Experimental Elicitation of an Out of Body Experience and Concomitant Cross-Hemispheric Electroencephalographic Coherence

Abstract

Brief exposure to a counterclockwise global externally applied magnetic field generated from an array of 64 solenoids designed to affect the cerebral fields associated with the left and right hemispheric correlates of evoked a powerful out of body experience (OOBE) in a single naive subject. The energy available from the applied field within the cortical volume was within the same order of magnitude as that associated with the sum of action potentials in all cortical neurons. During the OOBE there was a marked generalized increase in coherence in quantitative electroencephalographic activity between the left temporal lobe and right prefrontal region with specific abnormally high increases within the 4 to 7 Hz and 15 to 21 Hz band. These results are congruent with the experience of consciousness detached from the body and moving through space. The diagonal congruence is more consistent with the existence of two quantized fields or a global field with opposing polarities whose vector determines various emergent states experienced as OOBEs or sensed presences during brief periods of perturbation.