What do you think? Are psychic phenomena real? I’m going to demonstrate my incredible psychic powers (hah!) and make a prediction that if you’re reading these posts on a regular (or even occasional) basis you have some degree of belief in at least some types of psychic phenomena.
But does believing, say, in ghosts necessarily mean you also believe in extraterrestrial visitors? If you believe in psychokinesis, does it necessarily mean you believe in reincarnation?
What does the research say about belief in psychic phenomena?
Belief in alien visitations and UFOs seems different from belief in psychic phenomena. Image from freedigitalphotos.net
I ran across a fascinating paper a few months ago, describing a study by Neil Dagnall, Andrew Parker, Gary Munley, and Kenneth Drinkwater of the Psychology Department of the Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK.* The researchers investigated how people ranging in age from 14 to 70 believed in nine different types of paranormal events:
- Hauntings
- Existence of life on other planets
- Superstitions
- Religious beliefs
- Extraterrestrial visitations
- Psychic phenomena (telepathy, telempathy, precognition, etc.)
- Psychokinesis
- Astrology
- Witchcraft
The participants were mostly female (about three-quarters). Now, you might think that having religious beliefs wouldn’t be strongly correlated with believing in, say, ghosts or psychokinesis. But that wasn’t what the Dagnell’s crew discovered. There was a moderately strong correlation between having religious beliefs and believing in hauntings, psychic phenomena, psychokinesis, astrology, and witchcraft. On the other hand, there was almost no correlation between religious belief and belief in alien life and only a weak correlation with either superstition and alien visitations.
People who believe in astrology also tend to have religious beliefs. Image from freedigitalphotos.net
What was interesting, however, was that belief in life on other planets didn’t correlate much to anything except alien visitations. (That makes sense when you realize that if you don’t believe in life on other planets, you probably also don’t believe in extraterrestrials from those other planets are coming here!)
On the other hand, most people who believed in any of the psychic phenomena also believed in nearly all the other psychic phenomena.
So what does this mean?
The reason I find this study interesting is that it implies that there is a kind of “psychic phenomena” mindset. If you have that mindset, if you believe in one type of psychic phenomena, you’re likely to also believe in others.
FIrst, this study resulted in correlations, not hard-and-fast linkages. And while the correlations were moderately strong, they simply don’t mean that everyone who believes in psychokinesis believes in astrology. It’s just that a substantial percentage believe in both.
Another thing this study does not say is that there is any causal link between the beliefs. In other words, it does not imply that believing in astrology causes you to believe in ghosts, or vice versa.
All the study says is that if you believe in ghosts, there’s a pretty decent likelihood that you also believe in spoon-bending or psychokinesis.
Is this because those who have experienced one type of psychic event are likely to later experience others? That was my situation. Once I admitted that I had strong evidence that one psychic phenomenon was true, I was suddenly inundated with experiences of other types of psychic phenomena.
As I mentioned in an earlier post (Are we all mystics? The science of the mystic experience.) there does appear to be specific circuitry in the brain associated with mystic experiences. Is it possible that once you learn to activate that circuitry, you enable yourself to experience a panoply of psychic phenomena?
Does this also imply that those who are skeptical are simply those who have never activated that circuitry?
I have no idea. But it’s interesting speculation, don’t you think?
What do you think? Why are those who believe in ghosts more likely to believe in astrology? Or in spoon-bending?
* Dagnell, N., Parker, A., Munley, G., and Drinkwater, K. (2010). Common paranormal belief dimensions. Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 477-494.
Featured image from: freedigitalphotos.net
Your blue print had ben drawn before you were born ; and no phiysc or astrologer can change it ; but they can tell you a little bit of your future ; because we don’t remember what ; we chose as blue print ; and its a good thing ; because lots of us would have turn crazy if they had known all the bad times we are going through in a life time
That’s exactly what I try to do with every rdieang, I discuss the influences of the planets, discuss the strengths weaknesses in the chart, and then I discuss ways to overcome the difficulties while working with the chart some of my clients have managed to make changes to their lives as a result I mean, really, that’s why I am an astrologer to help people have better lives.
Yes I believe there are energies that we can tap and utilize to benefit ourselves and others. Here is a test for your psychic intuition… http://www.psychiclotto.org
Lol, it seems the night’s that I decide to get eight hours sleep . I miss the Good coasttocoastam programs . As far as Beliving in Psychic phenoumn. I know this to be a Real thing . I AM a Reiki practioner . Also I have known that i have abilitie’s that work for me . I belive the the most important thing to remember is to Belive . Intent is also a Key … Carneywarrior@yahoo.com
In my chapter on Energy Healing I talk about a FABULOUS study on Reiki. A lot of the studies are done by researchers who do not fully understand what it is they’re studying and the protocols used are just silly. This particular one was extremely carefully designed and as a result the data showed a STRONG Reiki impact–and one that continued for a year after the study (and the Reiki treatments) ended! It’s an amazing study! If you get the chance, take a look at that. You’ll love it!
I believe all are capable of tapping into psychic abilities because it is needed to accomplish the souls work while in an earthly body. Like an envelope waiting to be opened everyone has their own appointed time. Driving psychic highway has its ups and downs all experiences differ in how we perceive them fact is no matter when the envelope opened we’re still traveling to same end of destination.
You’re absolutely right! Being psychic isn’t always a smooth road…but it is interesting and it does give you more spiritual insight when you stop ignoring that important part of yourself.
I think we are living in a segment of history where precognition was thrown out with the bath water of superstition. I’ve had a number of dreams that later matched some one off events that can’t be attributed to coincidence and not by trying.
Changing recognition of this is just going to take good documentation of these types of events. That and advancement in brain scanning will eventually change this. I don’t believe in psychic experience, I’ve experienced with, but with some pretty narrow definitions.