Video Ergo Sum

August 24, 2007 7:31 PM

Virtual Out-of-Body Experience. Using two procedures to deliberately scramble a person's visual and tactile senses, neuroscientists are able to induce "out-of-body" experiences in people. The effect is the same as the 'rubber hand illusion', but extends the effect to the whole body instead of just one limb (you can try the hand illusion for yourself).
posted by homunculus (11 comments total)

That's pretty cool. Thanks for this.

The table trick is also a great date trick.
posted by Espoo2 at 7:38 PM on August 24, 2007

A man who went blind reports that he can still “see” his hand when he passes it across what would be his peripheral vision.

I get that same illusion late at night with my eyes closed. Glad I'm not crazy.
posted by Citizen Premier at 7:42 PM on August 24, 2007

Really neat. Cool post.
posted by Mr_Zero at 7:49 PM on August 24, 2007

I WANT!
posted by redteam at 7:54 PM on August 24, 2007

I'm writing this post from..... dun dun dunnnnnnnn

BEYOND THE GRAVE!
posted by Avenger at 8:24 PM on August 24, 2007

Your secrets are still available to us. Muahahahaha!
posted by homunculus at 8:52 PM on August 24, 2007

OK I feel a little gyped by the slightly misleading blurb. While these are interesting I don't know that they "induce "out-of-body" experiences in people."

If you wanted to do that, you'd give them DMT.
posted by PsyDev at 1:01 AM on August 25, 2007

Indeed (spoiler for Blueberry/Renegade).
posted by homunculus at 1:11 AM on August 25, 2007

Gah. New Scientist says it's down for maintenance today.
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:01 AM on August 25, 2007

Here's another article about the experiments from Slate.
posted by homunculus at 10:50 AM on August 25, 2007

that experiment seems to be set up exactly like this real world avatar suit. Which it seems is probably far more disconcerting to wear than I had previously imagined.
posted by subtle_squid at 4:42 PM on August 25, 2007