1) Personal Encounter with Paranormal Dreaming: Understanding Anomalous Experiences.

Reposted blog, as its original posting could no longer be opened.

There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It
is a dimension as vast as space, and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and
superstition; and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the
summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination;
it is an area which we call The Twilight Zone---Rod Serling

Anomalous experiences are uncommon or irregular psychological phenomena that deviate so profoundly from the worldview of EuroAmerican science our first response is to believe they are hoaxes and/or symptoms of mental illness. Consequently our attempts to discuss anomalous phenomena (i.e., out-of-body experiences, near death experiences, psi-related experiences, and so on) with intellectually conservative friends and colleagues are conversations we usually come to regret. This is because such conversations seldom progress beyond discussing questions regarding the scientific legitimacy associated with studying these kinds of phenomena. Many of us interested in weird science programs like The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Medium, Ghost Whispers, The Night Stalker, Supernatural, The Dead Zone, etc., are already keenly familiar with anomalous experiences. What is it about these programs that make them so popular? Do these programs entertain us because the stories are so fantastic that they could not possibly be real? Do some of us secretly wish that we could have similar experiences? Or is it that some of us have experienced similar kinds of phenomena and are seeking ways to understand them?

Addressing these concerns, Etzel Cardena, Steven Jay Lynn, and Stanley Krippner have published their comprehensive edited volume Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence (2000). Indeed the questions I raised in the previous paragraph have been echoed in Grant Jewel Rich’s review of Varieties of Anomalous Experience, referring to it as: “Required reading for the fictional FBI agent Fox Mulder from television’s popular series, The X-Files” (Rich: 266, 2001).

On the one hand, this volume helps to transform the status of these phenomena from that of mere “social facts” and the folklore of primitive “belief systems” to that of cognitive constructs capable of being operationalized within the language and constructs of Western psychology. This raises the status of these phenomena to the level of “empirical facts” which can be analyzed using the paradigms of Western science. Such valiant efforts make anomalous consciousness experience(s) accessible and relevant to mainstream social science and are an important first step.

One can only hope that our conservative friends and colleagues will accept this paradigmatic olive branch and take the time to read this carefully edited volume. Indeed if this volume is successful in reaching its goal, it will produce some noticeable cracks in the cosmic egg of EuroAmerican science. Stanley Krippner has said that in his 40 years of investigating these phenomena this is his most important contribution (Krippner, 2004). The APA recognized Krippner for his work in this area in 2002 with this citation:

"For his outstanding efforts to expand the frontiers of the psychological study of consciousness, for his unstinting service interpreting indigenous traditions of world cultures for Western audiences, for his dauntless achievements in promoting psychology as a vehicle for world peace, for his uncompromising mentoring of generations of devoted students, for the generosity with which he has welcomed scholars from two dozen countries into both his worldview and the psychological profession, his colleagues in the American Psychological Association take great pride in bestowing on him the Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology" (American Psychologist: 960, 2002).

Varieties of Anomalous Experience provides mainstream psychologists and psychiatrists with a means to frame anomalous experiences into classifications that resemble psychopathologies already identified and categorized in the every growing Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed, (DSM-IV). On the other hand, this paradigmatic olive branch necessitates a significant compromise. Translating anomalous phenomena into the cognitive constructs of mainstream psychology requires us to adopt a symptom oriented medical model emphasizing abnormal behavior, deviance, and social control.

The contributors to Varieties of Anomalous Experience recognize the compromise this book makes in its attempt to reach out to mainstream psychology. Fully realizing that all of the unanswered questions this volume cultivates represent a subtle and non-confrontational way of raising the need for a paradigm shift in Western science. Speaking to the concern of how much further mainstream psychology has to evolve toward embracing the worldview of humanistic, transpersonal, and ecopsychology, Krippner and Jeanne Achterberg point out that, “biomedical investigators rarely ask such questions as, is there a recovery prone personality? (Krippner & Achterberg: 356, 2000). That is, do some people have a personality that assists them not only in healing but also in preventing us from getting ill in the first place? Carl and Stephanie Simionton explore this question in relationship to cancer patients in their book Getting Well Again (1978). More recently,

"[Etzel] Cardena added that there is no current diagnosis in psychology and psychiatry for the underdevelopment of a person’s capacities for achieving an enjoyable quality of life; nor is disregard for the environment looked upon as a disorder by biomedical practitioners, although it would be a sign of imbalance and dysfunction by most indigenous practitioners" (Krippner & Achterberg: 356, 2000).

One can only hope the paradigmatic bridges that Varieties of Anomalous Experience hopes to establish with mainstream science will serve to make future conversations with conservative colleagues less painful and more productive. It will assist scientists to move away from a worldview that has kept the field of psychology in a polemical dither for over a century—a worldview that sees any state of consciousness which is not within the normal range of consciousness as abnormal. Varieties of Anomalous Experience points us toward that elusive utopia of wholeness, whose secrets remain shrouded in mysteries we have yet to unveil through our continuing exploration of humankind’s personal, ontological, and cosmological states and stations of growth, and personality development.

References

(references will be posted at the end of the last entry in this blog series).