Forgiveness?

In this dream, I started off on some kind of veranda of a house in some snowy town at night. The veranda was pretty high up, allowing me a panoramic view of the whole town. It looked like something on the front of a Christmas card.

I then started to fly off, only at this point I was not in control of my movements. It felt more as though I was being guided along. I flew slowly, looking down at the ground below me and landed next to a bare tree in the middle of nowhere. The scene was bleak and dark looking and the sky overcast. Everything was rendered like that of an old painting. There were five children sat around under the tree, one of which was sat in the lap of a girl who looked to be about 17 and was the oldest one there. They were all dressed in 15th century European attire and the oldest girl wore a deep burgandy red dress, which was the only item of colour to be seen. I spoke to the teenager and asked if I could join her group. She then leaned over and spoke in the ear of the child on her lap and said something like "Has he come to be forgiven of his sins?"

That's about all I remember. This dream stuck with me because it felt really odd. There was a strange stillness in the air and everything was rendered like that of an old painting.

Out of body experience

Not a dream per se but related and therefore worth posting here.

This morning, I had what I can only describe as an out of body experience. It was about 3am and I was lying in my bed facing the ceiling. When I was younger, I didn't like facing this way when going to sleep it seemed to induce nightmares, but this doesn't happen now.

Anyway, I was lying awake with my eyes closed, totally relaxed, my mind empty of any real thoughts. I then felt as though I literally floated away from my own body, swimming around my room in slow motion. I could not really make much out because it was so dark, but I knew I was out of my body. My laptop is near my bed and even though I switch it off at night, the battery and standby lights are still visible and result in a pale light, which I could see perfectly from where I was (the rightmost corner of my room, facing my bed).

I then felt myself floating upwards through the ceiling (which would take me into the kitchen of the person who lives above me), but instead of floating into my neighbour's kitchen, I found myself in a dark, vertical tunnel and I was slowly "swimming" up it. I don't know where it lead, but I was conscious of myself the whole time. There were also boundaries that appeared as soon as I floated too far in a particular direction.

Strangely, even though I knew I was floating outside of my body, I felt totally calm. At the same time, I was also aware of my physical body even though I could no longer feel it. I could hear myself snoring and even felt my eyelids opening. The only way I can describe this sensation is to say that I was aware of my physical body even though I was not in it. Eventually, because I was aware of the fact that I was outside of my body, I became a little worried about not being able to return, so I found myself looking back down the dark vertical tunnel and felt as though I was tugging some kind of cord that lead back to my body. I then woke up properly, feeling very calm and relaxed.

What is interesting about this experience is that I am of the opinion that we do "travel" in our sleep, so this out-of-body experience felt almost as though I was consciously aware of the fact that I was travelling. I've also had many flying dreams in the past where the flying felt a lot like the floating and "swimming" I was doing out of my body. Now I think I understand why.

I also had a very similar out of body experience when I was about 12, but I was not aware of what was happening at the time and dismissed it as a weird dream. In that particular experience, I felt myself "swimming" around my bedroom at slow motion, but it felt very uncomfortable and disorientating, likely due to the fact that I didn't understand what was going on.

I cannot tell you how long this experience lasted, but it has left me with absolutely no doubt that we travel away from our bodies in our sleep.