Autoscopy (psychological effect): when we perceive ourselves "from the outside".

A curious psychological phenomenon of which today we will explain its possible causes.

The brain remains one of the most enigmatic organs, if not the most, of the entire human body.. Despite knowing practically all the tasks it performs, from enabling us to carry out the physical processes for the activity of our body to all the intellectual and psychological processes, the brain still harbors many mysteries as to how it functions in itself.

Autoscopy belongs to that category of phenomena in which the brain "lies" to the person.. Specifically, by making the person perceive him/herself from the outside, as if he/she were another person, seeing and feeling outside his/her own body.

What is Autoscopy? Definition and characteristics

Autoscopy or autoscopic phenomenon as such consists of a subjective mental experience.. Specifically, it refers to a series of sensory experiences in which the person has the sensation of seeing his or her own body from an out-of-body perspective.

That is, the subject sees himself as if he were looking in a mirror, while believing he is awake.

Characteristics of autoscopic phenomena

In order for an autoscopy to be classified as such, these three factors must be present:

• DisembodimentTo experience the exit of one's own body.
• Impression of seeing the world and from another perspective, but with an egocentric visual-spatial point of view.
• To see one's own body from this perspective.

There is an experience, catalogued as an autoscopic phenomenon that has become quite famous thanks to literature as well as cinema and television. the person reports having left his or her body and observing it from above..

But there are several types of autoscopies that are classified in different ways, depending on the person's awareness of his own body. We explain them below.

Types of autoscopies

Four types of autoscopic experiences are known according to what the person perceives. They are the following.

1. Autoscopic hallucination

In this type of hallucination, the person can see a double of him/herself but without identifying him/herself with him/herself.. That is to say, during this experience the person does not perceive that his/her consciousness has left his/her body, but rather perceives it as a double, as if it were another independent person. It is even possible that he/she may perceive it as another version of the person himself/herself; which may vary from being younger, older or with some specific different facial feature.

2. Out-of-body experience (OBE)

In the out-of-body or extracorporeal experience, the subject has the sensation of floating projected on the outside of his or her body.. During this experience the person feels that he/she is outside where he/she should be, that his/her "I" is outside his/her own body.

Unlike the autoscopic hallucination, in the out-of-body experience the person does identify the body he is seeing as his own.

A very characteristic feature of this experience, and reported in the same way in all those who have experienced this experience, is that they observe themselves from a higher perspective, as if they were standing on their own body.

This phenomenon is closely associated with different types of meditation and near-death experiences.

3. Heautoscopy

Heautoscopies are phenomena in which the person experiences a form of hallucination intermediate between autoscopy and near-death experience. between autoscopy and out-of-body experience. The subject can perceive a double of his or her own but is not able to discover which body to identify with, he or she does not know in which body exactly he or she is.

People who have experienced this phenomenon report feeling that they own both bodies and neither at the same time.

4. Sensation of presence

There is much debate as to whether or not this type of experience should be categorized as autoscopic.. However, among the four types of phenomena, this may be the most common or the one that has been experienced the most among the population.

In the sensation of presence, people do not see a double of their body, but perceive the physical presence of another person very close to them.

Symptoms perceived by the affected person

Experiencing one of these events is very complex, since numerous systems, perceptions and sensations are involved.

The fact of experiencing an autoscopic experience with all its intensity requires much more than simply seeing something that the person knows is not real. In addition to the visual hallucination as such, other auditory and even tactile sensory variables must be present.

Likewise, during the autoscopy phenomenon, the hallucinations described above are accompanied by hallucinations of the vestibular system. This is the system that, together with other proprioceptive systems, informs us about the position of our body, informs us about the position of our body in space.. In these experiences, this system seems to deceive the person; making him/her feel in another place or position that does not correspond to the real one.

Finally, together with all these phenomena, there may appear a strong sensation that the consciousness is in another place, as if it had moved to another place.

Causes and associated disorders

The fact of experiencing such a curious mirage as autoscopy does not necessarily mean that there is an associated psychopathology. These hallucinations can appear without warning for several reasons:

• Lack of sleep
• Illnesses with very high fever
• Neurological lesions
• Substance abuse
• Transient imbalance of body chemistry.

The study of these autoscopic phenomena suggests that there is something flexible in how the brain perceives our bodily being, hence it is capable of modifying it.

As far as the neurobiological origin of this kind of experience is concerned, the type of experience indicates that sensory association areas are involved. These theories are based on the fact that autoscopy is a rich, complete and convincing experience; that is to say, it would consist of an altered perception derived from different sensory systems.

To be more specific, there are certain more specific areas of the brain such as the temporoparietal junction which supports the processes of the vestibular system and multisensory information. In addition, it also participates in the limbic system information and thalamic connections, so everything points to the fact that it is an essential area for an altered gait to lead to this kind of phenomena.

Associated disorders: negative autoscopy

There is knowledge of a related psychiatric disorder known as negative autoscopy or negative heautoscopy.. This is a psychological manifestation in which the patient fails to see his or her reflection when looking in a mirror.

In these cases, although the people around him/her can see the image, and even point it out to him/her, the person claims not to see anything.