From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Possible explanations

Opinions regarding the objective reality of OBEs are mixed. An appreciable number of people believe the phenomenon is exactly what it feels like, and that the soul is leaving the body and exploring. Many OBE accounts are positive that the usual explanation, that the experience was a dream, is insufficient and often cite the experience as having a spiritual effect. See examples:

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  If it was [a dream] why am I still so affected by it?
  

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  I just don't understand this - how can this happen?
  

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  I realized at that instant my body was just a vehicle, a work horse so to speak.
  

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  The experience changed my life, and was profound
  

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  It has made me want to explore and learn as much as I can.
  

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  This experience is as vivid to me today, as it was the night it actually happened. I will always remember it.
  

Despite claims of some "projectors" who aver that they can initiate the experience at will, there is to date no reliable evidence that any imagery or information acquired during the experience could not have come from normal sources (see near-death experience for some inconclusive attempts to test the hypothesis).

While the subjective experience may be very compelling, most skeptics discount the idea that the phenomenon is somehow linked to an actual physical relocation of consciousness. They note that, in the absence of the typical conviction that the experience is real, these experiences would simply be considered dreams; and that lacking hard evidence to the contrary, the simplest explanation would be that the experiencer's sense of heightened reality, however powerful, is a subjective one.

In support of this idea, some neurologists point to experiments in the context of treatment of epilepsy involving electrical stimulus of a particular part of the brain, the right angular gyrus located in the parietal lobe, which produce subjective experiences having all of the hallmarks of an OBE, including the sense of enhanced reality and extreme disembodiment. This evidence, as well as similar results involving use of the drug ketamine, support the hypothesis that at least some OBEs are caused by an unusual but natural brain state in which one's body perception and sense of reality are altered.

Skeptics also point to the increasing body of evidence which ties mental functions such as perception and memory to exclusively physical processes which occur in the brain; and note that no known mechanism would account for how these processes could occur at a distance (the mind-body problem). However, in some instances, such as patients during surgery, people describe OBEs in which they see something they could not possibly have seen while under anesthesia (for instance, one woman accurately described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as conversation that occurred while she was clinically dead). See near-death experiences.

OBE's cannot be disproved, but there is no solid evidence that anyone has actually left their body. Many experiencers have made detailed observations they reportedly could not have made by any other means, but these have not yet been studied to the satisfaction of the scientific community.

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See also

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  Astral projection
  

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External links

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  Detailed information about out-of-body experiences by author William Buhlman
  
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  Robert Peterson Book on OOBEs (available online)
  
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  Accounts of Out of body experiences
  
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  OBE Forum
  
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  Out of body Experiences and the Brain
  
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  Is death the end?
  
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  Discuss O.B.E's/Astral Projections and N.D.E's here
  
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  The International Academy of Consciousness and Research/Education Resources
  
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  Brazilian Research and Education Campus centered on Psychic Development and Out-of-body experiences
  
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  An in-depth psychological and philosophical analysis of OBEs and self-perception
  
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  The Monroe Institute research organization and Hemi-Sync technology
  
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  Out of Body Experience Journal
  

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience"

Near-death experience

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Ascent in the Empyrean (Hieronymous Bosch)

A near-death experience (NDE) is the perception reported by a person who nearly died or who was clinically dead and revived. They are somewhat common, especially since the development of cardiac resuscitation techniques, and are reported in approximately one-fifth of persons who revive from clinical death. The experience often includes an out-of-body experience.

The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and transcendental factors (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001) such as subjective impressions of being outside the physical body (an out-of-body experience), visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries and other transcendental experiences (Lukoff, Lu & Turner, 1998; Greyson, 2003). Typically the experience folllows a distinct progression, starting with the sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area, followed by the sensation of passing through a tunnel, meeting deceased relatives, and concluding with encountering a being of light (Morse, Conner & Tyler, 1985).

A 'core' near-death experience reflects—as intensity increases according to the Rasch scale (Lange, Greyson & Houran, 2004)—peace, joy and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences. The same study also notes that the most intense NDEs involve an awareness of things occurring in a different place or time.

Contents [hide] 1 Near-Death Research 2 As an afterlife experience 3 As a naturalistic experience 4 Spiritual and psychological after-effects 5 See also 6 References and further reading 6.1 Clinical and academic 6.2 Personal experiences 6.3 Fiction 7 External links 7.1 Academic 7.2 On-line sites and articles