A recent study was successfully able to convince subjects that they were in another body–first by attaching cameras to the head of a dummy, making it look like the subject was seeing through the dummy’s eyes. To further instill the illusion, they touched the subject’s body at the same time and place as the dummy’s. Neatly enough, it worked so well that the subject’s skin responded to the threat of a knife (even though it only touched the dummy’s body).

This is where they took it further. Instead of having a dummy, they had another person. They were able to convince the subject that he/she was the other person! In fact, when asked to shake the person’s hand, the subject felt like they were shaking their own hand. Freaky.

This out of body illusion demonstrates that often enough, what we consider our self is a construct, a nifty illusion that helps us get around. At least, this is true on a perceptive level (seeing, feeling, touching, etc). It would be interesting what they could do at the deeper, psychological levels. Could we create the illusion that you are another personality? If so, it would only seem to confirm what Buddhism and contemplative philosophies have already discovered: self is illusion.

The BBC article notes that this could eventually be used for controlling robots in order to do remote surgery, or dangerous situations where humans cannot work. In other words, the technique would temporarily convince us that we are robots. Forgetting the problem of speed and distance, imagine how this could be applied to space exploration?

source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/dec/03/phantom-limb-pain-brain-science