People can step out while sleeping and then have an encounter with a loved one who has died. The next morning when they then wake up, they can remember this out-of-body experience and people often think it was an ordinary dream.
Nothing could be further from the truth, they are assisted in this encounter by guardian spirits, loved ones, who help the person to step out and also ensure that the material organism sleeps through and is shielded from dangers, such as entities, who want to break the fluid cord.
In out-of-body form, they are then taken to the Spheres of Light to meet their loved ones who have died. Such a nighttime out-of-body experience is accompanied by a spirit of light, a person who has passed into the spheres of light in the afterlife after their life on earth.
Such an encounter is often healing and educational for the one who is allowed to step out.
Source: Quotations from the books of Jozef Rulof:
-Numerous people dream that they have spoken to their loved ones while sleeping. That is possible and happens between the fourth and fifth grade of sleep. Here they disembody, but remain unconscious. They do not know how the wonder happens. Their loved ones waken them during sleep, however, they ensure that the organism continues to sleep, and bring them back to the body. Great deals of people have experienced their support in this for the earthly life.
-A mother loses her only child and suffers so much under it that madness awaits her. She therefore succumbs because of her sorrow. Then her own mother intervenes, helped by a master, and now the earthly mother experiences the unity with her child. For her God came to her that night. God wakened her and said: “Look, my child, who is here?”
The mother races to her child and embraces it. In the morning, she knows everything, but still thinks that she has dreamed. Yet, she recovers as a result of it. This mercy gave her back the resistance.
-Thousands of people experience something else, but all of them experience the temporary release from the organism during sleep and enter the astral life between the fourth and fifth grade. However, they must be assisted by an astral personality, otherwise, it will not be possible.
Spiritual Gifts p.437 (SP.10908.10923)