Seeing Myself: The New Science of Out-of-Body Experiences

Seeing Myself examines reported out-of-body experiences through Susan Blackmore’s personal history and a career spent investigating consciousness. She begins with an intense experience during her student years, then traces her search for explanations through spirituality, religion, drugs, meditation, philosophy and neuroscience.

The book considers how 21st-century research has changed the study of these experiences, including virtual-reality experiments that make people feel located outside their bodies or disconnected from bodily ownership. Blackmore presents out-of-body experiences as a route into wider questions about perception, consciousness and the construction of the self, while retaining a scientific and sceptical perspective. Her account links personal testimony with psychological and neurological research rather than treating reports of separation from the body as established evidence of an independent mind.