Quote Originally Posted by Naiya View Post
Hi Fuzzy,

Welcome to Dreamviews!

As of right now, an episode of sleep paralysis is classified as a sleep disorder in the DSM-IV (aka the big book of mental disorders). Nearly everyone has sleep paralysis every now and then, so while it is in the DSM-IV, it is considered normal unless you have it so frequently that you can't get enough restful sleep.

Doctors and scientists try to go by the laws of science. While some of us have beliefs about our personal experiences, it is the job of a scientist to only go by things which can be verified through the scientific method and dismiss anything that cannot be proven this way. It is a very good thing, because we want to be sure that the drugs we take or the technologies we use will actually work. But it can also be frustrating to those of us who may have had spiritual experiences when they are dismissed.

If you're interested in reading it, Stephen Laberg, a researcher famous for his work on lucid dreaming, wrote a long paper about out of body experiences. What you find there will likely be the most liberal interpretation of OBEs in the science community.

Having said that, when it comes to personal beliefs and experiences, everyone is entitled to having their own.
Stephen experiment wasn't really scientific at all. In fact, he really doesn't believe in OBEs if you read other texts by him. He never actually tested to see if any information can be verified to validate that the subjects were truly out of their body. He only asked them questions as to what they experienced. Even Robert Monroe had a hard time proving he was really leaving his body. Most of the time people think they have left their body, they are only dreaming they did.