Last year I was returning home from my vacation, and I was down with a severe viral infection. So when my flight took off and the wheels left the runway, I had this really odd but strong sensation that I left my body behind. And honestly, it was the first time a flight taking off affected me this way. I had never felt so “light” in my whole life. Was it an out-of-body experience? Maybe. Or maybe it was just the fever and medications playing games with my mind. Who knows. But the more I read about out-of-body experiences (OBEs), the more I want to believe that it really happened. You’ve probably heard about this phenomenon before. It feels as if your consciousness has been detached from your body. OBEs can be induced using different methods such as chemicals, body position, strong gravitational forces, meditation, hypnosis, and visualization techniques. They can also be triggered spontaneously because of various situations. These can include near-death experiences, sleep, and medical and mental health conditions. People who experience it often report a sense of floating outside their body, looking down at themselves from a height, and feeling like it's “very real.” While it might sound like something paranormal or straight out of a horror film, here’s where it gets interesting. Experts actually conducted experiments to prove that it was real. That’s where neuroscientist Marina Weiler of the University of Virginia comes into the picture. She ran a test with 21 OBE practitioners and thought that it was a failure. However, 2 participants reported something extremely unusual that nobody saw coming. The results also raised many questions, and we talk all about it in this article. Marvel Studios Out-of-body experiences are nothing new; people have had them for ages. Ancient philosophers have also documented them. Many cultures across the globe have described them, showing that it’s a complex, universal phenomenon. Research suggests that around 5% of the population will have at least one OBE during their lifetime. This experience raises questions like how practitioners see something when their eyes are closed in a different place and what they really see. Experts have been fascinated by these questions for years. They have tried to test perception of out-of-body experiences with a simple experiment: hiding something from the practitioner’s senses and then checking whether they can describe it. Let’s look at a fiercely debated 1968 study. Psychologist and parapsychologist Charles Tart did an OBE test with a subject known as “Miss Z.” A randomly generated 5-digit number was hidden from her. Apparently, she correctly guessed it. But experts criticized the method and the lack of video evidence, which really undermined its credibility. Further attempts also got mixed reactions, and the results produced were inconclusive. As to what might be happening during an OBE, research by neuroscientist Olaf Blanke offered an answer in 2002. He discovered that stimulating a brain region called the temporoparietal junction (which helps the brain track body position) might cause an out-of-body experience. Even with a neurological explanation, many stones remained unturned. Vitaly Gariev / unsplash (not the actual photo) Neuroscientist Marina Weiler and her colleagues wanted to understand whether OBE practitioners could actually perceive something hidden from their senses. They conducted a trial in Brazil with 21 participants. Each one was asked to sit in a room hooked to an EEG machine that recorded their brain activity. The researchers were in another room with the door closed. Finally, in the 3rd room, a laptop with its screen facing a wall displayed one random image selected from a pool of 100. Even the researchers didn’t know which image a participant got, as they left the room after starting the randomization process. Then each participant was given time to engage in an out-of-body experience and report what they saw. Well, it was hardly surprising that only 13 of 21 people reported impressions they thought were similar to the target image. Disappointingly, only 8 of the 13 actually had an OBE. The remaining 5 claimed they had an “inner vision,” which gave them clues about the target image, without leaving their bodies. The participants were told to give impressions of the target. Researchers didn’t want human bias to interfere with the results, so they used AI to compare each participant’s description to all 100 possible target images. They then ranked these impressions by how well they matched the target. If participants perceived the correct image, they should have ranked higher, but they ended up anywhere from 16th to 92nd. The results also felt like random guesses. Now you might think that it was a total failure, and even the experts might have dismissed it as such. Accuray (not the actual photo) Well, it quickly took an unexpected turn, and things got spooky, or rather, exciting. All 21 participants couldn’t perceive the images on the laptop. But we are forgetting there was one more room. The one where the researchers were sitting. Much to everyone’s shock, 2 participants shared impressions of what happened in this room. Participant 7 remarked that one researcher was in front of a computer screen to the right, and the other one was reading a book in a corner. The researchers’ positions were different from their usual arrangement, but what the participant reported was exactly true. Participant 13 also separately mentioned seeing one researcher taking notes on the right, and the other one at the computer on the left. This was also perfectly correct, and this time, too, the researchers were in different positions than usual. More importantly, the trial organizers reported that there was no other way the participants could have actually seen the researchers. I don’t know about you, but I got goosebumps! This was so weird and out of the blue that even the experts were taken aback. But here’s the thing: even though it was bizarre, it didn’t immediately turn into proof of an OBE. After all, it just happened randomly and wasn’t part of the planned experiment. That’s why researchers called them interesting but inconclusive “anecdotes,” nothing more. Nonetheless, it reminded them of something similar that happened back in the 1960s. Arturo Portillo Robert Monroe was a famous out-of-body practitioner. Even he failed to identify the hidden target image during an experiment. Weirdly though, he mentioned seeing an unknown man with a technician outside the room. Well, the man in question was the technician’s husband, and he was actually there. In fact, Monroe had never really met this guy, so it was pretty wild. However, Charles Tart, the original researcher, dismissed this as weak evidence. He felt Monroe might have heard the visitor during a break, so it didn’t produce any meaningful results. While this old test and the new one might not have led to concrete conclusions, they raised a thoughtful question. What if the targets used in OBE studies might be part of the issue? I mean, images on a screen or hidden numbers might not be noticeable enough to grab attention during an out-of-body experience. Marina Weiler hopes this study encourages researchers to think creatively about how they test these experiences. “For me, the most important takeaway is that unexpected findings can sometimes help us ask better questions. We now have a specific idea that can be tested in future experiments, and that is exactly what science should do,” Weiler told UVA Health. She added, “I hope these findings encourage us to think more deeply about what they might mean for our understanding of consciousness and, ultimately, the nature of reality. If studies demonstrate that people can obtain accurate information that they could not have accessed through their ordinary senses, we would have to reconsider some of our assumptions about the relationship between consciousness, perception and the physical world.” Curated Lifestyle (not the actual photo) To answer this million-dollar question, I would again go back to what Marina Weiler said. She claimed that at its deepest level, the research is not only asking whether out-of-body experiences are real. Weiler believes that it is asking what we mean by ‘real’ in the first place, and whether our current understanding of reality is broad enough to account for everything human consciousness can experience. When we question the nature of reality and consciousness during OBEs, we can’t not speak about the spiritual side of it. Spiritual experts claim that long before modern neuroscience took an interest, spiritual traditions described out-of-body experiences as natural expressions of expanded awareness. They emphasize that across cultures, these states were not framed as unusual but as accessible moments in which consciousness loosens its identification with the physical body. Within these teachings, they add, the experience is often understood as a shift in perception rather than an escape from the body. Marvel Studios Today, a few centers and art galleries claim to offer OBE services because OBE is apparently considered beneficial. William Buhlman is a leading expert on out-of-body experiences and has conducted a 12-year survey of over 16,000 people. He says the reported benefits of out-of-body experiences extend far beyond the limits of our physical senses and our intellect. “After an OBE, many people report an inner awakening of their spiritual identity, a transformation of their self-concept, and a dramatic elimination of their fear of death. They see themselves as more than matter—more aware and alive,” he explains. FilmDistrict Spiritualists argue that OBEs prove the conscious mind, or even the soul, can leave the body. Meanwhile, neuroscientists strongly believe OBEs are physical events that occur in the brain when neural processes go awry. They add that people’s recollections of seeing themselves from above could be a form of hallucination or false memory, as they try to make sense of their experiences. However, the new study does make you question how the participants were able to tell the researchers’ exact positions if they were just hallucinations or false memories. I guess the debate about out-of-body experiences being scientific, spiritual, or just a philosophy that can’t really be explained will always rage on. Ultimately, I think it all peters out to which side of the debate you believe. But whichever side you choose, you can’t deny one thing: humans are shrouded in mysteries. Despite decades of research, we can still surprise ourselves with new discoveries. So if further scientific research proves anything, I’ll be the first to hop on an OBE journey.
