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The study population is highly representative of the general population at large; separate research, for the Profile of Adaptation to Life Scale, compared a number of different populations, including college students, Transcendental Meditators, professionals, and psychiatric patients to arrive at norms for the test. It was found that our OBE group was the “norm” group, representing a broad range of educational age and geographic characteristics as well as having a good psychological and physical adjustment.27 The 280 nonrespondents to the questionnaire cast some doubt on how generalizable our data is even to the OBE population. However, about 100 of the questionnaires were undeliverable and there was a one-year unavoidable time delay between the published interview and the mailing of the questionnaires. As one reviews our results as an attempt to delineate the phenomenology of the OBE, this study adds a number of major features to the understanding of the experience An old theosophical tract34 used the concept of “thought form “In the general case the OBE is a typical “thought form,” the question really being. What form does this thinking take? We have elected not to address the issue of whether mind really separates from the physical body, but our research has raised in our minds fundamental questions about the nature of what is “really real.” In addition to the sense of separation of mind from body, what becomes apparent from the survey is that total mind, perhaps best referred to as “sense of whole self,” is separated. There is visually no self-awareness in the body. The whole self, including observing and experiencing ego functions, is located at a point in perceptual space other than the brain, with the physical body being seen as inert and “thoughtless.” There is no clouding of consciousness as is reported in hypnogogic, hypnopompic, and dream, including lucid dream states; in fact, consciousness is felt to be quite clear. A most striking finding reported by subjects is the absolute certainty that they were not dreaming, whether or not the experience occurred when quite aroused; for example, when in severe pain or, as in the majority of cases, in a resting state. Those who are fearful, frightened, or in pain when they have this experience tend to have a much more negative reaction to it and, as might be expected, utilize it for much less extensive attitudinal change, and the experience remains less vivid in the memory. Future studies will further differentiate the latter group, which might be experiences of depersonalization. Far from being primarily attributes of illness, painful or toxic states, the majority of these experiences occur often when the person is least