Models of causality for the out of body experience: The multi-etiological phenomenological approach.
(Professor) Vernon M Neppe MD, PhD, FRSSAf, DFAPA, BN&NP, FRCPC, FFPsych
Pacific Neuropsychiatric Institute, Seattle, WA and
Dept. of Psychiatry, St
Louis University, St Louis, MO1
Abstract:
Current out-of-body experience (OBE) models have attempted to explain OBE through utilizing a single major explanation or approach, though frequently recognizing the lack of generalizability for all OBEs. These approaches are here classified into four main groups of unitary hypotheses: psychological, brain, psychopathological and experiential.
These several diverse models could imply different etiologies in different subpopulations. This logically leads to focusing particularly on a proposed new multi-etiological phenomenological approach that does not limit the model to any single etiology. By so doing this differentiates OBE phenomenologically into the many unitary approaches.
The unitary hypotheses
A, The psychological models:
The most well-known psychological models include:
B. The brain model empirical approaches:
C. The psychopathological psychiatric perspective:
1. Neppe’s portrayal
of psychiatric interpretations: “extreme ego splitting,
with marked derealization and depersonalization, and delusional out-of
-touchness with reality.”
D. The experiential descriptive scientific subjective paranormal experient approach is
epitomized by:
The multi-etiological phenomenological approach:
The presenter’s proposed multi-etiological phenomenological analysis model accommodates the multiplicity of causes and different subpopulations. It motivates for detailed multiquestion OBE screening. Like must be classified as like. Discrete population sample analysis of form, content, circumstance and predisposed populations is an empirically viable method in many other related areas such as déjà vu, olfactory hallucinations and temporal lobe symptomatology. Analyses by multidimensional scaling or correspondence analysis may not be attainable by a single screening question on OBEs.
Not all epiphenomena have common origins. Multifactorial etiologies and epiphenomena expressed could produce, for example, four nosological subtypes based on the four unitary perspectives above, namely:
The possible phenomenological
distinctiveness of these populations should be studied and can be subjected
to appropriate correspondence analysis, multidimensional scaling or
statistical review.
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