An out of body experience that happens on a regular basis is what prompted research for an University of Ottawa professor.

Claude Messier, of the Faculty of Psychology took the opportunity to look into brain activity and corporal image when people have out of body experiences.

His research was recently published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

After a lecture, a student came forward saying she has had those moments since she was a little girl.

“She can control the beginning and the end,” said Messier of the then 24-year-old student who prefers to keep her anonymity.

Messier said thwe woman said there was a variety of experiences.

Sometimes it felt like her body is spinning like a propeller, or like she’s caught in the ocean’s waves. She also experienced the classic sci-fi floating over her own body.

“She finds them unpleasant,” Messier told the Sun.

Out of body experiences come down to corporal image, which is when the body’s surrounding consistently match what the brain detects through touch, smell, sight and sound, according to Messier.

He discovered that the brain activity when a person has these experiences acts as if the person is actually moving.

Messier gave the example of when a person is asked to move his or her arm while in an MRI, the brain areas affected show stimulation.

“Areas of the brain get activated depending on the movement,” he said.

In the case of the student in his research, no movements are made, but the brain is depicting the same stimulation.

Messier said he was skeptical at first.

But after a first MRI with the young lady, he saw peculiar things in her brain, which is otherwise normal, he said.

“It seems to be a real experience for her,” said Messier.

— Ottawa Sun