At the moment of out-of-body experience (OBE), the person feels like they are positioned above the physical body. This is usually accompanied by a feeling of floating or flying. Researchers from Turkey – Tekgün Ege and Erdeniz Burak – have found that seizures, as well as artificial stimulation of the brain or damage to certain areas of the brain, can cause OBEs. Healthy people, according to the authors, may experience conditions similar to OBE, which can be induced using virtual reality.
In an experiment involving 30 volunteers, the illusion of leaving the body was made possible using a virtual reality helmet combined with visual and tactile incentives: the volunteers felt stroking and tapping sensations on their skin while observing a virtual body.
The researchers created two virtual characters – a man and a woman – which were assigned to the volunteers according to gender. When the participants looked down, they saw a virtual body in a position corresponding to their physical body, 14 meters below.
The experiment was carried out in two versions: one standing and one lying on their backs. As the authors add, statistics show that OBEs occur more often when people are lying down. However, participants noted stronger feelings of floating and lifting as well as a wider visual-spatial perspective when standing.
What do you think: to what extent does this kind of illusion correspond to a real out-of-body experience?
The article was published in January 2022 in the journal Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience.
