An alternative explanation to OBE's

While it will be clear from my writing that I am not an experienced writer from the perspective of an academic, it is my hope that the ideas expressed herein are reasonably presented in that they have sufficient merit for someone more academically inclined to pursue further. The topic is out of body experiences, and though the subject has seen an increase of articles in various forms of literature, for and against, and perhaps more against the metaphysical themes, I have not seen anyone propose the following as a materialistic explanation. I shall get straight to my point. There is a blind man who has learned to navigate the world through something akin to echolocation.  His name is Daniel Kish. By making auditory clicks, he ‘hears’ his worlds as well as a bat, and seems to have a better sense of distance and objects than a sighted person. This skill can be learned, which was demonstrated under scientific conditions. Both people with sight and seeing impaired have demonstrated abilities to ‘navigate’ the world without seeing. It was noted that younger students of this art fair better than older persons, at least in terms of those who have sight.

If we accept that people can learn to see from a form of human echolocation, than it isn’t too difficult to surmise this could be an explanation for out of body experiences. It is believed that hearing is the last sense to turn off in someone who is dying. This belief is supported by the fact that family members are encouraged to speak to their love ones that are in a coma. If we allow for people in a modern ICU situation, where they are bound by medical devices, perhaps their eyes closed, the steady pinging of a heart monitor might provide a consistent source sound that would paint the world, allowing a distressed brain to grasp what it can. If a brain could make sense of this information, it would be a perfect three dimensional rendering of the world, including the person’s own body, and it would extend the length of the echo. This scenario would explain why those sedated in operations claim to see around sterile fields. A three dimensional model in the absence of sight would allow the person to objectively see the model from any angle. This might also explain why people have failed to read the hidden messages placed above operating lights that skeptic use as evidence for persons not actually being out of their body. A person might realize there is a paper note above the light, but echolocation would not resolve what is written on a paper, any more than it could read the writing on the monitors, or discern the nature of the art framed upon the wall, if there was such a thing available.

If we continue to speculate as to echolocation being an explanation, and we dial back a persons life, we might find that hearing, being the first true sense to come on line, offers an explanation for why there are reports of knowledge that extend back to pre-birth that have confounded common sense. It is clear children respond to music they were subjected to on a regular basis in the womb, which was evidence by sucking patterns on bottle when babies were presented with these prenatal themes. If the brain is making sense of a three dimensional map even before we are born, then it is not a supernatural feat for us to be able to consciously report activity out of line of sight, or having memories of such that defy explanation. What parent hasn’t been surprised by a child’s reports of something they shouldn’t know? I believe it commonly reported among those who report the ability to have spontaneous out of body experiences that their abilities were stronger as a child and young adult, than it was or is as an adult. There are many adults who report having OBES as a child but none as an adult. This would make senses in the light of this being first and foremost an auditory sense; the fact that the auditory world was much more plastic in the beginning of life than as an adult is supported by the fact children learn languages easier than adults. The ability may decline over time for the majority of people as visual and or social paradigms become more rigid. There is evidence that some people quit having their out of body experience when they discover their peers, or family of origin, do not experience these things, and then talking about the same results in embarrassment, or a complete dismissal of the reports. Social facts, even when contradicted by personal experience, tend to fortify the preferred sense orientation as people try to align their perspectives with those around them.

One of the problems with this theory is it doesn’t explain how hearing impaired people have out of body experiences. If it was strictly auditory, one might expect that a person deaf from birth would not ever report have OBEs. Though sound can be discerned through bone conduction, and even hearing impaired can have the sense of a beat through a speaker, this does not necessarily equate to auditory experiences. I doubt there is any literature that discuss whether or not a non hearing persons have any corresponding brain structure that might translate environmental noise, such as percussive beats, though simple conduction, but we can presume if they do exist, they would not be as pronounced as they would be in a hearing person. If a hearing person attained the ability to OBE, and then lost hearing, one could imagine their brain able to model an environment due to experience, but it may not be the active map that a person with hearing would have, should this prove to be a subset of the auditory sense. I would suspect that this would almost have to be an innate, undeveloped sense, which best explains why it is available to us during a crisis event, such as a trauma. It is assume that in a trauma the brain will use all information it can to find the best avenue for survival, increasing focus and heightening senses, especially hearing.

Though it is possible to devise a method for ascertaining if this is an auditory sense, I would doubt there would be an ethical way to rule out during traumatic events by having medical professionals applying hearing protection to the injured. There have been patients that were encouraged to wear headphones during operations; it was even noted that music with prevailing beat of 60 BPM drastically reduced the amount of anesthesia used, and seemed to increase the healing response. I have not seen if there were any correlations between less reported OBEs amongst patients who wore headsets, but then, it was likely that was not something a medical professional was looking for. Even if a person reported an OBE, which most of us are conditioned not to do so, it is so common to have the reports dismissed by a medical professionals attending that it would likely not be recorded. It is interesting to me that scientist and medical professionals dismiss data that don’t correlate to their understanding, even when the very data may actually help us better understand the human experience, as well as tap into abilities that could have potential medical benefit. Data is data, regardless of whether the reports made about OBE are what they appear to be or not.

It is the opinion of this author that OBE’s and NDE are what they seem to be, and admitting this would probably prevent me from participating in any kind of research to determine if OBES could be explained by enhanced auditory reception during a crisis. I have had personal experience with OBES, which were more frequent and spontaneous as a child. I personally correlate my experiences to childhood trauma. I have documented hearing loss as an adult, but insufficient to have altered my experiences in any discernable way. In 2012 I was diagnoses with a hearing condition known as hyperacusics, in which the brain has turned up the perceived volume in order to compensate for the hearing loss. This increase in perceived volume happened at all frequency levels. Though this condition resulted in significant behavioral changes in my life before the condition was understood and addressed by a medical professional, I can’t see that has influenced my frequency of OBEs, which may or may not address whether is an ability derived from an unexplored auditory sense. It is no doubt that we hear in 3 dimensions. We can generally point or turn to the direction of a sound. In the past, before modern lighting, perhaps even before candles and campfire, this would have been a very useful ability to navigate the night, making it harder for prey or enemy to sneak up on a person or group. And, should this prove to be something that is available to us all, then it would also explain how a sickness or a trauma might make it easier for a ‘shaman’ to break with ‘normal’ means of perception and rely on alternative information sets that are available all the time. Maybe even just a click away. It would mean OBEs are not a ‘paranormal’ activity; this is just something our brains do, which we have not cultivated in our society due to the perceived metaphysical ramifications. If instead we would realize we are all capable of much more, even from a scientific perspective, we would probably be less surprised by what abilities might suddenly manifest in society.