Out-of-body Experiences (OBEs)

A complete list of all my books and articles is listed in Publications.

People often ask me what to read/listen to, on a particular subject. Here are some suggestions on OBE’s.


Here is an account of my own OBE, from 1970. Most of my research on OBEs was decades ago, as you can see from the articles below, but now that the science is really taking off I have researched and written a new book on OBEs (published July 2017), see below.

My new book on OBE’s

Seeing Myself: The new science of out-of-body experiences is available from all good bookshops now, in paperback (£14.99) or buy online from the Publisher.

 

Watch / Listen  – Podcasts and Radio Interviews

DemystifySci Podcast Illusion of the self. A discussion about out of body experiences, astral phenomena, psychological research and the illusory self. May 2023

‘Point of Inquiry’ podcast (2019) CSICon (Skeptical Inquirer Conference). Sue’s segment begins at 24 minutes, talking about her OBE, consciousness, dualism and weird experiences. 18 April 2019.

The Consciousness Podcast (2019) : Sue answers tricky questions about dualism and awareness, illusionism and the mind, and a lot more about OBEs and NDEs. 19 March 2019

Science and Spirituality. (2018) Video of my lecture on OBEs at the Weekend University, London30 September 2018.

Is there life after death? BBC World Service – CrowdScience.   I talk mostly about my own OBE and why I don’t think there is evidence of life after death: my contribution is roughly from 11 minutes to 18 minutes. 23.10.17

Watch my lecture on ‘Positive scepticism: The new science of out-of-body experiences‘ at European Skeptics Conference, 23.09.2017, Wroclaw, Poland

Debate on OBEs and NDEs with Graham Nicholls for Premier Christian Radio on Justin Brierley’s show ‘Unbelievable’, 09.09.2017

An interview on OBEs with Mel van Dusen at his home in California, 08.08.2017

Consciousness and Out of Body Experiences, with Dr. Susan Blackmore – Spiritual Naturalist Society Today #23. 1 August 2017

The New Science of Out-of-Body Experiences, read abstract, watch the full lecture on YouTube here, QED Manchester, October 2016

Out-of-body experiences and nonduality: SAND Italy, August 2016.

‘The new science of out-of-body experiences’ Lecture for CogNovo, University of Plymouth, 7 December 2015 watch on Vimeo

Interview about  my own OBE and OBE experiments for MOOC Think101 (see also the original 1970 account of my own OBE).

Read Books 

Blackmore, S. 2017 Seeing Myself: The new science of out-of-body experiences, Robinson ISBN-10:1472137361

Blackmore, S. 1993 Dying to Live: Science and the Near Death Experience, London, Grafton, ISBN 0 586 09212 9
and Dying to Live: Near Death Experiences. Buffalo, N.Y., Prometheus, ISBN 087975 870 8 Translations

Blackmore, S. 1982 Beyond the Body: An investigation into out-of-body experiences, reprinted 1992 (with new postscript), Chicago, Academy Chicago, ISBN 0 89733 344 6. Translations

Book Chapters

The implausibility of astral bodies and astral worlds’ and ‘Out-of-body experiences are not evidence for survival. In The Myth of an Afterlife Ed. Michael Martin and Keith Augustine, Rowman & Littlefield, pp 393-403 and 519-27, 2015

Articles 

Blackmore, S. 2017 Skeptics beyond the body, The Philosophers’ Magazine, 78, 70-75

Blackmore, S. 2017 The science behind out-of-body experiences, BBC Focus Magazine, September 2017

Blackmore,S.J. 1991d Near-Death Experiences: In or out of the body? Skeptical Inquirer 16 34-45 (this article has been reprinted several times and also translated into Spanish). Reprinted in Fredriksson, I (Ed) Aspects of Consciousness: with new introduction – an update on OBEs.

Blackmore,S.J. and Wooffitt, R.C.1990 Out of the body experiences in young children Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 56 155-158 PDF

Blackmore,S.J. 1987c Where am I?: Perspectives in imagery, and the out-of-body experience Journal of Mental Imagery 11 53-66 PDF

Blackmore,S.J. 1988 Visions from the dying brain New Scientist 5 May No 1611 43-46 (Cover Story)

Blackmore,S.J. 1986c Where am I?: perspectives in imagery, memory and the OBE. In: Research in Parapsychology 1985 Ed. D.Weiner and D.Radin, Metuchen, N.J. Scarecrow, 163-164

Blackmore,S.J. 1986b Out-of-body experiences in schizophrenia: a questionnaire survey Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 174 615-619

Blackmore,S.J. 1986a  Spontaneous and deliberate OBEs: a questionnaire survey Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 53 218-224 PDF

Blackmore,S.J. 1984a A postal survey of OBEs and other experiences Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 52 225-244 PDF

Blackmore,S.J. 1984b  A psychological theory of the OBE Journal of Parapsychology 48 201-218 PDF Also reprinted, with new postscript, in Psychological Scientific Perspectives on Out of Body and Near Death Experiences. Ed: Craig D. Murray. NY Nova, 2009

Blackmore,S.J. 1983d Are out-of-the-body experiences evidence for survival? Anabiosis 3 137-155

Blackmore,S.J. 1983e Birth and the OBE: an unhelpful analogy Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 77 229-238

Blackmore,S.J. and Harris,J. 1983 OBEs and perceptual distortions in schizophrenic patients and students. In Research in Parapsychology 1982 Ed. W.G.Roll, J.Beloff and R.A.White, Metuchen, N.J., Scarecrow, 232-234

Blackmore,S.J. 1982b Have you ever had an OBE?: the wording of the question Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 51 292-302 PDF

My own experience

Original 1970 account, and version posted at Charles Tart’s TASTE site with 2001 commentary

See also Near-Death Experiences