The psychology of anomalous experiences: A rediscovery.

Abstract

This essay presents the rationale to consider anomalous experiences (AEs, such as synesthesia, lucid dreaming, hallucinations, psi-related experiences, and near-death experiences) as an essential topic in psychology. These experiences depart from the typical or customary characteristics of consciousness (e.g., out-of-body experiences), or from ordinary or normative consciousness (e.g., synesthesia), and sometimes offer an alternative perspective to the nature of self and reality. We review the concept of AEs, methodological issues, and research findings, including their relation to individual differences, psychopathology, culture, and positive psychology. We suggest that mainstream psychology has neglected the study of AEs far too long, although they often engender profound and sometimes highly positive personal and social consequences, and provide valuable insights into the full range of human experience. We propose that the time is ripe to advance the scientific interest in AEs and subject them to rigorous empirical examination in studies that explore their prevalence, phenomenology, and sequelae, and take into account the direct and interactive effects of multiple variables (e.g., genetic predisposition, psychophysiology, personality differences, sociocultural factors). This will extend the purview of inquiry and understanding of our uniquely human nature and potential.

Anomalous experiences are more prevalent among highly suggestible individuals who are also highly dissociative

“…These results are consistent with the repeatedly-observed link between dissociation and specific aberrant sleep characteristics, such as sleep paralysis and longer REM sleep (but not lucid dreaming), which may be mediated by a labile sleep-wake cycle that enables intrusions of sleep-like processes during waking states (Cardeña, Lynn, & Krippner, 2017;Fassler et al, 2006;Giesbrecht & Merckelbach, 2004Van Der Kloet et al, 2013).…”

“He Who Has the Spirits Must Work a Lot”: A Psycho‐Anthropological Account of Spirit Possession in the Dominican Republic

“…). Thus, SP could be considered an anomalous experience (AE), an unusual or atypical experience that is not necessarily pathological (Cardeña, Lynn, and Krippner ). Some SP practitioners derive personal and social benefits from their SP, although others, often in what Lewis () called peripheral forms of possession, exhibit violent and uncontrolled features that may provoke personal suffering and remain unintegrated with local ritual practices.…”

“…Contra the opinions of authors such as Spiro (1997), actual research with SP devotees shows that they are not as a rule psychotic nor do they necessarily exhibit more psychopathology than their referent groups, although some of them are dysfunctional even from an emic perspective (for reviews, see Boddy 1994;Cardeña et al 2009). Thus, SP could be considered an anomalous experience (AE), an unusual or atypical experience that is not necessarily pathological (Cardeña, Lynn, and Krippner 2017). Some SP practitioners derive personal and social benefits from their SP, although others, often in what Lewis (1989) called peripheral forms of possession, exhibit violent and uncontrolled features that may provoke personal suffering and remain unintegrated with local ritual practices.…”

“…The latter construct refers to not making sharp distinctions between psychological processes (e.g., states of consciousness) or senses of the self (e.g., gender identity) and is consistent with Marcos's propensity to transit among states of consciousness and have a nonstereotypical sexual identification. Dissociative and other unusual experiences are not necessarily dysfunctional and may allow individuals to demonstrate capacities not available to their regular selves such as creative automatic writing, imperviousness to pain, and even ostensible psychic phenomena (Cardeña ; Cardeña, Lynn, and Krippner ). Some of these experiences and capabilities are consistent with models of a permeable self.…”

Toward a postmaterialist psychology: Theory, research, and applications

“…These experiences offer an enlarged perspective on the nature of the self and reality that cannot be accommodated within a materialist framework (Cardeña et al, 2017). Moreover, within the postmaterialist paradigm, spiritual experiences are not seen a priori as fantasies or the symptoms of pathological processes, such as brain or mental disorders.…”