The incidence and determinants of visual phenomenology during out-of-body experiences
Cortex June 6, 2008 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2007.06.007 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Individuals drawn from the general population |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Citations | 60 |
| Key findings | Seventy percent of individuals who had experienced an OBE reported visual content, and those with visual content had higher scores on measures of preference for object visual imagic cognition and weak synaesthesia than those without visual content. |
Abstract
The visual content of out-of-body experiences (OBEs) has received little attention but a number of theories of OBEs include implicit predictions regarding the determinants of this phenomenological feature. Hypnagogic imagery and unusual sleep experiences, weak synaesthesia and preference for employing object and spatial visual imagic cognitive styles were psychometrically measured along with the incidence of self-reported OBEs and the absence or presence of visual content therein, in a sample of individuals drawn from the general population. Seventy percent of individuals who had experienced an OBE reported that the experience included some form of visual content. These individuals exhibited greater scores on the measures of preference for object visual imagic cognition and weak synaesthesia than those who reported an absence of visual content during their OBE. Subsequent analysis revealed that the measure of weak synaesthesia was the stronger discriminator of the two cohorts. The results are discussed within the context of the synaesthetic model of visual phenomenology during OBEs (Brugger, 2000; Irwin, 2000). This account proposes that visual content appears during these experiences through a process of cognitive dedifferentiation in which visual hallucinations are derived from available non-visual sensory cues and that such dedifferentiation is made possible through an underlying characteristic hyperconnectivity of cortical structures regulating vestibular and visual representations of the body and those responsible for the rotation of environmental objects. Predictions derived from this account and suggestions for future research are proffered.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The phenomenology of near-death experiences Subjects who reported near-death experiences | 1980 | Retrospective study | n = 78 |
| Visual Phenomenology of the LSD Flashback Persons with a history of LSD use | 1983 | Observational cohort | n = 123 |
| The neurophenomenology of neutral hypnosis. Individuals of high, medium, and low hypnotizability | 2013 | Observational cohort | n = 37 |
| The Phenomenology of Acute Organic Psychosis Patients with acute organic psychosis and acute schizophrenics | 1987 | Observational cohort | n = 148 |
| EEG oscillatory states as neuro-phenomenology of consciousness as revealed from patients in vegetative and minimally conscious states. Brain-damaged patients with disorders of consciousness and healthy-conscious subjects | 2012 | Observational cohort |
Citations in the library
Cited by 29
- The body unbound: Vestibular–motor hallucinations and out-of-body experiences Cortex June 6, 2008
- A putative implication for fronto-parietal connectivity in out-of-body experiences Cortex October 31, 2008
- Voluntary Out-of-Body Experience: An fMRI Study Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2014
- A placebo-controlled investigation of synaesthesia-like experiences under LSD. Neuropsychologia April 5, 2016
- Increased positive and disorganised schizotypy in synaesthetes who experience colour from letters and tones Cortex June 26, 2011
and 24 more in the library
Cites 18
- Out‐of‐body experience and autoscopy of neurological origin Brain January 15, 2004
- Linking Out-of-Body Experience and Self Processing to Mental Own-Body Imagery at the Temporoparietal Junction Journal of Neuroscience January 19, 2005
- Out-of-body experience, heautoscopy, and autoscopic hallucination of neurological origin Brain Research Reviews July 13, 2005
- A Community Mail Survey of Psychic Experiences July 5, 2017
- The body unbound: Vestibular–motor hallucinations and out-of-body experiences Cortex June 6, 2008
and 13 more in the library