In “Out-of-body experience: Master of illusion” (Nature, 07 December 2011), Ed Yong advises
Henrik Ehrsson uses mannequins, rubber arms and virtual reality to create body illusions, all in the name of neuroscience.
Ehrsson’s interests in the self and body ownership bleed into the rest of his life. He is drawn towards experimental theatre and surrealist art. He comes across as thoughtful and remote, easily forgetting the names of colleagues and often lapsing into silence. He prefers working in his lab to going to conferences, he says.
Some people behave similarly and use pharmaceuticals.
He also occasionally gets angry letters from people who have had out-of-body experiences themselves. “They believe that their souls have left their bodies, and they feel threatened that a similar experience can be induced in a lab,” says Ehrsson. He offers a diplomatic response, saying that he has “no way of disproving their ideas”. Metzinger is more forthright. “Henrik’s work speaks to the idea that there is no such thing as a soul or a self that’s independent of the brain,” he says.
A friend asked us to respond to this. All we can say is, we have little idea re out-of-body experiences, natural or manipulated. Or associated weirdness.
We’ve a little bit more info on near-death experiences. Near-death experiences tend to cause a person to change their orientation to life. People who thought that everything depended on money, status, and power suddenly decide that personal relationships matter most. Whatever is happening is not merely another example of weirdness.
And we leave the materialists to squabble over their out-of-bodies ….
See also The Spiritual Brain.