Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain is to Blame (as OBE can be induced)

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>

> , " Violet "

> <violet.tubb@> wrote:

> >

> > Then we have the word " mystical " . i realise it is the word we use

> > when we talk about 'mystical knowledge'. However, at the same

> > time i don't think that this word does any favours... because i

> > have frequently seen and heard people 'turn off' at the very

> > mention of the word 'mystical'. It is obvious that there is a

> > strong conditioning against the word itself... let alone the

> > knowledge that is spoken of as being mystical.

> >

>

, " jagbir singh "

<adishakti_org wrote:

>

> " Mystical experiences

>

> Mystical experiences tend to be experiences felt or experienced

> beyond the realms of ordinary consciousness. Occasionally they are

> referred to as states of altered consciousness. Such states may

> involve ineffable awareness of time, space, and physical reality.

> Mystical experiences often defy physical description, and can best

> be only hinted at.

>

> Such experiences are universal and share common characteristics,

> despite the culture or religion in which they occur. They are

> invariably spiritual, yet they may not be religious; that is, they

> are not limited to monks or priests. However, all personal

> religious experiences are rooted in mystical states of

> consciousness, and all mystical experiences are part of religions.

>

> Although mystical experiences are common in occurrence, they occur

> unbidden to a person perhaps once or twice in a lifetime, if at

> all. According to a survey in 1987 conducted by the National

> Opinion Research Center in Chicago, 43 percent of adult Americans

> said they had some type of mystical experience. In British polls

> published in 1978 and 1979 in the Journal for the Scientific Study

> of Religion, 56 percent of churchgoers claimed they had such an

> experience. Those within this group who had more experiences were

> older; better educated, and attended church more.

>

> William James, psychologist and philosopher, identified four

> general characteristics of mystical experiences:

>

> 1. Ineffability, Mystical states are more like states of feeling

> than intellect, subtle shaded with fine nuances that are difficult

> to convey in their import and grandeur to another. Consequently,

> much mystical literature is filled with paradoxes and symbolism.

>

> 2. Noetic quality, Mystical experiences are states of knowledge,

> insight, awareness, revelation, and illumination beyond the grasp

> of the intellect. There is awareness of unity with the Absolute, of

> immortality of the soul, of great truths. Time and space are

> transcended.

>

> 3. Transiency, mystical experiences are fleeting in linear time,

> though they seem to be eternal. Most last a few seconds, some

> perhaps up to ten minutes. It is rare to sustain a mystical state

> for more than a half-hour, or perhaps one to two hours at best.

> Eastern adepts are able to sustain prolonged periods of samadhi, a

> mystical state of one-pointed concentration; and some reportedly

> are able to sustain the highest states of nirvana (satori in Zen)

> and even the rarely attained nirodh.

>

> 4. Passivity, The individual feels swept up and held by a superior

> power. This may be accompanied by a sensation of separation from

> bodily consciousness (similar to an out-of-body experience [OBE]),

> trance, or such phenomena as automatisms, mediumistic trance,

> healing powers, visions, and voices. Such phenomena are regarded in

> Eastern thought as states of pseudo-enlightenment, partway up to

> the real thing, but not quite there.

>

> According to James and others mystical experiences vary in

> intensity. In their simplest form they appear to the individual as

> a sudden burst of intelligence or insight; similar to the way the

> significance of a maximum or formula becomes clear, to a person,

> which causes him to express an aha! James also classed deja vu as a

> simple mystical experience. Other insights have increased meaning

> such as the bursts of truths that are accompanied by dreamy states

> and reveries, and then there is the maximum state when the

> individual experiences the ecstasy of being in union with the

> Absolute, or God. "

>

> Mystical experiences

> www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/m/mystical_experiences.html

>

>

> Kash, Arwinder and Lalita claim that this Reality is " more real'

> than living on Earth i.e., being a human. If this is the case then

> their spiritual experiences cannot be depreciated and called

> " mystical " .

>

> Thus the mystical experience is an inferior spiritual experience as

> compared to meeting Shri Lalita Devi in the Sahasrara. Probably

> this is the first time ever anyone have been able to visit the

> Divine Mother within their Sahasraras, a Reality that exceeds the

> common mystical experiences. So it is indeed the truth when Shri

> Mataji claims that the Sahasrara Chakra was opened by Her at

> Bordi, India in the early hours of May 5, 1970 when She meditated

> with Her feet immersed in the Indian Ocean. Prior to this no human

> has been able to meet the Devi in their Sahasraras. Perhaps this

> is the reason the children have been labeled " demonic " , " possessed

> by evil spirits " etc.

>

>

> >

> > So... what is called the " mystical " is in fact the " Reality " and

> > i have to say that there is actually nothing mystical (or misty)

> > about it. It has just been made mystical or misty by the

> > perennial priesthood of religious regimes who do not really want

> > people to know the Reality of their Spirit and the Spiritual

> > World from which the have come!

> >

>

> " The definitions of mystical experience used by researchers and

> clinicians vary considerably, ranging from Neumann's (1964)

> " upheaval of the total personality " to Greeley's (1974) " spiritual

> force that seems to lift you out of yourself " to Scharfstein's

> (1973) " everyday mysticism. " A definition of mystical experience

> both congruent with the major theoretical literature and clinically

> applicable is as follows: the mystical experience is a transient,

> extraordinary experience marked by feelings of unity, harmonious

> relationship to the divine and everything in existence, as well as

> euphoria, sense of noesis (access to the hidden spiritual

> dimension), loss of ego functioning, alterations in time and space

> perception, and the sense of lacking control over the event

> (Allman, De La Roche, Elkins & Weathers, 1992; Hood, 1974; Lukoff

> & Lu, 1988).

>

> Numerous surveys assessing the incidence of mystical experience

> (Allman et al., 1992; Back & Bourque, 1970; Gallup, 1987; Hood,

> 1974; Spilka, Hood & Gorsuch, 1985; Thomas & Cooper, 1980) indicate

> that 30-40% of the population have had mystical experiences,

> suggesting that they are normal rather than pathological phenomena.

> While mystical experiences are associated with lower scores on

> psychopathology scales and higher psychological well-being than

> controls (Greeley, 1974), case studies document instances where

> mystical experiences are disruptive and distressing. This is one

> type of spiritual problem that psychologists see regularly. In a

> survey, psychologists reported that 4.5% of their clients over the

> past 12 months brought a mystical experience into therapy (Allman

> et al., 1992). "

>

> www.sonoma.edu/psychology/os2db/lukoff1.html

>

>

> Violet, if 30-40% of the population have had mystical experiences

> then the religious regimes have reason to be skeptical. If fact in

> Sahaja Yoga there have been a few cases where SYs have used

> mystical experiences to claim themselves to be incarnations of

> Saint Joseph (Simon M. Dicon), Shri Rama (Simon M. Dicon), Shri

> Kalki (Ishmael), to name a few. " Mystical experiences " have been

> abused by people to gain power, fame and recognition. The same

> goes for the false gurus, divine mothers and bhagwans who cite a

> mystical expereince or two to attract followers.

>

>

 

 

October 3, 2006

Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame

By SANDRA BLAKESLEE

 

They are eerie sensations, more common than one might think: A man

describes feeling a shadowy figure standing behind him, then turning

around to find no one there. A woman feels herself leaving her body

and floating in space, looking down on her corporeal self.

 

Such experiences are often attributed by those who have them to

paranormal forces.

 

But according to recent work by neuroscientists, they can be induced

by delivering mild electric current to specific spots in the brain.

In one woman, for example, a zap to a brain region called the

angular gyrus resulted in a sensation that she was hanging from the

ceiling, looking down at her body. In another woman, electrical

current delivered to the angular gyrus produced an uncanny feeling

that someone was behind her, intent on interfering with her actions.

 

The two women were being evaluated for epilepsy surgery at

University Hospital in Geneva, where doctors implanted dozens of

electrodes into their brains to pinpoint the abnormal tissue causing

the seizures and to identify adjacent areas involved in language,

hearing or other essential functions that should be avoided in the

surgery. As each electrode was activated, stimulating a different

patch of brain tissue, the patient was asked to say what she was

experiencing.

 

Dr. Olaf Blanke, a neurologist at the École Polytechnique Fédérale

de Lausanne in Switzerland who carried out the procedures, said that

the women had normal psychiatric histories and that they were

stunned by the bizarre nature of their experiences.

 

The Sept. 21 issue of Nature magazine includes an account by Dr.

Blanke and his colleagues of the woman who sensed a shadow person

behind her. They described the out-of-body experiences in the

February 2004 issue of the journal Brain.

 

There is nothing mystical about these ghostly experiences, said

Peter Brugger, a neuroscientist at University Hospital in Zurich,

who was not involved in the experiments but is an expert on phantom

limbs, the sensation of still feeling a limb that has been

amputated, and other mind-bending phenomena.

 

" The research shows that the self can be detached from the body and

can live a phantom existence on its own, as in an out-of-body

experience, or it can be felt outside of personal space, as in a

sense of a presence, " Dr. Brugger said.

 

Scientists have gained new understanding of these odd bodily

sensations as they have learned more about how the brain works, Dr.

Blanke said. For example, researchers have discovered that some

areas of the brain combine information from several senses. Vision,

hearing and touch are initially processed in the primary sensory

regions. But then they flow together, like tributaries into a river,

to create the wholeness of a person's perceptions. A dog is visually

recognized far more quickly if it is simultaneously accompanied by

the sound of its bark.

 

These multisensory processing regions also build up perceptions of

the body as it moves through the world, Dr. Blanke said. Sensors in

the skin provide information about pressure, pain, heat, cold and

similar sensations. Sensors in the joints, tendons and bones tell

the brain where the body is positioned in space. Sensors in the ears

track the sense of balance. And sensors in the internal organs,

including the heart, liver and intestines, provide a readout of a

person's emotional state.

 

Real-time information from the body, the space around the body and

the subjective feelings from the body are also represented in

multisensory regions, Dr. Blanke said. And if these regions are

directly simulated by an electric current, as in the cases of the

two women he studied, the integrity of the sense of body can be

altered.

 

As an example, Dr. Blanke described the case of a 22-year-old

student who had electrodes implanted into the left side of her brain

in 2004.

 

" We were checking language areas, " Dr. Blanke said, when the woman

turned her head to the right. That made no sense, he said, because

the electrode was nowhere near areas involved in the control of

movement. Instead, the current was stimulating a multisensory area

called the angular gyrus.

 

Dr. Blanke applied the current again. Again, the woman turned her

head to the right. " Why are you doing this? " he asked.

 

The woman replied that she had a weird sensation that another person

was lying beneath her on the bed. The figure, she said, felt like

a " shadow " that did not speak or move; it was young, more like a man

than a woman, and it wanted to interfere with her.

 

When Dr. Blanke turned off the current, the woman stopped looking to

the right, and said the strange presence had gone away. Each time he

reapplied the current, she once again turned her head to try to see

the shadow figure.

 

When the woman sat up, leaned forward and hugged her knees, she said

that she felt as if the shadow man was also sitting and that he was

clasping her in his arms. She said it felt unpleasant. When she held

a card in her right hand, she reported that the shadow figure tried

to take it from her. " He doesn't want me to read, " she said.

 

Because the presence closely mimicked the patient's body posture and

position, Dr. Blanke concluded that the patient was experiencing an

unusual perception of her own body, as a double. But for reasons

that scientists have not been able to explain, he said, she did not

recognize that it was her own body she was sensing.

 

The feeling of a shadowy presence can occur without electrical

stimulation to the brain, Dr. Brugger said. It has been described by

people who undergo sensory deprivation, as in mountaineers trekking

at high altitude or sailors crossing the ocean alone, and by people

who have suffered minor strokes or other disruptions in blood flow

to the brain.

 

Six years ago, another of Dr. Blanke's patients underwent brain

stimulation to a different multisensory area, the angular gyrus,

which blends vision with the body sense. The patient experienced a

complete out-of-body experience.

 

When the current flowed, she said: " I am at the ceiling. I am

looking down at my legs. "

 

When the current ceased, she said: " I'm back on the table now. What

happened? "

 

Further applications of the current returned the woman to the

ceiling, causing her to feel as if she were outside of her body,

floating, her legs dangling below her. When she closed her eyes, she

had the sensation of doing sit-ups, with her upper body approaching

her legs.

 

Because the woman's felt position in space and her actual position

in space did not match, her mind cast about for the best way to turn

her confusion into a coherent experience, Dr. Blanke said. She

concluded that she must be floating up and away while looking

downward.

 

Some schizophrenics, Dr. Blanke said, experience paranoid delusions

and the sense that someone is following them. They also sometimes

confuse their own actions with the actions of other people. While

the cause of these symptoms is not known, he said, multisensory

processing areas may be involved.

 

When otherwise normal people experience bodily delusions, Dr. Blanke

said, they are often flummoxed. The felt sensation of the body is so

seamless, so familiar, that people do not realize it is a creation

of the brain, even when something goes wrong and the brain is

perturbed.

 

Yet the sense of body integrity is rather easily duped, Dr. Blanke

said.

 

And while it may be tempting to invoke the supernatural when this

body sense goes awry, he said the true explanation is a very natural

one, the brain's attempt to make sense of conflicting information.

 

Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame

www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/health/psychology/03shad.html?