Negative Experiences in Childhood, Parental Style, and Resilience Among People Reporting Paranormal Experiences

Abstract

There are relatively few studies examining the parental style, childhood trauma, and paranormal experiences/beliefs; therefore, the aim of this study is to measure the dominant parental style of those who have experienced paranormal events and their correlation with negative events in childhood and resilience. Four questionnaires were administered to 644 participants. The results showed high frequency of experiences such as sense of presence, premonitory dreams, telepathy, mystical experiences, apparitions, and out-of-body experiences, among others. The results confirmed three hypotheses that predict a positive and significant correlation between the paranormal experiences in adult life and negative experiences in childhood, such as abuse and neglect. One possible interpretation is that “flexible” parental style is the more permissive ones (greater openness and sensitivity to capture alternative realities), in contrast to “rigid” parental style (whose perspectives generate restrictions to capitalize on the unconventional experiences of their children).

Psychosis-like experiences and resilience: A systematic and critical review of the literature.

“…Several studies reported findings that were partially inconsistent with their hypotheses or past research (Barahmand & Heydari Sheikh Ahmad, 2016;Dolphin et al, 2015;Marulanda & Addington, 2016;Mętel et al, 2020;Nitzburg et al, 2016;Rossi et al, 2021;Ruzibiza et al, 2018). Additionally, several studies also reported findings that were contrary to their hypotheses or past research (Mętel et al, 2020;Parra, 2019;Ruzibiza et al, 2018). A careful review of these inconsistent and contrary findings (e.g., how certain aspects of resilience may not be protective or may exacerbate mental health outcomes) can highlight important limitations of past work as well as considerations for future resilience work in this area.…”

“…These measures ranged from questions about specific events, such as a regional earthquake (Rossi et al, 2020), to multiple questions about various potential traumas, such as racism, bullying, and bereavement (Dolphin et al, 2015). Six studies focused specifically on childhood abuse (Marulanda & Addington, 2016;Mętel et al, 2020;Mongan et al, 2019;Parra, 2019;Rossi et al, 2019Rossi et al, , 2021.…”

“God Spoke to Me”: Subjective Paranormal Experience and the Homeostatic Response to Early Trauma

“…The hypotheses are presented together with a brief statement for each hypothesis regarding the degree of support received from the empirical evidence. 3 H1: SPEs should be more common in people reporting CA -supported by 12 out of 12 studies: French and Kerman (1996), Irwin (1992Irwin ( , 1994, Lawrence et al (1995), Parra (2019), Perkins and Allen (2006), Rabeyron and Watt (2010), Rogers and Lowrie (2016), C. A. Ross and Joshi (1992), Sar et al (2014), Scimeca et al (2015), and Wright (1999).…”

“God Spoke to Me”: Subjective Paranormal Experience and the Brain's Homeostatic Response to Early Trauma

“…H1: SPEs should be more common in people reporting childhood abuseconfirmed: [112,[176][177][178][179].…”