
Dave - you might like to read a book by Florence Bulle "God
Wants You Rich & Other Enticing Doctrines", which discusses
OOBEs in one of her chapters.

In the Bible we have examples of men caught up in the Spirit (eg
Ezekiel, Paul). I believe that also this experience is
counterfeited by Satan - so that for example yoga and other
eastern medatitive techniques can be used to induce the soul to
leave the body and float off. Someone tried to sell me a book in
Los Angeles airport entitled "Easy Journeys to Other Planets"
which uses such techniques.

The occultic trance of a medium sometimes involves such body
departure - the book "The Challanging Counterfeit", about a
former medium who gets saved, tells how the author, on his last
trance, was attacked by evil spirits who tried to kill him
while returning to his body at the end of the seance
because of his interest in Christianity and how he was supernaturally
protected by the Lord.

There may be some similarities in mind-altering drugs and the
phenomena of 'tripping'.

As regards the connection between body and soul, there is an
interesting verse in Ecclesiastes. In a passage talking about
old age, the preacher writes "Then man goes to his eternal home
and mourners go about the streets. Remember Him--before the
silver cord is severed." (12.5-6) My understanding of this
silver cord is that it is something that attaches body and soul
in a manner somewhat similar to an umbilical cord or an
astronaut's air-line to his spaceship.
When a person goes out of body this silver cord still attaches
the soul whereever it goes - and is vulnerable to being broken:
astral projection can be dangerous! Bulle, I think, reports a
case of a yogi off on an OOBE who was found dead in his
apartment, with no apparent external cause.