PRELIMINARY SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF THE OBE

After developing the skill or a reliable technique to have voluntary, conscious projections very often (say, at least four nights a week), and gathering more than one lucid projector (who are themselves researchers), a basic experiment could be developed to test some basic ideas of Projectiology, such as:

The OBE is at least as real an experience as the waking-state physical life, where two real persons can meet and interact, and through which people can make remote physical observations. In other words, the OBE is not simply produced by the brain and can be co-experienced by several persons.

A target remote, physical observation could be:

- a random object, symbol, or word

- Example: a random, 3-character alphanumerical (think statistical)

Example of a target remote location:

A specific, pre-arranged location in the office or laboratory of the controller of the experiment (such as a professor)

The probability that N individuals independently chose the same string of S symbols (with P possible symbols which can be repeated) as in a physically-inaccessible (remote) location is (1 / P)^(SN).

Examples:

2 independent observers of 3-character alphanumerical (N = 2, S = 3, P = 36) à 1 / 2.177 billion

3 independent observers of 3-character alphanumerical à 1 out of 1.016 x 10¹⁴

Can such an experiment be scientifically sound? If results support the hypothesis, does that not justify more careful examination and consideration of the consciential paradigm and scientific proposals of Projectiology and Conscientiology?

LABORATORIAL EXPERIMENT ON THE OBE

[One of] the first researchers to perform laboratorial experiments on the exit of the body was the North American psychologist Charles Theodore Tart (1937 - ). In 1966, he invited a single, young projector, a little over 20 years of age, to participate in a series of experiments in the sleep laboratory of the University of California - Davis.

The experiments took four nights in which the projector - until today identified solely as "Miss Z" - was to laydown and try to exit the physical body, while connected to a series of devices that measured her physiological conditions. The objective of the experiments was the identification of a five-digit number formed randomly, approximately a 1.5 meters above her head (impossible to be physically observed).

From Monday to Wednesday, the projector reported having seen the clock while floating out of body. At the times informed by her, the devices demonstrated

singular and odd brain-wave patterns. An absence of rapid-eye movements (quick and synchronized movements of the human eyes, during the period of sleep, that characterize themoment of sleep) was also observed.

On Wednesday night, Miss Z informed exactly what the hidden target number was: 25132. With this positive experimental result, Charles Tart could register the data that lead to the initial conclusion that the brain-wave pattern during conscious projection is different from the patterns during sleep, sleepiness,and other altered states of consciousness (the expression

proposed by Tarthimself), and different even from the waking state. This experiment is considered a historical milestone in projectiology research.

Especially during the 60's and 70's, other laboratorial experiments were performed aiming to know more and explain more details about what occurs during experiences of exit of the body related by thousands of persons worldwide. In spite of that, today we know that this phenomenon is a singular event that needs personal experience, self-persuasively,to avoid

distortions. A person can read or hear dozens of accounts about the out-of-body experience, but they wouldn't allow for the direct, verification

of the phenomenon.

By Daniel Moniz, journalist

International Institute of Projectiology and Conscientiology - Brazil

Source (translated from Portuguese):

http://www.iipc.org.br/cgi-bin/web/artigo/artigo.pl