What is the difference between the psychiatric problem of seeing double and the out of body experience when the NDEr describes seeing themselves?
The psychiatric syndrome of autoscopy is the characteristic “doppelganger” of literature. In classical autoscopy, the person’s consciousness remains in his or her physical body, and the person sees a “double” of him- or herself, which usually imitates all the actions of the physical body. Most typically, the autoscopic “double” is hazy, colorless, and transparent, and only includes the face and shoulders, rather than the whole body. The “double” may move toward or away from the physical body, and the person having the autoscopic vision is usually quite sad. By contrast, in the NDE, the person’s consciousness is not in his or her physical body, but is rather in the “double.” The person sees his or her own physical body from the point of view of the “double,” and the physical body is usually motionless, while the person moves about in the double. The vision of the physical body appears as the whole body, and appears real and lifelike. Sadness is quite rare in NDEs. A special thanks to Dr
