Scientists: The woman who 'can leave her body at will': Student sheds light on the strange brain activity involved in out-of-body experiences

[SonOfTheGods]

The woman who 'can leave her body at will': Student sheds light on the strange brain activity involved in out-of-body experiences

• Researchers at the University of Ottawa, Canada, studied the brain activity of a student who can drift outside her own body at will
• Scientists believe the left side of several areas of the brain associated with kinaesthetic imagery are responsible for extra-corporeal experiences
• They think the experiences could be more common than thought or that people only retain the ability to have them if they practice from childhood

People have long been fascinated by out-of-body experiences - are they just tricks of the mind or do they have some sort of spiritual significance?

Now new research has shed light on what it terms as 'extra-corporeal experiences' by studying the brain activity of a Canadian woman who claims she can drift outside her own body at will.

Scientists believe the left side of several areas of the brain associated with kinaesthetic imagery (the perception of the sensation of moving) are responsible for the sensation of being able to leave your body and float above it – and that more people might have similar experiences than thought.

 

Scientists believe the left side of several areas of the brain associated with kinaesthetic imagery are responsible for the sensation of being able to leave your body and float above it. Increased activity was seen in the middle and superior orbitofrontal gyri (A,B,D) the supramarginal gyrus (and inferior temporal gyrus (D)

 

Researchers at the University of Ottawa came across a psychology graduate who admitted she could have voluntary out-of-body experiences before she fell asleep.

 

The 24-year-old revealed she is able to see herself floating and rotating horizontally in the air above her body and can sometimes watch herself from above while remaining aware of her real body.

However, as she said she feels no emotions when she has the experiences, the scientists decided to classify her experiences as extra-corporeal experiences (ECE) as strong emotions such as shock, often accompany out-of-body experiences, Popular Science reported.

Andra Smith and Claude Messier used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner to examine the student’s brain and believe she is the first person studied to have an ECE on demand without any brain abnormalities.

They discovered that the ECE involved a ‘strong deactivation of the visual cortex’.

But it also ‘activated the left side of several areas associated with kinesthetic imagery’ in the brain, which the scientists think is what cause mental representations of bodily movement.

While the researchers have acknowledged the rarity of finding someone to study who can have ECEs on demand, they believe that outer-body-experiences could be more common than thought.

This idea is based on the fact that the student thought that being able to float outside her body was not unusual.

According to the study: ‘The participant described her experience as one she began performing as a child when bored with “sleep time” at preschool.

She discovered she could elicit the experience of moving above her body and used this as a distraction during the time kids were asked to nap. She continued to perform this experience as she grew up assuming, as mentioned, that “everyone could do it.”’

The scientists discovered that the extra-corporeal experiences (ECE) involved a 'strong deactivation of the visual cortex' (pictured). A shows the right side and B the left)

 

‘She appeared surprised that not everyone could experience this,’ the researchers wrote in the study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

The scientists think there is a ‘possibility that this phenomenon may have a significant incidence but [is] unreported because people do not think this is exceptional.’

They also theorised that ‘the ability might be present in infancy but is lost without regular practice.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2575550/The-woman-leave-body-Student-sheds-light-strange-brain-activity-involved-body-experiences.html#ixzz2vOJw8Qfg

Edited March 8, 2014 by SonOfTheGods

[SonOfTheGods]

Someone will say

 

"Dailymail is Fake!"

 

lol

 

so here is another link:

 

http://www.popsci.com/article/science/woman-who-can-will-herself-out-her-body

 

POPULAR SCIENCE:

After a class on out-of-body experiences, a psychology graduate student at the University of Ottawa came forward to researchers to say that she could have these voluntarily, usually before sleep. "She appeared surprised that not everyone could experience this," wrote the scientists in a study describing the case, published in February in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Pretty crazy, right? One would think that if you could leave your own body and float above it, you'd be a little more... vocal about it. But since it was a common experience for her--one she "began performing as a child when bored with 'sleep time' at preschool... moving above her body" instead of napping--it may have appeared unremarkable. This is way more interesting than what I did, which was indeed napping.

The most exciting thing about this case, to me, is "the possibility that this phenomenon may have a significant incidence but [is] unreported because people do not think this is exceptional," as the authors wrote. "Alternatively," they continued, "the ability might be present in infancy but is lost without regular practice. This would be reminiscent of the discovery and eventual study of synesthesia that some researchers now hypothesized is more prevalent in young people or can be developed."

"She was able to see herself rotating in the air above her body"

Those are fascinating suggestions--both that these out-of-body experiences may be more common than previously thought, or could be learned during a critical window early in life.

But back to the case study. The 24-year-old "continued to perform this experience as she grew up assuming, as mentioned, that 'everyone could do it.'" This is how she described her out-of-body experiences: "She was able to see herself rotating in the air above her body, lying flat, and rolling along with the horizontal plane. She reported sometimes watching herself move from above but remained aware of her unmoving “real” body. The participant reported no particular emotions linked to the experience."

An unusual find, wrote the scientists, University of Ottawa researchers Andra M. Smith and Claude Messier--this is the first person to be studied able to have this type of experience on demand, and without any brain abnormalities. Instead of an "out-of-body" experience, however, the researchers termed it a "extra-corporeal experience" (ECE), in part because it lacks the strong emotions that often go hand-in-hand (such as shock & awe, for example).

To better understand what was going on, the researchers conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of her brain. They found that it surprisingly involved a "strong deactivation of the visual cortex." Instead, the experience "activated the left side of several areas associated with kinesthetic imagery," such as mental representations of bodily movement.

Her experience, the scientists wrote, "really was a novel one." But just maybe, not as novel as previously thought. If you are capable of floating out of your body, don't keep it to yourself!

Edited March 8, 2014 by SonOfTheGods

[SonOfTheGods]

Just so you guys won't have to do it- here is the Rebuttal:

 

http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/unpopular-science/woman-who-thinks-she-can-will-herself-out-her-body

[thelerner]

Interesting article. I'll have to read it and the links more thoroughly. I was hoping to find evidence that they've done some testing with her. Simple, read a card or message in another room, type test to see if its a case of 'feeling' like leaving the body, or actually leaving the body. Didn't see any such information, unfortunately. Too bad.

 

 

 

 

Just so you guys won't have to do it- here is the Rebuttal:

 

http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/unpopular-science/woman-who-thinks-she-can-will-herself-out-her-body

 

great minds think alike. I was writing above at the same time you printed this.

[Wells]

 

Scientists believe the left side of several areas of the brain associated with kinaesthetic imagery (the perception of the sensation of moving) are responsible for the sensation of being able to leave your body and float above it – and that more people might have similar experiences than thought.

[...]

 

Scientists believe the left side of several areas of the brain associated with kinaesthetic imagery are responsible for the sensation of being able to leave your body and float above it. Increased activity was seen in the middle and superior orbitofrontal gyri (A,B,D) the

supramarginal gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus

 

[...]

 

Andra Smith and Claude Messier used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner to examine the student’s brain and believe she is the first person studied to have an ECE on demand without any brain abnormalities.

They discovered that the ECE involved a ‘strong deactivation of the visual cortex’.

But it also ‘activated the left side of several areas associated with kinesthetic imagery’ in the brain, which the scientists think is what cause mental representations of bodily movement.

[...]

The scientists discovered that the extra-corporeal experiences (ECE) involved a 'strong deactivation of the visual cortex' (pictured). A shows the right side and B the left)

[...]

 

 

In other words: She was only halluzinating, her brain was producing an illusion/dream and there is nothing "real" to so called "out of body" experiences!

 

D-BUNKED!

 

Edited March 8, 2014 by Dorian Black

[Seph]

Really?

I live in Ottawa and I've not heard of this research yet. (Doesn't mean it didn't happen.)

I'll have to look further into it.

[Aeran]

Wait, I'm confused - am I missing the sarcasm, or are people on a forum about cultivating vital energy attempting to 'debunk' OBE's?

[thelerner]

OBE's should be easy to test. Yet I haven't found definitive proof that such travel is real. Lots of anecdotal stories of astral meetups, but little scientific proof. I'm not looking for lab stuff, just simple, what card is face up in the next room. In his earliest book, Stephen LaBerge who ran a sleep lab that did scientific work and testing on lucid dreaming, having trained oeneirauts, thought that OBE's were a subset of lucid dreaming, and not actual out of body travel.

 

If anyone has links I'd be love to see them.

[Wells]

Wait, I'm confused - am I missing the sarcasm, or are people on a forum about cultivating vital energy attempting to 'debunk' OBE's?

 

I am interested in true phenomenons, not in spiritual role-play.

Therefore, phenomenons should be analysed critically, not simply believed in!

 

 

OBE's should be easy to test. Yet I haven't found definitive proof that such travel is real. Lots of anecdotal stories of astral meetups, but little scientific proof. I'm not looking for lab stuff, just simple, what card is face up in the next room. In his earliest book, Stephen LaBerge who ran a sleep lab that did scientific work and testing on lucid dreaming, having trained oeneirauts, thought that OBE's were a subset of lucid dreaming, and not actual out of body travel.

 

If anyone has links I'd be love to see them.

 

100% agreed!

Edited March 8, 2014 by Dorian Black

[SonOfTheGods]

OBE's should be easy to test. Yet I haven't found definitive proof that such travel is real. Lots of anecdotal stories of astral meetups, but little scientific proof. I'm not looking for lab stuff, just simple, what card is face up in the next room. In his earliest book, Stephen LaBerge who ran a sleep lab that did scientific work and testing on lucid dreaming, having trained oeneirauts, thought that OBE's were a subset of lucid dreaming, and not actual out of body travel.

 

If anyone has links I'd be love to see them.

 

I found out about this link from a search on OBE, which I under went, 2 nights ago.

 

I was cultivating- and bone breathing.

 

I was in Gamasae for 10 minutes, and thought only a couple of minutes had passed by.

I felt very light, and floating from my crown point.

 

Then, I went into full lotus and my whole body was vibrating so hard, and the frequencies so intense, I had to lay down to keep it going.

 

After awhile of this, my perineum got too hot, so I sought to lower the vibrations.

 

I started to fall asleep and suddenly found myself floating over my body, but I was fully aware, and locked into a cataleptic state.

 

Frozen solid.

 

I relaxed, and moved my thumb, which brought me down to my body.

 

It happened again, and my body pivoted at a 45 degree angle from my feet.

I could actually hear myself snoring.

Again I broke the state by moving my toes a little bit.

 

Again it happened, this time my body twirled and I got stuck up close to ceiling fan.

 

I could still hear myself breathing, and thought how bright the dark temple room looked.

 

I finally got back "in" my body and just sat up this time to finally break this repetitive cycle.

 

I confirmed/realized this is the body- which I am cultivating- is the same body, that is the vehicle to remaining Immortal with, after death.

 

I always knew it from my occult studies, but this was the linking proof between cultivation, and my own metaphysical studies.

 

[suninmyeyes]

SOG i had same expirience like you -- so often , since childhood . Infact I have learned at early age to wake myself up by caughing so that it does not continue , as it used to scare me when little . Noone could explain it to me and my mum was worried and helpless .

Sometimes as soon as I would lay down my body would freeze , still today I wake myself in middle of night and have to stay up for like 5 min , just sit up or get a glass ofwater or piece of fruit to make myself heaveier so that I dont just "float off" .

After becoming an adult and doing meditation I understood all what was happening .

Edited March 9, 2014 by suninmyeyes

[SonOfTheGods]

SOG i had same expirience like you -- so often , since childhood . Infact I have learned at early age to wake myself up by caughing so that it does not continue , as it used to scare me when little . Noone could explain it to me and my mum was worried and helpless .

Sometimes as soon as I would lay down my body would freeze , still today I wake myself in middle of night and have to stay up for like 5 min , just sit up or get a glass ofwater or piece of fruit to make myself heaveier so that I dont just float off .

After becoming an adult and doing meditation I understood all what was happening .

 

Frozen- I once strained all the muscles, ligaments etc, in my throat and jaw from trying to talk/yell/scream lol as a child.

 

Best thing to do is either go with it- explore etc

 

or remain calm and move your finger toe etc

 

Welcome to the Immortals -you have viewed what life after death entails with your vehicle - though even here- some people may tell you that you're hyper delusional

Edited March 8, 2014 by SonOfTheGods

[silent thunder]

Cool stuff, thanks for sharing.

 

Had my first OOBE at age four.

Have had several since, but never at my own direction.

 

I no longer feel compelled to convince or defend anything to those without the experience, as it's pointless. Their reality tunnel will not accommodate the information, so until experience comes to them, I smile and wish them well.

 

Having such an experience so early though, was a massive gift.

For me, there can be no fear of death in the face of such an experience.

 

edit to add: explaining OOBE to one who has never experienced it is like explaining sex to a toddler.

Edited October 25, 2014 by silent thunder

[suninmyeyes]

Frozen- I once strained all the muscles, ligaments etc, in my throat and jaw from trying to talk/yell/scream lol as a child.

 

Best thing to do is either go with it- explore etc

 

or remain calm and move your finger toe etc

 

Welcome to the Immortals -you have viewed what life after death entails with your vehicle - though even here- some people may tell you that you're hyper delusional

 

Yes best go with it and it can be actually very pleasent expirience as well , so good feeling .

But generally I want to sleep and be uncounciouss and rested especially if have to work the day after .

Anyone can tell me that I am hyper delusional and new age and not scientific -- could not care less . There so much more to life than what is scientifically accepted .

 

However addmitingly , there are some things regarding different personal expiriences I need little deeper insight and more clarity to understand properly ...

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

I believe I left my body.

 

When I "died."

 

Perhaps I spontaneously do it in meditation, but I am not truly aware of it.

 

It's all most strange.

 

Also, for a time in my teens I experienced lucid dreaming.

 

By that I mean when I dreamt, I knew I was dreaming, I could determine events and so on in the dream at will with a certain omnipotence, limited perhaps now I recall. I could also wake at will.

 

It would be nice to attempt some conscious dreamwork/astral travel, perhaps attempting to connect with some of the members here.

 

I did download that free e-book by Michael Raduga, "Teaching out of body travel and lucid dreaming."

 

Did anyone else take a look at that?

 

Funnily enough, in the fiction work I reading at the moment, Julian May's "Intervention" a group of parapsychologists and "functional meta-operants" have just demonstrated "excorporeal excursion" (astral travel) in front of television cameras broadcasting to an astonished world.

...

Edited March 8, 2014 by Captain Mar-Vell

[thelerner]

If you're going to be delusional, its probably better to be hyper-delusional. To be hyper realistic, may be to close some important doors and avenues of experience. The people who believe OBE's are the one's most likely to master the phenomena. Whether its traveling astrally, dimensionally or within a lucid dream, they'll gain an experience a nay sayer won't approach.

 

I trust Rawn Clarks work. Not that he teach's OBE, but according to some of his old writings he had consistent astral meet ups with a group of other high level hermetic magicians. These meetings were preplanned with real people and they'd later talk about it online or over the phone for confirmation. Does he have any proof of the meetings, no. Does he have any interest in proving they're possible or existed, no. Still, there's a large amount of evidence such a phenomena exists. High level stuff, and a telephone is much easier, still.. fascinating..

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...
Yeah, I guess Skype is easier.

...

[SonOfTheGods]

High level stuff, and a telephone is much easier, still.. fascinating..

 

Maybeeeeee, NSA proof ?

[suninmyeyes]

I will have to say here for all general disbilievers out there( no one specific ) , that I am very sceptical if someone who consider themselves to be serious cultivator and has no idea what their dreams are about and how they connect to waking life .

Further more sceptical if someone is not at least sometimes awake/aware to some degree within dream as this is just natural continuation of being aware during waking state .

[silent thunder]

I will have to say here for all general disbilievers out there( no one specific ) , that I am very sceptical if someone who consider themselves to be serious cultivator and has no idea what their dreams are about and how they connect to waking life .

Further more sceptical if someone is not at least sometimes awake/aware to some degree within dream as this is just natural continuation of being aware during waking state .

 

I've had so many incredibly realistic and vivid experiences in the dream scape that my suspicion is that the awakening buddha speaks of and the tao intimates, is akin to becoming lucid during 'waking life'.

[SonOfTheGods]

I will have to say here for all general disbilievers out there( no one specific ) , that I am very sceptical if someone who consider themselves to be serious cultivator and has no idea what their dreams are about and how they connect to waking life .

Further more sceptical if someone is not at least sometimes awake/aware to some degree within dream as this is just natural continuation of being aware during waking state .

Hey!

Yes, I agree with you 100%.

But I am generally skeptical of most people anyway.

[Zhongyongdaoist]

I've had so many incredibly realistic and vivid experiences in the dream scape that my suspicion is that the awakening buddha speaks of and the tao intimates, is akin to becoming lucid during 'waking life'.

 

This is what the Dream Yoga is all about.

 

Here is a question for you all. Do any of you really understand what it is that you are experiencing when you are 'in the body', that you can really frame any meaningful questions about what it means to be 'out of body'?

 

The question is rhetorical and an invitation to self examination, to ask yourself what you believe and why you believe what you believe, about your being right now. The only important answer is your own. Don't bug me about it.

[tendou]

I thought this kind of experience is normal for you guys here. But alas, not many seems to have experience this. Looking at all the jeer and criticism. Haha

 

 

Actually, it is very hard to be objective in the oobe state. You practically need to be emotionless. Your emotion will color your experience.

 

So, to see the near real thing, one must control their mind and emotion, and must minimise imagination and expectation as best as best as they can. You don't want to mix perception with imagination. What you think will come into existance quickly, if not immediately.

 

If you're excited, you may create something from your imagination. Or you may even forgot what your original objectives to verify something, and do something else entirely.

 

 

It takes very skilled person to verify things. They need to stay in the zone that is as near as possible to the physical reality. And it is not that hard to shift into different zone, involuntarily.

 

Thats why for verifying, remote viewing is much more accurate. You got a copilot that can guide you.

Edited March 9, 2014 by tendou

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

I might be interested in assisting with conducting some remote viewing experiments.

 

For sometimes when we dream we wake,

To take the grail our thirst to slake..

...

Edited March 9, 2014 by Captain Mar-Vell

[Aeran]

OBE's should be easy to test. Yet I haven't found definitive proof that such travel is real. Lots of anecdotal stories of astral meetups, but little scientific proof. I'm not looking for lab stuff, just simple, what card is face up in the next room. In his earliest book, Stephen LaBerge who ran a sleep lab that did scientific work and testing on lucid dreaming, having trained oeneirauts, thought that OBE's were a subset of lucid dreaming, and not actual out of body travel.

 

If anyone has links I'd be love to see them.

 

http://www.amazon.com/My-Big-TOE-Complete-Trilogy/dp/0972509461

 

Talks about the scientific investigation of OBE's at length.

 

I'm fairly sure Dean Radin touches on it in his work somewhere, but I can't remember where exactly.