Tested, target never read

Astral projection

Astral projection is the claimed ability of leaving the body and perceiving from outside it. It has been tested — Charles Tart, 1968, and the AWARE studies of Parnia and colleagues, 2014. Tart's subject reported the number correctly on one night, under conditions later criticised as leaky. In AWARE, of 2,060 cases, 140 survivors were interviewed, 9 reported an out-of-body experience — and not one target was reported by anyone.

The experiment

Charles Tart, 1968, and the AWARE studies of Parnia and colleagues, 2014

How it was run A number or image is placed where it can only be seen from above. If the person is really looking down from the ceiling, they can read it.
Sample Tart: a single subject over four nights. AWARE: 2,060 cardiac arrests across 15 hospitals, with visual targets installed on high shelves
Result Tart's subject reported the number correctly on one night, under conditions later criticised as leaky. In AWARE, of 2,060 cases, 140 survivors were interviewed, 9 reported an out-of-body experience — and not one target was reported by anyone.

The out-of-body experience itself is entirely real as an experience and can be induced reliably by stimulating the temporoparietal junction. What has not happened is anyone reading the card on the shelf.

Claim Leaving the body and perceiving from outside it
Word from Greek astron "star" — the "astral body" of nineteenth-century Theosophy
Status Tested, target never read
Searched 8,100/mo

Where the word comes from

The term comes from Theosophy in the 1880s; the experience itself is far older and universal.

Terms in this field are younger than they sound. Most were coined between 1840 and 1930, in the Spiritualist and Theosophical revivals, and then presented as ancient. Dating them is the cheapest reality check available.

The other 10

Mediumship Clairvoyance Telepathy Precognition Clairsentience Clairaudience Psychometry Psychic empathy Psychic healing Aura reading

All eleven, with what was tested →