It is generally accepted that emotions strongly affect our memory. On the other hand, emotions represent a sense of oneself in time and space within one’s own body. What effect do emotions have on our memory if we feel ourselves outside of the physical body?
In 2020, a team of researchers led by Konstantinos Christos Daoultzis conducted a curious experiment to recreate the illusion of out-of-body experience (OBE) using 3D imaging and acoustic stimulation. The scientists wanted to test a hypothesis of whether OBE affects our emotional memory. To answer this question, scientists took 44 volunteers and divided them into two groups: an OBE group and a control group.
The participants were asked to view a series of images with different emotional connotations: neutral, negative, and positive. To induce OBE, the authors used video recording, which allowed the participants to see themselves from the side on the screen and hear the sounds produced by touching their body. Thus, they identified themselves with the image “from the outside”. During the procedure, they were asked to look at the pictures again, and recognize the ones they had already seen.
The results of the experiment showed that participants who experienced the illusion of OBE performed better at tasks of recognizing emotional patterns. Thus, out-of-body experiences were found to improve emotional memory. Given the similarities between OBE and lucid dreaming, this discovery may also be useful for phase practitioners.
The study was published in 2020 in Psychology: the Journal of the Hellenic Psychological Society.
