Chapter 15
An out-of-body experience (OBE or
sometimes OOBE) is an experience that
typically involves a sensation of floating
outside one’s body and, in some cases,
perceiving one’s physical body from a place
outside one’s body (autoscopy)
Several instances when people experienced what is known as “Out of body experience”.
My father Late T.S.Nagarethinam, an Electrical Engineer by profession was one such person.
He never practised Yoga, meditation or any other Spiritual practices. He has very high blood pressure, compared to others, from birth. That did not affect his in anyway. (He was denied insurance policy for this reason).
In his early 20s, during British Rule in India he was excommunicated from the princely state of Pudukkottai, for a period of two years, by British to Hyderabad under Nizam.
(I skip the details or reason for excommunication has no relevance here).
He was escorted by cops and put on a train to Hyderabad. It was a pretty long jorney in summer.
He was received and accommodated by some relatives settled there.
He was tired and slept.
In the middle of the night, he suddenly wokeup. To his utter dismay, he found himself standing near his body. He thought he was dead.
He panicked. He tried to wakeup his relatives and friends who were sleeping in the large room.
He did not succeed/ He thought he would go out and get some help. He went close to the door and tried to open it. But he was already outside the house.
He found the street brightl as though it was a day time. He walked along the road to find a sign board that read, Medical practitioner.
He walked through the door. Reached a bedroom where a old man was sleeping. A little girl, his grand daughter was sleeping by his side. A flask and a book was found on a table nearby.
His effort to wake-up the old man, failed.
He was desperate. That is what he remembered,
Suddenly he wokeup, normally, like he did on anyother day.
He tried to explain his room mates. No one believe him. He talked about his visiting the medical practitioner, in his house.
The description matched with the reality.
That was the first and last time, my father said, he experienced out-of-body. That was involuntary and can be traced to stress and strain of train journey coupled with his high level of hyper tension.
It was a summer, some 40 year latemy familyr. My parents lived in a small beautiful village. I visit him with my wife and children and spend some good 20 days.
I discuss a lot about Science and Spirituality during these days.
My father has a large fan following in that village. A farmer approached my father on one of those days. He wanted my father to demonstrate OBE for his relative who has come all the way to witness. After some initial hesitation, he agreed. The two villagers went away without a word. I did not understand then, what is happening.
After a few minutes, my father instructed me not to panic for he will appear dead for a while.
Then suddenly his body became still, eyes struck in one position and half open.
Within some 30 seconds he became normal and we continued the discussion where we had stopped.
The twosome came to my father after some 15 minutes.
My father explained them where they went and what transpired in the scene that was far away from where we were.
The visitor jumped-up and asked my father if he could teach him the technique. The local villager forceibly took him away telling it was OBE and gave his own explanation why every one cannot have OBE.
That was the only time I witnessed OBE, a live demo.
Medico legal cases involving OBE.
Awareness during surgery is a very serious problem for the anaesthetist and the patient as well. Such incidents are the cause for 2% of the legal claims against anesthetists while patients with intraoperative awareness experience describe it as the worst thing they have ever suffered from. Pain, anxiety and inability to react due to muscle paralysis often lead to the situation called post traumatic stress disorder which demands psychiatric support. The fact that there are patients who report intraoperative experience, even several days after surgery, raises questions about the way the anesthetic drugs interfere with the mechanisms of memory and consciousness while, in bibliography, there are studies proving that even deeply anesthetized patients can be influenced by auditory stimuli without being able to recall them. Intraoperative monitoring of the anesthesia depth is important for the prevention of this problem. From all the available devices only the Bispectral Index Monitoring (BIS) has been proven to be effective for this purpose but the high cost per person and the low specificity in preventing awareness episodes do not allow its everyday use. The surgeon and especially the anesthesiologist must be aware of the risk factors, the prevention measures and the actions that must be taken after an awareness incident in order to minimize the unfortunate complications for both the patient and the doctors.