The out-of-body experience revealed
To those who have trouble believing in things beyond what they can see, the concept of an "out-of-body" experience seems a little far-fetched. After all, who knows why a person might feel like they were "outside" of their body, "watching" themselves -- it's a phenomenon that's been almost completely untouched by the scientific community.
Until now, that is.
Teams of researchers in both England and Switzerland have devised methods for confusing the signals sent from the senses to the brain -- giving people the impression that they're standing outside of their bodies. Essentially, this amounted to "tricking" the brain by giving it deliberately misleading sensory information.
When participants thought that they were "standing outside of themselves" they reported feeling "weird," but certainly weren't having any kind of spiritual episode.
So, while the "out-of-body" experience is definitely an interesting phenomenon, it seems to be caused by a relatively straightforward manipulation of the body's sense -- and not, as some have suggested, by any contact with higher powers, alternate dimensions or otherwise.
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