Experiments Get Close to 'Out-of-Body' Experience

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"It's like those video games where you are driving a car, but the car is in front of you," he reasoned. "You aren't actually in the car, but, in essence, I think some people think they are in the car."

While Ehrsson claims to have recreated a true "out-of-body" experience in the lab, Blanke's group doesn't go so far. They noted that the participants said they understand that the video "them" was just an illusion -- whereas people who typically have "out-of-body" experience believe they are observing their own body. "We have only induced some aspects of 'out-of-body' experience," the Swiss team concluded.

Nelson believes that neither team fully replicated the "out-of-body" state but did create a convincing "illusion."

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"I think these are very clever and interesting experiments," he added. "And I think they show the importance of the visual system in how we integrate our identity of self in space."

In other words, the two experiments create a visual illusion that is so convincing to the brain that it somehow disrupts the usually seamless integration between the eyes, touch and proprioception, Nelson said. The result -- which might also occur during sleep-wake transitions, as the brain is put under stress near death, or in certain medical conditions -- is that sensation of temporarily losing contact with the body.

None of this means that vision is the key component, Nelson said. "If we were able to manipulate another [sense] in such a comprehensive or complete fashion, maybe we'd get similar results," he added.

"There's a simple way of proving that," he said. "Close your eyes. Can you still tell where you are or where your body is? You can. You have no visual input, yet you still retain that sense of self and where you are in space."

He agreed with Blanke that your close identification with your own body was essential to the illusion, since viewing a dummy body had no effect.

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