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Abstract

Abstract – Making sense of anomalous experiences often requires that people turn to available cultural narrativep. Le Horla, by Guy de Maupassant, tells the tale of a 19th century intellectual, a lightly fictionalized account of Maupassant’s own experiences, who draws on diverse cultural resources to interpret a complex array of highly unusual experiencep. The seminal experience of the tale is a vivid account of hypnagogic hallucinations with sleep paralysis (SP). SP experiences have frequently been implicated as sources of traditional narratives of alien spirit attacks and abductions and, more recently, as the experiential foundation of a modern legend of abduction by extraterrestrial alienp. I argue that one effect of the increasing availability and popularization of scientific worldviews in the 19^th century, with specific reference to psychology, psychiatry and neurology, provided new and ever-changing grounds and material for explaining bizarre and uncanny experiencep. The resulting accounts did not, however, simply replace traditional narrative themes with scientific explanations but often conflated them. These hybridized accounts are often most at odds with mainstream scientific explanations, because scientific accounts change with time but discarded scientific theories often remain sedimented in the cultural tradition.

Keywords: Anomalous experience – culture – explanation – narrative – science – understanding

Abstract

Abstract – Abstract – In July 2015, an online survey was conducted among the members of the Gesellschaft für Anomalistik [Society for Anomalistics] inquiring about the members’ fields of interests, their special wishes and needs concerning the association’s work and also their favorite general topics and themes in anomalisticp. This article also presents the responses to several sociodemographic questions as well as to a number of prefered anomalistic areas of interest prevalent among GfA members.

Keywords: Gesellschaft für Anomalistik [Society for Anomalistics] – questionnaire survey – main areas of interest – Zeitschrift für Anomalistik

Abstract

Abstract – The concept of transliminality provides a perceptual approach to discover paranormal experiences without pathologizing. The Transliminality Scale by Thalbourne (1998) is used to survey individual transliminality. A German version of this scale has been available since 2011. The present study shows standard values on the basis of an online poll (N = 474). While there was no correspondence between the age of respondents and individual transliminality, main gender effects were detected. Women showed higher transliminality values than men. In addition, based on stepwise regression analysis, a reduced version of the scale is presented. The remaining five items explain 82 per cent of the variance.

Keywords: transliminality – TLS – RTS – paranormal beliefs

Abstract

Abstract – Based on two online surveys (N₁=1460 / N₂=826) this study examined which personality traits and experiences promote belief in astrology. It turned out that faith in intuition is an important predictor of belief in astrology. Furthermore the results point to a correlation between the loss of perceived control and belief in astrology. However, the attempt failed to experimentally verify the causal effect of perceived control. There is evidence that the gender differences in belief in astrology can be partly explained by differences in faith in intuition and perceived control.

Keywords: Belief in astrology – faith in intuition – perceived control – loss of control – gender differences – online survey – German students

Abstract

Abstract – The idea to cool down the earth with particles in the atmosphere which absorb heat radiation of long wavelengths and emit the absorbed energy at shorter wavelengths contradicts the 2^nd law of thermodynamics and Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation. In reality, particles with the suggested emission and absorption spectrum rather would further heat-up the earth. The patented idea rests on a misunderstood physical background of gas lantern mantles, which where invented by Carl Auer von Welsbach. The patent text does not provide a working mechanism which could be used for geoengineering. The relation to anomalistics is established through the chemtrail scene in which the “Welsbach Patent” is often quoted. A critical analysis of the active principle, as given in the patent specifications, seems to be hardly known even among scientists.

Keywords: Welsbach Patent – geoengineering – chemtrails – physics