A.  [This is a section of Jouni Smed' alt.out-of-body FAQ]

Out-of-the-body  experiences  (OBEs) are   those  curious, and usually
brief, experiences in which person seems to himself  to leave his body
and to observe the world from a point of view other than that which he
would have  were he still 'in' his  body. In some cases the experients
claim that  they 'saw' and  'heard' things (objects  which were really
there, events  and conversations which  really took place) which could
not have seen or heard from the actual positions of their bodies.

OBEs are surprisingly common; different surveys have yielded some what
different results, but all  in all one would  not be too far wrong  if
one said that somewhere  between one person  in ten and one person  in
twenty is  likely   to have  had such an   experience  at  least once.
Furthermore it seems   that OBEs can  occur  to anyone  in  almost any
circumstances.  They    are  most   frequent    during   sleep, during
unconsciousness following anesthesia or a bang on the head, and during
stress. Not all OBEs occur spontaneously. Some people have, by various
techniques, cultivated  the faculty of inducing  them more or  less as
desired,  and   number  have   written   detailed accounts  of   their
experiences. These accounts do not always in  all respects square with
accounts given by persons who have undergone spontaneous OBEs.

OBEs, especially spontaneous ones, are  often very vivid, and resemble
everyday, waking  experiences rather than dreams,  and they may make a
considerable impression on those  who undergo  them. Such persons  may
find it hard to believe that they did not in  fact leave their bodies,
and may draw the conclusion that we possess  a separable soul, perhaps
linked  to  a second  body, which  will  survive  in  a state  of full
consciousness,  perhaps  even    of enhanced    consciousness,   after
death. Death would be, as it were, an OBE in which one did not succeed
in getting back into one's body.

Such conclusions present themselves even  more forcefully to the minds
of those who have undergone the variety of  OBE known as a 'near-death
experience' or NDE. It  is not uncommon  for persons who have  been to
the brink of death and returned -- following, say, a heart stoppage or
serious injuries from an accident -- to report an experience (commonly
of a  great vividness and impressiveness) as  of leaving their bodies,
and traveling (often in a duplicate  body) to the  border of a new and
wonderful  realm. Reports suggest  that the conscious self's awareness
outside the body  is not only  unimpaired  but enhanced: events  which
occurred  during    the period of     unconsciousness are described in
accurate detail and confirmed by those present.