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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience At the end of this PowerPoint you will be able to…
– Describe psychological research and explanations for out-of-body experience.
– Evaluate psychological research and explanations for out-of-body-experience.
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
What do we
An experience in which
mean by out-of-body
a location outside the
experience? (OBE)
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Typical features of an OBE
A feeling that one’s soul is ‘going out’ of their body. ‘Looking down’ on their physical body (known as escomatic). Can clearly see and hear events taking place.
Travel to other locations e.g. spiritual realms (known as astral projection).
Can last from a few seconds to several minutes.
OBE are a common feature of NDE.
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience What type of body is it during an OBE?
Some claim the body resembles their own physical body- known as
parasomatic OBE
Others do not experience possessing another body known as
asomatic OBE © www.psychologyzone.co.uk
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Psychological and social variables of OBEs © www.psychologyzone.co.uk
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience When do OBEs occur?
Natural OBEs
(involuntarily) Whilst awake Falling asleep Exhaustion Stress Illness/injury NDE
Induced OBEs
(deliberate) Hypnosis Mental training Electrical brain stimulation Drugs
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Explanations for OBE Paranormal explanation OR Psychological & physiological explanations
(Non-paranormal)
We will look at each in turn.
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Paranormal Explanation OBEs
are a real paranormal phenomena.
Some psychologists (and OBEr) tend to support the
‘survival hypothesis’
.
The soul (or consciousness) during an OBE actually leaves the physical body.
Evidence for human immortality?
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Research supporting the paranormal explanation for OBE
25132
Tart, the researcher, arranged for
‘Miss Z’
(a women who often had an OBE whilst sleeping) to spend four nights in a sleep laboratory room.
Tart
Miss Z
A piece of paper with 5 random numbers was placed in the same room on top of a shelf, not visible to Miss Z.
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
Miss Z 25132
Miss Z during her OBE was able to read the 5 numbers and report it correctly.
Tart claims the odds against guessing a 5 digit number by chance alone are 100,000 to 1 .
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Further research supporting the paranormal explanation
Osis and McCormick (1980) designed an
optical image device.
A box that contained an assortment of images. Looking in, through the lid, one would see them as a jumble of images.
Looking through the
viewing slot
the jumbled images make a picture (an optical illusion image ).
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
Alex Tanous, capable of inducing an OBE, sat in a separate room during an OBE state.
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Alex was required to identify the image, via the viewing slot which was locked in a distant room.
A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
A strain-gauge sensor (records vibrations) was placed in front of the box. To measure any physical effects caused by the participant’s out-of-body presence Researchers found 114 of the 197 (58 %) trials. Alex correctly identified the random optical illusion image. Also during the 114 ‘hits’ the strain gauge activation level was significantly higher than when the subject scored ‘misses’.
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Physiological explanation
OBEs are an illusion caused by electrical activity in the brain.
Electrical stimulation of the
right angular gyrus
produces an OBE.
Malfunctioning
of the right angular gyrus can trigger an OBE.
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The angular gyrus is located at the point where the temporal lobe, occipital lobe and parietal lobe meet. This is region is known as the Temporal Parietal Junction (
TPJ
)
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Research supporting the physiological explanation for OBE
Blanke et al (2002) demonstrated OBEs can be artificially induced.
Continue
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
He accidently electrically stimulated the right angular gyrus region of a woman suffering from epilepsy.
Continue
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
The women reported floating and seeing herself below, lying on the bed from above.
Continue
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
During her illusion, the woman reported seeing her legs ‘becoming shorter’.
Continue
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
The role of the angular gyrus is to combine incoming information from the different senses.
Continue
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
When this is disrupted you may feel that you are not in your body, hence an OBE can occur. Continue
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
This is supported by De Ridder et al. (2007) who was treating a patient for tinnitus by stimuating the TPJ Continue
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
The patient experienced a sensation of disembodiment- the self being separated from the body.
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Psychological explanation Susan Blackmore
Offers a cognitive theory called ‘models of reality ’ to explain OBE
.
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Psychological explanation
This is called the ‘sensory
eyes
model of reality’
(reality being based on our sense)
That is because how we see reality comes from our senses.
However, there are other models of reality… © www.psychologyzone.co.uk
A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
The brain cannot separate the different ‘models of reality’
Fantasy Memory
The brain chooses the one which is most stable to be ‘reality’
(which is the one that comes from our senses) © www.psychologyzone.co.uk
A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
Our reality can become disrupted under some circumstances.
E.g. stress or sensory damage (injury), The current sensory model of reality becomes unstable.
A new model of reality is created from
memory
and
imagination
.
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
Images from memory are recalled from a bird’s eye-view (think of a beach scene).
This explains why people feel they are outside their bodies ‘looking down from above’ in an OBE experience.
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Research supporting the psychological explanation for OBE
Blackmore carried out a questionnaire on students to investigate the relationship between OBE & memory images.
Continue
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience
Found OBE were more likely to recall dream images in bird’s eye-view
BUT…
Continue
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience © www.psychologyzone.co.uk
NOT
for recall of real life events images (e.g. describing the layout of their house).
Continue
A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience © www.psychologyzone.co.uk
Although she cannot explain the reasons for this difference!
Continue
A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Evaluation: Paranormal Explanation & Research Replication an issue with Tart’s study on Miss Z Validity questioned:
• Miss Z moved away. Unable to repeat the experiment by other researchers to test the validity of the findings.
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Evaluation: Paranormal Explanation & Research
Why was the target object in the same room as the participant?
Other methodological issues with the Miss Z
Miss Z, being attached to an EEG machine could as it has been pointed out by skeptics: Why was the target object in the same room as the participant? Why wasn't an observer also in the room at the time of the experiment? Why was the target object they so close to the participant? Continue
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Why wasn't an observer also in the room at the time of the experiment?
A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Evaluation: Paranormal Explanation & Research For example:
o Tart placed the number on the shelf when Miss Z was already in the room. Could she have glimpsed at the numbers?
o Could she have shined a torch light towards the numbers which might have reflected the numbers in the glass of a wall clock located above the shelf? (As it has been suggested.).
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Evaluation: Paranormal Explanation & Research Results in the optical-image study not that great!
o The OBE was able to identify the correct picture 114 of 197 (58%) of the times. o Blackmore (1981) is not impressed with the results. This approximately equal to that expected by chance.
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Evaluation: Physiological and Psychological Explanation & Research Blackmore’s ‘model of reality’ is questioned.
o Fails to explain how memory images are created in bird's eye views in the first place?! o Not all memory images are from a bird’s eye view. E.g., one does not recall the roof of their local supermarket when you think of it!
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Evaluation: Paranormal Explanation & Research Induced OBE are different from natural OBE Induced OBE
Are the same experience?
Natural OBE
o In Blanke’s study, the epileptic women, experienced distortions of body part (legs becoming shorter). o In De Ridder’s study, the patient experience a sensation of disembodiments.
This is not common in natural OBEs!
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A2 Psychology:
Out-of-body experience Exam questions
1. Explain what is meant by the term ‘out-of-body experience’.
(2 marks)
.
2. Give two explanations for out-of-body experiences.
(6 marks)
3. Outline and evaluate research into out-of-body experiences.
(4 marks + 8 marks
).
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