COMMENT:Discusses Out-Of-the-Body Experiences (OBEs), including Near Death Experiences (NDEs). OBEs are defined experientially: when a person seems to themselves to be perceiving the world from a viewpoint outside the body. Blackmore begins with a description of a 3-hour OBE of her own. After surveying older ideas of "second bodies" and "astral travel," she analyzes case collections, surveys using questionnaire techniques, and beliefs about OBEs across a range of contemporary cultures. She then turns to methods of inducing OBEs, their relation to dreams, imagery, hallucinations and psychopathology, and the physiology that may underlie them. The last chapters consider whether there is evidence that extrasensory access to information is available through OBE's, or that anything actually leaves the body. As well as experiments on ESP, they cover attempts to photograph the spirit at the moment of death! Blackmore concludes that the best explanation at present is a purely psychological one: nothing leaves the body, and no information is gained by paranormal means. The OBE remains fascinating as an altered state of consciousness of a type which is relatively common and accessible to study.
DATE:19980608
KEYWORDS:psi psychology
MISC:272p.
PUBLISHER:Academy Chicago
TITLE:Beyond The Body: An Investigation of Out-of-the-Body Experiences
