Thread: OBEs: A Study

I propose a study. It involves two people. The first would be the OBE practitioner, the second would be a willing helper. The OBE practitioner's goal would be to go into a predetermined room and determine where the willing helper has moved a predetermined object. Simple, right? If OBEs exist, then the person would know exactly where the item was moved, and report it to the willing helper.

The OBE practitioner would be in a separate room adjacent to the willing helper's, and would not be able to see into that room. Doors may be open if it 'helps' the OBE practitioner. The OBE practitioner should know how long it takes him/her to get "out-of-body," and tell this time to the willing helper. Then he/she would then commence his/her OBE technique. The willing helper will at this time take an object from the room and move it somewhere else in the room, but still in plain view. Once finished, the willing helper will go into the OBE practitioner's room and monitor him/her until he/she wakes up from "the experience." The OBE practitioner would use his/her spirit-body/glowy-energy/magic-floaty-eyeball to go into the room and see where the object has been moved. The OBE practitioner would then wake up and immediately tell the willing helper where the item has been moved.

Variations (to remove error):

Ideally, the willing helper wouldn't come in contact with the OBE practitioner after moving the object (this prevents bais from human non-verbal or verbal cues when guessing the item)... But someone needs to make sure the OBE practitioner isn't going to 'sleepwalk' into the room and cheat. If you think it's a worthy investment, cameras could be used instead.

Also, to prevent the willing helper from advising the OBE practitioner (dropping hints, consciously or subconsciously as to where he/she is planning on moving the object) and tainting the experiment, a computer program could be devised, preventing human error. The computer would be in a different room, too, and the program would hold a random image on the screen in the duration of the OBE, and record what the image was in a cache of some sort. When the OBE practitioner awakens, he/she will record what the image was in a notebook or something, and will stay in his/her room until the program is set to erase the image from the screen. The OBE practitioner will then go to the computer, and must input what he/she thought she saw before the computer will reveal what the image was. The program's image pool would have 100 distinct simple images (like those on a phonics flashcard) to prevent the OBE practitioner from randomly choosing the right one, and to prevent the OBE practitioner from complaining of images that were "too complex." Once again, cameras can be used to ensure that the OBE practitioner isn't cheating in some way.

People who claim OBE say that they are in reality, but out of body. That's the definition. So it should be pretty simple to walk/float/fly/hover into the next room and observe where an object has been moved, am I right?

Of course, the OBErs can always defend their claims by adding absurd clauses such as "the willing helper's energy interfered/I can only see the past/I can't see computer screens/I can't go farther than five feet from my body..." But if that is the case, then why the hell would anyone want to OBE in the first place?

The worst thing about putting this study on the net, instead of conducting it myself: people can lie sooo easily. It almost makes it worthless to post.