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Scientists have identified traits that can make a person more likely to claim to hear the voice of the dead.
According to new research, a predisposition to high levels of task absorption, unusual childhood hearing experiences, and high sensitivity to auditory hallucinations all occur more strongly in self-described clairaudient mediums than in the general population.
The discovery could help us better understand the upsetting auditory hallucinations that accompany mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, the researchers say.
The spiritualistic experiences of clairvoyance and clairaudience – the experience of seeing or hearing something in the absence of an external stimulus, and attributed to the spirits of the dead – is of great scientific interest, both to anthropologists who study religious and spiritual experiences only for scientists who study pathological hallucinatory experiences.
In particular, the researchers would like to better understand why some people with auditory experiences report a spiritualistic experience, while others find it more distressing and are diagnosed with mental health.
“Spiritists tend to report unusual auditory experiences that are positive, start early in life and are often able to control,” explained psychologist Peter Moseley of the University of Northumbria in the UK.
“It’s important to understand how these develop, as it could help us better understand the agonizing or uncontrollable experiences of hearing voices.”
He and his fellow psychologist Adam Powell from Durham University in the UK recruited and interviewed 65 clairaudient psychics from the UK’s National Union of Spiritualists, and 143 members of the general population recruited via social media, to to determine what differentiated spiritualists from the general public, who do not (generally) claim to hear the voice of the dead.
Overall, 44.6% of spiritualists reported hearing voices daily, and 79% said the experiences were part of their daily life. And while most said they heard the voices in their heads, 31.7% said the voices were external as well.
The results of the investigation were striking.
Compared to the general population, Spiritualists reported a much higher belief in the paranormal and were less likely to care what others thought of them.
Overall, the Spiritualists had their first hearing experience at a young age, at an average age of 21.7 years, and reported a high level of absorption. It is a term that describes total immersion in mental tasks and activities or altered states, and how effective the individual is in regulating the world around him.
In addition, they indicated that they were more prone to hallucination-type experiences. The researchers noted that they generally had not heard of spiritualism before their experiences; rather, they had met him 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 sensitivity to auditory hallucinations. And in the two groups, there was no difference in levels of belief in the paranormal and susceptibility to visual hallucinations.
These findings, say the researchers, suggest that the experience of the “ voice of the dead ” is therefore unlikely to be the result of peer pressure, a positive social background, or suggestibility due to belief. to the paranormal. Instead, these people embrace spiritualism because it aligns with their experience and is personally meaningful to them.
“Our results say a lot about ‘learning and desire’. To our participants, the principles of spiritualism seem to make sense of both the extraordinary experiences of childhood as well as the common auditory phenomena they experience as practicing mediums, ”said Powell.
“But all of these experiences may result more from having certain tendencies or early abilities than just believing in the possibility of contacting the dead if one tries hard enough.”
Future research, they concluded, should explore a variety of cultural contexts to better understand the relationship between absorption, belief, and the strange spiritual experience of whispering ghosts.
The research was published in Mental health, religion and culture.
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