From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also

• 
  Anomalous operation
  
• 
  James Randi
  
• 
  -kinesis
  
• 
  Parapsychology
  
• 
  Pseudoscience
  
• 
  Pyrokinesis
  
• 
  Spoon bending
  
• 
  Silva Method
  

[edit]

References

• 
  Radin, Dean, The Conscious Universe, Harper Collins, 1997, ISBN 0062515020.
  
• 
  Ronson, Jon, The Men who Stare at Goats, Picador, 2004, ISBN 0330375474
  

[edit]

External links

• 
  Paranormal Forums Paranormal Forums for discussion of all Paranormal related topics including Psychokinesis / Telekinesis.
  
• 
  Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) center
  
• 
  The RetroPsychoKinesis Project has links to many of the papers related to Helmut Schmidt's experiments.
  
• 
  PsiPog : Psychic Students In Pursuit Of Guidance
  Contains "How-To" information on a variety of psychic abilities, including Psychokinesis and Telekinesis.
  
• 
  Parapsychological Practitioners Society
  
• 
  Psi Online : A well-regarded repository of "how-to" information.
  
• 
  The Veritas Academy
  
• 
  realityshifters.com a collection of articles, stories, books and links on psychokinetic reality shifts
  

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychokinesis"

Out-of-body experience

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality.
This article has been tagged since February 2005.
See How to Edit and Style and How-to for help, or this article's talk page.

About one in 10 people claim to have had an Out of Body Experience (OBE) at some time in their lives, typically involving a sensation of floating and seeing their own physical body from outside themselves.

For some, the phenomenon occurred spontaneously, while for others it was linked to dangerous circumstances, a near-death experience, a dream-like state or use of alcohol or drugs. Despite this, relatively little is known about OBE (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4177912.stm).

Psychologists at Manchester University have set up (August 2005) an online survey that they hope about 3,000 people will fill out at: http://www.freeresponse.org/muobe2005/ .

Contents [hide] 1 Other types of projection 2 The OBE experience 2.1 Spontaneous OBEs 2.2 Other types of spontaneous OBEs 3 Non-spontaneous (or induced) OBEs 4 External verification of OBEs 5 Other observations of OBEs 6 Possible explanations 7 See also 8 External links

[edit]

Other types of projection

Astral projection:

Astral projection is a controversial interpretation of forced out-of-body experiences achieved either consciously or via lucid dreaming or deep meditation. Proponents of astral projection maintain that their consciousness or soul has transferred into an astral body (or "double"), which moves free of the physical body in a parallel world known as the "astral plane," which is said to exist via the "collective conscious." Unlike the typical OBE, astral projection does not typically posit that one's consciousness or soul actually travels through the day-to-day physical realm.

Virtual reality projection:

Part astral and part real time (as mentioned above), called Virtual Reality Projection by most, is when a projector moves on the physical plane, yet interacts with the astral plane at the same time. An example of this is if one walks into a "real" poster or picture, they are transported to a -perfect- reconstruction of this place/world by concentrated experiences and thoughts of every beholder of the concept of the picture. This is part of the reason many try to project, but admittedly only a speck in the (literally) infinite possibilities. This concept is associated with the occult and the New Age movement, and is not accepted by the majority of the scientific community.

Remote viewing:

In some instances, astral projectors have described details of the outside world whilst in projection that they could not have known beforehand. This has been studied extensively and is known as remote viewing. In remote viewing, however, the viewer does not leave his or her body, but "sees" remote sites by other means.

[edit]

The OBE experience

[edit]

Spontaneous OBEs

The following general observations can be made based on a collection of 66 case studies of firsthand accounts of "spontaneous" OBEs (those not part of a planned program to induce the experience) at Spiritual Spectrum Stories:

Initiation:

OBEs are often initiated through lucid dreaming, where one is aware they are dreaming, though other types of initiation are discussed later. The majority of subjects (55+ of the 66 cases), who claim to have had an OBE, reported being asleep, on the verge of sleep, or having been asleep shortly before the experience. A large percentage of these cases referred to situations where the sleep was not particularly deep (due to illness, noises in other rooms, emotional stress, exhaustion from overworking, frequent re-awakening, etc.). In most of these cases, the subjects then felt themselves "wake up"; about half then noted a feeling of physical paralysis.

There appear to be two common forms of such lucid experiences. The first involves lucid dreaming, where the subject is immersed in unrealistic worlds, or in a modified form of the reality with impossible or inconsistent features. A second experience is of a more physical nature where the environment is consistent with reality; this is often called an etheric or ethereal experience. This type can be frightening, as extremely realistic physical sensations may occur, often including magnetic and vibrating phenomena, loss of balance, and confusion. The person believes he has awoken physically and panic can be caused by the realization that limbs appear to be penetrating objects. Transition can occur between these states one or several times; this transition may feel much like awakening, including the sensation of numbness often felt on awakening.

Case Study Quotes:

• 
  I soon realized that I was capable of moving only my eyes. Neither my head nor fingers would budge. I remember desperately trying to move even a toe to no avail.
  

• 
  Suddenly I could no longer move or even lift a finger. As I was struggling to move, there was a sudden jerk and I was pushed out of my body and was floating upwards.
  

• 
  I had gone to bed, woke up suddenly and found that although I was fully conscious I couldn't move a muscle.
  

• 
  I lay paralyzed, unable to move or blink.
  

• 
  Then my mom woke me for school and I felt sensation slowly return to my limbs (before that I couldn't move anything).
  

Duration:

In some cases, the subjects either willed themselves out of their bodies or found themselves being pulled from their bodies (these were usually preceded by the feeling of paralysis). In other cases, the feeling of being outside the body was something suddenly realized after the fact; the subjects saw their bodies almost by accident.

Subjects claim they can (at will or otherwise) see a silver cord linking their astral form to their physical body. This cord mainly appears to a beginning traveler as assurance they will not become lost. However, even experienced travelers find it useful, claiming it is a fast way to return to the body.

The OBE is not generally long; on the order of a minute or so. Those who experience an OBE may note that the subjective experience is much longer than the objective time passing.

Conclusion:

The OBE may or may not be followed by other experiences which are self-reported as being "as real" as the OBE feeling; alternatively, they may fade into a state self-reported as dreaming, or they may wake completely.

The OBE is sometimes ended due to a fearful feeling of getting "too far away" from the body.

Many of these OBEs end with a feeling of suddenly "popping" or "snapping" back into their bodies.

• 
  I was lying in bed and I felt myself rising. This freaked me out, so I slammed back into my body.
  

• 
  As soon as I noticed myself still lying on the couch I was instantly shot back in my body.
  

• 
  I reached the floor and touched my bed in a sitting position. I whooshed back into my body.
  

• 
  I realized that I was floating and became very frightened. In that instant of revelation I felt a sense of great speed and an impact as though I had smashed into a brick wall. I "woke up" crumpled up at the bottom of my bed in the hotel.
  

• 
  I was pulled violently back into my body and I jerked.
  

• 
  The next moment I was fully awake and in my bed, no journey upstairs, nothing, I was back in an instant.
  

Some subjects experience spiritual epiphanies; others experience a general feeling of peacefulness and love; still others experience fearfulness and anxiety. Finally, some experience only the OBE itself, with no direct spiritual experience.

A majority describe the end of the experience as "then I woke up". It's worth noting that even those (perhaps especially those) who describe the experience as something fantastic that occurs during sleep, and who describe the end of the experience by saying "and then I woke up", are very specific in describing the experience as one which was clearly not a dream; many described their sense of feeling more awake than they felt when they were normally awake. One compared the experience to that of lucid dreaming, but said that it was "more real".

[edit]

Other types of spontaneous OBEs

A small minority of the OBEs were not accompanied by sleep.

Ghost walking:

• 
  I can remember walking home from junior school with my friend, and then, I saw myself in the distance walking and talking to her.
  

• 
  The next thing I knew, I looked straight out in the woods, and I had an OBE. I saw the lights from the back porch, I was about 100-150 feet away from the house looking at me and my friend.
  

• 
  The doctors did not use any anesthetic at the time because I was too young [two years old]. When they cut me open, I felt severe and intense pain and I left my body because it was too much for me to bear.
  

Near death experience:

Another form of a spontaneous OBE occurs during a near death experience (or NDE). The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and transcendental factors (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001) such as subjective impressions of being outside the physical body (an out-of-body experience), visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries and other transcendental experiences (Lukoff, Lu & Turner, 1998; Greyson, 2003). Typically the experience follows a distinct progression, starting with the sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area, followed by the sensation of passing through a tunnel, meeting deceased relatives, and concluding with encountering a being of light (Morse, Conner & Tyler, 1985).

[edit]