What causes an out-of-body experience? Two women from Hong Kong on their life-changing episodes
Anita Moorjani’s tale of beating cancer after an out-of-body experience has got Hollywood interested. Rosalie e’Silva can have one almost any time she wants. Meanwhile, new research reveals the people most likely to have an OBE
On February 2, 2006, Anita Moorjani’s organs shut down and she slipped into a deep coma. Doctors at the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital in Happy Valley called her family to her bedside. It looked like her four-year battle with lymphoma – a cancer of the lymphatic system – was over.
“I was suffering from a lot of pain, a lot of fear,” said Moorjani this week from her home in Los Angeles. “The cancer had spread – I had tumours the size of golf balls in my breasts, in my skull. My lungs were filled with fluid, my hair had fallen out and I was hooked up to oxygen.”
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Then something happened that would change the course of her life. While in a 30-hour coma, Moorjani had an out-of-body experience (OBE) – a feeling of floating outside her body. OBEs have baffled and intrigued doctors in equal measure. Research says they can be triggered by a variety of situations including brain traumas, psychedelic drugs, dehydration, sensory deprivation and, as in Moorjani’s case, a near-death experience.
“I left my body and could hear and see all that was going on – I even saw my dead father. My physical eyes were closed but I had clarity like never before. I understood why I had cancer and I knew it was not just a physical disease but an emotional one. I knew I had to return to my body, I knew I would heal.”
Moorjani also knew what the doctors and her family members were discussing while she was in her coma – even conversations that took place outside her room. “This freaked out everyone,” she said. She also knew which doctor and nurse had performed what procedures.