An out-of-body experience is a sensation of being outside one's own body, typically by being able to observe oneself from a distance. Also known as ‘Autoscopy”, “Autoscopy is thought to be a rare phenomenon in which a person visualizes or experiences a veritable hallucinatory image of his double.” (Grostein, NIH.)
This phenomenon is similar to the rubber hand illusion because, in chapter 6 “Rubber Bands and Rubber Brains,” an experiment was performed “To perform the experiment one sits in a chair with a pair of video goggles, the monitor in the goggles shows the back of you. There is a camera set up about five feet behind you and that is the image being fed to the goggles. The experimenter will then enter the room with two sticks and the experimenter will stand to your right. With his right hand, the experimenter strokes your chest, you can't see this, but you can feel it. With their left hand, they reach behind you and begin to stroke the air at a position just in front of and below the camera. As you are looking through your goggles you see your body from behind, but not the stokes because your body blocks the view. You can see the upper left arm of the experimenter as they stoke the air below the camera, and this is when it appears as if the arm that is stoking the air is actually the arm that is stroking your chest. Both experiments are similar in their efforts to make the perception that the body is feeling an actual sensation that one is not.
Dear Aliyah
ReplyDeleteGreat post and writing. I cant recall anytime I had an out-of-body experience, but I can recall many times when I had experienced some kind of pain even though nothing has touched me. The other day when I was cooking I was going to reach for the pan on the stove. I had only just put it on so it was cold but when I touched it for only a second it felt like it was hot an I had burned myself. Our bodies and minds work in mysterious ways.