An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE) is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one’s body and, in some cases, perceiving one’s physical body from a place outside one’s body (autoscopy).

The term out-of-body experience was introduced in 1943 by George N. M. Tyrrell in his book Apparitions, and adopted by, for example, Celia Green and Robert Monroe as a bias-free alternative to belief-centric labels such as “astral projection”, “soul travel”, or “spirit walking”. Though the term usefully distances researchers from scientifically problematic concepts such as the soul, scientists still know little about the phenomenon. Some researchers believe they have managed to recreate OBE in a laboratory setup by stimulating a part in the human brain. One in ten people has an out-of-body experience once, or more commonly, several times in his or her life. OBEs are often part of the near-death experience. Those who have experienced OBEs sometimes claim to have observed details which were unknown to them beforehand.

In some cases the phenomenon appears to occur spontaneously; in others it is associated with a physical or mental trauma, dehydration, sensory deprivation, sensory overload, use of psychedelic drugs, dissociative drugs, or a dream-like state. Many techniques aiming to induce the experience deliberately have been developed, for example visualization while in a relaxed, meditative state. Recent (2007) studies have shown that experiences somewhat similar to OBEs can be induced by electrical brain stimulation (particularly the temporoparietal junction). Some of those who experience OBEs claimed to have willed themselves out of their bodies, while others report having found themselves being pulled from their bodies (usually preceded by a feeling of paralysis). In other accounts, the feeling of being outside the body was suddenly realized after the fact, and the experiencers saw their own bodies almost by accident.

Some neurologists have suspected that the event is triggered by a mismatch between visual and tactile signals. They used a virtual reality setup to recreate an OBE. The subject looked through goggles and saw his own body as it would appear to an outside observer standing behind him. The experimenter then touched the subject at the same time as a rod appeared to touch the virtual image. The experiment created an illusion of being behind and outside one’s body. However, both critics and the experimenter himself note that the study fell short of replicating “full-blown” OBEs.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience

Anthony Peake is a member of The International Association For Near-Death Studies, The International Association for the Study of Dreams, The Scientific & Medical Network and the Society for Psychical Research. In January 2011 he was offered, and accepted, a research fellowship at the Giordano Bruno Global Shift University. He has also recently been listed as one of the 200 “Visionaries” for the 21st Century. He is the author of several books including The Out of Body Experience

Out of body experiences (OBEs) are those curious, and usually brief experiences in which a person’s consciousness seems to depart from his or her body, enabling observation of the world from a point of view other than that of the physical body and by means other than those of the physical senses. Thus, an out-of-the-body experience can initially be defined as ‘an experience in which a person seems to perceive the world from a location outside his physical body’.

The sensation of leaving the body behind and encountering another level of reality is of the greatest mysteries of the human experience. In his talk, Anthony Peake will expand and elucidate on his research into different experiences linked to astral travel — including the Near-Death Experience, Lucid Dreaming, Remote Viewing and Dream Yoga. He will show how all of these are all elements of the same phenomenon. This tells us that the universe is far more complex than we can ever have imagined. Anthony Peake will also refer to the history of this fascinating subject and will show how recent discoveries in neurology, consciousness studies and quantum physics present a challenging new model of how consciousness interfaces with ‘reality’.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rVJJrz_f1U