Out Of Body Experience
Out of body experiences are occasions when a person has the sensation of floating above their body, observing themselves and events in their vicinity from above. This kind of experience is often associated with the idea of astral projection which presupposes that we possess a less physical entity living inside us which is released under certain conditions. Out of body experiences have come to be associated in many people’s minds with near death experiences.
I have not been able to find any scientific data that verifies the belief that people undergoing out of body experiences are really observing their surroundings. The descriptions of people having such experiences during surgery or other traumatic events are very vivid and convincing as anecdotes, but there is very little in the way of back-up testimony by other witnesses.
Here is a description from New Scientist of an experiment designed to verify out of body experiences.
Many people interested in the way our minds and bodies work have experimented with lucid dreaming. This simply means that the mind stays awake while the body goes to sleep. This kind of experimentation has led to the experimenter achieving the experience of being separated from one’s body.
Dr Steven Novella writes in his Neurologica blog
“Unless one is a neuroscientist or has a keen interest in how the brain works, we tend to think of our mental selves as an integrated whole and not as a collection of independent functions – the latter is more close to the truth. Our brains are more like committees with many different parts carrying out specific functions – some conscious, some unconscious. But since we are our brains we are only aware of the net effect of that part of our brain function that produces our conscious awareness and attention.”
There is an informative essay on astral projection at astralprojectiontravel.com
Here is an essay connecting astral projection with lucid dreaming.
This video explains some techniques for invoking out of body experiences.