Belief in Exceptional experience Psychic healing and Psychic mediumship

Learning objectives Define ‘exceptional experience’ Define ‘psychic healing’ Describe the process of psychic healing Examine the effect of belief on the working of psychic healing Evaluate research and draw conclusions on research into belief in psychic healing

Exceptional experience Psychic, mystical, encounter type experiences, death related experiences and creative inspiration experiences etc.

Psychic healing Faith healing Paranormal healing Mental healing

Administered by The laying on of hands Distant healing

Research into psychic healing Krieger (2000) Took blood samples from patients before and after a healing session Observed any changes in haemoglobin levels The healer placed one or both hands on the patient and went into a state of visualisation where he or she saw positive energy around the patient’s body. Patients who were treated by the healer had higher haemoglobin levels and generally felt better than those in the control group. Long-lasting effects – a year later still showing a difference.

Keller and Bzdek 1986 Explored TT (therapeutic touch) on tension headache pain. 60 participants (aged 18 – 59) They all suffered tension headaches ( a dull, persistent head pain, usually bilateral, with feelings of heaviness, pressure or tightness with no known medical cause. They had not taken medication in the previous 4 hours.

Method Randomly assigned to TT or control group. They were not aware which group they were in.

Findings Following the procedure, 90% of the participants in the TT group reported lower levels of headache pain. A statistical analysis of the results found them to be at a very high level of significance (P<0.0001) The probability of chance = 1 in 10,000

Evaluation of method + Definition of tension headache ensured consistency Expectancy effects ruled out due to the single blind technique - Subjective Sample size not large Volunteer sample Psychosomatic effect (placebo effect)

Wirth 1990 Patients with wounds were treated with TT (therapeutic touch) Or no treatment This was a single blind study (the participants didn’t know which condition they were in as they had their eyes shut and didn’t know if they had TT or not) Patients who had TT healed faster

Wirth’s ‘miracle study’ Looked at the effect of prayer on infertile women. Twice as many women who were prayed for by Christian strangers became pregnant compared with those who had no one praying for them.

Comment on Wirth He failed to replicate his own research on wound healing. People who wanted to discuss the research with him later were unable to get in contact with him. Wirth was later convicted of criminal fraud, given a 5 year prison sentence.

Lyvers et al 2006 Found no evidence of healing, but Found evidence that believers were more likely to think they had received healing benefits. Look up this study in the box REALITY OR BELIEF? On page 268.

Rosa et al. 1998 TT practitioners on one side of a screen tried to detect the hands of another person about 4 inches above one of their hands (through a hole in the screen). They were correct 44% of the time which was not even as good as chance which would be 50%.

Criticisms of Rosa’s study The experimenter was not ill, which might have affected the ‘aura’. When repeated with ordinary people rather that TT practitioners there were better results, but The hands were only 3 inches away instead of 4 which may have made them more detectable (by heat). When a subsequent study eliminated the possibility of body heat, results were at the chance level.

So, why do people believe? Because sometimes it is successful. discuss. Targ 1998 suggests that belief in psychic healing is a partly logical explanation for its effectiveness because: 1 the healer’s presence helps relaxation 2 connection with the healer activates the endocrine system 3 ESP; in the form of psychokinesis, directly interacting with the patient’s body.

Mediumship – Learning objectives Define what psychic mediumship is Describe the process of psychic mediumship and the influence of belief describe research examining belief and psychic mediumship Evaluate research investigating the powers of psychic mediumship.

Psychic mediums Claim to be able to communicate with people in the afterlife or spirit world

In support of mediumship Schwartz et al. 2000 The accuracy of statements made by mediums was judged at 83% and 77% by two sitters. When the same statements were given to other participants only 36% were judged to be accurate. This suggests that the statements were specifically meant for the two sitters.

Methodological problems The sitters were women over 40 who had experienced bereavements. The comparison was made with students. The statements were unlikely to fit.

Cold reading The cold reader starts with general statements (the Barnum effect) ‘I see a recent loss of life’ and then There are many clues to help a talented medium pick up information The sitter’s tone of voice replies to previous questions responses

O’Keefe and Wiseman 2005 5 mediums and 5 sitters Each sitter read all of the 25 readings produced and rated them for personal relevance Ratings were lowest for statements that specifically applied to them. What does this suggest?

Why do people believe? The Barnum effect (general statements) And elaboration by the sitters help the medium to appear to have special powers. Many sitters are aware of this but still believe they have powers (those who have deceived themselves are good at deceiving others.

Key points Film and TV coverage and storylines have a strong influence on what we think is involved in psychic mediumship.

Key point 2 Like most areas of anomalistic psychology, psychic mediumship is difficult to study scientifically, especially the effect that belief on those that are influenced by the medium’s comments.

Key point 3 Psychic mediumship comes in many forms, but belief is central to them all.

Key point 4 Research has shown that with experienced psychic mediums the accuracy rate is high. However, even the most controlled studies cannot rule out other variables including cheating.

Key point 5 One explanation for the apparent ability of psychic mediums is cold reading. Evidence that we have about cold reading suggests that the sitter’s belief has a stronger effect than anything else.