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For how many hours had you been awake before lying down to rest or sleep?

I don't remember, but it was unusual for me to take a nap in the daytime.

Had you ingested any intoxicants or medications before the episode began?

No.

Did you know that the kids were playing video games before your experience began? Were the games audible from upstairs?

I didn't know, but it is not impossible that I might have heard some general hilarity or excitement... but, like I said, it would not have been a bad guess in any event.

Had you had an 'out of body' experience before? Or had you read a lot about them? Or did you have a long-standing interest in hearing and talking about them?

No, I hadn't had one before (nor since) but I think it is important that I had read quite a bit about them and thought it was interesting. That's kind of what I meant about not using the "mental furniture" of alien abduction. I just wasn't interested in aliens, really, but was interested in out of body experiences. That's why I supposed that, if it was a sort of lucid dream, my unconscious would supply me with images consistent with an OOBE, and a robed figure leading me back, rather than an alien.

Even admitting this, however, it is difficult for me to really accept the rational explanation that is at odds with the vividly experienced "paranormal" event, simply because the immediate impression was so profound, compared to my later rational dissection of it.

Just as, I imagine, many abductees really, truly believe they have been abducted. So, did I have an OOBE or not? I dunno :-) The rational explanation might perfectly satisfy you, or anyone else. All I know that it was as "real" as anything else that ever happened to me. So, although it is ironic, I doubt that I am the best judge of what happened to me :-) Which is also why I am both sympathetic and skeptical when it comes to abductions.

Thanks for the frank answers.

I don't doubt that your experience was vivid and seemed real. But you'd agree with me, I think, that your prior interest in OBE's and lucid dreaming provides a basis of suggestion out of which a quasi-hypnotic (or hypnagogic) state could develop.

I wouldn't be inclined to think that what you experienced had any basis outside of your body/brain.

Let me relate (briefly!) an experience I had. After having all four of my wisdom teeth removed at once, I was taking Darvon for pain for a couple of days. My gums became infected and my cheeks swelled up to the size of grapefruits on both sides. I felt a lot of pain. I remember lying on my living room couch and being in a state of quite excruciating pain. Then something strange happened. I felt my consciousness start to slip downwards, through my neck and into my chest! It seemed to really be happening, that my self had re-located to my chest. The state persisted for a few minutes, at least.

What happened? I was in severe pain in spite of being doped up, the source of the pain was my face (right next to my brain), and I wanted out! So I hallucinated a way out, with my conscious self sliding down below the source of the pain and so into pain-relief position.

This seemed to really happen. Clearly, it didn't. After a few minutes, I snapped into a more awake state of consciousness, and there I was, right behind my eyes, as usual. (smile)

I will say for everyone reading your description you do not sound like a whack job. On the contrary you do sound like someone that is quite reflective and perceptive about your experience. You do not sound alarmist nor hysterical. I think you had this experience, what it was I do not know, but you sound congruent to me.

BTW stay away from OOBE. You are not protected spiritually doing it.