Creating an Out of Body Experience

ithaca by ::sarmax::

The BBC reported that researchers have found a way to manufacture an out-of-body experience. Their experiment included one technique that employed a video camera that filmed the subject from behind. The subject, wearing virtual-reality goggles, sees a researcher in the video feed touch his back. This creates an experience that is similar to an OOBE.

When I read this article, I knew just what they were talking about. I've tried to describe this feeling to friends, but they just look at me like I'm crazy.

I get this feeling when I'm standing in line at the bank.

The security camera system has a monitor showing the bank line. When I look up, I see a live video image of myself from behind. This makes me feel uncomfortable, as if my self has been divided in two.

Also, there's something unresolvable about it. I know that know that light is bouncing off my body, through the camera lens to the monitor, and through my eyes to my brain, and yet it feels like information is traveling the opposite direction from my brain around to my back.

I also get this same creepy feeling when I accidentally see my own blood bubbling into a tube during a blood draw. I think, "How can I be in two different spaces at the same time?"