The word “parapsychology” begins with the prefix “para-“ which means “beside.” Perhaps someday the subjects covered by those who study parapsychology will not be beside psychology, but will be part of psychology. But for now, they will need to be called “parapsychological.” I look for those areas where the two are indeed close.
Psychoanalysis offers insights but no proofs. Given a certain kind of illness, a psychiatrist can expect to find a certain kind of childhood, but given a certain childhood he still cannot be sure there will be a certain what, if any, illness will develop. Many times the corollary of a principal in the human sciences is not valid. Indeed if there were only one result for a child who has a certain childhood then the mental health profession would be helpless to provide even a hope for recovery.
The solutions to many problems in psychology are revealed when we look at the activity of the family. If we are to understand psychic sensations, parapsychologists must also look to the family of the psychic. Unfortunately, when studies of psychic events have been made this has not always been done. We can find great insights when we look at the psychic person’s family dynamics.
I would like to see parapsychology include more studies of the psychoanalysis of the psychic. How do they feel about their parents especially the parent of the opposite sex. For it seems that often when we study the relationship between the subjects and their parent we see some clues about the nature of the psychic’s ESP. There often seems to be a symbolic relationship between the parent relationship and the psychic phenomena. In the eyes of subjects, the psychic phenomenon seems to be acting like the parent-concept.
We could see that a certain psychic experience comes to those who had a certain childhood. But we can not say that this or that childhood will produce a psychic. We can only look for typical pattern in the lives and psychics. Those “one-way-proofs” don't satisfy everyone, nor should they, but they offer helpful hints at understanding the dynamics of a psychic’s mind.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Profiling the Psychic
So now, the question is “What kind of a person is psychic?” From the beginning of the popular use of personality tests in the 1940’s psychologists have been trying to find the answer to this question. What type of a person, what kind of a mind sees the future in dreams, or hears warnings from voices, or senses the presence of spirits? The answer is beginning to take shape.
In earlier postings to this blog I have detailed much of what has been found. Psychics are able to keep their cool in the mist of confusion. They are creative and many of the artists of all kinds have had psychic experiences to tell. At the time of their psychic flashes a person is self confident and sure of themselves. A psychic is typically a person who is in the mood to reach out and include people in their lives, extroverted. Quite often a feeling of disassociation accompanies a psychic experience. Yet psychic ability also is accompanied by a greater than average stability. And finally those who do will on ESP tests are observed to be in the more spontaneous group. All of these traits are considered “Socially desirable” by our society. Yet people in our society continue to have problems when they reveal their psychic ability. As we can see by the results of a Gallop Poll. Though 73% believed in one of the list of “paranormal items” including witches and astrology. When individual paranormal beliefs were tallied they found that, for instance, only 41% of those interviewed believed in ESP.
One of the most interesting things about the personality profile that has been drawn up in the “typical psychic” is that it also seems to fit the “typical entertainer.” I like to occasionally use some incident reported by entertainers because I can also easily find biographical information about them. It is easy to find quite a few incidents. Dick Kleiner, the Hollywood columnist said, “A surprisingly large percentage did have a tale to tell me (about their psychic experiences). I estimated that 75% of the show business people I have interviewed claim they have ESP in varying degrees.”
There are two main areas of research into “parapsychology,” as the broad study is called. There is the gathering and analysis of incidents telepathy, dreaming the future, ghosts, etc.; then there are the researchers who attempt to bring these psychic things into the laboratory. Case histories, or spontaneous psychic phenomena are the best type to study in order to chart the hidden depths of the unconscious.
Spontaneous psychic phenomena are the things that have come without our asking. The dictionary defines spontaneous as “arising from a momentary impulse not apparently contrived nor manipulated.” And things that show a person to be psychic show him to be “sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces and influences.” By “non- physical” we mean “not within our present understanding of the physical or natural.” Of course, these are only apparently uncontrived or manipulated and much of what interests me is the mental activity involved.
What has been called “extrasensory perception” I find is simply a sensory perception, but one that is only used occasionally; and one has resisted easy study. So spontaneous psychic events will tell us about the activities in the person’s mind that will govern the emergence of these rarely used senses.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/16915/Three-Four-Americans-Believe-Paranormal.aspx#1
Kleiner, Dick. “The Ghost Who Danced with Kim Novak.” New York: Ace Publishing Corp., 1969.
In earlier postings to this blog I have detailed much of what has been found. Psychics are able to keep their cool in the mist of confusion. They are creative and many of the artists of all kinds have had psychic experiences to tell. At the time of their psychic flashes a person is self confident and sure of themselves. A psychic is typically a person who is in the mood to reach out and include people in their lives, extroverted. Quite often a feeling of disassociation accompanies a psychic experience. Yet psychic ability also is accompanied by a greater than average stability. And finally those who do will on ESP tests are observed to be in the more spontaneous group. All of these traits are considered “Socially desirable” by our society. Yet people in our society continue to have problems when they reveal their psychic ability. As we can see by the results of a Gallop Poll. Though 73% believed in one of the list of “paranormal items” including witches and astrology. When individual paranormal beliefs were tallied they found that, for instance, only 41% of those interviewed believed in ESP.
One of the most interesting things about the personality profile that has been drawn up in the “typical psychic” is that it also seems to fit the “typical entertainer.” I like to occasionally use some incident reported by entertainers because I can also easily find biographical information about them. It is easy to find quite a few incidents. Dick Kleiner, the Hollywood columnist said, “A surprisingly large percentage did have a tale to tell me (about their psychic experiences). I estimated that 75% of the show business people I have interviewed claim they have ESP in varying degrees.”
There are two main areas of research into “parapsychology,” as the broad study is called. There is the gathering and analysis of incidents telepathy, dreaming the future, ghosts, etc.; then there are the researchers who attempt to bring these psychic things into the laboratory. Case histories, or spontaneous psychic phenomena are the best type to study in order to chart the hidden depths of the unconscious.
Spontaneous psychic phenomena are the things that have come without our asking. The dictionary defines spontaneous as “arising from a momentary impulse not apparently contrived nor manipulated.” And things that show a person to be psychic show him to be “sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces and influences.” By “non- physical” we mean “not within our present understanding of the physical or natural.” Of course, these are only apparently uncontrived or manipulated and much of what interests me is the mental activity involved.
What has been called “extrasensory perception” I find is simply a sensory perception, but one that is only used occasionally; and one has resisted easy study. So spontaneous psychic events will tell us about the activities in the person’s mind that will govern the emergence of these rarely used senses.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/16915/Three-Four-Americans-Believe-Paranormal.aspx#1
Kleiner, Dick. “The Ghost Who Danced with Kim Novak.” New York: Ace Publishing Corp., 1969.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Spontaneous Psychic
As I have warned before attempts to understand human behavior by using personality tests have limited validity. It can be an aid but we should not rely too heavily on them. At best, they tell what mood the person was in when they took the test. But again sometimes that is just what we need to know. As I said in earlier blogs those personality tests that were given along with some test of a group’s psychic ability may be very useful in understanding what made a psychic event happen in the mind of someone.
Attempts to measure spontaneity with ordinary written tests have not been very successful, at best you get that person’s self image which may not be what is seen by others. Still this has been studied by a number of parapsychologists. Ways have been devised to define and measure spontaneity. One test was done by Drs. Alan C. Ross, Gardner Murphy, and Gertrude R. Schmeidler. They tested grade school children between the ages of 4 and eight-and-a-half for ESP. Then the judges divided the children into two groups: one was “spontaneous” the other group wasn’t. The judges were psychologists and teachers.
Spontaneity was defined as, “a quality which is found in the young child before he becomes encrusted by the habits of social routine and invention. It is shown a wholehearted, fresh, and unconstrained approach to life situation. A zestful, fluid approach and usually an unreflective originality are considered attributes of the spontaneous individual.”
They found a high degree of correlation between their various estimates of which child was and was not spontaneous, so it is reasonable to assume that there is such a thing as spontaneity, and that they all knew it when they saw it. There were only thirty students used yet they had correlation with high ESP and high spontaneity. The correlation was P = .06. This was still not the .05 that makes for a “marginally significant” result but they did say, “it was concluded that the highly spontaneous subjects seem to have a tendency to score higher in ESP than the less spontaneous subjects and that this was especially true in the spontaneity-favoring situation.
One of the possible tests is the Factor R on the Gifford Inventory used by Nicol and Humphrey. They call it “Rhathymia” and describe those who score high as “happy-go-lucky types.” It gave a P = .05 correlation. But not every attempt at duplicating this was successful. Some tests have attempted to find out who reacts to projects in an uninhibited way, occasionally these scores correlated significantly with psi ability.
“Adequate spontaneity” is one of the measures that a psychologist will consider important for a normal person, it is good. So again we find that what is considered a good personality factor will also be seen at the time a person is psychic.
Yet, it can lead to “impulsiveness.” Many tranquilizing drugs inhibit spontaneity. Impulsive people say things they are sorry for later, or they may behave immorally on an impulse and cause embarrassment to themselves or others sometimes. Impulsiveness is not good. But where do we draw the line between spontaneity and impulsiveness? To answer that we must take a larger view. What goals you are working toward? What behavior does your society need?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ross, A.O.; Murphy, G.; and Schmeidler, G.R. 1952. The spontaneity factor in extrasensory perception. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 46: 14-16.
Nicol, J. F., Humphrey, B.W. 1955. The repeatability problem in ESP personality research. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 49: 125-156.
Attempts to measure spontaneity with ordinary written tests have not been very successful, at best you get that person’s self image which may not be what is seen by others. Still this has been studied by a number of parapsychologists. Ways have been devised to define and measure spontaneity. One test was done by Drs. Alan C. Ross, Gardner Murphy, and Gertrude R. Schmeidler. They tested grade school children between the ages of 4 and eight-and-a-half for ESP. Then the judges divided the children into two groups: one was “spontaneous” the other group wasn’t. The judges were psychologists and teachers.
Spontaneity was defined as, “a quality which is found in the young child before he becomes encrusted by the habits of social routine and invention. It is shown a wholehearted, fresh, and unconstrained approach to life situation. A zestful, fluid approach and usually an unreflective originality are considered attributes of the spontaneous individual.”
They found a high degree of correlation between their various estimates of which child was and was not spontaneous, so it is reasonable to assume that there is such a thing as spontaneity, and that they all knew it when they saw it. There were only thirty students used yet they had correlation with high ESP and high spontaneity. The correlation was P = .06. This was still not the .05 that makes for a “marginally significant” result but they did say, “it was concluded that the highly spontaneous subjects seem to have a tendency to score higher in ESP than the less spontaneous subjects and that this was especially true in the spontaneity-favoring situation.
One of the possible tests is the Factor R on the Gifford Inventory used by Nicol and Humphrey. They call it “Rhathymia” and describe those who score high as “happy-go-lucky types.” It gave a P = .05 correlation. But not every attempt at duplicating this was successful. Some tests have attempted to find out who reacts to projects in an uninhibited way, occasionally these scores correlated significantly with psi ability.
“Adequate spontaneity” is one of the measures that a psychologist will consider important for a normal person, it is good. So again we find that what is considered a good personality factor will also be seen at the time a person is psychic.
Yet, it can lead to “impulsiveness.” Many tranquilizing drugs inhibit spontaneity. Impulsive people say things they are sorry for later, or they may behave immorally on an impulse and cause embarrassment to themselves or others sometimes. Impulsiveness is not good. But where do we draw the line between spontaneity and impulsiveness? To answer that we must take a larger view. What goals you are working toward? What behavior does your society need?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ross, A.O.; Murphy, G.; and Schmeidler, G.R. 1952. The spontaneity factor in extrasensory perception. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 46: 14-16.
Nicol, J. F., Humphrey, B.W. 1955. The repeatability problem in ESP personality research. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 49: 125-156.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Paranormal Viewpoint
I know I have an unusual viewpoint on the paranormal. I believe at times almost all of the types of psychic gifts can be granted to an individual. For a short time you may get one gift in spades. But I don't want this "gift" again. I have spent most of my life trying to turn it off and ignoring those occasional snippets of conversations that still slip into my consciousness during that vulnerable time when I am waking up. When I am asked to advise someone on how to increase their psychic ability I always take the position that they should first seriously question if they really want what they are asking for. I had it once and I don't want it again.
There are two main reasons I do not want this gift and they both come from my personal experiences which may not be typical. When you read the story in OPERATION BLUE LIGHT: My Secret Life among Psychic Spies my reasons for not wanting psychic ability should be obvious. First of all psychic ability disrupts your thoughts and your life. The more accurate it is the more disruptive it is and the more addictive.
When I had this gift it was so detailed and so accurate that I could not live with it. If it was spotty and questionable like most psychic ability I might have been able to live with it. I found I can only live without it. Also I understand how addicting that ability can be. The more perfect the ability is the more you want it. What I don't understand is the group of people who do not believe in telepathy. And it seems to actually be growing.
Which brings me to the second reason I do not want this gift again. The 2005 Gallup poll on the paranormal reported "Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal" The poll let the respondent check entries on a list of ten types of paranormal beliefs they might have held. They could check all that applied and they could check either "believe in", " not sure about" or "don't believe". The poll revealed that 73% checked one or more of the list of paranormal beliefs. This got the headline, but for a week in the summer of 1966 I had near perfect telepathic ability, (I could not get names, but I got about anything else from those who were also gifted at that time). So I am interested in the telepathic ability. The Gallup pollsters found that 31% believed in telepathy, 27% were not sure and 42% did not believe in it. Even more disturbing is that in spite of the growing amount of press that psychics get. The same Gallup organization in 1990 found that 36% believed in telepathy, so there are even fewer believers now than 18 years ago.
Our culture today has not found a place for psychics. We do not fit in anyplace. For most of my life I have not talked about the troubled 6 years after high school that gave birth to my near perfect psychic ability that summer in 1966. I made a life for myself where no one knows I even had psychic ability. It is a very comfortable life and I am lucky to have my bills paid and a State of California pension check coming in. If my life were not so comfortable I probably would not have published that book. I would have just gone on not talking about that 6 years. My friends and relatives have always allowed me not to talk about it. But I am glad that my situation allows me the privilege of putting my story out to the public.
I wrote the book for various reasons. Mostly I felt I owed it to "the casualties of the cold war's psychic battlefields" as I called them in the dedication of the book. Then also I have avoided talking about it for so long that I still find it difficult. So now I can just point you to the book or the videos and i will not need to tell it. I have gotten to a place where I don't care how unbelievable people find it. Also it needs to be told because it is unlike any other. The accuracy and details of my "spoken telepathy" I had that summer was not like any published experience. So my story needs to be put on the record. Finally I chose to publish it because it is just a good story and I believe you will enjoy reading it even if you are among 42% that do not believe in telepathy.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/16915/Three-Four-Americans-Believe-Paranormal.aspx#1
There are two main reasons I do not want this gift and they both come from my personal experiences which may not be typical. When you read the story in OPERATION BLUE LIGHT: My Secret Life among Psychic Spies my reasons for not wanting psychic ability should be obvious. First of all psychic ability disrupts your thoughts and your life. The more accurate it is the more disruptive it is and the more addictive.
When I had this gift it was so detailed and so accurate that I could not live with it. If it was spotty and questionable like most psychic ability I might have been able to live with it. I found I can only live without it. Also I understand how addicting that ability can be. The more perfect the ability is the more you want it. What I don't understand is the group of people who do not believe in telepathy. And it seems to actually be growing.
Which brings me to the second reason I do not want this gift again. The 2005 Gallup poll on the paranormal reported "Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal" The poll let the respondent check entries on a list of ten types of paranormal beliefs they might have held. They could check all that applied and they could check either "believe in", " not sure about" or "don't believe". The poll revealed that 73% checked one or more of the list of paranormal beliefs. This got the headline, but for a week in the summer of 1966 I had near perfect telepathic ability, (I could not get names, but I got about anything else from those who were also gifted at that time). So I am interested in the telepathic ability. The Gallup pollsters found that 31% believed in telepathy, 27% were not sure and 42% did not believe in it. Even more disturbing is that in spite of the growing amount of press that psychics get. The same Gallup organization in 1990 found that 36% believed in telepathy, so there are even fewer believers now than 18 years ago.
Our culture today has not found a place for psychics. We do not fit in anyplace. For most of my life I have not talked about the troubled 6 years after high school that gave birth to my near perfect psychic ability that summer in 1966. I made a life for myself where no one knows I even had psychic ability. It is a very comfortable life and I am lucky to have my bills paid and a State of California pension check coming in. If my life were not so comfortable I probably would not have published that book. I would have just gone on not talking about that 6 years. My friends and relatives have always allowed me not to talk about it. But I am glad that my situation allows me the privilege of putting my story out to the public.
I wrote the book for various reasons. Mostly I felt I owed it to "the casualties of the cold war's psychic battlefields" as I called them in the dedication of the book. Then also I have avoided talking about it for so long that I still find it difficult. So now I can just point you to the book or the videos and i will not need to tell it. I have gotten to a place where I don't care how unbelievable people find it. Also it needs to be told because it is unlike any other. The accuracy and details of my "spoken telepathy" I had that summer was not like any published experience. So my story needs to be put on the record. Finally I chose to publish it because it is just a good story and I believe you will enjoy reading it even if you are among 42% that do not believe in telepathy.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/16915/Three-Four-Americans-Believe-Paranormal.aspx#1
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Psychics and Stability
In spite of the fact that psychics enjoy confusion, both inside and outside themselves, they are stable. Or maybe they are stable because they enjoy confusion. Perhaps "stability" should be defined here. There seems to be some misunderstanding about that personality trait. An emotionally stable person can take a great deal of pressure before showing any sign of emotional illness, but that is not to say he never will. By comparison and emotionally unstable type is the "typical juvenile delinquent type." The emotionally unstable person gets angry at little slights, and will get violent as a result of seemingly minor annoyances. To a degree, being emotionally stable as much in common with having low irritability.
An early paper by Gertrude Schneider said that, "All other things being equal, well-adjusted subjects will do better at ESP than will poorly adjusted subjects." For long time individual psychics were observed to be emotionally stable. To return to the Nicol-Humphrey tests reported in 1953 and 1955 they said, "Another striking correlation was found to exist between ESP and the factor of emotional stability (from Cattell's personality inventory.)" The correlation with the total runs was P= .003 level. As they said, "For the correlation of total ESP score with emotional stability, we have coefficient of +.37, a result that would occur by chance about once in 350 investigations of the size."
People who think of psychics as "emotionally unstable" are wrong. Shortly after these results were released Dr. Nicol was speaking at a number of conventions. At one conference for a parapsychologists he told them of an event that had happened at another meeting where he spoke. He recalled, "At that conference there were a fair number of psychiatrists experienced in psychical research. They pounced on this finding that emotional stability was favorable to psychic impressions, saying this was contrary to their experience." But they reply was that they only see emotionally unstable people. Dr. Nicol had said earlier, "With only a mild play on words we may wonder whether instability is associated with 'fear of the (ESP) unknown signal." Even normally emotionally stable people have their "breaking point." So most people who have experienced psi phenomena of some kind are probably stable. We can even add those occasional ones who couldn't take it from the psi Unknown and so began to exhibit degrees will "mental illness."
In the mind of the psychic there is desire for improving himself yet there is a natural stability and ease in tough situations. These things may seem contradictory, but motivations for any behavior in a psychic will spring from great depths and travel many complicated and pathways. Most importantly, the person himself likes this way, he feels perfectly comfortable with the situation.
—-
Nicol, E., and Humphrey, B.M. 1953. The exploration of ESP and human personality. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 47:133-178.
Nicol, J. F., Humphrey, B.W. 1955. The repeatability problem in ESP personality research. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 49: 125-156.
Schmeidler, G. R. 1949. Personality correlates of ESP as shown by Rorschach studies. Journal of Parapsychology 13: 23-31
An early paper by Gertrude Schneider said that, "All other things being equal, well-adjusted subjects will do better at ESP than will poorly adjusted subjects." For long time individual psychics were observed to be emotionally stable. To return to the Nicol-Humphrey tests reported in 1953 and 1955 they said, "Another striking correlation was found to exist between ESP and the factor of emotional stability (from Cattell's personality inventory.)" The correlation with the total runs was P= .003 level. As they said, "For the correlation of total ESP score with emotional stability, we have coefficient of +.37, a result that would occur by chance about once in 350 investigations of the size."
People who think of psychics as "emotionally unstable" are wrong. Shortly after these results were released Dr. Nicol was speaking at a number of conventions. At one conference for a parapsychologists he told them of an event that had happened at another meeting where he spoke. He recalled, "At that conference there were a fair number of psychiatrists experienced in psychical research. They pounced on this finding that emotional stability was favorable to psychic impressions, saying this was contrary to their experience." But they reply was that they only see emotionally unstable people. Dr. Nicol had said earlier, "With only a mild play on words we may wonder whether instability is associated with 'fear of the (ESP) unknown signal." Even normally emotionally stable people have their "breaking point." So most people who have experienced psi phenomena of some kind are probably stable. We can even add those occasional ones who couldn't take it from the psi Unknown and so began to exhibit degrees will "mental illness."
In the mind of the psychic there is desire for improving himself yet there is a natural stability and ease in tough situations. These things may seem contradictory, but motivations for any behavior in a psychic will spring from great depths and travel many complicated and pathways. Most importantly, the person himself likes this way, he feels perfectly comfortable with the situation.
—-
Nicol, E., and Humphrey, B.M. 1953. The exploration of ESP and human personality. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 47:133-178.
Nicol, J. F., Humphrey, B.W. 1955. The repeatability problem in ESP personality research. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 49: 125-156.
Schmeidler, G. R. 1949. Personality correlates of ESP as shown by Rorschach studies. Journal of Parapsychology 13: 23-31
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
