Selective Attention

Introduction

Selective attention is when a person only sees parts of something, but does not necessarily notice the other details of the same thing. It is, according to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/selective+attention "the process by which a person can selectively pick out one message from a mixture of messages occurring simultaneously." Watch the video below by Daniel Simons.  

Did you spot the gorilla? The Monkey Buisness Illusion

See also

Applications of 'selective attention'

So if we do not see the whole picture, but merely certain aspects of it, as was demonstrated in Simons's video above, how can this knowledge be applied to life the paranormal? Logically, selective attention would work in conjunction with cognitive dissonance - this would mean that we only see what we want to see and therefore we do NOT notice the other details because we focus our attention on a part of it and as a result we miss the other points or details that we didn't want to see. In other words, we see the bits that we want to see (which are in accord with our belief, e.g.) and we miss the bits that we didn't (the details that were not in accord with our belief, basically). 

   Clearly, this can work in the mediumship circle/demonstration context. If a person. for instance, believed that a medium was giving highly accurate information that was all correct during a one-to-one reading, they may selectively focus their attention more on the bits that confirm this belief and not on the bits (the statements) that did not confirm this belief. Because the person selectively focussed on the bits that confirmed their belief, these particular statements will be remembered and the statements that were incorrect are forgotten because the person did not notice them. This, of course, leads to their memories being selective - selective memory.

  (To be continued...)

Past Lives & Future Lives

Introduction

Some people believe in reincarnation. That is, that after the end of a lifetime, we get born into another lifetime. In between, according to Life Between Lives by Michael Newton, there is a stage where, after a person has died and exited their previous lifetime, they enter another world where they meet their soul group (deceased family members and friends) and spirit guides. This world is what mediums and spiritualists, who believe in its existenence, term the spirit world. Here, Past Life Regression and Future Life Progression will be discussed.

Past Life Regression

Past life regression (P.L.R.) is the practice of regressing someone to experience or access their past lives. It can be helpful for people psychologically and spiritually, although whether the memories that are said to be of or from past lives are actually from past lives is debatable.

   Consider the following:

Q1. Even if PL memories were from actual past lives, they wouldn't be entirely accurate due to selective memory and reconstructive memory. So with this knowledge in mind, how accurate would memories from Past Lives actually be?

Q2. Furthermore, the memories wouldn't necessarily be entirely correct, because of cognitive dissonance - the person in the past life whose memories they are would only be seeing things and significant events solely from their own perspective which may result in their rememembering particular details that are in accord with their belief that a particular outcome had happened at a fault of another person's during a significant event that had had a major impact on that life. This would mean that they only remembered details that are in accord with that belief or viewpoint and forget those that were not.  

Q3. If, in this current lifetime, an individual had had an extremely traumatic experience earlier in life - probably in early childhood - but they had caused themselves to consciously forget about the experience, the traumatic memories may end up burying themselves in their subconscious mind and, during a PLR session, these memories may be discovered, but, perhaps due to transliminality, these memories present themselves as memories from a past life. However, because of their traumatic nature, transliminality works in this in that it allows their valuable information to be a accessed by the conscious mind in a safer form (as mere 'past life memories') which will help the individual to come to terms with their content. In other words, if the traumatic memories that had been hidden deep in the subconscious were presented as 'past life memories', it would mean that the individual does not necessarily need to know they were from this lifetime, but can work, in a more dissociated state, to deal with these psychological problems as if they were lived by their soul but in a different lifetime as a different person. Alternatively, the traumatic memories may be misperceived by the person being regressed as being memories from a past life. 

Case studies

Details about past lives vary. Past life experiences vary. Some people believe they were famous people - such as Anne Boleyn or Cleopatra or some historical monarch - whilst others had seemingly mundane lives where they had lived in a rainforest. Details from past lives are not usually very specific and are often rather vague. For example, in Figure 1, Person A says they had had a lifetime in a rainforest. Person A did not get a lot of detail about it, although they had an video-memory where they were young tribal children jumping into a rainforest river. But was this a real past life memory, or was it fantasy? If it was a past life memory, in what rainforest did it take place? When did the lifetime take place - could it have been a lifetime where they had been living in a rainforest which had, in more recent times, been chopped down - e.g. a rainforest in the United Kingdom? Or did it even take place in a rainforest on Earth? Could it have occurred in a parallel universe, or another planet that was Earth?

Did Person A's PL take place in the Amazon?

Person A may believe that the rainforest was the Amazon rainforest, but just because they believe this doesn't mean that it is true. They did not come up with a lot of details, so consequently there isn't actually any evidence for whether it took place in the Amazon rainforest. It could have taken place in some other rainforest other than the Amazon.

Cognitive dissonance

Some people think that they share characteristics with the people who they believe they had been in a past life. For example, Anne Boleyn liked to play cards and dance when she was younger. A person who believes that they were Anne Boleyn may be aware of this and "remember" that when they were young, they, too, liked to play cards and to dance. This serves to strengthen their belief that they had been Anne Boleyn in a past life. Of course, they would have more differences than similarities to Anne Boleyn, but because of cognitive dissonance, they only recall these two "similarities". Of course, this "memory" may not be true - they may not have actually liked to play cards and to dance when they were younger. This may have been made up by their mind. They may have hated playing cards or dancing, but due to reconstructive memory, this memory is altered, in order to confirm their belief. So they remember liking playing cards and dancing when in fact hey actually didn't. A possible antedote to this scenario is to ask one's elders - parents etc. - whether they remembered if they had had a liking for cards and dancing when they were young. Of course, it is possible that the person did have a liking for cards and dancing, but their parents can't remember.       

Similarly, if a person believed that they had been a monarch (e.g. Henry VIII) in a past life, this may explain to them why, in their opinion, they behave rather like they had been a monarch in a previous lifetime (bossing people around, letting people clean up after themselves, etc.).

Future Life Progression

Future Life Progression (FLP) is a technique for accessing one's future lifetime. Originally discovered by a psychic called Anne Jirsch, it can be used to help a person spiritually with their current lifetime. According to her book, The Future Is Yours, she stumbled across it during a past life regression of her and two friends - Steve and Dave, conducted by a student of hers called Dan, p.11: "After taking us through the relaxation techniques, Dan told us, 'Feel yourself floating back through time. Float all the way back to a previous life, one where you have all met before.' All three of us sat in silence, our eyes closed. Eventually Dan asked, 'Steve, what are you aware of?'" Then '"This is odd,' he replied, 'I don't know what is going on. All I can see are two skyscrapers next to each other. There is smoke coming out of them.' He paused. 'I don't know what all of this means - I haven't gone back to a past life at all. Maybe my mind isn't right at the moment. I just can't see anything other than these skyscrapers.' Dan said, 'Tell me what else you see.' Steve continued. 'There's smoke coming out of the skyscrapers. I don't know where this is. There are people on the ground running, there is lots of dust. A helicopter is circling the building.' He added, 'It is not army, nor police. It says CNN. This is America.' Dave then reported, 'I'm not seeing a past life either. but I'm not seeing what Steve is seeing. All I can see is a bay, but I don't recognise it. This sounds mad, but it's as if the skyline has changed. How can a skyline change?'" Then Anne Jirsch spoke up next. "'I'm somewhere completely different from you guys. All I can see is the Middle East and oil.' That was all, we saw no more and had no idea what any of it meant. At the time we thought we had got our wires crossed; it had just been a bad session. We gave up, deflated, believing we had been unsuccessful. ... Two weeks later I received a call from Dave at my office. 'Have you heard?' 'Heard what?' I replied, confused. 'It's happening, everything we saw in the session is happening. Steve and I are at work transfixed by the television, watching everything we saw happen.' I logged onto the web and went to Sky News. My blood ran cold as I saw the very scenes Steve and Dave had described. Suddenly, we understood what the session  had been about and why I had seen the Middle East. Our three visions had seemed unconnected but now we knew better: we jumped forward in time." Lo and behold, Future Life Progression was born.

To be continued...

 

Superstitions

  Introduction

Superstition is an interesting area to explore. Why do people believe in the supernatural? Why is it that some people believe that a black cat crossing one's path signifies a spell of good luck, or any other aspect of the unusual? 

Case Study 1

Look at the following Figures. 

Figure 1

Figure 1: This stick man's relative died recently in July. Shortly after they died, this stick man came across loads of (red admiral) butterflies.

Figure 2: The Paranormal Believer

Figure 2: This stick man (Person A), who also came across "loads of butterflies" shortly after their relative died takes the butterflies as a "sign" that their dead relative is still around them in spirit. In other words, they have put 1 (the relative's death) and 2 (the numerous butterflies they came across shortly afterwards) together and made 5. Person A has wrongly put two separate, unrelated events together. In doing so, they have a false belief that their loved one is still around them. They do not consider more mundane explanations that could be held accountable for why they came across so many butterflies after the death.

Figure 3: The Sceptic

Figure 3: This stick man (Person B), is a sceptic and contrary to Person A, they do not believe that there is a link between the deceased person and the butterflies phenomenon. As he/she tells us, the time when the relative died was during cold damp weather. In other words, the weather was edging towards the weather we associate with winter. What do butterflies do in winter time? They look for places to hibernate. So Person B logically thinks that the reason why they came across "loads of butterflies" shortly after the person died was because "The butterflies were merely looking for a place to hibernate."

Figure 4: Therefore The Sceptic concludes that the butterflies were "...not linked to my relative's death, because the butterflies were merely going into my house to hibernate." (As a joke, his 'poor relative', the ghost, is stuck as to how it can prove its existence because "Sceptics are so hard to convince!")

So whilst butterflies were believed to be a sign that the dead relative lived on in spirit form, this was by no means correct.

The Believer vs. The Sceptic

The Believer assumes or believes that there is some link between:

a) the death of a loved-one

and

b) the phenomenon of coming across lots of butterflies.


Logically, there is no direct link between the death of a person and coming across lots of butterflies. The butterflies phenomenon merely coincided with the death of the stick man's relative. Just because two completely different events happened in a very short span of time to each other doesn't mean that there is some significance that links the two together - or that, as in cause-and-effect, one event (the butterflies) happened as a result of another event (the death). Nor should the latter event be taken as some sort of sign that the deceased person is still around in spirit after their death.
   As The Sceptic had said, the death occurred when the weather was "very cold and damp" - this meant that the butterflies were looking for a place to hibernate and happened to be looking for a place in the stick man's home. Purely by coincidence, the person died during this time and The Believer assumed that the butterflies phenomenon was linked in some way to the death of their relative.

 

The explanation

So what's the explanation for the superstitious assumption that the butterflies phenomenon was linked to the person's death? Well, as well as a lack of critical thinking, the explanation is:

Classical conditioning.

What is 'classical conditioning'?

Classical conditioning, as taken from my entry for the concept on my blog post Psychology, refers to when "Something (e.g. relaxation), which was caused by something else (e.g. meditation) is associated with having been caused by another factor (e.g. crystals) that was present, when in fact the effect (relaxation) was caused by something else (meditation) and not by another factor that happened to be present (crystals)." Classical conditioning explains superstition, effects of crystal energies, Reiki and Reiki symbols, energy sensing as well as many other other things. 

Some more examples

Superstition                                                            Meaning

Black cat crossing one's path                 an increased spell of good luck is on its way

White feathers appearing soon

after the death of a loved one                 the deceased person is being looked after by the angelic beings

"Fingers crossed"                                  a gesture for good luck

"Touch wood"                                      a saying of good luck in a scenario whose outcome is unpredictable

Sprinkling salt at one's front door            supposed to ward off evil, bad or unwanted guests from entering someone's home

Tingling or goosebumps                         associated with the presence of a deceased loved-one

Discussion

Do butterflies really mean that a loved-one is still around?

As well as classical conditioning and lack of critical thinking, another explanation for some of the above examples of superstition is that maybe the person had some sort of experience whose outcome turned out for the better after doing the ritual of "touching wood" for example. Perhaps Person A had an exam for Biology, so perhaps he "touched wood" as some means of trying to receive a good outcome out of a scenario whose outcome was unpredictable. Then Person A did well in the exam and consequently, he believes that touching wood helps with one's good luck. There is also the possibility that if he touched wood just before he went for his exam, he may have tried harder (subconsciously, perhaps) at his work as he had the belief that he will do well as result of touching wood (or some other ritual). This latter event - trying harder - led to his successful outcome at his exam, yet through classical conditioning, he believes that touching wood made all the difference. 

The benefits

What are the benefits of superstitious beliefs? One benefit, of course, is that th

Do white feathers mean that a loved-one is being looked after by angels?

ey provide the individual with a sense of psychological security. This may seem to be substantial to him or her - the security, that is, that their belief gives them - yet, in reality, it isn't substantial at all. What is substantial is their person belief in the particular subject's meaning - e.g. that white feathers mean that a deceased relative is safe and being looked after by angels. Also, superstition can serve to ensure that the individual lives in a "magical world" and is the means for them to have or experience things which are in support of their belief. For example, a person cannot have an experience involving angels if they do not believe in the existence of angels in the first place. Superstition not only works in conjunction with classical conditioning, but it also works with cognitive dissonance and selective memory as well as reconstructive memory.  
   Of course, different superstitions give different benefits. A person will benefit from a belief in the afterlife and of spirits, because it gives them the ability to know that their loved ones are still with them, but in spirit form. Also, a belief in the afterlife and in karma may help an individual to censor their own actions because it allows them to understand that the consequences of their actions in this lifetime will be paid for by them in the next lifetime. So if they do bad deeds are actions in this lifetime, it will not make their next lifetime so easy or bearable, compared to if they behaved like a good person in their current lifetime resulting in the next one being more pleasant.
    Socially speaking, religion and superstition could be used by some individuals to manipulate the behaviour of others for their own benefit (financially speaking). For example, if a person believed in Heaven and Hell, this belief may be manipulated to ensure that the person behaves according to the interests of another person - i.e. by doing "good" deeds, it makes sure that their soul goes to Heaven. In this way, the manipulating person may easily persuade the religious person to do as they want, using, as motivation or reward, the concept of getting a ticket to Heaven for their soul as a result of their deeds. Obviously, this is theoretical and by no means am I implying that that is what happens with people and religion. It only serves to explain how we can be controlled and manipulated psychologically through our personal belief system. 
    Perhaps if a particular person publicly acts and states that they belong to a particular religion or belief, the other people who also belong to that religion may hold that public figure in high accord because they believe that they share the same beliefs and religion as that person. This will help the public figure's social position and standing, as well as following. 
    

The drawbacks

The person who holds the particular belief must face particular drawbacks that come in the same package as believing in that particular concept. They must:

• Accept that not everyone shares their personal belief or religion
• Accept criticisms and arguments that may be sceptical or debunking of their belief or religion
• Acknowledge that science does not have any evidence for their belief
• Accept that some individuals of society may regard them as "social outcasts"
• Find other individuals who share their belief system
• Find personal evidence that supports their beliefs
• Interpret their everyday experiences according to their personal belief system

It is undoubtedly difficult for a person who has particular superstitious beliefs who is married with some who is sceptical of their beliefs. The sceptic may be concerned about their partner's gullibility in easily accepting things or information that supports their belief and may also be concerned on their behalf because they are aware also of the sceptical explanations of their partner's beliefs or experiences. Meanwhile, it may be difficult for the superstitious indvidual living with a sceptic because their partner does not share their same beliefs as they do, nor do they share the same perspective. This may lead to misunderstandings and arguments. 

   When science does not provide evidence for a person's superstitious belief, the person will need to look to other forms of evidence which are of personal significance to them. This personal evidence will not be interpreted in the same way by other people - sceptics - but will be by individuals who have similar belief systems.

Meditation

Introduction

Meditation is commonly practised by different groups of people, including spiritualists, psychics and mediums. It is a good way to relax the mind. There are numerous meditation techniques, but a well-known one is visualisation. Meditation is where a person relaxes themselves, perhaps takes a few deep, long, slow breaths and tries to clear their mind of clutter. If any thoughts crop up whilst in meditation, the person acknowledges them, then lets them go. After a while of doing that, the person should enter a state of complete tranquility, where their mind is completely clear of all thoughts. In this state, the mind may be more susceptible to psi and get impresses with information that they did not know previously.

Visualisation

Visual meditation is used in psychic and mediumship development groups as a means to help develop the psychic abilities. It is helpful in this context for several reasons:

• Since clairvoyance is visual imagery without the use of the physical eyes; so it must therefore be visual imagery that uses the mind. Visualisation is mental imagery which is seen with the mind, not the eyes.
• Visualisation is a useful means to relax the mind in order to be more susceptible to impressions of information that presents itself to the developing psychic or medium in the developing group.

As well as visualisation or mental imagery being used in meditation to help develop the 'psychic ability' or clairvoyance, visualisation can also help with the development of intuition, in that some meditations may ask the person to receive a gift from a spirit guide and are asked to find out what it means. 

 Clairaudience

Clairaudience is also developed through visualisation, because the person may be asked to meet their spirit guide or totem animal and asked by the host of the developmental group to ask the spirit guide questions. Even though this "conversation" happens in meditation or in the person's head and is made up of thoughts from the person's mind, they may also be able to "hear" this conversation - not externally like real speech, but internally, in their head. This is not a problem, unless it drives the person experiencing it mad. 

   Clairaudience may be perceived to be "talking" with spirit guides, totem animals or/and spirits by spiritualists or mediums, rather than one part of the mind (conscious mind) co-operating with another part of the mind (subconscious mind) which it could just be. It is perceived to be a conversation with a spiritual being because it seems to be: the so-called spirit's voice may sound different to the person's interal voice, the information may seem foreign or unrecognised (the person was unaware of the given information beforehand, or may believe that they weren't), or in cases where there are multiple 'people' or 'spirits' talking to the person, each of their voices 'sound' different to each other, so the psychic may conclude that their conversation they are having is with actual discarnate spirits. 

 

Facilitating the imagination

Anything can be visualised or imagined when it comes to meditation. Full-blown adventures can also take place, too. When it comes to visual meditations, the meditator can visit anywhere they choose and their only limitation is their imagination. They can visit:

a forest

a seaside

a mountain

a plane

a desert

an ocean

another planet

their own home/town/garden

underneath the Earth

a meadow

fictional places from stories

previous occupations

holiday places (e.g. Hawaii)

If the meditator has a particularly good imagination they can visit 'other beings' such as:

Elves

Elemental spirits (gnomes, elves, fairies, devas, sprites, sylphs, nymphs, mermaids)

Fictional characters from films or novels

Deceased people

Spirit guides

Totem animals

Staring at a candle

Another meditation technique is to stare at a candle. However, it is not a good idea to do, especially in near-darkness, as it may damage the eyes. 

This is done for a long moment of time, whereby one focusses their eyes on the flame of the candle. However, it may become rather uncomfortable after a while and is certainly not advisable to do. Beginners in meditation will find other techniques, such as visualisation much easier to do and will help them to focus their mind onto something (mental imagery). 

A tasting meditation

One technique of meditation is mindfulness - this is achieved by focussing the mind onto a particular activity, such as observing the behaviour of others in a non-judgemental way. A good place to practise is on the train. With a meditation involving taste, it requires that the person eats something, but is mindful of doing so - in this way, they can focus their mind on the taste of the food as they eat it. 

Imagining taste

Imagining the taste of a lemon in the mouth

Another idea for meditation is to imagine the taste of a lemon on the mouth. This is done through visualising yourself eating a lemon and whilst doing so, imagining the taste of the lemon - its bitter, acid, strong taste in one's mouth. This can result in the salivary glands producing saliva, because the brain has been tricked into thinking that a real lemon is in the mouth and, like with real food that is in the mouth, the brain sends a message to the saliva glands in the mouth to produce additional saliva.  

Memory and meditation

In order to be able to visualise something, such as a tree, you need to be able to recognise, know and remember what that something look like in real life. Through this, the mind (or brain) can be able to picture the object much more easily and realistically than if it did not know what it looked like. If a meditator doesn't know what Mount Shasta looks like and for whatever reason they decided to do a meditation in which they were there, it would be difficult to fully visualise being on Mount Shasta, or realistically, because their mind doesn't have any memory of being there. By 'memory', it is meant visual memory, as this is required for the meditation. Furthermore, the meditator cannot recall what being on the mountain felt like, because they have no past experience of it. If they had been to Mount Shasta, they should find visualising themselves there again much easier and also should find it better to imagine the feel of being there, because they draw up information from their memory for it. 

     Visualisation of fictional beings, such as elves, are based on some sort of model. This 'model' may be taken from films, folkloric tales, stories, or personal beliefs or opinions. They are also based on a human or humans and may include certain features that are pleasing visually - perhaps of a preferrable hair colour, body composition or clothing or gender. They may look rather good-looking, healthy or slim. 

Psychology of spirit guides

Spirit guides are beings that supposed to aid with an individual's spiritual growth. They are the sort of beings that may be encountered in meditations. They can also be talked to in meditation and may appear to have unique personalities which may be contrary to the personality of the meditator. Typically, they appear as warm, caring beings who are pleasing to look like. They may be male or female or have no gender. They may be 'aliens', deceased people, animals (called 'totem animals'), or elemental beings. They tend not to judge, but instead offer advice in meditation, and are generally very nice personalities. 

Adventurous meditations

Adventurous meditations are where the meditator actually DOES something in meditation. For example, imagining flying over a forest on a bird such as a swan or dragon. Or perhaps travelling through jungle with natives who may look anything like Amazon tribes to wood or water elves. Or perhaps riding on a horse by oneself, exploring a desert. Or maybe swimming amongst dolphins in the sea. 

Meditation and mediumship

Mediums, as well as psychics, can meet their spirit guides through meditation. Sometimes, they may channel information from their spirit guide if a deceased person is not able to communicate directly with the medium. This requires the medium to stay in a meditative state during the process, in order to be able to continue channelling their spirit guide. After a session of this, they may appear rather drained of energy and may not recall anything of what the spirit guide had said through them. 

Relaxation

Meditation is a good way to relax. However, visual meditations may not be as relaxing as a meditation that just involves a clear mind that listens only to external noise such as birdsong and the occasional bark of a dog. 

The benefits of meditation

Although one of the obvious benefits of meditation is relaxation, there are many other benefits that can be achieved through regular meditation. For example, meditative states are often associated with apparent examples of psychic ability. A meditative state is what is entered for mediumship and psychic abilities in development circles. Meditation is also said to help synchronise the left and right brain hemispheres. Through relaxation, it can aid one's immune system and hence help maintain one's help. With differing meditative states (i.e. light and deep meditative states), different brain waves can be accessed: alpha brainwaves are usually the brainwaves associated with the more lighter meditative states, whilst delta and theta are experienced in even deeper ones. In normal, waking everyday life, beta brainwaves are the most dominant brain wave. If someone is extremely stressed, they will benefit from either a Reiki treatment, or doing 5 minutes' to 1 hour's meditation. Meditation can aid concentration, memory and also imagination. 

Meditation in everyday life

There are countless times when people enter meditative states without realising it. A good example is during washing-up, because this is a time when the brain can just slow down and not think of anything at all, a time when the brain can just focus on one activity: washing up. Looking after animals can be therapeutic too. Mucking out a hen house also allows for one's mind to wander. There are many other examples where people enter meditative states and another example is sleep. Meditation before one goes to sleep relaxes the mind and should benefit those who suffer from insomnia. It paves the way for a deep, relaxing sleep. 

How long should a meditative state last?

A meditation should be 5 minutes long minimum. However, the length of time spent meditating is up to the meditator and, of course, time schedules. Meditation can be done anywhere and at any time. It is advisable to do it each day, although this is not necessary. However, in order to experience and appreciate the benefits of meditation, it should be practised daily. An hour's meditation is pleasant, 2 hours' meditation can lead to feelings similar to being out-of-the-body, whilst 3 hours results in extreme relaxation and a very deep sleep. The latter can cause a feeling of being in a dream or meditation even once the meditator has come out of the meditation. 

Other types of meditation

There are different kinds of meditation, including practices that involve movement but are extremely meditative - such as Tai chi and Qigong. However, there are varying disciplines of meditation, like visual meditation, transcendental meditation and mindfulness meditation.