What is an OBE?

OBE or OoBE stands for out-of-body experience, a term introduced by Robert Allen Monroe to neutrally describe the phenomenon of perceiving oneself separated from the physical body. In occult and esoteric literature this is also called "astral projection" or "etheric projection" in specific cases.

Stephen LaBerge suggested that out-of-body experiences are misinterpretations of lucid dreams and indeed, OBEs and LDs are quite similar. He missed the point though, because dreams already represent out-of-body experiences by definition - after all, one is not using the physical body when dreaming. Nevertheless, there are a few differences in the quality of the experience. A "true OBE" usually expects the experiencer to consciously perceive the exit from the physical body. Many experiencers report becoming aware of the extraphysical state after separation has occured though. The sensation of mild to strong vibrations is also attributed to the onset of an out-of-body experience. This is an unreliable characteristic, because it can occur in lucid dreams, too or be completely absent in OBEs. Several additional aspects associated with out-of-body experiences exist, for example a lesser capability of interacting with the environment, a greater level of awareness, being personified by a mistlike avatar or experiencing anomalous vision. Again, those may or may not occur in both, lucid dreams and OBEs. After all, there is no clear distinction - at least none that can be expressed in words. Knowing both, all I can say is, they feel different.

Electroencephalographic (EEG) studies conducted by Charles Tart, Robert Lyle Morris, Karlis Osis et al. in the mid-70s on different test subjects claiming to be able to deliberately induce an out-of-body state, observed no idiosyncratic brainwave patterns in connection with the OBEs state. Although out-of-body experiences could be induced during sleep and dream states, this was not a requirement.
 
In younger experiments, certain brain parts (angular gyrus) believed to be connected with higher associative functions (vision, sound, touch) were stimulated electrically, evoking a sensation of detachment from the physical body in test subjects. In another experiment, the image from a camera viewing the test subject from a rear position was projected to the subject's vision, causing the subject to fully identify with the camera perspective. Though this does not explain the out-of-body phenomenon, it shows that the perception of the self is not necessarily linked to the physical body. It may seem obvious, that the self ends with the skin of the body, but is it really? The key of several religious practices is the abolishment of that apparently self-imposed restriction to perceive a state of universal oneness. In fact, the simple act of using a tool already demands one to expand the perception of the self.
 
There is no scientific proof for the existence of out-of-body experiences, but according to several surveys, an average of 10% of the population claims to have had at least one out-of-body experience though - including near-death experiences (NDE) and after all... it can be learned.

There are various ways to induce an out-of-body state. Triggers can be mental practices, traumatic accidents and mind-altering drugs among other things. Especially entheogens like dimethyltryptamine (DMT), the Diviner's Sage plant (Salvia divinorum) and dissociatives like ketamine facilitate out-of-body experiences at higher doses. Ketamine is - with few exceptions - not used in human medicine anymore, because patients were frightened by the unfamiliar experience. The use of entheogens implies a lot more than having an OBE though and control may be greatly diminished or completely impossible. Since traumatic accidents are not a deliberate choice for obvious reasons, the most efficient way  to induce the out-of-body state is to develop one's mental skills. The main principle is physical relaxation combined with mental concentration. Although it demands quite some effort, one gains several personal benefits from it.

I have out-of-body experiences about half of the time I make use of a Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming (WILD) method, which aims at preserving full awareness while letting the body fall asleep. The latter may not be required if one is skilled enough in meditation, but for me it's simply the easiest way to let my body enter a state of deep relaxation. Like lucid dreaming, the OBE state allows access to strange places, contact with entities and - with some effort - to something closely resembling the waking world. Monroe even claimed to be able to take traceable physical influence on the waking world from the OBE state. My own experiments in this field were not successful yet, but that does not disappoint me. There is so much else.