What "Behind Her Eyes" Gets Wrong (And Right) About Astral Projection
The final twist of the new Netflix series Behind Her Eyes falls squarely into the you have to see it to believe it category, and has raised plenty of questions among viewers. The show's closing moments hinge on a revelation of "astral projection," which is essentially when someone can intentionally trigger an out-of-body experience.
There are hundreds of podcasts, books, and guides that purport to teach people how to leave their bodies on command. It is often linked to lucid dreaming, or the ability to control your dreams.
When you have an out-of-body experience, your brain's body schema–its perception of your physical form–is altered. Nothing is "leaving" your body, but your brain is not perceiving your body in the way that you are used to, which can sometimes give the impression that your consciousness is detached for a period of time. In astral projection, this is often thought of (and depicted) as the soul leaving the body and traveling to some sort of new plane of consciousness, but the scientific explanation does not support the existence of a soul that is separate from the physical body.
"The out of-body-experience is not a scientific validation for whether or not the soul exists. It’s just a different way that the brain functions," Dr. Claude Messier, a professor from the University of Ottowa's Brain and Mind Research Institute explains to OprahMag.com. "It’s consistent with many bizarre or out of the ordinary ways the brain can function."
To better understand the science behind astral projection, we spoke to Dr. Messier and Dr. Susan Blackmore, a psychologist who published Seeing Myself: The New Science of Out-of-Body Experiences in 2019.
The phenomenon is real, but the term "out-of-body experience" is often used instead of "astral projection."
Dr. Messier and Dr. Blackmore, who had an out-of-body experience of her own in 1970, have spent decades studying these occurrences, and bristle at the oftentimes mystical explanations of astral projection.
"The bottom line is that I think we now have the outlines of a complete neuroscientific explanation of what out-of-body experiences are," Dr. Blackmore says. "That doesn’t mean we know every detail, but we have the outline. It is quite unnecessary, and indeed totally unhelpful, to talk in terms of astral projection, because that is an ancient theory that simply doesn’t fit the facts now."
In a 2017 article for BBC Focus, Dr. Blackmore explains that when "the body schema is disrupted by electrical stimulation," the brain can essentially lose track of the body, thus creating a feeling of disconnect between the mind and physical form. This creates the sensation of separation, and the perception of your body "outside" of yourself.
There is no scientific consensus on how to induce an out-of-body experience, as the vast majority of people who experience them do so involuntarily, and accounts of them are based on anecdotal evidence.
The many books that cover astral projection have varying information on how you can reportedly spark the experience. Mastering Astral Projection by Robert Bruce and Brian Mercer claims that remembering your dreams, breathing a particular way, being in a state of "deep physical relaxation," and "energy body stimulation" are all things you can do to make an out-of-body experience more likely.
In some cases, including Dr. Messier's and fellow University of Ottawa professor Dr. Andra Smith's collaborative study, "Voluntary out-of-body experiences," the phrase "extra-corporeal experience" (ECE) is also used.
They observed brain activity in a myriad of locations, including the temporal parietal junction, which was previously thought to be connected with out-of-body experiences due to its involvement with bodily perception, as well as the cerebellum, which "showed activation that is consistent with the participant’s report of the impression of movement during the ECE."
In Behind Her Eyes, Adele uses "astral projection" to leave her body, travel, and essentially spy on people. The ability to travel to any kind of astral plane isn't supported by science. Blackmore explains that tests were done in the 1900s to see if people who had out-of-body experiences had any kind of psychic abilities, but nothing was proven.
In fictional depictions, out-of-body experiences often hinge on the soul separating from the body, implying a distinction between the two that researchers do not support.
Scientists in this corner are focused not on the perceived separateness of the mind and body, but on the way they function as one, which is why the disconnect is so jarring. Messier compares the phenomenon to things like aphantasia (when a person can't form a visual image in their mind) or synesthesia (when the triggering of one sense automatically leads to the activation of another).
Messier says that some people who've had out-of-body experiences themselves opt for the mystical explanation over the scientific one because of how strange and unfamiliar it feels.
"It’s very hard to disbelieve that you are not outside of your body, but it’s your brain playing tricks," he acknowledges.
The idea of "floating above yourself" is actually rooted in the truth.
According to both Messier and Blackmore, the quintessential depiction of an out-of-body experience involving a person feeling like they're floating above themselves is common.
Blackmore says that one of the reasons is because that view is relatively easy for the mind to assemble. She conducted research on a group of students, asking them to close their eyes and picture the room they were in from different angles, with most of them agreeing that it was simplest to do so either looking down or from the doorway, not from other vantage points like the floor.
"It really is a question of cognitive simplicity; it’s the easiest view to construct," she says.
Blackmore also says that when she had her out-of-body experience, she saw the room she was in from a bird's eye perspective.
The idea of astral projection has roots in religious texts.
The concept of the "astral body" is explored in various religious texts, including the Qur'an and Hindi scriptures. Ancient Egypt had a concept of the soul separate from the physical body, which was divided into eight different components, including the "Ba," which was closest to the Western conception of the soul.
Dr. Blackmore notes that while the concept of leaving the body for a kind of spiritual awakening does have longstanding roots, the explicit notion of astral projection is more connected to Theosophy, a belief system popularized by Helena Blavatsky that focused on spiritual experiences with little in the way of hard evidence.
"The term ‘astral projection’ only goes back to Theosophy and Madame Blavatsky in the 1890s and so on," Dr. Blackmore says. "There’s no evidence of any kind to support Theosophy with its seven different bodies and its higher astral planes, and therefore to support the term astral projection.”
Out-of-body experiences can be a response to physical or emotional trauma.
Both Messier and Blackwell state that out-of-body experiences are frequently triggered by stress, physical changes in the body, or traumatic events like abuse. Our brain holds an image and understanding of our physical being—often referred to as a body schema—and when that is fractured, the perception of the mind in relation to the body can be altered.
"My interpretation now is that out-of-body experiences are caused when the body schema, this mental model of our own body in space, is disrupted. It’s disrupted so much that it separates from the sensory input and we rely on imagination rather than sensory input," Blackwell says. "You can’t get rid of your body schema. It’s built-in...when that gets completely blown apart, it splits, and in your imagination it floats off.”
Messier likens out-of-body experiences to the sensation of a phantom limb in amputees, which is when a person still feels the sensations of the appendage they no longer have. In those cases, the brain's body schema has still not adjusted to the new reality of being without the limb.
"Your body image that your brain is creating has trouble anchoring itself to your body, so it’s moving around in the wrong places," he says.
Because so few people can leave their bodies on command, these experiences are challenging to study.
Most people who have out-of-body experiences do so very infrequently, making them nearly impossible to replicate for research purposes.
Messier and Smith's 2014 study focused on a student who said that she had been having out-of-body experiences her whole life, and that she could trigger them deliberately, which is conceptually similar to astral projection.
"The person we studied could have these experiences because she practiced those when she was a kid as a play thing, not realizing it was anything special," Dr. Messier says. "She just did that to pass time while she was trying to go to sleep, and she’s had problems going to sleep, which is common among people who have out-of-body experiences."
Messier and Smith did extensive imaging of the subject's brain, though obviously the study hinged on believing that she was telling the truth about her ability to induce out-of-body experiences.
"I feel myself moving, or, more accurately, can make myself feel as if I am moving. I know perfectly well that I am not actually moving," the subject said. "There is no duality of body and mind when this happens, not really."
By performing this research, Messier hopes to assuage concerns in people who have out-of-body experiences that they are experiencing any kind of cognitive issue or impairment. The phenomenon really can occur in anyone, and is not indicative of problems of the brain.
Behind Her Eyes is not the only series to touch on astral projection.
The ending of Behind Her Eyes is certainly one of the more shocking uses of an out-of-body experience, but it's far from the only one. Films like The Big Lebowski, If I Stay, Ghost, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind all feature them in varying forms.
The Marvel movie Doctor Strange features a particularly trippy astral projection scene, while the 2019 horror film ASTRAL is about a character who has figured out how to leave his body and winds up coming in contact with an evil spirit.
Messier likens an out-of-body-experience to the scene in Disney's Peter Pan where the main character loses his shadow, and has to reunite with it.
Supernatural TV shows like Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, of course, Supernatural also show characters astral projecting.
Dr. Blackmore explains that instances of out-of-body experiences can be helpful and informative to the public if done correctly, but, in many cases, they serve to drive a wedge further between those who think they cannot happen and those who believe, but doubt the scientific explanations.
"When a media depiction strongly implies that these experiences are only interesting if they’re real in the sense that something has left the body, then it’s harmful, because it stops people asking questions," she says. "It makes very skeptical people go, 'That’s rubbish, because obviously it can’t happen.' And believing people go, 'Wow, this is the only exciting way of thinking about it.' The split in those two views can be encouraged by certain ways of writing about it."
But, while the researchers say that according to science, out-of-body experiences are quite unlike how they're portrayed on screen—not a product of the soul but of neurological activation and rarely controllable—Blackmore stresses that they can be thrilling, mind-opening moments, similar to watch a great movie.
“My advice is always to say what fun out-of-body experiences can be! Give up all those ideas of astral projection," she says. "Give up the idea that you’re really going to able to travel to see Granny or whatever it is, and think, ‘Wow, I’m exploring my own mind and this is so interesting. What can I do with this?'"
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