What is it about?
An assessment (via qualitative interviews) of the transformative effects reported by eight healthy people who have undergone an out-of-body experience (OBE) that occurred spontaneously on a minimum of one occasion. Interview questions centered on themes around attitude, personal change, relationships, spiritual beliefs, purpose, and life meaning. As part of the interview process, participants were instructed that the transformation attributed to the OBE could encompass any content, be it positive, negative or neutral. While participants were invited to focus on their most memorable OBE, those who had multiple OBEs invariably focused on their initial experiences which appeared to be the most transformative. Interviews revealed eight shared core themes of transformative change associated with the experience: a motivational catalyst; decreased fear of death; increased inner peace; a new life perspective; greater self-awareness; a sense of individuality; reevaluated relationships, and affirmed or new spiritual beliefs. The OBE was viewed as an important, transformative and deeply life enriching experience by all participants, suggesting that the OBE can yield potential psychological benefits to the experiencer.
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Why is it important?
The OBE is a fascinating research subject because it is an extraordinarily rich, highly compelling and thoroughly under-researched human experience or capacity. Early research tended to associate the OBE with pathology, and neuroscientific research has sought to explain the experience via certain aberrations in brain function. However this experience should also be assessed by its potential fruits rather than by its roots alone. The meaning people make from these experiences, and the ways in which they can impact people's lives in the wake of them remains under-studied. In this study sample, the OBE appeared effective at diminishing the fear of death, and the other shifts reported shared similarities with the near death experience (NDE), with the added benefits of safety and potential repeatability. This could have clinical significance, with death anxiety usually being resistant to change and it has been linked to depressive and anxiety disorders. This suggests the OBE could hold potential in clinical or therapeutic contexts via harnessing its capacity to diminish fears around dying. Even a single OBE was associated with catalysing sustained life changes - influencing things like career, relationships, lifestyle and creative expression. While the OBE's in this study occurred spontaneously, the OBE can be induced through hypnosis or other methods, and some or all of the benefits associated with the spontaneous OBE may be accessible via OBEs induced with intent.
Perspectives
I hope that this work might stimulate more research interest in the OBE, perhaps in the form of prospective longitudinal studies into the type and depth of psychological transformation people undergo. It remains a highly understudied experience, and it could have clinical relevance - particularly with regard to decreasing the fear of death. In this study sample, the OBE closely resembled the near-death experience (NDE) with regard to the attributed psychological changes, of which the OBE is often (but not always) a central component. This suggests that some of the psychological shifts associated with the NDE may be made accessible via the OBE. Western culture doesn't deal well with death, and while medical science is well equipped to support the physical needs of the dying, the existential needs of individuals can be neglected. This study suggests that the power of the OBE in transforming fears around death could potentially be harnessed in palliative care contexts, or therapeutically with other forms of mental illness linked to death anxiety. Further research on OBEs is warranted, as it appears their transformative effects can elicit a number of important psychological benefits, while providing a wider lens view into what it means to be human.
Sam Gandy
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Transformative effects of spontaneous out of body experiences in healthy individuals: An interpretative phenomenological analysis., Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice, April 2023, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/cns0000324.
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