The neuroscience of out of body experiences

This talk will describe fascinating case studies of neurological patients who report profound changes to their sense of self, body and reality: out of body experiences (OBEs).

Most people have heard of OBEs in the context of near death experiences, but they can also be triggered by a range of different medical conditions and situations, including epilepsy, brain tumours, migraine and traumatic incidents.

Someone having an OBE experiences their self to be separate from their own body - to be floating above it - and they often describe seeing their body lying down beneath them.

OBEs have fascinated people for millennia, and written accounts go back over 2,000 years, but until recently there has been no scientific explanation for why this phenomenon occurs.

Dr Jane Aspell will present recent scientific studies that have investigated what happens in the brain during an OBE and in related conditions in which people also see their own ‘body double’.

There is now strong evidence that OBE and related experiences are caused by abnormal functioning in parts of the brain that process and combine signals from our bodies. This research on neurological patients sheds light on how the healthy brain generates the experience of one’s self, and what happens when that construction temporarily goes ‘wrong’.

This talk is part of our Psychology Master Class series running in March and April 2023.