“Out of body experiences” (OBE) is one among several expressions used to describe an event in which subjects feel as though they have left their bodies and that their souls are traveling, either flying or walking freely or looking down at their bodies. Some other names for OBEs are “astral projection,” “soul travel,” or “spirit walking.” The term OBE was introduced by George N. M. Tyrell in his book Apparitions and was adopted by researchers, such as Celia Green and Robert Monroe, as a more technical-sounding alternative term. The switch to the term OBE made the topic seem a more credible object of scientific research, whereas some of the other terms in use at that time connoted drug use or religious mysticism. Many cultures have different terms for these types of experiences, such as “spirit quests,” “near-death experiences,” “traveling clairvoyance,” and “psychical excursion.”
However, in the mid-twentieth century, some researchers felt that OBEs merited serious scientific study since these experiences had shared elements among many who reported the phenomenon, with numerous subjects who had never met describing similar experiences while having an OBE. In the fields of cognitive science and psychology, researchers have come to generally regard OBEs as dissociative experiences arising from different psychological and neurological factors. Researchers have suggested that a variety of factors cause OBEs. OBEs can be induced by brain traumas, sensory deprivation, near-death experiences, dissociative and psychedelic drugs, dehydration, sleep, and electrical stimulation of the brain, among other stimulating factors. OBEs can also be deliberately induced in some people. People who have OBEs are more likely to suffer from sleep paralysis, where they are unable to move upon waking. Those who have experienced an OBE also typically suffer from sleep apnea, hypnagogia, cognitive-perceptual schizotypy, and other neurocognitive disorders. Other scientists suggest that OBEs are the result of a mismatch between visual and tactile signals.
Despite the diverse causes of OBEs, OBEs typically fall into two basic types: spontaneous and induced. A spontaneous OBE is, just as the name implies, an OBE without deliberate intent and is usually caused accidentally. These types of OBEs are typically triggered during or near sleep, by near-death experiences, or result from extreme physical effort or brain trauma. Induced OBEs, on the other hand, are purposefully caused by the subject or by another person. These OBEs are usually triggered by mental or mechanical induction, via drug use, psychological and neurological stimuli, or sensory deprivation. Some ancient cultures used these methods to torture prisoners of war to obtain information about an enemy and their weaknesses. Some cultures used these methods to induce spirit quests to obtain higher enlightenment and knowledge from their god(s).
Astral projection assumes that one or more nonphysical planes exist and that one may traverse these in a spiritual form that transcends the physical human body. Other terms used to indicate astral include etheric / ethereal and spiritual. Those who have reported experiencing an astral projection, such as patients during surgery, describe seeing and/or hearing events or objects outside their sensory range. They describe seeing their own bodies on the operating table, as well as watching the surgeon and nurses move around the room and talk to one another.
Writers and researchers in the field of paranormal studies suggest that OBEs are not psychological or neurological but the result of the soul or spirit detaching itself from the physical body and visiting distant locations. During the Victorian period in England, spiritualist literature referred to OBEs as “traveling clairvoyance,” and they were even deliberately sought to reconnect with loved ones who had died. The idea of clairvoyance, however, was not limited to Victorian England. Ancient civilizations and primitive tribes relied on shamans, prophets, or medicine men to receive knowledge from some divine being to predict or prophesy major, and sometimes even minor, events. It was also the responsibility of the shaman, medicine man, or prophet to be the gateway between the people and the divine. In the absence of more structured modes of analysis, spiritual transcendence offers a means of exploring the mysteries of the universe. As Carl Jung, quoting a colleague, wrote, “Magic is the science of the Jungle” (Modern Man in Search of a Soul).
OBEs are a highly controversial subject and often cause rancor between scientists and religious people. The latter attest that OBEs are a form of divine communication in which they receive knowledge from a deity or loved one. Some even describe seeing heaven and/or hell. Some OBEs are described as visions or prophecies. Scientists, on the other hand, argue that these experiences are a natural or induced psychological and neurological phenomenon. Other groups suggest that OBEs are exactly what they seem to be: the consciousness separating from the body and traveling in a discorporate form in the physical world. Those that hold this view are skeptical that OBEs are merely hallucinations, since so many people experience the same delusion, so such people assert that there must be a legitimate experience that has been shared by these many and varied subjects. They even suggest that OBEs are mental events that can happen to healthy people and not just to those who are suffering from physical, mental, or emotional stress or illness.
Zachary Q. Metcalfe
See also Vision Quest
Further Reading
Blackmore, Susan. 1982. Beyond the Body: An Investigation of Out-of-the-Body Experiences. London: Heinemann.
Irwin, Harvey. 1985. Flight of Mind: A Psychological Study of the Out-of-Body Experience. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
Monroe, Robert. 1971. Journeys Out of the Body. New York: Doubleday.
Parra, Alejandro. 2009. “Out-of-Body Experiences and Hallucinatory Experiences: A Psychological Approach.” Imagination, Cognition and Personality 29 (3): 211–223.
Tyrell, George N. M. 1963. Apparitions. New York: Collier Books.
Out of Body Experiences—Primary Document
Jennie Conant Becomes a Medium (1873)
The following selection is part of a biography of Jennie H. “Fannie” Conant, a famous spiritualist and medium of the late nineteenth century. In this account, the author records Conant’s near-death experience, then explains how her health crisis contributed to her decision to become a medium. Conant’s career illustrates the interrelationship among orthodox religion, contemporary understanding of health and medicine, and popular belief in ghosts and spirits.
I.
In the year 1851 she left Lowell, and, with her husband, came to reside at the North End of Boston. Here her health, never robust, gave way, and she was again prostrated by sickness. Dr. Tobey, a well known physician, was summoned to attend her, who in view of the exigencies of the case, prescribed a certain preparation of morphine—he being at the time, unfortunately, under the influence of stimulants. Mr. Conant obtained the prescription, as ordered, from a neighboring apothecary, and it was administered, per directions, to his wife. The amount written down by Dr. Tobey proved to be a large overdose; she was thrown into a semi-unconscious state, and began to sink so rapidly as to alarm all those residing in the house. Mr. Conant immediately proceeded to the doctor’s office to apprise him of the fact. He inquired concerning the medicine and its effect—became agitated, and hurried to the sick chamber. A glance told him that there was some mistake in the remedy administered, and the imminent danger of his patient immediately sobered him. He doubted that he had prescribed so much, and was utterly confounded when, on applying to the druggist, he found the prescription filed in his own handwriting—the apothecary meanwhile assuring him that he should not have put up the medicine in such quantity had he not known him well, and supposed that he was acquainted with his business. Dr. Tobey said there was no help for Mrs. Conant—she must die. She, however, told him that she should not. During the absence of her husband in search of the physician, the second time, Mrs. C. had been mysteriously aroused from the deathly stupor—her body was shaken, involuntarily as it seemed, and a series of shocks, as from an electric battery, passed through her frame; she then began to speak, and prescribed for herself as she had done frequently before at Portsmouth in her childhood. The medicine, which was something of a simple nature, had been given to her, and by its influence, while the terrified physician stood by her side anticipating her speedy dissolution, perspiration began to set in, and witnessing this sign of returning power—though ignorant of its cause—he declared, with great relief to his mind, that she would yet survive. Although neither herself nor the parties in the house were at that time disposed to attribute the cure to the agency of spirits—by reason of want of information on the subject—yet in after years she was told, through the organism of a medium, William Rice, whom she had never before seen, and who was a perfect stranger to the facts in the case, that she had been restored through the efforts of Dr. Kittredge, an old physician of her native town, who had been several years in the spirit world.
Nature rallied, and she rapidly recovered. When she regained full consciousness, she remembered that she seemed to have been in some beautiful place, she thought was heaven. Here she met the mother who left her in earlier years, and when she wept and begged to be allowed to stay with her, her parent gently but firmly told her that she must return to earth life—that she had yet a mission to perform—and her poor tempest-tossed bark was again obliged to put to sea from out the haven of peace where it hoped to rest; but blessed were the assurances she received, that in due time she should again and finally cast anchor amid the golden sand that sparkles in the river of Paradise.
II.
At the age of twenty-one she was attacked by a severe illness, pronounced by the physicians to be consumption of the blood, and no hope of restoration appeared for her. She remained for a long time under the care of several prominent medical men of Boston, but received no help, and her journey of life seemed about to end. While in this condition, a lady, Mrs. Bryant, with whom she was boarding, asked her: “Why don’t you try a medium?” This was in the incipient stage of public spirit communion, and Mrs. Conant had not as yet considered the subject of Spiritualism, as a definite thing. “A medium!” she exclaimed, “what is a medium?”
“A person,” replied Mrs. Bryant, “through whom spirits—or dead folks—can come to talk with their friends in earth life. I can introduce you to a fine one, who has worked many wonderful cures.”
“Well,” responded Mrs. C, “there seems to be no hope from the doctors, and I will try, though I have no expectation of receiving any good from it.”
Mrs. Bryant then introduced her to Miss Anna Richardson, aged some fifteen or sixteen years, who was a medium of great promise in those days. Mrs. C. took her seat, the medium became entranced, and then for the first time, in a practical sense, she discovered what her own powers denoted. Dr. John Dix Fisher, an old Boston physician, controlled Miss Richardson, as a medical adviser, and, after carefully considering Mrs. C.’s malady, said:
“Your case has been pronounced hopeless, but I do not consider it so. If you will obey my instructions, and do what I require in payment, in three weeks I will have you well; but I shall charge you what perhaps you will call a heavy fee.”
Mrs. Conant answered that she had not much to pay with, as she was not possessed of pecuniary means, to which she supposed he referred.
“I will state my terms,” he said, “and then you may decide as to whether you can meet them, or not. You have some of the finest mediumistic powers that I have ever seen, and the world ought to have the full benefit of them.”
“I!” exclaimed Mrs. C.
“Most certainly,” returned the spirit physician;
“You are yet to be a remarkable medium if you will give your consent.” He then proceeded to render a correct synopsis of her past life and experiences, fully explaining those sights, sounds, and occurrences which had been so strange to her from childhood. These, he informed her, were perceived and recognized in consequence of her mediumistic capacity of discernment. While she sat rapt in astonishment at the revelation, the spirit continued:
“You are a spirit medium, and the fee I require in consideration of your case, is that you will give your powers to the world hereafter.”
Still failing to understand the proposition, Mrs. Conant said, “What do you mean by giving my powers to the world?”
“By becoming a public medium,” rejoined Dr. Fisher: “I want you for a medium, myself, and this is the fee I exact for your cure.”
After some hesitation, in which wonder and anxiety were nearly balanced in her mind, she replied: “Well, Doctor, I will pay the fee.” The spirit physician then began working for her benefit, and in three weeks from that date—as he predicted in commencing the case—his medicines had wrought such a perceptible improvement in her, that all her friends united in declaring they should not recognize her as the same person they had known previous to the commencement of his treatment.
Source: Day, John W., and Theodore Parker. Biography of Mrs. J. H. Conant, the World’s Medium of the Nineteenth Century. Boston: William White & Co., Banner of Light, 1873.