Out of Body Experience

[Sirach14]

Has the Church ever made a statement regarding "out of body’ experiences?
Have you noticed that everyone who has had these experiences all see a bright light, and have complete peace? Nothing about how one has lived their earthly life, or judgement.
Is this similar to Paul saying he was caught up in the third heaven?

 

[Steve_Andersen]

I’m no doctor but I believe the consensus it that OBEs and NDEs are the merely response of a the brain to oxygen depravation

AFAIK the Church doesn’t have an opinion on them

 

[Shelby_Grace]

Spiritdaily.com has covered this issue a couple times in the past…it is hosted by Michael brown, I think, and it seems predominately Catholic…it is a newsy sort of page…
There were several stories of people who lived terrible lives and died in sin who had the “out of body-floating” etc but it changed quickly into demons and blackness coming for them before they were put back into their bodies. The Big Conversion followed…
Conversely, there were stories of peace for those who were holy at death…then they were sent back with a zest for holiness and renewed with a sense of longing for Heaven.
In these cases, it was much more than mere oxygen deprivation. IT was gift from God to help them get themselves back on the right track or it was a comfort to know there is nothing to fear when we are in the state of grace.
For the rest of us, it is a testimony to the existence of ourselves after bodily death.

Love in Jesus,
Shelby Grace

 

[Melissa]

I suspect that most who have OBEs see what they expect to see, and only some actually experience a vision during that time. I’ve had one, and wouldn’t care to repeat the experience. The first time I had bronchitis, I spiked a really high fever (after the worst of it was broken, I still registered 103.9) and saw myself and my mother (who was in the room with me) from the perspective of the ceiling. I know mine was solely fever-induced, and didn’t really have significance beyond that, but it’s sufficient for me to believe that people who say they’ve had OBEs can have had such experiences. Definitely not something that anyone should seek out, and as with all visions may be only for the person who had it rather than meant for general knowledge, and should be subject to the judgment of the Church.

 

[Exporter]

Am sorry to be “party-pooper”, but out of body experiences as discussed on “Coast to Coast AM” (radio) by several so-called experts lead me to believe that it is just a good subject for talk radio. It attracts the people who like to discuss ghosts and goblins.

Since it can’t be measured with scientific insruments and it can’t be duplicated, it is outside of science. :yup:

 

[puzzleannie]

there is a continuing feature on spiritdaily.com about a Catholic researcher who supposedly has acres of anecdotal evidence about this phenomenon. I am a skeptic myself.

 

[Madaglan]

I often wonder about OBE. I remember reading some stories about how people under surgery would float to nearby rooms and would hear peoples’ conversations. When the people under surgery would approach the other people after the surgery, the OBE observations were verified.