Pick a time in your life when leaving your body would have saved you a lot of grief?
I can remember several times, including the frequent trips to the principal’s office when “the cane” was still the favored punishment of choice. But that’s another story.
Zen Benefiel describes himself as a new millennial man. Reading through his curriculum vitae (CV) can leave you a little less than, given his accomplishments in life and personal educational achievements.
Benefiel has been a contact experiencer all of his life. Leaving your body was something he first experienced when he was about six years of age.
Speaking with him, I got the feeling it’s an almost addictive experience. I often hear out of body and near death experiencers talk about this. The freedom to go wherever you want has to be appealing.
During my interview with Benefiel, he talks about his trip to a three-sun star system with his guide which was one of the most profound experiences in his life.
So, how did it all start?
At four years of age, his parents had just brought his new sister home without too much fanfare. It confused him because she suddenly showed up “out of the blue” There was no pregnancy.
Then he overheard them suggest it “may be time to tell him he’s adopted”.
He began to question his true identity. At such a young age, that’s got to be really confusing for a kid.
It was also the time when his guide first showed up. And he began to take him on a journey most of us haven’t experienced.
Or have we?
The Contact Experiencers’ Life

When I sat down to talk with Zen Benefiel I knew interviewing him could lead off into different directions.
Well, it kinda did. But we stayed true to making it about his contact experiencers’ life. And he didn’t disappoint.
From leaving your body to traveling to a three sun star system with your guide, to having the ultimate Jesus moment, Benefiel has a lot to share.
The one thing that struck me is that many people reading this and listening to the interview may feel that this sounds all too familiar.
Is it possible that what Benefiel shares is more common than we think? Could it be that he’s been able to harness whatever abilities we have more easily than most, and responded accordingly.
I’ve got to admit, it “struck a chord” with me.
Leaving Your Body And The Big Booming Voice
But it was the big booming voice of his guide that intrigued me most.
How many times have you felt that inner voice? Not that you can hear it audibly but you interpret it nevertheless. How did Benefiel feel the first time he heard it?
“It was after dark. I was waiting for dad to come home from the store. And all of a sudden I hear this big booming voice say, ‘hey, you’.”
“And it was such a deep voice. It resounded. I wasn’t afraid. I was only startled because all of a sudden I hear this voice. It’s like, ‘whoa’. And I spun around. I said, ‘mom, mom, did you hear that voice’? She replied, ‘what voice’?”
“She was sitting about twenty feet away watching tv and the voice definitely didn’t come from the tv because it was inside my head”.
“And I said, ‘that voice that said, hey, you’. She says, ‘no, I didn’t hear any voice. It must have been a peeping tom’.”
“So I realized at that point, I was living in a different world. I just trusted my experience. I knew I heard it”.
“And so over the next few months, I would stand in front of windows at night with the lights on inside, and I would project that same, ‘hey, you’ out telepathically”.
“I had no idea what this is. Maybe it’s just a little kid’s experience, right? So I would project this voice out, and I would stand there and I would wait”.
The Leaving Your Body Experience
Benefiel says when he was able to quieten his mind, the voice eventually answered.
He says after setting up a communication link, he asked a lot of questions.
And he got a response every time. It was like a guide and a mentor. Benefiel says when he didn’t listen to it, he suffered.
Fast forward two years and Benefiel had his first out of body experience. His family had just moved not a new house.
“It was a Saturday afternoon, I came back in from playing outside and I was just really tired. I laid down on my bed, and suddenly, I felt myself starting to rise up. It got kind of freaky”.
I didn’t know what to expect and the voice simply says, ‘just breathe, relax, and let go. It will be fine’.”
“And so I did. And I popped out of my body and was basically on the ceiling, I turned around and looked at my body laying across the bed”.
“I soon figured out that I can move around the house that way. And over the next few months, maybe even a year, I would get into what is called the hypnagogic state, right in between sleep and waking consciousness. And I was much freer in that place”.
“I’d be able to pop out of my body and I could feel the sensation building to where I knew that was going to be available. I just had to be quiet enough and not think about it. Whenever I would think about it, I would pull back into my body”.
Becoming One With The Cigar-Shaped Cloud
Benefiel says that learning to do this as a child was important.
But he didn’t realize back then, just how important it would be to him as an adult. It wasn’t long before he experienced something more profound.
“I was eight and woke up in the middle of the night and I’m in the corner of my bedroom looking at my physical body”.
“I watched myself take the covers off. Then I stood up and I opened the window next to my bed””.
“I climbed out. And so I watch myself. I move through the wall, watching myself”.
“I walked across the neighbor’s backyard and we lived in a rural community. There was a ten acre pasture that had a fence around it. I climbed the fence and I walked out into the pasture”.
“And as I would get into the pasture, I started rising up into the air”.
“Then I looked up. Actually, my observer self looked up, and there was this orange cigar-shaped cloud that had been a mile long”.
“I watched and followed my body as I rose up into the air. And then when I would reach the perimeter of the cloud, I would go into it”.
“My observant self evidently became one with the participant”.
“And I’d wake up in bed the next morning.I couldn’t wait to go back”.
“There was some kind of inner excitement that it was like being with a family that I hadn’t met yet. So those experiences happened for about two years, probably twice a month”.
Who Was The Voice?
Benefiel reveals later in the interview who the voice was.
He says he never gave it a label as a child because it was trustworthy. At that stage, he knew by its resonation how he felt with it.
And he says he felt safe and secure with it.
Benefiel continues to take us on his experiencer journey through childhood and into adulthood.
He talks about his trip to a three-sun star system with his guide, his near death experience, what truth is, ufo disclosure, the split between the mainstream and consciousness ufo community and his ultimate encounter.
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