ABSTRACT
An out-of-body experience (or OBE) is an experience in which a person seems to see the world from a location outside of the physical body. In other words, when people have an OBE they feel as though they have left the body and are able to see, feel, and move around without it. Note that this definition treats the OBE as an experience only. So if people feel as though they are out of they body then they are having an OBE, whether or not anything has actually left the body. In 1978, as Palmer pointed out: 'The OBE is neither potentially nor actually a psychic phenomenon. It is an experience or mental state, like a dream or any other altered state of consciousness. It may be associated with psi, but it is not a psychic phenomenon itself.' This broad definition allows researchers to study the experience without committing themselves to any particular theory of the OBE.
