Question:

I had the following experience when I was about 13 years old and am wondering if the Bible speaks of such things, known as out of body experiences…  I guess I had fallen asleep, I "awoke" looking down at my body laying in my bed. I immediately felt that I was above the floor, like at ceiling height. I continued to move towards a streetlight on the road in front of my house, I could see my grandparents house which was across the street from my house but I had no sense of whether I was outside or inside the whole time, I was not hot or cold, there was no air, wind, sound just basically dark except for the street light. I just felt outside my normal awareness of those things. As I went closer to the light the emotions I felt were sadness, incompleteness, the deepest feelings of sadness & loneliness I had or have ever felt in my life. Then very quickly I felt sucked back into my physical body & it was over.  I may have woken up crying but do not remember fully. I do remember that it took a few days to get over the sadness that kept coming back when I remembered the experience. I only read one book on out of body experiences several years after this happened to me and had no knowledge on the subject beforehand.

Answer:

We just had a conference in which this kind of question was a main topic. You can get a copy of "Christianity and the Paranormal" at www.ipibooks.com. My response is that interpretation of such experiences is quite subjective. People who experience these things include Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and atheists. More experience a feeling of going toward heaven than those who feel pulled toward hell but both are reported, and the Bible makes it clear that the proportion between the two groups is very uneven in the opposite direction (Matthew 7:13-14).

Neuroscientists will tell us that when the brain is severely deprived of oxygen it naturally brings on a feeling of being disoriented and disembodied. The "natural" explanation may have some validity to your experience (and it may not!).

My response is that you will be better off putting your faith in a less subjective thing, such as the teaching in the Bible than a personal experience. I have no desire whatsoever to put you down for your experience or even to deny the possibility that it was a real experience, with a spiritual implication. If this experience is an encouragement to you then that is fine, and I certainly would not want to belittle the experience. All I can say is that such anecdotes, no matter how interesting and, for some, even convincing, can never establish whether anyone is right with God or not. So, we would do our best to not put stock in out-of-body experience which are not mentioned in the Bible, but instead should put our faith in God and in his Word, which has the power to save you.

John Oakes