Anomalistic Psychology Final

Why We See What We

Fear
-Hannah Towne-

All around the world, no matter

what country, religion or time
period you live in. We all have our
own beliefs of the paranormal.
However things are not always as
they seem.

-Let's Debunk all of our fears of the

Paranormal-

Anomalistic Psychology
-

This field of psychology focuses around the paranormal and its believers
Its defined as- The study of human behaviour and experience connected with
what is often called the paranormal, with the assumption that there is nothing
paranormal involved.
This was formed by a psychologist by the name of Henry Maudsley in the late
1830s.
It is still an active form of psychology used to simply, debunk the paranormal

Anomalistic cont.
- Throughout the years psychologist have been able to narrow
down what causes our beliefs.
- The factors can be anything from-

Cognitive biased
Personality factors
Developmental issues
The nature of your memory and much more

No matter what the cause everything that is said to be paranormal, has a

reasonable explanation
Let's Break it down

Ghosts
- Many researcher who have looked into ghosts have found
common traits within a few of them.
- Medical conditions such as sleep apnea and sleep paralysis,
which cause hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations.
(relating to drowsiness, or unconsciousness prior to waking
up)
- Sleep paralysis occurs when there is disconnect between the
body and mind during REM sleep. (this is the time when you
dream most vividly)
- During this time it causes your body to become paralyzed
momentarily, ultimately followed by your dreaming mind
state causing hallucinations

Ghosts cont.
- Happens when you wake up or when your going to bed
- It can also happen during the day day dreaming has been
known to trigger these hallucinations
- Other causes
-

Carbon monoxide
Environmental
No matter what there is always an explanation

Debunking the Paranormal

Extraterrestrials- Psychosocial Hypothesis (this revolves around the theory that
any and almost all sightings have mundane explanations. Things such as planes,
celestial objects, balloons and many other misperceived objects. This is the case for
UFO sightings)
-

Actual terrestrial sightings can be resolved as merely psychosocial. As in the

people who are believed seek and feel an obligation to want to see what is not
real.

This causes dream like hypnosis and sights that more often than not are
nothing more then the mind playing tricks.

How your brain causes sightings

- Seeing poltergeists- Is caused by the right hemisphere of the
brain which controls visual processing.
-

Certain forms of epilepsy are said to cause spooking feelings of a presence

stalking you, and even flashes of objects that aren't there.

- Seeing faces in the mirror- Can be debunked to a neurological

phenomenon that can even happen in a healthy brain
- When you look at yourself in half light, you reflection may be distorted. From
there your brain tries and fills in the missing pieces. This sometimes causes you to see
a whole other face.
- So any combination of exhaustion, drugs, alcohol, and tricks of the light could
contribute to single, isolated sightings

Brain cont.

People who see hidden faces in pictures or any paranormal.

Have been said to have higher brain activity.

With this they also have a weaker cognitive inhibition

This causes them to not be able to push away such ideas and sightings as
easily as skeptics or at all.
These paranormal believers are also more confident about what they
believe.