Depersonalization

What are **depersonalization experiences, astral projection, and out-of-body experiences**? Explain how each impacts consciousness, and what causes these phenomena.

Individuals who experience depersonalization feel divorced from their own personal physicality by sensing their body sensations, feelings, emotions and behaviors as not belonging to the same person or identity. Often a person who has experienced depersonalization claims that life "feels like a movie" or things seem unreal or hazy. Also a recognition of self breaks down (hence the name). Depersonalization can result in very high anxiety levels, which further increases these perceptions.


 * Depersonalization** - is a mental condition where a subject feels independent or detached from their everyday or normal self. It is a feeling of watching oneself act, while having no control over a situation.


 * Astral Projection** - Commonly in the astral projection experience, the experiencer describes themselves as being in a domain which often has no parallel to any physical setting, although they say they can visit different times and/or physical settings. Environments may be populated or unpopulated, artificial, natural or completely abstract and from beatific to horrific. Some people can astral project naturally,however others are afraid to leave the physical body therefore they are not able to astral project.In astral projection you remain attached to your physical body by a silver "umbilical type" cord, which some people see the cord and others do not.

An **out-of-body experience** (**OBE** or sometimes **OOBE**), is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body.

The three are both similar yet different to each other. All three make you feel like your no longer physically in control and that your mind is literally, "Out there."

Chronic Depersonalization is a symptom of a Dissociative Disorder called Depersonalization Disorder. It is more often found in individuals who have expierienced severe trauma. Depersonalization is one of the most severe and important symptoms of Dissociative disorders such as Dissociative Identity Disorder and Dissociative Amnesia. This symptom also occours with Panic Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder.

Unlike dreaming or near death experiances, astral projection may be practiced deliberately. Discriptions of such experiances are found in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife, with the soul's journey or "ascent" being described in such terms as "an out of boy experiance" where in the spirutal traveller leaves the physical body and travels in his or her subtle body into other realms. There is limited scientific evidence regarding the validity of astral projection. The belief that one has an out of body experiance, whether spoken of as "astral projection" or not, is common. 