Out of body experiences explained (sorta)

In any case, The March 6 issue of the journal Neurology has an article in it entitled, Out-of-body experience and arousal. where they found

that some people's brains already may be predisposed to these sorts of experiences. They found that an out-of-body experience is statistically as likely to occur during a near death experience as it is to occur during the transition between wakefulness and sleep. Nelson suggests that phenomena in the brain's arousal system, which regulates different states of consciousness including REM sleep and wakefulness, may be the cause for these types of out-of-body displays.

Of course this research was done by surveying people who had out of body experiences, so who really knows.

Here's a more in depth article