I've had experiences like these. They're called hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations (hypnagogic when it's happening while you're falling asleep, hypnopompic when you're transitioning from sleep to wakefulness). Sensations of floating, or the opposite - the sense of being weighed down or crushed - are some of the most common ones. They often occur with sleep paralysis, in which a person wakes up conscious but unable to move. It's been studied in sleep labs, and it happens when the brain undergoes some REM sleep activity while the person is still conscious and aware. So the transition between awake and asleep gets a bit out of sync, and you end up sort-of-dreaming and sort-of-awake at the same time.
I once saw a vacuum cleaner while I was "floating" above my bed, and when I completely woke up the vacuum cleaner wasn't really there. It had been in that place before, but it wasn't that morning. So I was aware of where I was, but I wasn't really seeing the room; my brain was just filling in details based on what I'd seen at other times.
I've also had experiences of feeling like I'm being lifted up, high above my body, and then plunged back down into it. The first time this happened, I felt a very intense sense of dread during the plunging down part. It felt violent and hellish. I was afraid of having another experience like it. I had the lifting and dropping sensations several times after that, but they felt neutral.
I've also had 'false awakenings': I've gotten out of bed, and usually felt something off with the way I was moving. Either it would be really hard to move or I'd feel floaty, as if I was walking on the moon. Then suddenly wake up for real and I'd be back in bed, fully conscious, and everything would be normal again.
Interesting site about these types of experiences here:
Sleep Paralysis and Associated Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic Experiences
It goes into some of the science behind it, contains descriptions of some people's experiences, and give suggestions on how to prevent these experiences if you don't like them.
This is not Astral travel/projection.
Astral Travel, aka Out of body experience, can be hard to explain to others, especially if they haven't experienced it, and in this day and age "If science can't give concrete answers, it's seen as some paralysis/disorder/brain malfunction/ or some crap like that"
I've actually astral travelled. Astral travelling/projection is not an hallucination, nor is it sleep paralysis, or any of that crap science tries to tag it with just to make it seem like it understands it. It is certainly not a dream either. Trust me, when you astral travel for the first time, you'll know.
People need to understand that their precious science doesn't have the answers to everything, and only then will they be more open to the possibility that there are many things that are far beyond the scope of science.
What happened that beautiful day:
I went to bed just like every other night. A couple hours later I woke up. I got up and walked out of bed, but something didn't feel right. I looked back and saw myself sleeping. I was like "What the heck". The problem was it didn't feel like I was sleeping/dreaming, I felt real, just like right now. My physical body was right there in my bed, but my spirit had left. I looked out my window and above in the sky I could see another dimension. There was a tear in the sky and above that tear was a place different from this world.
All of a sudden I started to float up, getting higher and higher. I could see all the world, everything, and I could see everyone. Before I knew it, I had gone above the tear in the sky and into the other dimension. I could look down below and see the world we live in. It was like looking out of a house from a window. The outside is earth, and the inside of the house is the other dimension. You can go in and out anytime you want.
Anyway, when I went to the other dimension it was so beautiful. It was exactly what i thought perfection was. Like if I could copy and paste what I thing perfection looks like on a canvas, it would look just like this. I was such a beautiful garden. The next thing I saw an old man, white beard with a robe on, and a young play sitting down playing with Lions, but the lions were harmless. The old man looked like the perfect ideal of what I would envision wisdom to look like were it in human form, and the young boy looked like someone that I had known in a past life.
I sat down with the old man and we played chess, while the boy continued to play with the lions near by. Then it finally hit me, I asked the old man "Am I dead". I didn't talk, but rather communicated through telekenesis. There was no talking in world. Like when I first crossed the tear into the dimension, the oldman and young boy had expressions on their faces that showed me they were happy to see me and that they cared. They didn't say "hello", but rather I knew how they felt by some form of telekenesis communication that I can't explain.
Anyway, I asked the old man "Am I dead", then he stopped playing chess with me and communicated to me "It's not yet your time". All of a sudden I could feel myself sinking, falling back to earth, falling below the tear in the sky. As I fell I kept on asking them "What's happening am I dead yet". They simply waved and waved as I fell, as if to say "Take care, thank you for coming". As I fell from the sky i could see that my trajectory would land me back in my room. This time, I fell straight through the building and into my body. Right when I entered my body I woke up, and asked myself "Did I just die".
Back then I didn't know what that was. Years later after research and reading, I found out I accidentally astral travelled. I've astral traveled other times as well, but I still don't have control over it.
There are those that can do it at will, but mine are mostly accidental. It's very scary the first time you do it, and it feels like you're dead. NO, it is not a dream, you can walk around your room, you'll see yourself sleeping, you can walk into your parents room, you can be anywhere you want in the world, you can go to other dimensions, talk to dead loved ones, etc. It is real.
Sorry i wrote this quickly without re-reading it, so plz excuse my obvious mistakes and grammatical errors.
