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Previous survey evidence suggests that situational-enchantment is a mental state conducive for psi-related experiences. In this conceptual replication and exploration, we used a preregistered research design to examine hit rate on a mobile application ('app') test of putative psi that was administered after participant exposure to two competing conditions in counterbalanced order: (a) an 'enchanted' immersive tour in a 'haunted' house museum versus (b) a 'disenchanted' outdoor tent session with a video that allegedly debunked the paranormal. A convenience sample of 31 volunteers recruited via social media completed counter-balanced testing in both conditions and measures of transliminality and paranormal belief, which we converted to high and low (median split) measurements as co-variates of the hit rates on the psi test. Findings showed that high levels of both transliminality and paranormal belief, as well as the 'haunted (enchanted)' versus 'skeptical (disenchanted)' conditions significantly shifted overall hit rates and above-chance performance. In the majority of analyses these effects represented more than a 10% shift in both hit rate and tests against average psi guessing rate. We discuss these results as supporting an interactionist (environment-person) model of certain parapsychological phenomena. Keywords: enchantment, immersive experiences, liminality, paranormal belief, psychic opening La evidencia de encuestas previas sugiere que el embelesamiento situacional es un estado mental que conduce experiencias relacionadas con psi. En esta exploracion y replicacion conceptual utilizamos un protocolo de investigacion previamente registrado para examinar la tasa de aciertos en una prueba de aplicacion movil ('app') de psi putativo, la cual se proporciono a los participantes despues de haber sido expuestos a dos condiciones en competencia en un orden contrabalanceado: (a) un recorrido 'embelesado' e inmersivo en un museo de una casa 'embrujada' contra (b) una sesion 'desembelesada' en una carpa colocada en el exterior, con un video en el que, supuestamente, desenmascaran fenomenos paranormales. Una muestra de 31 voluntarios, reclutados a traves de redes sociales, completo la prueba de contrapeso en ambas condiciones y medidas de transliminalidad y creencia en lo paranormal, mismas que convertimos a mediciones altas y bajas (divididas por el valor de la mediana) como covariables de las tasas de aciertos en la prueba de psi. Nuestros hallazgos revelan que niveles altos de transliminalidad y de creencia en lo paranormal, asf como las condiciones 'embrujada' (embelesada) contra 'esceptica', cambian las tasas de aciertos generales y el desempeno por encima de lo esperado por azar. En la mayorfa de los analisis, estos efectos representaron un cambio mayor al 10% tanto en la tasa de aciertos como en las pruebas contra la tasa promedio de adivinacion vfa psi. Discutimos estos resultados como evidencia a favor de un modelo interaccionista (ambiente-persona) de ciertos fenomenos parapsicologicos. Palabras clave: embelesamiento, experiencias inmersivas, liminalidad, creencia en lo paranormal, apertura psfquica Des etudes anterieures suggerent que l'enchantement situationnel est un etat mental propice aux experiences psi. Dans cette replication et exploration conceptuelle, nous avons utilise un protocole de recherche preenregistre pour examiner le taux de reussite a un test d'application mobile (<< app >>) de psi putatif qui a ete administre apres l'exposition des participants a deux conditions concurrentes dans un ordre contrebalance : (a) une visite immersive << enchantee >> dans une maison-musee << hantee >> ou (b) une session dans une tente exterieure << desenchantee >> avec une video qui pretend demystifier le paranormal. Un echantillon de commodite de 31 volontaires recrutes via les medias sociaux a effectue des tests contrebalances dans les deux conditions et des mesures de transliminalite et de croyance paranormale, que nous avons converties en mesures elevees et faibles (mediane divisee) en tant que co-variables des taux de reussite au test psi. Les resultats ont montre que des niveaux eleves de transliminalite et de croyance paranormale, ainsi que les conditions << hante (enchante) >> contre << sceptique (desenchante) >> ont modifie de maniere significative les taux de reussite globaux et les performances superieures a la chance. Dans la majorite des analyses, ces effets ont represente un changement de plus de 10 % du taux de reussite et des tests par rapport au taux moyen de devinettes psi. Nous considerons que ces resultats vont dans le sens d'un modele interactionniste (environnement-personne) de certains phenomenes parapsychologiques. Mots-clefs : enchantement, experiences immersives, liminalite, croyance paranormale, ouverture psychique Fruhere Untersuchungen deuten darauf hin, dass situative Verzauberung [enchantment] ein mentaler Zustand ist, der psi-bezogene Erfahrungen begunstigt. In dieser konzeptionellen Replikation und Exploration verwendeten wir ein Forschungsdesign mit Vorregistrierung, um die Trefferquote bei einem Psi-Test mittels einer mobilen Anwendung ('App') zu untersuchen; dabei waren die Teilnehmer zwei konkurrierenden Bedingungen in ausbalancierter Reihenfolge ausgesetzt: (a) einer 'verzauberten' eindringlichen Tour in einem 'Spukhaus'-Museum und (b) einer 'entzauberten' Outdoor-Zeltsitzung mit einem Video, das vorgeblich das Paranormale entlarvt. Eine Zufallsstichprobe von 31 Freiwilligen, die uber soziale Medien rekrutiert wurden, absolvierte die ausbalancierten Tests in beiden Bedingungen; auBerdem maBen wir Transliminalitat und paranormale Glaubensvorstellungen, die wir in hohe und niedrige (Median-Split) Messwerte als Kovariaten der Trefferquoten beim Psi-Test umgewandelten. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass ein hohes MaB an Transliminalitat und paranormalen Glaubensvorstellungen sowie die Bedingungen 'verspukt (verzaubert)' und 'skeptisch (entzaubert)' sowohl die Gesamttrefferquote als auch die uber der Zufallserwartung liegende Leistung erheblich veranderten. In den meisten Analysen stellten diese Effekte eine mehr als 10%ige Verschiebung sowohl der Trefferquote als auch der Tests auf Abweichungen von den durchschnittlichen Psi-Ratewerten dar. Wir diskutieren diese Ergebnisse im Sinne einer Unterstutzung eines interaktionistischen (Umwelt-Personen-) Modells bestimmter parapsychologischer Phanomene. Schlusselbegriffe: Verzauberung, eindringliche Erfahrungen, Transliminalitat, paranormale Glaubensvorstellungen, psychische Offnung, The Psychic Opening Hypothesis contends that psi-related perceptions or abilities often stem from periods of biopsychosocial confusion, tension, or crisis (e.g., Greyson, 1983; Storm & Goretzki, 2020, 2021; Taylor, 2012b; [...]

Using a sample of self-reported 'spontaneous' accounts (ostensibly sincere and unprimed, N = 426), we calibrated a 32-item, Rasch-based 'Survey of Strange Events (SSE)' to quantify the phenomenology of ghostly episodes while assessing response biases related to experients' age and gender. This inventory included psychological experiences typical of haunts, and physical manifestations common to poltergeist-like disturbances. Results supported earlier suggestions that 'spontaneous' accounts have a predictable (cumulative) behavioral pattern and show a unidimensional factor structure. Further, compared to spontaneous accounts, we identified strong response biases on the SSE across four control conditions (i.e., Lifestyle, Primed, Fantasy, and Illicit). Statistical modeling successfully predicted group memberships with good accuracy, corroborating that spontaneous experiences differ systematically in certain ways from 'impostors.' The SSE is a robust measure of overall intensity of ghostly episodes (Rasch reliability = 0.87) and serves as a standard operationalization of specific anomalies in surveys, fieldwork studies, and investigations that code free-response data or spontaneous case material for quantitative analysis. Keywords: ghost, haunt, phenomenology, poltergeist, psychometrics, Rasch scaling En utilisant un echantillon de temoignages << spontanes >> auto-rapportes (apparemment sinceres et sans biais d'amorcage, N = 426), nous avons calibre le << questionnaire des evenements etranges >> (SSE) en 32-items selon la methode de Rasch, afin de quantifier la phenomenologie des episodes fantomatiques tout en evaluant les biais de reponse relatifs a l'age ou au genre des repondants. L'inventaire inclut des experiences psychologiques typiques de la hantise, et des manifestations physiques communes aux perturbations de type poltergeist. Les resultats supportent les precedentes suggestions selon lesquelles les temoignages << spontanes >> montrent un pattern comportemental (cumulatif) predictible, ainsi qu'une structure factorielle unidimensionnelle. De plus, comparativement aux recits spontanes, nous avons identifie de forts biais de reponses sur le SSE sur quatre conditions de controle (a savoir le style de vie, l'amorce, la fantaisie, et l'illicite). La modelisation statistique predit avec succes les appartenances de groupe, corroborant le fait que les experiences spontanees different systematiquement des << imposteurs >> de certaines manieres. Le SSE est un outil de mesure robuste de l'intensite Generale des episodes fantomatiques (fiabilite Rasch = 0.87) et peut servir pour operationnaliser, de facon standardisee, les anomalies specifiques dans les sondages, les etudes de terrain, et les investigations qui codent des donnees en reponse libre ou du materiel issu de cas spontanes a des fins d'analyse quantitative. Zusammenfassung. Anhand einer Stichprobe von selbsterlebten 'spontanen' Berichten (mutmasslich aufrichtig und unbeeinflusst, N = 426) eichten wir einen aus 32 Items bestehenden Rasch-basierten 'Survey of Strange Events (SSE)', um die Phanomenologie geisterhafter Episoden zu quantifizieren und gleichzeitig Antworttendenzen in Bezug auf Alter oder Geschlecht der Berichterstatter einzuschatzen. Die Umfrage umfasste psychologische Erfahrungen, die typisch fur Geistererscheinungen sind, und physikalische Vorfalle, die bei spukahnlichen Vorfallen auftreten. Die Ergebnisse unterstutzten fruhere Vorstellungen, dass 'spontane' Berichte ein vorhersagbares (kumulatives) Verhaltensmuster haben und eine eindimensionale Faktorenstruktur aufweisen. Daruber hinaus identifizierten wir im Vergleich zu Spontanberichten starke Antwortverzerrungen der SSE uber vier Kontrollbedingungen hinweg (Lebensstil, Erwartet, Phantasie und Unerlaubt). Eine statistische Modellierung sagte erfolgreich Gruppenzugehorigkeiten mit guter Genauigkeit voraus, was bestatigt, dass sich spontane Erfahrungen in bestimmter Weise systematisch von 'Betrugern' unterscheiden. Die SSE ist ein robustes Mass fur die Gesamtintensitat geisterhafter Episoden (Rasch-Reliabilitat = 0,87) und dient zur standardmassigen Operationalisi erung spezifischer Anomalien bei Umfragen, Feldstudien und Untersuchungen, die Free-Response-Daten oder spontanes Fallmaterial fur die quantitative Analyse kodieren. Utilizando una muestra de relatos 'espontaneos' autoinformados (aparentemente sinceros y no influenciados, N = 426), calibramos una 'Survey of Strange Eventos (SSE; o Encuesta de Eventos Extranos)' basada en Rasch de 32 items para cuantificar la fenomenologia de los episodios fantasmales al mismo tiempo que evaluamos sesgos de respuesta relacionados con la edad o el genero de los participantes. Este inventario incluyo experiencias psicologicas tipicas de experiencias de casas encantadas y manifestaciones fisicas comunes a perturbaciones semejantes al poltergeist. Los resultados respaldaron sugerencias anteriores de que los relatos 'espontaneas' tienen un patron de comportamiento (acumulativo) predecible y muestran una estructura factorial unidimensional. Ademas, en comparacion con los relatos espontaneos, identificamos fuertes sesgos de respuesta en la ESS en cuatro condiciones de control (Estilo de vida, Influido, Fantasia, e Ilicito). El modelado estadistico predijo la pertenencia a grupos con buena precision, corroborando que las experiencias espontaneas difieren sistematicamente en ciertos aspectos de los 'impostores.' El SSE es una medida robusta de la intensidad general de los episodios fantasmales (fiabilidad Rasch = 0.87) y puede servir como una operacionalizacion estandar de anomalias en encuestas, estudios de trabajo de campo, e investigaciones que codifiquen datos de respuesta libre o material de casos espontaneos para analisis cuantitativos., 'Repeated and intermittent ...displays are typical of haunt and poltergeist episodes. These eventsinvolve measured or inferred physical changes such as object movements, electrical failures, or strange sounds. Reports of psychological [...]

It was disappointing that during the JP's period of editorial transition we were neither notified in advance about Solfvin's (2020) original Letter criticizing the development of our 'Survey of Strange [...]

A sample of 36,592 online daters provided data on Commitment Readiness defined as "an individual's desire and readiness to commit exclusively to one romantic partner" in relation to Age, Gender, and Parental Status (singles with and without children). Consistent with previous research, the women scored higher on Commitment Readiness than did the men. Furthermore, Age and Commitment Readiness showed a strong inverted U-shaped relation, with younger and older respondents scoring lower on Commitment Readiness as compared to individuals aged 31-60 years old. Interestingly, Commitment Readiness evidenced neither a significant effect of Parental Status nor an interaction of Gender by Parental Status. Besides the theoretical import of these results, our study illustrates the potential power of Internet research and provides a curious counterexample to criticisms of over-reliance on significance levels for correlational data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the state of "enchantment" as a consumer motivator, especially in the context of social and travel restrictions during COVID-19. An online purposive sample (n = 104) provided narrative data and ratings of past experiences versus future expectations of enchantment. Linguistic cluster analysis revealed five categories of these experiences termed Escapade, Nostalgia, Catharsis, Communion, and Attachment. These categories strongly align to hospitality-tourism offerings, but businesses must help consumers to overcome certain stated barriers (COVID and economic concerns) to future experiences of enchantment. Moreover, people often intend to relive their past experiences of enchantment but will opt for "escapades" when novelty is desired or repeats are unworkable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selection assessments are common practice to help reduce employee turnover in the service industry, but as too little is known about employees' characteristics, which are valued most highly by human resources professionals, a sample of 108 managers and human resources professionals rated the perceived importance of 31 performance traits for Line, Middle, and Senior employees. Rasch scaling analyses indicated strong consensus among the respondents. Nonsocial skills, abilities, and traits such as Ethical Awareness, Self-motivation, Writing Skills, Verbal Ability, Creativity, and Problem Solving were rated as more important for higher level employees. By contrast, traits which directly affect the interaction with customers and coworkers (Service Orientation, Communication Style, Agreeableness, Sense of Humor, Sensitivity to Diversity, Group Process, and Team Building) were rated as more important for lower level employees. Respondents' age and sex did not substantially alter these findings. Results are discussed in terms of improving industry professionals' perceived ecological and external validities of generic and customized assessments of employee.

Situational-enchantment is a hypothesized arousal state encompassing a potent sense of connection or oneness with a "transcendent power or ultimate reality." Qualitative research previously suggested that this individual difference involves dissonance around ideations with competing "Emotional, Sensorial, Timeless, Rational, and Transformative" themes. We tested this presumed phenomenology via an online convenience sample of 79 men and 101 women who reported memorable ghostly experiences during a paranormal tour within the last 12 months. Respondents provided a global enchantment rating of their anomalous experiences, as well as selected specific descriptors from a set of 30 items on an adjective checklist (ACL). Analyses revealed that 21 items on the Enchantment-ACL formed a Rasch hierarchy of generally "pleasant" themes that was free of response biases related to age, sex, and latency (time since the "enchanting" experience). This structured sequence contained all five experiential themes, and the resulting Enchantment-ACL measure of this phenomenon showed good internal reliability (Rasch reliability =.82) and a positive correlation with global enchantment ratings (r =.51, p <.001). The other nine items formed a separate factor containing overtly "unpleasant" ideations. We discuss the results within a cognitive dissonance framework for situational-enchantment, although future research must explore potential nuances related to the construct's dimensionality and the specific role of pleasant versus unpleasant ideations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For those with true near-death experiences (NDEs), Greyson's (1983, 1990) NDE Scale satisfactorily fits the Rasch rating scale model, thus yielding a unidimensional measure with interval-level scaling properties. With increasing intensity, NDEs reflect peace, joy and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences, while the most intense NDEs involve an awareness of things occurring in a different place or time. The semantics of this variable are invariant across True-NDErs' gender, current age, age at time of NDE, and latency and intensity of the NDE, thus identifying NDEs as 'core' experiences whose meaning is unaffected by external variables, regardless of variations in NDEs' intensity. Significant qualitative and quantitative differences were observed between True-NDErs and other respondent groups, mostly revolving around the differential emphasis on paranormal/mystical/religious experiences vs. standard reactions to threat. The findings further suggest that False-Positive respondents reinterpret other profound psychological states as NDEs. Accordingly, the Rasch validation of the typology proposed by Greyson (1983) also provides new insights into previous research, including the possibility of embellishment over time (as indicated by the finding of positive, as well as negative, latency effects) and the potential roles of religious affiliation and religiosity (as indicated by the qualitative differences surrounding paranormal/mystical/religious issues)., Many adults and children suddenly faced with death report experiencing a distinctive state of consciousness in which their existence seems to be bound neither to a physical body nor to [...]

The DSM-IV definition of delusion is argued to be unsatisfactory because it does not explain the mechanism for delusion formation and maintenance, it implies that such beliefs are necessarily dysfunctional (pathological), it underestimates the social component to some delusions, and it is inconsistent with research indicating that delusions can be modified through techniques such as contradiction, confrontation, and cognitive-behavioral therapy. However, a well-replicated mathematical model of magical/delusional thinking based on a study of paranormal beliefs and experiences is consistent with the hypothesis that attributional processes play a central role in delusion formation and maintenance. The model suggests attributional processes serve the adaptive function of reducing fear associated with ambiguous stimuli and delusional thinking is on a continuum with nonpathological forms. Based on this collective research an amendment to the definition of delusion is proposed and its clinical implications are addressed.

Research on the relation between demographic variables and paranormal belief remains controversial given the possible semantic distortions introduced by item and test level biases. We illustrate how Rasch scaling can be used to detect such biases and to quantify their effects, using the Australian Sheep-Goat Scale as a substantive example. Based on data from 1,822 respondents, this test was Rasch scalable, reliable, and unbiased at the test level. Consistent with other research in which unbiased measures of paranormal belief were used, extremely weak age and sex effects were found (partial [eta.sup.2] = .005 and .012, respectively).

Lynn E. McCutcheon (l)(*) Rense Lange (2) James Houran (3) Celebrity worship has been conceptualized as having pathological and nonpathological forms. To avoid problems associated with item-level factor analysis, 'top-down [...]

30 experiences of shamanic journeys derived from Harner (1990) were analyzed based on a recent coding scheme for contextual variables proposed by Lange, Houran, Harte, and Havens. Consistent with previous research, the experiential content of the trances was quite consistent with the content of the available contextual variables, and embedded cues in particular (r = .68, p [less than] .001). As predicted, trance states of shamanic journeys are sufficiently structured to suppress contextual effects on the modality of experience. The findings suggest that the contents of shamanic trance are not solely influenced by psychopathology, biochemical effects, or cultural influences.

Hauntings and poltergeist-like episodes are argued to be products of contagious reactions to ambiguous environmental or cognitive events. In particular, evidence suggests that the subjective and objective effects reported by percipients are the function of independent, nonparanormal etiologies whose constitutions have been previously established and described. According to this multivariate model, the labeling of ambiguous events as 'abnormal' or 'paranormal' initiates the reactive process which is subsequently sustained by perceptual contagion, i.e., flurries of paranormal observations due self-reinforcing attentional processes.

A sample of 89 instances of angelic encounters found on Internet web sites were analyzed using the classification scheme for contextual variables proposed by Lange, Houran, Harte, and Havens (1996). Consistent with previous research, the contents of the contextual variables operating during these angelic encounters were consistent with the content of percipients' experiences. In addition, contextual variables were related to the modalities of the experiences as well as to the percipients' apparent arousal. The proposed existence of two different types of encounters was supported. Percipients' experiences in 'direct' encounters strongly resembled those found in other hallucinatory experiences such as poltergeist-like episodes, death-bed visions, and shamanic trances. By contrast, there is strong evidence that 'reconstructed' encounters are often the result of accidental or puzzling (but otherwise normal) encounters with actual human beings.

Two subjects were asked to keep a 30-day journal of occurrences in their residence which are traditionally associated with hauntings and poltergeist-like phenomena. It was expected that the instructions would increase the frequency of perception of unusual or rarely occurring events in their residence, resulting in an attentional and 'perceptual contagion effect.' As expected, several features of the percipients' observations closely resembled those found in previously reported poltergeist episodes. Most importantly, the distribution of perceived occurrences closely resembled the predicted logistic curve, suggesting that hauntings involve a perceptual process where initial observations 'infect' later ones.

The content of perceived apparitions, e.g., bereavement hallucinations, cannot be explained entirely in terms of electromagnetically induced neuro-chemical processes. It was shown that contextual variables influential in hallucinatory and hypnotic states also structured reported haunting experiences. As predicted, high congruency was found between the experiential content and the nature of the contextual variables. Further, the number of contextual variables involved in an experience was related to the type of experience and the state or arousal preceding the experience. Based on these findings we argue that a more complete explanation of haunting experiences should take into account both electromagnetically induced neurochemical processes and factors related to contextual mediation.

We conducted a large-scale online survey to examine "situational-enchantment" as a special mental state that is conducive of psi-related or exceptional human experiences (EHEs). A convenience sample of 707 online respondents completed measures of Transliminality, Paranormal Belief (New Age Philosophy vs Traditional Paranormal Beliefs), EHEs, and Enchantment. After establishing the reliability and scalability of all measures via Rasch scaling, respondents were randomly assigned to either a Training set (n = 471) or Validation set (n = 236). Competitive testing with path analysis on the Training set found that the best-fitting model affirmed our prediction of a self-reinforcing loop between Enchantment and EHEs (psi), which was mediated by a link between Transliminality and Paranormal Belief, and this solution was accompanied by excellent model fit. This same pattern was fully replicated in the Validation set, thereby establishing the empirical stability of our process model. The results support the hypothesis that enchantment collectively acts as an aftereffect, example of, and catalyst for EHEs and putative psi. We discuss the findings relative to clinical contexts and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that persuasive communications lead to less change if the positions of the source and receiver of a persuasive communication fall on different sides of the midpoint of a response dimension than if these positions fall on the same side of the midpoint. Using an interactive computer system, a task was designed to replicate and extend these findings while overcoming some of the methodological shortcomings of earlier studies. Specifically, the task allows independent manipulation of both the initial position of the receiver and the position advocated by the source. Consistent with earlier findings, crossing the midpoint resulted in less acceptance and change when the midpoint was made salient and the qualitative differences between the positions of the source and receiver were made explicit. Perhaps more important, change was not inhibited when the midpoint was not made salient and the qualitative differences were left implicit.