Experience While Napping—obe?

[joegarland]

I was taking a 15 min nap, lying in bed. Not sure if I fell asleep, but suddenly I began to see a white light. And then my awareness--the "I"--began to expand beyond my body. I couldn't see anything but this white field of light. And then there was this tunnel. I thought "OH! THIS is the tunnel that everyone's talking about!" Even though I have no memory of such a tunnel. The tunnel led to a video game screen ("Copyright 1991 Nintendo" was at the bottom). Then the field of awareness began fluctuating in size as I began grappling with my ego. Suddenly I sensed a person entering my room and then I abruptly woke up from this state, although it didn't feel as if I had fallen asleep in the first place.

Now I'm having a hard time knowing if this was an enlightenment experience or just a kooky lucid dream. Does anyone have a familiarity with lucid dreams, OBEs, and can help classifying this information? Where can I go to learn more, and try to replicate this experience?

[Leo Gura]

@joegarland Well, one thing's for sure: you've been playing too many NES games ;D

Sounds a bit like an NDE actually.

Not enlightenment.

It's very easy to test for enlightenment. Just ask yourself, "What am I?" and either you know for sure, or you're lost.

[Emerald]

1 hour ago, joegarland said:

I was taking a 15 min nap, lying in bed. Not sure if I fell asleep, but suddenly I began to see a white light. And then my awareness--the "I"--began to expand beyond my body. I couldn't see anything but this white field of light. And then there was this tunnel. I thought "OH! THIS is the tunnel that everyone's talking about!" Even though I have no memory of such a tunnel. The tunnel led to a video game screen ("Copyright 1991 Nintendo" was at the bottom). Then the field of awareness began fluctuating in size as I began grappling with my ego. Suddenly I sensed a person entering my room and then I abruptly woke up from this state, although it didn't feel as if I had fallen asleep in the first place.

Now I'm having a hard time knowing if this was an enlightenment experience or just a kooky lucid dream. Does anyone have a familiarity with lucid dreams, OBEs, and can help classifying this information? Where can I go to learn more, and try to replicate this experience?

It sounds to me like you may have had sleep paralysis (which is the gateway to OBE) that turned into a lucid dream. This happens when you reach the state of sleep paralysis and instead of getting up and going out of body, you go the "opposite direction" and fall asleep into a lucid dream as opposed to getting up and walking around. This is also called a WILD or Wake Induced Lucid Dream. Many people report seeing a white light during sleep paralysis, though I never have personally over the 14 years I've been getting them. But an OBE has the characteristic of seemlessness with reality while lucid dreaming generally does not, so perhaps it was an OBE instead. It is possible to travel to different and fantastical places in an OBE. So, I wouldn't rule out the possibility. I have several videos on Sleep Paralysis, OBE, and Lucid Dreaming on my channel, if you want to check them out.