Scientific take on "out-of-body experience" related vibrations?

[ThePoliteSkeptic]

I've been curious about something for a while, and it's only recently occured to me that I might ask someone.

People who report having so-called out-of-body experiences tend to report a feeling of their body vibrating at the onset of the experience, accompanied with sounds that range from a buzzing, to a roaring engine sound.

Now, I've heard loads of explanations for this, but it's all metaphysical stuff, and seems to be nothing but guesses.

I imagine that neurology or biology may have already commented on this, but I haven't been able to find the information. It's not a seizure.

I've felt this myself (not relating to "OBE"), and I'm not sure what to make of it.

So, what's the official explanation? Has anybody heard of this?

 

[Burning Beard]

People who report having so-called out-of-body experiences tend to report a feeling of their body vibrating at the onset of the experience, accompanied with sounds that range from a buzzing, to a roaring engine sound.

That sounds EXACTLY like the night terrors I used to experience.

For me it usually begins with a vibrating sensation - not as if I'm physically shaking, rather, I can feel every atom in my body bouncing around within my form.

The sound then follows... it's horrible. It's like the ringing in my ears after a loud concert, only 100 X louder, to the point it actually feels physically painful. It is always accompanied by a sensation of intense pressure on my head too.

From then on anything can happen. Usually I'll see, feel or hear "creatures" around the bed but often I will feel as if I'm rising up out of my body - usually I float out the window and over the city (it never looks like my real city though).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogic_hallucinations#Sounds

 

[ExMinister]

I have to agree with Burning Beard that this is a not totally uncommon aspect to hypnagognic hallucinations.

That sounds EXACTLY like the night terrors I used to experience.

For me it usually begins with a vibrating sensation - not as if I'm physically shaking, rather, I can feel every atom in my body bouncing around within my form.

The sound then follows... it's horrible. It's like the ringing in my ears after a loud concert, only 100 X louder, to the point it actually feels physically painful. It is always accompanied by a sensation of intense pressure on my head too.

From then on anything can happen. Usually I'll see, feel or hear "creatures" around the bed but often I will feel as if I'm rising up out of my body - usually I float out the window and over the city (it never looks like my real city though).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogic_hallucinations#Sounds

Mine was an incredibly jarring, loud noise similar to the sound an MRI machine makes, with an accompanying vibration.

Wikepedia's article is actually very good.

 

[BenRayfield]

Why is nobody skeptical of the IN BODY EXPERIENCES? Except for feeling like you are inside your brain (which I have never heard of), all in-body-experiences are an illusion created by the communication between the body and brain through nerves, similar to how information flows between computers through wires. The scientific fact is, if your arm or leg or most other parts of such body are cut off, your "experience" goes with the side that has the brain. Can anybody explain why in-body-experiences are less of an illusion than out-of-body-experiences? The same thing applies to the left side of the brain. If it dies, the right side takes over its main functions. And the same if the right side of the brain dies and you only have the left side. Until I see some scientific proof that in-body-experiences exist, I'm going to be skeptical about the whole thing. Bodies... Religious nonsense.

 

[Fishstick]

Why is nobody skeptical of the IN BODY EXPERIENCES? Except for feeling like you are inside your brain (which I have never heard of), all in-body-experiences are an illusion created by the communication between the body and brain through nerves, similar to how information flows between computers through wires. The scientific fact is, if your arm or leg or most other parts of such body are cut off, your "experience" goes with the side that has the brain. Can anybody explain why in-body-experiences are less of an illusion than out-of-body-experiences? The same thing applies to the left side of the brain. If it dies, the right side takes over its main functions. And the same if the right side of the brain dies and you only have the left side. Until I see some scientific proof that in-body-experiences exist, I'm going to be skeptical about the whole thing. Bodies... Religious nonsense.

I see being in your brain is not mutually exclusive of being out of your mind.

 

[ThePoliteSkeptic]

Why is nobody skeptical of the IN BODY EXPERIENCES?

Somehow I've never heard of in-body experience. Could someone give me more info...

or do I have to google it??

 

[Mirrorglass]

Why is nobody skeptical of the IN BODY EXPERIENCES? Except for feeling like you are inside your brain (which I have never heard of), all in-body-experiences are an illusion created by the communication between the body and brain through nerves, similar to how information flows between computers through wires. The scientific fact is, if your arm or leg or most other parts of such body are cut off, your "experience" goes with the side that has the brain. Can anybody explain why in-body-experiences are less of an illusion than out-of-body-experiences? The same thing applies to the left side of the brain. If it dies, the right side takes over its main functions. And the same if the right side of the brain dies and you only have the left side. Until I see some scientific proof that in-body-experiences exist, I'm going to be skeptical about the whole thing. Bodies... Religious nonsense.

This reminds me of an old Ray Bradbury short story where a man becomes terrified after realizing he has a skeleton inside him.

 

[Ron_Tomkins]

I've been curious about something for a while, and it's only recently occured to me that I might ask someone.

People who report having so-called out-of-body experiences tend to report a feeling of their body vibrating at the onset of the experience, accompanied with sounds that range from a buzzing, to a roaring engine sound.

Now, I've heard loads of explanations for this, but it's all metaphysical stuff, and seems to be nothing but guesses.

I imagine that neurology or biology may have already commented on this, but I haven't been able to find the information. It's not a seizure.

I've felt this myself (not relating to "OBE"), and I'm not sure what to make of it.

So, what's the official explanation? Has anybody heard of this?

As a person who has experienced a lot of OBE's, I think I can provide you with some insights. I too, experience a humming, a sort of sound of vibration whenever I was entering an OBE. For a while I wondered what this sound meant. One day, it just clicked: The sound is definitely coming from my eardrums. Like when you do this thing where you squint really hard and your eardrums vibrate (Actually, I long ago found out you don't actually need to squint to get the ear vibration sound)

For more insight into the mechanistic explanations of the OBE's, I strongly recommend watching Michael Shermer's research on it:

 

[Belgian thought]

That sounds EXACTLY like the night terrors I used to experience.

For me it usually begins with a vibrating sensation - not as if I'm physically shaking, rather, I can feel every atom in my body bouncing around within my form.

The sound then follows... it's horrible. It's like the ringing in my ears after a loud concert, only 100 X louder, to the point it actually feels physically painful. It is always accompanied by a sensation of intense pressure on my head too.

From then on anything can happen. Usually I'll see, feel or hear "creatures" around the bed but often I will feel as if I'm rising up out of my body - usually I float out the window and over the city (it never looks like my real city though).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogic_hallucinations#Sounds

That's sound absolutely horrible, I would imagine dreading going to bed.

I hope you do not mind me asking, but you say you used to get them. How was this stopped/cured? How frequent were they when you suffered from them?

 

[Burning Beard]

That's sound absolutely horrible, I would imagine dreading going to bed.

I hope you do not mind me asking, but you say you used to get them. How was this stopped/cured? How frequent were they when you suffered from them?

Not at all.

They're mostly a thing of the past. I'd get them every 2nd or 3rd morning. They'd occur after my girlfriend left for work (she started very early) just as I was drifting back off to sleep.

Two things helped me prevent them. 1) She changed jobs and we started getting up around the same time, so I wasn't having that time to fall back to sleep again, and 2) I learned that sleeping on your back can trigger them (sleep apnea?) so I made an effort to sleep on my side.

I still get them occasionally, but now that I'm more aware of them I can fight them off. Once I became aware of what they were they became less frightening (the hallucinations, demons, gobblins etc.)

 

[ThePoliteSkeptic]

Ron Tomkins, thanks for the video! Very interesting!