Out-of-Body FAQ
Can the OBEer be seen as an apparition?
The study of apparitions formed an important part of early physical
research, and many different types of apparition have been recorded,
but the ones which primarily interest us here are those in which
a person having an OBE simultaneously appeared to someone else as
an apparition. There are many cases of this kind in the early literature
and they have been quoted again and again but a relatively small
number of them really form the mainstay of the anecdotal evidence
on OBE apparitions. Crookall [Cro61] and Smith [Smi65] give some
recent cases but they too concentrate on the older ones. Green [Gre68a]
discusses the similarities between apparitions in general and the
asomatic body perceived by OBEers, but she does not give any examples
from her own case collection in which another person saw the exteriorized
double. By contrast, about 10% of Palmer's OBEers claimed to have
been seen as an apparition [Pal79b] and Osis claims that from his
survey OBEers 'frequently' said they were noticed by others and
in 16 cases (6% of the total) he was able to obtain some verification
through witnesses, although he does not expand on this remark. Obviously
it would be very helpful if much more evidence of this sort could
be collected, and recent cases thoroughly checked.
How can one find out what an OBE is like?
One of the easiest ways to find out what OBE is like is to collect
a large number of accounts of cases and compare them. In this way
any common features can be extricated and variations noted. A great
deal can be learned about the conditions under which the experiences
occurred, how long they lasted, and what they were like. Accounts
by people who have had OBEs fall, roughly speaking, into two categories.
There are the many ordinary people to whom an OBE occurs just once,
or a few times; and there is a small number of people who claim
to be able to project at will. The limitations of this method are
that there are many important questions which cannot be answered
by collecting cases. Since the people voluntarily report their experiences,
the sample necessarily ends up with a bias. Many accounts are given
many years or even decades after the event and it is then impossible
to determine how much of the story has altered in memory with the
passage of time. For such reasons it is not possible to determine,
for example, how common the the experience actually is. Second,
many OBEers claim that they were able to see rooms into which they
had never been, describe accurately people they had never met, or
move physical objects during their experience. Such reports are
of great interest to parapsychology but they cannot be tested by
collecting cases.
Go to the Next
chapter
Go to the Previous Chapter
Go to the Out-of-Body FAQ Index
Copyright Jouni A. Smed
|
