Can your consciousness leave your body? Bizarre study reveals how some people can perfectly visualise what is happening behind closed doors

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 10:13 EDT, 14 September 2026 | Updated: 10:13 EDT, 14 September 2026 A study testing out–of–body experiences produced an unexpected twist that could 'rewrite our understanding of consciousness'. Researchers from the University of Virginia Health System enlisted 21 participants, who were asked to identify a random object on a laptop screen in another room. While the participants failed to identify the object, something strange happened. Two of the participants described the researchers' locations and activities in perfect detail – despite them behind being closed doors. 'I hope these findings encourage us to think more deeply about what they might mean for our understanding of consciousness and, ultimately, the nature of reality,' said lead author, Dr Marina Weiler.'If studies demonstrate that people can obtain accurate information that they could not have accessed through their ordinary senses, we would have to reconsider some of our assumptions about the relationship between consciousness, perception and the physical world.' A study testing out–of–body experiences produced an unexpected twist that could 'rewrite our understanding of consciousness' (stock image) For the study, the team set out to understand if people can identify objects behind closed doors. Twenty–one participants were asked what object they thought was on a laptop screen in another room.While 10 reported having an out–of–body experience, and 13 named objects, none of them got it right. However, in an unexpected twist, two of the participants perfectly described the people in the other room. One participant described how a researcher in another room had been seated on the left looking at a laptop screen while another researcher was farther back reading a book. Another participant described how a researcher had been seated on the right, taking notes, while a second was sitting on the left at the computer. Amazingly, trial records confirmed that both descriptions were correct at the time of the participants' sessions. What's more, there was no way the participants could have seen the researchers.According to the experts, this suggests some people might have something called 'out–of–body remote viewing'. Dr Weiler added: 'The unexpected findings give us a potentially useful new direction, but they also need to be tested prospectively and under rigorous conditions before we can know what they mean.'For me, the most important takeaway is that unexpected findings can sometimes help us ask better questions. 'We now have a specific idea that can be tested in future experiments, and that is exactly what science should do.'WHAT DOES DYING FEEL LIKE?Scientists reported in October 2017 that they had discovered a person's consciousness continues to work after the body has stopped showing signs of life.That means they may be aware of their own death and there is evidence to suggest someone who has died may even hear their own death being announced by medics.A team from New York University Langone School of Medicine investigated the topic through twin studies in Europe and the US of people who have suffered cardiac arrest and 'come back' to life, in the largest study of its kind.Study author Dr Sam Parnia told Live Science: 'They'll describe watching doctors and nurses working and they'll describe having awareness of full conversations, of visual things that were going on, that would otherwise not be known to them.'He said these recollections were then verified by medical and nursing staff who reported their patients, who were technically dead, could remember details of what they were saying.Doctors define death based on when the heart no longer beats, which then immediately cuts off blood supply to the brain.Once that happens, blood no longer circulates to the brain, which means brain function halts almost instantaneously.You lose all your brain stem reflexes, including your gag reflex and your pupil reflex.The brain's cerebral cortex, which is responsible for thinking and processing information from the five senses, also instantly flatlines.This means that within two to 20 seconds, no brainwaves will be detected on an electric monitor.This sparks a chain reaction of cellular processes that will result in the death of brain cells. However this can take hours after the heart has stopped, researchers said.