When you’re very calm, your light-like inner body may float while your physical body rests, so you feel lifted or see things, but a ‘silver cord’ keeps you safe and you can come back just by wanting to.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, during deep relaxation I have experienced some strange things. One is that I felt lifted from the earth, and the second that I felt touched by hands trying to help me. Every time it happened I felt totally scared, didn't dare to open my eyes, and did everything I know to ground myself. Osho, can I trust and just let go, or is there danger? "I" don't make myself fly. I don't know how far it would go, and whether I would ever be able to come back. Can you please comment?
First, can't you recognize my hands? Open your eyes, and just take a good look! You see my hands every day. If in meditation you feel two hands appearing, don't close your eyes. And you will be able to recognize my hands. There is nothing to fear. In fact, the feeling that you are uplifted from the earth is tremendously valuable. You are not really lifted up, you are on the earth; it is not that your body is really lifted up. But you have three bodies. Your physical body will remain on the earth. And because of meditation your mental body is silent, relaxing. Only the astral body is capable of rising upwards; it is beyond gravitation. Gravitation has no power over it. Light is not under the control of gravitation. That's why the flame of a candle can go upwards. Even if you put the candle upside down,…
Questioner: how is it that the body begins to feel light after deep and fast breathing?
It is true that the body will feel light after this meditation. It will be so because our consciousness of body is one of heaviness. What we call heaviness is nothing more than our awareness of the body. The body weighs heavy on a sick person even if he is skinny and wiry. But a healthy person, even if he is a heavyweight, carries his body very lightly. So it is really our body-consciousness which feels like a weight on us. And we become conscious of our body only when it is in pain, when it is suffering. We become conscious of our feet when they are hurting. We become aware of our head when it is aching. If there is no body pain, we are never aware of our body. This consciousness is the measure of our suffering. We define a healthy person as one who feels as if…
Beloved Osho, a few years back, every night when I was going off to sleep I would go into a space that was in between sleep and wakefulness and feel like I was leaving my body. There was no effort on my part; it was happening on its own. It felt like I would always only go a little way out, and then my body would suddenly jerk -- although there was no outer or inner disturbance -- and immediately I would return to my body. Now this space has not come up for me for a while. I'm wondering if it is that I am less relaxed. Also, what was holding me back when it was happening that did not allow me
First, there is no need to be worried about it. Out-of-body experiences are good nourishment for your spiritual growth, but they are not necessary. So if they are happening, or just by relaxing they come upon you, it is good; otherwise, don't bother about them. They don't have any essential meaning for your growth. So just out of curiosity don't try to get out of your body. It won't work. It either works spontaneously for certain reasons of which you are not aware... and I cannot say what the reasons were in your situation at that moment which caused your being to go out of the body. One thing is certain: whenever you spontaneously get out of the body, the body will give a jerk -- because it is the death of the body, and you are going into a dangerous state. If something happens that disturbs your coming back,…
With this, the body feels a little light!
Yes, you will feel light. You will feel light, because what we call the sense of the body—our body-consciousness—is our heaviness. What we call heaviness is nothing but the sense of the body. That is why even a sick, thin person feels burdened, while a healthy person, however heavy in weight, feels light. The awareness of the body that we carry is our load. And that body-consciousness, the sense of the body, exists in the same measure as there is discomfort in the body. If there is pain in the leg, you become aware of the leg; if there is pain in the head, you become aware of the head. If there is no discomfort anywhere, the body is not felt at all. Therefore the very definition of a healthy person is: one who experiences bodilessness; one to whom it does not seem, “I am the body.” Then understand, that…
(Osho remains silent for a few minutes, then begins to offer suggestions.)
Keep looking within... keep looking within... let everything outside become dead. Let it go... utterly dead... remain just watching... remain only the witness... drop everything... as if you have died... as if everything outside has died—the body too... thoughts too... only an inner flame remains, watching. Only the seer remains, only the witness remains. Let go... let go... let go completely... (Silence… solitude… hush…) Whatever happens, let it happen... let go completely... keep only looking within and let go completely... drop every grip... (Silence… solitude… hush…) The mind has become quiet and empty... the mind has become utterly empty... the mind has become quiet and empty... the mind has become utterly empty... the mind has become utterly empty... If there is even a slight holding, drop that too... let go completely... dissolve... as if you are not. The mind has become empty... the mind quiet and empty... the mind has…