Did I have an out-of-body experience?

[Bella Swaann]

Okay, so I checked Twitter and went to take a nap. It was like 6:40 PM. I was upset about something personal and was really thinking deeply about it and before I knew it, I was asleep...I think. I remember having a weird dream, but I knew I was dreaming. I tried to stop the dream, I tried to move but I couldn't. I was frozen and I couldn't move a single part of me. Then I remember standing at my dresser which is right next to my bed. I saw fish swimming around, but they were in plain air, and not water. I was then in my own body again, but I still couldn't move. It was hard to breathe, but I wasn't gasping for air or coughing or choking. I was just breathing heavier. It felt like someone was holding me down, there was a lot of pressure. I finally was able to move, but it was one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me. I looked at Twitter again to see that it had been an hour.

I talked to my friend who suggested I look up sleep paralysis, and that seemed to fit my situation perfectly, but I was wondering about out-of-body experiences.

I had a short phase a few months ago where I wanted to be a Wiccan, or a witch, but I never went along with it because my friends said it was stupid. When I was researching Wicca, I read that they tried to use astral projection and out-of-body experiences to be in control of their mind, body, and spirit. I tried to do it once but it went nowhere.

Other things about me I guess, are that I'm a 15-year-old girl. I had eaten a muffin and had ice cream that day, and drank Pepsi. I also read that mental disorders can intensify this so I think it would be appropriate to mention I have organizational OCD, seasonal effective disorder, and bi-polar disorder.

[Thalmor]

I have no medical experince, and I'm 13, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

I'd just say it's your mind playing tricks with you, taking into account your various disorders.

No idea myself, though.

[Mackenzie]

If your sources said Wicca was about astral projection, then you fell prey to crappy sources.

If a Wiccan believes in astral projection, or aliens, or likes to knit sweaters, etc-- that's their business.

It does not make it part of Wicca. It just makes it something Wiccans are not prohibited to do or to believe.

Wicca is a religion, not a phase... unless you were relating to our Gods as a Wiccan and living by our tenets and ethics and such... your phase was not in Wicca, it was in New-Age occult stuff that people are always confusing with Wicca. Saying you were in a Wiccan phase because you tried to astral project is like saying you were in a Jewish phase because you ate potato latkes.


As for astral projection-- you say you tried it once & it didn't work... That's like saying "I tried to be a musician, I picked up a guitar once and tried to play a song but it didn't work". That's pretty much why it didn't work, if you thought you just try it once and expect anything mystical to happen.


What you had sounds more like a lucid dream.... which then turned into sleep paralysis.

Nothing to be scared of... neither of them can hurt you, but they can be scary for people who experience them without knowing what they are-- you're not alone.