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Instrumental Investigation of OBE

Instrumental Investigation of OBE. S.Siccardi. Definition of OBE. Out of Body Experience (OBE) = people seem to be awake, and feel that their “self”, or centre of experience, is located outside the physical body Both in clinical and normal subjects (e.g. Blackmore's survey 1982)

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Instrumental Investigation of OBE

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  1. Instrumental Investigation of OBE S.Siccardi

  2. Definition of OBE • Out of Body Experience (OBE) = people seem to be awake, and feel that their “self”, or centre of experience, is located outside the physical body • Both in clinical and normal subjects (e.g. Blackmore's survey 1982) • A subjective state • In shamanism and magic OBEs are related to exceptional tasks, so we ask: • Can an OBE also be an objective state? • In this case is it PSI conductive?

  3. Previous research • Tart (1967, 1968, 1969): • 2 gifted subjects • Physiological measurements – about 20 experiments in several sessions • Subjects tried to get information about a remote target (5 digits number) • Morris et al. (1978): • 1 gifted subject • Physiological measurements • Tried to detect the remote “presence” of the subject (animals’ behaviour, enviromental measures) • A problem: to replicate OBEs at will, to control duration, intensity, etc.

  4. The research program Describe the EEG patterns that are favourable to subjective OBEs The current step Build a Biofeedback device to learn to maintain them Obtain more subjective OBEs Look for objective OBEs

  5. Previous findings about EEG during OBEs • Tart, Morris: • “Alphoid” waves: 1-2 Hz lower than subject’s normal alpha (about 9-13 Hz in general) • Theta waves (4 to 8 Hz) abundance or high amplitude • A bordeline condition between sleep and wakefulness • McCreery and Claridge (1996): • Association / disassociation between cerebral hemispheres • Favourable conditions for an OBE occurrence, or symptoms that an OBE is occurring at a specific moment?

  6. Our experiments • Spring 2006 – Spring 2007 • EEG, heart rate and skin conductance • Difficulties in producing OBEs in the laboratory setting • A dozen of data recordings, three short OBEs of subject A, none of subject I • Frequent occurrences of “vibrations” – a preliminary stage for OBE as described by Mr. Monroe (studied by Tart) • Synchronisation EEG – subjective state: • Mr. A has OBEs in wakefulness , so he signals interesting moments by coughing • Mr I passes to OBEs from dreams, so synchronisation is a problem

  7. Subjects and main sessions

  8. Spectra • 17 electrodes of the standard 10-20 system • spectrum of 1 minute that the subject defined “interesting” for vibrations • alpha, alphoid and theta activity

  9. Variation in Time of Characteristic Frequencies - 1 • We analyse electrode F4 • a spectrum for each minute of the experiment • an OBE was reported at the end of the period • interesting wavelengths increase

  10. Variation in Time of Characteristic Frequencies – 1b Similar behaviour has been found in other locations (we have analyzed F3, C3, C4, T5, T6)

  11. Variation in Time of Characteristic Frequencies - 2 • We analyse electrode F4 • a spectrum for each minute of the experiment • an OBE was reported at the very beginning of the period • the time scale is reversed • variation in time is not clear

  12. Variation in Time of Characteristic Frequencies – 2b Similar behaviour has been found in other locations (we have analyzed F3, C3, C4, T3, T4)

  13. Comparing OBEs to hypnagogic states • We tried to compare our data with some studies of the hypnagogic states • Some basic results are: • Theta power increases expecially in F4 C4 P4 O2 • Alfa decreases expecially in F4 P4 T6 O2 • Beta decreases in P4 O2 • Alfa decrease and theta increase last longer in P4 and O2 than in the frontal locations ("the posterior regions go to sleep last") • The most important changes are in the frequency ranges 3-4 Hz in C3 C4 and 9-10 Hz in O1 O2 • We applied a band analysis to group of electrodes, but did not find definite patterns • A reason could be that in our experiments, subjects are staying between wakefulness and sleep, instead of falling asleep

  14. Data analysis: Wackermann’s global description • He tackled the problem of the assessment of the “macro-states” of the brain, taking into account the topography of multichannel EEG • He defined 3 descriptors: • S: measurement of the global field strength (in mV) • F: measurement of global frequency of field changes (Hz) • W: measurement of spacial complexity (dimensionless) • A segment of multichannel EEG (a few to 1 sec) is compressed to only 3 quantities, representing the spatio-temporal dynamics of the brain • In this way he could distinguish wakefulness from sleep, and some of the sleep stages • We tried to apply the same analysis to distinguish OBE from other brain states

  15. Wackermann’s descriptors: definition and example Daytime waking N=number of measurements Dt=sampling step=1/f K=number of electrodes If l1...lK are the eigenvalues of the matrix: and W is defined by: Sleep (the “sleeping shell”)

  16. Two OBEs and a control situation 1

  17. Two OBEs and 5 other sessions

  18. McCreery & Claridge experiments • 20 OBErs and 20 controls under conditions of sensory limitation and physical relaxation • F3, F4 EEG recording + EDA • Different EEG medians behaviour for the two groups (we could not replicate this result) • Interesting results for coherence between the hemispheres We have not been able to replicate these findings. (McCreery C., Claridge G., Person. Individ. Diff., 21, p.753 (1996)

  19. OBE and PSI effects detections • We used targets, like small objects, pictures or tarot cards, that the subject should see. • This tests were completely informal, with little control for sensory leakage • We have had no results • All the formal experiments have been conducted in the dark. • Some of them have been videotaped using a “night vision” TV camera. • Nothing exceptional has been noted

  20. Biofeedback – some preliminary tests • A target frequency band, e.g. 6 to 8 Hz • The spectrum is computed every 2 seconds. • 1 channel is used for biofeedback, two or more are recorded • Target can be expressed as • a prescribed minimum percentage of the whole spectrum power. “Whole” here means frequency from 2 to 32 Hz. • The ability of increasing the power in the desired band • A short noise signals to the subject that he is achieving his target

  21. Biofeedback - example

  22. Experiments using the Monroe Institute CDs • The Monroe Institute’s CDs “Hemi-sync support for Journeys Out Of the Body” • Hemi-sync (TM) principle: sounds of 2 different frequencies to the left and right ear • The CD set assists self-training and should be used for a while • We just tried if listening to one of the CDs could change the EEG behaviour • 10 minutes relaxing + 10 minutes CD listening, 2 subjects (a non OBEr and a novice OBEr) • Another test: a non OBEr 3 minutes relaxing + 12 minutes CD listening • Only once did we get an increase in one of the interesting bands

  23. Conclusions • Methodology: • Euristyc approach: the main problem is to replicate the phenomena • Environmental and device implementation details have a greater impact on subjects’ performance • A lot of effort and time is requested from subjects, so motivation is an issue • Western science requires that experimenters should be completely detached from subjects, but... • ...we feel that a direct experience of OBE could help greatly • In order to carry out the research, we must be more and more committed both with the phenomenon and with our subjects. • Can this be considered scientifically correct? Please send comments and criticism to: info@progettopsi.it

  24. Extra pictures

  25. Spectra - 1 • 17 electrodes of the standard 10-20 system • spectrum of 1 minute in which the subject reported an OBE • alpha, alphoid and theta activity

  26. Data Analysis: artefact rejection 1. Rejecting by eye Original data with a heartbeat artefact 2. The Independent Component Analysis provided by EEGLAB Cleaned data, after removing the first component

  27. Variation in Time of Characteristic Frequencies - 3 • We analyse electrode F4 • a spectrum for each minute of the experiment • no OBE reported in this experiment • low power at interesting wavelengths

  28. Alfa band in several locations – a sleep episode during an experiment ?

  29. Some bands – OBE at the end ?

  30. Wackermann plots (an OBE occurred) • OBE at the beginning of the experiment • colour represents time: light grey=early, dark grey=late

  31. Two OBEs and a control situation 2

  32. Two OBEs and a control situation 3

  33. Two OBEs and 5 other session – intersting and non interesting periods cumulated ?

  34. An example from an experiment with Monroe’s CDs

  35. Coherence function An example of the variation of the coherence function with time in a biofeedback experiment. ?

  36. Coherence and linear measures of synchronization Cross correlation function The sample cross spectrum is the Fourier transform of the cross correlation function The coherence function

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