Traveling Out of Body by Keith Varnum

I can see the cops coming! They're a good thousand feet away.
I can clearly make out their uniforms and swinging
nightsticks. How can I be seeing this?

I didn't dare mention it to my fellow underage drinking mates
lounging with me on the grassy knoll in the park. Am I making
this up? Projecting it somehow into my vision? Forcefully, I
shook my head back and forth in an effort to free my mind of
its strange perception.

But the view of the two police officers remained in my sight,
as they sauntered closer and closer to our drinking den. In
fact, to my further astonishment, I saw a much wider
perspective as I swiveled my gaze within the picture before
me. I can see myself!

Frantically blinking my eyes open and shut trying to erase
this impossibility, I still found myself staring at my own
physical body on the ground next to my beer buddies. The place
from which I was viewing was about forty feet in the air! As I
shifted my attention to look at the looker, I saw an airborne
body in the form of a luminous shimmer, much like a ghost is
portrayed in a movie. Then, with the ease of a mere thought, I
discovered I could shift my point of view from my physical
body on the ground back to my ethereal light body in the air.
Using my eyes in my subtle body, I surveyed the scene again
from my perch in the air.

Am I making all this up? Do I want to impress my pals so much,
I'm concocting an extrasensory perception to allow me to warn
them of an oncoming bust? My frenetic self-questioning came to
an abrupt halt as I heard one of the officers whisper to his
colleague, "Do you hear that noise? There are some kids in the
park."

Whether I was conjuring my supernormal sight and hearing to
court favor with my friends or not, I needed to act-and
quickly. "Hey, guys, don't ask me how I know, but there are
some cops right up the street and they're on to us. Let's
split." My three inebriated friends and I quietly sneaked down
the hill and out of the park under the helpful cloak of
darkness. By a nanosecond, we successfully evaded detection as
we heard the policemen slashing at the bushes with their
billyclubs right behind us. A close call!

"Hey, how'd ya know the fuzz was there?" my buddy pressed me
as we arrived safely back at our car.

"Uh, I just knew somehow. A guess, I guess," I muttered,
covering for myself as best I could under the circumstances.

"Well, a pretty good one, man. We'd be up the creek if they
caught us. Thanks. You're all right. We should have you around
every time we go drinking."

Ah, music to my ears. And so my young career as a drinking
guard began!

My friends, at sixteen, were older than I but still under the
legal drinking age of eighteen in New York State. I was
fifteen and considered myself really lucky to be included in
this older gang at a time of life when acceptance and
belonging was paramount. And to have access to liquor through
their connections was heaven for me.

I would do almost anything to please these guys and stay tight
with them. I mused to myself, My newfound super-vision is
coming in real handy. If we got busted for underage drinking,
we'd all get grounded by our parents, not to mention getting
in trouble with the law. I've got to keep this good thing
going!

On that fateful night, my need for approval prompted me to
keep expanding this burgeoning, new skill that I stumbled
across in the line of necessity and opportunity.

As I played with my prowess as a night watchman for the gang,
I realized I was doing more than clairvoyance, "clear seeing."
Each time I playfully sent myself out to scan the scene for
police, I was having a bona fide out-of-body experience. I
didn't have a name for it then, but I sure knew I was doing
it! I was right on the mark every time I called a cop alert.
My skill was valued by the friends I valued. Literally, I was
flying high!

Since my teenage discovery, I've continued to explore out-of-
body adventures. And I always laugh in admiration when I look
back on how God tricked me into developing my first natural
spiritual ability.

(c) 2004, Keith Varnum. All rights in all media reserved.

Drawing from the wisdom of native and ancient spiritual
traditions, Keith Varnum shares his 30 years of practical
success as an author, personal coach, acupuncturist,
filmmaker, radio host, restaurateur, vision quest guide and
international seminar leader with "The Dream Workshops." Keith
helps people get the love, money and health they want with his
free Prosperity Ezine, free Empowerment Tape and free Coaching
at http://www.TheDream.com.