Technology Can Induce Out of Body Experiences

One company in France offers participants in its program the opportunity to go through a near death experience. Popular night time radio show host Art Belle underwent one and told his listeners of the experience. A related phenomenon often believed in by New Agers and Neo-Pagans but which skeptic are no less critical of has been replicated by using virtual reality technology. The Skeptic's dictionary which can be found at www.skepdic.com defines an OBE as "a feeling of departing from one's physical body and observing both one's self and the world from outside the body."

People who have had out of body experiences (OBEs) believe that they literally leave their bodies. Two teams researching the matter were able to con the brain into having an out of body experience by using goggles and the sensation of the body being touched. The use of the technology may seem frivolous at first but will likely see application in video games and enable surgeons to operate on patients from potentially thousands of miles away.

OBEs in the past have thought to have been linked to dangerous situations such and near death experiences and more likely to be experienced by people who had some reason to be unhappy or depressed with their body. Researchers ad London's University College and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology thought a neurological explanation that might explain the phenomenon.

The idea behind the study was to test how the visual first person view of self affects our perception. The study found that when the "virtual self" was threatened even though the participants in the study were in no actual danger, the body's mechanisms responded as though the participant were about to undergo some form of danger.

The research may come as a surprise for people who believe in the reality of near body's experiences, but the point was simply to determine how the senses play a role in the consciousness of an individual. As for the opportunity to undergo a near death experience offered by the French company, something about being brought that close to death deliberately will likely fail to appeal to most people. The rich thrill seekers might continue to elect to undergo it, but the vast majority of the population will continue to pass.

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6960612.stm

"Researchers Induce Out of Body Experiences." Friday, August 24, 2007. The Daily Item. Sunbury, PA

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6960612.stm