A sense of non-self

 

Do you want to know more about some obscure subject in the middle of the night CET? 

Yes, Metzinger´s work on out-of-body illusions. Sounds interesting!

Great choice—Thomas Metzinger’s work on out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and self-model disruption is a fascinating window into how our brains construct the sense of "I am here, in this body."

While Metzinger himself is a philosopher, not a lab-based neuroscientist, he collaborates with or draws on work from cognitive scientists and neurophysiologists—especially people like Olaf Blanke in Switzerland—who perform real-world experiments on bodily self-location and ownership. Metzinger provides the theoretical framework for understanding these experiences.

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🧠 Key Concept: The Phenomenal Self-Model (PSM)

Metzinger proposes that:

• The “self” is not a metaphysical entity, but a model your brain creates.

• Your sense of being located inside your body, seeing the world from a specific perspective, and having a unified "I" is part of this self-model.

• OBEs, lucid dreams, and mystical states occur when this self-model is partially or radically disrupted.

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🧪 Neuroscience of Out-of-Body Experiences

🔬 Metzinger + Blanke-style Experiments

Metzinger interprets a class of lab experiments where visual, tactile, and vestibular mismatches are used to trick the brain into projecting the self outside the physical body. These are not speculative—they’re replicable, peer-reviewed studies.

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👤 Example: Full Body Illusion

Setup:

• The subject wears a virtual reality headset showing a video feed of themselves from behind.

• A researcher touches the subject’s back with a stick in sync with what the person sees in the headset.

• After a while, subjects feel like they are located in the body they see on screen—a few feet in front of where their real body is.

Result:

• The person feels that their “self” has moved to a new location—just like a mild, lab-induced OBE.

• This is strong evidence that bodily location of the self is malleable and constructed in the brain.

Metzinger interprets this as a partial deconstruction of the PSM—your brain’s internal self-location system is being temporarily hacked.

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👽 Other Triggers of OBEs

• Epilepsy (especially in the temporoparietal junction)

• Psychedelic drugs

• Sleep paralysis / lucid dreaming

• Near-death experiences

In all these, Metzinger argues that the brain's self-model and spatial body schema are altered or break down entirely, creating the sensation of floating, seeing oneself from outside, or merging with the universe.

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🔍 Philosophical Implications (Metzinger’s View)

1. OBEs are not evidence of a “soul” leaving the body.
   Instead, they show how fragile and constructed our sense of self is.

2. These states may be spiritually meaningful, but they’re still grounded in brain mechanics.

3. The "out-of-body" sensation is what happens when the brain misattributes the location of its own self-model.

"You are not in control of your self-model. The self is not what you are, it is what you experience." – Metzinger, "Being No One"

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🧘 Bonus: Why This Doesn’t “Debunk” Spiritual Experience

Metzinger does not claim these experiences are worthless or delusional. He sees them as:

• Insights into consciousness architecture

• Tools for spiritual development, if properly understood

• Opportunities to create a new “consciousness culture”, where humans become more self-aware of how their inner world is shaped

In fact, he supports using safe, rational practices like meditation or lucid dreaming to explore altered states without falling into dogma.

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Would you like a summary of Metzinger’s idea of a future “consciousness culture” and how it overlaps with spiritual disciplines?

Going back to Metzinger, does this mean that the OBE´s are illusory? That is, our consciousness can´t really leave the brain to "see" or "experience" objective reality from a non-body vantage point?

Yes, according to Thomas Metzinger, out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are illusory in nature—meaning they feel real to the experiencer, but they do not involve consciousness actually leaving the body or brain.

Here's how Metzinger and related cognitive neuroscience explain this:

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🧠 Metzinger's View: OBEs as Self-Model Disruptions

Metzinger argues that:

1. You are not a self in the traditional, soul-like sense.
   You are a conscious model of a self, built by your brain to navigate the world.

2. In OBEs, the Phenomenal Self-Model (PSM) is temporarily projected outside the physical body, due to neurological or perceptual disruptions.

3. Consciousness itself never leaves the brain. What happens is a shift in the internal model of where the “self” is located in space.

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🔍 What's Really Happening?

Neurologically:

• The temporoparietal junction (TPJ) in the brain integrates visual, vestibular (balance), and proprioceptive (body-position) signals.

• Disruption in this area—by seizures, trauma, or even targeted stimulation—can cause the feeling of floating above the body, seeing oneself from the outside, etc.

Experientially:

• The brain continues to generate a coherent “you”, but that “you” is now misplaced—as if located in a corner of the room, ceiling, or above your body.

Metzinger: “You are not out of your body. You are experiencing a model of yourself from an unconventional perspective.”

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🎭 Why It Feels So Real

The brain systems that determine what’s “real”—especially in terms of spatial orientation and perspective—are fully activated. That’s why:

• OBEs can feel even more real than waking life.

• People often come away convinced they left their body and saw the world from outside it.

But this is the same principle that explains how:

• Dream worlds feel real while you’re in them.

• Phantom limb sensations can be felt even after an amputation.

• Virtual reality “presence” makes people duck when fake objects fly at them.

All of these involve embodied illusions created by the brain’s perceptual system.

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🧘‍♂️ Does This Mean OBEs Are "Just Illusions"?

Metzinger would say:

• Yes, in the sense that they don’t involve any soul or self actually leaving the brain or body.

• But No, in the sense that they are valuable windows into how consciousness and selfhood are constructed.

He views OBEs as:

• Empirically real phenomenological events.

• Scientifically and philosophically meaningful.

• Not evidence of the soul—but evidence that the “self” is a virtual construct, not an essence.

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🧩 Implication for Spiritual and Mystical Interpretation

Metzinger’s position does not deny that these experiences can be profound, transformative, or spiritually meaningful. But it naturalizes them. He argues that:

“The experience of being ‘out of body’ teaches us something about what the self is: not a thing, but a process—a model in the brain, and one that can be altered.”

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🧪 Summary

Claim	Metzinger’s View
Did consciousness actually leave the body?	No – the location of the self-model shifted
Is the experience real?	Yes, as a subjective phenomenon
Is it evidence of a soul?	No, it's a brain-based illusion
Is it useful for understanding consciousness?	Yes, it's a key to studying selfhood

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Would you like to explore how this view compares with mystical or religious interpretations of OBEs (e.g., astral projection, Tibetan dream yoga, etc.)?