For hypnotists and psychology students, talking about the out-of-body experience may seem to be a common thing. But recently, a psychology student from the University of Ottawa appeared to a bunch of researchers saying that she could voluntarily force herself out of her body before sleep, almost every night. The scientists working on the case stated that the student was quite surprised when she came to know that not everyone can experience this unique phenomenon.

For this psychology graduate, hovering over her body, instead of napping seemed quite an interesting thing to do. She started performing this as a child, whenever she was bored with sleep, during her preschool years. For her, this was much more interesting than sleeping.

According to the researchers, this phenomenon may be incidental or usually goes unreported as people don’t think it to be a very exceptional task, similar to this student. Usually, this ability may be present in people during infancy which is lost gradually with aging and lack of practice. Certain scientists suggest that these out-of-body experiences are now more common than earlier and could be learned at a very critical stage of early life.

The 24 year old student started performing this phenomenon at an early age and continued to do it until she grew up, thinking that everyone could do this. According to her, she could see herself rotating in the air, lying flat, rolling on a horizontal plane. She also stated that sometimes she could see her unmoving real body from the top and that there were no emotions linked to these experiences.

Researchers, Claude Messier and Andra M. Smith, from the University of Ottawa mentioned this as an unusual find and said that this is the however the first person being studied for such experiences who has no brain abnormalities. The researchers used the term, “Extra-Corporeal Experience” (ECE) instead of the usual out-of-body experience, as the case lacked strong emotions which in normal conditions go along with the study.

During the study, the researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to understand the brain activities better. They found a strong deactivation of visual cortex in the student, going through the ECE. The ECE activated the left side of the brain which is usually associated with kinesthetic imagery.

The scientists were very thrilled about the research and said that the experience was truly novel. Moreover, they have asked other people also to reveal their story, if they think they can float out of their body voluntarily.