2015, Number 1
<< Back Next >>
Rev Mex Invest Psic 2015; 7 (1)
Anomalous perceptual experiences in the construct of “thin” boundaries: Its relation with schizotypy
Parra A
Language: Spanish
References: 47
Page: 43-51
PDF size: 144.28 Kb.
ABSTRACT
According to some esotheric traditions, and some New Age
thinkers, the aura is conceptualized as a energy field surrounding
all living beings. However, a psychological study
shows that people who reported seeing spontaneous energies
or auras may have higher level of imaginative activity
or propensity to fantasy (Parra, 2010). In the present study
three hypotheses are tested: people who claim to have seen
the “aura” (experienced aura) have greater ability to have (1)
abnormal cognitive experiences, (2) high “transliminality”,
and (3) “thinner” boundaries. The sample consisted of 212
adults recruited through an e-mailing list of people interested
in paranormal topics. The data were compared between
those who reported seeing auras (
n = 97) and those from a
control group (
n = 115). The hypotheses were supported,
and it was also found that “transliminality” was the best predictor
for aura experience.
REFERENCES
Alvarado, C. S., & Zingrone, N. (1994). Individual differences in aura vision: Relationship to visual imagery and imaginative- fantasy experiences. European Journal of Parapsychology, 10, 1-30.
Barber, T. X. (1982). Eidetic imagery as a very vivid imagery and as hallucinatory behavior. Journal of Mental Imagery, 6, 32-35.
Barbuto, J., & Plummer, B. (1998). Mental boundaries as a new dimension of personality: a comparison of Hartmann’s boundaries in the mind and Jung’s psychological types. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 13, 421-436.
Barbuto, J., & Plummer, B. (2000). Mental boundaries and Jung’s psychological types: A profile analysis. Journal of Psychological Type, 54, 17-21.
Bell, V, Halligan, P. W., & Ellis, H. D. (2006). The Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale (CAPS): A new validated measure of anomalous perceptual experience. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 32, 366-377 [DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbj014].
Braithwaite, J. J., Samson, D., Apperly, I. Broglia, E., & Hulleman, J. (2011). Cognitive correlates of the spontaneous out-of-body experience (OBE) in the psychologically normal population: evidence for an increased role of temporal-lobe instability, body-distortion processing, and impairments in own-body transformations. Cortex, 47(7), 839-853, doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2010.05.002
Dale, A., Anderson, D., & Wyman, L. (1978). Perceptual aura: Not spirit but afterimage and border contrast effects. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 47, 653-654, doi: 724406
Fraser Harris, D. F. (1932). A psycho-physiological explanation of the so-called human ‘aura.’ British Journal of Medical Psychology, 12, 174-184, doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1932. tb01072.x
Funkhauser, A, Würmle, O., Cornu, C., & Bahro, M. (2001). Dream life & intrapsychic boundaries in the elderly. Dreaming, 11, 83-88 [DOI: 10.2224/sbp.2001.29.6.557].
Garrett, E. (1939). My Life as a Search for the Meaning of Mediumship. Nueva York, NY. Oquaga Press.
Glicksohn, J. (1990). Belief in the paranormal and subjective paranormal experience. Personality and Individual Differences, 11, 675-683, doi: 10.1016/0191-8869(90)90252-M
Hartmann, E. (1989). Boundaries of dreams, boundaries of dreamers: thin & thick boundaries as a new personality dimension. Psychiaric Journal of the University of Ottawa, 14, 557-560, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0028977
Hartmann, E. (1991). Boundaries in the Mind. Nueva York: Basic Books.
Hartmann, E., Harrison, R., & Zborowski, M. (2001). Boundaries in the mind: Past research and future directions. North American Journal of Psychology, 3, 347-368, doi: 10.2466/PMS.96.1.311-323
Healy, J. (1984). The happy princess: Psychological profile of a psychic. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 52, 289-296.
Houran, J., Wiseman, R., & Thalbourne, M. A. (2002). Perceptual- personality characteristics associated with naturalistic haunt experiences. European Journal of Parapsychology, 17, 17-44.
Houran, J. Thalbourne, M., & Hartmann, E. (2003). Comparison of two alternative measures of the boundary construct. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 96, 311-323, doi: 10.1016/j. paid.2008.01.022
Irwin, H. J. (1985). Flight of Mind: A psychological study of the out-of-body experience. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. Irwin, H. J. (2004). An introduction to Parapsychology, (4ta. ed). Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Krippner, S., & Rubin, D. (Eds) (1973). Galaxies of life. The human aura in acupuncture and Kirlian photography. Nueva York, NY: Cordon and Breach.
Krippner, S., Wickramasekera, I., & Tartz, R. (2002). Scoring thick and scoring thin: The boundaries of psychic claimants. Journal of Subtle Energy, 11(1), 43-61 [DOI: 10.6051/j.issn.2313-5611.2015.01.4]
Kunzendorf, R., & Maurer, J. (1988-1989). Hypnotic attenuation of the ‘boundaries’ between emotional, visual, & auditory sensations. Imagination, Cognition & Personality, 8(3), 225-234, doi: 10.2190/YWAD-KK7V-NFLL-3K44
Lange, R., Houran, J., & Storm, L. (2000). The Revised Transliminality Scale: Reliability and validity data from a Rasch top down purification procedure. Consciousness and Cognition: An International Journal, 9, 591-617, doi: 10.1006/ ccog.2000.0472
Lindgren, C. E. (1995a). A review of aura imaging photography by Johannes Fisslinger. Journal of Religion and Psychical Research, 18, 49-50.
Lindgren, C. E. (1995b). Capturing your aura on film. Fate, 48(1), 32-35.
Moss, T. (1979). The body electric: A personal journey into the mysteries of parapsychological research, bioenergy, and Kirlian photography, Los Angeles, CA: Tarcher.
Myers, S. A., Austrin, H. R., Grisso, J. T., & Nickeson, R. C. (1983). Personality characteristics as related to the out-ofbody experience. Journal of Parapsychology, 47, 131–144, doi: 10.1007/s10943-014-9885-4
Myers, A. S., & Austrin, H. R. (1985). Distal eidetic technology: Further characteristics of the fantasy prone personality. Journal of Mental Imagery, 9(3), 57-66.
Neher, A. (1980). The psychology of transcendence. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Owen, A. R. G., & Morgan, G. A. V. (1974). The ‘rim’ aura, an optical illusion: A genuine but non-psychic perception. New Horizons, 1,19-31.
Palmer, J. (1979). A community mail survey of psychic experiences. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 73, 221-251.
Parra, A. (2010). Aura vision as a hallucinatory experience: Its relation to fantasy proneness, absorption, and other perceptual maladjustments. Journal of Mental Imagery, 34(3&4), 49-64, doi: 10.1038/srep02486
Parra, A. (2012). Relación entre las experiencias paranormales y esquizotipia positiva/negativa. Acta Psiquiátrica y Psicológica de América Latina, 58(4), 246-255.
Pekala, R., Kumar, V. K., & Cummings, J. (1992). Types of high hypnotically susceptible individuals and reported attitudes and experiences of the paranormal and the anomalous. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 86, 135-150.
Persinger, M. A. (1988). Increased geomagnetic activity and the occurrence of bereavement hallucinations: Evidence for melatonin-mediated microseizuring in the temporal lobe? Neuroscience Letters, 7, 271-274, doi:10.1016/0304- 3940(88)90222-4
Persinger, M. A., & Makarec, K. (1987). Temporal lobe epileptic signs and correlative behaviors displayed by normal populations. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 114, 179–195, doi: 10.1080/00221309.1987.9711068
Sherwood, S. J., & Milner, M. (2004-2005). The relationship between transliminality and boundary structure subscales. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 24(4), 369-378, doi: 10.2190/1YH2-51J5-TG3E-UTFU
Simmonds-Moore, C. A. (2009). Sleep patterns, personality, and subjective anomalous experiences. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 29(1), 71-86, doi: 10.1046/j.1365- 2869.2001.00254.x
Swann, I. (1975). To kiss Earth good-bye. Nueva York, NY: Hawthorne Books.
Terhune, D. (2009). The incidence and determinants of visual phenomenology during out-of-body experiences. Cortex, 45, 236-242 [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2007.06.007].
Thalbourne, M. A. (1998). Transliminality: Further correlates and a short measure. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 92, 402-419, doi: 10.1016/j. paid.2008.01.022
Thalbourne, M. A. (1999). Transliminality: A review. International Journal of Parapsychology, 11(2), 1-34.
Thalbourne, M. A. (2003). A glossary of terms used in parapsychology, (2da. ed.). Charlottesville, VA: Puente Press.
Thalbourne, M.A., & Houran, J. (2000). Transliminality, the mental experience inventory and tolerance of ambiguity. Personality and Individual Differences, 28, 853-863, doi: 10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00143-9
Thalbourne, M. A., Crawley, S. E., & Houran, J. (2003). Temporal lobe lability in the highly transliminal mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 1965-1974, doi: 10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00044-8
Thalbourne, M. A., Keogh, E., & Witt, G. (2005). Transliminality and the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences. Psychological Reports, 96, 579-585, doi: 10.2466/pr0.96.3.579-585
Wilson, S. C., & Barber T. X. (1982). The fantasy-prone personality: Implications for understanding imagery, hypnosis, and parapsychological phenomena. En A. A. Sheikh (Ed.) Imagery: Current theory, research, and application. Nueva York, NY: John Wiley.
Zingrone, N., Alvarado, C., & Agee, N. (2009). Psychological correlates of aura vision: Psychic experiences, dissociation, absorption, and synaesthesia-like experiences. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 37, 131–168.