Healthy schizotypy: the case of out-of-the-body experiences

The present study tested the hypothesis that a group of normal subjects reporting at least one hallucinatory experience (an ‘out-of-the-body’ experience or OBE) could score highly on one of the factors of schizotypy without scoring highly on the rest. A total of 684 subjects were recruited, of whom 450 reported at least one OBE and 234 did not. They completed the Combined Schizotypal Traits Questionnaire of Bentall, Claridge, and Slade [Bentall, R. P., Claridge, G., & Slade, P. D. (1989). The multi-dimensional nature of schizotypal traits: a factor analytic study with normal subjects. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 28, 363–375]. A number of discriminant analyses were carried out to compare different sub-groups of the OBErs with suitable controls, using the factor scores on four factors as predictors of group membership (OBErs versus non-OBErs). It was found that OBErs scored significantly higher than non-OBErs only on the first of the four factors, aberrant perceptions and beliefs, but not on the other three: cognitive disorganisation with social anxiety, introvertive anhedonia, and asocial schizotypy. The results are interpreted as supporting the idea of ‘healthy schizotypes’ who are functional in spite of, and even in part because of, their anomalous perceptual and other experiences. It is argued that this idea fits best with a fully dimensional model of schizotypy, independent of, although causally related to, the disease process of schizophrenia itself.