Scientists have identified the characteristics that make a person more likely to claim to hear the voices of the dead.
According to new research, a predisposition to high levels of absorption in tasks, unusual auditory experiences in childhood and a high susceptibility to auditory hallucinations, is stronger in self-described clairvoyant mediums than the general population.
The finding may help us better understand the disturbing auditory hallucinations associated with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, the researchers say.
The Spiritualist experiences of clairvoyance and clairvoyance – the experience of seeing or hearing something in the absence of an external stimulus, and attributed to the spirits of the dead – are of great scientific importance, both to anthropologists studying religious and spiritual experiences. , and scientists studying. pathological hallucinatory experiences.
In particular, researchers want to better understand why some people with auditory experiences report a Spiritualistic experience, while others find it more disturbing and receive a mental health diagnosis.
“Spiritualists tend to report unusual auditory experiences that are positive, start early in life and that they are then able to control,” explained psychologist Peter Moseley of Northumbria University in the UK.
“It’s important to understand how it develops, because it can help us understand more about disturbing or uncontrollable experiences of hearing voices as well.”
He and his fellow psychologist Adam Powell from Durham University in the UK recruited and examined 65 clear mediums from the UK’s Spiritualists’ National Union, and 143 members of the general population recruited via social media to determine what distinguishes Spiritualists of the general public, who do not (usually) report to hear the voices of the dead.
Overall, 44.6 percent of Spiritualists reported daily and 79 percent said the experiences were part of their daily lives. And while most reported hearing the voices in their heads, 31.7 percent reported that the voices were also external.
The results of the survey were striking.
Compared to the general population, the Spiritualists reported much greater faith in the paranormal and were less likely to care what other people thought of them.
The Spiritualists generally had their first auditory experience young, at an average age of 21.7 years, and reported a high degree of absorption. It is a term that describes the total deepening in mental tasks and activities or changing conditions, and how effective the individual is in tuning the world around them.
In addition, they reported that they were more prone to hallucination-like experiences. The researchers noted that they had not usually heard of Spiritualism before; rather, they came across it while searching for answers.
In the general population, high levels of absorption were also strongly correlated with belief in the paranormal – but little or no susceptibility to auditory hallucinations. And in both groups, there were no differences in the level of belief in the paranormal and susceptibility to visual hallucinations.
According to the researchers, this suggests that the experience of ‘the voices of the dead’ is unlikely to be a result of peer pressure, a positive social context or suggestiveness due to belief in the paranormal. Instead, these individuals adopt Spiritualism because it is consistent with their experience and personally meaningful to them.
“Our findings say a lot about ‘learning and longing’. For our participants, it seems that the principles of Spiritualism make sense of extraordinary childhood experiences as well as the frequent auditory phenomena they experience as exercise mediums,” Powell said.
“But all these experiences can be more the result of certain tendencies or early abilities than simply believing in the possibility of coming into contact with the dead if one tries hard enough.”
According to them, future research should examine a variety of cultural contexts in order to better understand the connection between absorption, faith and the strange, spiritual experience of ghosts whispering in the ear.
The research was published in Mental health, religion and culture.