Flight of mind: A psychological study of the out-of-body experience

The purpose of this article is to describe examples of near-death and other transpersonal experiences occurring during catastrophic events like floods, wars, bombings, and death camps. To date, researchers have limited their investigations of these transpersonal events to those occurring to seriously ill patients in hospitals, those dying from terminal illnesses, or to individuals experiencing a period of grief after the death of a loved one. Missing is awareness by first responders and emergency healthcare professionals about these transpersonal experiences and what to say to the individuals who have them. Some responders experience not only deaths of the victims they assist, but also deaths of their colleagues. Information about these transpersonal experiences can also be of comfort to them. The examples in this article include a near-death experience during the Vietnam War, an out-of-body experience after a bomb explosion during the Iraq War, a near-death visit to a woman imprisoned at Auschwitz, and two after-death communications, one from a person killed in Auschwitz and another from a soldier during World War I. Also included are interviews with two New York City policemen who were September 11, 2001 responders. It is hoped the information will provide knowledge of these experiences to those who care for those near death, or dying, or grieving because of catastrophic events, and encourage researchers to further investigate these experiences during disasters.

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Out of Body Experience Induced by Hypnotic Suggestion. Part 1: Phenomenology and Perceptual Characteristics.

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2443719 ◽

2014 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Patrizio E. Tressoldi ◽

Luciano Pederzoli ◽

Patrizio Caini ◽

Alessandro Ferrini ◽

Simone Melloni ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Body Experience ◽

Out Of Body Experience ◽

Hypnotic Suggestion ◽

Perceptual Characteristics

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Researching the out-of-body experience: The state of the art.

The Journal of near-death studies ◽

10.17514/jnds-1984-4-1-p21-49. ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Keyword(s):

State Of The Art ◽

The State ◽

Body Experience ◽

Out Of Body Experience

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Transpersonal Experiences in Childhood: An Exploratory Empirical Study of Selected Adult Groups

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1992.75.3f.1135 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 75 (3_suppl) ◽

pp. 1135-1153 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Harry T. Hunt ◽

Sheryl Shearing-Johns ◽

Arlene Gervais ◽

Fred Travis

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Skills ◽

Mystical Experience ◽

Childhood And Adolescence ◽

Spatial Skills ◽

Body Experience ◽

Transpersonal Experience ◽

Visual Spatial ◽

Out Of Body Experience ◽

Transpersonal Experiences ◽

Meditative Practice

A questionnaire was developed to assess adult recall for a range of transpersonal experiences throughout childhood and adolescence (mystical experience, out-of-body experience, lucid dreams, archetypal dreams, ESP), as well as nightmares and night terrors as indicators of more conflicted, negative states. In two exploratory studies this questionnaire was administered to subjects with high estimated levels of early transpersonal experiences and practising meditators, with respective undergraduate controls. A cognitive skills/precocity model of early transpersonal experience was contrasted with a vulnerability of self model by comparisons of these groups on questionnaire categories, imaginative absorption, neuroticism, and visual-spatial skills, with some support found for both models depending on experience type, age of estimated recall, and adult meditative practice.

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