They are associated with paranormal phenomena, psychics, shamen, New Age nuttiness and the effects of strong hallucinogenic drugs.

Yet for one in 10 of the population, out-of-body experiences or OBEs, are real. That is the proportion of people who claim to have been parted, temporarily, from their bodies – or at least felt as if they have. In some cases, OBEs have been reported by people suffering from migraines or epilepsy.

Typically an OBE, which also goes under the name of astral projection, involves the sensation of floating away from your physical self and seeing your body from a distance.

It's not the kind of thing that would appear to have any connection with serious science. Yet two independent teams of scientists have just published studies showing how a close approximation to an OBE can be artificially produced in a laboratory.

In both cases, "virtual reality" techniques are used to create the illusion. By mixing up sensory signals, healthy participants not under the influence of any drugs could be tricked into experiencing the disquieting feeling that they had left their bodies.

The scientists might be accused of cheating to some extent. Both teams employed video cameras or computer graphics to fool the brain, which would not have a role to play in a real OBE. But the findings seem to suggest that disconnection between circuits in the brain, something grounded in reality and not in the least paranormal, may be responsible for these experiences.

One experiment at University College London involved fitting a volunteer with goggles linked to a pair of cameras showing a 3D view of his or her back.

A researcher standing out of sight prodded the participant's chest with a stick while at the same time moving another rod in front of the cameras, towards the apparent position of the image.

When this was done, volunteers experienced the sensation of sitting behind their physical body and looking at it from that location.