Ugh. That’s a stretch. Sorry…

Here’s a reference-y bit for me: a NYT article reports on inducing Out-of-Body experience. And here, from the Telegraph. While not conclusive, of course, it does add to the ever-growing body of evidence that many supposedly paranormal things are simply due to the problems in the hard-wiring of our brains.

Basically, researchers induce an OBE by decoupling the sense of sight from their physical body through virtual reality goggles. (Oh wait, did I say basically?)

Money quote in the telegraph article from reformed parasychologist Susan Blackmore:

Dr Susan Blackmore, University of the West of England, commented: “Scientists have long suspected that the clue to these extraordinary, and sometimes life-changing, experiences lies in disrupting our normal illusion of being a self behind our eyes, and replacing it with a new viewpoint from above or behind. By using virtual reality techniques they have now shown that the feeling of being out of the body can actually be induced this way. This adds to previous work inducing OBEs in epileptics using direct brain stimulation, and extends it to healthy volunteers.

“Finding out that OBEs are a perfectly natural phenomenon does not prove there is no astral body, or soul, or spirit, but it certainly makes their invention superfluous. OBEs should be understood, not as evidence for the supernatural or life after death, but as a fascinating and exciting experience that potentially we can all have. Nothing really leaves the body in an OBE but the experience is no less interesting for that.”

That’s OBE, yeah, you know me, some more text after the break.

Continue reading