Subproject B05

Embodiment Outside the Body? Out-of-Body Experiences in a Cognitive and Social Science Perspective

The research project will focus on metaphors that occur in descriptions of out-of-body experiences. These will be taken out of textual sources from different cultures of antiquity, namely from the ancient Near East, Persia, Greece, Rome, India, China, and the Hebrew Bible. The project aims to bring into conversation the CRC’s communicative approach with cognitive approaches, which are relevant both in general metaphor studies and in the study of religion. Embodiment and metaphor form the core concepts, the theoretical scope and viability of which will be examined in a triangulation between cognitive and social science methods.