| Abstract/Results: | ABSTRACT:
Numerous studies have found that normal, healthy individuals may experience hallucinations, which reveal that a substantial number of nonclinical participants (i.e., people who have not been clinically referred or have never received a psychiatric or neurological diagnosis) report having typical hallucinatory experiences. In contrast, an extrasensory experience is one in which it appears that the experient's mind has acquired information directly, that is, seemingly without either the mediation of the recognized human senses or the processes of logical inference. The extrasensory experience pertains to appearances and not necessarily to reality, whereas the "extrasensory" in extrasensory perception refers to the nature of a hypothesized paranormal reality. Research on predisposition to extrasensorial experiences has evaluated differences between nonexperients and experients. The similarity between symptoms of schizotypal personality disorder and characteristics of ESP experiences is marked. These experiences do not occur in a vacuum but are closely interwoven with many other psychological processes. A total of 648 undergraduate psychology students at Faculty of Psychology of the UAI from Argentina, 494 (76%) females and 154 (24%) males, ranging in age from 17 to 57 years (M = 25.11, SD = 7.23), who completed six scales, Hallucination Experiences Scale; the Schizotypical Personality Questionnaire, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire; the Dissociation Experiences Scale ; the Tellegen Absorption Scale; and the Creative Experiences Questionnaire. The present study examined the differences between persons with and without Precognitive dreams (N Yes= 46%) and Extrasensorial experiences (N Yes= 45%) on different cognitive and psychological measures. The findings suggest that especially cognitive-perceptual aspects of schizotypy (both experiences z= 4.68; p < .001, one-tailed) are essential features of persons who had Precognitive dreams and Extrasensory Experiences; also suggesting that the dissociational model of extrasensorial experiences, which assumed that under lying dissociative proceses such as absorption and fantasy proneness are associated with ESP Experiences and Precognitive dreams. The cognitive-perceptual aspects of schizotypy, dissociation, and absorption seem to be present in the personal predisposition for experiencing an ESP Experiences. A possible theoretical model that seems to emerge from the present results is that of a “happy schizotype”. Positive schizotypy, reflecting hallucinations and altered perceptual experiences, has been related to subjective anomalous and para normal experiences and beliefs. It is tentatively concluded that the const ellation of interrelated factors which make up the construct of the “fantasy prone personality” provide a psychological predisposition for the extrasensorial experiences experience.
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