their own body from a distance of about two metres (see opposite). From this perspective, they then saw the virtual body being stroked with a paintbrush, again either synchronously or asynchronously with strokes applied to their own (real) body. When the stroking was synchronous, most participants reported that they felt the virtual body was, to some extent, their ‘own’ body, and when asked to walk to where they felt their body was, they showed a drift in space towards the location of the virtual body. In the same way that the rubber hand illusion hints at a moment-to-moment flexibility of
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