188 - Out-Of-Body Experience

 

【幽体離脱、yuutai ridatsu】

['yuutai' means 'ethereal body', and 'ridatsu' refers to the act of 'separation, secession or withdrawal, therefore the literal meaning would be "separation to an ethereal body".]

During one's sleep, their soul can leave their body and float around. When they look down, they can see their body lying there. This phenomenon is called "an out-of-body experience".

This phenomenon is scientifically classified as a hypnagogic hallucination.

Hypnagogic hallucinations occur during the state of light sleeping after one has just entered sleep.

When someone falls asleep, the brain stays awake while the body enters REM sleep. At such times, the consciousness may stay half awake, but still dreaming. If so, the dreamer will dream of scenes that occurred before falling asleep and perceive them as if they were real.

That is to say, people believe that their soul left their body because they see their room, or their own body, in a dream perceived as real.

The evidence for this explanation is that in many cases, the locations they see are slightly different from reality.

However, there seem to be cases where the events seen and heard only during the experience are confirmed as real.

There is also a theory that the reason the world looks so different while dissociated from reality is that in the physical body, we perceive things through physical means, such as eyes and ears, but the soul becomes aware of things through a more spiritual experience.

Also, since ancient times, there have been many stories of dying humans going one step short of the other side and returning to their bodies again. This is called a near-death experience, and it is considered to be a kind of out-of-body experience as well.

However, the appearance of the "other world" that a dying person sees depends on the cultural sphere they belong to, and it may also change with the times.

In the West, the earliest records of near-death experiences were from the beginning of the 8th century, and many of them take place within the world of Christianity, by glimpsing hell or heaven.

Although the famous "Dante's Divine Comedy" is a work of fiction, it suggests that such near-death experiences were not uncommon at the time of Dante's journey to the afterlife.