The purpose of this blog post is to outline the link between mental health, mental capability and paranormal experiences. The reason for this blog post is to point out that not everything unexplained is paranormal and that sometimes the terrifying things around us are in fact rather terrifying things within us. Although this blog post is written from medically and scientifically based research, it should not serve as a prognosis or diagnosis to anything. Should there be information in here that you feel is relevant to you, you should still consult a professional before making any definitive decisions.
A few years ago hundreds of tests were carried out on hundreds of people who claimed that they were experiencing paranormal occurrences. This was with the intention of answering an age old question; does a paranormal reality exist? In the end, what these tests did was only complicate things a little further.
A strong link between a person’s mental boundaries and the possibility of experiencing something paranormal was discovered. When I say “mental boundaries” I am referring to the imaginary lines between your brain's mental structures. These being things like emotions, thoughts and your cognitive processes. It was proven that a high number of people of all age groups who struggle with these boundaries had claims of paranormal experiences occurring regularly throughout their lives. This is possibly because the lack of differentiation between thoughts and emotions causes a type of “mental leak” from your subconscious. This means that you can visualise those thoughts around you, instead of separating them into the correct area of your mind. This does not mean that this is the case in all paranormal experiences, it only means that the next time you experience something you cannot explain, try back tracking your emotional path over the last week or so and see if you cannot perhaps find a connection between the events.
Another clear cause of paranormal experiences around us is childhood trauma. Well, most kinds of trauma but most likely trauma that occurred during childhood. In the same bracket as the childhood trauma it is evident that a strong need for interpersonal control, as well as a perceived lack of childhood control can often manifest as a paranormal occurrence. It is unclear why this happens and there are not all that many studies addressing this theory. However, those that have studied it have found a clear link and clarify it as a cause of paranormal experiences.
Schitzotypy and the paranormal has also been tested and researched countless times. Schitzotypy refers to a theoretical concept that certain personality characteristics can be grouped under the same blanket-term. These characteristics include, but are not limited to normal dissociative disorders, extreme dissociative disorders, schizophrenia and psychosis. Those who took part in the research to establish a link between schizotypy and the paranormal came to an interesting conclusion. Many people showed a higher scale of strange and unexplained occurrences but rarely fell on the negative end of the typical schizotypy symptoms. This started the notion of what can be called “happy schizotypes” or “healthy schizotypes”. This lead to a new fully dimensional model of schizotypy where it was discovered that people can be at the extreme end of the schizotypy scale without suffering from the related mental disorders. It is theorised that many people who have paranormal experiences fall into this bracket.
By far some of the most interesting information to be born out of this type of research is that there is a much higher rate of women experiencing paranormal experiences than men. This ties to the idea that childhood trauma and events of emotional and psychological abuse are a strong cause of seemingly paranormal occurrences. The fact that the rate of paranormal experiences and the rate of abuse is higher amongst women cannot be ignored, and should be explored further. Childhood abuse has a massive impact on the development of dissociative experiences in people. Not only that but paranormal experiences in those that have experienced abuse, trauma and serious life-changing events is now classified as a coping mechanism, particularly in children.
Moving on to a different state of mental ability we need to also consider the concept of transcendental meditation. Something that has become very popular over the years for many reasons. Meditation has the ability to alter a person’s consciousness with there being nothing pathological about the process. Altered states are believed to promote self-actualization or a form of enlightenment with the ultimate goal being self-improvement. It is important to realise that self-actualization does not necessarily always fall on the good side of the scale. There will be cases where this form of enlightenment breaks through to a more negative side of the spectrum, this can be experienced through supposed paranormal experiences. However, it still counts towards self-improvement, only focussing on the hidden negative parts of your mind rather than the positive, but ignored parts.
“Regardless about the opinions one has about the potential existence of a paranormal reality, it is important to understand the subjective significance of altered states of consciousness” – Alexander De Foe - Author, Researcher, PHD.
Further research done to establish the link between the paranormal and mental health is done through anomalistic psychology. Anomalistic psychology refers to “the study of extraordinary phenomena of behaviour and experience, including (but not restricted to) those which are often labelled paranormal.” It attempts to explain events that we perceive as paranormal, or related beliefs, in terms of known psychological and physical factors.
As stated in a lecture by anomalous psychologist Chris French, “An important part of scepticism is to always be open to the possibility that you might be wrong.” Anomalistic Psychology branches into two parts, the first part where it is assumed that the paranormal does not exist and the second part where claims of the paranormal are directly tested. In a test carried out by Dr French and his team, 5 women of more or less the same age were placed behind a screen. On the other side of the screens were 2 psychics. They were not allowed any verbal engagement, instead, the psychics were asked to channel the women without being able to see them or speak to them. The psychics had to write down any information they could gather about the women. The women were then asked to read out the results at random and point out if any of the information was related to them in any way. The first psychologist scored zero and the second only one. This allows us to understand that most psychics rely on cold-reading their clients to gain information that can convince them into believing in their abilities. However, it does not prove that real psychics do not exist. For that we would have to test every psychic on Earth.
Anomalistic psychology has shown us that unconscious muscular movement and cognitive bias is the most common explanation for all supposed paranormal encounters. The idea of dreams becoming a reality or the universe receiving our messages are most likely pure coincidence. Sometimes it is only a perceived coincidence and rather, not even a coincidence at all. This is an unwelcome explanation simply because it goes against the emotional impact it has on the person experiencing it. It is important to remember that even though an experience can be explained later on, at the time that it occurred it had an emotional impact on the person experiencing it and this should always be respected and dealt with accordingly.
As much as there is a strong link between your mental health and paranormal experiences, all that we have are various theories. There is no concrete evidence that a paranormal reality does not exist. Although a lot of these explanations are logical and serve as a valid explanation for occurrences experienced, it does not explain events where more than one witness is involved. It also does not explain some forms of evidence like electronic voice phenome (EVP), or images caught on camera. When looking at a case of the paranormal kind it is important that you evaluate every possible angle and every possible explanation. Not in the attempt to prove anybody wrong or to prove anybody right but simply because you are dealing with an uncertain situation and the mental and physical safety of all those involved should be of utmost importance. It is important to look at not only the paranormal symptoms involved but also the mental symptoms, otherwise the case has been handled in a one-minded way and important possibilities and channels are left unexplored.
