Dominik Pucek

In the article the authors propose that their study behind these mechanisms can work to create treatments for certain psychological problems like derealization and depersonalization, both of which seem to be related because any individual that experiences either usually experiences the other. Because of this relation these scientists continued work that postulates it has something to do with an error that occurs in the part of our brains that monitors where you are in space.

I understand this first hand. During my late teens, well, let's just say that I was a fucked up kid. I had a lot of stress going on for the most part of my life. I had been dealing with it fairly well until around 17-19 when I could not hold off the pressure anymore. I started experiencing bouts of unreachability. It wasn't an out of body sort of thing, that's never happened to me the way it's been talked about in the news or tv. It was where I could see what I was doing, hear what I was saying, was aware of things that were going on, but I couldn't necessarily feel them. It was as if all my impressions and sense of self and sense of the world had forced the "ME" I believe to be perceive them from a distance. I felt like I was not there, or that perhaps I was not real. Which eventually lead to feeling that perhaps maybe the world wasn't real. It just felt terribly terribly strange, and I would do horrible things like say or do things I knew would anger / sadden / offend people just to be sure I was still a part of and not apart from reality. It would feel so ODD. Like some sort of awkward hangover. I would 'wake' from this state groggy and disoriented.

Which, when looking at this research, seems to make perfect sense when considering out-of-body experiences. According to the experiement, certain parts of the brain believed to be associated with de[re/per]sonalization when stimulated can induce an intense feeling of dislocation for approximately. Most subjects reported that they would feel as if the "they" they know would be located behind and to the left of where they actually were, and felt as if they could watch themselves. I cannot say I ever felt anything so intense as that, but I do relate. The researchers postulate that the "white light" they see may be an illusion they experience due to the severity of trauma that needs to be present for this particular state to be induced naturally, and they begin to see the one light when the effect wears off, returning to the body - where the light of bulb or flashlight my be over them. This of course, hasn't been explained yet. But it is n eye opening, and for me, a comforting discovery.