| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"stoney" |
| Date: |
04 Oct 2006 07:33:07 PM |
| Object: |
Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame |
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/health/psychology/03shad.html?ex=1317528000&en=eeb8e23490396c32&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE
Published: October 3, 2006
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.
/end
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
.
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| User: "Uncle Clover" |
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| Title: Re: Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame |
04 Oct 2006 07:44:43 PM |
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Dayum. I wonder if self-probing brain electrode kits will ever become legal -
they could wipe out recreational drug use _instantly_...
--
L8r,
Uncle Clover
************************************************
The true mark of a civilized society is that its
citizens know how to hate each other peacefully.
************************************************
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| User: "Denis Loubet" |
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| Title: Re: Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame |
04 Oct 2006 07:52:51 PM |
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"Uncle Clover" <UncleClover@SpamMeNot.com> wrote in message
news:1al8i215luva15s2nk4e279cdteo65b3rh@4ax.com...
Dayum. I wonder if self-probing brain electrode kits will ever become
legal -
they could wipe out recreational drug use _instantly_...
Yeah, just place a brick on the pleasure center button...
Oops. ;-)
--
Denis Loubet
dloubet@io.com
http//www.io.com/~dloubet
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| User: "johac" |
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| Title: Re: Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame |
05 Oct 2006 01:16:30 AM |
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In article <_rCdnRPfl9L4yrnYnZ2dnUVZ_qmdnZ2d@io.com>,
"Denis Loubet" <dloubet@io.com> wrote:
"Uncle Clover" <UncleClover@SpamMeNot.com> wrote in message
news:1al8i215luva15s2nk4e279cdteo65b3rh@4ax.com...
Dayum. I wonder if self-probing brain electrode kits will ever become
legal -
they could wipe out recreational drug use _instantly_...
Yeah, just place a brick on the pleasure center button...
Oops. ;-)
I believe that experiment was done with rats. Some neurochemists
attached electrodes to the pleasure centers in the rats brains. The rats
were placed in a cage with two levers. One dispensed food, the other
stimulated the pleasure centers. The rats kept continuously pushing the
pleasure giving lever, ignoring food, even to the point of starvation.
The study was done some time ago and I don't have the reference anymore.
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
Contact - Throw a .net over the .com
.
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| User: "Denis Loubet" |
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| Title: Re: Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame |
05 Oct 2006 11:52:26 AM |
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"johac" <jhachmann@sbcglobal.com> wrote in message
news:jhachmann-322F6D.23163004102006@news.giganews.com...
In article <_rCdnRPfl9L4yrnYnZ2dnUVZ_qmdnZ2d@io.com>,
"Denis Loubet" <dloubet@io.com> wrote:
"Uncle Clover" <UncleClover@SpamMeNot.com> wrote in message
news:1al8i215luva15s2nk4e279cdteo65b3rh@4ax.com...
Dayum. I wonder if self-probing brain electrode kits will ever become
legal -
they could wipe out recreational drug use _instantly_...
Yeah, just place a brick on the pleasure center button...
Oops. ;-)
I believe that experiment was done with rats. Some neurochemists
attached electrodes to the pleasure centers in the rats brains. The rats
were placed in a cage with two levers. One dispensed food, the other
stimulated the pleasure centers. The rats kept continuously pushing the
pleasure giving lever, ignoring food, even to the point of starvation.
The study was done some time ago and I don't have the reference anymore.
There was also that painful scene in Brainstorm where the guy arranges for
orgasm on infinite loop. Shudder.
--
Denis Loubet
dloubet@io.com
http://www.io.com/~dloubet
http://www.ashenempires.com
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| User: "johac" |
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| Title: Re: Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame |
06 Oct 2006 11:48:35 PM |
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In article <EeSdnQk0uajbpbjYnZ2dnUVZ_sadnZ2d@io.com>,
"Denis Loubet" <dloubet@io.com> wrote:
"johac" <jhachmann@sbcglobal.com> wrote in message
news:jhachmann-322F6D.23163004102006@news.giganews.com...
In article <_rCdnRPfl9L4yrnYnZ2dnUVZ_qmdnZ2d@io.com>,
"Denis Loubet" <dloubet@io.com> wrote:
"Uncle Clover" <UncleClover@SpamMeNot.com> wrote in message
news:1al8i215luva15s2nk4e279cdteo65b3rh@4ax.com...
Dayum. I wonder if self-probing brain electrode kits will ever become
legal -
they could wipe out recreational drug use _instantly_...
Yeah, just place a brick on the pleasure center button...
Oops. ;-)
I believe that experiment was done with rats. Some neurochemists
attached electrodes to the pleasure centers in the rats brains. The rats
were placed in a cage with two levers. One dispensed food, the other
stimulated the pleasure centers. The rats kept continuously pushing the
pleasure giving lever, ignoring food, even to the point of starvation.
The study was done some time ago and I don't have the reference anymore.
There was also that painful scene in Brainstorm where the guy arranges for
orgasm on infinite loop. Shudder.
Reminds me of the virtual sex scene in "Demolition Man". Why would they
stop?
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
Contact - Throw a .net over the .com
.
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| User: "Brian E. Clark" |
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| Title: Re: Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame |
25 Oct 2006 06:42:53 PM |
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In article <1al8i215luva15s2nk4e279cdteo65b3rh@4ax.com>, Uncle
Clover said...
Dayum. I wonder if self-probing brain electrode kits will ever become legal -
they could wipe out recreational drug use _instantly_...
Conservatives (and I include many Democrats in that category)
would ban such devices, for the same reasons they ban drugs now.
The "War on Pleasure Electrodes" would increase incarceration
rates, resulting in more tax dollars funnelled to private
corporations; justify U.S. military meddling in foreign lands;
and allow repression of the lower social classes in the name of
safety and morality.
And of course, if you use a Pleasure Electrode and get caught,
you will lose your right to vote forever, unless your last name
is "Bush."
--
-----------
Brian E. Clark
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame |
08 Oct 2006 05:56:13 PM |
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On Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:44:43 -0400, Uncle Clover
<UncleClover@SpamMeNot.com> wrote in alt.atheism
Dayum. I wonder if self-probing brain electrode kits will ever become legal -
they could wipe out recreational drug use _instantly_...
An author named Lawrence something-or-other {or vice-versa} some years
ago utilized that in a segment of an SF book about a time traveller.
The one society had most people spending their adult lives in a pod
dreamworld.
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame |
05 Oct 2006 01:59:41 AM |
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stoney wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/health/psychology/03shad.html?ex=1317528000&en=eeb8e23490396c32&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE
Published: October 3, 2006
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.
snip
Sweet! I *knew* they'd find it one day!
<skipping along, whistling the "I was right" song>
Thanks for the link, stoney!
-Panama Floyd, Atl.
aa#2015, Member Knights of BAAWA!
EAC Martian Commander
Plonked by Kadaitcha Man, Sep 06
"..the prayer cloth of one aeon is the doormat of the next."
-Mark Twain
Religious societies are *less* moral than secular ones:
http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html
.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame |
08 Oct 2006 05:57:03 PM |
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On 4 Oct 2006 23:59:41 -0700, wrote in
alt.atheism
stoney wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/health/psychology/03shad.html?ex=1317528000&en=eeb8e23490396c32&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Out-of-Body Experience? Your Brain Is to Blame
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE
Published: October 3, 2006
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.
snip
Sweet! I *knew* they'd find it one day!
<skipping along, whistling the "I was right" song>
Thanks for the link, stoney!
Welcome. :D
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
.
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