I am not surprised. I may be speaking from ignorance but this seems to be at the center of a lot of spiritual experience. In south India, during village festivals (which are closer to folk religion rather than mainstream Hinduism) there is an event where devotees play music to encourage Goddess descend on an individual and the person eventually acts as if that Goddess has descended and he or she is possessed by the spirits. Sometimes more than one person would act in this way. I never believed this to be real, I thought that the individuals were obviously faking it.

Once I got a chance to visit an interior south Indian village and experience this firsthand. Having been there, I don't think all of it is intentional faking. The whole atmosphere, the music with its drum rhythms (Udukkai) and a raising crescendo are all designed to put a person into a sort of reverential trance. Even for me, it was a feeling unlike anything I experienced before. It is quite possible that brought up on that folklore and more sensitive to such triggers would experience an extra-corporeal sensation (like the one described in the article) and attribute it to divine presence. And at the culmination of event, when goddess is said to leave the body, the possessed person often faints after an epileptic fit. This was also mentioned in the report. To me, this is neurological programming perfected over generations... but to what avail I don't know.