What Are Out-of-body Experiences?

Imagine that, for a moment, you can see your body from the perspective of a third party. This incredible phenomenon has an explanation in our brain functioning. That’s what we’ll talk about in this article.

Out-of-body experiences include a range of phenomena as fantastic as they are complex. Imagine seeing your body from the outside or having the sensation of floating. These are some of the sensations that make up this phenomenon.

However, although for a long time the explanations were tribal and mystical, nowadays we know that the cause is in our brain.

Out-of-body experiences are perceptual phenomena that include experiences of illusory movement. Among them, we can highlight: flying, falling, floating and seeing yourself from the outside.

These dissociative experiences are related to neurological and psychological factors, which occur both in healthy individuals and in individuals with some pathology.

Types of Out-of-Body Experiences

The phenomenon can be divided into two types of experience with well-defined characteristics:

Sensory experiences: the sensations of falling or floating represent a rupture in the union of bodily sensations involving the vestibular and motor systems.
Autoscopic experiences : these experiences consist of perceiving one’s own body in the eyes of a third party.

How do out-of-body experiences occur?

Out-of-body experiences are often associated with altered states of consciousness. Many authors compare the phenomenon with states characteristic of dreams, with a large component of imagination.

Furthermore, it is an anomalous multisensory integration process in which the individual is aware of the situation. Therefore, the vestibular, motor and sensory systems are fundamental to deal with this.

Systems that participate in the phenomenon

Vestibular: this system has receptors in the inner ear that are responsible for maintaining a stable image on the retina, a fundamental ability to maintain balance.
Motor: during the experiences, although they do not occur physically, the brain executes the corresponding movement programs in a dissociative plane.
Sensory: like the motor, it is located in the parietal lobe. Many authors theorize that what is projected is the self-perceived image of the body.

Disorders and phenomena linked to out-of-body experiences

When any of the systems mentioned is altered, the predisposition for an out-of-body experience to occur is greater. Disorders related to sleep, consumption of narcotics and brain injuries can create the ideal conditions for these phenomena.

Among the phenomena associated with sleep, we can highlight:

Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are vivid and confusing perceptual experiences that occur at the beginning and end of sleep.
Sleep paralysis: the desynchronization between the extremities and the execution engine alters the body’s multisensory processing and, therefore, the self-perception, causing the sensation of floating or of having out-of-body experiences.
Lucid dreams: consist of regaining consciousness during sleep. The individual is able to partially manage a sleep that presents itself with very sharp features and very precise details.
Fast Eye Movement Dream: in this phase of sleep, daydreams occur, as the brain is highly active (similar to wakefulness). Thanks to electrophysiological studies, it was possible to discover that the three previous situations occur during this sleep phase.

Is it possible to induce an out-of-body experience?

For centuries, these experiences have been linked to the paranormal. This is not strange, as our ancestors did not have adequate tools to study them.

Nowadays, we know that this phenomenon is caused by a distortion of the body image itself, in which cognitive processes such as memory, self-perception and imagination are involved.

Out of Body Experiences and Fantasy

Just as this experience has an organic foundation, there are also psychological factors closely linked to the phenomenon. Among them, what stands out the most is the personality.

Several studies have shown that these experiences are more frequent in individuals who have a high degree of fantasy and openness to experience. This relationship highlights that experiences can also be fostered by suggestion and personality characteristics.

artificial induction

The phenomenon can also be artificially induced, which is one of the greatest evidences of its cerebral cause. The most effective techniques are:

Induction of brain frequencies: through binaural beats, it is possible to induce a Theta wave activity in the brain (4 – 7.5 Hz), characteristic of states between sleep and wakefulness.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: through temporal lobe stimulation, as in Persinger’s experiment. The hyperconnectivity generated between wolves causes an intrusion of the spatial sense of the “I” (right hemisphere) into the linguistic sense of the “I” (left hemisphere).
Direct stimulation: in some experiments it was possible to promote these experiences through direct stimulation of the vestibular and motor cortex.
Electrical stimulation of the temporoparietal junction: as in Arzy’s experiment, stimulation of this area of great multisensory processing causes self-perception errors.

Sensory deprivation: by eliminating references to space and time, disorientation can lead to altered states of consciousness in which mental images are given an excessive realism.

Out of Body Experiences and Meditation

This phenomenon usually occurs in states in which brain activity is similar to sleep, but in which the individual retains consciousness.

People who meditate regularly can more easily reproduce these experiences, which some call “astral travel.” Consequently, Theta waves tend to proliferate in states of extreme relaxation, such as meditation.

The participation of mirror neurons

Authors Jalal and Ramachandran propose that the mirror neuron system is so connected that it allows for virtual third-person viewing.

Mirror neurons are triggered simply by seeing the other person perform an action, connecting with higher centers to anticipate or imitate it symbolically.

The connection of these neurons with the cerebral cortex and afferent pathways would allow them to “separate from the body” in conditions of sensory alteration.

A psychobiological phenomenon

Out-of-body experiences involve the nervous and motor systems, cognitive functions, and personality traits. At the same time, it is a phenomenon that, despite occurring naturally under certain circumstances, can also be pathological.

Therefore, provoking these experiences is not necessarily healthy and may pose a danger, as they are also associated with psychotic crises.

Since this is a phenomenon associated with the paranormal, for many years people refused to see a specialist for fear of being considered insane. However, understanding the true causes of the phenomenon is a great first step in treating it correctly.