The Experimental Induction of Out-of-Body Experiences

摘要

An out-of-body experience (OBE) has beenrndefined as the experience in which a person who is awake sees his or her bodyrnfrom a location outside the physical body (1, 2).rnOBEs have been reported in clinical conditionsrnthat disturb normal brain functioning, such as strokes, partial epileptic seizures, and drug abuse (1-4). Here, I report that this illusory experience can be induced in healthy participants. I report a perceptual illusion in which individuals experience that their center of awareness, or "self," is located outside their physical bodies and that they look at their bodies from the perspective of another person. This illusion demonstrates that the sense of being localized within the physical body can be fully determined by perceptual processes, that is, by the visual perspective in conjunction with multisensory stimulation on the body.