Archive for August 28th, 2007

Is it just Me…Out of my Body?

Posted on August 28, 2007. Filed under: Science, Spirituality |

One of the hottest Internet topics over the weekend was the “discovery” by “scientists” that “out-of-body experiences” can be “induced”.  You will see by my overuse of “quotation marks” that I have some “opinions” about “this”.  (OK, I’ll stop with the quotes).

The most balanced article (in my view) on this was by Scientific American.  I appreciate that while their piece described the two recent studies well, they also point out …neither of these illusions precisely match the classic example of the out-of-body experiences reported by patients near death who say they floated out of their bodies but were able to continue observing scenes from above or elsewhere in the room.

I was amazed, although perhaps not surprised, by the flood of comment from the secular scientific community indicating that these studies are a validation of reason and sense, as opposed to, apparently, religious hogwash, superstition, and new-age nuttiness.

I am all for scientific research.  I’m not opposed to metaphysical opinion.  I don’t proclaim a conclusive point of view on whether or not out-of-body experiences are Real.  It could be argued that a virtual reality experience is as real as a Real experience in that the experiencer is experiencing it!  However, that’s up to the individual to decide.

As I was getting ready to post this piece, I came across a post by fellow blogger MrGnome, and am grateful for his input.  This person is a Real Scientist, and I enjoyed the fact that his article pointed out the scientific applications of Virtual Reality research while still allowing for other explanations for consciously experienced phenomena.

The thing that struck me when I read the actual experiments, and the reports of the feelings felt by the test subjects, was that, if anything, they’ve presented even more support for the non-locality of consciousness.  The studies show that our Self, or Consciousness, does not necessarily reside exclusively within the body.  (Please see Dr. Dean Radin‘s  and/or  Dr. Bruce Lipton‘s work).  I thank the British and Swiss experimenters for offering additional evidence!