Out Of Body Experience Essay
Out of body experiences are interpreted differently by neurologists, psychologists and individuals associated with different fields of studies. When referring to out of body experiences, it is usually defined as an experience where an individual feels as if they are separating from their physical body and looking at it from the perspective of having two bodies. In other words, individuals are able to experience their body moving outside its boundaries while at the same time being aware of it. While this is one perspective, neurologist and psychologists often categorize it as dissociative experiences that happen due to various psychological and neurological factors.
An article called Cognitive correlates of the spontaneous OBE in the psychologically …show more content…
Guterstam and his colleagues in the article, Out-of-Body Experience Is Traced in the Brain by Tanya Lewis. To further investigate, participants were asked to lay in a MRI scanner and wear a head display that displayed a video. The video was from a camera that was directed at a stranger’s body and the background was the participant’s body. To replicate an out of body experience, researchers used a rod to touch the participant while touching the stranger’s body in the same exact location. The participants then reported to the researcher that they felt as if their body was physically somewhere else in the room. This caused the researches to refer back to the MRI which revealed that the temporal and parietal lobes are involved in spatial perception. However, instead of finding direct information related to those lobes and body perception, they found that the hippocampus actually played an important role. Located in the hippocampus are GPS cells and neurons which are better known by the researchers as “place cells”. These place cells play an important role when it comes to how an individual finds their body. Furthermore, it was also found that an area called the posterior cingulate cortex is what helps an individual feel their body and realize where they are
An article called Cognitive correlates of the spontaneous OBE in the psychologically …show more content…
Guterstam and his colleagues in the article, Out-of-Body Experience Is Traced in the Brain by Tanya Lewis. To further investigate, participants were asked to lay in a MRI scanner and wear a head display that displayed a video. The video was from a camera that was directed at a stranger’s body and the background was the participant’s body. To replicate an out of body experience, researchers used a rod to touch the participant while touching the stranger’s body in the same exact location. The participants then reported to the researcher that they felt as if their body was physically somewhere else in the room. This caused the researches to refer back to the MRI which revealed that the temporal and parietal lobes are involved in spatial perception. However, instead of finding direct information related to those lobes and body perception, they found that the hippocampus actually played an important role. Located in the hippocampus are GPS cells and neurons which are better known by the researchers as “place cells”. These place cells play an important role when it comes to how an individual finds their body. Furthermore, it was also found that an area called the posterior cingulate cortex is what helps an individual feel their body and realize where they are