- seCtIon FIVe: BoRDeRLAnDs
OUT-OF-THE-BODY IN VIRTUAL REALITY
In a completely different approach to investigating OBEs, Swiss,
Swedish, and German researchers have used virtual reality technol-
ogy to induce ‘out-of-body illusions’ in the laboratory. In the first
experiments, volunteers wore head-mounted displays showing the
view from cameras positioned two metres behind them, so that
they seemed to be looking at their own back (Lenggenhager et al.,
2007). Then an experimenter stroked their back in an attempt to
produce a whole-body version of the rubber-hand illusion (Chap-
ter 4). Seeing his back stroked in this way, Thomas Metzinger (2009)
described an awkward feeling of being drawn towards the virtual
body in front of him and wanting to ‘slip into’ it. In further experiments volun-
teers were shown either their own back, the back of a fake mannequin, or a
large wooden slab. With synchronous stroking of either their own back or the
mannequin many felt as though the virtual body was their own, and some felt
they could ‘jump into’ it.
In a different method, in Sweden Henrik Ehrsson (2007) also used head-mounted
displays showing the volunteer’s own back, but in this case they stroked the per-
son’s chest while moving a rod up and down in front of the cameras to make
it look as it would to someone having their chest stroked. With this set-up the
volunteers reported that they seemed to move backwards towards the position
of the camera, not forwards.Both methods have since been combined (Lenggenhager, Mouthon, and
Blanke, 2009) and even tested with volunteers lying in an fMRI scanner (Ionta
et al., 2011), revealing, once again, a central role for the TPJ.
Among other findings are that when these illusions are suc-
cessfully induced, body temperature drops, pain is felt less
strongly, and when threatened with a knife people react less
when the illusion is strongest (Guterstam and Ehrsson, 2012).
This research has moved extraordinarily fast and taken the OBE
from a topic shunned by mainstream psychology to one that
is actively being investigated for what it can tell us about just
how and why we normally build a self-model that coincides
with our bodily position, and occasionally build one that seems
to fly.FIGURE 15.17 • An alternative to laboratory tests.
For several years, during the
1980s, Sue displayed targets in
the kitchen, out of view of the
window, so that anyone who
claimed to have OBEs could try to
see them. These were a five-digit
number, one of twenty common
words, and one of twenty small
objects. They were selected
using random number tables,
and changed regularly. OBErs
could try to visit from their own
home, or anywhere else, during
spontaneous OBEs, but none
successfully reported the targets.
PRACTICE 15.3
WHAT SURVIVES?As many times as you can, every day, take a good look at your own body
and ask yourself ‘When this body is gone, what will remain?’ Try
to strip away everything that you know will turn to ashes or dust and then
imagine or think or feel what might be left.FIGURE 15.18 • 3D surface reconstruction of
the right hemisphere of the
brain from magnetic resonance
imaging. Subdural electrodes
were implanted in the brain of
an epileptic patient undergoing
presurgical evaluation; the
locations at which focal electrical
stimulation (ES) evoked
behavioural responses are shown.
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs),
body-part illusions, and vestibular
responses were induced at the
site marked with the arrow
(Blanke et al., 2002, p. 269).