Author Archives: Shervan K Shahhian, LIBERTY PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, The Most Comprehensive Online Library Regarding Mental Health, Psychology and Parapsychology in the World.

Doctored Degree in Clinical Psychology (PSYD) (ABD) All But Dissertation, a Masters (M.A.) in Clinical Psychology, a Bachelor's Degree (B.A.) in Psychology, a Associate Degree (AA) in Liberal Arts with an emphases in Psychology, Certification in Anger Management, Certification in MRT-Moral Reconation Therapy®, Certification in Clinical Hypnotherapy, and Certification in Advanced Hypnotherapy.

Parapsychology: Living Person Apparitions:

Living Person Apparitions are reports in which someone sees, hears, or senses a person who is actually alive but physically absent at the time of the experience (apparition).

These experiences have been studied in parapsychology and psychical research for over a century. They are sometimes called veridical apparitions of the living or living agent apparitions.

Common Features

  • The experiencer perceives a recognizable person.
  • The person is alive at the time of the apparition.
  • The apparition may appear visually, be heard speaking, or be sensed as a presence.
  • The experience may occur during an emotionally significant event involving the distant person.

Types of Living-Person Apparitions

1. Crisis Apparitions

The most frequently reported type.

A person appears to a friend or relative at the moment they are:

  • Seriously injured
  • Experiencing a medical emergency: Consult with a Medical Doctor, ASAP.
  • In extreme danger; Call 911.
  • Believing they may die

The apparition is later found to have coincided with the crisis.

2. Experimental Apparitions

In some psychical research experiments, a “sender” attempts to mentally project an image or presence to a distant “receiver.” Results have been mixed and remain controversial.

3. Spontaneous Apparitions

A person unexpectedly perceives someone who is alive and elsewhere, without any known crisis occurring.

Psychological Explanations

Controversial psychology may interprets these experiences as:

  • Misperceptions
  • Vivid mental imagery
  • Hypnagogic or hypnopompic experiences (between sleeping and waking)
  • Memory reconstruction
  • Expectation or emotional longing

Parapsychological Interpretations

Some researchers have proposed that living person apparitions may involve:

  • Telepathy
  • Psi mediated communication
  • An unconscious projection of information during emotional crises
  • A temporary manifestation of consciousness at a distance

Historical Research

Researchers associated with the Society for Psychical Research collected thousands of reports of apparitions, including many involving living persons. Classic investigators documented numerous cases in the landmark work Phantasms of the Living.

Current View

There is scientific some consensus that living person apparitions represent an actual paranormal phenomenon. However, they remain of interest to psychologists, consciousness researchers, and parapsychologists because some cases appear difficult to explain through ordinary coincidence or known psychological processes alone.

In short, a living person apparition is an experience in which a person perceives someone who is alive but not physically present, with explanations ranging from normal psychological processes to theories of telepathy or other psi related mechanisms.

Shervan K Shahhian

The Super Psi Hypothesis is a theory in Parapsychology:

The Super Psi Hypothesis is a theory in parapsychology that attempts to explain phenomena that appear to involve communication with the dead without assuming that consciousness survives bodily death.

According to the hypothesis, a living person’s unconscious mind may possess extraordinarily powerful psi abilities, including:

Telepathy: (accessing other people’s thoughts)

Clairvoyance: (accessing distant or hidden information)

Precognition: (accessing future information)

Psychokinesis (PK): (influencing physical events)

The idea is that these abilities may operate on a vast, unconscious scale, creating experiences that seem to come from deceased individuals.

Why Was It Proposed?

Researchers studying mediumship, apparitions, and other survival related phenomena noticed that some cases may be interpreted in two ways:

Survival Hypothesis:

The deceased person’s consciousness continues after death and communicates with the living.

Super Psi Hypothesis:

The living person’s unconscious psi abilities gather information may come from many sources and create the appearance of communication with the dead.

Example

Suppose a medium provides accurate information about a deceased person.

Survival interpretation: The medium is communicating with the deceased.

Super Psi interpretation: The medium unconsciously may obtain the information through telepathy from living relatives, clairvoyance, or other psi processes.

Strengths of the Super Psi Hypothesis

Does not require survival of consciousness after death.

Provides a theoretical explanation for some mediumship and after death communication reports.

Fits within a broader psi framework already accepted by some parapsychologists.

Criticisms

Critics argue that Super Psi may become difficult to test because it may invoke virtually unlimited psi abilities to explain any anomaly. Some researchers believe certain cases contain information that appears difficult to obtain solely from living minds.

Current Status

The Super Psi Hypothesis remains a theoretical concept within parapsychology. Neither Super Psi nor the Survival Hypothesis has achieved acceptance within controversial psychology or neuroscience because they have been demonstrated under conditions that satisfy the broader parapsychology community.

In some groups of parapsychologist, the debate often centers on whether anomalous experiences are better explained by:

Survival of consciousness after death,

Extraordinary psi abilities of living individuals (Super Psi),

Psychological and cognitive factors,

Or some combination of these possibilities.

For researchers interested in postmortem survival, Super Psi is may be considered the strongest alternative explanation to the Survival Hypothesis.

Shervan K Shahhian

Please, Read to My Humble Words::

Most of us simply need a listening ear, someone who will listen without judgment. Someone who will hear our stories of mistakes, pain, and suffering. Someone who will listen as we speak about everything that has gone wrong in our lives, the people we have lost, and the people who have hurt us. Sometimes, being truly heard is the beginning of healing.

Shervan K Shahhian

Parapsychology: Postmortem Survival refers to the hypothesis that,…

Postmortem Survival refers to the hypothesis that some aspect of human consciousness, personality, or awareness continues to exist after physical death. Researchers in this field attempt to investigate whether consciousness can survive the death of the mind.

This topic is primarily studied within the field of Parapsychology and by organizations such as Society for Psychical Research and Parapsychological Association.

Major Areas of Research

  1. Near-Death Experiences (NDEs)

NDEs occur when people report vivid experiences during life threatening situations or periods of clinical death.

Common features include:

Out of body experiences

Traveling through a tunnel

Encounters with deceased relatives

Feelings of peace and love

Life reviews

Interpretations:

Survivalists see NDEs as evidence that consciousness can exist apart from the mind.

Skeptics suggest neurological: Consult with a Neurologist, psychological, or physiological explanations.

  1. After-Death Communications (ADCs)

ADCs are experiences in which bereaved individuals report sensing contact from deceased loved ones.

Examples include:

Hearing a loved one’s voice

Feeling their presence

Vivid dreams

Seeing apparitions

Receiving meaningful signs

Researchers often note that ADCs are relatively common and frequently comforting to those who experience them.

  1. Deathbed Visions

Some dying individuals report seeing deceased relatives, spiritual beings, or unfamiliar landscapes shortly before death.

Questions studied include:

Are these hallucinations?

Are they influenced by culture?

Do they represent a genuine transition experience?

  1. Mediumship Research

Mediums claim to obtain information from deceased persons.

Researchers investigate:

Accuracy of information

Blind and triple blind testing

In some cases, possibility of fraud

Alternative explanations such as cold reading or telepathy

  1. Reincarnation Research

Some report memories of previous lives.

The best known researcher in this area was Ian Stevenson.

Researchers examine:

Verifiable details reported

Birthmarks corresponding to previous life injuries

Behavioral similarities

  1. Apparition Studies

Apparitions are reported sightings or perceptions of deceased individuals.

Researchers distinguish between:

Crisis apparitions

Bereavement apparitions

Shared apparitions

Place related apparitions

The question is whether such experiences represent:

Psychological processes

Misperceptions

Evidence of survival

The Survival Hypothesis

The Survival Hypothesis proposes that consciousness can continue after bodily death.

Supporters argue that:

Some cases contain information difficult to explain conventionally.

Similar patterns appear across cultures.

Multiple lines of evidence converge on survival.

Alternative Explanations

Researchers also consider non-survival explanations:

Mind-based processes

Hallucinations

Memory errors

Expectation effects

Grief related experiences

Some fraud or information leakage

Psi among living persons (sometimes called the Super-Psi Hypothesis)

The Super-Psi theory suggests that apparent communication with the dead might actually result from extraordinary psychic abilities of living individuals rather than survival after death.

Current Scientific Status

 Controversial scientists remain skeptical because:

Evidence is difficult to replicate consistently.

Many findings can be interpreted in multiple ways.

No universally accepted mechanism explains how consciousness could survive bodly death.

However, some researchers argue that the accumulated evidence from NDEs, ADCs, mediumship, reincarnation cases, and deathbed visions deserves continued scientific investigation.

Balanced Conclusion

Research into postmortem survival is one of the most fascinating and controversial areas in consciousness studies. While there is scientific consensus that consciousness survives death, there is an active body of research examining experiences and phenomena that some interpret as supporting survival. The debate continues between survival based explanations, psychological explanations, neurological explanations: Consult with a Neurologist, and psi-based alternatives.

The strongest approach is to examine the evidence critically, remain open to multiple interpretations, and distinguish carefully between personal beliefs and scientific conclusions.

Shervan K Shahhian

Parapsychology: Mutual Dreaming refers to the claim that two or more people share the same dream:

Mutual Dreaming refers to the claim that two or more people share the same dream experience, either simultaneously or with remarkably similar details that they later compare.

Types of Mutual Dreaming

  1. Simultaneous Shared Dreams
    • Two people report dreaming of each other or participating in the same dream scenario during the same night.
    • They later compare notes and find similarities.
  2. Reciprocal Dreams
    • Person A dreams about Person B, and Person B dreams about Person A at roughly the same time.
  3. Dream Telepathy Claims
    • Some researchers in parapsychology have suggested that information may occasionally be exchanged between minds during dreaming.

Psychological Explanations

Mainstream psychology offers several explanations for apparent mutual dreams:

  • Coincidence: People often dream about common themes, relationships, or shared concerns.
  • Selective Memory: Similarities are remembered while differences are forgotten.
  • Expectation Effects: After discussing dreams, people may unintentionally reconstruct memories to fit each other’s accounts.
  • Shared Experiences: Close friends, couples, or family members often have similar daily experiences and emotional concerns, which can produce similar dream content.

Parapsychological Perspective

Within parapsychology, mutual dreaming is sometimes viewed as a possible form of:

  • Dream telepathy
  • Mind to mind communication during sleep
  • Shared consciousness experiences

However, there is currently no widely accepted scientific evidence demonstrating that people can literally enter and share the same dream space. The phenomenon remains controversial and is considered unproven by conventional science.

Example

Suppose two siblings independently report dreaming that:

  • They were walking through the same unusual house,
  • Met the same deceased relative,
  • Heard the same message.

If the reports were recorded before either person discussed the dream, researchers might consider it a potential case of mutual dreaming worthy of investigation.

Related Concepts

  • Dream Telepathy
  • Telepathic Communication
  • Lucid Dreaming
  • Conscious Dreaming
  • Shared Apparitions
  • Phantasms of the Living

From a conventional scientific standpoint, mutual dreaming remains an intriguing anecdotal phenomenon. From a parapsychological standpoint, it is considered a possible area for investigating whether consciousness can interact beyond ordinary sensory communication.

Shervan K Shahhian

Parapsychology: a Shared Apparition is an apparition that is reportedly perceived by two or more people:

A shared apparition is an apparition that is reportedly perceived by two or more people at the same time. In these accounts, multiple witnesses independently report seeing, hearing, or sensing the same figure, presence, or phenomenon.

Key Characteristics

Multiple witnesses experience the event simultaneously.

Witnesses may describe the apparition similarly, though details can vary.

Shared apparitions are often considered especially interesting because they appear to involve more than a single person’s subjective experience.

Reports have occurred in homes, battlefields, hospitals, religious settings, and during emotionally significant events.

Examples

Several family members report seeing the deceased relative standing in a room.

Two friends simultaneously observe a figure that later disappears.

Multiple witnesses claim to see a religious figure, such as an apparition of certain prophets.

Possible Explanations

Different perspectives offer different interpretations:

Psychological Explanations

Suggestion and expectation.

Misinterpretation of ambiguous stimuli.

Emotional contagion within a group.

Shared beliefs influencing perception.

Parapsychological Explanations

Some researchers propose that shared apparitions may represent a genuine anomalous phenomenon.

Others suggest a form of telepathic or psi-mediated experience among witnesses.

Environmental Explanations

Lighting conditions, shadows, reflections, or unusual environmental factors may lead multiple people to interpret a stimulus similarly.

In Psychical Research

Researchers associated with organizations such as the Society for Psychical Research have collected and analyzed reports of shared apparitional experiences for over a century. These cases are often examined because they may help distinguish between purely individual experiences and events reported by multiple observers.

From a scientific standpoint, shared apparitions remain unexplained reports rather than established evidence of ghosts or survival after death. They are studied as part of the broader field of Parapsychology and the psychology of anomalous experiences.

Shervan K Shahhian

Parapsychology: a Shared Apparition is an apparition that is reportedly perceived by two or more people:

A shared apparition is an apparition that is reportedly perceived by two or more people at the same time. In these accounts, multiple witnesses independently report seeing, hearing, or sensing the same figure, presence, or phenomenon.

Key Characteristics

Multiple witnesses experience the event simultaneously.

Witnesses may describe the apparition similarly, though details can vary.

Shared apparitions are often considered especially interesting because they appear to involve more than a single person’s subjective experience.

Reports have occurred in homes, battlefields, hospitals, religious settings, and during emotionally significant events.

Examples

Several family members report seeing the deceased relative standing in a room.

Two friends simultaneously observe a figure that later disappears.

Multiple witnesses claim to see a religious figure, such as an apparition of certain prophets.

Possible Explanations

Different perspectives offer different interpretations:

Psychological Explanations

Suggestion and expectation.

Misinterpretation of ambiguous stimuli.

Emotional contagion within a group.

Shared beliefs influencing perception.

Parapsychological Explanations

Some researchers propose that shared apparitions may represent a genuine anomalous phenomenon.

Others suggest a form of telepathic or psi-mediated experience among witnesses.

Environmental Explanations

Lighting conditions, shadows, reflections, or unusual environmental factors may lead multiple people to interpret a stimulus similarly.

In Psychical Research

Researchers associated with organizations such as the Society for Psychical Research have collected and analyzed reports of shared apparitional experiences for over a century. These cases are often examined because they may help distinguish between purely individual experiences and events reported by multiple observers.

From a scientific standpoint, shared apparitions remain unexplained reports rather than established evidence of ghosts or survival after death. They are studied as part of the broader field of Parapsychology and the psychology of anomalous experiences.

Shervan K Shahhian

Interpersonal Violence refers to the intentional use of physical force or power by one person against another person:

Interpersonal Violence refers to the intentional use of physical force or power by one person against another person that results in, or has a high likelihood of resulting in, injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.

Types of Interpersonal Violence

  1. Family and intimate partner violence
    • Child abuse and neglect
    • Intimate partner violence (domestic violence)
    • Elder abuse
  2. Community violence
    • Youth violence
    • Assault by strangers or acquaintances
    • Sexual violence
    • Workplace violence
    • Bullying and harassment

Possible Risk Factors

  • Substance abuse (alcohol, drugs)
  • Poverty and unemployment
  • Family conflict
  • History of abuse or exposure to violence
  • Poor social support
  • Mental health problems

Possible Consequences

  • Physical injuries and disability
  • Mental health disorders (depression, anxiety, PTSD)
  • Substance misuse
  • Social and economic problems
  • Death in severe cases

Possible Prevention Strategies

  • Strengthening family relationships and parenting skills
  • Promoting healthy relationships and conflict resolution skills
  • Reducing access to alcohol and drugs
  • Community education and awareness programs
  • Legal protections and support services for victims

Some organizations classify interpersonal violence as a major public health problem because of its significant impact on health and well-being worldwide.

Shervan K Shahhian

Dissociative Amnesia is a psychological condition:

Dissociative Amnesia is a psychological condition in which a person is unable to recall important personal information, usually related to traumatic or highly stressful experiences. The memory loss is more extensive than ordinary forgetting and it might not be explained by a physical condition, substance use, or typical memory problems.

Key Features

  • Inability to remember important autobiographical information.
  • May be linked to trauma, abuse, accidents, disasters, combat, or overwhelming stress.
  • Memory loss may involve specific events, certain time periods, or, in rare cases, a person’s entire life history.
  • The forgotten information is stored in memory but becomes temporarily inaccessible to conscious awareness.

Types of Dissociative Amnesia

  1. Localized Amnesia
    • Inability to remember events during a specific period of time.
    • Most common type.
  2. Selective Amnesia
    • May recall some, but not all, aspects of a traumatic event.
  3. Generalized Amnesia
    • Loss of memory for one’s entire life history or identity.
    • Rare.
  4. Systematized Amnesia
    • Memory loss related to a particular person, place, or category of information.
  5. Continuous Amnesia
    • Inability to form conscious memories for ongoing events from a certain point forward.

Possible Symptoms

  • Memory gaps concerning personal history.
  • Confusion or distress about missing memories.
  • Difficulty recalling traumatic experiences.
  • Feeling detached from oneself or reality (sometimes occurring alongside other dissociative symptoms).

Dissociative Fugue

A rare subtype in which a person:

  • Suddenly travels away from home or work.
  • Becomes confused about their identity.
  • May assume a new identity temporarily.

Possible Causes

  • Severe trauma or overwhelming stress.
  • Childhood abuse or neglect.
  • Combat experiences.
  • Natural disasters.
  • Interpersonal violence.
  • Major emotional conflicts.

Possible Treatment

Treatment may focus on safety, stabilization, and gradual processing of underlying trauma:

  • Psychotherapy (the primary treatment)
  • Trauma-focused therapies
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
  • Clinical hypnosis (when appropriate and conducted by trained professionals)
  • Stress management and grounding techniques

Shervan K Shahhian

Stress Induced Dissociated Behavior:

Stress Induced Dissociated Behavior may refer to dissociative symptoms or behaviors that emerge when a person is overwhelmed by acute or chronic stress.

What Is Dissociation?

Dissociation may be a disruption in the normal integration of:

  • Awareness
  • Memory
  • Identity
  • Emotion
  • Perception
  • Body sensation

It may exist on a spectrum, from mild spacing out to more severe fragmentation.

How Stress Triggers Dissociation

When stress becomes overwhelming, especially if it feels inescapable, unpredictable, or threatening, the nervous system may shift from:

PLEASE, CONSULT WITH A MEDICAL DOCTOR

  • Fight or flight: sympathetic activation
    to
  • Freeze / shutdown: parasympathetic dorsal vagal dominance

This shutdown response may produce dissociative phenomena.

From a trauma framework, dissociation is understood as a survival adaptation when active defense fails.

Common Stress Induced Dissociative Behaviors

1. Depersonalization

Feeling detached from oneself

  • “I feel like I’m watching myself.”
  • Emotional numbness
  • Robotic functioning

2. Derealization

Feeling detached from surroundings

  • World feels unreal, foggy, dreamlike
  • Sensory distortions

3. Dissociative Amnesia

  • Memory gaps during stressful events
  • “I don’t remember parts of what happened.”

4. Behavioral Auto Pilot

  • Functioning competently but with reduced awareness
  • Emotional disconnection while performing tasks

5. Identity Shifts Under Stress

  • Sudden personality changes
  • Childlike states under overwhelm
  • Regression patterns

Neurobiological View

“CONSULT WITH A NEUROLOGIST”

Under extreme stress:

  • Amygdala: hyperactivation: consult with a Neurologist
  • Prefrontal cortex: reduced regulation: consult with a Neurologist
  • Hippocampus: memory fragmentation: consult with a Neurologist
  • Opioid system: emotional numbing: consult with a Neurologist

This creates a protective analgesic state, emotional and sometimes physical: consult with a Neurologist.

Acute vs. Chronic Patterns

Acute stress dissociation

  • During accidents
  • During conflict
  • During panic episodes

Chronic stress dissociation

  • Trauma history
  • Attachment disruptions
  • Prolonged relational threat
  • Complex trauma patterns

Chronic forms may evolve into clinical conditions such as:

  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Dissociative Identity Disorder
  • Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder

Why the System Does This

Dissociation is adaptive when:

  • The threat cannot be escaped
  • The person cannot fight
  • Emotional pain is overwhelming

It reduces subjective suffering, but long term it impairs integration and embodied presence.

Clinical Markers to Watch For

  • Flat affect during intense material
  • Sudden cognitive fog
  • Rapid shifts in eye focus
  • Voice tone change
  • Time distortion reports
  • Memory inconsistencies

Treatment Considerations

  1. Nervous system regulation (bottom-up): consult with a Neurologist
  2. Somatic grounding
  3. Trauma processing (carefully titrated)
  4. Attachment repair
  5. Strengthening executive functioning before deep trauma work

Premature trauma exposure without stabilization may increase dissociation.

Shervan K Shahhian