I've had a couple experiences that were puzzling to me.
The first involved me waking up and feeling a kind of thing "walking" around the mattress near my feet. It felt exactly like a cat or some other small animal, just twisting in circles, but there was nothing there. I was awake enough to get up and look directly at the spot. I even got back in bed momentarily, and I could still feel it, although when I went to sleep later that day it was no longer there. This happened only two times, occurring within about a month. It was basically the same experience both times. I later found references online to similar experiences people had with "invisible cats" on the bed, but no one had a clear explanation.
The second experience is maybe less "paranormal," but it was still incredibly strange to me. I was feeling bored one night and thought I would try to induce an OBE (as one does, lol). The technique I started with was one described by a Buddhist monk, who had induced it accidentally as a child. He had imagined himself on his bed swaying on a hammock, swinging in growing arcs, until his awareness was momentarily "thrown" outside his body. In that disembodied state he then apparently saw events that happened minutes later, when he finally got up.
So that's what I did first. I started by imagining a swinging hammock, but then tried other techniques that seemed to work just as well in developing a trance-like state, as long as it was repetitive and I could easily "relate" my body to whatever movement I was imagining. So I kept doing this, keeping my eyes open, until I had some mild hallucinations, mostly brightly colored geometric shapes, seemingly made of light, floating around the room. I remember a red triangle specifically. There was a small, bright green but indistinct figure at one point. Eventually I developed this very intense full body pins-and-needles sensation, like when you sit on your leg for too long. It lasted for maybe 30 minutes, even after I got out of bed wondering what had happened. I was amazed to see that the whole "experiment" had lasted around 4 hours. Strangely, for weeks later, I was able to induce this same pins-and-needles sensation relatively quickly, using the same meditative techniques. I could do it while sitting bored on the airplane even. I can't do it now though. I don't know what happened.
near-death.com
