Phase states, especially sleep paralysis and out-of-body experiences, often become the cause of paranormal beliefs. There are many stories of ghosts, demons, incubi, aliens, etc. throughout history that are intertwined with these phenomena. Scientists from the UK and Spain, including Brian Sharpless, who has been researching this topic for quite some time now, decided to investigate the relationship between such experiences and paranormal beliefs.
To this end, the authors conducted an overview of scientific articles in leading databases and found forty-four studies that traced associations between people’s beliefs and unusual experiences. In total, the scientists obtained data on the experiences of 27,130 people.
One of the researchers’ main findings was that practically all the states that we call phase states are linked. Lucid dreaming was often studied in conjunction with out-of-body experience, and near-death experiences were viewed through the prism of the intrusion of the rapid eye movement (REM) phase. Sleep paralysis is associated with belief in spirits, ghosts, and witches, while out-of-body experiences often lead to stories of alien abductions.
Stress plays a certain role in forming the link between beliefs and paranormal experience. Many studies of this kind have been conducted on people who have experienced adversity (such as refugees). Another popular sample group is students, who are constantly under stress.
This link still needs to be studied, but if it is confirmed, it could be beneficial to medicine—at the very least, the number of misdiagnoses in cases when patients talk about paranormal experiences will decrease. In addition, it will be easier for doctors to explain to patients (who have been, for example, “abducted by aliens”) what has actually happened to them.
Have you ever mistaken a phase state for a paranormal encounter?
The article was published in April 2023 in the British Journal of Psychology.
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