Not Attached To the Body

The body is neither yours, or mines, or anybody's. These bodies are coming and going by the laws of nature, but we are free, standing as witness. This body is no more free as a picture or a wall. Why should we be so attached to a body? 

Vivekananda

I want to share a night time experience I had with you but am hesitant because I don't want any 'mystical woo-woo' attached to it. This experience I had, I truly believe, is something we are all capable of having. Consciousness, I have learned as a yogi, is not limited to the body we are in! Who we are is not the body...It is that which uses, witnesses, and experiences Life through the body. This is what I have learned. Sometimes...learning becomes actualized to reinforce our learning! 

Okay...I have been having some neck discomfort over the last few days. I know it is a C-1-C-3 vertebrae thing and want to make sure the muscles don't clench up around making it more painful or limiting movement any farther. So when I am sleeping and I wake up with the discomfort I change positions so I am moving the neck.  Last night, I woke up on my back at some point. When I tried to move, it was so hard to lift my head. There was so much tension around the neck and head. I took a deep breath and said, "I am going to relax as best as I can, lift my head up, and it will be free of all tension."

 That is what I did. I took some nice slow breaths, lifted up into a semi-sitting position and there was no tension. When I put my head back down on the pillow it hit me like a ton of bricks. "Oh My God...I was beside my body watching it lift up and go back down...I wasn't in it when it happened...I was watching it from the side!!"

I automatically discounted the experience. "I must have been dreaming it!" Once again my neck was very tense and it was hard to lift my head, convincing me it was a dream. I told myself I was going to do it again and if the movement was difficult it was a dream. So I did...I took a few breaths, got very relaxed, and lifted my head again. Again, I sat right up.  There was no tension or difficulty but I was fully aware that I was in the body the second time.

I am convinced I had a mini-OBE last night. I was watching from right beside my body this very relaxed body lift up from a painful state to a tension-free sitting position. I wasn't watching from inside. I was watching from outside.  

Now, there are a million different explanations for this.  There are the mystical woo-woo explanations and there are the scientific, neuro biology explanations. Part of me wants to jump right into this and explore all those explanations...but...another part of me says, "I don't care what the explanation is!! It was cool! "...and leave it at that. I leave it at that. I will not seek to have another such experience, either. One is enough. 

Throughout the night I also had some fairly lucid dreams about terminal illness.  For some type of miracle cure, there were these people dragging their loved ones to others who promised to save the body but keep the soul. I, whatever character I was playing in this dream...not the form I am in now...male maybe?...taller it seems...anyway this form became ill and my loved one...an only daughter... was plannng on sneaking me out of the hospital? one night to take me to this person or these people in order to save my body.  I was terrified and adamant about not going.  I was trying to tell her that this body meant nothing to me...that who I was, was the soul and there is no way I was going to give that up. I must have been unconscious maybe because no matter how I screamed and yelled these truths about consciousness...even calling her selfish for wanting to keep this soulless body alive so she could have company....she didn't hear me or understand what I was saying. I was being taken there against my will. I could see the voodoo like things set up that were to heal my body and the clay pots full of blood (souls?) ...I was screaming and crying "The Soul is the only thing that is real! Don't sacrifice it to keep this illusion of body alive! Let my body die!" 

I am not sure what happened. 

Man...that was a weird dream.  I didn't really connect it to the mini-OBE until now. 

These are not mystical experiences...koo-koo maybe, and I might just be crazier than a bag of hammers...but not "woo-woo mystical". 

I am, I believe having some learning actualized. I am  just receiving this amazing synchronistic reinforcement during the night that what I am learning and internalizing is true. We are not the body. We are the eternal witness standing and watching. Why should we be so attached to it then...physically (as stuck inside it) or mentally, emotionally, or spiritually? The only part of us worth being attached to is the soul, the Ananda body. Sigh! 

Pretty cool, isn't it? 

All is well