Evaluation of the Occurrence of Anomalous Information Reception in Messages in an Allegedly Mediumistic Process.

The study of mediumship and the phenomenon of Anomalous Information Reception (AIR) has the potential to produce new evidence about the mind and its relationship with the brain. This study investigated the occurrence of AIR in an allegedly mediumistic procedure. To control leakage of information, the medium was filmed and remained under supervision throughout all procedures. The hit rate of the items of information generated was analyzed as well as signs of fraud (such as cold reading, deduction and the use of generalization) and the information disclosed to the medium. The medium produced 57 items of information, of which six were not recognized, four had been disclosed, six could have been deduced, 11 may be regarded as generic and 30 were correct, were not disclosed or were very unlikely to have been deduced, obtained by cold reading or considered generic. The result is highly indicative of the occurrence of AIR.

Spirit Mediumship and Mental Health: Therapeutic Self-transformation Among Dang-kis in Singapore.

While some early studies suggested that spirit mediums were psychiatrically ill individuals who found a culturally sanctioned role, subsequent work has found that they are generally in good physical and mental health. While the calling to be a healer often involves an initiatory illness, practitioners go on to play demanding social roles, suggesting that involvement in mediumship may be therapeutic for the practitioner. This study focuses on dang-ki healing, a form of Chinese spirit mediumship practiced in Singapore to explore whether participation in dang-ki healing is therapeutic for the mediums. We interviewed eight dang-kis from five temples about their life trajectories and assessed their mental health status with standardized psychological questionnaires. Most of the dang-kis did not appear to suffer from clinically significant emotional distress. Their narratives suggest that involvement in dang-ki mediumship may have therapeutic effects in which the embodied experience of self plays a central role. The dang-kis experienced changes in social identity, bodily experiences during spirit possession, and their overall sense of self through recurrent possession rituals. In general, the practice of spirit mediumship illustrates how the experiences and meanings of the self are constructed and reconstructed through body-world relations in ways that may confer a sense of wellness and social efficacy.

Is There Someone in the Hereafter? Mediumship Accuracy of 100 Readings Obtained with a Triple Level of Blinding Protocol.

The accuracy of information obtained by 28 self-claimant mediums related to 100 readings obtained with a triple level of blinding was examined across three indices: percentage of correct reading identified by the sitters, global score of readings and percentage of difference between correct and incorrect information.All three indices showed statistical differences of the intended versus the control readings: correct identification 65%; global score: intended readings, mean = 2.4, SD = 1.5; control readings, mean = 1.7, SD = 1.2; percentage difference between correct and incorrect information: intended readings, mean = -7.9%, SD = 38.7%; control readings, mean = -27.3%, SD = 38%.Our results using a very large sample, confirm previous results, supporting the hypothesis that self-claimant mediums are able to retrieve correct information about deceased people without knowing and interacting with the sitters having access with only to the deceased persons' first name.

Case Report: Anomalous Experience in a Dissociative Identity and Borderline Personality Disorder.

Introduction: Dissociative identity disorder, formerly called multiple personality disorder, is a rupture of identity characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personality states, described in some cultures as an experience of possession. Objective: The case of a 30-year-old woman with dissociative identity disorder and borderline personality disorder associated with a previous history of anomalous experience was reported. Case Report: A 30-year-old woman who fulfilled the DSM-5 criteria for dissociative identity disorder and borderline personality disorder reported the presence of unusual sensory experiences (clairvoyance, premonitory dreams, clairaudience) since she was 5 years old. The patient told that for 12 months she presented episodes in which a "second self" took charge of her actions: she would then speak with a male voice, become aggressive, and require several people to contain her desire for destruction. After 3 months of religious follow-up, and accepting her unusual experiences and trance possessions as normal and natural, she had significant improvement. Conclusion: When approaching DID and BPD patients, it is necessary to observe the anomalous phenomena (in the light of) closer to their cultural and religious contexts, to promote better results in the treatment of their disorders, which has not been explored in the treatment guide.

Self-Ascribed Paranormal Ability: Reflexive Thematic Analysis.

This study investigated personal perceptions (involvements) and comprehensions (interpretations) of self-ascribed paranormal abilities. Twelve participants with supposed supernatural powers took part in semi-structured interviews exploring the origin, phenomenology, and nature of their powers. Interview transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (RTA), a qualitative method that identifies patterns within data. Four major themes expressed meanings and representations held by participants: Formative Influences (sub-themes: Gifted Family Members and Anomalous Occurrence), (Inter) Subjective Paranormal Experience (sub-themes: Transcendental/Mystic and Extra-Sensory Perception), Embodied Processes (sub-theme: Control), and Perception of Reality (two sub-themes: Self-Awareness and Fantastic/Surreal Perceptions). Consideration of themes identified an inextricable link between perception, interpretation, and belief in ability. Within narratives, interviewees outlined, contextualised, and established the validity of their powers. They drew upon supporting autobiographical evidence from their life histories and obfuscated and/or discounted conventional explanations. Generally, accounts reflected individual attempts to comprehend and justify the nature and experience of professed abilities. The authors discuss these processes and suggest ways to extend and develop ensuing research.

Cognitive Health and Differential Cortical Functioning in Dissociative Trance: An Explorative Study About Mediumship.

Aim: To evaluate the cognitive functioning of subjects practicing trance mediumship in Brazil. Method: The study was based on the measurement of cognitive functions of 19 spirits mediums through neuropsychological tests such as the Brief Cognitive Screening Battery (BCSB), the Verbal Fluency Test (FAS), the digit span test, the cube test, the five digit test (FDT) and an evaluation of mental health through scales such as the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Self-Report Questionnaire (SRQ), and the Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ). The sample included the participation of spirit mediums divided into two groups. The more experienced group (MEG) with 11 subjects had more than 10 years of mediumistic practice, while the other less experienced group (LEG) with 8 subjects had 1-5 years of experience. The inclusion criteria were psychophonic mediums (who have the ability to communication when deceased beings communicate directly via speaking) with regular trance practices for at least one year. The data collected were analyzed using the SPSS statistical package. Results: Regarding performance on the BCSB and digit span test, all subjects reached scores at the median or higher in comparison to standardized scores of Brazilians. Scores of 90% on the cube test and 42% on the FAS were reached in comparison to median or higher values, versus the median of standardized scores among Brazilians. On the FDT, we found statistical significance (p = 0.038) in the choice stage, with higher performance of subjects whose initial age of trance recognition occurred before 21 years old. On the BDI scale, no participant met the criteria for major depression. The SRQ showed an incidence of common mental disorders in 21% of the sample, which was more prevalent in the LEG (p = 0.008). Conclusion: The cognitive functioning of subjects who practice trance mediumship in Brazil is associated with cognitive health. Executive dysfunction may be a tendency in LEG. However, an incidence of common mental disorders in the LEG was observed. Executive processing was higher in the subgroup with early practices of recognizing the phenomenon.

Testing alleged mediumistic writing: An experimental controlled study.

CONTEXT: Mediumship is understood as a kind of spiritual experience in which a person (i.e., a medium) claims to be in communication with, or under the control of, spiritual beings. In the last decades there has been a resurgence of studies on psychological, psychiatric and neuroscientific aspects of mediumship, as well as studies assessing the claim that mediums can obtain anomalous information from deceased persons. OBJECTIVE: To assess the evidence for anomalous information reception about deceased people in texts produced through alleged mediumistic writing (psychographic letters) under strictly controlled experimental conditions. METHOD: Eight mediums and ninety-four sitters participated in the study. Eighteen mediumistic writing sessions were carried out using blind proxy sitters. Later, each sitter received the target mediumistic letter and five control letters paired by gender and age. Sitters blindly scored the accuracy of the six letters both with a global score and for each of the objectively verifiable items of information presented on the letters. Scores from target and control letters were compared. RESULTS: There was no difference in global evaluation and specific fit scores between control and target letters. The mediums involved in the research were not able to show evidence for providing anomalous information about deceased people when under our strict controlled conditions. We argue for establishing a reasonable compromise between ecological validity and controlled condition.

Forced-choice experiment on Anomalous Information Reception and correlations with states of consciousness using the Multivariable Multiaxial Suggestibility Inventory-2 (MMSI-2).

CONTEXT: An Anomalous Information Reception (AIR) experiment was developed. OBJECTIVE: To statistically examine the occurrence of AIR in multiple experimental tests and explore their predictive psychological mechanisms. DESIGN: First, we investigated whether human beings could guess the positive or negative content from 30 randomly selected images that would be presented on a computer screen, one at a time. Ninety participants reported being mediums and another 90 claimed to be nonbelievers in the paranormal. The participants were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: (1) positive-relaxing environments, (2) neutral environments, and (3) negative-stimulating environments. Second, the prediction of successes recorded in the AIR experiment was tested using five Multivariable Multiaxial Suggestibility Inventory-2 (MMSI-2) scales that measured the altered state of consciousness (ASC) and suggestibility. RESULTS: The successes did not exceed the estimated chance. The only significant results revealed that mediums obtained a greater number of correct answers than the non-believing participants. Bayesian estimation also confirmed these results. In the same way, the altered states of consciousness and suggestibility negatively predicted 25.8% of successes in the AIR experiment. CONCLUSIONS: Insufficient statistical evidence was obtained for AIR. The results raise doubts about previous theories on AIR. Further research is required. Nevertheless, mediums obtained more success answers than nonbelievers did. This means that the anomalous sheep-goat effect is also present in mediums and supports results obtained in previous studies.

Mediumship accuracy: A quantitative and qualitative study with a triple-blind protocol.

AIMS: assess if mediums could give accurate information about the deceased in a triple-blind protocol and to investigate the source of information using a quantitative and qualitative analysis. METHODS: nine mediums produced thirty-eight readings related to thirty-eight deceased individuals chosen by thirty-six sitters using a triple-blind protocol with no direct interaction with the sitters themselves. In this protocol, the medium was provided with only the deceased's name by the interviewer, the latter having no further knowledge about the deceased. In every session, the medium was asked to provide information about two deceased persons of the same gender. This information, excluding generic details, was entered into two anonymous lists. The information of these two readings was sent to the research assistant charged with maintaining contact with the sitters. Each sitter was asked to assign a value to every piece of information listed using a four- point Likert scale from 'totally wrong' to 'totally correct', and to provide a global score for each reading. RESULTS: 65.8% of the intended readings were correctly identified with respect to the chance of 50%. Furthermore, intended readings had on average 29.5% more correct information than the control ones. Qualitative data indicate that mediums attain information both passively and actively, that is as if they retrieved information without or directly interacting with the deceased. CONCLUSIONS: this study provides further evidence that some mediums are able to obtain accurate information about deceased people knowing only the deceased's name and with no interaction with sitters; it also supports the hypothesis that, in some cases, the sources of the information are the deceased themselves.

Controlled semi-naturalistic protocol to investigate anomalous information reception in mediumship: Description and preliminary findings.

INTRODUCTION: In the current resurgence of studies investigating anomalous information reception (AIR) in mediumship, it has become a major challenge to balance ecological validity and rigorous control. OBJECTIVE: To describe the method and present preliminary findings of a new controlled semi-naturalistic protocol combining ecological validity and control to investigate AIR in psychography (automatic writing), a form of mediumship that does not allow for instantaneous feedback. METHOD: Experienced Brazilian psychography mediums and bereaved sitters were selected and blinded to each other until the automatic writing experimental sessions began. Mediums were continually monitored and filmed during all the procedures. Sitters filled in questionnaires on grief, spirituality, and paranormal beliefs. Investigators controlled all information received by the mediums: names of the sitter and deceased, age and cause of death and short interviews (usually ≤ 1 min). The experimental automatic writing sessions took place under the view of sitters and researchers. Immediately after the sessions, and then a few months later, sitters rated how likely the letter is to have come from their deceased loved ones. RESULTS: A total of 142 sitters and three mediums participated, producing 26 automatically written letters to 21 sitters. Mediums felt comfortable with the protocol. Most sitters were women (82.4%) and had completed higher education (57.8%). Sitters who received letters had higher grief scores. At the time, 96.2% of letters were considered definitely or probably from the deceased relative, with a small but significant decline (92.3%) a few months later. CONCLUSION: The new controlled semi-naturalistic method was well accepted and seems to be promising as a complementary method for investigating AIR in mediumship. Information obtained by mediums during sitters` brief interviews is a limitation, but they were registered by video recording and will be taken in consideration in the future analysis that will explore further the accuracy and probability of leakage of verifiable items of information in the letters.

Experiências mediúnicas e dissociativas em Fernando Pessoa e C. G. Jung à luz da psicologia analítica e da psicologia anomalística / Mediumistic and dissociative experiences in Fernando Pessoa and C. G. Jung in light of analytical psychology and anomalistic psychology / Expériences médiumniques et dissociatives chez Fernando Pessoa et C. G. Jung à la lumière de la psychologie analytique et de la psychologie anomalistique / Experiencias mediúmnicas y disociativas en Fernando Pessoa y C. G. Jung a la luz de la psicología analítica y de la psicología anómala

Resumo O poeta Fernando Pessoa e o psiquiatra C. G. Jung desenvolveram suas obras em consonância com suas biografias. Ambos descreveram episódios que podem ser interpretados como mediúnicos, buscando, também, compreendê-los psicologicamente. Na literatura psicológica atual, a mediunidade pode ser entendida por meio do conceito de dissociação da personalidade. Dessa maneira, este artigo buscou examinar as relações entre dissociação e mediunidade a partir de episódios biográficos de Pessoa e de Jung, à luz da psicologia analítica e da psicologia anomalística. Hipotetiza-se que eles vivenciaram experiências dissociativas criativas e não patológicas, embora algum nível de sofrimento estivesse envolvido. Em Pessoa, as experiências dissociativas são relacionadas com sua produção hetoronímica, enquanto em Jung e suas investigações, com o desenvolvimento de seu modelo psicológico, que oferece elementos para um estudo psicobiográfico e artístico do poeta.

Abstract Poet Fernando Pessoa and psychiatrist C. G. Jung developed their works consonant with their biographies. Both described episodes that can be interpreted as mediumistic, seeking to understand them psychologically. In current psychological literature, mediumship is associated to the concept of personality dissociation. In this regard, this article examines the relationship between dissociation and mediumship based on Pessoa's and Jung's biographical episodes, in light of analytical psychology and anomalistic psychology. It is hypothesized that they experienced creative, non-pathological dissociations, although some level of suffering was involved. Pessoa's experiences are related to his hetoronymic production, whereas Jung's are tied with the development of his psychological model, which offers elements for a psychobiographical and artistic study of the poet.

Resumé Le poète Fernando Pessoa et le psychiatre C. G. Jung ont développé leurs œuvres en accord avec leurs biographies. Tous deux ont décrit des épisodes qui peuvent être interprétés comme médiumniques, en cherchant à les comprendre psychologiquement. Dans la littérature psychologique actuelle, la médiumnité est associée au concept de dissociation de la personnalité. À cet égard, cet article examine la relation entre dissociation et médiumnité à partir des épisodes biographiques de Pessoa et de Jung, à la lumière de la psychologie analytique et de la psychologie anomalistique. L'hypothèse est qu'ils ont fait l'expérience de dissociations créatives et non pathologiques, bien qu'un certain niveau de souffrance y ait été impliqué. Chez Pessoa, ces expériences sont liées à sa production hétéronymique, tandis que chez Jung, elles sont liées au développement de son modèle psychologique, ce qui offre des éléments pour une étude psychobiographique et artistic du poète.

Resumen El poeta Fernando Pessoa y el psiquiatra C. G. Jung desarrollaron sus obras en consonancia con sus biografías. Ambos describieron episodios que pueden interpretarse como mediúmnicos, también buscando comprenderlos psicológicamente. En la literatura de la psicología actual, la mediumnidad puede entenderse bajo el concepto de disociación de la personalidad. Así, este artículo buscó examinar la relación entre disociación y mediumnidad a partir de los episodios biográficos de Pessoa y Jung, a la luz de la psicología analítica y la psicología anomalística. La hipótesis supone que estos autores tuvieron experiencias disociativas creativas y no patológicas, aunque estas involucraron cierto nivel de sufrimiento. En Pessoa, las experiencias se relacionan con su producción de la heteronimia; y en Jung, con el desarrollo de su modelo psicológico, que ofrece elementos para un estudio psicobiográfico y artístico del poeta.

Ritual futures: Spirit mediumship as chronotopic labor.

This essay reflects on the still-present difficulty in approaching contemporary rural mediumship as coeval with their urban psychotherapeutic counterparts. Drawing on ethnographic work in rural Henan province in central China, I describe how both rurality and spirit mediumship have been rendered anachronistic through national imaginaries, anti-superstition campaigns, and psychiatric discourses. The essay centers on the case of a spirit medium located in the psychiatric unit, and the social evolutionary and developmentalist temporalities condensed in her cultural psychiatric diagnosis. I then turn to the medium's ritual work and cosmological account, which invert mediumship's position in space and time. The essay approaches mediumship's rituals as a form of chronotopic labor, which reworks the spatio-temporal coordinates they inherit from within. It closes by bringing together the conundrums of rural mediumship and those of urban psychotherapeutic and diasporic worlds, to consider psychic landscapes of dislocation, and other formulations of futures to come.

Anomalous information reception by mediums: A meta-analysis of the scientific evidence.

Background and purpose Mediumship is the ostensible phenomenon of human-mediated communication between deceased and living persons. In this paper, we perform a meta-analysis of all available modern experimental evidence, specifically from 2001 to December 2019, investigating the accuracy of apparently anomalously received information provided by mediums about deceased individuals. Methods 14 papers passed our selection criteria, for a total of 18 experiments. Both Bayesian and frequentist random effects models were used to estimate the aggregate effect size across studies. Results The overall standardized effect size (proportion index), estimated with a frequentist and a Bayesian random effects model, yielded a value of .18 (95% C.I. = .12 - .25) above the chance level. Furthermore, these estimates passed the control of two publication bias tests. Conclusions The results of this meta-analysis support the hypothesis that some mediums can retrieve information about deceased persons through unknown means.

The Politics of Madness and Spirit Possession in Northern India.

Being a medium of a god is common and normative in the Western Himalayas. In this article I present a case of three mediums who were regarded with mixed feelings by society, because their mediumship strongly criticized religious practices and the caste system. The villagers in the study area have cultural-religious practices that help them cope with deviant forms of mediumship - patterns such as ignoring a person or gossiping about them to express skepticism or to label the possession as inauthentic. These approaches were not effective in these cases. As a result, the biomedical concept of madness was invoked by some members of the community to put an end to what they regarded as deviant mediumship.

Accuracy and neural correlates of blinded mediumship compared to controls on an image classification task.

In this study, a classification task asked participants to look at 180 facial photographs of deceased individuals (photographs were taken years prior to their deaths) and guess the cause of death from three equiprobable categories: heart attack; death by firearm; or car accident. Electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) data were simultaneously collected during the task. The participants included individuals who claimed "mediumistic" (psychic) abilities and controls who claimed no mediumistic ability. Pooled data showed accurate guesses for the cause of death (partial η2 = 0.12; p = 0.004), and control subjects were primarily responsible for this effect (partial η2 = 0.11; p = 0.005). EEG and ECG differences were found between the mediums and controls. Control participants had larger amplitude event-related potentials (ERP) following the presentation of the images than the mediums, between 80 and 110 ms, and between 200 and 350 ms. This could be interpreted as reflecting greater attention and less response inhibition by controls as compared to the mediums. Participants in the control group also had lower average heart rates than the mediums, possibly indicating less stress during the task. Speculations and limits regarding why controls performed better than mediums are discussed.

"Seat of the soul"? The structure and function of the pineal gland in women with alleged spirit possession-Results of two experimental studies.

BACKGROUND: Cultural traditions attribute to pineal gland an important role for spiritual experiences. Mediumship and spirit possession are cultural phenomena found worldwide which have been described as having dissociative and psychotic-like characteristics, but with nonpathological aspects. A sympathetic activation pattern in response to spirit possession has been reported in some studies, but empirical data on pineal gland is scarce in this context. METHODS: We aimed to investigate pineal gland and pituitary volumes, as well as urinary 6-sulfatoxymelatonin levels in 16 alleged mediums (Medium Group-MG) compared with 16 healthy nonmedium controls (Control Group) (Experiment 1). Furthermore, we aimed to evaluate urinary 6-sulfatoxymelatonin and stress reactivity in GM (n = 10) under different physiological conditions (Experiment 2). RESULTS: In Experiment 1, MG presented higher scores of anomalous experiences, but there were no between-group differences regarding mental health or subjective sleep quality. Similar pineal gland and pituitary volumes were observed between groups. There were no between-group differences in urinary 6-sulfatoxymelatonin collected under equivalent baseline conditions. In Experiment 2, the rise of anxiety and heart rate in response to mediumistic experience was intermediate between a nonstressful control task (reading) and a stressful control task (Trier Social Stress Test-TSST). No significant differences were observed in 6-sulfatoxymelatonin urinary levels between the three conditions. The pattern of stress reactivity during the TSST was normal, but with an attenuated salivary cortisol response. CONCLUSION: The normal neuroimaging and stress reactivity findings in MG contrast with the abnormal results usually observed in subjects with psychotic and dissociative disorders.

Characteristics of English-speaking trance channelers.

Historical records suggest that channeling has existed globally, in a variety of cultures, for thousands of years, and recent research suggests that channeling is more prevalent than most people realize. The present study used an online survey to explore mental health factors, personality characteristics, subjective experiences, and the impact of channeling on 83 participants who self-identified as trance channelers. Most participants endorsed being spiritual but not religious as adults, and on average the channeling experiences began at middle age. The majority of participants did not report pathological levels of dissociative or psychotic symptoms, anxiety or depression. Compared to relevant norms, participants reported similar scores on most personality factors, psychological absorption and empathy. Participants' average scores on emotional and environmental sensitivity corresponded to being designated as sensory-processing sensitives. Participants reported high levels of noetic beliefs and experiences, particularly beliefs in life after death, non-local consciousness, and telepathy. Most participants reported that their channeling process is willful and consensual and that they are consciously aware of the channeling state while it occurs. The majority of participants also reported a positive impact of channeling on their lives. Lower psychotic symptoms, older age when the trance channeling experiences began, and higher sensitivity scores predicted a greater positive impact of trance on participants' lives. Given that trance channeling has played a role in religious and spiritual traditions around the world throughout history, the present study provides an important exploration of the trance channeling phenomenon.

Dang-Ki healing: An embodied relational healing practice in Singapore.

This article explores the processes of transformation of the self in dang-ki healing, a form of Chinese spirit mediumship in Singapore, drawing on more than a decade of ethnographic research. In dang-ki healing, it is believed that a deity possesses a human, who is called a dang-ki, to help clients (i.e., devotees). Through the dang-ki, clients can interact with powerful deities in ways that help them feel hopeful and supported. The dang-kis themselves may also benefit therapeutically from their participation as mediums. Many dang-kis suffer from personal conflicts and distress before becoming a medium and they express and transform their distress through the idiom of spirit possession. Since deities represent traits and moral values promoted in Chinese culture, possession by a deity allows the dang-ki to embody an ideal self and to acquire spiritual knowledge by engaging in ritual practices involving cleansing, self-mortification, stereotyped movements, and altered consciousness. At the same time, junior possessing deities must undergo training under the guidance of senior deities to achieve a higher level of spiritual existence by helping clients through the dang-ki's body. Thus, in dang-ki healing, practitioners, clients and possessing deities are transformed in parallel ways. The dynamics of this reciprocal and interdependent healing process differ from the individualistic approaches in Western psychotherapy and shed light on the links between healing processes, cultural ontologies, and concepts of personhood.

Becoming Eusapia: The rise of the "Diva of Scientists".

Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918) is remembered as one of the most famous mediums in the history of spiritualism. Renowned scientists attended her séances in Europe and in the United States. They often had to admit to being unable to understand the origin of the phenomena produced. Cesare Lombroso, for example, after meeting Eusapia, was converted first to mediumism, then spiritualism. This article will retrace the early stages of her career as a medium and shed light on the way she managed to gain the attention of scientists. It will also show why they chose her as an epistemic object.