For the first time a brain scan has revealed what happens when someone is undertaking an 'astral trip'.
Reports of people 'projecting' from their physical selves and being able to view their own body while floating above it have persisted for years, both as part of near-death experiences and through self-initiated 'astral projection' techniques.
While the scientific community at large tends to regard such claims with a significant degree of skepticism, Andra M. Smith and Claude Messierwere from the University of Ottawa decided to conduct their own experiment when they came across a woman who claimed that she could initiate an out-of-body experience at will.
"She was able to see herself rotating in the air above her body, lying flat, and rolling along with the horizontal plane," they wrote. "She reported sometimes watching herself move from above but remained aware of her unmoving "real" body."
To learn more about what was happening during these experiences the researchers used an MRI machine to observe her brain while she was projecting. What they found was that the parts of her brain involved in perceiving her physical location and imagining movement appeared to become activated during her experiences.
"The existence of such a case and its presentation raises the possibility that this phenomenon may have a significant incidence but unreported because people do not think this is exceptional," the researchers wrote. "Alternatively, the ability might be present in infancy but is lost without regular practice."
Sign up here with your email