An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE) is a phenomenon in which a person perceives the world as if from a location outside their physical body. An OBE is a form of autoscopy (literally "seeing self"), although this term is more commonly used to refer to the pathological condition of seeing a second self, or doppelgänger. The term out-of-body experience was introduced in 1943 by G. N. M. Tyrrell in his book Apparitions,G. N. M. Tyrrell, Apparitions, Gerald Duckworth and Co. Ltd, London, 1943, pp. 149. and was adopted by researchers such as Celia Green, and Robert Monroe, as an alternative to belief-centric labels such as "astral projection" or "spirit walking".
OBEs have been induced by traumatic brain injuries, sensory deprivation, near-death experiences, dissociative and psychedelic drugs, dehydration, sleep disorders, dreaming, and electrical stimulation of the brain, among other causes. It can also be deliberately induced by some. One in ten people have an OBE once, or more commonly, several times in their life.Blackmore, Susan (1984). "A Postal Survey of OBEs and Other Experiences". Psychologists and neuroscientists regard OBEs as dissociative experiences caused by different psychological and neurological factors.
Origins British psychical researcher J. Arthur Hill was the first to use the term "out-of-the-body experience" in his 1918 book Man is a Spirit. Oliver Fox used the same term in his 1920 essays for the Occult Review. The term out-of-body experience was first introduced by G. N. M. Tyrell in his book Apparitions, published in 1943. Some of the earliest researchers to write on the subject were Caroline D. Larsen, Ernesto Bozzano, Hereward Carrington, Sylvan Muldoon, Arthur E. Powell and Francis Prevost.
Robert Monroe brought awareness of out-of-body experiences to a larger population with his books on his own self-induced experiences, most notably Journeys Out of the Body (1971).
Spontaneous OBEs
During/near sleep
Those experiencing OBEs sometimes report (among other types of immediate and spontaneous experience) a preceding and initiating lucid-dream state. In many cases, people who claim to have had an OBE report being on the verge of sleep or already asleep shortly before the experience. A large percentage of these cases refer 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, subjects perceive themselves as being awake; about half of them note a feeling of sleep paralysis.
Near-death experiences
Another form of spontaneous OBE is the near-death experience (NDE). Some subjects report having had an OBE at times of severe physical trauma such as near-drownings or major surgery. Near-death experiences may include subjective impressions of being outside the physical body, sometimes visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, and transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries. The experience typically includes such factors as: a sense of being dead; a feeling of peace and painlessness; hearing of various non-physical sounds, an out-of-body experience; a tunnel experience (the sense of moving up or through a narrow passageway); encountering "beings of light" and a God-like figure or similar entities; being given a "life review", and a reluctance to return to life.Mauro, James. (1992). Bright lights, big Mystery. Psychology Today.
Resulting from extreme physical effort Along the same lines as an NDE, extreme physical effort during activities such as high-altitude climbing and marathon running can induce OBEs. A sense of bilocation may be experienced, with both ground and air-based perspectives being experienced simultaneously.Metzinger (citing Alvarado), 2005 "Out-of-Body Experiences as the Origin of the Concept of a 'Soul, Mind & Matter 3(1), p. 65.
Induced OBEs
Chemical OBEs can be induced by hallucinogens (particularly dissociatives & psychedelics) such as psilocybin, ketamine, DMT, MDA, and LSD. These effects are believed to arise from interaction of these substances with a brain structure called the precuneus.
Mental induction Falling asleep physically without losing awareness. The "Mind Awake, Body Asleep" state is widely suggested as a cause of OBEs, voluntary and otherwise. Thomas Edison used this state to tackle problems while working on his inventions. He would rest a silver dollar on his head while sitting with a metal bucket in a chair. As he drifted off, the coin would noisily fall into the bucket, restoring some of his alertness.Pre-Grams of Tomorrow dreams as pathway to a New World Perspective: Forrer, Kurt OBE pioneer Sylvan Muldoon more simply used a forearm held perpendicular in bed as the falling object.Hereward Carrington, Sylvan Muldoon. (1981). The Projection Of The Astral Body. Weiser Books. Salvador Dalí was said to use a similar "paranoiac-critical" method to gain odd visions which inspired his paintings. 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 OBE. By moving deeper and deeper into relaxation, one eventually encounters a "slipping" feeling if the mind is still alert. This slipping is reported to feel like leaving the physical body. Some consider progressive muscle relaxation as an active form of sensory deprivation. Deep trance, meditation and visualization. The types of visualizations vary; some common analogies 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. One example of such a technique is the popular Golden Dawn "Body of Light" technique.
Mechanical induction Brainwave synchronization via audio/visual stimulation. Binaural beats can be used to induce specific brainwave frequencies, notably those predominant in various mind awake/body asleep states. Binaural induction of a "body asleep" 4 Hertz brainwave frequency was observed as effective by the Monroe Institute, and some authors consider binaural beats to be significantly supportive of OBE initiation when used in conjunction with other techniques. Simultaneous introduction of "mind awake" beta frequencies (detectable in the brains of normal, relaxed awakened individuals) was also observed as constructive. Another popular technology uses sinusoidal wave pulses to achieve similar results, and the drumming accompanying Native American religious ceremonies is also believed to have heightened receptivity to "other worlds" through brainwave entrainment mechanisms.Haven, Janine. (2006). At a Glance' Religious and Spiritual Competency for Psychotherapists. AuthorHouse. Direct stimulation of the vestibular cortex. Electrical stimulation of the brain, particularly the temporoparietal junction (see Blanke study below). Sensory deprivation. This approach aims to induce intense disorientation by the removal of space and time references. Flotation tanks or pink noise played through headphones are often employed for this purpose.Nicholls, Graham. (2012). Navigating the Out-of-Body Experience: Radical New Techniques. Llewellyn Publications. Sensory overload, the opposite of sensory deprivation. The subject can, for instance, be rocked for a long time in a specially designed cradle, or submitted 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.Irwin, Harvey. (1985). Flight of Mind: A Psychological Study of the Out-Of-Body Experience. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. Strong g-forces that cause blood to drain from parts of the brain, as experienced, for example, in high-performance aircraft or high-G training for pilots and astronauts. An apparatus that uses a head-mounted display and a touch that confuses the sense of proprioception and can also create the sensation of additional limbs.
OBE theories
Psychological In the fields of cognitive science and psychology OBEs are considered dissociative experiences arising from different psychological and neurological factors. Scientists consider the OBE to be an experience from a mental state, like a dream or an altered state of consciousness without recourse to the paranormal.
Charles Richet (1887) held that OBEs are created by the subject's memory and imagination processes and are no different from dreams.Richet, C. (1887). L 'homme et l'intelligence: Fragments de physiologie et de psychologie (2nd ed.). Paris: Felix Alcan.Richet, C. (1922). Traith de metapsychique. Paris: Felix Alcan. James H. Hyslop (1912) wrote that OBEs occur when the activity of the subconscious mind dramatizes certain images to give the impression the subject is in a different physical location. Eugéne Osty (1930) considered OBEs to be nothing more than the product of imagination.Osty, E. (1930). La vision de soi. Revue metapsychique. No. 3, 185-197. Other early researchers, such as Schmeing (1938), supported psychophysiological theories.Schmeing, K. (1938). Flugtraiume und "Exkursion des Ich. Archiv für die Gesamte Psychologie. G. N. M. Tyrrell interpreted OBEs as hallucinatory constructs relating to subconscious levels of personality.Tyrrell, G. N. M. (1953). Apparitions. London: Gerald Duckworth. (Originally published, 1942.)
Donovan Rawcliffe (1959) connected the OBE with psychosis and hysteria.Rawcliffe, D.H. (1959). Illusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult. New York, NY: Dover. (Original work published 1952). Other researchers have discussed the phenomena of the OBE in terms of a distortion of the body image (Horowitz, 1970) and depersonalization (Whitlock, 1978).Horowitz, M. J. (1970). Image formation and cognition. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. The psychologists Nandor Fodor (1959) and Jan Ehrenwald (1974) proposed that an OBE is a defense mechanism designed to deal with the threat of death.Fodor, N. (1959). The Haunted Mind. New York: Helix Press. According to Irin and Watt (2007), Ehrenwald had described the out-of-body experience (OBE) "as an imaginal confirmation of the quest for immortality, a delusory attempt to assure ourselves that we possess a soul that exists independently of the physical body".Harvey J. Irwin, Caroline Watt An Introduction to Parapsychology 2007, p. 188 The psychologists Donald Hebb (1960) and Cyril Burt (1968) wrote on the psychological interpretation of the OBE involving body image and visual imagery.Burt, C. (1968). Psychology and Psychical Research. London: Society for Psychical Research. Graham Reed (1974) suggested that the OBE is a stress reaction to a painful situation, such as the loss of love.Reed, Graham. (1974). The Psychology of Anomalous Experience. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. John Palmer (1978) wrote that the OBE is a response to a body image change causing a threat to personal identity.