Out-of-body experiences have been used by mystics for thousands of years
to travel and seek knowledge in other dimensions,
and references to them can be found in a number of ancient traditions.
In this video, I'll be talking about out-of-body experiences
in relation to the ancient Germanic and Nordic religion.
The most revered god of this religion is Odin or Wotan,
who has appeared to numerous people in dreams
and even in near-death-like experiences,
and I'll talk about some of these towards the end.
I've also had an out-of-body experience
with what I believe to be the being Odin recently,
and this is my account of it.
(music)
I wanted to find out whether Odin was real and who he was,
so I decided to call him while out of my body,
as ancient texts explain, that the place we visit when we dream,
often referred to today as the astral plane,
is the realm where humans and spiritual beings,
often called "gods," cross over and can meet.
And so, as I went to sleep one night, I kept in mind that I wanted to call and meet Odin.
Then at some point after I had fallen asleep, I realized I was dreaming
and was aware that I was out of my body.
This type of experience is often called lucid dreaming
and is a type of out-of-body experience,
only one in which a person becomes conscious
after they have already left their body.
I remembered my intention to call Odin
and I called him three times,
using three different names he is known by
in case one of them was more accurate than another,
calling out these names a total of nine times,
which is a number especially associated with Odin.
The first name I called was Odin, the name he is known by in Scandinavia.
The next was Wotan, which he is known by in Germany.
The third was Votan, which is the name of a culture hero
and wisdom bringer of the Mayans of Central America,
and who I believe could very well have been the same person as Odin.
I've since learned that Wuotan is actually the oldest pronunciation of his name in old German
and is almost identical to the name used by the Mayans.
However, he didn't arrive and I started to feel myself
begin to slip back into a state of dreaming.
So I focused on where I was to try and maintain my awareness.
This was to give myself more time to call him again.
I did this by being conscious of what was around me as I began to walk,
and by walking with the intention that I wanted to find Odin.
It was a lovely sunny day where I found myself,
and I walked through a pleasant street of shops, with cafes and trees in blossom,
but instead of being distracted, I kept walking straight through it all,
thinking that I had to find Odin.
I came to a grassy hill, where I saw a signpost pointing to Disneyland.
In fact, all the signs pointed to Disneyland, but I said to myself, "No, I need to find Odin."
It felt like the shops and cafes and the signs to Disneyland,
were all distractions put there to test how serious I was
in my intention to meet Odin.
I then called Odin again,
but this time with a sense of sincerity and humility,
as I suddenly felt, here was I,
calling upon such a great Being as Odin.
The first time I called him, it was almost like a thoughtless demand,
which is likely why he didn't appear.
This time he arrived, although I didn't see him.
Instead, I felt his presence and then his energy,
surround and hold me.
The energy seemed strong but not violent or warlike at all.
It's hard to put into words, but it felt active and driving forward
without the slightest aggression.
I immediately felt at ease, as if he was a very close friend,
and so comfortable as to begin asking him questions
about who he was.
One question just kept leading to another as just as soon as he answered one,
it caused another to immediately arise in me.
Somehow he evoked this, as it seemed to be part of his Being,
this continual search for answers, for knowledge.
And interestingly, this seems to be what he has been
most famously and accurately remembered for in Nordic mythology.
The first question I asked him was,
"Who are you?"
I found that of all questions, somehow Odin evokes this question more than any other.
You can see that many people have attempted to answer it
and have come to quite different conclusions.
This almost insatiable drive to find out who he is,
I now feel, is caused by more than just a lack
of definitive historical information about him,
as Odin is not unique in the world as being an obscure mythological figure.
Instead, I feel there is something deeper going on,
that the very nature of his Being evokes it.
Indeed, I found his very presence evoked this question in me.
It seems that the mystery around him actually serves as a prompt
to embark upon a search for profound knowledge,
and is both his way of being and of teaching.
The answer he gave surprised me.
He replied,
"I am like you."
Now obviously,
Odin and I are very different in many ways,
but I realized his answer on a deeper level was actually incredibly profound.
To understand it, I firstly have to know what I am,
and on the deeper spiritual level beyond my body
I am like all other people and living beings.
I took his answer to mean that he is not an abstract concept
— he is like you and I
— for want of a better word, he is a Being.
Clearly though, he is at a far more advanced stage of spiritual development.
At the most core or root level however, he is as all beings are.
And I understood from my experience that he exists
and he is real.
His answer also revealed his remarkable humility,
even though he has such a great Being as Wuotan.
He said there have been things attributed to him,
that are not part of who he is,
just as there are figures of the past who became seen as fire gods.
This answered a question I'd had about him, as when researching Odin
I'd seen people compare him to storm gods in the Vedic texts of India,
as over possibly many thousands of years,
he seemed to have been assigned many different characteristics.
He also said that he does not have one eye.
Of course, this must mean that the events surrounding Odin losing his eye
are not historical but symbolic.
This calls into question how many other events attributed to him are symbolic too,
in which Odin was used allegorically,
perhaps by many different people over long periods of time.
I then began finding it difficult to focus
as I felt myself being drawn back to my physical body,
which was asleep in bed.
However, I concentrated and willed myself to stay out of my body
and was able to continue talking to Wuotan.
Unprovoked, he said that the way he has been used by some people
is like Black Lives Matter.
This statement didn't really make an impact on me at the time
as I didn't fully understand the history behind it.
But I now think he meant that he has been used as a symbol by some white people
who have used violence against innocent people,
in order to pursue their interests,
in the same way some black people have used violence against innocent people
in order to pursue theirs.
My definite impression was that he did not agree with this
and I felt that any kind of violence towards innocent people,
was not in his nature at all.
I then asked,
"People say you are a god of the Norse and Germanic people. Is this true?"
He remained silent.
There was no anger or judgment in his silence
and it forced me to answer the question myself,
which I should have already known the answer to.
I understood his silence to mean that as a being he is timeless,
existing beyond culture.
Although Odin has come to symbolize something
especially unique in Germanic culture,
I've come to realize that his memory may have also been preserved
in other cultures too,
like in the Vedic culture of India
and even the Mayan culture of Central America.
But that is a topic for another video and is something I explore in my book.
All this time I had been looking out at a grassy field,
which is where I had stopped to call him.
This changed, as I looked up to my left
and saw the silhouette of a man — just his profile and part of his shoulder.
He looked like a very strong Nordic man.
He had a long blond hair that streamed out in the wind against a golden red sun.
I wanted to ask so many other questions,
but again I felt myself being pulled back to my body lying in bed.
I merged back into it and looked around my bedroom.
This time I felt I was now too merged with my body
to try and get out of it again,
and gave up trying.
This turned out to be a mistake, as at this very moment,
I felt Wuotan let go of me
and I woke up into my bedroom in the physical world.
I had still been out of my body,
and Wuotan had still been there helping me,
even though I hadn't realized it.
It was only when I gave up that he left,
respecting my freewill completely.
If I'd persisted, it's likely he would have helped me to get out again,
but it was too late, and he was gone, and this was a lesson in itself.
I felt a real closeness to Wuotan after the experience,
like he was someone I could talk to, a friend even.
Just a day or two after this experience,
I watched a video by Maria Kvilhaug on her channel called the Lady of the Labyrinth.
She recounts a number of dream experiences she had when she was younger,
with a being she recognized as Odin.
I was amazed to hear that our experiences shared a number of similarities.
The strongest feeling she had, like me,
was of being held by Odin and of being made to feel comfortable.
Her first question to him was the same as mine, which was,
"Who are you?" and Odin's answer was almost identical.
Maria also had the impression that Odin was a real being but without physical form.
Similarly, she found Odin had a way of causing her to answer her own questions
and that the answers to these questions kept leading to more questions,
which appeared to be his way of showing that learning is never ending.
This is my experience and I encourage you to have your own,
and if there are things that you disagree with or want to find out more about,
I think that you should seek answers from Odin too.
Many other people have also had experiences with Odin.
I've had a few people leave comments on my videos about them.
One man was led out of a coma that he had been in for two weeks, by Odin,
and said that in the experience he felt the presence of Odin
and his ancestors so strongly, that it had not yet left him.
To others, Odin appeared to them in a dream.
Elsewhere on YouTube, I saw someone comment that they had a dream
while converting from Islam to Hinduism,
in which the Hindu god Brahma appeared to them and revealed that the Vedic gods of India
were really the same as those of the Norse religion.
This is likely because both these religions share the same Indo-European root.
On the Enlighten YouTube channel, there is a video about dreams people have had with Odin.
In one, someone was in a church they went to as a child,
where they were shown the reality of the Norse gods Thor and Odin,
who even partook in communion.
Another person had been consistently attacked in his dreams
every night by a dark and negative being,
but one night as he was attacked, he called on the Norse gods Odin, Thor and Freya
and the negative being was sucked away in a great storm and he was left in peace.
This dream is interesting, since it shows that
Odin has the power to dispel dark and evil forces,
something that the great teachers, who I call the wisdom bringers,
were said to be able to do.
I'll put the link to these experiences in the description below.
Such experiences are actually accounted for in ancient Germanic and Nordic religion,
although I personally learned to have out-of-body experiences from my husband.
In one of the sagas, Odin himself was said to have out-of-body experiences
in which he would lie as if dead or asleep,
but was then off in a twinkling to distant lands.
He was said to be able to take the shape of a fish,
a worm, a bird or beast,
as when out of the body it's possible to travel through the ocean,
within the earth, fly through the air or over land,
just as each of these animals can.
Additionally, Germanic and Nordic religion explains
that there is more to a person than just their physical body,
including higher or spiritual aspects,
said to be able to journey in non-physical realms.
These aspects also include a higher divine self or being,
which the person of Odin appears to have become or realized.
It seems quite incredible that Odin is appearing to many people at this time.
Perhaps he knew that the ancient Germanic and Nordic religion would return,
as well as the broader Indo- European religion it derives from,
which itself is a branch of the Ancient Religion of the Sun,
and is helping in some way to guide its understanding and revival.
And perhaps,
he is also guiding all those who seek him,
to lead them further on their path to knowledge.