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Inducing out-of-body experiences in hypnosis (H-OBEs) offers an almost unique opportunity to investigate them in a controlled condition.OBEs were induced as in imaginative task in a resting condition (I-OBE) or in hypnosis (H-OBE) in a group of fifteen high hypnotizable subjects. A 32-channel EEG was recorded and the spectral power and imaginary coherence of each frequency band and each couple of electrodes were calculated. At the end of each session, the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) was administered to check the phenomenological aspects of their experience.Significantly higher scores in the Altered State, Positive Affect, Altered Experience and Attention subdimensions of the PCI were reported in H-OBE than in I-OBE, which were associated with a significant decrease of power in beta and gamma band activity in right parieto-temporal derivations.Our results suggest that the H-OBE may offer a useful experimental model of spontaneous OBEs.

In the last years, the Laboratory of Experimental Hypnosis of the University of Padova and of the Institute Franco Granone of Torino, also in collaboration with the Foundation Hospital San Camillo in Venice, studied the effectiveness and the mechanisms of hypnotic analgesia in non-trigeminal an trigeminal pain. In this paper, the results of our work are summarized, starting from what was already known on the topic and exploring experimentally many different aspects of hypnotic analgesia. All the studies described in the present paper were conducted following scientific protocols and using the methods and means of Galilean science, employing in particular many instruments pertaining to human physiology and belonging to cardiology and neurology. This leads to the demonstration that hypnotic analgesia is an objective, real and measurable phenomenon.