out-of-body experiences

[Jazzy]

Some people claim that they have experienced out-of-body experiences—aka "astral trips"—floating outside of their bodies and watching themselves from the outside. A team of scientists found someone who says she can do this at will and put her into a brain scanner. What they discovered was surprisingly strange.

Andra M. Smith and Claude Messierwere from the University of Ottawa described this subject's ability in their paper, published in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience:
"She was able to see herself rotating in the air above her body, lying flat, and rolling along with the horizontal plane. She reported sometimes watching herself move from above but remained aware of her unmoving "real" body. The participant reported no particular emotions linked to the experience."

How the hell is this possible? Can it be real? The researchers found that something dramatic, and consistent with her account, was happening in her brain: The fMRI showed a "strong deactivation of the visual cortex" while "activating the left side of several areas associated with kinesthetic imagery," which includes mental imagery of bodily movement. This is the part of the brain that makes it possible for us to interact with the world. It's what makes you feel where your body is in relation to the world.

This is the very first time that this type of experience has been analyzed and documented scientifically. Researchers know that out-of-body experiences can be induced "by brain traumas, sensory deprivation, near-death experiences, dissociative and psychedelic drugs, dehydration, sleep, and electrical stimulation of the brain, among others. It can also be deliberately induced by some." But this may be the first documented case of someone who can get into this state at will.

Full article

Have you ever had an out-of-body experience? If so, please tell us about your experience.

 

[DrLeftover]

Me. No.

Somebody else who I knew and whom I believed. Yes.

Do I think the "Person" lives after their body ceases to function? Yes.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Me. No.

 

[Jazzy]

I've never had an out-of-body experience either.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Maybe because they don't really happen to the average person?

 

[Evil Eye]

Maybe because they don't really happen to the average person?

Good thing too, I'm rather attached to me, if you'll ignore the pun

 

[DrLeftover]

Near Death Experiences, as they are called, are more common in the general population than most people would believe.

Soul Travel, or Astral Projection as related in the article, is reasonably common as well, and, in fact, is the basis for an entire religion known as Eckankar. You have probably seen their bumper stickers and didn't even know it with the name "Eck" or their "EK" symbol, although in the last few years the organization has had some, well, hard times, to put it mildly.

There is also a similar practice of Remote Viewing, which was researched by both the KGB and the CIA "back in the good old days" of the Cold War.