Can a Soul Leave the Body? The Fascinating Phenomenon Explained

Can a soul leave the body? Many people today struggle to accept the existence of a soul. They're uncertain they even possess a soul, let alone believe it could leave the body. If there is only a body and a brain, there's seemingly nothing that could exist outside of it. Yet, there's an assertion that a soul can indeed leave the body!

Prof. Claude Messier, a psychologist and brain researcher from the University of Ottawa in Canada, has been lecturing for years on near-death experiences, where people reportedly experience an out-of-body event. These studies and descriptions are well-known. In his lectures, Messier often cites the research of cardiologist Michael Sabom, who documented testimonies and descriptions of people who had near-death experiences and described seeing things from above, from a soul outside the body, which couldn’t have been seen with their eyes since they were closed or covered. Messier also references studies showing about 7% of the population having experienced such a phenomenon to some extent. Yet, Prof. Claude's surprise came during a lecture to students about a decade ago. At the end of the talk, a 24-year-old student approached him, sharing that she had often experienced leaving her body. "Isn't it just for those near death? I thought anyone could do it...", she innocently stated.

The student, named Gail, shared that as a young girl, when she struggled to nap in the afternoons, she would experiment with leaving her body. Now it's harder for her to achieve, but it still happens occasionally.

Claude Messier was intrigued by her description and wanted to study it. He wasn't one to believe stories easily; he is a man of science. Gail came to his lab. Her brain was connected to an MRI machine, she was asked a series of questions, and even practiced "leaving her body." According to the MRI results, indeed, the parts of the brain activated during that time were the same parts activated in cases of clinical death. The "temporal-parietal junction" showed increased activity—a unique area of the brain that, when the main brain is impaired, has a seemingly independent ability, thus becoming active in cases of brain injury.

Gail described being able to perform actions such as moving, rising, and turning around. These actions gave her a real sensation of doing them, all while awake and not dreaming. Even if she turned too quickly, she felt dizzy, and so forth. Yet, her body remained still.

The research was documented in an article by Claude and his colleagues, titled "Extra-Corporeal Experience." A reputable (peer-reviewed) journal published the article and the experiment's documentation. Among other things, it was described: "Inside the MRI machine, Professor Messier and his colleague assigned Gail six different tasks. In some, she was asked to deliberately embark on an out-of-body journey so they could examine her brain activity during the experience. In other tasks, she was asked to either imagine performing specific gymnastic exercises or actually move her fingers, and afterward only imagine moving them. When Gail was asked just to imagine doing gymnastic exercises, she reported a different sensation since she didn’t quite feel the movements themselves, unlike the other moments when she experienced out-of-body experiences."

Rakefet Tavor, who reviews phenomena on the border between science and consciousness, writes in conclusion: It seems that concerning the scientific understanding of what truly happens when a person feels their body leaving them, there's still a way to go until answers are found. This is even more so when the experience occurs voluntarily, like in the surprising case of Gail, meaning without a special event like a near-death experience to act as a trigger or partial explanation.