Peculiar experience...am I ok?

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When I mean ok, I mean in within the confines of my neurology.

Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever taken drugs of any kind, except my prescriptions - I adhere to my med schedule. I do not drink, smoke, not even caffeine (except for sometime Diet Coke, hot cocoa, or latte). I do drink decaff coffee in moderation. I dislike any sort of medicine, even if I have the flu. Never even compelled to put a chemical in my body - abhorrent to me since I navigate by my senses and I would never purposely sabotage this - ever. (I figure I have enough problems anyway). I have no addictive disorders of any kind and neither does any in my family.

That being said, I do have an enhanced sensory modality. I can be overwhelmed, deeply fascinated, transfixed (insert word here) with certain stimuli. I do in fact, by definition, sometimes hallucinate.

Here's what just happened. Hence my question, am I ok? I've been working diligently on my project and moved to my office chair (I usually work lying on my pet mat with a blanket). I began spinning my office chair with my head back and I entirely (unsure of right word....) lost my sense of reality, orientation in time & space. I did feel, but that feeling is unidentified (a good feeling though, I think) - no emotion. I believe I spun for maybe 20 minutes? I do not recall if my eyes were open or closed. I did not feel dizzy at all.

So, let's play doctor: Am I ok? Specifically, what happened to me? Have you had similar? What if this should happen (well, it does, but not usually to the point of obliviousness) and I cannot wake up? Should I even attempt to tell my doctor this? I know this might sound strange, but it just happened. I'm sure that my tiredness did contribute. I feel fine.

Please try to refrain from equating this experience as a 'trip,' it is not. I know this is an autistic state, but where did I just go?

Did you miss me whilst I was away? Seriously, what just happened?

Sounds like you zoned out to me... Sorta like dozing, but you never actually fall asleep. It can happen when you're borred, and is common for kids in school. ((I know you weren't, just making a joke))

On the subject of sleep.

How many hours of sleep must you have before you feel well rested?

How many hours does it take for you to feel very tired after staying awake?

This is a problem for me definitely. I am really bad at sleeping. I can and have collapsed from exhaustion. Sometimes if I've deeply involved in a project I forget to sleep. I do forget to sleep quite often, which is stupid, but I do. Then I hate myself. When I do sleep, I usually sleep soundly and deeply (because I'm so tired). Other times I have nightmares - hate that. I cannot know the difference between a nightmare/dream and 'real' until AFTER I wake up. I take a long time to recover from nightmares too. I sometimes sleepwalk, but not too often.

I do know when I'm not sleeping well, or regularly enough, my symptoms are exacerbated; a domino effect. This could be a contributing factor to my experience.

Still, very strange. I have a parallel universe in my mind.

Do you feel more awake at night and hazy during the day?

No, during the day, whilst I'm busy working, I'm fine. But when I'm stressed then I do not sleep properly and then I perform as well, which further stresses me....a cyclical process. I think I am normally diurnal, given ideal conditions.

Are you referring to a feeling of somehow not being yourself for a time, of being outside your own life?
That has only happened to me in a good way when I have been extremely tired- a sensation of floating completely above the world and observing myself (e.g. the opening credit portion of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood), or in a bad way when something bad is occurring around me and I am detaching from it.
I enjoy this type of experience, overall. I find it enhances my creativity, as these are vivid, memorable occasions.

A looping pattern.

I don't know if you zoning out has to do with sleep or not. You just may like the way spinning in circles feel. I don't like the overly stressed over complicating events. Physically, response is delayed, mentally everything is sped up.

Perhaps it's a balancing act and maybe the body is outwardly showing what is going on inside of the brain. Your brain is looping, your body is showing that loop?

I've also wondered about normal hours required of most people to sleep and when they get tired. I am not sure if you fit this description but I have to have 10 hours of sleep before feeling well rested but I get really tired when up for 12 hours.

Then comes the insomnia. I think what is going on with the insomnia is a compensation for hours that may have been missed during sleeping longer and feeling tired faster than normal people.

What you described sounds normal, for ANYONE! I guess you never spun aorund like that before. It apparently has to do with being disoriented by sensations in the middle ear.

Out-of-body experience
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE), is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body (autoscopy). About one in ten people has had an out-of-body experience at some time in their lives. Scientists know little about the phenomenon.[1] OBEs are often part of the near-death experience, and reportedly may also lead to astral projection. It is claimed that OBErs sometimes observe details during an OBE which were unknown to them beforehand.[2]

In some cases the phenomenon appears to occur spontaneously; in others it is associated with a physical or mental trauma, use of psychedelic drugs, or a dream-like state. It is possible to induce the experience deliberately, for example through visualization while in a relaxed, meditative state. Recent (2007) studies have shown that experiences somewhat similar to OBEs can be induced by direct brain stimulation. Relatively little is known for sure about OBEs.[1] Some of those who experience OBEs may have willed themselves out of their bodies, while others found themselves being pulled from their bodies (usually preceded by a feeling of paralysis). In other accounts, the feeling of being outside the body was suddenly realized after the fact, and the experiencer saw their own bodies almost by accident.

OBEs are often initiated through lucid dreaming, though other types of initiation also used. In many cases, people claim to have had an OBE, reported being asleep, on the verge of sleep, or having been asleep shortly before the experience. A large percentage of these cases referred to situations where the sleep was not particularly deep (due to illness, noises in other rooms, emotional stress, exhaustion from overworking, frequent re-awakening, etc.). In most of these cases, the subjects then felt themselves awake; about half them noted a feeling of sleep paralysis.[3] Some subjects report having had an OBE during near death conditions.

There appear to be two common forms of such lucid experiences. The first involves lucid dreaming, where the subject is immersed in unrealistic worlds, or in a modified form of the reality with impossible or inconsistent features. A second experience is of a more physical nature where the environment is consistent with reality; this is often called an etheric or ethereal experience. This type can be frightening, as extremely realistic physical sensations may occur, often including magnetic and vibrating phenomena, loss of balance, and confusion. The person believes he has awoken physically and panic can be caused by the realization that limbs appear to be penetrating objects.

The OBE may or may not be followed by other experiences which are self-reported as being "as real" as the OBE feeling; alternatively, the subject may fade into a state self-reported as dreaming, or they may wake completely. The OBE is sometimes ended due to a fearful feeling of getting "too far away" from the body. Many end with a feeling of suddenly "popping" or "snapping" and sometimes a "pulling" back into their bodies; some even report being "sucked back" into physical form. A majority describe the end of the experience by saying "then I woke up". However it's worth noting that even those who describe the experience as something fantastic that occurs during sleep, and who describe the end of the experience by saying "and then I woke up", are very specific in describing the experience as one which was clearly not a dream; many described their sense of feeling more awake than they felt when they were normally awake. One compared the experience to that of lucid dreaming, but said that it was "more real".

People often report having these experiences after suffering from traumatic experiences such as motor vehicle accidents. They are able to recall the accident as if observing from a location outside the vehicle.

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Induced OBEs

Some people have attempted to develop techniques to induce OBEs:
Attempting to fall asleep without losing wakefulness. This method is generally believed to be what causes involuntary OBEs. Inventor Thomas Edison was known to use the sleep state to tackle problems while working on his inventions. He would hold a rock above a metal bucket while sitting in a chair, and let himself fall asleep. This would cause the rocks to fall into the bucket and wake him up.[citation needed] Deliberately teetering between awake and asleep states is known to cause spontaneous trance episodes at the onset of sleep which are ultimately helpful when attempting to induce an out-of-body experience, as reported by Robert Monroe and Robert Peterson.[citation needed]
Deep trance and visualization. The types of visualizations vary; some common imageries used include climbing a rope to "pull out" of one's body, floating out of one's body, getting shot out of a cannon, and other similar approaches. This technique is considered hard to use for people who cannot properly relax. Common sensations can arise such as deep vibrations, impressions of very high heart rate (when it actually is in a relaxed state) and these sensations are likely to cause anxieties. A good example of such a technique consists of the popular "Golden Dawn Body of Light Technique".[citation needed]
Audio/visual stimulation intended to bring the subject into the appropriate state. The use of binaural beats to induce theta brain wave frequencies was observed as effective by the Monroe institute (and corroborated by others). Another popular technology uses sinusoidal wave pulses to achieve similar results. The beta/theta simultaneous brainwave patterns were also observed as effective, apparently easing the lighter sleep condition. The theta frequency is observed monitoring brains of dreaming patients, notably in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, while the beta frequency range is that of normal, relaxed awakened individuals. It is believed that one of the unsuspected powers of the drumming of the American natives during religious ceremonies caused the brain to shift among frequencies to become more receptive to the "other worlds" using similar means. See Brainwave synchronization.
Chemically induced experiences. OBEs induced with drugs are generally considered to be hallucinations (i.e., purely subjective), even by those who believe the phenomenon to be objective in general. There are several types of drugs that can initiate an OBE, primarily the dissociative hallucinogens such as ketamine, dextromethorphan (DM or DXM), and phencyclidine (PCP). It has also been reported under the influence of tryptamine psychedelics including dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and ayahuasca. Being under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs are commonly referred to as being in a psychedelic state.
Methamphetamine has also been known to cause OBEs, not in itself but through lack of sleep. It has been reported that it felt like the person was talking above and behind them and, being under the influence of the drug, had no idea what was happening.
Magnetic stimulation of the brain, as with the helmet developed by Michael Persinger.[citation needed]
Electrical stimulation of the brain, particularly the temporoparietal junction (See below).
Sensory deprivation or sensory overload. Various techniques aim to cause intense disorientation of the subject by making him lose his space and time references. The first technique, attempting to fall asleep without losing consciousness, can be considered to be a passive form of sensory deprivation. The brain tends to fill in the gaps when there is nothing getting into the senses for some time. Sensory overload consists of the opposite, where the subject can for instance be rocked for a long time in a specially designed cradle, or submit to light forms of torture, to cause the brain to shut itself off from all sensory input. Both conditions tend to cause confusion and this disorientation often permits the subject to experience vivid, ethereal out-of-body experiences. This tends to happen when the subject believes he or she is in a particular position, whereas his or her actual body is either rocking in a cradle actively, or still lying down. Consciousness suddenly transfers to the mental body.
Some people who practice BDSM desire to be placed in extreme bondage (mummification) because it may allow them to have an out-of-body experience. These experiences have been reported by some people placed in extreme bondage. It is worth noting that being placed in extreme bondage is like being placed in a sensory deprivation tank, and that the OBE may be induced by the resulting sensory deprivation.[citation needed]
Galantamine is a Nootropic that can increase the odds of success when using along with Out-of-body experience or Lucid dream induction technique. [4] [5] [6]

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Near-death experiences
Main article: Near-death experience

Another form of a spontaneous OBE occurs during a near death experience (INDEE or NDE). The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and transcendental factors (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001) such as impressions of being outside the physical body (an out-of-body experience), visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries and other transcendental experiences (Lukoff, Lu & Turner, 1998; Greyson, 2003). Typically the experience follows a distinct progression, starting with the sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area, followed by the sensation of passing through a tunnel, meeting deceased relatives, and concluding with encountering a being of light (Morse, Conner & Tyler, 1985).

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Scientific studies of OBEs

The first extensive scientific study of OBEs was made by Celia Green (1968).[7] She collected written, first-hand accounts from a total of 400 subjects, recruited by means of appeals in the mainstream media, and followed up by questionnaire. Her purpose was to provide a taxonomy of the different types of OBE, viewed simply as an anomalous perceptual experience or hallucination, while leaving open the question of whether some of the cases might incorporate information derived by extrasensory perception.

Previous collections of cases had been made by Dr Robert Crookall; however, he had approached the subject from a spiritualistic position, and collected his cases predominantly from spiritualist newspapers such a Psychic News, which appears to have biased his results in various ways. For example, the majority of his subjects reported ‘seeing’ a cord connecting their ‘external’ body to their physical body; whereas Green found that less than 4% of her subjects noticed anything of this sort, and some 80% reported feeling they were a ‘disembodied consciousness’, with no external body at all.

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Neurology and OBE-like experiences

There are several possible physiological explanations for parts of the OBE. OBE-like experiences have been induced by stimulation of the brain and by using cameras to fool the mind into thinking that the body is somewhere it is not. The OBE has never been fully reproduced by stimulation of the brain or by other methods of induction which use external manipulation to cause the experience.[8]

English psychologist Susan Blackmore suggests that an OBE begins when a person loses contact with sensory input from the body while remaining conscious.[citation needed] The person retains the illusion of having a body, but that perception is no longer derived from the senses. The perceived world may resemble the world he or she generally inhabits while awake, but this perception does not come from the senses either. The vivid body and world is made by our brain's ability to create fully convincing realms, even in the absence of sensory information. This process is witnessed by each of us every night in our dreams, though OBEs are claimed to be far more vivid than even a lucid dream.

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Olaf Blanke studies

Research by Olaf Blanke in Switzerland found that it is possible to reliably elicit experiences somewhat similar to the OBE by stimulating regions of the brain called the right temporal-parietal junction (TPJ; a region where the temporal lobe and parietal lobe of the brain come together). Blanke and his collaborators in Switzerland have explored the neural basis of OBEs by showing that they are reliably associated with lesions in the right TPJ region[9] and that they can be reliably elicited with electrical stimulation of this region in a patient with epilepsy.[10] These elicited experiences may include perceptions of transformations of the patient's arm and legs (complex somatosensory responses) and whole-body displacements (vestibular responses).[11][12]

In neurologically normal subjects, Blanke and colleagues then showed that the conscious experience of the self and body being in the same location depends on multisensory integration in the TPJ. Using event-related potentials, Blanke and colleagues showed the selective activation of the TPJ 330-400 ms after stimulus onset when healthy volunteers imagined themselves in the position and visual perspective that generally are reported by people experiencing spontaneous OBEs. Transcranial magnetic stimulation in the same subjects impaired mental transformation of the participant’s own body. No such effects were found with stimulation of another site or for imagined spatial transformations of external objects, suggesting the selective implication of the TPJ in mental imagery of one's own body.[13] In a follow up study, Arzy et al. showed that the location and timing of brain activation depended on whether mental imagery is performed with mentally embodied or disembodied self location. When subjects performed mental imagery with an embodied location, there was increased activation of a region called the "extrastriate body area" (EBA), but when subjects performed mental imagery with a disembodied location, as reported in OBEs, there was increased activation in the region of the TPJ. This leads Arzy et al. to argue that "these data show that distributed brain activity at the EBA and TPJ as well as their timing are crucial for the coding of the self as embodied and as spatially situated within the human body."[14]

Blanke and colleagues thus propose that the right temporal-parietal junction is important for the sense of spatial location of the self, and that when these normal processes go awry, an OBE arises.[15]

In August 2007 Blanke's lab published research in Science demonstrating that conflicting visual-somatosensory input in virtual reality could disrupt the spatial unity between the self and the body. During multisensory conflict, participants felt as if a virtual body seen in front of them was their own body and mislocalized themselves toward the virtual body, to a position outside their bodily borders. This indicates that spatial unity and bodily self-consciousness can be studied experimentally and is based on multisensory and cognitive processing of bodily information.[16]

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Michael Persinger studies

Michael Persinger has undertaken similar research to Olaf Blanke using magnetic stimulation applied to the right temporal lobe of the brain, which is known to be involved in visuo-spatial functions, multi-sensory integration and the construction of the sense of the body in space.[17] Persinger's research also found evidence for objective neural difference between periods of remote viewing in two individuals thought to have psychic abilities. Persinger undertook his research on Sean Harribance and Ingo Swann, a renowned remote viewer who has taken part in numerous studies.[18] Examination of Harribance showed enhanced EEG activity within the alpha band (8 - 12 Hz) over Harribance's right parieto-occipital region, consistent with neuropsychological evidence of early brain trauma in these regions. In a second study, Ingo Swann was asked to draw images of pictures hidden in envelopes in another room. Individuals with no knowledge of the nature of the study rated Swann's comments and drawings as congruent with the remotely viewed stimulus at better than chance levels. Additionally, on trials in which Swann was correct, the duration of 7 Hz (alpha band) paroxysmal discharges over the right occipital lobe was longer. Subsequent anatomical MRI examination showed anomalous subcortical white matter signals focused in the perieto-occipital interface of the right hemisphere that were not expected for his age or history.

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Ehrsson study

In August 2007 Henrik Ehrsson, then at the Institute of Neurology at University College of London (now at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden) published research in Science demonstrating the first experimental method that, according to the scientist's claims in the publication, induced an out-of-body experience in healthy participants.[19] The experiment was conducted in the following way:

The study participant sits in a chair wearing a pair of head-mounted video displays. These have two small screens over each eye, which show a live film recorded by two video cameras placed beside each other two metres behind the participant’s head. The image from the left video camera is presented on the left-eye display and the image from the right camera on the right-eye display. The participant sees these as one ‘stereoscopic’ (3D) image, so they see their own back displayed from the perspective of someone sitting behind them. The researcher then stands just beside the participant (in their view) and uses two plastic rods to simultaneously touch the participant’s actual chest out-of-view and the chest of the illusory body, moving this second rod towards where the illusory chest would be located, just below the camera’s view. The participants confirmed that they had experienced sitting behind their physical body and looking at it from that location.[20]

The experiment fits a three-point definition of the out-of-body experience (OBE). The OBE as reported in spontaneous cases can be phenomenologically more complex as commented in Slate[21] and elsewhere.[22]

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Astral projection
Main article: Astral projection

Astral projection is a paranormal interpretation of an out-of-body experience achieved either awake or via lucid dreaming or deep meditation. The concept of astral projection assumes the existence of another body, separate from the physical body and capable of traveling to non-physical planes of existence. Commonly such planes are called astral, etheric, or spiritual. Astral projection is often experienced as the spirit or astral body leaving the physical body to travel in the spirit world or astral plane.[23]

Evidence for objective reality of astral projection is sometimes suggested when people, such as patients during surgery, describe OBEs in which they see or hear events or objects outside their sensory range (for instance, one woman reportedly described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as conversation that occurred while she was clinically dead).[24]

Skeptics such as Susan Blackmore have disputed whether anything leaves the body during an OBE.[25]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience

You were playing.

When she was little, about four, the kid said she was going to take me to play on the merry-go-round, the one for little kids, her mother asked if it was the other way, me taking her, but she said I sat, one foot over the edge, and kept it spinning, just staring out, blank eyes, watching the world spin around and around.

She climbed all over, she like the up hill toward center feeling, I just sat and spun, adding just enough energy to keep it moving. I was a good and dependable merry go round motor, and she liked that. She did see I liked it, and came and told me when it was time to stop, for I would be gone.

She also said I was best at pushing her on the swing, other people pushed her, which she did not like, I caught the swing with four fingers, she never felt the push, and I would keep it up. I was in time with the motion, and the girl loved to swing. With me she could relax, and just float. I pushed till she said it was time to stop. She saw that motion transfixed me, and she used it.

Perhaps a form of rocking. How has rocking become something that calls for medical intervention? Where I grew up everyone had several rocking chairs, and a porch swing, and the cool about, a lawn glider. Lawn gliders have a platform, two facing seats, were often made for as many as six, foot presssure on the platform kept the motion going. A near flat arc, ten foot of travel, a moment of floating, and ten foot back, to floating again.

The world changed, sweeping by, then returning at the high point pause. A still, to again become a blur, to the next still. People spent hours every day on the lawn glider. Some were huge, a large investmnt, the frame used as a grape arbor, or covered in Wisteria. Making them was an art form, for the best took hardly any force, and glided in silence on well oiled leather bearings.

Repetative motion has alwas been enjoyed by people, circles and arcs, cycles short and long, from chair to swing, to glider. Dancing was spinning, alone, or in pairs. Children's games were motion, moving in lines, circles, patterns.

It breaks up the visual, the world becomes removed, a blur, the person flowing, floating, rising and falling in time to a pattern. Becoming seperated from the world you become yourself. It was a way of detachment, removing yourself to another world. Gliders were also called Courting Swings, for couples could sit in plain sight, at a reaspectable distance, yet be in a world of their own.

The Dervish sect, now Islamic, but much older, spins to reach a higher state of being, removed from the world, spinning like all things in the Universe spin, for the Universe moves circles, and circles, rota, rotation, is it's constant. Spinning and chanting breaks the bonds of life, reaches out to another place, a place of peace, and closer to the source of all knowledge.

Sufi, also spin, have developed it, the path to Mystic Awareness.

You were praying.

The Universe Loves LabPet, you were being hugged and comforted.

If you have doubts, ask a Shamin.

Sounds like you put your wa back in whack to me. At least that's what we call it at my house. We discovered, my son and I, a long time ago, that certain movements tend to make us zone out and then feel more settled. Early on for him it was spinning. Now it's more of a rocking motion. I tend to get on the elliptical machine and do a half hour workout without even realising that I did it. I've missed the entire half hour. Can't even tell you what happened on telly even though I'm sure I was watching a favourite show. Haven't done it for a while. Maybe that would help with the meltdowns...Curious.

Anyway, back to the subject. My son tends to lie on his tummy on the balance ball and rock gently in different directions. He also likes the squeezing motion of the ab lounger and the round motion of the elliptical. Very handy pieces of equipment for us ilk in my house....