En los Límites de la Experiencia Anómala: Examinando el “Viaje Astral” Como una Experiencia Transliminal
Keywords:
Out-of-body experience, transliminality, thin boundaries, anomalous experiences, spiritualityAbstract
The “astral body”, or out-of-body experience (OBE), is an experience in which the “self”, or center of awareness, seems to the person having the OBE to temporarily occupy a position spatially remote from the body. A drawback of assessing perceptual anomalies by extrapolating exclusively from the context of clinical psychiatry is the overreliance on hallucinatory phenomena. Transliminality hypothesis suggests that the immediate source of our perceptions is not our eyes or our ears, but rather the subliminal consciousness: percepts are first processed at an unconscious level and then, usually speedily, they are presented across the threshold to consciousness. The boundary construct is highly valuable in terms of understanding the factors which underpin the varieties of exceptional experiences, such as out of body experiences. Three specific hypotheses are tested here: People who report OBEs (experients) have a higher capacity for cognitive anomalous experiences (2) higher transliminality, (3) and thinner boundaries who score differently than control (non-experients). Participants who experienced OBEs (n= 100, 47%) were matched with participants who do not report OBEs (non experient, n= 111, 53%), ages ranged from 18 to 83 years old (M = 44.92; SD = 13.29). OBErs scored higher on anomalous experiences, higher on “thin” boundaries, high transliminality than for nonOBErs, which supported the three hypothesis. People who scored thinner boundaries also tended to score higher on spirituality, Emotional impact, transliminality, and anomalous experiences. The paper discuss OBE phenomena as an experient's sensitivity due to permeable ego boundaries. This sensitivity, may be related to some physiological differences in perceptual processing may also underly it.
References
Alvarado, C. S. (1986). ESP during spontaneous out-of- body experiences: A research and methodological note. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 53, 393–397.
Alvarado, C. S., & Zingrone, N. (1997). Out-of-body experiences and dissociation. In R. Wiseman (Ed.), Parapsychological Association 40th Annual Convention: Proceedings of presented papers (pp. 11–25). Brighton, England.
Alvarado, C. S., Zingrone, N. L., & Dalton, K. (1996). Out- of-body experiences, psi experiences, and the big five: Relating the NEOPI-R to the experience claims of experimental participants. Parapsychological Association 39th Annual Convention: Proceedings of presented papers.
Alvarado, C. S., & Zingrone, N. L. (1999). Out-of-body experiences among readers of a Spanish New Age magazine. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 63, 65–85.
Alvarado, C. (2016). Aspectos verídicos de las experiencias fuera del cuerpo. En A. Parra (Ed.) Ojos invisibles: La cruzada por la conquista del espiritu Una neurociencia de las experiencias paranormales (pp. 77-92). Buenos Aires: Antigua.
Barbuto, J., & Plummer, B. (1998). Mental boundaries as a new dimension of personality: a comparison of Hartmann’s boundaries in the mind and Jung’s psychological types. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 13, 421-436.
Barbuto, J., & Plummer, B. (2000). Mental boundaries and Jung’s psychological types: A profile analysis. Journal of Psychological Type, 54, 17-21.
Bell, V, Halligan, P.W., & Ellis, H.D. (2006). The Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale (CAPS): A New Validated Measure of Anomalous Perceptual Experience. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 32, 366-377.
Blackmore, S. (1978). Parapsychology and out-of-the-body experiences. London: Transpersonal Books / Society for Psychical Research.
Blackmore, S. J. (1984a). A postal survey of OBEs and other experiences. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 52, 225–244.
Blackmore, S. J. (1984b). A psychological theory of the out-of- body experience. Journal of Parapsychology, 48, 201–218.
Braithwaite, J.J., Samson, D., Apperly, I.; Broglia, E., & Hulleman, J. (2011). Cognitive correlates of the spontaneous out-of-body experience (OBE) in the psychologically normal population: evidence for an increased role of temporal-lobe instability, body- distortion processing, and impairments in own-body transformations. Cortex, 47(7), 839-853.
Buhlman, W. (2001). Aventuras fuera del cuerpo: Como realizar viajes extracorporales. Malaga: Sirio.
Crookall, R (2007). Experiencias extracorporales. Buenos Aires: Horme.
Funkhauser, A, Würmle, O., Cornu, C., & Bahro, M. (2001). Dream life & intrapsychic boundaries in the elderly. Dreaming, 11, 83-88.
Glicksohn, J. (1990). Belief in the paranormal and subjective paranormal experience. Personality and Individual Differences, 11, 675–683.
Gómez Montanelli, D.E., & Parra, A (2008). Are spontaneous anomalous/paranormal experiences disturbing?: A survey among under-graduate students. International Journal of Parapsychology, 13, 1-14.
Green, C. E. (1968). Out-of-the-body experiences. London: Hamish Hamilton.
Hartmann, E. (1989). Boundaries of dreams, boundaries of dreamers: thin & thick boundaries as a new personality dimension. Psychiatric Journal of the University of Ottawa, 14, 557-560.
Hartmann, E. (1991). Boundaries in the mind. New York: Basic Books.
Hartmann, E., Harrison, R., & Zborowski, M. (2001). Boundaries in the mind: Past research and future directions. North American Journal of Psychology, 3, 347-368.
Healy, J. (1984). The happy princess: Psychological profile of a psychic. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 52, 289-296.
Houran, J., Wiseman, R., & Thalbourne, M. A. (2002). Perceptual-personality characteristics associated with naturalistic haunt experiences. European Journal of Parapsychology, 17, 17-44.
Houran, J. Thalbourne, M., & Hartmann, E. (2003). Comparison of two alternative measures of the boundary construct. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 96, 311-323.
Houran, J. & Lange, R. (2009). Searching for an optimal level of transliminality in relation to putative psi. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 73, 92-102.
Irwin, H. J. (1980). Out of the body down under: Some cognitive characteristics of Australian students reporting OOBEs. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 50, 448–459.
Irwin, H. J. (1981). Some psychological dimensions of the out- of-body experience. Parapsychology Review, 12(4), 1–6.
Irwin, H. J. (1985). Flight of mind: A psychological study of the out-of-body experience. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
Irwin, H.J. (2004). An introduction to parapsychology, Fourth Edition. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Krippner, S., Wickramasekera, I., & Tartz, R. (2002). Scoring thick and scoring thin: The boundaries of psychic claimants. Journal of Subtle Energy, 11(1), 43-61.
Kunzendorf, R., & Maurer, J. (1988-89). Hypnotic attenuation of the ‘boundaries’ between emotional, visual, & auditory sensations. Imagination, Cognition & Personality, 8(3), 225-234.
Lange, R., Houran, J., & Storm, L. (2000). The revised Transliminality scale:Reliability and validity data from a Rasch top down purification procedure. Consciousness and Cognition: An International Journal, 9, 591-617.
McCreery, C., & Claridge, G. (1995). Out-of-the body experiences and personality. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 60, 129–148.
Monroe, R.A. (2008). Viajes fuera del cuerpo: La expansión de la consciencia más allá de la materia. Madrid: Palmyra.
Myers, S. A., Austrin, H. R., Grisso, J. T., & Nickeson, R. C. (1983). Personality characteristics as related to the out-of-body experience. Journal of Parapsychology, 47, 131–144.
Myers, A.S., & Austrin, H.R. (1985). Distal eidetic technology: Further characteristics of the fantasy prone personality. Journal of Mental Imagery, 9(3), 57-66.
Palmer, J. (1979). A community mail survey of psychic experiences. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 73, 221251.
Parra, A. (2010a) Out-of-body experiences and hallucinatory experiences: A psychological approach. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 29(3), 211-224.
Parra, A. (2010b). Aura vision as a hallucinatory experience: Its relation to fantasy proneness, absorption, and other perceptual maladjustments Journal of Mental Imagery, 34(3&4), 49-64.
Parra, A. (2013). Cognitive and emotional empathy in relation to five paranormal/anomalous experiences. North American Journal of Psychology, 15(3), 405-412.
Pekala, R., Kumar, V.K., & Cummings, J. (1992). Types of high hypnotically susceptible individuals and reported attitudes and experiences of the paranormal and the anomalous. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 86, 135150.
Persinger, M.A., & Makarec, K. (1987). Temporal lobe epileptic signs and correlative behaviors displayed by normal populations. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 114, 179–195.
Peters, E.R., Joseph, S., Day, S., & Garety, P. (2005). Measuring delusional ideation: the 21-item Peters et al. Delusions Inventory (PDI) Schizophrenia Bulletin, 30, 1005–1016.
Peters, E.R., Joseph, S.A., & Garety, P.A. (1999). Measurement of delusional ideation in the normal population: introducing the PDI (Peters Delusions Inventory) Schizophrenia Bulletin, 25, 553–576.
Richards, D. G. (1991). A study of the correlation between subjective psychic experience and dissociative experiences. Dissociation, 4, 83–91.
Sanders, R. E., Thalbourne, M. A., & Delin, P. S. (2000). Transliminality and the telepathic transmission of emotional states: An exploratory study. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 94, 1-24.
Sherwood, S.J., & Milner, M. (2004-2005). The relationship between transliminality and boundary structure subscales. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 24(4), 369-378.
Siegel, R. K. (1980). The psychology of life after death. American Psychologist, 35, 911–931.
Simmonds-Moore, C.A. (2009-2010). Sleep patterns, personality, and subjective anomalous experiences. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 29(1), 71-86.
Storm, L., & Thalbourne, M.A. (1998-1999). The transliminal connection between paranormal effects and personality in an experiment with the I Ching. European Journal of Parapsychology, 14, 100-124.
Tellegen, A., & Atkinson, G. (1974). Openness to absorbing and self altering experiences (“absorption”), a trait related to hypnotic susceptibility. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 83, 268–277.
Terhune, D. (2009). The incidence and determinants of visual phenomenology during out-of-body experiences. Cortex, 45, 236-242.
Thalbourne, M.A. (1998). Transliminality: Further correlates and a short measure. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 92, 402-419.
Thalbourne, M.A. (1999). Transliminality: A review. International Journal of Parapsychology, 11(2), 1-34.
Thalbourne, M.A. (2003). A glossary of terms used in parapsychology (2nd ed.). Charlottesville, VA: Puente Press.
Thalbourne, M. A., Crawley, S. E., & Houran, J. (2003). Temporal lobe lability in the highly transliminal mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 1965-1974.
Thalbourne, M.A., & Houran, J. (2000). Transliminality, the mental experience inventory and tolerance of ambiguity. Personality and Individual Differences, 28, 853-863.
Thalbourne, M. A., Keogh, E., & Witt, G. (2005). Transliminality and the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences. Psychological Reports, 96, 579-585.
Tobacyk, J. J., Wells, D. H., & Miller, M. M. (1998). Out- of-body experiences and personality functioning. Psychological Reports, 82, 481–482.
Vieira, W. (1986). Projeciología. Rio De Janeiro, RJ: Edición del Autor.
Wilson, S.C., & Barber T.X. (1982). The fantasy-prone personality: Implications for understanding imagery, hypnosis, and parapsychological phenomena. In A.A. Sheikh (Ed.) Imagery: Current theory, research, and application. New York: John Wiley.
Zingrone, N., Alvarado, C., & Agee, N. (2009). Psychological correlates of aura vision: Psychic experiences, dissociation, absorption, and synesthesia-like experiences. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 37, 131–168.
