Authors: Rosemary Breen
True Ghost Stories: Real Accounts of Death and Dying, Grief and Bereavement, Soulmates and Heaven, Near Death Experiences, and Other Paranormal Mysteries (The Supernatural Book Series: Volume 3) (8 page)
3.2 The Nature of Parapsychological Phenomena
The most extensively researched aspect of psi is paranormal beliefs and repeatedly, academic surveys conclude that people believe in parapsychological phenomena. The list of studies that explore the correlations between the paranormal and personal qualities is extensive and includes: personality traits, proneness to mental illness, political convictions, child abuse, religious beliefs, income level, education levels, and the demographics of age and gender. While no enduring link or causation between these correlates and parapsychological beliefs is known, given the volume of research involved it seems reasonable to conclude firstly, that people do believe in the paranormal and secondly, that researching paranormal beliefs is academically acceptable (Allen, 1994; Banzinger, 1983; Emmons, 1981; Grimmer 1990, 1992; Karr, 2001; Linderman, 2007; Lyons, 2005; Newport, 2001; Rice, 2003).
Central to the research on the nature of parapsychological phenomena is the issue of consciousness, and while this is not the main theme of the current study, the findings of this investigation will ideally make a contribution to this underdeveloped field of study.
As Radin (1997) notes, “after a hundred years, psychology has not produced even the crudest model of how processes in the brain are transformed into conscious experience” (p.211). To advance the discussion on the relationship between psi and consciousness Radin (1997) hypothesises that consciousness is a manifestation of psi which extends beyond the physical body. Further, he contends that psi is capable of injecting order into physical systems and is created by persons acting alone or in groups. There is a small group of scientists which foresees a time when the scientific community will be forced to take paranormal phenomena seriously and then, “our ideas about minds and brains, about animal nature and human nature, and about space and time” will be revolutionised (Sheldrake, 2003, p.2).
In Greaves (2004), the author documents her own telepathic communications with a deceased friend and, according to Piechowski, such accounts are evidence that the boundaries of consciousness extend beyond the current lifetime, thereby suggesting that “extraordinary abilities and talents are developed, in part, between lives” (Piechowski, 2001a, p.10). On the reasons why not all individuals are conscious of the realms beyond the physical world, some researchers suggest that while the paranormal may be open to all, awareness of it may be triggered in only a few (Piechowski, 2001b; Radin, 1997).
Interest in the paranormal is extensive (Sheldrake, 2003) and while it is the parapsycholological studies which show the most sustained lines of enquiry, to encompass the rich diversity of insights that come from the many disparate paths of enquiry, the current study adopts a multidisciplinary approach to the literature. While this “cross-disciplinary complexity” (MacDonald, 2000) broadens the context of the
current research it also exposes the problem of definition in an area of discourse that is “difficult to specify” (Hay & Morisy, 1978).
Interestingly, some researchers question whether definitions and labels are required. They can be limiting, as the following example illustrates. Originally, the author Tart attempted to title his anthology of paranormal works Spiritual Psychologies. However, his publishers informed him that the title was regarded as too controversial for one of the highly influential American psychology book clubs, which refused to promote the publication under that moniker. Market forces prevailed and the work was published under the title Transpersonal Psychologies.
As Tart (2002) muses “the word transpersonal was so new then that most psychologists had no idea what it meant, but it sounded positive and academic. I stopped waving the red flag of the word spiritual, in front of the bull of established prejudices” (p.37). In the current context, this anecdote is enlightening and pertinent, and supports the tenet that the lines of division between religious, spiritual, anthropological, philosophical, and parapsychological definitions and research are blurred, even arbitrary.
A multidisciplinary review of the literature on the paranormal and psi phenomena produces a plethora of synonyms including spirituality, self-actualization, mysticism, peak experiences, psychic phenomenon, Christianity, relational consciousness, revelations, transpersonal experiences, moral development, existentialism, religious experiences, grace, ecstatic states, spiritual consciousness, mystical experiences, spiritual concerns, overexcitabilities, religious trances, parapsychological experiences, enlightenment, transcendental experiences, cosmic consciousness, spiritual sensitivity, miracles, spiritual self-awareness, metaphysical, and faith. Thus, there are as many words for the paranormal as there are aspects to it and, according to Lovecky (1998):
the sparseness of literature on spiritual development may be due, in part, to difficulties of definition. For one thing, the same examples that exemplify the highest states of moral development are also used to define the highest stages of spiritual development. Discussions of spirituality also may range from discussions about religion to discussions about self-actualization (p.4).
To resolve this dilemma, the current study embraces the multidisciplinary nature of the paranormal and includes experiences that either violate scientific laws or are scientifically inexplicable (Karolyi, 2003) and are the result of “interactions between consciousness and the physical world” (Radin, 1007). Specifically, these phenomena…
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Thank You
Thank you for reading this book and allowing me to share with you some of the experiences and insights that people, perhaps just like yourself, have encountered as they go about their everyday life. Proceeds from the sale of this series of books are used to maintain the online paranormal survey.
As you can see from the accounts you have just read, the paranormal doesn’t just exist in old cemeteries, abandoned apartments and medieval churches (though, these do make excellent backdrops for scary tales). For many people, the paranormal has become a way of life for them. Some have lives that are enriched by ghosts, poltergeist activity and other types of paranormal phenomena and they genuinely embrace their experiences. Others are literally haunted by experiences that they alone encounter and, for them life seems to be much harder.
Thus, good or bad, real or imagined the paranormal is a way of life for many. And, what about you?
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Rosemary
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