Classical conditioning

Introduction

Answer "Yes" or "No" the following questions - get a piece of paper to write your answers down if you need to.

 

Question                                                                                                       Yes        /       No

1.  Have you ever had tingling or goose bumps on your neck; or 

felt hot spots or cold spots all of which you took to mean that 

there was a spirit present in the room?

2   2.  Have you ever repeatedly come across butterflies or white feathers shortly 

     after the death of a loved-one, which you interpreted as meaning that they are 

    safe and being looked after by angels? 

   

3.    3. Have you ever felt warmth in your body whilst meditating with a crystal, 

   which you attributed to its “energies”? 

   

4 4. Have you ever felt relaxed or better after a Reiki treatment, which you 

   thought was due to the Reiki energy (not meditation/relaxation)? 

  

5.5. Have you ever felt warm tingling during an “energy sensing” session as someone   

   moved their hands physically above your body (without you looking), which

    you thought was due to the impact it had on your aura?

   

   6. Have you ever seen indigo-coloured orbs, and some rose-pinkorbs with your eyes 

  open, which you associated with Archangels? You associate Archangel Michael with the

   colour of indigo, so therefore interpret the indigo orbs as being a sign that he is present and 

  you associate Archangel Chamuel with the colour of pink/rose-pink, so you believe that the

   rose-pink orbs mean that Archangel Chamuel is present?

   

   7. Have you ever heard a voice in your head which you interpreted as being the voice of a 

   spirit?

  

   8. Have you ever felt a cool breeze or warmth enter your body which you associated as being

   your spirit guide being close to you?

  

   9. Have you ever done table-tipping in which you thought that the table's tipping or tilting had 

   been due to spirits being present, who harnessed the energy of you and the rest of the group to

   physically move the table?

  

   10. Have you ever heard a voice in your head that was talking intelligently to you, whilst you 

   had been trying to establish psychic communication with a dog, and you consequently believed

   that the voice had come from the dog, so therefore you believed that psychic communication

   with the dog had happened?

  

If you answered "Yes" to any or all of these statements, then you had inadvertently succumbed to classical conditioning during these such experiences. 

 So what is classical conditioning?

Hopefully, you answered all 10 questions from the above questionnaire. So what have they got to do with classical conditioning? Now, a few of these questions will be looked at. In the post, Psychology, a brief, but clear, definition of classical conditioning as given. Here it is: "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)." This is how things such as crystal healing work. It's really down to misperception. 

Analysis

Spiritual presence

With channelling, seances, haunted houses and spirits in general, there are some key physical sensations that are typically associated with the presence of spiritual entities. Question one of the questionnaire asks, "Have you ever had tingling or goose bumps on your neck; or felt hot spots or cold spots all of which you took to mean that there was a spirit present in the room?" Typical sensations thought to be as a consequence of a spirit being present are:

• physical tingling 
• goose bumps
• hot spots
• cold spots

But what if all these are due to other factors? For example, physical tingling, goose bumps and hot or cold spots are due to the bodily circulation. Furthermore, selective memory, selective attention, cognitive dissonance and belief also play a part in a person perceiving these physical sensations with the presence of a spirit (we won't go there, but check out Psychology for more information).
  In other words, the person misperceived these four physical sensations as having been caused by a spirit, when they may have been due to something completely different - the person's own circulatory system. This is an example of classical conditioning.

 Angels & signs

    Some people believe in angels. They also believe that when they repeatedly come across white feathers, it is a sign from the angels from the angelic realms that their loved-ones are safe and that they are being cared for in the spirit world by angelic beings. Similarly, some people believe that when they come across butterflies repeatedly shortly after their loved one passed away, it is a sign from that deceased person - that they are keeping an eye on those they left behind on the earth plane. Question 2 asks, " Have you ever repeatedly come across butterflies or white feathers shortly after the death of a loved-one, which you interpreted as meaning that they are safe and being looked after by angels?" 

   Of course, these events may have been down to other things. They may have been a coincidence. Or may be due to selective memory - perhaps the experiences of coming across the feathers were selectively remembered over an immense length of time, but these, like a book, were squashed together in their memory, and consequently this accumulation of such events seems more incredible or amazing than they actually were. More mundane things that occurred that were perceived to be unrelated were forgotten. Furthermore, the remembered events were seen as evidence for their beliefs, and so cognitive dissonance was involved. Reconstructive memory may also have played a part and be responsible for any exaggeration of the account. 

    

                                                                    Crystal energies

     Do crystal energies have any effect on our bodies? A number of people believe it to be so. Question 3 asks, "Have you ever felt warmth in your body whilst meditating with a crystal, which you attributed to its “energies”?" Any person who believes thatb a given crystal has a particular effect or impact on their physical body is succumbing to classical conditioning. They may just be deluding themselves. They do not perceive that warmth in their body whilst holding a crystal in meditation is actually due to their circulation (or some other mundane cause) and instead they beleive that the crystal caused the particular feeling in their body - the warmth. They may selectively forget a great deal of time before they felt the warmth, and their mind interprets the energies of the crystal as being the reason why they felt the warmth, regardless of the possibility that they may not have felt it initially, or that maybe they had felt warm prior to holding and/or meditating with the crystal. 

      Reiki

    A similar point - and question - is raised regarding the effect or impact a Reiki treatment has on a person during or after a session. Question 3 asks, "Have you ever felt relaxed or better after a Reiki treatment, which you thought was due to the Reiki energy (not meditation/relaxation)?" A Reiki healing is relaxing. But so is meditation. A person during a Reiki treatment enters a meditative - or meditative-like - state, during which they feel wonderfully relaxed. They may access memories that were previously hidden, from the depths of the subconscious mind which they believe to have been past life memories (again, we won't go into that!). However, once the treatment is finished, they feel extremely relaxed and believe that this feeling was as a result of the Reiki. Not necessarily - as already said, they entered a meditative state, so this relaxed feeling may have been caused by this meditation, not the Reiki at all. Furthermore, during this state they access "Past Life memories", which they believe was a consequence of the Reiki healing. Not so necessarily - again, it may have been due to being in meditation and not due to the Reiki at all. Again, it's another example of classical conditioning being at play.