Psi and Psychedelics - Paranthropology - Weebly

PARANTHROPOLOGY: JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE PARANORMAL VOL. 2 NO. 2
OUT-OF-BODY-EXPERIENCE,
THE DENTIST AND NITROUS OXIDE
Mark A. Schroll
The out-of-the-body experience or OBE
“is the experience where
the subject perceives himself as
experientially located at some other
location than where he knows his
physical body to be. In addition, he
generally feels that he's in his ordinary
state of consciousness, so that the
concepts of space, time, and location
make sense to him. Further, there is
a feeling of no contact with the physical
body, a feeling of being partially
or (more usually) totally disconnected
from it” (Tart: 196, 2009).
Introduction
Before I begin to describe my out-ofbody
experience on nitrous oxide, and to
further legitimate or edify nitrous oxide
as a means to illuminate transpersonal
experiences, it is for many of us old news
to point out that William James' views in
The Varieties of Religious Experience
(1958, originally published in 1902) were
influenced by his experimentation with
nitrous oxide (James, 1882/1969); (a
colorless gas known for its slightly sweet
odor and taste), resulting in the erasure of
t h e u s u a l b o u n d a r y o f w a k i n g
consciousness separating us from
transpersonal experience(s), and his
revelation: ”There are no differences, but
differences of degree between different
d e g r e e s o f d i f f e r e n c e a n d n o
difference” (James, 1882/1969). “The
Varieties was written for his Gifford
Lectures delivered in Edinburgh in
1901-1902” (Miller & Buckhout: 90,
1973). Adam Gifford, after which this
lecture series was named, had an interest
in studies that he referred to as natural
theology. In The Varieties James
famously stated:
Our normal waking consciousness,
rational consciousness as we call it, is but
one special type of consciousness, whilst
all about it, parted from it by the filmiest
of screens, there lie potential forms of
c o n s c i o u s n e s s e n t i r e l y
different” (1902/1929: 378).
But enough now of this gilding of the lily,
as we turn to a discussion of my
experience.
Out of Body Experience, the Dentist
and Nitrous Oxide
In 1970 (at age 12) I went to the dentist to
have some back wisdom teeth removed. I
was afraid of the pain, and while the
dentist and his nurse were out of the
room, I turned up the gain on the Nitrous
Oxide, and had an experience of astral
projection or the projection of my
consciousness into another room. It is
important to point out that unlike the
experience many of us have had filling
balloons with nitrous oxide and holding it
in a few seconds (which produces a slight
experience of light-headedness), the
apparatus used by dentists mixes oxygen
and nitrous oxide for prolonged exposure
to its anesthetizing effects. To prevent
any major shifts in consciousness (while
maximizing the anesthesia) is why the
gain of the gas is kept low. I knew none
of this at the time of my experience, nor
was I at all familiar with the literature of
out-of-body experience's except for my
reading of the Marvel Comics adventures
of Dr. Strange (the master of the mystic
arts). But none of this was on my mind
40 PARANTHROPOLOGY: JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE PARANORMAL