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Out of body experience explained. Not!

“The experiments, described in Science, provide a scientific explanation for a phenomenon experienced by one in 10 people. Using virtual reality goggles, researchers managed to fool the brain into believing the body was located elsewhere. The visual hoax plus the sensation of their real bodies being touched made volunteers sense that they had moved beyond their physical bodies.”

This is what it says on Cognews regarding the new experiments on the out of body phenomenon.

This is what I have to say about this:

“provide a scientific explanation for a phenomenon experienced by one in 10 people.” No it does not provide an explanation for the NDE phenomenon.

It does however show that the feeling of where one’s body is, can be altered using virtual reality and haptics. Nothing new. This experiment is not that dissimilar to a simple 3rd person computer game. Combined with said haptics that would immerse the player even more. This is, again, well known to anyone working with VR. The whole point with VR is to immerse the player into a world where the body is not. We do this by providing the senses with artificial cues. Eyes with visual cues, auditory system with sound, and we are starting to use haptics (touch) to also fool the body’s sense of touch. These inputs are all made by some sort och gadget. VR-goggles, haptic gloves, headphones. Just like in the experiment.

“Scientists have long suspected that the clue to these extraordinary, and sometimes life-changing, experiences lies in disrupting our normal illusion of being a self behind our eyes, and replacing it with a new viewpoint from above or behind.” news.bbc.co.uk

The question is, how is that possible? This is a virtual reality and immersion experiment, it can not explain the extrasensory perception phenomenon of NDE. In a real out of body phenomenon you don’t wear VR goggles and have a camera in the roof pointing down at your body, to feed your eyes with the altered viewpoint. How is it possible to have another viewpoint unless something somehow connected to your awareness changes physical position? This experiment tells us nothing about that.

The NDE and VR implications of this experiment are seriously exaggerated, and people seem to not understand what it actually tells us.

A good example of how important it is to explain an experiment and findings in an easy way for the public, to avoid misunderstandings.

More on NDE (Near Death Experience) here

And more on VR (Virtual Reality) here

Also check a fellow Blogger’s input on this!