People often attribute such experiences to paranormal forces outside the sphere of material life. But according to recent work by neuroscientists, they can be induced by delivering mild electric current to specific spots in the brain.
In one woman, for example, a zap to a brain region—the angular gyrus—resulted in a sensation that she was hanging from the ceiling, looking down at her body. In another woman, electrical current delivered to the same area triggered a feeling that someone was behind her, intent on interfering with her actions.
The two women were being evaluated for epilepsy surgery at University Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. Doctors implanted electrodes into their brains to find the abnormal tissue causing their seizures.2 As each electrode was activated, stimulating a different patch of brain tissue, the patient was asked to say what she was experiencing.
Dr. Olaf Blanke, who carried out the procedures, is a neurologist at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. He said that the women had normal psychiatric histories and that they were stunned by the bizarre nature of their experiences. so