Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Use of a Psychophysiological Script-driven Imagery Experiment to Study Trauma-related Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder
Published on: March 8, 2018
Dissociative alterations in body image among individuals reporting out-of-body experiences: a conceptual replication
1Division of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine, 85 East Newton St., Suite M918E, Boston, MA 02118, USA. devin.terhune@gmail.com
Abstract:
A conceptual replication of the link between self-reported dissociative alterations in body-image under experimental conditions and the reporting of prior out-of-body experiences in a recent data set was undertaken. Also examined was whether this relationship would hold for experiences reported during the experimental context and whether it is independent of self-reported New Age belief. Data from mostly undergraduates (N= 40; M age = 33.5, SD = 12.5; 27 women) in a mirror-gazing study were retrospectively analyzed. The 9 individuals who reported prior out-of-body experiences, relative to those 31 who did not, exhibited significantly greater self-reported dissociative alterations in body-image during the mirror-gazing task, even when the influence of scores on New Age belief was controlled for statistically. The same differential relationship was not found between 6 individuals who did and 34 who did not report out-of-body experiences during the task.
Related Concept Videos
Dissociative Identity Disorder
Dissociative Disorders
Dissociative Fugue
A hallmark feature of dissociative disorders is the dissociative fugue...
Self-Discrepancy and Its Effects
Dissociative Amnesia
Self-Discrepancy Theory
Deindividuation

