Lehal Library

Unfortunately for our peace of mind, there are thousands of instances, reported by normal people, of exactly this sort of occurrence. We are not dealing with a purely hypothetical situation. Such events have been termed traveling clairvoyance, astral projection, or, a more scientific term, out-of-the-body experiences (OOBEs). We can formally define an OOBE as an event in which the experiencer (i) seems to perceive some portion of some environment which could not possibly be perceived from where his physical body is known to be at the time; and (2) knows at the time that he is not dreaming or fantasizing. The experiencer seems to possess his normal consciousness at the time, and even though he may reason that this cannot be happening, he will feel all his normal critical faculties to be present, and so knows he is not dreaming. Further, he will not decide after awakening that this was a dream. How, then, do we understand this strange phenomenon? If we look to scientific sources for information about OOBEs we shall find practically none at all. Scientists have, by and large, simply not paid any attention to these phenomena. The situation is rather similar to that of the scientific literature on extrasensory perception (ESP). Phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis are "impossible" in terms of the current physical world view. Since they can't happen, most scientists do not bother to read the evidence indicating that they do happen; hence, not having read the evidence, their belief in the impossibility of such phenomena is reinforced. This kind of circular reasoning in support of one's comfortable belief systern is not unique to scientists by any means, but it has resulted in very little scientific research on ESP or OOBEs. In spite of the lack of "hard" scientific dfcta, there are still a number of definite conclusions one can make from reading what material there is. First, OOBEs are a universal human experience, not in the sense that they happen to large numbers of people, but in that they have happened all through recorded history, and there are marked similarities in the experience among people who are otherwise extremely different in terms of cultural background. One can find reports of OOBEs by housewives in Kansas which closely resemble accounts of OOBEs from ancient Egyptian or oriental sources. Second, the OOBE is generally a once-in-a-lifetime experience, seemingly experienced by "accident." Illnesses sometimes bring it about, especially illnesses which are almost fatal. Great emotional stress sometimes brings it about. In many cases, it simply happens during sleep without our having any