Transcript Personality Variables in Spontaneous Psi Research: Contextualizing the Boundary Construct in its relationship to Spontaneous Psi Phenomena UTRECHT II – CHARTING THE FUTURE OF.

Personality Variables in Spontaneous Psi
Research: Contextualizing the Boundary
Construct in its relationship to Spontaneous Psi
Phenomena
UTRECHT II – CHARTING THE FUTURE OF PARAPSYCHOLOGY
Christine Simmonds-Moore, PhD.
Spontaneous psi experiences

Are more common among certain individuals


Are also more likely in certain states of
consciousness/situations


Boundary thinness, Transliminality, Positive Schizotypy,
Temporal lobe lability, Dissociation, Absorption,
Extraversion, Creativity
Dreams, hypnagogia, meditation, being wide awake,
right hemisphere, consciousness binding processes,
subliminal perception
“Boundaries” are a parsimonious way of
understanding these superficially disparate
variables
Introducing the “boundary construct” and
its relevance to parapsychology
Boundaries reflect the functional/anatomical
level of connectivity between neural, biological,
and cognitive structures in the mind-brain and the
extent to which conscious experiences are
experienced as fused or separated.
Boundary thinness may also be observed
interpersonally (e.g., as empathy) and between
the person and the environment


Boundaries are not a new idea in parapsychology – (e.g.,
Myers, James, Bergson)
Recent attention to the idea in the work of Hartmann (1991)
on Boundary Thinness and Thalbourne on Transliminality
(e.g., Thalbourne & Houran, 2000)
Psychometric (trait) measures of
boundary thinness
1.
2.
3.
4.



Hartmann’s Boundary Questionnaire (e.g., Hartmann,
1991)
Thalbourne’s Transliminality (e.g., Thalbourne & Houran,
2000)
Positive schizotypy (e.g., unusual experiences of Mason
et al’s O-LIFE)
Temporal lobe lability (e.g., Persinger & Makarec’s
Complex Partial Epileptic like Signs)
All correlate with psi experiences
 These variables load on one unified factor (SimmondsMoore, 2008; Thalbourne and Maltby, 2008).
Psychometric boundary thinness also relates to other psi
relevant variables:- including dissociation, absorption,
extraversion and creativity
Physiological boundaries

Neural connectivity

Reduced inhibition

Vertical connectivity or
increased connection
between sub-cortical and
cortical brain structures


Reduced cortical dominance
Lateral connectivity or
increased connection
between the left and right
hemispheres

Reduced dominance of left
hemisphere, more input of RH
processes
Cognitive-perceptual boundaries I
 Representational
/memory-related
boundaries

Associational
processing

Synaesthesia
Cognitive-perceptual boundaries II

Attentional boundaries


Wider “attentional spotlight”
Greater availability of subliminal information
Conscious
awareness
Thin boundaries
Thick boundaries
Preconscious
processes
Boundaries of conscious experience

The extent to which
meaningfulness/emotion/significance is
attached to a perceptual experience


Distinctness of states of consciousness


E.g., thoughts are fused with feelings
E.g., sleep states interject into wakefulness
“Consciousness binding”
Interpersonal/environmental boundaries

Emotional closeness/empathic connection
with another person or the world

E.g, emotional closeness and psi
Types of boundary may have different
relationships to psi and mental health
Personality boundaries relate in different
ways to psi experiences
 Different types of boundary may relate
differently to psi experiences
 Little empirical work has focused on
attempting to test



Psi and pseudo psi hypotheses associated with
different boundary types
Different types of boundary thinness and
mental health/pathology
Boundaries as a state

The hypnagogic state of consciousness
seems to be associated with several forms
of boundary thinness



Associated with over as well as under-arousal
and can occur during the daytime
More likely among those with psychometric
thin boundaries
Meditation also seems to be associated
with several forms of boundary thinness
Implication I of boundaries as state and trait

Reformulation of notion of boundary
thinness – trait boundary thinness may
reflect a greater likelihood of entering thin
boundary states
Suggestion one for future
research/development:

Develop more of an understanding
regarding which boundaries and
psychometric measures of overall
boundary thinness relate to which
anomalous and psi phenomena


Some boundaries relate more to pseudo
psychic experiences, whilst others may relate
to genuine ESP
Some boundaries (and combinations of
boundaries) relate to mental health, while
others may relate to ill health
Implication II of boundaries as state
and trait

If boundaries are a state, we might be
able to manipulate them and potentially
learn more about how to gain control over
experiencing paranormal experiences


Implications for mental health
Implications for parapsychology
Suggestion two for future
research/development:

Explore different ways of manipulating “boundary
thinness”

Previous work implies that a range of
variables/circumstances may affect boundary thinness






Fasting (Persinger, 1989)
Sleep quality (Simmonds, 2005a)
Reduced nocturnal dreaming (after Giesbrecht & Merckelbach,
2004)
Meditation (Persinger, 1989; Travis & Arendander, 2006;
Woodfolk, 1975)
Intense emotional states (Thalbourne, Crawley & Houran,
2003).
Boundaries might be manipulated by exploration of
improving sleep/systematically reducing sleep, meditation,
the use of “hemi-sync” stimulation.
Suggestion three for future
research/development:

Use profiles of personality rather than
unidimensional scales



Anomalous experiences are associated with both
pathology and transcendence
There are adaptive and less adaptive components
associated with boundary thinness (as positive
schizotypy) which underpins the tendency to experience
anomalies
Recent evidence - employing cluster analysis - implies
that there are two types of positive schizotype

This reflects scoring on how people score on the other
aspects of schizotypy (cognitive disorganisation,
introvertive anhedonia and to a lesser extent impulsive
nonconformity)
Four Profiles of schizotypy
1. Happy or healthy
2. Low schizotypy
positive schizotypy
high
scoring
on unusual experiences
in isolation
High score on a
measure of mental health
Low
scoring on all aspects of
schizotypy
- Highest score on a measure
of mental health
3. Negative schizotypy
High scoring on
introvertive anhedonia
Low score on a
measure of mental health
4. High or mixed
schizotypy
High
scoring on
unusual experiences,
cognitive disorganisation
and introvertive anhedonia
Lowest score on a measure
of mental health
Suggestion five for future
research/development:

Consider boundary thinness from the
perspective of evolution

It has been argued that there may be adaptive
elements associated with the schizophrenia
gene - observed in positive schizotypy

Mainstream literature argues that these are creativity
and religion/spirituality; I argue that this might also
include psi
Evolutionary considerations:






Traits should have a genetic component,
associated with better survival benefits
Increased “fitness” (traits are associated with
mating success)
Traits demonstrated an original adaptation to the
environment
Traits demonstrate current adaptiveness
Behaviour will favour those carrying similar genes
Behaviour will be biased toward biological
survival of self and genes
The evolutionary context of boundary
thinness and psi




There is evidence for schizophrenia as an
adaptation
There is evidence for adaptiveness of schizotypy
related (thin boundary) traits
Evidence for psi from an evolutionary perspective
Recent work indicated that healthy positive
schizotypy was the only cluster to be associated
with significant psi performance (Holt &
Simmonds-Moore, 2008)

Might psi be selected indirectly by evolution?
Summary of evolutionary approach to
boundaries and psi:
Allows for greater insight into the reasons
for and purpose of psi experiences
 Allows for greater understanding of when
psi experiences might happen in those
with thin and thicker trait boundaries
 Adds to existing arguments in favour of an
adaptive element to the schizophrenia
gene

Suggestion five for future
research/development:

Consider boundary thinness and psi
phenomena in terms of interactionism and
situationism


Boundaries are state and trait and as such
anyone can experience phenomena associated
with thinner boundaries, given the right
circumstances
Boundary thinness interacts with other
variables (geomagnetism, gender) with regard
to anomalous experiences

Different circumstances may encourage psi/pseudo
psi experiences for some but not others
Summary of suggestions for future
research/development for personality variables in
spontaneous psi research
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Delineate which boundaries (psychometric and
types of boundary) relate to which anomalous
and psi phenomena and mental health
Explore methods for manipulating boundary
thinness to control anomalous experiences
Use personality profiles rather than scoring on
unidimensional boundary scales/develop new
scales to distinguish healthy from unhealthy
forms of boundary thinness
Consider boundary thinness and psi phenomena
from an evolutionary perspective
Consider boundary thinness in terms of
interactionism and situationism
Thank you for your attention