out-of-body experience (oobe), a sensation that the mind has separated temporarily from the body. The feeling tends to occur when the patient is asleep, in a trance, or unconscious as during surgery. The person visualizes his or her body as an impersonal observer might. In some cases the person visualizes objects or persons who are beyond the range of normal senses. Occasionally a patient near death learns after awakening that he or she has been declared clinically dead during the moments of the experience. See also near-death experience.
