This was my first experience of this nature and I haven't had one anything quite like it since. I had one experience that seemed somewhat like the little I've read about astral travel, but the time frame seemed to not be completely current. I.E. I had gone to sleep as far as I could tell. I remember that everything was just like it is in my bedroom. My active body was trying to separate from my sleeping body on the bed. It had some difficulty and I had to try several times to do it smoothly. There seemed to be some stronger attachments at my chest and my solar plexus, and I needed to leave these in a certain way.

Then I floated up toward the ceiling. I could see my body back on the bed and I also could sense my body floating at the ceiling. I wondered if I could go through the ceiling so I proceeded to try. It was effortless. I floated out into the night air. I kept rising, as if swimming, and went up to the ridge behind our house. It was night but it didn't seem as dark as it should have. Everything looked like it does currently, but then I also started seeing some things that looked as if they were from a long time ago in the same place. I was seeing people in the woods and they seemed like manual workers of some sort. I felt somewhat distant from what I was seeing, as if it didn't have much to do with me. I floated around for awhile and it felt really nice to move that way. Then I decided I should try to go back home and that was also effortless. I floated back down to the roof, went through it and down through my bedroom, back to my body. I remember I was very conscious about "how" I got back into my body. Getting back in I was also careful, just like getting out. As soon as my floating body had merged with the sleeping body, I woke up. I considered this a dream instead of actual astral travel because not everything was exactly like it really is. So, maybe a dream about astral traveling? I don't know. I'm not educated about these things.

What I did want to mention is that during this same time, other different things started happening. I would be walking outside at nighttime, no moon, cloudy sky, dark everywhere, and then all of a sudden a cone of light would grow around my feet and spread out 10-20 feet around me. It would be really golden bright and very illuminating. Sometimes I'd be walking with a friend and I'd ask him if he saw any lights around me and he'd say no, but then I'd start seeing the same kind of lights around him. 

During this period we started having some snow. One afternoon there were a few inches on the ground and the sky was very cloudy and heavy looking. I was sitting inside watching the field grasses when suddenly it seemed as if an incredibly bright sun had come out and was shining on everything. I'd look up at the sky expecting to see a big break in the clouds with the sun shining through, but it would be dark and grey. I'd go back to looking at the grasses which would at first just have their "normal" appearance, but then they'd start glowing again.

Then at other times I'll be looking at the water in the creek, or the waterfalls, and the water will turn from it's dark greenish brown to a brilliant, gem-like bluish, turquoise silver. The little drops that go shooting out in the air at the waterfalls all look like gemstones being flung in the air.  Pretty often now, I'll see lights, around other things or spreading out from me. Sometimes it spreads out over a hundred feet or more. Although I see these lights at any time, it seems that I see it more, or with greater intensity, when there's snow. This is something I find puzzling.

I remember when I was an early teenager, I was looking out my bedroom window late one night just staring out at the trees which I could hardly see. Very slowly and gradually, the trees, grass and air in between them all started glowing with the most beautiful bright golden light. It was incredibly bright but things still looked soft and not glaring at the same time. It lasted a long time and then just as gradually faded away. I had forgotten all about that until these more recent events.

During this same time period as an adult, I also started getting messages and insights into things I couldn't ordinarily know, things that I would find out later to be true, or events that had happened. This comes sometimes in a flash when I first go to sleep, in a dream, or when I'm  waking up and other times it just appears in my consciousness.  I haven't worked very directly with any of this, I really don't want to turn it into a "thing" if you understand what I mean. It's wonderful and anchors me in my life in a very deep way and enlarges my experience of things, and currently I just like enjoying it and seeing what else comes.

Any associated medications or substances with the potential to affect the experience?     No

Was the kind of experience difficult to express in words? No

At the time of this experience, was there an associated life threatening event?          No

What was your level of consciousness and alertness during the experience?           High

            Was the experience dream like in any way?   The second experience I related above was. None of the others were.

Did you experience a separation of your consciousness from your body?     Uncertain

My consciousness certainly seemed separate from what I knew of my body in the second experience, yet I still had the sense of having a body and so didn't feel separate. The first experience I related I felt no separation. It was my body and my consciousness experiencing together.

What emotions did you feel during the experience?            I was excited and thrilled and a bit nervous.

Did you hear any unusual sounds or noises?           I thought I sensed a rushing noise of some sort, but it did not really seem auditory. It seemed to be a feeling inside of me that I interpreted as sound.

LOCATION DESCRIPTION:  Did you recognize any familiar locations or any locations from familiar religious teachings or encounter any locations inhabited by incredible or amazing creatures?    Yes

In the second experience where I was astral traveling within what I think was a dream I recognized my home.

Did you see a light?           Uncertain

Not I think in the way you mean it, not in an obe or astral traveling. Just the light experiences I described.

Did you meet or see any other beings?           Yes

IN the astral traveling dream I saw people I didn't recognize. Nothing was communicated. It was like I was seeing them as they were a long time ago.

Did you experiment while out of the body or in another, altered state? No

Did you observe or hear anything regarding people or events during your experience that could be verified later? No

Did you notice how your 5 senses were working, and if so, how were they different?          Uncertain

I was aware of my senses but didn't really detect any difference that I can describe other than that sound was more felt than actually heard.

Did you have any sense of altered space or time?   Uncertain

Not within the experiences, just afterwards looking back.

Did you have a sense of knowing, special knowledge, universal order and/or purpose?    No

Not during the experiences, but afterwards some growing sense of order and purpose.

Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure?             Yes

When travelling through the tunnel I eventually came to it's end after which there was some sort of wide open space. This felt definitely like some kind of boundary. I wanted to and started to cross it but the thoughts of my mind pulled me out of the experience.

Did you become aware of future events?       No

Were you involved in or aware of a decision regarding your return to the body?       Yes

In the tunnel experience I was aware that my thinking about what was happening had some effect on me returning from the experience. In my astral travel dream, I made a deliberate decision to return.

Did you have any psychic, paranormal or other special gifts following the experience that you did not have prior to the experience?         Uncertain

I don't know that the experience itself was a beginning point. It seems more like it was one part of a growing awareness of expanding consciousness.

Did you have any changes of attitudes or beliefs following the experience?   Uncertain

Again, I would say that the experience itself was for me a reflection and outcome of attitudes and beliefs that were already in the process of changing.

How has the experience affected your relationships? Daily life? Religious practices? Career choices?       I don't talk about these experiences very much and when I do it's with very close friends who are either open to non ordinary realities and/or have experiences with them. So I guess I would say that it provides yet more common ground. These kinds of experiences help me infuse my daily life and much that is mundane and repetitive with a sense of sacredness, a feeling of connection to a larger whole and a fabric of existence that has meaning, coherence, purpose and much beauty and mystery. I would not say that I have clearly defined religious practices. I pray a lot yet much of it is informal. I try to accept myself and really feel my feelings without judgment and this feels like a deeply religious sort of thing.

I try to own my experiences, thoughts and feelings and not project, although I fail a lot at this. I try to maintain a compassionate stance towards life and all its elements and this, too, feels like my version of religious life. The experiences themselves have been more a result of this part of my life, I think, rather than the cause. Yet, they have also given me ground to grow from at the same time. I'm not answering this part very well--I'm trying to be brief but find it difficult when it comes to separating out my spiritual life from anything else. It just all feels like one thing to me.

Pray without ceasing, be open to the moment, give thank---that sort of thing.  My career choice was already in flux at the time these experiences began. I was thinking seriously about how to be a real human being, and I wanted my daily work to reflect my beliefs and interests and help provide a sense of space and openness to other people who are interested in feeling more authentic lives. So the experience hasn't directly affected my career choice but is, once again, an outgrowth of all the changes and choices I've been instigating.

Has your life changed specifically as a result of your experience?         No

Have you shared this experience with others?         Yes

As stated above, I have shared this with close friends and they have all been either validating because of similar experiences, or have been supportive and interested. For those who have not had the same kind of experience, there may have been some influence in that there is some excitement and hope that there is some greater whole that we are a part of that is still to be learned from and felt.

What emotions did you experience following your experience?  Very similar to the emotions during the experience--excitement, nervousness. Probably afterwards there was more a feeling of gratitude as well.

What was the best and worst part of your experience?      I don't know that I can really make that distinction. I do wish I could have kept going in the obe. But I can't describe that as worst.

Is there anything else you would like to add concerning the experience?        I don't think so.

Following the experience, have you had any other events in your life, medications or substances which reproduced any part of the experience?         No

Did the questions asked and information you provided accurately and comprehensively describe your experience?               Yes