The Psychology of the Paranormal

David Groome, Michael Eysenck, Robin Law

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351391115
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Cognitive Psychology & Cognition
• Index: Psychology

Can mediums communicate with the dead? Do people really believe they've been abducted by aliens? Why do some people make life decisions based on their horoscope?

The Psychology of the Paranormal explores some commonly held beliefs regarding experiences so strange they can defy an obvious scientific explanation. The book explains how psychologists have conducted experiments to provide insight into phenomena such as clairvoyance, astrology, and alien abduction, as well as teaching us fundamental truths about human belief systems.

From debunking myths about Extra Sensory Perception, to considering whether our lives can truly be fated by the stars, The Psychology of the Paranormal shows us that however unlikely, belief in the paranormal will continue to be widespread.

1

___________________

Introduction

David Groome, Michael Eysenck, and Robin Law

Strange and unusual experiences

Many people believe that they have experienced events which are so strange that they defy any scientific explanation. Such experiences are referred to as “paranormal”, because they cannot be explained by any normal processes known to science at the present time. It is possible that a scientific explanation might one day be found for these claims, but in the meantime some scientists prefer not to make any assumptions about paranormal causes and refer to such phenomena as merely “unusual experiences”, strange events which we may one day be able to explain in some rational way.

The purpose of this book is to evaluate the scientific evidence supporting claims of paranormal experience and to consider the possible explanations for such phenomena. The main categories of unusual and paranormal experience will be examined in detail in the book, including the following:

• Extra-sensory perception (ESP), which is also known as “telepathy” or “paranormal cognition” (and also The Sixth Sense, if you happened to see that movie). It refers to the perception of input through some channel other than the five main senses, where a person appears to pick up information from other people by some unknown mechanism of transmission.
• Mediums claim to be able to contact the spirits of dead people, a claim which assumes that the dead continue to survive in spirit form and are able to communicate with living people (again, this features in The Sixth Sense, Ghost, and quite a few other films).
• Alien contact refers to alleged encounters with extra-terrestrial visitors (did you see Close Encounters of the Third Kind?). Some people believe they have met such visitors from outer space, and in some cases, they believe that they have actually been abducted by aliens for some purpose. These experiences are usually classified as paranormal because there is no convincing evidence that this planet has actually been visited by aliens.
• Astrology is based on the belief that the stars somehow influence people’s lives, their character, and their destiny. Again, the mechanism by which this might occur remains unknown. Some authorities argue that astrology is not a true paranormal phenomenon as it does not involve any form of paranormal experience as such. However, we have included a chapter about astrology in this book because it involves a belief in phenomena which we cannot explain, and it is a belief which is held by a large proportion of the general public. (P.S. We cannot think of any movies about astrology, unless you count Scorpio Men on Prozac, though we are not recommending you rush out to see it.)

These are some of the more commonly reported types of unusual and paranormal experiences and beliefs which remain unexplained at the present time. However, all of these phenomena have in fact been subjected to scientific investigation, and we will be looking at the findings of this research in the forthcoming chapters of this book. Each of the phenomena listed above will be dealt with in a separate chapter.

There is an additional chapter about “Religious beliefs”, as these resemble paranormal beliefs in certain respects, mainly in that they are based on personal experience and faith rather than upon scientific evidence. There is therefore a possibility that we can shed some light on the nature of religious beliefs by comparing them with other types of faith-based beliefs such as belief in the paranormal.

The final chapter of the book is entitled “Explaining paranormal beliefs”, and here we attempt to provide an overview of what we currently know about paranormal beliefs and offer a few possible explanations of why people believe in the paranormal. In particular, we will be looking at some of the psychological factors which may help to explain such beliefs.

Belief in the paranormal

Although we live in the age of science, belief in the paranormal remains surprisingly widespread among the general public. Recent surveys in Britain have reported that about 50% of the population believe in extra-sensory perception, 40% believe in ghosts, 22% believe in astrology, and 20% believe that people have been contacted by aliens. Surveys in the United States have reported similar figures for belief in ESP and ghosts, but about 30% believe in astrology, and no less than 36% of Americans believe that people have been contacted or abducted by aliens from distant planets.

As belief in the paranormal is so widespread, it would obviously be helpful if scientists could establish whether or not these phenomena are valid, and whether people are right to believe in them. For some people, an interest in the paranormal is little more than harmless fun, and if you read your stars in the morning newspaper that does not mean that you will take it seriously or allow it to affect your life in any way. But many people do take paranormal events seriously, and some actually make important decisions on the basis of their paranormal beliefs. Some people choose their marriage partner or their job on the advice of an astrologer, while others may decide to move house in order to escape from a ghost or poltergeist. Some people take drastic actions as a result of information they believe they have gained by telepathy, or from a message allegedly conveyed from the spirit world by a medium. Beliefs about paranormal phenomena can also lead to fear and anxiety, as for example with people who live in fear of ghosts and demons, or who are worried about being abducted by aliens.

There may be other less obvious consequences of paranormal beliefs, as for example when people blame their own failures and misjudgements on paranormal influences. After an accident or disaster has occurred, it is sometimes tempting to blame the influence of some unknown force. Some people will conclude that a disaster was “fated” by the stars, or that it was brought about by demons or ghosts of the vengeful dead. This kind of explanation can sometimes provide a convenient excuse for refusing to accept our own responsibility for bad outcomes. This is important, because if we fail to accept our responsibility for our failures, then we will not learn from our mistakes.

Testing the validity of paranormal phenomena

One obvious reason for studying paranormal phenomena is to find out whether they are actually real. Since many people make important life decisions on the basis of their belief in the paranormal, it is important to find out whether these beliefs are valid. Moreover, if phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and astrology can be shown to be genuine, then they might offer the potential to enrich our lives. However, if it turns out that these phenomena are not genuine, then they can cause us to make poor decisions and to misunderstand many of our experiences in life. If you base your major life decisions on incorrect beliefs, you will probably not be very effective in dealing with the challenges and demands which life places on each of us. This is one very good reason why paranormal phenomena should be subjected to scientific investigation, and much of this book is concerned with the findings of such scientific studies.

Understanding belief systems

Besides investigating the actual validity of paranormal phenomena, another reason why psychologists are interested in paranormal research is that it can teach us a great deal about the nature of beliefs and why people adhere to them. People often believe strongly in things for which they have no evidence whatsoever, and it would be helpful if we could understand why they show such unshakable faith.

Another interesting aspect of research into paranormal beliefs involves finding out what kind of people are likely to believe in the paranormal. Perhaps a tendency to accept paranormal beliefs might be linked with certain types of personality, thinking style, or previous experiences and upbringing. Again, this is an area which has been extensively researched, and we now know quite a lot about the type of person who is most likely to believe in the paranormal. This research will be examined in the final chapter of this book.

Experimental design and procedures

Another good reason for studying the paranormal is that it can help to improve the way we design and carry out scientific research. Paranormal research offers a particularly difficult challenge to experimenters, because there are so many factors and possible influences which need to be taken into account when designing an experiment of this sort. For example, if you are trying to investigate whether two people can communicate by extra-sensory perception (which is communication by psychic means rather than through the known senses), then you need to make sure that the people you are testing cannot somehow communicate via any of the normal senses. Information could easily be passed from one person to another by apparently insignificant responses like smiling, coughing, or blinking, which could go completely unnoticed by the experimenter. Such responses could occur quite unconsciously and without any deliberate intention to cheat. But even if the two participants (the “sender” and the “receiver”) are kept in entirely separate rooms or buildings, there is still a risk that the experimenters themselves might unwittingly provide feedback at a similarly unconscious level.

Psychologists who wish to investigate paranormal phenomena must design their experiments to control for such possibilities, including many possible factors which are not at all obvious. So, before we accept that the findings of an experiment indicate the occurrence of paranormal effects, we should first ask ourselves what other factors could possibly have produced the effect.

The precautions required for the design of a paranormal experiment can be extremely challenging and require much ingenuity. But by addressing these challenges, paranormal researchers have developed techniques which have helped to improve research design, not just within the paranormal field but also in other fields of psychological research.

One crucial feature of the scientific approach is that it should be possible for other researchers to replicate the findings of any scientific experiment. However, many studies which have been carried out in the past and published in leading scientific journals have proved to be impossible to replicate, and this is particularly true of research on paranormal phenomena. Unfortunately, the replication problem is made worse by the fact that the editors of scientific journals are usually keen to publish exciting new findings (such as claimed evidence for ESP) but are less keen to publish subsequent studies which fail to replicate these findings. This can lead to a publication bias, where positive findings are published and negative findings are not. Psychologists are now aware of this problem, and they are trying to find ways of overcoming it. One the best solutions to the problem of selective publication involves setting up online stores of research findings which include all of the studies carried out on a given topic, including unpublished studies and failures to replicate previous findings. Such records are kept in a store that is accessible to researchers and academics, who are thus able to draw conclusions based on a full review of all of the available studies rather than just the ones which find their way into a journal.

Summary – why should we study paranormal phenomena?

As explained above, there are three main reasons why it is valuable to study paranormal phenomena. First, we need to find out whether these phenomena are valid, so that we know whether they really occur or not. Second, by studying the kinds of people who believe in paranormal phenomena, we can learn a great deal about the nature of belief, and the reasons why some people acquire and maintain beliefs for which they have no supporting evidence. And third, studies of the paranormal provide a very strict test of the effectiveness of experimental design and may help psychologists to improve their research techniques. Investigations of paranormal phenomena can therefore provide us with some important insights into not only those phenomena but also the nature of human belief systems and how best to study them. Such investigations provide the subject matter of the rest of this book.

2

___________________

Astrology

David Groome

Astrology and its popularity

Do you ever read your horoscope in the newspaper? A lot of people do. In fact, about 70% of people in the UK read their horoscope regularly. Of course, not all of them take it seriously, but recent surveys have found that 20% of British people and 29% of Americans believe that astrology is true, and that it can tell us something useful about people and their lives. There are many countries where belief in astrology is even more widespread. For example, in India astrology is accepted by most people, and more than 60% of Indians have actually consulted an astrologer.

Astrology is regarded by many people as just harmless fun, but people who take astrology seriously will often make major decisions about their lives on the basis of astrological advice, such as who they should marry or what profession they should take up. So, for many people, astrology is a serious matter which has a very real impact on their lives and on the decisions they make. Even if you are not one of those people, you could still find your life being affected by astrology, since other people may make decisions about you on the basis of your birth date. In a number of countries, it is common for employers to make use of astrologers to help them in the selection of staff, so you could find yourself being rejected for a job because you were born under the wrong star sign.

Since astrology is quite widely accepted and is often used as a method of classifying people and predicting their behaviour, psychologists have become interested in finding out whether there is any truth in astrology and whether it is useful or not. If astrologers are genuinely able to provide insights into the character and future behaviour of individuals simply from their birth date, then psychologists would obviously want to make use of this approach. On the other hand, if astrology does not offer any valid information, then it would be wrong and in fact quite unacceptable to use it in real-life situations such as employee selection or decision making. For this reason, psychologists have seen a need to investigate whether or not the claims made by astrologers are valid.

The origins and rationale of astrology

Astrology has been around for thousand...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Astrology
• 3 Extra-sensory perception
• 4 Spirits and mediums
• 5 Alien encounters and abductions
• 6 Religious beliefs
• 7 Explaining paranormal beliefs