ABSTRACT
THERE is one kind of hallucinatory quasi-perception with which nearly all of us are quite familiar, viz. an ordinary dream had by a sane person in good health during normal sleep. I think that it will be useful, for that reason, to begin with some account of ordinary dreams, as familiar instances of what we might call ‘normal hallucinatory quasi-perceptions’. From them I shall pass to accounts of a certain rather peculiar kind of dreams, which are certainly abnormal, even if there be no need to suppose that there is anything paranormal about them. These will form a convenient stepping-stone to a very interesting and important class of experiences, which a few persons have had repeatedly, and which a fair number of persons have had once or twice in their lives under very special conditions of stress or crisis. These are called ‘Out-of-the-Body’ Experiences.
