I have a friend who frequently leaves her body.

   She doesn't like it, but she can't control it either.

   Sometimes, she just wakes up in the middle of the night for no particular reason, then realizes that she's looking at the ceiling from a distance of about six inches.  Then she looks down at the bed and realizes that her body is still there. 

   One of her most frightening stories was the time she woke up to find herself still lying down on her bed, but just beside her corporeal body.  It was as if her soul had moved in sleep, but her body had failed to follow.  The scary thing was, she could see a dark shadow on one corner of the room, a shadow that felt like an evil, living presence that was staring at her.  My friend tried to scream, or move, or wake up, but she was frozen in place.   As a last resort, she began reciting the Lord's Prayer over and over again.  Apparently, it worked, because before the shadow could reach her, she woke up.  However, she heard it whisper something to her just before it disappeared:  "I'll get you someday."

  Her stories have always left her friends concerned for her welfare.  We've always believed that her experiences were more than just nightmares or flights of the imagination.  As far as we know, she's a rational person and a doctor like us, and not usually given to superstition.  But just to be safe (especially after we heard that last story), we told her never to sleep alone, or never to lock the door, so someone could always be on hand to wake her up.  But she's a stubborn girl.   

   Now, psychologists in the University of Manchester are researching the idea that OOBE's or Out of Body Experiences are all just in the mind.  According to David Wilde, the researcher running the project, said, "There are several theories as to why people have OBEs. A common link between them is the idea that in certain circumstances the brain somehow loses touch with sensory information coming in from the body. This triggers a series of psychological mechanisms which can lead to someone having an OBE.

   So does this mean that my friend has just been suffering from some sort of neurological dysfunction all these years?  How then, can it be explained, that she sometimes knew events which happened while she was supposedly asleep?  How was it possible that she saw things, or heard conversations which were happening elsewhere in the house?  I don't think that you can explain such occurrences in a wholly scientific way.  Or if it can be explained, I don't think it would be as simple as the brain just losing touch with reality.