Seeing Myself

'An excellent and contemporary overview of these fascinating experiences in human consciousness' - Dr Jason J Braithwaite, Reader in Brain Science, University of LancasterAs an impressionable young student, Susan Blackmore had an intense, dramatic and life-changing experience, seeming to leave her body and travel the world. With no rational explanation for her out-of-body experience (OBE) she turned to astral projection and the paranormal, but soon despaired of finding answers. Decades later, a Swiss neurosurgeon accidentally discovered the spot in the brain that can induce OBEs and everything changed in our understanding of them. Seeing Myself describes Blackmore's long quest for answers through spirituality, religion, drugs, meditation, philosophy and neuroscience.Anyone can have an out-of-body or near-death experience, indeed 15 per cent of us have. Even more have experienced sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming and the creepy sense of an invisible presence. At last, with the advent of brain stimulation, fMRI scanning and virtual reality, all these phenomena are beginning to make sense. Long relegated to the very fringes of research, the new science of out-of-body experiences is now contributing to our understanding of consciousness, the idea of an afterlife and the nature of our very selves.Susan J. Blackmore is a distinguished and influential psychologist, known for her best-selling books exploring consciousness, memetics, evolution and spirituality. She is a visiting professor at the University of Plymouth and a freelance writer, giving lectures all over the world both at academic conferences and to the public.