Out-of-body experience
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An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE), is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body (autoscopy). About one in ten people has had an out-of-body experience at some time in their lives. Scientists know little about the phenomenon.[1] OBEs are often part of the near-death experience, and reportedly may also lead to astral projection. It is claimed that OBErs sometimes observe details during an OBE which were unknown to them beforehand.[2]
In some cases the phenomenon appears to occur spontaneously; in others it is associated with a physical or mental trauma, use of psychedelic drugs, or a dream-like state. It is possible to induce the experience deliberately, for example through visualization while in a relaxed, meditative state. Recent (2007) studies have shown that experiences somewhat similar to OBEs can be induced by direct brain stimulation. Relatively little is known for sure about OBEs.[1] Some of those who experience OBEs may have willed themselves out of their bodies, while others found themselves being pulled from their bodies (usually preceded by a feeling of paralysis). In other accounts, the feeling of being outside the body was suddenly realized after the fact, and the experiencer saw their own bodies almost by accident.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Types of OBE
1.1 Initiated during/after sleep
1.2 Induced OBEs
1.3 Near-death experiences
2 Scientific studies of OBEs
2.1 Neurology and OBE-like experiences
2.1.1 Olaf Blanke studies
2.1.2 Michael Persinger studies
2.1.3 Ehrsson study
3 Astral projection
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
[edit] Types of OBE
[edit] Initiated during/after sleep
Main article: Sleep Paralysis
OBEs are often initiated through lucid dreaming, though other types of initiation also used. In many cases, people claim to have had an OBE, reported being asleep, on the verge of sleep, or having been asleep shortly before the experience. A large percentage of these cases referred to situations where the sleep was not particularly deep (due to illness, noises in other rooms, emotional stress, exhaustion from overworking, frequent re-awakening, etc.). In most of these cases, the subjects then felt themselves awake; about half then noted a feeling of sleep paralysis.[3] Some subjects report having had an OBE during near death conditions.
There appear to be two common forms of such lucid experiences. The first involves lucid dreaming, where the subject is immersed in unrealistic worlds, or in a modified form of the reality with impossible or inconsistent features. A second experience is of a more physical nature where the environment is consistent with reality; this is often called an etheric or ethereal experience. This type can be frightening, as extremely realistic physical sensations may occur, often including magnetic and vibrating phenomena, loss of balance, and confusion. The person believes he has awoken physically and panic can be caused by the realization that limbs appear to be penetrating objects.
The OBE may or may not be followed by other experiences which are self-reported as being "as real" as the OBE feeling; alternatively, the subject may fade into a state self-reported as dreaming, or they may wake completely. The OBE is sometimes ended due to a fearful feeling of getting "too far away" from the body. Many end with a feeling of suddenly "popping" or "snapping" and sometimes a "pulling" back into their bodies; some even report being "sucked back" into physical form. A majority describe the end of the experience by saying "then I woke up". However it's worth noting that even those who describe the experience as something fantastic that occurs during sleep, and who describe the end of the experience by saying "and then I woke up", are very specific in describing the experience as one which was clearly not a dream; many described their sense of feeling more awake than they felt when they were normally awake. One compared the experience to that of lucid dreaming, but said that it was "more real".
People often report having these experiences after suffering from traumatic experiences such as motor vehicle accidents. They are able to recall the accident as if observing from a location outside the vehicle.
[edit] Induced OBEs
Some people have attempted to develop techniques to induce OBEs:
Attempting to fall asleep without losing consciousness. This method is generally believed to be what causes involuntary OBEs. Inventor Thomas Edison was known to use the sleep state to tackle problems while working on his inventions. He would hold a rock above a metal bucket while sitting in a chair, and let himself fall asleep. This would cause the rocks to fall into the bucket and wake him up. Deliberately teetering between awake and asleep states is known to cause spontaneous trance episodes at the onset of sleep which are ultimately helpful when attempting to induce an out-of-body experience, as reported by Robert Monroe and Robert Peterson.
Deep trance and visualization. The types of visualizations vary; some common imageries used include climbing a rope to "pull out" of one's body, floating out of one's body, getting shot out of a cannon, and other similar approaches. This technique is considered hard to use for people who cannot properly relax. Common sensations can arise such as deep vibrations, impressions of very high heart rate (when it actually is in a relaxed state) and these sensations are likely to cause anxieties. A good example of such a technique consists of the popular "Golden Dawn Body of Light Technique".[citation needed]
Audio/visual stimulation intended to bring the subject into the appropriate state. The use of binaural beats to induce theta brain wave frequencies was observed as effective by the Monroe institute (and corroborated by others). Another popular technology uses sinusoidal wave pulses to achieve similar results. The beta/theta simultaneous brainwave patterns were also observed as effective, apparently easing the lighter sleep condition. The theta frequency is observed monitoring brains of dreaming patients, notably in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, while the beta frequency range is that of normal, relaxed awakened individuals. It is believed that one of the unsuspected powers of the drumming of the American natives during religious ceremonies caused the brain to shift among frequencies to become more receptive to the "other worlds" using similar means. See Brainwave synchronization.
Chemically induced experiences. OBEs induced with drugs are generally considered to be hallucinations (i.e., purely subjective), even by those who believe the phenomenon to be objective in general. There are several types of drugs that can initiate an OBE, primarily the dissociative hallucinogens such as ketamine, dextromethorphan (DM or DXM), and phencyclidine (PCP). It has also been reported under the influence of tryptamine psychedelics including dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and ayahuasca. Being under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs are commonly referred to as being in a psychedelic state.
Methamphetamine has also been known to cause OBEs, not in itself but through lack of sleep. It has been reported that it felt like the person was talking above and behind them and, being under the influence of the drug, had no idea what was happening.
Magnetic stimulation of the brain, as with the helmet developed by Michael Persinger.
Electrical stimulation of the brain, particularly the temporoparietal junction (See below).
Sensory deprivation or sensory overload. Various techniques aim to cause intense disorientation of the subject by making him lose his space and time references. The first technique, attempting to fall asleep without losing consciousness, can be considered to be a passive form of sensory deprivation. The brain tends to fill in the gaps when there is nothing getting into the senses for some time. Sensory overload consists of the opposite, where the subject can for instance be rocked for a long time in a specially designed cradle, or submit to light forms of torture, to cause the brain to shut itself off from all sensory input. Both conditions tend to cause confusion and this disorientation often permits the subject to experience vivid, ethereal out-of-body experiences. This tends to happen when the subject believes he or she is in a particular position, whereas his or her actual body is either rocking in a cradle actively, or still lying down. Consciousness suddenly transfers to the mental body.
Some people who practice BDSM desire to be placed in extreme bondage (mummification) because it may allow them to have an out-of-body experience. These experiences have been reported by some people placed in extreme bondage. It is worth noting that being placed in extreme bondage is like being placed in a sensory deprivation tank, and that the OBE may be induced by the resulting sensory deprivation.[citation needed]
[edit] Near-death experiences
Main article: Near-death experience
Another form of a spontaneous OBE occurs during a near death experience (INDEE or NDE). The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and transcendental factors (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001) such as impressions of being outside the physical body (an out-of-body experience), visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries and other transcendental experiences (Lukoff, Lu & Turner, 1998; Greyson, 2003). Typically the experience follows a distinct progression, starting with the sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area, followed by the sensation of passing through a tunnel, meeting deceased relatives, and concluding with encountering a being of light (Morse, Conner & Tyler, 1985).
[edit] Scientific studies of OBEs
The first extensive scientific study of OBEs was made by Celia Green (196 cool .[4] She collected written, first-hand accounts from a total of 400 subjects, recruited by means of appeals in the mainstream media, and followed up by questionnaire. Her purpose was to provide a taxonomy of the different types of OBE, viewed simply as an anomalous perceptual experience or hallucination, while leaving open the question of whether some of the cases might incorporate information derived by extrasensory perception.
Previous collections of cases had been made by Dr Robert Crookall; however, he had approached the subject from a spiritualistic position, and collected his cases predominantly from spiritualist newspapers such a Psychic News, which appears to have biased his results in various ways. For example, the majority of his subjects reported ‘seeing’ a cord connecting their ‘external’ body to their physical body; whereas Green found that less than 4% of her subjects noticed anything of this sort, and some 80% reported feeling they were a ‘disembodied consciousness’, with no external body at all.
[edit] Neurology and OBE-like experiences
There are several possible physiological explanations for parts of the OBE. OBE-like experiences have been induced by stimulation of the brain and by using cameras to fool the mind into thinking that the body is somewhere it is not. The OBE has never been fully reproduced by stimulation of the brain or by other methods of induction which use external manipulation to cause the experience.[5]
English psychologist Susan Blackmore suggests that an OBE begins when a person loses contact with sensory input from the body while remaining conscious.[citation needed] The person retains the illusion of having a body, but that perception is no longer derived from the senses. The perceived world may resemble the world he or she generally inhabits while awake, but this perception does not come from the senses either. The vivid body and world is made by our brain's ability to create fully convincing realms, even in the absence of sensory information. This process is witnessed by each of us every night in our dreams, though OBEs are claimed to be far more vivid than even a lucid dream.
[edit] Olaf Blanke studies
Research by Olaf Blanke in Switzerland found that it is possible to reliably elicit experiences somewhat similar to the OBE by stimulating regions of the brain called the right temporal-parietal junction (TPJ; a region where the temporal lobe and parietal lobe of the brain come together). Blanke and his collaborators in Switzerland have explored the neural basis of OBEs by showing that they are reliably associated with lesions in the right TPJ region[6] and that they can be reliably elicited with electrical stimulation of this region in a patient with epilepsy.[7] These elicited experiences may include perceptions of transformations of the patient's arm and legs (complex somatosensory responses) and whole-body displacements (vestibular responses).[8][9]
In neurologically normal subjects, Blanke and colleagues then showed that the conscious experience of the self and body being in the same location depends on multisensory integration in the TPJ. Using event-related potentials, Blanke and colleagues showed the selective activation of the TPJ 330-400 ms after stimulus onset when healthy volunteers imagined themselves in the position and visual perspective that generally are reported by people experiencing spontaneous OBEs. Transcranial magnetic stimulation in the same subjects impaired mental transformation of the participant’s own body. No such effects were found with stimulation of another site or for imagined spatial transformations of external objects, suggesting the selective implication of the TPJ in mental imagery of one's own body.[10] In a follow up study, Arzy et al. showed that the location and timing of brain activation depended on whether mental imagery is performed with mentally embodied or disembodied self location. When subjects performed mental imagery with an embodied location, there was increased activation of a region called the "extrastriate body area" (EBA), but when subjects performed mental imagery with a disembodied location, as reported in OBEs, there was increased activation in the region of the TPJ. This leads Arzy et al. to argue that "these data show that distributed brain activity at the EBA and TPJ as well as their timing are crucial for the coding of the self as embodied and as spatially situated within the human body."[11]
Blanke and colleagues thus propose that the right temporal-parietal junction is important for the sense of spatial location of the self, and that when these normal processes go awry, an OBE arises.[12]
In August 2007 Blanke's lab published research in Science demonstrating that conflicting visual-somatosensory input in virtual reality could disrupt the spatial unity between the self and the body. During multisensory conflict, participants felt as if a virtual body seen in front of them was their own body and mislocalized themselves toward the virtual body, to a position outside their bodily borders. This indicates that spatial unity and bodily self-consciousness can be studied experimentally and is based on multisensory and cognitive processing of bodily information.[13]
[edit] Michael Persinger studies
Michael Persinger has undertaken similar research to Olaf Blanke using magnetic stimulation applied to the right temporal lobe of the brain, which is known to be involved in visuo-spatial functions, multi-sensory integration and the construction of the sense of the body in space. Persinger's research also found evidence for objective neural difference between periods of remote viewing in two individuals thought to have psychic abilities. Persinger undertook his research on Sean Harribance and Ingo Swann, a renowned remote viewer who has taken part in numerous studies.[14] Examination of Harribance showed enhanced EEG activity within the alpha band (8 - 12 Hz) over Harribance's right parieto-occipital region, consistent with neuropsychological evidence of early brain trauma in these regions. In a second study, Ingo Swann was asked to draw images of pictures hidden in envelopes in another room. Individuals with no knowledge of the nature of the study rated Swann's comments and drawings as congruent with the remotely viewed stimulus at better than chance levels. Additionally, on trials in which Swann was correct, the duration of 7 Hz (alpha band) paroxysmal discharges over the right occipital lobe was longer. Subsequent anatomical MRI examination showed anomalous subcortical white matter signals focused in the perieto-occipital interface of the right hemisphere that were not expected for his age or history.
[edit] Ehrsson study
In August 2007 Henrik Ehrsson from the University College of London Institute of Neurology published research in Science demonstrating the first experimental method that, according to the scientist's claims in the publication, induced an out-of-body experience in healthy participants.[15] The experiment was conducted in the following way:
The study participant sits in a chair wearing a pair of head-mounted video displays. These have two small screens over each eye, which show a live film recorded by two video cameras placed beside each other two metres behind the participant’s head. The image from the left video camera is presented on the left-eye display and the image from the right camera on the right-eye display. The participant sees these as one ‘stereoscopic’ (3D) image, so they see their own back displayed from the perspective of someone sitting behind them. The researcher then stands just beside the participant (in their view) and uses two plastic rods to simultaneously touch the participant’s actual chest out-of-view and the chest of the illusory body, moving this second rod towards where the illusory chest would be located, just below the camera’s view. The participants confirmed that they had experienced sitting behind their physical body and looking at it from that location.[16]
The experiment fits a three-point definition of the out-of-body experience (OBE). The OBE as reported in spontaneous cases can be phenomenologically more complex as commented in Slate[17] and elsewhere.[18]
[edit] Astral projection
Main article: Astral projection
Astral projection is a paranormal interpretation of an out-of-body experience achieved either awake or via lucid dreaming or deep meditation. The concept of astral projection assumes the existence of another body, separate from the physical body and capable of traveling to non-physical planes of existence. Commonly such planes are called astral, etheric, or spiritual. Astral projection is often experienced as the spirit or astral body leaving the physical body to travel in the spirit world or astral plane.[19]
Evidence for objective reality of astral projection projection is sometimes suggested when people, such as patients during surgery, describe OBEs in which they see or hear events or objects outside their sensory range (for instance, one woman reportedly described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as conversation that occurred while she was clinically dead).[20]
Skeptics such as Susan Blackmore have disputed whether anything leaves the body during an OBE.[21]
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