation in retrospect seemed like a dream or occurred in slow motion. It seems like it is in slow motion because the brain takes time to ‘download’ and process the vast amount of energy coming from the dreaming body. It’s like trying to download a large file of information off of the Internet with only a dial-up modem.

I regularly notice that children in public are in various states of out-of-body experiences similar to my own. If you have children, take some time to ask them how they are feeling when they become nervous, overly fidgety or sensitive, withdrawn, clumsy or quiet, and especially if they become upset or start crying. While it may be inconvenient at times, the sanity that you will preserve within yourself by having a content and peaceful child cannot be overestimated, not to mention honoring the presence of the Unknown within them that they are trying to share with you. We often tend to disregard the feelings of children as being immature or unreasonable without ever stopping to consider the overwhelming amount of input that we expect them to assimilate in our sensational and technological world.

So, what can be done when a child enters such a state? Well first, understand that this is not a ‘bad’ or frightening thing – at least it doesn’t have to be. The dreaming body is perfectly capable of working inside or outside of the physical body. Both states are ‘normal.’ Both states are productive, and have a purpose and a place in our lives. When the dreaming body is outside of the physical body, it is capable of tuning into ‘psychic’ information from other dreaming bodies, sometimes over great distances. It is capable of seeing the temporary and illusory nature of fear and ego; it can see whether a person is speaking or living Truth, and witness the presence of other entities and the Unknown. When the dreaming body returns to the physical body, it fills the physical body with an unbelievably thick and palpable joy. It makes a person feel like they’re in love with everything and everyone. It makes the earth and everything above and within it seem new and alive, and it instantly ends all violence and frustration.

Fear, excessive stimulation, hallucinogenic drugs, trance states, hunger and pain can all eject the dreaming body from the physical body. But the dreaming body can also be employed and directed through fervent passion and joy, and through an unquenchable thirst for self-awareness and an intense desire to communicate directly with the Unknown. But this passionate state can only be reached when the dreaming body is at home within the physical body. The dreaming body finds a haven within the physical body when the physical body is tranquil and healthy, and when the brain is quiet, unhurried and open. For your fulfillment, the fulfillment of your children and for the fulfillment of those close to you, take some time to simplify your life and reach deeply into your inner self and create a peaceful place of solace for your dreaming body. Stop skimming the surface of life. Your example in self-awareness will give all children the understanding and confidence that they require to navigate in the world of the dreaming body. May you find your highest fulfillment.

Matt Guest is the author of The Face of Power (www.thefaceofpower.com). He also offers guidance in energetic self-awareness and dream interpretation, and can be reached at (503) 598-8764.