An Out of Body Experience is the distinct sensation of the conscious part of one’s self separating and leaving the physical body and perceiving the world from the outside.
An Out of Body Experience (OBE) is a fairly common experience that occurs, most notably with Near-Death Experiences (NDE), in-fact in many ways, it is a defining feature of it. About 1 in 10 people believe they have had an OBE in some form during their life, and many believe it won’t be their last. Throughout history, and spanning multiple cultures, these phenomena have occurred and been reported. One of the earliest stories related to NDEs can be traced back to ‘The Myth of Er’ by Plato, which dates back to 380 B.C.
Though many NDEs include and are closely related to OBEs, there are some differences that should be pointed out. OBEs can occur at anytime, not only from stress or trauma, but also deep relaxation can trigger it as well. Often times the experiences you have while Out of Body stay within the immediate area, with you experiencing the world with your five senses (sometimes to a heightened degree) around your body or somewhere not far.
NDEs are like OBEs, except they are a bit more broad, and dramatic. NDE often are caused by close-calls with something that could have caused death. Leading the person to have something similar to an OBE, but with the added sense of being dead, or on the verge of death. During this time, the experience often take place far away from the body, and in place of religious connotation, such as seeing a bright light or tunnel, a sense of peace and love, encountering spiritual beings, and being given special information about your life, etc,.
These experiences obviously suggest life after death, with consciousness or the soul surviving beyond the body and having experiences apart from the physical five senses. In many cases as stated above, the five senses used to perceive the world from the outside, were actually stronger and keener then of their physical counterparts. Many accounts of both OBEs and NDEs share similar experiences, varying only slightly across culture and beliefs. This of course caught the attention of mainstream science, and soon after, the race was on for an explanation.
One of the most intriguing details that drew science to investigate these experiences was some reported cases had people return to their bodies with detail about what went on when they where unconscious and out of body. Knowledge about things they shouldn’t have been able to know, such as discussions that went on around them while the person was in this state, or even things said or done, or even details about a distant location, down the street and sometimes much further. This should not be possible according to our currently accepted views of consciousness and the brain. The current consensus is that consciousness arises from the infinite complexity of the brain, and stays there unable to move out of or away from it’s source.
Because these phenomena hang so heavily on the Paranormal and even on the fringe side of science, it was difficult to investigate this without dragging into the mix certain other closely associated concepts such as ‘Astral Projection’, ‘Spirit Walking’ and ‘Etheric Travel’, as they each describe roughly a similar phenomena and are closely related to religious belief systems. They needed a neutral term to describe this experience and in 1943 the term Out of Body Experience, or ‘OBE’ for short, was created.
Another hurdle they had to jump was addressing similarities it had with a few other particular phenomena which are related to Extrasensory Perception, or ‘ESP’, such as Clairvoyance, Bi-location and Apparitions. ‘Clairvoyance’ is a psychic phenomena where one can see distant places within the mind with startling accuracy. ‘Bi-location’ is the incidence or ability to be in two seemingly separate locations at the same time. ‘Apparitions’ are things or even Ghostly beings that appear out of thin air. Though not strictly limited to those I have listed here.
After examining the connections it has with already existing phenomena, the task then was to determine if in-fact Conscious in some form could leave the body, or, what physiological or neurological function is to blame for such an experience, or is there one to blame at all?
Because OBEs in some form a prominent part of NDEs, I have decide to focus on them a bit more.
Here are some of the theories put forth by science to explain OBEs and NDEs.
---
In 1968, the first serious study on OBEs was conducted by Celia Green. Her aim was to arrange and classify the many types of OBEs people experience as mostly perceptual illusions; although she kept an open mind that some cases may be genuine.
Psychologist and well renowned skeptic Susan Blackmore put forth the theory that Out of Body experiences can be explained. Leaving room for the possibility that OBEs could be real, Susan likely suspects that the cause of an OBE is when the person loses sensory input from the body while remaining Conscious. This would put the person in a vivid, Lucid Dream-like state in which the Out of Body Experience would be manufactured by the mind.
Olaf Blanke, director at the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience in Switzerland, demonstrated that the perception of self within the body is dependent on multiple senses collaborating with one another in the temporal-pariental junction in the brain. If one or more of these sense falter or are fed false information, then an OBE-like experience could emerge. Blanke also demonstrated this by electrical stimulation.
Michael Persinger, a Cognitive Neuroscientist, also demonstrated that OBE/NDE-like states could be induced, not just with electrical stimulus, but with magnetic fields. He did so using the ‘God Helmet’; a device created by Stanley Koren to study the effects of ‘complex magnetic fields’ on the temporal lobes of the brain. This helmet is able to induce all kinds of spiritual experiences, and because of it, many skeptics point to this device as a example of how many of these experience can occur scientifically. On the other hand though, Persinger has also published papers supporting evidence for a slightly different area of paranormal phenomena, and his work with famous remote viewer, Ingo Swann, and his accuracy with his skill.
If you like, you can watch a video on YouTube about Michael Persinger’s experiments on OBEs, featuring the God Helmet, Here.
Henrik Ehrsson, a Neurologist, demonstrated with a experiment in 2007 how our senses are to blame for our experience of self within our body is not only derived from out senses, but more specifically, our eyes. The participants sit in a chair wearing a two little video screens over their eyes, one for each eye. Roughly two feet behind them sit next to each other two video cameras that record the back of the participant. The camera on the left sends its video to the left eye-piece, and the right camera does the same for the right eye piece, creating a 3D image of the participant from behind. Someone would then enter within view of the cameras and use rods to touch them on either the chest or back. Many of the participants noted the feeling of being out of body.
The Pineal Gland located near the center of the brain was also looked at as a possible explanation for both NDEs and OBEs in the 1990s by a Dr. Rick Strassman. A naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in the Pineal Gland known as Dimethyltryptamine (DMT). DMT can cause vivid hallucinations and severely alter the mood and emotions of the person that it is effecting. Whether or not DMT is an adequate explanation for NDEs is still up for debate.
Dutch Cardiologist and Scientist, Pim van Lommel was one of the first to do a clinical study of NDE, on those who were resuscitated after cardiac arrest. Almost 20% of the patients in the study had in fact had a NDE. Van Lommel concluded that consciousness could exist outside of the body, and the brain merely acted as a receiver for consciousness. His conclusion came about when patients rendered details of what happened during their cardiac arrest, even though some patients at the time were clinically dead and had flatline brain activity.
---
Those listed above are the most noted theories on the source and function of the Out of Body Experience Phenomena. All of the theories listed revolve around the senses, or manipulation of the parts of the brain that are connected to our perception and senses. Between them they describe areas of the brain that act as highways for the signals our senses pick up, which then collect together and render a mapping of the world around us, and our location in that world.
The last one listed was less about explaining the phenomena, and more about Dr. Van Lommel’s patients and their inexplicable means upon resuscitation of cardiac arrest to remember details about what was going on around them, or elsewhere in the world (Often near-by somewhere) with spectacular detail. Enough detail that it wasn’t written off as chance or memory. At least a few of his patients where clinically dead, and had zero brain activity during the time of their NDE. This would suggest that this experience did Not take place within the mind of the patient, as they would have registered brain activity as their mind created this imaginary world that many of the explanations suggest.
Here is a interview with Dr. Van Lommel about Near-Death Experiences if you would like to watch.
Consciousness Beyond Life
They mention someone seeing during a NDE who was blind since birth, then able to see for a short time during the experience. I found a short video highlight this woman that I figured I would share. There is another 5 part documentary featuring her as well as Dr. Van Lommel, where they go a little more about her experience, but I didn’t want to bog down this post with a lot of videos.
NDE - Blind woman sees while OBE
---
It’s always inspiring to see a scientist acknowledge that there is something more to us, and something beyond the scope of our conventional science and understanding. I personally have never had a NDE, but I may have had a OBE. I floated up above my house, and looked down on my neighborhood, and it was all shimmering, almost like it reflected light a little like a metal surface, and almost like it actually emitted light. It was interesting.
But between recalling details about people, places or things while Out of Body. Or, being able to see for the first time during a Near-Death Experience. And in some cases, being able to do these things while no brain activity registered. It all shouldn’t be possible… but it is.
Perhaps there is a life waiting for us, after death.
Until Next Time I leave you with another lolcats!
People's experience definitely proves that such things exist. We may not know it's physically done, but it occurs.
ReplyDeleteI Absolutely agree with you. :)
ReplyDelete