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The Initial Liberation of the Mental Being from Servitude to the Physical Body · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We can learn much from the quite commonly related phenomenon
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  called the out of body experience.
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  Many people have had such an experience where they resided in
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  their awareness outside the body, in some cases from above
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  the body, and from that vantage point could observe the body as
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  different and separated from the awareness with which they
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  identified. Many of these cases occur during
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  traumatic events such as an accident or an extreme onset of
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  an illness. The observing consciousness does
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  not experience the trauma or pain of the body as its own.
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  Rather, it is detached and free from that identification that
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  bears the burden of the suffering the body is undergoing
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  during that trauma. When the awareness returns to
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  the body, the individual is able to recount what others were
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  doing to try to aid the body and help it survive and recover.
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  It is clear from such accounts that the body is not the eye
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  that we otherwise are trained to associate with our
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  individuality. Of course, the awareness, once
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  it exits its temporary home in the body, can travel to distant
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  areas and view things far away. It is, however, easier for
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  skeptics to call this a case of imagination or dream than those
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  instances that involve the awareness nearby and able to
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  relate specific circumstances. Under trauma scenarios, the body
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  acts as a vehicle and Nexus for the consciousness in the
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  external world, but the consciousness is not ultimately
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  bound to the body. This also has implications for
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  the status of consciousness after the death of the body.
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  Understanding that the conscious awareness can move outside the
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  body, independent from the body during life, it clarifies the
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  transcendence of death by that same consciousness when the body
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  has completed its usefulness and is being discarded.
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  Once we recognize this inherent separation of the consciousness
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  from the physical form, it is a much simpler matter to realize
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  that even when the awareness has positioned itself in the body,
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  it still remains separate and distinct, and the only thing
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  that has changed is the experience of its current
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  location. What is possible under extreme
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  and uncontrolled circumstances can be made possible through
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  concentration and repeated conscious effort.
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  It is thus feasible to position oneself in the mental awareness
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  and experience the body as something separate and distinct,
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  Srioro Bindo writes quote. Secondly, with regard to the
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  movements and experiences of the body, the mind will come to know
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  the pirusha seated within it, as, first, the witness or
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  observer of the movements, and secondly, the knower or
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  perceiver of the experiences. It will cease to consider in
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  thought or feel in sensation these movements and experiences
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  as its own, but rather consider and feel them as not its own, as
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  operations of nature governed by the qualities of nature and
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  their interaction upon each other.
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  This detachment can be made so normal and carried so far that
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  there will be a kind of division between the mind and the body,
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  and the former will observe and experience the hunger, thirst,
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  pain, fatigue, depression, et cetera, of the physical being as
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  if they were experiences of some other person with whom it has so
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  close a rapport as to be aware of all that is going on within
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  him. This division is a great means,
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  a great step towards mastery, for the mind comes to observe
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  these things first without being overpowered, and finally without
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  being at all affected by them dispassionately, with clear
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  understanding, but with perfect detachment.
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  This is the initial liberation of the mental being from
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  servitude to the body, for by right knowledge put steadily
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  into practice, liberation comes inevitably.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
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  Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the
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  Path, pages 163 to 164.