Out-of-body experience
Wikipedia contributors · 2024 · Wikipedia
Summary
Survey of out-of-body experiences, including spontaneous reports, near-death contexts, laboratory induction, temporo-parietal junction findings, vestibular/body-schema models, and interpretive disputes.
Why it matters here
Use this for the broad OBE phenomenon. It should sit beside astral-projection and NDE sources so the experience, neurological mechanisms, and spiritual interpretation remain separate.
Linked claims
An interpretive overlay on OBE, positing literal travel through 'astral' space. No controlled evidence beyond the OBE phenomenon itself.
A consistent core experience — peace, light, life review, OBE — reported across cultures and prospective hospital studies.
OBEs are reliably triggered by temporo-parietal junction stimulation and certain drug states; veridical perception is rare and contested. 'Astral projection' is the same phenomenon read maximally — as literal travel through an astral plane — with no independent evidence beyond the OBE itself.
Related evidence hubs
Psychedelic, contemplative, and out-of-body experiences and what they may reveal.
Psychedelic, contemplative, out-of-body experience.
Structured experiences during cardiac arrest and crisis.
Evidence around dying, near-death experience, and what (if anything) continues.
The nature of subjective experience.
Whether anything of mind continues.