A few months ago, I went to Sweden, had an out-of-body experience and got stabbed with a knife. Sort of. The freelance life is really working out…I was there to meet Henrik Ehrsson, a neuroscientist who specialises in illusions that distort people’s sense of self. I’ve written about his work before on this blog. He can convince you that you’ve swapped bodies with a mannequin, grown a third arm, left your body or shrunk to doll-size – all of which tells us some really interesting things about how the brain works.

It is not every day that you are separated from your body and then stabbed in the chest with a kitchen knife.But such experiences are routine in the lab