I thought everyone had OBEs…

steve001

Member
Perhaps with the study of this person a non mystical understanding can be made on what actually transpires during an obe.

A woman with a special skill is surprised that everyone doesn’t experience this.
After a class on out-of-body experiences, a psychology graduate student at the University of Ottawa came forward to researchers to say that she could have these voluntarily, usually before sleep. "She appeared surprised that not everyone could experience this," wrote the scientists in a study describing the case, published in February in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Pretty crazy, right? One would think that if you could leave your own body and float above it, you'd be a little more... vocal about it. But since it was a common experience for her--one she "began performing as a child when bored with 'sleep time' at preschool... moving above her body" instead of napping--it may have appeared unremarkable. This is way more interesting than what I did, which was indeed napping.

The most exciting thing about this case, to me, is "the possibility that this phenomenon may have a significant incidence but [is] unreported because people do not think this is exceptional," as the authors wrote. "Alternatively," they continued, "the ability might be present in infancy but is lost without regular practice. This would be reminiscent of the discovery and eventual study of synesthesia that some researchers now hypothesized is more prevalent in young people or can be developed." http://www.popsci.com/article/science/woman-who-can-will-herself-out-her-body
 
Perhaps with the study of this person a non mystical understanding can be made on what actually transpires during an obe.

I still don't really understand what it is that this lady says she is experiencing... have you actually read the paper...?
 
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And aren't there going to be neurological correlates in the brain no matter what a human is doing?
 
And aren't there going to be neurological correlates in the brain no matter what a human is doing?
Experience or qualia isn't important right now in this thread. Yes there will always be correlations. Correlations are good barometers for what the brain is doing and experiencing internally (in this case).
But since there are no real answers to what is actually happening physiologically during an obe. So this enables people too conjecture that these experiences are obe's when that may only brain processes. There probably is a non mystical explanation for the obe.
 
All she did was pretend she was floating above herself, I believe. Or at least that's what I got. Great evidence.
 
I still don't really understand what it is that this lady says she is experiencing... have you actually read the paper...?
It sounds to me you are asking a different question than what concerns these researchers. They are researching the manner of how she creates the experiences. Is that also what interests you?
 
Sometimes silence speaks the loudest.

This does seem like another attempt to hit low hanging fruit as there's nothing in there about veridical information being obtained.

IMO unless there's some accompanying event that makes us think the experience is paranomral, best to leave it in the maybe column.
 
I think the writing has been on the wall for "out of body experiences" since the TPJ connection was discovered. These kinds of result significantly increase the likelihood that OOBEs are displacements of the brain's sense of physical, space-occupying presence.

I wish it were not so. But I think it is.
 
It sounds to me you are asking a different question than what concerns these researchers. They are researching the manner of how she creates the experiences. Is that also what interests you?

My statement and my question to you at #2 had no hidden agenda...
 
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