The Psychological Effects of Paranormal Phenomenon Presented By: Eric Moore

History of the Paranormal Paranormal – A general term that designates experiences that lie outside “the range of normal experience or scientific explanation” or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of sciences ability to explain or measure. Belief in the Paranormal has been around since the beginning of time. This belief is close to the concept of Animism. Animism is simply the belief in souls of the departed. Animism is present in almost all religions. It contributes souls to everything in nature including: Humans Animals Plants Rocks Et Cetera

Range of Paranormal Phenomena Can be categorized in 3 ways: Mental Range – The ability to obtain information in paranormal ways. Telepathy Extrasensory Perception Possession Out of Body or Near Death Experiences Physical Range – The ability to influence physical objects, events or processes, and living systems in a paranormal way. Healing Poltergeist Activity Levitation Psychokinesis

Range continued: Miscellaneous Range – Any phenomena that does not fall into either category. Miracles Alien Abductions Stigmata Psychological Phenomena (i.e. Lucid dreaming) Other mysterious sightings & events Many Parapsychologists do not accept some or all of the miscellaneous phenomena as a legitimate study of parapsychology.

Joseph Banks Rhine American Botanist September 29, 1895 – February 20, 1980

Joseph Banks Rhine Founded scientific research in Parapsychology - the study of paranormal psychic phenomena Founded the Parapsychology lab at Duke University Founded the Parapsychology Association Developed a test for Extrasensory Perception (clairvoyance and telepathy) using the Zener Card Method Method of guessing cards in order and suit Wrote Extrasensory Perception and Parapsychology: Frontier Science of the Mind

Zener Cards Tests for ESP

Extrasensory Perception The reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses but with the mind instead. The term was coined by J.B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities like telepathy and clairvoyance. It’s often referred to as the sixth sense. Is considered a pseudoscience because of the absence of an evidence base.

Ganzfield Experiment A "receiver" is placed in a room relaxing in a comfortable chair with halved Ping-Pong balls over the eyes, having a red light shone on them. Wears headphones playing white or pink noise (static). The receiver is in this state of mild sensory deprivation for half an hour. A "sender" observes a randomly chosen target and tries to mentally send this information to the receiver. The receiver speaks out loud during the thirty minutes, describing what he or she can see. Recorded by either taking notes or recording onto tape by the experimenter (who is blind to the target). The receiver is taken out of the relaxing state and given a set of possible targets, from which they must decide which one most resembled the images they witnessed.

What Part of the Brain? Parapsychologists tend to believe that the brain’s right hemisphere is most associated with psychic abilities. This is because tests for ESP are more visual and the right hemisphere is responsible for storing nonverbal information. This could also be because the right hemisphere is traditionally known as the “intuitive” side of the brain and the left hemisphere is known more as the “logical” side of the brain. While this is still theoretical, it all boils down to perception and how the brain perceives events or occurrences.

How is the Brain Affected by the Paranormal? Often times people, who are believed to have experienced the paranormal, express fear or anxiety. Fear causes the brain to identify possible threats triggering the alarm for the fight or flight response. Before we know it our heart is racing, we begin breathing shallow, and we’re sweating in case we have to defend ourselves or make a fast get away. The part of the peripheral nervous system called autonomic nervous system control these changes to our body. The experience of an "other worldly experience" is well-documented in the Neuroscientific literature. It tends to happen to people who are capable of vivid imagery and who are under some sort of stress. (anything from lack of oxygen and food to a recent bereavement.)

Psychological Theories of Perception Apparitional experiences have relevance to psychological theories of perception based on two different approaches. The Top-Down Theories of Richard Langton Gregory suggest that perception is a process where the brain makes a series of hypotheses about the external world, while stressing the importance of factors such as memory and expectation. ( What you’ve come to know will determine how you perceive the world.) The Bottom-Up approach as defined by James J. Gibson states that it’s all based on external sensory stimulus. ( What you’re exposed to in that moment is how you determine an outcome.)

A Link Between Paranormal Phenomena and the Brain Suggestions of paranormal occurrences is often linked to mental illnesses and brain disorders. Common side effects of mental illness is hearing or seeing things that are not “real”. People who experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorders sometimes also experience hallucinations or happenings that may be considered paranormal. Children often develop “imaginary friends” in times of stress, abandonment and instances of trauma.

It’s evident that someone’s brain with a mental disorder is different from someone’s brain that is considered normal.

Schizotypy Also known as psychosis-proneness. A dimension of personality common to the dimension of extraversion or neuroticism. This theorizes the belief that if people with no mental illness or brain disorder experience apparitional or hallucinatory happenings, they could be showing indications of latent or incipient psychosis. In the same aspect, this also theorizes that someone who is perceived as normal with a predisposition for mental illness might be more prone to anomalous perceptual experiences without ever entering full psychosis.

In Closing: While there is a portion of psychology dedicated to the Paranormal known as parapsychology, it is still ongoing research. The way one person reacts to certain events is always different from the reactions of others. Perception Is Reality….. This is the same with paranormal phenomena. There is no definitive evidence to suggest that someone who has experienced paranormal phenomenon, in a neurological sense, being any different from someone who has not experienced paranormal phenomenon.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapsychology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.B._Rhine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparitional_experience http://www.psychicscience.org/parintro.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomalistic_psychology http://www.ghostlycast.com/2009/07/history-of-paranormal-research/ http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/nervous-system/extrasensory-brain.htm