The phenomenon known as the 'Out-of-Body' experience is related to a failure of integration of multisensory informations from the body, suggests Blanke and Arzy.
[Blanke, O. and Arzy, S. (2005) The Out-of-Body Experience: Disturbed self processing at the Temporo-Parietal Junction. The Neuroscientist.]
In OBE, people often look down their own body from an elevated location like ceiling. The perspective which they look at and the sense of self is located outside the body.
They indicate that the OBE has three characteristics.
1. disembodiment
2. the impression of seeing the world from a distant and elevated visuo-spatial perspective
3. the impression of seeing one's own body from this elevated perspective
OBE--if it really exists--shows that the body image could exist without the sense of self. The experiencing 'I' and the experienced 'my body' are dissociated. Interestingly, the sense of ownership is still functioning (because the body is seemed as 'my body' in OBE), but there is no sense of motor agency.
