Brain hijinks: out-of-body experiences and other tricks of consciousnessBrain hijinks: out-of-body experiences and other tricks of consciousness
All In The Mind
What happens when your brain sees the world not as it really is? This week, the scientific effort to simulate out-of-body experiences to probe the limits of the self. And, remarkable stories of vision gone heywire—what they reveal about our 'seeing brain'. Two scientists join Natasha Mitchell with extraordinary insights into how your brain creates your mind...
30:14•28 Jun 2008
Brain Hijinks, Out-of-Body Trips and the Trickster Mind
Episode Overview
- Out-of-body experiences are linked to specific sensory and emotional states and can be experimentally induced in some people.
- A key region near the temporal-parietal junction helps integrate touch, balance and vision to keep the self located in the body.
- Body ownership illusions, like the rubber hand trick, show how easily the brain can be persuaded to misplace "where" you are.
- Case studies such as DF suggest there are separate visual pathways for conscious perception and for guiding action.
- The brain constantly works to maintain a stable sense of self and world, even though both are far less fixed than they feel.
“"All this seems to indicate that the self is an incredibly fragile entity."”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? Sometimes, understanding how fragile and trickable the brain is can make cravings, urges and "losing yourself" feel a bit less like personal failure and more like brain mechanics at work. All In The Mind, hosted by science journalist Natasha Mitchell, takes a trippy but rigorous trip through out-of-body experiences and visual perception glitches.
This episode is pitched at curious minds who like solid neuroscience with a side of sci‑fi flavour, and who might be wondering how much they can really trust their own thoughts and senses. Neurologist Professor Olaf Blanca talks about people who feel themselves rise to the ceiling and watch their own bodies from above.
Using virtual reality and epilepsy patients undergoing brain stimulation, he explains how "we're tricking people and their brains into having out-of-body experiences" to understand how the brain stitches together a sense of "me inside this body". He points to a key brain area near the ear, the temporal-parietal junction, and notes that "the self is an incredibly fragile entity" that can be shifted by tiny changes in sensory input.
Then vision scientist Professor Mel Goodale shifts focus to what he calls the "seeing brain". He describes patient DF, who can’t consciously recognise simple shapes yet can still reach out and grasp a pencil at exactly the right angle. That odd mismatch supports his idea that we have two visual systems — one to consciously see the world, and one to control action.
As he puts it, "the brain isn't a thinking machine per se, it's a machine for moving us around." For anyone rethinking habits, identity or addiction, this brain tour raises a big question: if the sense of self is so easily bent, what might change once you stop pouring a brain‑altering drug into the system?
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