1. Christine Simmonds-Moore, PhD.
Personality Variables in Spontaneous Psi Research: Contextualizing the Boundary Construct in its relationship to Spontaneous Psi Phenomena
UTRECHT II – CHARTING THE FUTURE OF PARAPSYCHOLOGY
Christine Simmonds-Moore, PhD.

2. Spontaneous psi experiences
Are more common among certain individuals
Boundary thinness, Transliminality, Positive Schizotypy, Temporal lobe lability, Dissociation, Absorption, Extraversion, Creativity
Are also more likely in certain states of consciousness/situations
Dreams, hypnagogia, meditation, being wide awake, right hemisphere, consciousness binding processes, subliminal perception
“Boundaries” are a parsimonious way of understanding these superficially disparate variables

3. Introducing the “boundary construct” and its relevance to parapsychology
Boundaries reflect the functional/anatomical level of connectivity between neural, biological, and cognitive structures in the mind-brain and the extent to which conscious experiences are experienced as fused or separated.
Boundary thinness may also be observed interpersonally (e.g., as empathy) and between the person and the environment
Boundaries are not a new idea in parapsychology – (e.g., Myers, James, Bergson)
Recent attention to the idea in the work of Hartmann (1991) on Boundary Thinness and Thalbourne on Transliminality (e.g., Thalbourne & Houran, 2000)

4. Psychometric (trait) measures of boundary thinness
Hartmann’s Boundary Questionnaire (e.g., Hartmann, 1991)
Thalbourne’s Transliminality (e.g., Thalbourne & Houran, 2000)
Positive schizotypy (e.g., unusual experiences of Mason et al’s O-LIFE)
Temporal lobe lability (e.g., Persinger & Makarec’s Complex Partial Epileptic like Signs)
All correlate with psi experiences
 These variables load on one unified factor (Simmonds-Moore, 2008; Thalbourne and Maltby, 2008).
Psychometric boundary thinness also relates to other psi relevant variables:- including dissociation, absorption, extraversion and creativity

5. Physiological boundaries
Neural connectivity
Reduced inhibition
Vertical connectivity or increased connection between sub-cortical and cortical brain structures
Reduced cortical dominance
Lateral connectivity or increased connection between the left and right hemispheres
Reduced dominance of left hemisphere, more input of RH processes
Neural connectivity (particularly of circuits underpining social cognition in schizophrenia)

6. Cognitive-perceptual boundaries I
Representational/memory-related boundaries
Associational processing
Synaesthesia
I see a shape!

7. Cognitive-perceptual boundaries II
Attentional boundaries
Wider “attentional spotlight”
Greater availability of subliminal information
Conscious
awareness
Thin boundaries
Thick boundaries
Preconscious
processes

8. Boundaries of conscious experience
The extent to which meaningfulness/emotion/significance is attached to a perceptual experience
E.g., thoughts are fused with feelings
Distinctness of states of consciousness
E.g., sleep states interject into wakefulness
“Consciousness binding”

9. Interpersonal/environmental boundaries
Emotional closeness/empathic connection with another person or the world
E.g, emotional closeness and psi

10. Types of boundary may have different relationships to psi and mental health
Personality boundaries relate in different ways to psi experiences
Different types of boundary may relate differently to psi experiences
Little empirical work has focused on attempting to test
Psi and pseudo psi hypotheses associated with different boundary types
Different types of boundary thinness and mental health/pathology

11. Boundaries as a state
The hypnagogic state of consciousness seems to be associated with several forms of boundary thinness
Associated with over as well as under-arousal and can occur during the daytime
More likely among those with psychometric thin boundaries
Meditation also seems to be associated with several forms of boundary thinness
Fundamentally liminal – “between wakefulness and sleep”
Not restricted to falling asleep, and can occur during daytime (in response to stress as well as sleepiness)
Characterised by:
Reduced inhibition (reduction in norepinephrine and serotonin)
Less cortical dominance (e.g., Mavromatis, 1987)
Greater associational processing
Greater contribution of processes associated with the right hemisphere
Meditation - Vertical connectivity
Lateral connectivity
Synaesthesia
Greater awareness of subliminal information

12. Implication I of boundaries as state and trait
Reformulation of notion of boundary thinness – trait boundary thinness may reflect a greater likelihood of entering thin boundary states
What is the best balance of boundary thinness?
Is flexibility/control the issue?

13. Suggestion one for future research/development:
Develop more of an understanding regarding which boundaries and psychometric measures of overall boundary thinness relate to which anomalous and psi phenomena
Some boundaries relate more to pseudo psychic experiences, whilst others may relate to genuine ESP
Some boundaries (and combinations of boundaries) relate to mental health, while others may relate to ill health

14. Implication II of boundaries as state and trait
If boundaries are a state, we might be able to manipulate them and potentially learn more about how to gain control over experiencing paranormal experiences
Implications for mental health
Implications for parapsychology

15. Suggestion two for future research/development:
Explore different ways of manipulating “boundary thinness”
Previous work implies that a range of variables/circumstances may affect boundary thinness
Fasting (Persinger, 1989)
Sleep quality (Simmonds, 2005a)
Reduced nocturnal dreaming (after Giesbrecht & Merckelbach, 2004)
Meditation (Persinger, 1989; Travis & Arendander, 2006; Woodfolk, 1975)
Intense emotional states (Thalbourne, Crawley & Houran, 2003).
Boundaries might be manipulated by exploration of improving sleep/systematically reducing sleep, meditation, the use of “hemi-sync” stimulation.

16. Suggestion three for future research/development:
Use profiles of personality rather than unidimensional scales
Anomalous experiences are associated with both pathology and transcendence
There are adaptive and less adaptive components associated with boundary thinness (as positive schizotypy) which underpins the tendency to experience anomalies
Recent evidence - employing cluster analysis - implies that there are two types of positive schizotype
This reflects scoring on how people score on the other aspects of schizotypy (cognitive disorganisation, introvertive anhedonia and to a lesser extent impulsive nonconformity)

17. Four Profiles of schizotypy
1. Happy or healthy
positive schizotypy
high scoring
on unusual experiences
in isolation
High score on a
measure of mental health
2. Low schizotypy
Low scoring on all aspects of schizotypy
- Highest score on a measure of mental health
3. Negative schizotypy
High scoring on
introvertive anhedonia
Low score on a
4. High or mixed schizotypy
unusual experiences,
cognitive disorganisation
and introvertive anhedonia
Lowest score on a measure
of mental health

18. Suggestion five for future research/development:
Consider boundary thinness from the perspective of evolution
It has been argued that there may be adaptive elements associated with the schizophrenia gene - observed in positive schizotypy
Mainstream literature argues that these are creativity and religion/spirituality; I argue that this might also include psi
I will argue that evolutionary considerations will allow for further insight into boundaries and psi

19. Evolutionary considerations:
Traits should have a genetic component, associated with better survival benefits
Increased “fitness” (traits are associated with mating success)
Traits demonstrated an original adaptation to the environment
Traits demonstrate current adaptiveness
Behaviour will favour those carrying similar genes
Behaviour will be biased toward biological survival of self and genes

20. The evolutionary context of boundary thinness and psi
There is evidence for schizophrenia as an adaptation
There is evidence for adaptiveness of schizotypy related (thin boundary) traits
Evidence for psi from an evolutionary perspective
Recent work indicated that healthy positive schizotypy was the only cluster to be associated with significant psi performance (Holt & Simmonds-Moore, 2008)
Might psi be selected indirectly by evolution?
Creativity and religious experiences (both underpinned by schizotypy)  greater fitness
Nettle and Clegg found that “healthy” positive schizotypy does seem to relate to evolutionary fitness
Evidence for psi from an evolutionary perspective
Recent work indicated that healthy positive schizotypy was the only cluster to be associated with significant psi performance (Holt & Simmonds-Moore, 2008)
Is psi selected indirectly by evolution?

21. Summary of evolutionary approach to boundaries and psi:
Allows for greater insight into the reasons for and purpose of psi experiences
Allows for greater understanding of when psi experiences might happen in those with thin and thicker trait boundaries
Adds to existing arguments in favour of an adaptive element to the schizophrenia gene

22. Suggestion five for future research/development:
Consider boundary thinness and psi phenomena in terms of interactionism and situationism
Boundaries are state and trait and as such anyone can experience phenomena associated with thinner boundaries, given the right circumstances
Boundary thinness interacts with other variables (geomagnetism, gender) with regard to anomalous experiences
Different circumstances may encourage psi/pseudo psi experiences for some but not others

23. Summary of suggestions for future research/development for personality variables in spontaneous psi research
Delineate which boundaries (psychometric and types of boundary) relate to which anomalous and psi phenomena and mental health
Explore methods for manipulating boundary thinness to control anomalous experiences
Use personality profiles rather than scoring on unidimensional boundary scales/develop new scales to distinguish healthy from unhealthy forms of boundary thinness
Consider boundary thinness and psi phenomena from an evolutionary perspective
Consider boundary thinness in terms of interactionism and situationism

24. Thank you for your attention