A Survey of Spontaneous Apparitional Experiences

Ann R. Winsper (1) & Steven T. Parsons (2)

1 Department of Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.

2Department of Psychology, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, UK.

 

The authors have been running an on-line survey of apparitional experiences since early 2004. The aim of this survey has been to determine the type of apparitional experiences that are being reported, and to ascertain if this can aid in directing spontaneous case research in the 21 st century.

It is a fact that many surveys, including the original Census of Hallucinations (Sidgewick et al, 1894) and the Mass Observation questionnaire (West, 1948), have discounted reports of phenomena that are not directly related to an apparitional experience - for example the sound of footsteps is discounted as it is classed as doubtful whether the impression was actually caused by a real sound that the percipient had not recognised (Sidgewick et al, 1894). This is due to the purpose of the original Census being to ascertain evidence of telepathy, however this causes us, as spontaneous case researchers, some problems in quantifying the evidence presented, as this particular phenomenon (the sound of footsteps) is commonly anecdotally reported in spontaneous cases. For this reason, we have considered all anecdotal reports at face value, to try and ascertain the type of experience that people believe they are experiencing, without subjecting the reports to our own subjective bias.

The survey requests participants to answer initial questions concerning belief and whether they think they have witnessed something they believe to have been a ghost. The majority of the survey asks more detailed questions concerning the details of the experience, and finally some basic demographic details concerning gender and age are asked for.

The survey has so far produced a total of 1801 responses, although it must be recognised that the sample of respondents is not representative of the population as a whole. This is due to the survey being accessible only through the authors' website, which not only precludes people without internet access from accessing the survey, but by the nature of the site (being based on spontaneous case research) the people accessing the site are more likely to have had such experiences, with a corresponding bias of responses from experiencers and believers.

The authors will describe some of the results from the survey, and compare these results with previous surveys (including Persinger, 1974 and Green & McCreery, 1975) to ascertain if there are any significant similarities to or changes from the results obtained in previous surveys. Responses considered will include a discussion of the apparent opacity of figures reported, and responses concerning crisis apparitions. A high number of respondents reported that the figure appeared to be aware of them, indicating some form of apparent interaction between percipient and apparition.

One area of further study identified concerned a question that asked respondents to describe the period of history they thought the apparition was from. This proved to be the hardest part of the survey to analyse due to the wide variety of responses. However the authors decided at the beginning of the survey that rather than force people to fit their experience into a pre-defined historical period, it would be better to allow them to describe the historical period in their own words. Results from this part of the survey showed that sightings are more frequent as the period of history tends towards the modern day, however there are obvious peaks in the data in both the Victorian era and the period of time encompassing the two World Wars. This suggests that people may be interpreting apparitions in terms of historical periods they may be more familiar with (such as modern day, Victorian, 1 st and 2nd World War). Also, it may be the case that ghosts are actually a phenomenon that fades with time, so we would expect to see more reported sightings of modern apparitions than ones from older periods of history (Smyth, 1984). The authors hypothesised that respondents may not be accurate in describing apparitions in terms of historical period. Limited anecdotal research by the authors has shown that people cannot distinguish different periods of dress by historical period - it can be almost impossible for someone without in-depth costume knowledge to distinguish between clothing from diverse periods of history ranging from the 17 th to the 19 th centuries. The authors are currently devising a study, which will investigate the reporting of historical period by a group of participants, both apparitional experiencers and non-experiencers.

Results from other surveys discussing percipients' surroundings during apparent apparitional experiences will also be discussed as being relevant to the validity of field research in preference to laboratory research when investigating the mechanism of apparent spontaneous cases.

Finally the authors will briefly discuss the problems they have found in acquiring detailed spontaneous case reports, mainly due to the proliferation of "paranormal investigation" groups over the last decade.

 

References

Green, C. & McCreery, C. (1975). Apparitions. London: Hamish Hamilton.

Persinger, M.A., (1974). The Paranormal: Part I - Patterns. New York: MSS Information.

Sidgewick, H.A. et al ., (1894). Report on the census of hallucinations. Proceedings of the Society for Pyschical Research, 10 , 25-422.

Smyth, F. (1984). Ghost Origins. In P.Brookesmith (Ed.) The Unexplained Volume 9; Great Hauntings. London: Orbis.

West, D.J., (1948). A Mass-Observation Questionnaire on Hallucinations. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 34, 187-196.