Schizophrenia Experiment Produces First Repeatable Out-of-Body Experience in the Laboratory.

DaltheJigsaw

A study using a procedure called the rubber hand illusion has found striking new evidence that people experiencing schizophrenia have a weakened sense of body ownership and has produced the first case of a spontaneous, out-of-body experience in the laboratory.

These findings suggest that movement therapy, which trains people to be focused and centered on their own bodies, including some forms of yoga and dance, could be helpful for many of the 2.2 million people in the United States who suffer from this mental disorder.

The study, which appears in the Oct. 31 issue of the scientific journal Public Library of Science One, measured the strength of body ownership of 24 schizophrenia patients and 21 matched control subjects by testing their susceptibility to the “rubber hand illusion” or RHI. This tactile illusion, which was discovered in 1998, is induced by simultaneously stroking a visible rubber hand and the subject’s hidden hand.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111031220259.htm

compassionate_warrior

Wow, this is really interesting. The old generation of anthropologists, like Levy-Strauss, used to say that shamans are schizophrenics. Maybe there's some truth to that; maybe in order to do the trancework by which they leave their bodies and do soul retrievals, they have to have a degree of schizophrenia. On the other hand, we have members who have out-of-body experiences via astral projection, and they're not schizophrenic. So not all shamans and OBE experiencers are schizophrenics, but some apparently are, if this article is to be believed.

Thanks, Leon.

DaltheJigsaw

Wow, this is really interesting. The old generation of anthropologists, like Levy-Strauss, used to say that shamans are schizophrenics. Maybe there's some truth to that; maybe in order to do the trancework by which they leave their bodies and do soul retrievals, they have to have a degree of schizophrenia. On the other hand, we have members who have out-of-body experiences via astral projection, and they're not schizophrenic. So not all shamans and OBE experiencers are schizophrenics, but some apparently are, if this article is to be believed.

Thanks, Leon.

Interesting, indeed!
Welcome!:)

lightwithin

Thanks for linking to this article. I am Schizophrenic and I can completely relate to most of what the article talks about. Lack of body ownership and self-agency are things I deal with on a daily basis and I find meditation has helped tremendously in those areas since I started it.

DaltheJigsaw

Thanks for linking to this article. I am Schizophrenic and I can completely relate to most of what the article talks about. Lack of body ownership and self-agency are things I deal with on a daily basis and I find meditation has helped tremendously in those areas since I started it.

Thank you for reading and commenting!