OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE FAQ written by Jouni A. Smed (jounsmed@utu.fi) Contents of OBE-FAQ:
OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE FAQ
written by Jouni A. Smed (jounsmed@utu.fi)
Contents of OBE-FAQ:
* [1]Introduction
* [2]What is an out-of-the-body experience?
* [3]What are ESP, PK and psi?
* [4]What theories have been put forward to account for the OBE?
* [5]What is an astral projection?
* [6]Is astral projection an adequate explanation?
* [7]What is animism?
* [8]Can the OBEer be seen as an apparition?
* [9]How can one find out what an OBE is like?
* [10]What is an average astral projection like?
* [11]What is an average OBE like?
* [12]How common are OBEs?
* [13]What are the prerequisites for inducing an OBE?
* [14]How to induce an OBE?
+ [15]Imagery Techniques
+ [16]Inducing a Special Motivation to Leave the Body
+ [17]Ophiel's 'Little System'
+ [18]The Christos Technique
+ [19]Robert Monroe's Method
+ [20]Ritual Magic Methods
+ [21]Meditation and Chakra Meditation
+ [22]Hypnosis
+ [23]Drugs
+ [24]Dream Development
+ [25]Palmer's Experimental Method
* [26]What are lucid dreams?
* [27]What is the physiology of dreams and lucid dreams?
* [28]What is the physiology of OBEs?
* [29]What are near-death experiences and are they some kind of
OBEs?
* [30]Is the OBE some kind of mental illness?
* [31]Are people who have greater imagery skills more likely to have
OBEs?
* [32]Are OBEs some kind of hallucination?
* [33]What are the features of OB vision?
* [34]How can the OBE be explained?
+ [35]Something Leaves the Body
o [36]Physical Theories
o [37]Physical Astral World Theory
o [38]Mental Astral World Theory
+ [39]Nothing Leaves the Body
o [40]Parapsychological Theory
o [41]Psychological Theories
+ [42]Other approaches
* [43]Out-of-Body Tools
* [44]References
_________________________________________________________________
Introduction
Much of the discussion of out-of-body experiences has centered around
the recounting of experiences and speculation on the nature of those
experiences. Some articles have questioned whether the experiences are
of an hallucinatory nature or purely a function of biochemical
processes that occur in the brain, and, at the other extreme, some
have linked them with notions of the existence of an immortal soul and
other ideas generally associated with religious interpretations of
human existence. Most readers are intrigued by the thought of being
able to have and control OBEs, and see them as a potentially
interesting experience, though some smaller number of people taking
part in discussions are interested in trying to figure out their
nature and function and their possible implications for the
understanding of what it means to be fully human.
What is an out-of-the-body experience?
Out-of-body-experiences (OBEs) are those curious, and usually brief
experiences in which a person's consciousness seems to depart from his
or her body, enabling observation of the world from a point of view
other than that of the physical body and by means other than those of
the physical senses. Thus, an out-of-the-body experience can initially
be defined as 'an experience in which a person seems to perceive the
world from a location outside his physical body' [Bla82]. In some
cases experients claim that they 'saw' and 'heard' things (objects
which were really there, events and conversations which really took
place) which could not have seen or heard from the actual positions of
their bodies.
OBEs are surprisingly common; different surveys have yielded somewhat
different results, but some estimates indicate that somewhere between
one person in ten and one person in twenty is likely to have had such
an experience at least once. Furthermore it seems that OBEs can occur
to anyone in almost any circumstances. Researchers have approached the
question of the timing of OBEs by asking people who claim to have had
OBEs to describe when they happened. In one of these, over 85 percent
of those surveyed said they had had OBEs while they were resting,
sleeping or dreaming [Bla84]. Other surveys also show that the
majority of OBEs occur when people are in bed, ill, or resting, with a
smaller percentage coming while the person is drugged or medicated
[Gre68a, Poy75]. But they can occur during almost any kind of
activity. Green cites a couple of cases in which motor-cyclists,
riding at speed, suddenly found themselves floating above their
machines looking down on their own bodies still driving along.
Accidents did not ensue. Pilots of high-flying airplanes (perhaps
affected by absence of vibration, and uniformity of sensory
stimulation) have similarly found themselves apparently outside their
aircraft struggling to get in. One might well struggle frantically
under such circumstances.
More curious still are reciprocal cases of OBE and apparition: the OBE
subject, aware that he is operating in some kind of duplicate body,
travels to a distant location where he sees a person and is aware of
being seen by that person; this person confirms that he saw an
apparition of the OBEer at the time that the OBEer claimed to be in
his presence. Thus the two experiences corroborate each other.
Not all OBEs occur spontaneously. Using various techniques, some
people have apparently cultivated the faculty of inducing them more or
less as desired, and a number have written detailed accounts of their
experiences. These accounts do not always in all respects square with
accounts given by persons who have undergone spontaneous OBEs. For
instance the great majority of those who experience OBEs voluntarily
state that they find themselves still embodied, but in a body whose
shape, external characteristics, and spatial location are easily
altered at will, and an appreciable number refer to an elastic 'silver
cord' joining their new body to their old one. A much smaller
percentage of those who undergo spontaneous OBEs mention being
embodied, and some specifically state that they found themselves
disembodied. The 'silver cord' is quite rarely mentioned. It is hard
to avoid suspecting that many features of self- induced OBEs are
determined by the subject's reading and his antecedent expectations.
Common aspects of the experience include being in an 'out-of-body'
body much like the physical one, feeling a sense of energy, feeling
vibrations, and hearing strange loud noises [GT84]. Sometimes a
sensation of bodily paralysis precedes the OBE [Sal82, Irw88, MC29,
Fox62]. OBEs, especially spontaneous ones, are often very vivid, and
resemble everyday waking experiences rather than dreams, and they may
make a considerable impression on those who undergo them. Such persons
may find it hard to believe that they did not in fact leave their
bodies, and they may draw the conclusion that we possess a separable
soul, perhaps linked to a second body, which will survive in a state
of full consciousness, perhaps even of enhanced consciousness, after
death. Death would be, as it were, an OBE in which one did not succeed
in getting back into one's body.
Such conclusions present themselves even more forcefully to the minds
of those who have undergone a 'near-death experience' (NDE). It is not
uncommon for persons who have been to the brink of death and returned
-- following, say, a heart stoppage or serious injuries from an
accident -- to report an experience (commonly of a great vividness and
impressiveness) as of leaving their bodies, and traveling (often in a
duplicate body) to the border of a new and wonderful realm. Reports
suggest that the conscious self's awareness outside the body is not
only unimpaired but enhanced: events which occurred during the period
of unconsciousness are described in accurate detail and confirmed by
those present. The subject sometimes 'hears' the doctor pronouncing
him dead when he feels intensely alive and free from physical pain,
and finds himself returning unwillingly to the constrictions of the
physical body. If OBEs show the capacity of the conscious self to have
experiences and perceptions outside the physical body, near-death
experiences seem to suggest that this capacity still obtains when the
physical body is totally unconscious.
The idea that we all have a double seems to spring naturally out of
that of the OBE. If you seem to be leaving your physical body and
observing things from outside it then it seems natural to assume that,
at least temporarily, you had a double. It also seems obvious that
this double could see, hear, think and move. This interpretation is
not necessarily valid. As Palmer has so carefully pointed out [Pal78a]
the experience of being out of the body is not equivalent to the fact
of being out.
According to the English psychologist Susan Blackmore the definition
of the OBE as an experience may not be a perfect definition but one of
its major advantages is that it does not imply any particular
interpretation of the OBE. The consequences of this definition are
important. First, since the OBE is an experience, then if someone says
he has had an OBE we have to believe him. Conceivably in the future we
might find ways of measuring, or establishing external criteria for,
the OBE, but at the moment we can only take a person's word for it.
Another related consequence is that the OBE is not some kind of
psychic phenomenon. As Palmer has explained, 'the OBE is neither
potentially nor actually a psychic phenomenon.' This view is a natural
consequence of any experiential definition. A private experience can
take any form you like. This experience may turn out to be one
associated with ESP and paranormal events, but it may not.
What are ESP, PK and psi?
'Extrasensory perception' (ESP) is a term coined by Dr. J. B. Rhine of
Duke University. It covers any instance of the apparent acquisition of
non- inferential knowledge of matters of fact without the use of the
known sense organs. ESP is usually said to have three varieties:
'telepathy,' in which the knowledge is of events in another person's
mind, 'clairvoyance,' in which the knowledge is of physical objects or
states of affairs; and 'precognition' (telepathic or clairvoyant),
where the knowledge relates to happenings still in the future. The
word 'knowledge' is, however, not entirely appropriate, for there may
be telepathic or clairvoyant 'interaction,' in which a person's mental
state or actions may be influenced by an external state of affairs,
though he does not 'know' or 'cognize' it.
Another American term is 'psychokinesis' (PK), the direct influence of
mental events on physical events external to the agent's body. 'Psi'
(from the Greek letter) is 'a general term to identify personal
factors or processes in nature which transcend accepted laws' [Gay74].
It is sometimes used to cover both ESP and PK.
What theories have been put forward to account for the OBE?
The notion of the human double has a long and colorful history. Plato
gave us an early idea. He believed that what we see in this life is
only a dim reflection of what the spirit could see if it were released
from the physical. Imprisoned in a gross physical body, the spirit is
restricted; separated from that body, it would be able to converse
freely with the spirits of the departed, and see things more clearly.
Another idea which can be traced to the Greeks is that we have second
body. The spirit or some subtle body would be able to see better
without its body. Aristotle taught that the spirit could leave the
body and that it is capable of communicating with the spirits, while
Plotinus held that all souls must be separable from their physical
bodies. This 'doctrine of the subtle body' runs through Western
tradition.
Homer regarded man as a composite being comprising three distinct
entities, namely the body (soma), the 'psyche,' and the thumos; this
last term is untranslatable, but is always closely associated with the
diaphragm/midriff (phrenes), which was considered to be the seat of
the will and feeling, perhaps even of the intellect. At this stage
(800 - 750 BC) the term psyche had not come to mean personal soul, but
rather it represented the impersonal life-principle which dwells in
the body but which is unrelated to the intellect and the emotions. A
fourth component, the 'image' ('eidolon'), might also be included in
human make-up; it was this aspect of self which acted and appeared in
dreams, where it was considered as a real figure.
Dionysus' early followers in Thrace reenacted his death and
resurrection in a gruesome ceremony, where they tore a live bull to
pieces with their teeth, and then roamed about the woods shouting
frantically. Later rituals were hardly less barbaric and frenzied; all
were calculated to induce a stage of religious madness or mania. They
took place at night to the accompaniment of loud music and cymbals,
thus exciting the chorus of worshippers who soon joined in with shouts
of their own. Dancing was so violent that no breath was left for
singing, and eventually the worshippers induced through their excesses
a state of such exaltation and rapture that it seemed to them that the
ordinary limits of life had been transcended, that they were
'possessed,' their soul having temporarily left the body. The soul was
in a condition of enthousiasmos (inside the god) and ekstasis (outside
the body); liberated from the confines of the body it enjoyed
communion with the god.
Perhaps the most pervasive idea relating to other bodies is that on
death we leave our physical body and take on some subtler or higher
form. This notion has roots not only in Greek thought and in much of
later philosophy, but also in many religious teachings. Some Eastern
religions include specific doctrines on the forms and abilities of
other bodies and the nature of other worlds; and in Christianity there
are references to a spiritual body. Some religious works can be seen
as preparing the soul for its transition at death.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, or Bardo Thodol (meaning Liberation by
Hearing on the After-Death Plane) was first committed to writing in
the eighth century AD, although the editor, Dr W. Y. Evans-Wentz, has
no doubt that it represents 'the record of belief of innumerable
generations in a state of existence after death.' It is thought that
its teachings were initially handed down orally, then finally compiled
and recorded by a number of authors. The book is used as a funeral
ritual, and is read out as a guide to the recently deceased. It
contains an elaborate description of the moment of death, the stages
of mind experienced by the deceased at various stages of post-mortem
existence, and the path to liberation or rebirth, as the case may be.
The Bardo body, also referred to as the desire- or propensity-body, is
formed of matter in an invisible and etheral-like state and is, in
this tradition, believed to be an exact duplicate of the human body,
from which it is separated in the process of death. Retained in the
Bardo body are the consciousness-principle and the psychic nervous
system (the counterpart, for the psychic or Bardo body, of the
physical nervous system of the human body) [Eva60]. Due to its nature,
the Bardo body is able to pass through matter, which is only solid and
impenetrable to the senses, but not to the instruments of modern
physics; and the fact that the conscious self is not embedded in
matter enables it to travel instantly where it desires. Flights of the
imagination become objectively real, the wish comes true.
In his introductions to The Egyptian Book of the Dead -- called in the
language of that people 'Pert Em Hru' ('Emerging by Day') -- Wallis
Budge points out that its chapters 'are a mirror in which are
reflected most of the beliefs of the various races which went to build
up the Egyptians of history.' As all commentators have hastened to
indicate, the Book of the Dead is not a unity but a collection of
chapters of varying lengths and dating from different ages. A
selection of these would be made for the deceased, and would be copied
on the walls of the tomb or inscribed on the sides of the sarcophagi;
or they might even be written on scrolls of papyri which were then
laid within the folds of the bodycloths. The extracts meant to benefit
the deceased in a variety of ways.
In the Egyptian Book of the Dead the perishable physical body,
preservable only by mummification, is called the khat. Next comes the
ka, which is generally translated as 'double,' and is defined by
Wallis Budge as 'an abstract individuality or personality which
possessed the form and attributes of the man to whom it belonged, and,
though its normal dwelling place was in the tomb with the body, it
could wander about at will; it was independent of the man and could go
and dwell in any statue of him.'
The ba, or heart-soul, is depicted as a bird and is often translated
as 'soul.' It is sometimes conceived of as an animating principle
within the body, but elsewhere it is hinted that one only becomes a ba
after death, when it either dwells with the ka in the tomb or with Ra
or Osiris in heaven. The ba is often referred to in connection with
the spiritual soul (khu), which was regarded as imperishable and
existed in the spiritual body (sahu). The sahu was originally
considered to be a more material body, and may have formed a part of
an early and literal view of the resurrection, whereby the sahu, ba,
ka, khaibit (shadow) and ikhu (vital force) all came together again
after 3,000 years, and the man was reanimated. Gradually the sahu came
to be regarded as more spiritual in its compositions, and the idea of
physical resurrection lost its prominence. It was believed that this
sahu was germinated from the physical body, provided that it was not
corrupt, and that the appropriate ceremonies had been performed by the
priests.
The Egyptians agree with the Primitives and the Tibetans in asserting
a form of continued existence after physical death. Their notions are
less psychologically consistent and subtle than those of the Tibetans,
but much more complex and symbolically developed than those of the
Primitives, whom they resemble only in the earliest stages of their
civilisation. Their unique features center round the overwhelming
dread of physical corruption and corresponding longing for the
germination of the indestructible sahu in which the khu will exist
'for millions and millions of years.'
One of the directly relevant ideas derives from the teachings of
Theosophy. Within a scheme involving several planes and several
bodies, the OBE is interpreted as a projection of the 'astral body'
from the physical body. Theosophical ideas have influenced the
thinking and terminology of many OBE researchers since many people
reporting OBEs have found terms like 'astral projection' which derive
from Theosophy to be useful in describing their experiences. Other
researchers, however, find such terminology and the model it has been
devised to describe to be unnecessarily biased in favor of a certain
'esoteric' interpretation of the actual experiences.
The idea that we have a double also appears in popular mythology.
Often these doubles have sinister overtones, or are associated with
the darker side of the psyche, but usually they are supposed to be
quite harmless. These phenomena seem to be related to the OBE in that
they involve a double, but there the resemblance ends.
Dean Sheils [She78] compared the beliefs of over 60 different cultures
by referring to special files kept for anthropological research. Of 54
cultures for which some information was reported, 25 (or 46%) claimed
that most or all people could travel outside the physical body under
certain conditions. A further 23 (or 43%) claimed that a few of their
number were able to do so, and only three cultures expressed no belief
in anything of this nature. In a further three cultures the
possibility of OBEs was admitted but the proportion of people who
could experience it was not given. From this evidence, we can conclude
that some form of a belief in out-of-body experiences is very common
in various cultures.
Apparently, as many cultures interpret dreams as OBEs as those which
do not. The notion that one may induce an OBE deliberately is not
entirely absent from the cultures included by Sheils, though it is
usually confined to certain types of people. Often only shamans can
achieve OBEs, sometimes by using special drugs or methods for inducing
a trance. Of those cultures described by Sheils, there were several in
which there was a common belief that the soul could travel in earthly
places, while in others the general belief was that the soul could
only move in the world of the dead or spirits, and in others both
kinds of soul travel were accepted.
There are stories of bilocation in which the physical body exists and
acts in two separate places at once. But physical effects in OBE are
rare. Also related to OBEs are the phenomena of traveling
clairvoyance, ESP projection and remote viewing. 'Traveling
clairvoyance' was used to describe a form of clairvoyance in which a
medium or sensitive seemed to observe a distant place, therefore it
included both OBEs and experiences in which the clairvoyant
'perceived' the distant scene but without any experience of leaving
the body. In both 'traveling clairvoyance' and 'ESP projection' the
occurrence of ESP is presupposed, but the experience of leaving the
body is not. Remote viewing is a recent and better-defined term.
Typically a subject describes or draws his impressions while an
'outbound experimenter' visits randomly selected remote locations.
Later the descriptions and the locations are matched up. Remote
viewing has often been compared with OBEs, and sometimes subjects who
can have OBEs are used in remote viewing experiments.
Many people have argued that the OBE itself is some kind of dream and
involves no double other than an imaginary one. However, an ordinary
dream does not have those important features of the experient seeming
to leave the body and being conscious of perceiving things as they
occur. In this sense OBEs are better compared with lucid dreams, which
are dreams in which the sleeper realizes, at the time, that he or she
is dreaming. In such an experience, the sleeper may become perfectly
conscious in the dream, which makes the experience very much like an
OBE.
The experience of seeing one's own double has been called 'autoscopy'
or 'autoscopic hallucinations.' Here again the double is not the
'real' or conscious person. It is seen as another self, but the
original self still appears the most real. In the OBE it is the
'other' which seems most alive.
It has been argued that the OBE is an hallucination, and any other
body or double is likewise hallucinatory. There are in fact many
similarities between some kinds of hallucinations and OBEs.
Among other experiences difficult to disentangle from OBEs are a
variety of religious and transcendental experiences. People may feel
that they have grown very large or very small, becoming one with the
Universe or God. Everything is seen in a new perspective, and may seem
'real' for the very first time. It is difficult to draw a line between
a religious experience and an OBE and any line one does draw may seem
artificial or arbitrary.
What is an astral projection?
Superficially, the idea of having a double may seem to explain the
OBE. However, as soon as this idea is pursued, problems become obvious
and the system has to get more complicated to deal with those
problems. One of the most complex, and certainly the most influential,
of such systems is the theory of astral projection, based on the
teachings of theosophy. In 1875 Madame Blavatsky founded the
Theosophical Society in New York, to study Eastern religions and
science. From her teachings, brought back from her travels in India
and elsewhere, a complex scheme evolved. According to the
Theosophists, man is not just the product of his physical body, but is
instead thought to be a complex creature consisting of many bodies,
each finer and more subtle than the one 'below' it. These bodies
should be thought of as an outer garment which can be thrown off to
reveal the true man within.
Although there are variations in the details, it is commonly claimed
that there are seven great planes and seven corresponding bodies or
vehicles. The grossest of all is the physical body, of flesh, with
which we are all familiar. There is supposed to be another body also
described as physical known as the 'etheric double,' or 'vehicle of
vitality.' Etheric double is the manifestation of physical vitality.
It is constant and does not change throughout the cycles of life and
death, but it is not eternal, for it is eventually re-absorbed into
the elements of which it is composed. This 'double' acts as a kind of
transmitter of energy, keeping the lower physical body in contact with
the higher bodies. Etheric substance is seen as an extension of the
physical.
Next up the scale is supposed to be the 'astral world' and its
associated 'astral body', or the 'vehicle of consciousness'. These
entities are thought to be finer than their etheric counterparts and
correspondingly harder to see. Astral body is thought to be 'a replica
of the physical body (the gross body), but of a more subtle and tenous
substance, penetrating every nerve, fibre and cell of the physical
organism, and constantly in a supersensitive state of vibration and
pulsation' [Gay74].
The astral world consists of astral matter, and all physical objects
have a replica in the astral. There is therefore a complete physical
copy of everything in the astral world, but in addition there are
things in the astral which have no counterpart in the physical. There
are thought forms created by human thought, elementals and the lowest
of the dead, who have gone no further since they left the physical
world. All these entities and many others are used in ritual magic,
and thought forms can be specially created to carry out tasks such as
healing, carrying messages, or gaining information.
In the scheme just described, those who have the ability are supposed
to be able to see the nature of a person's thoughts by changes in the
color and form of the astral body. All around the physical can be seen
the bright and shining colors of the larger astral body, making up the
astral aura. The aura is multi-colored and brilliant, or dull,
according to the character or quality of the person and therefore 'to
the seer, the aura of a person is an index to his hidden propensities'
[Gay74].
All these conceptions are of special relevance because of the fact
that the astral body is supposed to be able to separate from the
physical and travel without it. Since the astral is the vehicle of
consciousness, it is this body which is aware, not the physical. It is
said that in sleep the astral body leaves the sleeping body. In the
undeveloped person, little memory is retained and the astral body is
vague and its travels are limited and directionless, but in the
trained person the astral can be controlled, can travel great
distances in sleep, and can even be projected from the physical body
at will. It is this which is called astral projection.
In astral projection the consciousness can travel almost without
limitation, but it travels in the astral world. It therefore sees not
the physical objects, but their astral counterparts, and in addition
the beings that live in the astral realms. The astral world has been
known as the 'world of illusion' or world of thoughts. The unwary
traveler can become confused by the power of his own imaginings. In
this state one can appear, as an apparition to anyone who has 'astral
sight.' Indeed one can appear to other too, but to do so requires some
involvement of lower matter, for example of etheric matter, as in
ectoplasm. Ectoplasm is considered to be the materialization of the
astral body and is described as 'matter which is invisible and
impalpable in its primary state, but assuming the state of a vapour,
liquid or solid, according to its stage of condensation' [Gay74].
An aspect of astral traveling which has become important in later
writings, though it appears little in early theosophy, is the silver
cord. It is held that in life the astral body is connected to its
physical body by an infinitely elastic but strong cord, of a flowing
and delicate silver color. Traditionally the cord must remain
connected or death will ensue. As one approaches death, the astral
gradually loosens itself, lifts up above the physical, and then the
cord breaks to allow the higher bodies to leave. Death is thus seen as
a form of permanent astral projection.
Beyond the astral Theosophy distinguishes a further five levels. These
include the mental or devachnic world, the buddhic, the nirvanic, and
two others so far beyond our understanding that they are rarely
described. The task of every person is to progress through all of
these.
Is astral projection an adequate explanation?
Many investigators are convinced of the reality of astral projection.
Among the best known are Muldoon and Carrington, and Crookall. Sylvan
Muldoon claimed to be able to project at will and described his
experiences in The Projection of the Astral Body [MC29] written in
collaboration with the psychical researcher Hereward Carrington.
Together these two collected many cases of spontaneous OBEs which they
amassed as support for the reality of astral projection. Many years
later Robert Crookall [Cro61-78], in more systematic fashion, did much
the same thing. Many of the people who report OBEs have found the
notion of astral projection helpful, and describe their experiences in
these terms.
There are several serious problems with the theory of astral
projection, as pointed out by Susan Blackmore [Bla82]. The first is
that many OBEs simply do not fit well into the astral projection
framework. Celia Green [Gre68a] has collected many cases in which the
person describes no astral body, indeed no other body at all. Also
very few people actually report any cord, let alone the traditional
silver cord.
Of course this type of experience can be fitted in by saying that the
experient's astral vision was clouded, or the astral body or cord too
fine to be seen, but these methods of attempting to account for actual
experience begin to weaken the theory. Blackmore criticizes the
complexity of the theory of astral projection as it tries to account
for new facts. And this relates to the second problem, its
'stretchability.' In her opinion the theory is so complicated and
flexible that almost anything can be stretched to fit it and it makes
hard to draw definite predictions from the theory. If you don't see
the features you should, your astral vision is not clear enough, or
memory was not passed on from higher levels. If you fail to make
yourself visible to someone else then not enough etheric matter was
involved and so on. In this way the 'theory' is in danger of
explaining everything and nothing. Furthermore, any theory which is
untestable is useless in scientific terms.
What is animism?
A school of thought has grown up within parapsychology, and around its
fringes, which takes very seriously the idea of death being an OBE in
which one did not succeed in getting back into one's body. Gauld
[Gau82] refers to this school of thought as the 'animistic' school
(anima = soul), 'animism' being the view that every human mind,
whether in its before death or after death state 'is essentially and
inseparably bound up with some kind of extended quasi-physical
vehicle, which is not normally perceptible to the senses of human
beings in their present life' [Bro62]. An argument which one commonly
hears from members of the animistic school runs as follows: OBEs and
near-death experiences are, so far as we can tell, universal. They
have been reported from many different parts of the world and in many
different historical eras. The experiences of the persons concerned
therefore must reflect genuine features of the human constitution; for
we cannot possibly suppose that they derive from a common stream of
religious tradition or folk-belief -- the societies from which they
have been reported are too widely separated in space and time for the
common-origin idea to be a serious possibility.
The most powerful shot in the the animist's locker remains, however,
still to be mentioned. There are some cases -- by no means a
negligible number -- in which a person who is undergoing an OBE, and
finds himself at or 'projects' himself to a particular spot distant
from his physical body, has been seen at that very spot by some person
present there. Such cases are generally known as 'reciprocal' cases.
Thus the animist, starting from his study of OBEs and NDEs, claims to
have direct evidence that after death we remain the conscious
individuals that we always have been and that the 'vehicle' of our
surviving memories and other psychological dispositions is a surrogate
body whose properties (other perhaps than that of being malleable by
thought) are, he would admit, largely unknown.
In addition to taking OBEs and NDEs as themselves evidence for
survival, the animist might well feel able to offer the following
argument in support of regarding a further class of phenomena as
evidence for survival of consciousness following physical death. There
is in the literature on apparitions a substantial sprinkling of cases
of apparitions of deceased persons, some of which have been seen by
witnesses who did not know the deceased in life. An extensive
statistical investigation by the late professor Hornell Hart [Har56]
strongly suggests that apparitions of the dead and the phantasms of
living 'projectors' in reciprocal cases are, as classes,
indistinguishable from each other in what may be called their
'external characteristics' -- such as whether the figure was solid,
dressed in ordinary clothes, seen by more than one person, whether it
spoke, adjusted itself to its physical surroundings, etc. Now we know
that in reciprocal cases the phantasms of the projector is in some
sense a center of or a vehicle of consciousness, namely the
consciousness of the projector. Since apparitions of the dead and of
living projectors manifestly belong to the same class of objects or
events, we may properly infer that since the apparitions of living
projectors are vehicles for the consciousness of the person in
question, this must be true of apparitions of the dead also. Hence the
consciousness of deceased persons survives and may either have, or
make use of, a kind of body.
Can the OBEer be seen as an apparition?
The study of apparitions formed an important part of early physical
research, and many different types of apparition have been recorded,
but the ones which primarily interest us here are those in which a
person having an OBE simultaneously appeared to someone else as an
apparition. There are many cases of this kind in the early literature
and they have been quoted again and again but a relatively small
number of them really form the mainstay of the anecdotal evidence on
OBE apparitions. Crookall [Cro61] and Smith [Smi65] give some recent
cases but they too concentrate on the older ones. Green [Gre68a]
discusses the similarities between apparitions in general and the
asomatic body perceived by OBEers, but she does not give any examples
from her own case collection in which another person saw the
exteriorized double. By contrast, about 10% of Palmer's OBEers claimed
to have been seen as an apparition [Pal79b] and Osis claims that from
his survey OBEers 'frequently' said they were noticed by others and in
16 cases (6% of the total) he was able to obtain some verification
through witnesses, although he does not expand on this remark.
Obviously it would be very helpful if much more evidence of this sort
could be collected, and recent cases thoroughly checked.
How can one find out what an OBE is like?
One of the easiest ways to find out what OBE is like is to collect a
large number of accounts of cases and compare them. In this way any
common features can be extricated and variations noted. A great deal
can be learned about the conditions under which the experiences
occurred, how long they lasted, and what they were like. Accounts by
people who have had OBEs fall, roughly speaking, into two categories.
There are the many ordinary people to whom an OBE occurs just once, or
a few times; and there is a small number of people who claim to be
able to project at will.
The limitations of this method are that there are many important
questions which cannot be answered by collecting cases. Since the
people voluntarily report their experiences, the sample necessarily
ends up with a bias. Many accounts are given many years or even
decades after the event and it is then impossible to determine how
much of the story has altered in memory with the passage of time. For
such reasons it is not possible to determine, for example, how common
the the experience actually is. Second, many OBEers claim that they
were able to see rooms into which they had never been, describe
accurately people they had never met, or move physical objects during
their experience. Such reports are of great interest to parapsychology
but they cannot be tested by collecting cases.
What is an average astral projection like?
Accounts of OBEs have been collected since the beginning of psychical
research. The first collection of cases of spontaneous apparitions,
telepathy, and clairvoyance published in 1886 as 'Phantasms of the
Living' [GMF86]. Frederic Myers also collected similar cases for his
'Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death' [Mye03].
The first major collection was made by Muldoon and Carrington and
published in 1951 [MC51]. Nearly a hundred accounts were categorized
according to whether they were produced by drugs or anaesthetics,
occurred at the time of accident, death or illness, or were set off by
suppressed desire. Finally they gave cases in which spirits seemed to
be involved. By categorizing the cases in this way, Muldoon and
Carrington were able to compare and interpret them in the light of
their theories of astral projection, but they did not go beyond this
rather simple analysis. These researchers implied that we do have a
double, and that it is capable of perceiving at a distance and even of
surviving without the physical body.
The largest collections of accounts of astral projection have been
amassed by Robert Crookall. In his many books [Cro61, 64a] he has
presented hundreds of cases which show the kinds of consistencies as
Muldoon and Carrington found. He also divided the cases according to
how they were brought about. First there were the 'natural' ones which
included those people who nearly died or were very ill or exhausted,
as well as those who were quite well. Contrasted with these were the
'enforced' cases, being induced by anaesthetics, suffocation and
falling, or deliberately by hypnosis.
Typical features of Crookall's accounts were the mysterious light
illuminating the darkness, the white double, the ability to travel at
will and inability to affect material objects. Crookall cited typical
elements of the natural projection being the cord joining the two
bodies, feelings of peace and happiness and the clarity of mind and
'realness' of everything seen. By contrast with what Crookall calls
'the enforced' OBE, by which he means one which is entered into
deliberately by the experient, he argued the person typically finds
himself not in happy and bright surroundings but in a dream or
conditions reminiscent of popular conceptions of 'Hades.'
In projection two aspects can be exteriorized: in natural OBEs the
soul body or the astral body is ejected free of the vehicle of
vitality and the vision of the experient is clear, but when the OBE is
the result of a conscious effort to have an OBE some of the lower
vehicle is shed at the same time and clouds the vision. The same
principles apply in death: natural deaths according to NDE accounts
usually lead to an experience of paradisaical conditions, but the
victim of an 'enforced' death is likely to find himself in Hades with
clouded vision and consciousness.
The implication of Crookall's argument is that there is an astral
body, a vehicle of vitality and a silver cord, and that we survive
death to live on a higher plane. He believed that insofar as such a
thing could be proved, the many cases he had collected proved the
existence of out other bodies.
What is an average OBE like?
The previous case collections were made by researchers who believed
implicitly in the astral projection interpretation of the OBE. A
properly analyzed case collection can provide a rich source of
information about what the OBE is like. The collections used here
include those by Hart, Green, Poynton and Blackmore and the analysis
is made by Blackmore [Bla82].
Hornell Hart, a professor of sociology at Duke University in North
Carolina, collected together cases of what he called 'ESP projection'
[Har54]. He required that the person not only have an OBE, but also
acquire veridical information, as though from the OB location. This
excludes many OBEs in which the information gained was wrong or could
not be checked. He also rated the cases. The best possible case would
gain a score of 1.0, but in fact the highest score given was .90. No
higher scores were gained because the cases show a curious mixture of
correct and incorrect vision which seems to be common in the OBE.
Through this research, one assumption is crucial, that ESP projection
is a single phenomenon which might have any or all of Hart's eight
features. Rogo [Rog78b] and Tart [Tar74a] have both suggested that
several different types of experience may have been lumped together
under the label 'OBE.' It could be that astral projection, traveling
clairvoyance, and apparitions are quite different and need different
interpretations, or other distinctions might be more relevant. The
reason Hart gave why the non- evidential cases should be excluded is
far from satisfactory: if there was no evidence of ESP they did not
count in his analysis. Hart was ruling out the majority of cases on
the basis of a very shaky criterion.
Perhaps the most thorough, and certainly the best-known case
collection was carried out by Celia Green of the Institute of
Psychophysical Research [Gre68a]. Her definition of an OBE was an
experience, defined as follows, '... one in which the objects of
perception are apparently organized in such a way that the observer
seems to himself to be observing them from a point of view which is
not coincident with his physical body.' J. C. Poynton [Poy75], like
Green, advertised in the press, and circulated a questionnaire
privately, and on the whole Poynton's results, although less detailed,
are similar to Green's. Susan Blackmore [Bla82] has analyzed the cases
collected by the SPR and by herself.
Table: Some Results of Case Collections [Bla82]
Green Poynton SPR cases Blackmore
Proportion of 61% 56% 69% 47%
'single' cases
Some features of 'single' cases:
Saw own body 81% 80% 72% 71%
Had second body 20% 75% -- 57%
Definite sensation 'majority' 25% 36% --
on separation none
Had connecting 4% 9% 8% --
cord
Apparently most people have had only one OBE, but the frequency of
subjects claiming many OBEs is high enough to conclude that if a
person has had one OBE he or she is more likely to have another. Also
many people learn to control their OBEs to some extent, even if they
never learn to induce them reliably at will.
OBEs are occurring in a variety of situations. Green found that 12% of
single cases occurred during sleep, 32% when unconscious, and 25% were
associated with some kind of psychological stress, such as fear,
worry, or overwork. Some cases show that it is possible to have an OBE
while the body continues with complex and co-ordinated activity.
However, OBEs are far more common when the physical body is relaxed
and inactive.
Most of Green's cases occurred to people whose physical body was lying
down at the time (75%). A further 18% were sitting and the rest were
walking, standing or were 'indeterminate.' In fact it seemed that
muscular relaxation was an essential part of many people's experience.
Just a few found that their body was paralyzed. A feeling of paralysis
was found to be only rarely a prelude to an OBE.
A difference is found between the 'single' cases and the multiple
cases. The latter tended to have had experiences in childhood, and
learned to repeat them. The single cases tended to occur mostly
between the ages of 15 and 35. Poynton found that many more of his
cases came from females, but among the SPR cases there are more males
than females. This sort of difference is most likely to be due to
sample differences.
Floating and soaring sensations are certainly common. Poynton also
found that most of his OBEers saw or felt their physical body. On the
contrary, catalepsy rarely occurred. Some subjects mentioned noises or
a momentary blacking out, but this did not seem to be the rule. The
majority just 'found themselves' in the ecsomatic state. As for the
return, for most it was as sudden as the departure. An interesting
finding by Green was that more of the subjects who had had many OBEs
went through complex processes on separation and return.
Green separated her cases into those she called 'parasomatic,'
involving another body, and those she termed 'asomatic' in which there
was no other body. Her surprising finding was that 80% of cases were
asomatic -- they had no other body. She asked her subjects whether
they had felt any connection between themselves and their physical
bodies. Under a third said they had, and only 3.5% reported a visible
or substantial connection such as a cord. Poynton's results tell a
similar story. There seems to be little evidence from the case
collections to support the usual details of astral projection.
Green found that on the whole perceptual realism was preserved.
Subjects saw their own bodies and the rooms they traveled in as
realistic and solid. Even when the scene appears to be perfectly
normal there may be slight differences. Some her subjects said that
everything looked and felt exaggerated. The experience is typically in
only one or two modalities: vision and hearing. Green found that 93%
of single cases included vision, a third also had hearing, but the
other senses were rarely noted. Another interesting feature of the OBE
world is its lighting. In some mysterious way the surroundings become
lit up with no obvious source of light visible, or else objects seem
to glow with a light of their own.
Perhaps the most important question about the OBE is whether people
can see things they did not know about -- in other words whether they
can use ESP in the course of an OBE. Among Green's subjects, some felt
as though they could have seen anything, but lacked the motivation to
test out such an ability. Another related question is whether subjects
in an OBE can affect objects, or have the power of psychokinesis. On
the whole the evidence is against that possibility.
The last feature which Celia Green found to be common in OBEs is that
a spontaneous OBE can have a profound effect on the person who
experiences it. Sometimes OBEs can be very frightening, sometimes
exciting and sometimes they provide a sense of adventure.
Interestingly, Green found that fear was more common in later, not
initial experiences. Pleasant emotions are also common.
How common are OBEs?
Two surveys have used properly balanced samples drawn from specified
populations. The first was conducted by Palmer and Dennis [PD75,
Pal79b]. They chose the inhabitants of Charlottesville, Virginia, a
town of some 35,000 people and selected 1,000 of these as their
sample. The question on OBEs was worded as follows: 'Have you ever had
an experience in which you felt that "you" were located "outside of"
or "away from" your physical body; that is the feeling that your
consciousness, mind, or center of awareness was at a different place
than your physical body? (If in doubt, please answer "no".)' To this
25% of students and 14% of the townspeople said 'yes.'
Further data from this survey reveals that no relationship between age
and reported OBEs was found. Palmer found a significant positive
relationship between drug use and OBEs and concluded that this could
account for the higher prevalence of OBEs in students. This
relationship receives confirmation from work by Tart [Tar71]. In a
survey of 150 marijuana users he found that 44% claimed to have OBEs.
It seems possible that the use of this drug facilitate OBEs.
The second survey using a properly constructed sample was carried out
by Erlendur Haraldsson, an Icelandic researcher, and his colleagues
[HGRLJ76]. For the survey a questionnaire was sent to a random sample
of 1157 persons between ages of 30 and 70 years. There were 53
questions on various psychic and psi-related experiences including a
translation of Palmer's question. To this, only 8% of the Icelanders
replied yes.
Table: Surveys of the OBE [Bla82]
Author Year Respondents size of N %
sample 'YES' 'YES'
Hart 1954 Sociology students 113 28 25
Sociology students 42 14 33
Green 1966 Southampton University
students 115 22 19
1967 Oxford University
students 380 131 34
Palmer 1975 Charlottesville
Townspeople - - 14
Students - - 25
Tart 1971 Marijuana users 150 66 44
Haraldsson 1977 Icelanders - - 8
Blackmore 1980 Surrey University
students 216 28 13
Bristol University
students 115 16 14
Irwin 1980 Australian students 177 36 20
Bierman &
Blackmore 1980 Amsterdam students 191 34 18
Kohr 1980 Members of Association
for Research and
Enlightenment - - 50
Those vague statements about OBEs being 'common' are now backed up by
a variety of figures. Blackmore gives a personal estimate of the
incidence of OBEs, based on all the available evidence, putting it at
around 10%. She thinks we can say with more conviction that the OBE is
a fairly common experience.
The surveys show that if a person has had one OBE he or she is more
likely to have another. All these figures are far higher than you
would expect if OBEs were distributed at random in the population.
Green went on to compare different groups to see whether they had had
different numbers of OBEs. Her only finding was that OBEers were more
likely to report experiences which they thought could only be
attributed to ESP. Palmer and Kohr found that subjects who reported
one type of 'psychic' or 'psi-related' experience also tended to
report others.
Palmer also, like Green, found that many simple variables were
irrelevant. Sex, age, race, birth order, political views, religion,
religiosity, education, occupation and income were all unrelated to
OBEs.
Palmer found significant relationships between OBEs and practising
meditation, mystical experiences and, as we have already seen, drug
experiences. Palmer had over 100 people reporting one or more OBEs,
and asked them various questions about the experience. They were asked
whether they had seen their physical body from 'outside' and this was
reported for 44% of the experiences and by nearly 60% of the OBEers.
Fewer than 20% of experiences involved 'traveling' and fewer than 30%
of OBEers reported it. Still fewer reported that they had acquired
information by ESP while 'out- of-the-body,' about 14% of people and
5% of experiences, or had appeared as an apparition to someone else
(less than 10% or OBEers). These results confirm the findings of the
case collections: that few OBEs include all the features of a
classical astral projection.
Overall the OBE seemed to have had a highly beneficial effect on its
experiencers. Many claimed their fear of death was reduced, and their
mental health and social relationships improved. Ninety-five per cent
said they would like to have another OBE.
What are the prerequisites for inducing an OBE?
Many of the inducing methods use as a starting point techniques
designed to improve the novice's powers of relaxation, imagery, and
concentration. The ideal state appears to be one of physical
relaxation, or even catalepsy, combined with mental alertness.
One of the easiest ways to relax is to use progressive muscular
relaxation. In outline this technique consists of starting with the
muscles of the feet and ankles and alternately tensing and relaxing
them, then going on up the muscles of the calves and thighs, the
torso, arms, neck and face, until all the muscles have been contracted
and relaxed. Done carefully this procedure leads to fairly deep
relaxation within a few minutes, and with practice it becomes easier.
Relaxation usually leads to state of paralysis or catalepsy. When you
go to sleep, your brain deactivates the mechanism by which you are
able to use your limbs, so that you become incapable of physical
activity corresponding to your dream images when you dream. Quite a
few people have found themselves in this paralysis state as soon as
they have gotten up after sleeping.
The first type of paralysis, known as 'type A,' is a condition
encountered when approaching a deeper layer of consciousness from a
light trance state. The second, type B paralysis, is the reverse of
type A, in that it happens during the return home to physical reality.
The first type A 'paralysis' goes something like this:
"Mmmmmm.... I know I am awake; I can think ..... Mmmmmmm but my body
is asleep ..." (Robert Monroe labelled it Focus 10 consciousness)
"Wait a minute here, there is something going on here, I just can't
seem to...."
"Yes, I can't seem to move my limbs; they seemed to be laden with
lead, why can't I move at all? Hey, what's happening here! (Panic!)"
A typical type B 'paralysis' goes something like this:
"Mmmmm... I am feeling groggy, absolutely. What was that just now, oh,
it must be some dream..."
"Mmmm...... hang on a minute, was that a noise I heard? It must have
come from the door... I need to check it out, could be a burglar.....
but I am so tired... and sleepy..."
"I need to wake up, it could be important.... Hey, I can't seem to
wake up, why are my legs not waking up, why can't my hands respond?"
"PANIC!!! I need to wake up!!! I don't want to die... I need to exert
more will on this... Hey, body, wake up, eyes open, ... WAKE UP!"
"Gosh, NOW, I can move my limbs, I am awake now, body covered with
perspiration, sitting at the edge of the bed, wondering why just now I
simply couldn't wake up..."
"Phew -- Thank goodness, it is finally over. Am I glad to be back to
the familiar physical environment."
However, type A paralysis is the type that should not be resisted; if
the person can allow himself to 'go with the flow,' then some kind of
altered state of consciousness is bound to happen, which is what the
person is hoping to achieve anyway.
Many astral travelers have stressed the importance of clear imagery or
visualization for inducing OBEs and of course imagery training forms
an important part of magical development. Progressive methods of
imagery training are often described in magical and occult books, and
helpful guidance can be found in Conway's occult primer [Con72], and
in Brennan's 'Astral doorways' [Bre71]. Most involve starting with
regular practice at visualizing simple geometrical shapes and then
progressing to harder tasks such as imagining complex
three-dimensional forms, whole rooms and open scenery.
Practice 1: Read the description slowly and then try to imagine each
stage as you go along: Imagine an orange. It is resting on a blue
plate and you want to eat it. You dig your nail into the peel and tear
some of it away. You keep pulling on the peel until all of it, and
most of the pith, is lying in a heap on the plate. Now separate the
orange into segments, lay them on the plate as well, and then eat one.
If this task doesn't make your mouth water, and if you cannot feel the
juice which squirts from the orange, and smell its tang then you do
not have vivid or trained imagery. Try it again, the colors should be
bright and vivid and the shapes and forms clear and stable. With
practice at this and similar tasks your imagery will improve until you
may wonder how it could ever have been so poor.
Practice 2: This is a rather harder one: Visualize a disc, half white
and half black. Next imagine it spinning about its center, speeding up
and then slowing down, and stopping. Next imagine the same disc in
red, but as it spins it changes through orange, yellow, green, blue
and violet. Finally you may care to try two discs side by side
spinning in opposite directions and changing color in opposition too.
Other useful skills are concentration and control. Not only do you
need to be able to produce vivid imagery, but also to abolish all
imagery from your mind, to hold images as long as you want and to
change them as you want, both quickly and slowly.
Practice 3: Brennan suggests trying to count, and only to count. The
instant another thought comes to mind you must stop and go back to the
beginning. If you get to about four or five you are doing well, but
you are almost certain to be stopped by such thoughts as 'this is
easy, I've got to three already,' or 'I wonder how long I have to go
on.'
All these skills, relaxation, imagery and concentration, are suggested
again and again as necessary for inducing an OBE at will. Other aids
include posture. If you lie down you might fall asleep, although
Muldoon [MC29] advocates this position. On the other hand discomfort
will undoubtedly interfere with the attempt. Therefore an alert, but
comfortable posture is best. Some have suggested that it is best not
to eat for some hours before and to avoid any stress, irritation or
negative emotions.
How to induce an OBE?
IMAGERY TECHNIQUES
It is possible to use imagery alone but it requires considerable
skill.
a) Lie on your back in a comfortable position and relax. Imagine
that you are floating up off the bed. Hold that position, slightly
lifted, for some time until you lose all sensation of touching the
bed or floor. Once this state is achieved move slowly into an
upright position and begin to travel away from your body and around
the room. Pay attention to the objects and details of the room. Only
when you have gained some proficiency should you try to turn round
and look at your own body. Note that each stage may take months of
practice and it can be too difficult for any but a practiced OBEer.
b) In any comfortable position close your eyes and imagine that
there is a duplicate of yourself standing in front of you. You will
find that it is very hard to imagine your own face, so it is easier
to imagine this double with its back to you. You should try to
observe all the details of its posture, dress (if any) and so on. As
this imaginary double becomes more and more solid and realistic you
may experience some uncertainty about your physical position. You
can encourage this feeling by comtemplating the question 'Where am
I?', or even other similar questions 'Who am I?' and so on. Once the
double is clear and stable and you are relaxed, transfer your
consciousness into it. You should then be able to 'project' in this
phantom created by your own imagination. Again, each stage may take
long practice.
INDUCING A SPECIAL MOTIVATION TO LEAVE THE BODY
You can trick yourself into leaving your body according to Muldoon
and Carrington [MC29]. They suggested that if the subconscious
desires something strongly enough it will try to provoke the body
into moving to get it, but if the physical body is immobilized, for
example in sleep, then the astral body may move instead. Many
motivations might be used but Muldoon advised against using the
desire for sexual activity which is distracting, or the harmful wish
for revenge or hurt to anyone. Instead he advocated using the simple
and natural desire for water -- thirst. This has the advantages this
it is quick to induce, and it must be appeased.
In order to employ this technique, you must refrain from drinking
for some hours before going to bed. During the day increase your
thirst by every means you can. Have a glass of water by you and
stare into it, imagining drinking, but not allowing yourself to do
so. Then before you retire to bed eat 'about an eighth of a
teaspoonful' of salt. Place the glass of water at some convenient
place away from your bed and rehearse in your all the actions
necessary to getting it, getting up, crossing the room, reaching out
for it, and so on. You must then go to bed, still thinking about
your thirst and the means of satisfying it. The body must become
incapacitated and so you should relax, with slow breathing and heart
rate and then try to sleep. With any luck the suggestions you have
made to yourself will bring about the desired OBE. This is not one
of the most pleasant or effective methods.
OPHIEL'S 'LITTLE SYSTEM'
Ophiel [Oph61] suggests that you pick a familiar route, perhaps
between two rooms in your house, and memorize every detail of it.
Choose at least six points along it and spend several minutes each
day looking at each one and memorizing it. Symbols, scents and
sounds associated with the points can reinforce the image. Once you
have committed the route and all the points to memory you should lie
down and relax while you attempt to 'project' to the first point. If
the preliminary work has been done well you should be able to move
from point to point and back again. Later you can start the
imaginary journey from the chair or bed where your body is, and you
can then either observe yourself doing the movements, or transfer
your consciousness to the one that is doing the moving. Ophiel
describes further possibilities, but essentially if you have
mastered the route fully in your imagination you will be able to
project along it and with practice to extend the projection.
Ophiel states that starting to move into OBE will produce strange
sounds. He says that this is because the sense of hearing is not
carried over onto the higher planes, and that means that your mind
tries to recreate some input, and just gets subconscious static. He
asserts that the noises can take any form, including voices,
malevolent, eerie, and get worse and worse, more and more
disturbing, until eventually they peak and then just fade to a
constant background hiss while one has OBE. Apparently, his 'final
noise' sounded like his water heater blowing up. He says, anyway, to
ignore the noises, voice or otherwise, as they are only static or
subconscious rambling, and do not represent any being in any way,
not even the self really.
THE CHRISTOS TECHNIQUE
G. M. Glasking, an Australian journalist, popularized this technique
in several books, starting with Windows of the Mind [Gla74]. Three
people are needed: one as subject, and two to prepare him. The
subject lies down comfortably on his back in a warm and darkened
room. One helper massages the subject's feet and ankles, quite
firmly, even roughly, while the other take his head. Placing the
soft part of his clenched fist on the subject's forehead he rubs it
vigorously for several minutes. This should make the subject's head
buzz and hum, and soon he should begin to feel slightly
disorientated. His feet tingle and his body may feel light or
floaty, or changing shape.
When this stage is reached, the imagery exercises begin. The subject
is asked to imagine his feet stretching out and becoming longer by
just an inch or so. When he says he can do this he has to let them
go back to normal and do the same with his head, stretching it out
beyond its normal position. Then, alternating all the time between
head and feet, the distance is gradually increased until he can
stretch both out to two feet or more. At this stage it should be
possible for him to imagine stretching out both at once, making him
very long indeed, and then to swell up, filling the room like a huge
balloon. All this will, of course, be easier for some people than
others. It should be taken at whatever pace is needed until each
stage is successful. Some people complete this part in five minutes,
some people take more than fifteen minutes.
Next he is asked to imagine he is outside his own front door. He
should describe everything he can see in detail, with the colors,
materials of the door and walls, the ground, and the surrounding
scenery. He has then to rise above the house until he can see across
the surrounding countryside or city. To show him that the scene is
all under his control he should be asked to change it from day to
night and back again, watching the sun set and rise, and the lights
go on or off. Finally he is asked to fly off, and land wherever he
wishes. For most subjects their imagery has become so vivid by this
stage that they land somewhere totally convincing and are easily
able to describe all that they see.
You may wonder how the experience comes to an end, but usually no
prompting is required; the subject will suddenly announce 'I'm
here,' or 'Oh, I'm back,' and he will usually retain quite a clear
recollection of all he said and experienced. But it is a good idea
to take a few minutes relaxing and getting back to normal. It is
interesting that this technique seems to be very effective in
disrupting the subject's normal image of his body. It then guides
and strengthens his own imagery while keeping his body calm and
relaxed.
ROBERT MONROE'S METHOD
In his book Journeys out of the Body [Mon71] Monroe describes a
complicated-sounding technique for inducing OBEs. In part it is
similar to other imagination methods, but it starts with induction
of the 'vibrational state.' Many spontaneous OBEs start with a
feeling of shaking or vibrating, and Monroe deliberately induces
this state first. He suggests you do the following. First lie down
in a darkened room in any comfortable position, but with your head
pointing to magnetic north. Loosen clothing and remove any jewellery
or metal objects, but be sure to stay warm. Ensure that you will not
be disturbed and are not under any limitation of time. Begin by
relaxing and then repeat to yourself five times, 'I will consciously
perceive and remember all that I encounter during this relaxation
procedure. I will recall in detail when I am completely awake only
those matters which will be beneficial to my physical and mental
being.' Then begin breathing through your half-open mouth.
The next step involves entering the state bordering sleep (the
hypnagogic state). Monroe does not recommend any particular method
of achieving this state. One method you might try is to hold your
forearm up, while keeping your upper arm on the bed, or ground. As
you start to fall asleep, your arm will fall, and you will awaken
again. With practice you can learn to control the hypnagogic state
without using your arm. Another method is to concentrate on an
object. When other images start to enter your thoughts, you have
entered the hypnagogic state. Passively watch these images. This
will also help you maintain this state of near-sleep. Monroe calls
this Condition A.
After first achieving this state Monroe recommends to deepen it.
Begin to clear your mind and observe your field of vision through
your closed eyes. Do nothing more for a while. Simply look through
your closed eyelids at the blackness in front of you. After a while,
you may notice light patterns. These are simply neural discharges
and they have no specific effect. Ignore them. When they cease, one
has entered what Monroe calls Condition B. From here, one must enter
an even deeper state of relaxation which Monroe calls Condition C --
a state of such relaxation that you lose all awareness of the body
and sensory stimulation. You are almost in a void in which your only
source of stimulation will be your own thoughts. The ideal state for
leaving your body is Condition D. This is Condition C when it is
voluntarily induced from a rested and refreshed condition and is not
the effect of normal fatigue. To achieve Condition D, Monroe
suggests that you practice entering it in the morning or after a
short nap.
With eyes closed look into the blackness at a spot about a foot from
your forehead, concentrating your consciousness on that point. Move
it gradually to three feet away, then six, and then turn it 90
degrees upward, reaching above your head. Monroe orders you to reach
for the vibrations at that spot and then mentally pull them into
your head. He explains how to recognize them when they occur. 'It is
as if a surging, hissing, rhythmically pulsating wave of fiery
sparks comes roaring into your head. From there it seems to sweep
throughout your body, making it rigid and immobile.' This method is
easier than it sounds.
Once you have achieved the vibrational state you have to learn to
control it, to smooth out the vibrations by 'pulsing' them. At this
point, Monroe warns it is impossible to turn back. He suggests
reaching out an arm to grasp some object which you know is out of
normal reach. Feel the object and then let your hand pass through
it, before bringing it back, stopping the vibrations and checking
the details and location of the object. This exercise will prepare
you for full separation.
To leave the body Monroe advocates the 'lift-out' method. To employ
this method think of getting lighter and of how nice it would be to
float upwards. An alternative is the 'rotation' technique in which
you turn over in bed, twisting first the top of the body, head and
shoulders until you turn right over and float upwards. Later you can
explore further. With sufficient practice Monroe claims that a wide
variety of experiences are yours for the taking.
RITUAL MAGIC METHODS
Most magical methods are also based on imagery or visualization and
use concentration and relaxation. All these methods require good
mental control and a sound knowledge of the system being used, with
its tools and symbols. Charles Tart, in introducing the concept of
'state specific sciences' [Tar72b] also considered state specific
technologies, that is, means of achieving, controlling and using
altered states of consciousness. Many magical rituals are really
just such technologies. In a typical exercise the magician will
perform an opening ritual, a cleansing or purifying ritual and then
one to pass from one state to another. Once in the state required he
operates using the rules of that state and then returns, closes the
door that was opened and ends the ritual.
This technology varies almost as much as the theory, for there are a
multitude of ways of reaching the astral. One can use elemental
doorways, treat the cards of the tarot as stepping stones, perform
cabbalistic path- workings or use mantras. The techniques are very
similar to all others we have been considering, so we can see the
complexities of ritual magic as just another related way achieving
the same ends.
MEDITATION AND CHAKRA MEDITATION
Meditation has two basic functions -- achieving relaxation and
improving concentration. Therefore the ideal state for OBE is
familiar to meditators and indeed OBEs have occasionally been
reported during meditation and yoga. The two main types of
meditation are concentration meditation (focusing) and insight
meditation (mindfullness). Most kinds of meditation are the
concentrative type. One simply focuses his attention upon a single
physical object, such as a candle flame; upon a sensation, such as
that felt while walking or breathing; upon an emotion, such as
reverence or love; upon a mantra spoken aloud or even silently; or
upon a visualization as in chakra meditation. Concentration
meditation is, simply put, a form of self-hypnosis.
The other main type of meditation, insight meditation, is the
analysis of thoughts and feelings in such a way as to cause
realization of the subjectivity and illusion of experience. Such
meditation is done in an effort to attain transcendental awareness.
Chakra meditation is a special type of concentrative meditation
which is basically kundalini yoga -- the practice of causing psychic
energy (kundalini) to flow up sushumna, energizing the various
chakras along the way. A chakra is 'a sense organ of the ethereal
body, visible only to a clairvoyant' [Gay74]. As each chakra is
energized by this practice, it is believed to add occult powers
(sidhis), until at last the crown chakra is reached, and with it,
full enlightenment is attained.
According to East Indian philosophy, man possesses seven major
chakras or psychic centers on his body. In theosophical scheme there
are ten chakras, which permit those trained in their use to gain
knowledge of the astral world (three of the ten are used in black
magic only). Each of the chakras forms a bridge, link, or energy
transformer; changing pure (higher) energy into various forms, and
connecting different bodies together. The chakras are located along
the nadies (a network of psychic nerves or channels) and follow the
autonomic nervous system along the spinal cord.
The first chakra, located at the base of the spine at the perineum
is the root chakra, muladhara. The second chakra, known as the
sacral center, svadhisthana, is located above and behind the
genitals. Third of the chakras is the solar plexus, manipura,
located at the navel and it is said to correspond with the emotions
and also with psychic sight (clairvoyance). The heart chakra,
anahata, is the fourth chakra, located over the heart and
corresponding with the psychic touch. The fifth chakra is the throat
chakra, vishuddha, located at the base of the throat (thyroid) and
corresponding with psychic hearing (clairaudience).
The remaining two chakras are believed to relate mostly to elevated
states of consciousness. The frontal chakra, (or 'third eye') ajna,
the sixth chakra, is located between, and slightly above, the
eyebrows. Ajna is the center of psychic powers and it is believed to
be able to produce many psychic effects. Finally, the crown chakra,
sahasrara, located atop the head, (pineal gland) is the seventh
chakra. It is referred to as the thousand-petaled lotus and
corresponds with astral projection and enlightenment.
To practice this chakra meditation, you simply concentrate on the
chakras, beginning with the root chakra, and moving progressively
up, as you visualize psychic energy from the root chakra traveling
up shushumna and vivifying each higher chakra. As mentioned above
the chakras have certain properties associated with them, so that
this type of visualization may 'raise consciousness,' promote astral
projection, and other things -- once you have reached ajna and
eventually the crown chakra.
HYPNOSIS
In the early days of psychical research hypnosis was used a great
deal more than now to bring about 'traveling clairvoyance,' but it
can still be used. All that is required is skilled hypnotist with
some understanding of the state into which he wants to put the
subject, and a willing subject. The subject must be put into a
fairly deep hypnotic state and then the hypnotist can suggest to him
that he leaves his body. The subject can be asked to lift up out of
his body, to create a double and step into it, to roll off his bed
or chair, or leave through the top of his head. He can then be asked
to travel to any place desired, but hypnotist must be sure to
specify very clearly where he is to go, and to bring him safely back
to his body when expedition is over. If this is not done the subject
may have difficulty reorientating himself afterwards.
DRUGS
There are some drugs which can undoubtedly help initiate an OBE.
Hallucinogens have long been used in various cultures to induce
states like OBEs, and in our own culture OBEs are sometimes an
accidental product of a drug experience. In absence of any further
information we might already be able to guess which are the sorts of
drugs likely to have this effect. They might be those which
physically relax the subject while leaving his consciousness clear
and alert. Drugs which distort sensory input and disrupt the
subject's sense of where and what shape his body is ought to help,
and so may anything which induces a sense of shaking or vibration.
Imagery must be intensified without control being lost and finally
there must be some reason, or wish, for leaving the body.
Considering these points hallucinogens might be expected to be more
effective than stimulants, tranquillizers or sedatives. The latter
may aid relaxation but help with none of the other features just
mentioned. Few other types of drug have any relevant effect. This
fact fits with what is known about the effectiveness of drugs for
inducing OBEs. Monroe states that barbiturates and alcohol are
harmful to the ability, and this makes sense since they would tend
to reduce control over imagery even though they are relaxing.
Eastman [Eas62] states that barbiturates do not lead OBEs whereas
morphine, ether, chloroform, major hallucinogens and hashish can.
Relatively little research has carried out in this area, partly
because most of the relevant drugs are illegal in the countries
where that research might be carried out. It seems that certain
drugs can facilitate an OBE but what is not clear is why drug
experience should take that form rather than any other. Part of the
answer is that usually it does not. There is no specific
OBE-creating drug, and OBEs are relatively rarely a part of a
psychedelic drug experience. Drugs may help in inducing the OBE but
they are not recommended as a route to the instant projection, they
are no alternative to learning the skills of relaxation,
concentration, and imagery control.
DREAM DEVELOPMENT
Many OBEs start from dreams and since, by definition, one has to be
conscious to have an OBE, they tend to start from lucid dreams. The
dreamer may become aware that he is dreaming and then find himself
in some place other than his bed and able to move about at will. He
may have another body and may even attempt to see his physical body
lying asleep. This topic is covered separately in the later section
on lucid dreams.
PALMER'S EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
In the search for a simple and effective method of inducing an OBE
Palmer and his colleagues [PL75a, 75b, 76, PV74a, 74b] use
relaxation and audio- visual stimulation. Subjects went through a
progressive muscular relaxation session and the heard oscillating
tones and watched a rotating spiral. One of the interesting findings
was that many of the subjects claimed that they had been 'literally
out of' their bodies, and there were indications that their
experiences were very different in some ways from other those
encountered in OBEs.
What are lucid dreams?
The term lucid dreaming refers to dreaming while knowing that you are
dreaming. It was coined by the Dutch psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden
in 1913. It is something of a misnomer since it means something quite
different from just clear or vivid dreaming. Nevertheless we are
certainly stuck with it. That lucid dreams are different from ordinary
dreams is obvious as soon as you have one. The experience is something
like waking up in your dreams. It is as though you 'come to' and find
you are dreaming. This experience generally happens when you realize
during the course of a dream that you are dreaming, perhaps because
something weird occurs. Most people who remember their dreams have had
such an experience at some time, often waking up immediately after the
realization. However, it is possible to continue in the dream while
remaining fully aware that you are dreaming.
One distinct and confusing form of lucid dreams are false awakenings.
You dream of waking up but in fact, of course, are still asleep. Van
Eeden [Van13] called these 'wrong waking up' and described them as
'demoniacal, uncanny, and very vivid and bright, with ... a strong
diabolical light.' The one positive benefit of false awakenings is
that they can sometimes be used to induce OBEs. Indeed, Oliver Fox
[Fox62] recommends using false awakenings as a method for achieving
the OBE. For many people OBEs and lucid dreams are practically
indistinguishable. If you dream of leaving your body, the experience
is much the same.
LaBerge's studies of physiology of the initiation of lucidity in the
dream state have revealed that lucid dreams have two ways of starting.
In the much more common variety, the 'dream-initiated lucid dream'
(DILD), the dreamer acquires awareness of being in a dream while fully
involved in it. DILDs occur when dreamers are right in the middle of
REM sleep, showing lots of the characteristic rapid eye movements.
DILDs account for about four out of every five lucid dreams that the
dreamers have had in the laboratory. In the other 20 percent, the
dreamers report awakening from a dream and then returning to the dream
state with unbroken awareness -- one moment they are aware that they
are awake in bed in the sleep laboratory, and the next moment, they
are aware that they have entered a dream and are no longer perceiving
the room around them. These are called 'wake initiated lucid dreams'
(WILDs).
For many people, having lucid dreams is fun, and they want to learn
how to have more or to how to induce them at will. One finding from
early experimental work was that high levels of physical (and
emotional) activity during the day tend to precede lucidity at night.
Waking during the night and carrying out some kind of activity before
falling asleep again can also encourage a lucid dream during the next
REM period and is the basis of some induction techniques. Many methods
have been developed and they roughly fall into three categories.
One of the best known techniques for stimulating lucid dreams is
LaBerge's MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming). This technique
is practiced on waking in the early morning from a dream. You should
wake up fully, engage in some activity like reading or walking about,
and then lie down to go to sleep again. Then you must imagine yourself
asleep and dreaming, rehearse the dream from which you woke, and
remind yourself, 'Next time I have this dream, I want to remember I'm
dreaming.'
A second approach involves constantly reminding yourself to become
lucid throughout the day rather than the night. This is based on the
idea that we spend most of our time in a kind of waking daze. If we
could be more lucid in waking life, perhaps we could be more lucid
while dreaming. German psychologist Paul Tholey [Tho83] suggests
asking yourself many times every day, 'Am I dreaming or not?' This
exercise might sound easy, but is not. It takes a lot of determination
and persistence not to forget all about it. For those who do forget,
French researcher Clerc suggests writing a large 'C' on your hand (for
'conscious') to remind you [GB89]. This kind of method is similar to
the age-old technique for increasing awareness by meditation and
mindfulness.
The third and final approach requires a variety of gadgets. The idea
is to use some sort of external signal to remind people, while they
are actually in REM sleep, that they are dreaming. Hearne first tried
spraying water onto sleepers' faces or hands but found it too
unreliable. This sometimes caused them to incorporate water imagery
into their dreams, but they rarely became lucid. He eventually decided
to use a mild electrical shock to the wrist. His 'dream machine'
detects changes in breathing rate (which accompany the onset of REM)
and then automatically delivers a shock to the wrist [Hea90].
Meanwhile, in California, LaBerge [LaB85] was rejecting taped voices
and vibrations and working instead with flashing lights. The original
version of a lucid dream-inducing device which he developed was
laboratory based and used a personal computer to detect the eye
movements of REM sleep and to turn on flashing lights whenever the
REMs reached a certain level. Eventually, however, all the circuitry
was incorporated into a pair of goggles. The idea is to put the
goggles on at night, and the lights will flash only when you are
asleep and dreaming. The user can even control the level of eye
movements at which the lights begin to flash. The newest version has a
chip incorporated into the goggles, which will not only control the
lights but will store data on eye-movement density during the night as
well as information about when and for how long the lights were
flashing, making fine tuning possible.
There are two reasons for associating lucid dreams with OBEs. First,
recent research suggests that the same people tend to have both lucid
dreams and OBEs [Bla88, Irw88]. Second, as Green pointed out [Gre68b]
it is hard to know where to draw the line between an OBE and a lucid
dream. In both, the person seems to be perceiving a consistent world.
Also the subject, unlike in an ordinary dream, is well aware that he
is in some altered state and is able to comment on and even control
the experience. Green refers to all such states as 'metachoric
experiences.' It is possible to draw a line between these two
experiences, but the important point to realize is that that line is
not clear, and the two have much in common.
But there is an important difference between lucid dreams and the
other states. In the lucid dream one has insight into the state (in
fact that fact defines the state). In false awakening, one does not
have such insight (again by definition). In typical OBEs, people feel
that they have really left their bodies. Those experiencing NDEs may
have a sense of rushing down a long tunnel, which some perceive as
being an entryway into a world beyond death. It is only in the lucid
dream that one realizes it is a dream.
Just as in the case of OBEs, surveys can tell us how common lucid
dreams are and who has them. Blackmore estimates that about 50 percent
of people have had at least one lucid dream in their lives [Bla91].
Green [Gre66] found that 73% of student sample answered 'yes' to the
question, 'Have you ever had a dream in which you were aware that you
were dreaming?.' Palmer found that 56% of the townspeople and 71% of
the students in his sample reported that they had had lucid dreams and
many of these claimed to have them regularly [Pal79b]. Blackmore found
that 79% of the Surrey students she interviewed had them [Bla82].
Beyond producing these kinds of results, it does not seem that surveys
can find out much. There are no very consistent differences between
lucid dreamers and others in terms of age, sex, education, and so on
[GL88]. All these surveys seem to agree quite closely, showing that
the lucid dream is a rather common experience -- far more common than
the OBE.
What is the physiology of dreams and lucid dreams?
The electrical activity of the brain has been observed and classified
with EEG (electroencephalograph) equipment; signals are picked up from
the scalp by electrodes, then filtered and amplified to drive a graph
recorder. Brain activity has been found to produce specific ranges for
certain basic states of consciousness, as indicated in 'Hz' (Hertz, or
cycles/vibrations per second):
delta -- 0.2 to 3.5 Hz (deep sleep, trance state) theta -- 3.5 to 7.5
Hz (day dreaming, memory) alpha -- 7.5 to 13 Hz (tranquility,
heightened awareness, meditation) beta -- 13 to 28 Hz (tension,
'normal' consciousness)
In the drowsy state before falling asleep, the EEG is characterized by
many alpha waves while the muscles start to relax. Gradually this
state gives way to Stage 1 sleep. Three more stages follow, each
having different EEG patterns and marked by successively deeper states
of relaxation. By Stage 4 the sleeper is very relaxed, his breathing
is slower, and skin resistance high. He is very hard to wake up. If
the dreamer is awakened, he may say that he was thinking about
something or he may describe some vague imagery, but he will rarely
recount anything which sounds like a typical dream.
But this is not all there is to sleep -- increasing oblivion. In a
normal night's sleep, a distinct change takes place an hour or two
after the onset of sleep. Although the muscles are still relaxed, the
sleeper may move, and from the EEG it appears that he is going to wake
up and he returns to something resembling Stage 1 sleep. Yet he will
still be very hard to wake up, and in this sense is fast asleep. The
most distinctive feature, however, is the rapid eye movements, or REMs
and the stage is also called REM-sleep. In earlier stages the eyes may
roll about slowly, now, however, they dart about as though watching
something. If woken up now the sleeper will usually report that he was
dreaming.
Lucid dreams implied that there could be consciousness during sleep, a
claim many psychologists denied for more than 50 years. Orthodox sleep
researchers argued that lucid dreams could not possibly be real
dreams. If the accounts were valid, then the experiences must have
occurred during brief moments of wakefulness or in the transition
between waking and sleeping, not in the kind of deep sleep in which
REMs and ordinary dreams usually occur. In other words, they could not
really be dreams at all.
This contention presented a challenge to lucid dreamers who wanted to
convince people that they really were awake in their dreams. But of
course when you are deep asleep and dreaming you cannot shout, 'Hey!
Listen to me. I'm dreaming right now.' During REM sleep, the muscles
of the body, excluding the eye muscles and those responsible for
circulation and respiration, are immobilized by orders from a nerve
center in the lower brain. This fact prevents us from acting out our
dreams. Occasionally, this paralysis turns on or remains active while
the person's mind is fully awake and aware of the world.
It was Keith Hearne [Hea78], of the University of Hull, who first
exploited the fact that not all the muscles are paralyzed. In REM
sleep the eyes move. So perhaps a lucid dreamer could signal by moving
the eyes in a predetermined pattern. Lucid dreamer Alan Worsley first
managed to do this in Hearne's laboratory. He decided to move his eyes
left and right eight times in succession whenever he became lucid.
Using a polygraph, Hearne could watch the eye movements for sign of
the special signal. The answer was unambiguous. All the lucid dreams
occurred in definite REM sleep. In other words they were, in this
sense, true dreams.
A typical lucid dream lasted between two and five minutes, occurred at
about 6.30 a.m., about 24 minutes into a REM period and towards the
end of a 22-second REM burst. The nights on which lucid dreams
occurred did not show a different sleep pattern from other nights,
although they did tend to follow days of above average stimulation.
It is sometimes said that discoveries in science happen when the time
is right for them. It was one of those odd things that at just the
same time, but unbeknownst to Hearne, Stephen LaBerge, at Stanford
University in California, was trying the same experiment. He too
succeeded, but resistance to the idea was very strong. In 1980, both
Science and Nature rejected his first paper on the discovery [LaB85].
It was only later that it became clear just how important this
discovery had been.
Some conclusions can be drawn from this information. In both OBEs and
lucid dreams, the person seems to have his waking consciousness, or
something close to it. He is able to see clearly, but what he sees is
not quite like the physical and it appears to have many of the
properties of a dream world or imaginary world. But there are
differences as well: the lucid dream starts more often when the
subject is asleep, and the dream world is less distinct and real than
the OB 'world,' allowing less control and freedom of movement; in
addition, the person who has an OBE starting from the waking state
never actually thinks he is dreaming. Most lucid dreams involve only
the subject, but there are cases on record of 'meetings' in lucid
dreams. The important question is whether the OBEer is observing the
same world as the lucid dreamer. Are the two experiences essentially
aspects of the same phenomenon?
According to Stephen LaBerge it seems possible that at least some OBEs
arise from the same conditions as sleep paralysis, and that these two
terms may actually be naming two aspects of the same phenomenon
[LL91]. In his opinion the survey evidence favors this theory. There
is also considerable evidence that people who tend to have OBEs also
tend to have lucid dreams, flying and falling dreams, and the ability
to control their dreams [Bla84, Gli89, Irw88]. Because of the strong
connection between OBEs and lucid dreaming, some researchers in the
area have suggested that OBEs are a type of lucid dream [Far76, Hon79,
Sal82].
One problem with this argument is that although people who have OBEs
are also likely to have lucid dreams, OBEs are far less frequent, and
can happen to people who have never had lucid dreams. Furthermore,
OBEs are quite plainly different from lucid dreams in that during a
typical OBE the experient is convinced that the OBE is a real event
happening in the physical world and not a dream, unlike a lucid dream,
in which by definition the dreamer is certain that the event is a
dream. There is an exception that connects the two experiences -- when
we feel ourselves leaving the body, but also know that we are
dreaming.
LaBerge organized a study which consisted of analysis of the data of
107 lucid dreams from a total of 14 different people. The
physiological information that was collected included brain waves,
eye-movements and chin muscle activity. In all cases, the dreamer
signaled the beginning of the lucid dream by making a distinct pattern
of eye movements. After verifying that all the lucid dreams had eye
signals showing that they had happened in REM sleep, they were
classified into DILDs and WILDs, based on how long the dreamers had
been in REM sleep without awakening before becoming lucid, and on
their report of either having realized they were dreaming while
involved in a dream (DILD) or having entered the dream directly from
waking while retaining lucidity (WILD). Alongside the physiological
analysis each dream report was scored for the presence of various
events that are typical of OBEs, such as feelings of body distortion
(including paralysis and vibrations), floating or flying, references
to being aware of being in bed, being asleep or lying down, and the
sensation of leaving the body.
Ten of the 107 lucid dreams qualified as OBEs, because the dreamers
reported feeling as if they had left their bodies in the dream. Twenty
of the lucid dreams were WILDs, and 87 were DILDs. Five of the OBEs
were WILDs (28%) and five were DILDs (6%). Thus, OBEs were more than
four times more likely in WILDs than in DILDs. The three OBE-related
events which were looked for also all occurred more often in WILDs
than in DILDs. Almost one third of WILDs contained body distortions,
and over a half of them included floating or flying or awareness of
being in bed. This is in comparison to DILDs, of which less than one
fifth involved body distortions, only one third included floating or
flying, and one fifth contained awareness of bed.
The reports from the five DILDs that were classified as OBEs were
actually much like those from the WILD-OBEs. In both the dreamers felt
themselves lying in bed and experiencing strange sensations including
paralysis and floating out-of-body. Although these lucid dreams sound
like WILDs, they were classified as DILDs because the physiological
records showed no awakenings preceding lucidity. However, it is
possible that these people could have momentarily become aware of
their environments (and hence been 'awake') while continuing to show
the brainwaves normally associated with REM sleep.
The laboratory studies show that when OBEs happen in lucid dreams they
happen either when a person re-enters REM sleep right after an
awakening, or right after having become aware of being in bed. Could
this relationship apply to OBEs and lucid dreams that people
experience at home, in the 'real world'?
Not being able to take the sleep lab to the homes of hundreds of
people LaBerge conducted a survey about OBEs and other dream-related
experiences. The difference between his survey and previous ones is
that in addition to asking if people had had OBEs, he asked
specifically about certain events that are known to be associated with
WILDs, namely, lucid dreaming, returning directly to a dream after
awakening from it, and sleep paralysis.
A total of 572 people filled out the questionnaire. About a third of
the group reported having had at least one OBE. Just over 80 percent
had had lucid dreams. Sleep paralysis was reported by 37 percent and
85 percent had been able to return to a dream after awakening. People
who reported more dream-related experiences also reported more OBEs.
For example, of the 452 people claiming to have had lucid dreams, 39
percent also reported OBEs, whereas only 15 percent of those who did
not claim lucid dreams said they had had OBEs. The group with the most
people reporting OBEs (51%) were those who said they had experienced
lucid dreams, dream return, and sleep paralysis.
In this survey, people reporting frequent dream return also tended to
report frequent lucid dreams. Thus, LaBerge believes that the fact
that dream return frequency is linked with OBE frequency in this study
gives further support to the laboratory research finding that WILDs
were associated with OBEs. On the other hand he stresses that the
proof that some or even most OBEs are dreams is not enough to allow us
to say that a genuine OBE is impossible. However, he suggests that if
you have an OBE, why not test to see if the OBE-world passes the
reality test. Is the room you are in the one you are actually sleeping
in? If you have left your body, where is it? Do things change when you
are not looking at them (or when you are)? Can you read something
twice and have it remain the same on both readings? LaBerge asks 'If
any of your questions and investigations leave you doubting that you
are in the physical world, is it not logical to believe you are
dreaming?' [LL91].
What is the physiology of OBEs?
Clearly there are similarities between OBEs and dreams. In both we
experience a world in which imagination plays a great part and we can
perform feats not possible in everyday life. But the OBE differs in
many important and obvious ways from what we have called an ordinary
dream. For a start, it usually occurs when the subject is awake, or at
least if drowsy or drugged, not sleeping. Second, the imagery and
activities of an OBE are usually much less bizarre and more coherent
than those of an ordinary dream, and most often the scenery is
something from the normal environment rather than the peculiar setting
of dreams. Third, OBEers are often adamant that their experience was
nothing like a dream. Finally, there is the great difference in the
state of consciousness. Ordinary dreams are characterized by very
cloudly consciousness at best, and are only recognized as dreams on
waking up.
But these differences are not enough. You may argue that in a lucid
dream both the imagery and the state of consciousness are much more
like those in an OBE. So perhaps the OBE is a kind of lucid dream
occurring in the midst of waking life. One way to find out might be to
determine the physiological state in which the OBE takes place. Such a
finding can only be made by means of laboratory experiment; but first
we need to catch an OBE in the laboratory.
Observing an OBE in the laboratory setting is not easy. Most people
who have an OBE have only one, or at most few, in a lifetime.
Capturing an OBE requires a special kind of subject, one who is both
able to induce an OBE at will, and willing to be subjected to the
stress of being tested. Fortunately there are such subjects.
One of the first to be tested was a young girl called Miss Z., by
Charles Tart who studied her OBEs [Tar68]. Her OBEs all occurred at
night. She used to wake up in the night and find herself floating near
the ceiling. With Miss Z. as subject Tart initially wanted to test two
aspects of the OBE: first, whether ESP could occur during an OBE, and
second what physiological state was associated with the experience.
Altogether, Miss Z. spent four non-consecutive nights sleeping at the
lab.
During her first night Miss Z. had no OBEs. During the second night
she woke twice and reported that she had been floating above her body.
During the first experience Miss Z. had not yet fallen asleep when the
OBE occurred, and the EEG showed a drowsy waking pattern followed by
waking when she told Tart about the experience. All the time the heart
rate had been steady and there were no REMs. Then at 3.15 a.m. Miss Z.
woke up and called out 'write down 3.13.' Apparently she had left her
body and lifted up high enough to see the clock on the wall. At that
time the EEG showed various patterns but predominantly theta and
alphoid activity. There were few sleep spindles (a feature of the EEG
pattern in certain stages of sleep), no REMs, no GSRs (galvanic skin
response) and a steady heartbeat.
On the third night Miss Z. had a dramatic OBE. She seemed to be
flying, and found herself at her home in Southern California, with her
sister. Her sister got up from the rocking chair where she had been
sitting and the two of them communicated without speaking. After a
while they both walked into the bedroom and saw the sister's body
lying in bed asleep. Almost as soon as she realized that it was time
to go, the OBE was over and Miss Z. found herself back in the
laboratory. Tart was not able to contact the sister to check whether
she had been aware of the visit, but the physiological record showed
that there was mostly alphoid activity with no REMs and only a couple
of minutes of Stage 1, dreaming sleep, with REMs.
The last night was in some ways the most exciting, for on that
occasion the subject was able to see an ESP target provided; but the
EEG record was obscured by a lot of interference. Tart described it as
somewhat like Stage 1 with REMs, but he added that he could not be
sure whether it was a Stage1 or a waking pattern.
Amongst all these confusing and changeable patterns, some certainty
does emerge. In general the EEG showed a pattern most like poorly
developed Stage 1 mixed with brief periods of wakefulness. For this
subject at least OBEs do not occur in the same state as dreaming. Tart
would have liked to have continued working with Miss Z. but this
proved impossible as she had to return to Southern California.
However, Tart [Tar67] was able to work with another subject, Robert
Monroe, well known from his books. Monroe was monitored for nine
sessions with EEG and other devices. In this environment Monroe had
difficulty inducing an OBE. Electrodes were clipped to his ear, and he
found them very uncomfortable. During all the time that he was trying
to have an OBE his EEG showed a strange mixture of patterns. There was
unusually varied alpha rhythm, variable sleep spindles, and high
voltage theta waves. On the whole Tart concluded that Monroe was in
Stages 1 and 2 and was relaxed and drowsy, falling in and out of
sleep. His sleep pattern was quite normal and he had normal dream
periods and sleep cycle.
During the penultimate session Monroe managed to have an OBE. Tart
concluded that Monroe's OBEs occurred in the dreaming state; but this
idea presented him with a problem. Monroe claims that for him,
dreaming and OBEs are entirely different. Tart finally concluded that
perhaps the OBEs were a mixture of dreams and 'something else.' This
'something else' might, he thought, be ESP.
One of the next subjects to be tested in this way was Ingo Swann. In
several experiments at the ASPR [OM77] Swann was attached to the EEG
equipment while he sat in a darkened room and tried to exteriorise, in
his own time, and to travel to a distant room where ESP targets were
set up. He did not fall asleep and was thus able to make comments
about how he was getting on. After some months of this type of
experiment Swann suggested that he might be able to leave his body on
command and so he was arranged to receive an audible signal to tell
him when to go, and when to return. Apparently he succeeded in this
effort, which meant that OBE and other times could easily be
determined and compared.
During the OBE periods, the EEG was markedly flattened and there were
frequency changes, with a decrease in alpha and increase in beta
activity. While these changes took place, the heart rate stayed
normal. These findings are rather different from those with previous
subjects in that Swann seemed to be more alert during his OBEs.
Perhaps this just confirms what was learned from case studies, that
the OBE can occur in a variety of states. But perhaps most important
is that in no case so far did there seem to be a discrete state in
which the OBE took place. There were no sudden changes in either EEG
or autonomic functions to mark the beginning or end of the OBE. Any
changes were gradual; unlike dreaming, the OBE does not seem to be
associated with a discrete physiological state.
The one other subject who has taken part in a large number of OBE
experiments is Keith ('Blue') Harary. The experiments in which his
physiological state was measured were carried out at the Physical
Research Foundation [Mor73, HJH74, JHHLM74, MHJHR78]. The findings
were different again from those of previous studies. Here there were
no changes in EEG. The amount and frequency of alpha were the same in
OBE and 'cool down' periods and there were only slightly fewer eye
movements in the OBE phases. These measurements alone show that Harary
was awake and that his OBEs did not occur in a sleeping, dreaming or
borderline state.
Other measures did show a change. Skin potential fell, indicating
greater relaxation, and it was this measure which provided the best
indicator that an OBE had begun. Both heart rate and respiration
increased. These changes are surprising because they imply a greater
degree of arousal; the opposite of the finding from skin potential. So
in some ways Harary was more relaxed, but he was also more alert.
Great differences between subjects tend to obscure any clear pattern
in the states, but in all this confusion it is clear that the start of
an OBE does not coincide with any abrupt physiological change. There
is no discrete OBE state. The OBE does not, at least for these
subjects, and under these conditions, occur in a state resembling
dreaming. The subjects were relaxed, and even drowsy or lightly
asleep, but they were not dreaming when they had their OBEs.
What are near-death experiences and are they some kind of OBEs?
Much publicity has recently been given to research on near-death
experiences (NDEs), experiences of those who survive a close encounter
with death. More people now survive close brushes with death. The
near-death experience has been defined as the 'experiential
counterpart of the physiological transition to biological death'
[Sab82]: it is the record of conscious experience from the inside
rather than the outside, from the point of view of the subject rather
the spectator.
Raymond Moody [Moo75, 77] interviewed many people who had been
resuscitated after having had accidents and he then put together an
idealized version of a typical near-death experience. He emphasized
that no one person described the whole of this experience, but each
feature was found in many of the stories. Here is his description:
A man is dying and, as he reaches the point of greatest physical
distress, he hears himself pronounced dead by his doctor. He begins
to hear an uncomfortable noise, a loud ringing or buzzing, and at
the same time feels himself moving very rapidly through a long dark
tunnel. After this, he suddenly finds himself outside of his own
physical body, but still in the immediate physical environment, and
he sees his own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator.
He watches the resuscitation attempt from this unusual vantage point
and is in a state of emotional upheaval.
After a while, he collects himself and becomes more accustomed to
his odd condition. He notices that he still has a 'body,' but one of
a very different nature and with very different powers from the
physical body he has left behind. Soon other things begin to happen.
Others come to meet and to help him. He glimpses the spirits of
relatives and friends who have already died, and a loving, warm
spirit of a kind he has never encountered before -- a being of light
-- appears before him. This being asks him a question, non-verbally,
to make him evaluate his life and helps him along by showing him a
panoramic, instantaneous playback of the major events of his life.
At some point he finds himself approaching some sort of barrier or
border, apparently representing the limit between earthly life and
the next life. Yet, he finds that he must go back to the earth, that
the time for his death has not yet come. At this point he resists,
for by now he is taken up with his experiences in the afterlife and
does not want to return. He is overwhelmed by intense feelings of
joy, love, and peace. Despite his attitude, though, he somehow
reunites with his physical body and lives.
Later he tries to tell others, but he has trouble doing so. In the
first place, he can find no human words adequate to describe these
unearthly episodes. He also finds that others scoff, so he stops
telling other people. Still, the experience affects his life
profoundly especially his views about death and its relationship to
life.
The parallel between this kind of account and many OBEs is clear.
There is the tunnel traveled through as well as the experiences of
seeing one's own body from outside and seeming to have some other kind
of body, and the ineffability is familiar. One is tempted to conclude
that in death a typical OBE, or astral projection, occurs, and is
followed by a transition to another world, with the aid of people who
have already made the crossing, and that of higher beings in whose
plane one is going to lead the next phase of existence. Although
Moody's work gave a good idea of what dying could be like for some
people, it did not begin to answer questions such as how common this
type of experience is.
After Moody there have been studies by cardiologists Rawlings and
Sabom. The most detailed research has been carried out by Kenneth
Ring, a psychologist from Connecticut [Rin79, 80]. From hospitals
there he obtained the names of people who had come close to death, or
who had been resuscitated from clinical death. Almost half of his
sample (48%) reported experiences which were, at least in part,
similar to Moody's description. Of Ring's subjects, 95 per cent of
those asked stated that the experience was not like a dream (the same
result appears in Sabom): they stressed that it was too real, being
more vivid and more realistic; however some aspects were hard to
express, as the experience did not resemble anything that had happened
to them before.
One of Ring's most interesting findings concerned the stages of the
experience. He showed that the earlier stages also tended to be
reported more frequently. The first stage, peace, was experienced by
60% of his sample, some of whom did not reach any further stages. The
next stage, of most interest to us here, was that of 'body
separation,' in other words, the OBE. Thirty-seven per cent of Ring's
sample reached this stage and what they reported sounds very similar
to descriptions of OBEs. Not all the 'body separations' were distinct.
Many of Ring's respondents simply described a feeling of being
separate or detached from everything that was happening.
Ring tried to find out about two specific aspects of these OBEs. First
he asked whether they had another body. The answer seemed to be 'no':
most were unaware of any other body and answered that they were
something like 'mind only.' There was a similar lack of descriptions
of the 'silver cord.' We can see that an OBE of sorts forms an
important stage in the near-death experience.
After the OBE stage comes 'entering the darkness' experienced by
nearly a quarter of Ring's subjects. It was described as 'a journey
into a black vastness without shape or dimension,' as 'a void, a
nothing' and as 'very peaceful blackness.'
For fifteen per cent the next stage was reached, 'seeing the light.'
The light was sometimes at the end of the tunnel, sometimes glimpsed
in the distance but usually it was golden and bright without hurting
the eyes. Sometimes the light was associated with a presence of some
kind, or a voice telling the person to go back.
Finally there were ten per cent experiencers who seemed to 'enter the
light' and pass into or just glimpse another world. This was described
as a world of great beauty, with glorious colors, with meadows of
golden grass, birds singing, or beautiful music. It was at this stage
that people were greeted by deceased relatives, and it was from this
world that they did not want to come back.
A completely different kind of analysis was applied by Noyes and
Kletti [Noy72, NK76] to accounts collected from victims of falls,
drownings, accidents, serious illnesses, and other life-threatening
situations. They emphasized such features as altered time perception
and attention, feelings of unreality and loss of emotions, and the
sense of detachment. They found that these features occurred more
often in people who thought they were about to die than in those who
did not. This fitted their interpretation of the experiences as a form
of depersonalization (i.e., the loss of the sense of personal identity
or the sensation of being without material existence) in the face of a
threat to life; that is as a way of escaping or becoming dissociated
from the imminent death of the physical body.
Two other aspects have yet to be dealt with. First, there is the
absence of any trips to 'hell.' Neither Moody nor Ring obtained any
accounts of hellish experiences. However, cardiologist Maurice
Rawlings [Raw78] has suggested that the reason for there being no such
reports is that although patients may recall such hellish experiences
immediately afterwards, they tend to forget them with time. In other
words, their memories protect them from recalling the unpleasant
aspects. According to Rawlings it is only because they have been
interviewed too long after the brush with death that all the
experiences are reported as pleasant. It does seem to be the 'good'
side of experiences which makes the greater impact.
Another feature which needs mention is the 'life review.' It has often
been found that a person close to death may seem to see scenes of his
past life pass before him as though on a screen, or in pictures. Ring
found that about a quarter of his core-experiencers reported a life
review, and that it was more common in accident victims than others.
The general effects of undergoing an NDE are of two kinds:
philosophical and ethical. The main philosophical changes are in
attitudes towards death and afterlife. Sabom's figures are extremely
interesting in this respect: he asked those who had and those had not
had an NDE when unconscious whether there was any change in their
views of death and the afterlife. Of the 45 who had not had any
conscious experience, 39 were just as afraid of death as before, 5
more afraid and 1 less afraid; while of the 61 with an NDE none were
more afraid, 11 just as afraid and 50 less afraid. The patterns were
similar concerning belief in an afterlife: of the non- experiencers,
none had any change of attitude; while of the experiencers, 14 found
their attitude unchanged and 47 stated that their belief in the
afterlife had increased [Sab82]. Ring found a correlation between loss
of fear of death and what he called the core experience, broadly that
with a positive transcendental element in it. Moody comments that
there is remarkable agreement about the 'lessons' brought back from
NDEs: 'Almost everyone has stressed the importance in this life of
trying to cultivate love for others, a love of a unique and profound
kind' [Moo75]. And he adds that a second characteristic is a
realization of the importance of seeking knowledge, of not confining
one's horizon to the material.
A number of reductionist physiological explanations have been advanced
to account for NDEs: the two most common are 'cerebral anoxia' and
'depersonalization'. Cerebral anoxia accounts for the experience by
saying that it is a hallucination due to an oxygen shortage in the
brain. We have seen that such 'hallucinations' frequently turn out to
correspond to the physical events actually occurring -- can the NDE
therefore be labelled a hallucination? Perhaps it can, but certainly
not as a delusion. Ring and Moody both point out that patterns of
experiences are no different when there is clearly no shortage of
oxygen. Noyes starts by pointing out that none of the subjects can
really have been dead if they were resuscitated, so that their
reported experiences cannot be taken as 'proof' of survival of
consciousness. Moody never actually states such a position, but rather
confines himself to asserting that the experiences have a suggestive
value; even if for the subjects themselves the experience is proof.
The common factor underlying all the physiological explanations of the
NDE is the attempt to avoid the prima facie interpretation of the
experience as an OBE. Sabom concludes that this hypothesis is the best
fit with the data, while Ring concludes that 'there is abundant
empirical evidence pointing to the reality of out-of-body experiences;
that such experiences conform to the descriptions given by our
near-death experiencers; and that there is highly suggestive evidence
that death involves the separation of a second body -- a double --
from the physical body' [Rin80].
Just as many different interpretations have been presented for all
aspects of the near-death experience. The most important of them have
been usefully summarised by Grosso [Gro81]. Most people seem to agree
that the near-death experience presents remarkable consistency varying
little across differences in culture, religion, and cause of the
crisis; what is in dispute is why there should be such a consistency.
Rawlings steeps all his findings in the language of Christianity,
involving heaven and hell and the possibility of being saved. Noyes
interprets NDEs in terms of depersonalization; Siegel in terms of
hallucinations, and Ring, within a parapsychological-holographic
model. But broadly speaking there are two camps. On the other side are
those who see the near-death experience as a sure signpost towards
another world and a life after death; on the other, those who have, in
various different ways, interpreted the experience as part of life,
not death, and as telling us nothing whatsoever about a 'life after
life.'
Is the OBE some kind of mental illness?
If the OBE is to be seen as involving psychological processes, rather
than paranormal ones, we need to look at what those processes could
be. Let us begin with a psychiatric approach and ask whether the OBE,
or anything like it, is found in any mental illness.
Noyes and Kletti likened near-death experiences to the phenomenon of
depersonalization. Related to depersonalization is derealization, in
which the surroundings and environment begin to seem unreal and the
sufferer seems to be cut off from reality. Depersonalization is the
more common of the two, and involves feelings that the person's own
body is foreign or does not belong. He may complain that he does not
feel emotions even though he appears to express them, and he may
suffer anxiety, distortions of time and place, and changes in his body
image, and the subject may seem to observe things from a few feet
ahead of his body. His conscious 'I- ness' is said to be outside his
body. The patients characterize their imagery as pale and colorless,
and some complain that they have altogether lost the power of
imagination.
This description does not sound like that of someone who has had an
OBE or a NDE. There are distortions of the environment and alterations
in imagery in OBE and NDE experiences, but it seems that imagery
typically becomes more bright and vivid, colorful and detailed, rathe