Out-of-body experiences may be caused by arousal system disturbances in brain

Having an out-of-body experience may seem far-fetched to some, but for those with arousal system disturbances in their brains, it may not be a far off idea that they could sense they were really outside their own body watching themselves.

www.spiritindia.com...

Problem is that everyone can learn to do it. Not just those with a REM intrusion. I don't think I have that, and I never had an OOBE untill I started to practise having it. But by practising to have OOBE's you can achieve the blending of REM sleep and wakefulness. That I can believe, because when you're trying to have an OOBE that's exactly what you are trying to do.

Interesting... but... err... well, the LAST thing I want to do when aroused, is leave my body.

Weird science I say.

Uhm... They're not talking about being "sexually aroused" here.. What they mean with arousal system, is the system that enables you to wake up from sleep.

Yep. The pre awakening state is where things get interesting when it comes to such metaphysics. I was simply rendering a pun in my earlier post. I still say OBE is weird science.

Originally posted by TheBandit795
Problem is that everyone can learn to do it.

Easy enough for you to say lol. I've tried it on tons of occasions, but I've never been able to get it to work for me. Just vibrations and stuff but I never leave my body. It might be a subconcious fear thing holding me back.

Originally posted by TheBandit795
Problem is that everyone can learn to do it.

so, that makes an OBE/OOBE a natural but rare thing...
and it seems that with dedicated training, or exercise,
one can call up this type of experience again & again
as some adepts? psychically inclined? persons claim

but most often the public is told that some layman or
neophyte had an accident or other trauma,
and while unconscious they became aware ->
that their 'spirit'/'astral body' was floating above their own
physical body and quietly observing their self lying there.

But, 'we' still have no idea if this memory is only a mind-brain creation?

or that the OBE was begun by a supernatural force,
which altered the person's brain chemistry.... which
results in this 'vision'or 'OBE' experience.

~~~seems we've gone in a circle so far~~~
what's the point of the OP?
thanks,

One of the biggest arguments skeptics make about Out of Body Experience/Astral Projection is that it is caused by a lack of oxygen to certain parts of the brain. But if you are perfectly healthy and just laying there purposefully trying to have an OOBE, similar to if you were going to sleep, how can you be lacking a dangerous amount of oxygen like that?

Then again I've heard that your brain produces '___' when you sleep, so who knows what kind of crazy stuff is going on up there

As I have implied here before from my personal experiences it does appear to be the mind.

Thats why I have even pondered the fact that we dont have a soul. ...at least not the way we 'think' of it. Although I think I better articulated the point here at my ATS blog

Key word is think. This wonderful brain of ours is great in creating this matrix around us.

Good to see more articles postulating along these lines.

peace

dAlen

[edit on 10-3-2007 by dAlen]

Originally posted by St Udio
but most often the public is told that some layman or
neophyte had an accident or other trauma,
and while unconscious they became aware ->
that their 'spirit'/'astral body' was floating above their own
physical body and quietly observing their self lying there.

But, 'we' still have no idea if this memory is only a mind-brain creation?

If the Out-of-Body observations are unable to be verified, then it couldbe speculated that the claimed-observations were possibly 'mind-brain creations'.

But when the claimed observations are confirmed by independent others, then obviously what was seen during the Out-of-Body state were not 'mind-brain creations', but fact.

For example, in one of Scott Rogo's books, he recounts the true story of a woman in an operating-theatre. She was unconscious/anaesthetised and surrounded by various medical staff. During this, she obviously left her body, because she travelled out of the operating-theatre -- rose up through the ceiling if I remember correctly. During her Out-of-body experience, she exited the building and amongst other things, she observed a tennis-shoe on a ledge, high up on the exterior of the building.

Upon regaining consciousness, she discovered she was once again in her physical body. She told her physicians about her Oob-experience. It was initially dismissed as being a 'mind-brain creation'. However, the woman's earnestness re: the experience impressed some to the extent they decided to test her claims.

Initially, no-one was able to discover a tennis-shoe. But the woman was so insistent re: the genuiness of her experience, that greater effort was expended in the search. Finally, the shoe was sighted. It was exactly as described by the woman and was situated on a very difficult to see ledge, high up on the exterior of the building. The ledge could only be sighted by leaning far out from a floor considerably higher than the one on which the operating-theatre was situated.

The woman had never been in that hospital before. How had she been able to describe -- from the perspective of someone in the air -- a tennis shoe on an inaccessible ledge, several floors above the operating theatre in which she'd been lying unconscious ?

The tennis-shoe was not a 'mind-brain creation': it was a 3D object on a 3D ledge.

There are innumberable similar cases.

So many implications lie within the actual experience of not being in your body. If a human can detach from the body and remain individually conscious of the occurance and to become free from the constraints of the body/physical binding.

But then you bring in the biochemical aspect of it, which is a recurring theme in altered states of conciousness that tend to foster a way to break free. How can a chemical in our brain, either naturally present or induced by another chemical to create that breaking free mental awareness/energy movement.

How does a chemical allow/cause another perception of being. How can something in the body set us free from the confines of the body and still have attained the memory of it. How can "YOU" remember something if YOU stayed here and the "other YOU" traveled. Who are you the you that stayed in the body and lay sleeping, or are you that speck of light from the interior world who happens to be able to travel via light and chemical structures. Hmmm.

If I can see myself from afar, out of body that means that I don't need eyes to see because I can't use my bodies eyes to see me from the top of the room I would have to access another kind of sight and associate it with the separate me. How can you see your body if you are above it or out of it? What do you use for eyes???

The mind and it's chemistry and capabilities to experience different perceptions of time and thought, to define life based on the particular chemical data you use in your brain. I just can't make sense of it.

Maybe DNA and electrical and biochemical activities are all a form of LIGHT. And light can do almost anything I think.

Sorry I am rambling a bit, it is just mentally a challenge to wrap your brain around.

I wonder why the author of the article linked in the OP choose to write near de ath. He always made the space in the word.



[edit on 10-3-2007 by interestedalways]

Interestedalways: you write: How can a chemical in our brain, either naturally present or induced by another chemical to create that breaking free mental awareness/energy movement.

I suspect most have asked many of the same questions as you.

Approx. a dozen times in life, I've been 'in two places at once', almost always in response to extreme fear. At those times, I have seen myself from a vantage point 'above', meaning 'I' have been in the air above myself (and usually to one side). From that location, I have seen 'myself' below.

The 'me' below has not seen the 'above' me.

These little episodes have been of very brief duration: possibly only split seconds.

During these experiences, neither of 'me' has had any thought processes. The 'me' in the air however, has functioned as a recording instrument, because afterwards, I remember the situation from the perspective of 'above'. But the 'me' in the air doesn't actually 'think'. It just records what it sees and then a moment later I'm back in the 'below me' again and the action continues. But there is a definite break in the recordings made by the 'below me': it remembers almost everything, but there's a little blip, and then the memory resumes. So the 'blip' or missing segment must be when I leave my body(which has its own set of memories/recordings). It's a very brief missing moment and the two viewpoints are almost seamless.

The 'below' me is the 'action' me: it does the thinking and reacting. The 'me' in the air does the recording when fear forces me out of my body. Then it jumps back into the physical/reactor 'me'.

For example, one night after a particularly harrowing day (involving the paranormal) I sensed someone behind me. I actually thought it was another member of the household, so didn't turn around immediately.

When the sensation became too strong to ignore, I finally turned around to see who was there. Instead of another member of the household, it was a nightmare entity. It issued a direct threat.

Without warning, I suddenly saw everything from the vantage point of high up. I could see my physical self sitting frozen in fear down below. I could also see the back of the entity. During those few moments I had no thoughts at all, I was just seeing ... and obviously recording.

Then the physical 'me' was on its feet and flying from the room, after which it engaged in a number of actions, including grabbing other members of the household and pulling and carrying them from the house and into the car and to safety.

I've had a few similar experiences and thus have clear memories of two separate vantage points: both from the usual perspective (floor level) and from above. Therefore I have detailed memories of the 'object or situation of fear '. My memories include the object/situation from the usual perspective (front) and also from above and behind.

Whilst fear undoubtedly releases and/or causes hormones/chemicals to flood the brain and body, it's my personal belief that 'spirit' itself is responsible for bilocation as I've experienced and described. Some people are prone to dislocation of a particular joint or joints in their physical body. For example a friend of ours finally had to have pins inserted in his shoulder because it had become dislocated so often when he played basketball. Another friend's knee 'pops out' often and frequently.

So it may be that some individuals are more prone than others to 'leaving their bodies' under certain circumstances. Extreme fear seems to be the trigger in my own case. For others, physical pain may cause them to briefly bilocate. A woman I know left her body while doctors were delivering her daughter during a very difficult birth. She hovered above the action and in her case, she was capable of normal thought, because she decided she did not want to return to her body. Only feelings of obligation towards her newborn daughter finally caused her to do so, but she was reluctant, even then.

It may, as you say, be chemicals (natural or induced) that allow the spirit to temporarily be in two places at once. When spirit withdraws entirely from the physical body, then we have 'death'.

All my Out-of-Body experiences have been spontaneous. I've never deliberately sought to leave my body. I have had a few extremely interesting and detailed Oob experiences that were not caused by fear, but again I did not 'think' during the experiences but as usual, simply 'recorded' them, similar to a video camera. The resultant memories could be interpreted as 'conscious' (i.e., 'involving thought and conscious decision') but I suspect that this is a retrospective interpretation resulting from our human need to believe we are 'in control' of our actions and environment.

However, Robert Monroe (ex. Monroe Institute) claimed to be consciously controlling his Oob experiences, so perhaps for some it is possible.

when i first read this post I was like. so the people who have out of body experiences can't get it up?

Originally posted by TheBandit795
Problem is that everyone can learn to do it. Not just those with a REM intrusion. I don't think I have that, and I never had an OOBE untill I started to practise having it. But by practising to have OOBE's you can achieve the blending of REM sleep and wakefulness. That I can believe, because when you're trying to have an OOBE that's exactly what you are trying to do.

I think so too. I've had a very small handful of OBE's and it's quite interesting. The first time I had one I was in the future and saw myself and heard myself talking. It was very interesting and I can remember it. Only thing with me is when I try to do it than it doesn't happen for whatever reason.

Originally posted by TheBandit795
Uhm... They're not talking about being "sexually aroused" here..

What they mean with arousal system, is the system that enables you to wake up from sleep.

Actually I should bring this out and I know is a very touchy subject for some . . .

But sexual arousal happens a lot when people have out of body experiences that may affect the experience. . .and the ability of control.

Now about the link, my out of body experiences are not in anyway random occurrences and I am very aware of what I am doing and can control them.

So for me the link to disturbances in the brain doesn't apply.