Anomalistic Psychology - PNI.org | Pacific Neuropsychiatric Institute

Anomalous experiences imply that the "experient" (the person having the experience), experiences it as of paranormal, psychic or bizarre kind such that it cannot easily be explained using our conventional laws of science. This does not imply that the experience truly is paranormal or psychic. Most of the time, there are physical, psychological, or statistical explanations. ESP or extrasensory perception is the most well known term for one kind of anomalous experience. It refers to communication of information without using one's conventional physical senses. Many feel anomalous experience in another sense implies contradictions of the laws of physics. Dr. Neppe has regarded the term ESP as prejudicial as if indeed such events occur, there should be mechanisms involved that link with natural laws. Many years ago he suggested neutral terminology such as the word "delta" for the whole area of anomalous experience and ESP would be "afferent delta" and psychokinesis (PK) would be encompassed under "efferent delta". (1) Many experiences are subjective and cannot be proven objectively. They occur spontaneously and may be very real for the person experiencing it - the experient. The happenings may have origins in abnormal psychology such as hallucinations which impair functioning, or they may be unusual or unexplained phenomena, such as subjective paranormal experiences. (SPEs) (2) Because of this, we are able to research areas on subjectivity in a non-prejudicial way. (3, 4, 5, 6). examining temporal lobe symptomatology (3), incidence of SPEs, associations with hallucinations of smell (5), and electroencephalographic correlates (6).

See the primer for a summary of the terms.

Technically, the term "phenomenology" has several meanings to philosophers, for example, "the study of all possible appearances in human experience, during which considerations of objective reality and of purely subjective response are left out of account" and this developed into Edmund Husserl's early 1900's movement based on this doctrine. Furthermore, David Hume developed "phenomenolism" as a philosophical doctrine that percepts and concepts actually present in the mind constitute the sole object of knowledge, with the objects of perception themselves, their origin outside the mind, or the nature of the mind itself remaining forever beyond inquiry. (7) We use the term "phenomenology" in this section a little differently: Phenomenology implies the non-prejudicial philosophical and scientific study of phenomena.

This way we are potentially able to correlate subjective experience with parameters such as brain function and natural environmental fluctuations such as geomagnetic data, objective testing for anomalous experience, and variations with other hallucinatory, autoscopic, d?j? vu and near-death experiences as well as obtain lengthy subjective details about each anomalous experience potentially demonstrating subtypes of phenomena. (8)

References

We will demonstrate with a dice game. Please note that this is not an experiment for believers or skeptics. Everyone can participate and such participation involves understanding that any data accumulated may be used for research or publication. Playing signifies tacit consent to our use of that data. Use constitutes agreement with the disclaimer.

Test Yourself For Anomalous Experience

Try the Dice Game to see if you may have anomalous experience.