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.
Clear Eyed Awareness is the ability to see a situation as it truly is, without denial, wishful thinking, catastrophizing, or distortion, while remaining emotionally grounded and responsive.
It may combine:
Accurate perception: recognizing facts and reality as objectively as possible.
Emotional awareness: acknowledging feelings without being overwhelmed by them.
Acceptance : accepting what is happening, even when it is unpleasant.
Discernment: distinguishing facts from assumptions, fears, or hopes.
Presence: paying attention to what is occurring in the present moment.
For example:
Without Clear Eyed Awareness:
“Everything is hopeless. Nothing will ever improve.”
With Clear Eyed Awareness:
“Things are very difficult right now. I feel discouraged, but I don’t know what the future holds, and there may still be actions I can take.”
Clear Eyed Awareness may be closely related to concepts found in:
Mindfulness
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Stoicism
Metacognitive Awareness
Key Difference from Blind Positivity
Blind positivity says:
“Everything will work out fine.”
Clear Eyed Awareness says:
“There are real challenges and risks here, but there may also be opportunities and resources available.”
It may be considered a foundation of psychological well-being because it allows people to respond to reality effectively rather than reacting to fears, fantasies, or avoidance.
A simple phrase that captures Clear Eyed Awareness is:
“See reality clearly, accept it honestly, and respond wisely.”
Blind Positivity is the tendency to focus only on positive possibilities while ignoring, minimizing, or denying real problems, risks, negative emotions, or evidence.
Unlike healthy optimism, which acknowledges difficulties while maintaining hope, blind positivity may prevent people from dealing effectively with reality.
Characteristics of Blind Positivity
Dismissing legitimate concerns with phrases like:
“Just think positive.”
“Everything happens for a reason.”
“Don’t be negative.”
Ignoring warning signs or risks.
Refusing to acknowledge painful emotions.
Believing positive thinking alone will solve complex problems.
Avoiding difficult conversations or decisions.
Examples
Healthy Optimism:
“This situation is difficult, but I believe I can find ways to cope and improve it.”
Blind Positivity:
“Nothing is wrong. Everything will work out perfectly, so there’s no need to worry or prepare.”
Potential Consequences
Poor decision making.
Failure to prepare for challenges.
Suppressed emotions that may later resurface as stress, anxiety, or depression.
Reduced problem solving ability.
Feeling isolated when genuine struggles are dismissed.
Blind Positivity vs. Healthy Optimism
Healthy Optimism
Blind Positivity
Acknowledges reality
Denies reality
Accepts difficult emotions
Avoids difficult emotions
Plans for obstacles
Ignores obstacles
Balances hope with evidence
Relies on hope alone
Encourages action
May encourage passivity
A Balanced Alternative
A psychologically healthy approach is:
“I can recognize what is difficult, allow myself to feel my emotions, and still maintain hope that things can improve.”
This balance may often be emphasized in therapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which encourage people to face reality honestly while working toward meaningful goals.
In short, blind positivity is optimism without reality testing, whereas healthy optimism combines hope with clear eyed awareness of the facts.
Micro-PK (Micro-Psychokinesis) is a term in parapsychology that refers to the alleged ability of the mind to influence physical systems at a very small or microscopic level, typically in ways that are not observable with the naked eye.
Unlike Macro-PK, which involves dramatic claims such as table levitation, object movement, or large scale physical effects, Micro-PK focuses on subtle statistical influences.
Examples of Micro-PK Research
Researchers have investigated whether human intention may influence:
Electronic random number generators (RNGs)
Radioactive decay processes
Quantum-level events
Computer-generated random events
Dice-throwing outcomes over many trials
The idea is not that a person can consciously control each event, but that intention might produce a small statistical deviation from chance expectations.
How It Differs from Macro-PK
Micro-PK
Macro-PK
Small statistical effects
Large visible effects
Requires many trials and statistical analysis
Allegedly observable directly
Often tested with electronic devices
Often involves physical object movement
More frequently studied in laboratories
Rarely demonstrated under controlled conditions
Scientific Status
Micro-PK remains controversial. Some researchers in parapsychology argue that experimental results suggest a genuine anomaly, while many mainstream controversialscientists attribute reported effects to:
Statistical fluctuations
Experimental errors
Publication bias
Methodological weaknesses
Difficulties reproducing results consistently
As a result, Micro-PK may not be accepted as an established phenomenon within mainstream controversial physics or psychology, though it continues to be investigated by some researchers in parapsychology and consciousness studies.
In parapsychological theory, Micro-PK may often be viewed as a possible interaction between consciousness and physical systems at a subtle level, whereas Macro-PK would represent a much larger and more dramatic manifestation of the same underlying process.
Pip: Liberty Psychological Association has been building what it calls the most comprehensive online library regarding mental health, psychology, and parapsychology in the world — and this week, the posts go somewhere genuinely difficult.
Mara: Shervan K Shahhian covers two territories today: the cumulative psychological toll of chronic stalking, and what auditory hallucinations actually are and when they become a clinical emergency.
Pip: Let's start with what prolonged perceived threat does to a person's mind and body.
Chronic Stalking And Its Impact
Mara: The central question here is what happens psychologically when someone lives under sustained perceived threat — not a single incident, but months or years of it.
Pip: The post on the psychological effects of long-term stalking frames it this way: "long-term exposure to perceived threat can have profound effects on mental and physical health."
Mara: And the effects are organized across four domains — emotional, cognitive, physical, and behavioral. Chronic anxiety, hypervigilance, memory problems, sleep disruption, social withdrawal, difficulty holding down work or relationships. The list is broad because the damage is broad.
Pip: It's the kind of thing where the symptom profile starts to look a lot like trauma, because clinically, it is.
Mara: Exactly — the post draws a direct line to PTSD, complex trauma, anxiety disorders, and major depressive disorder. The brain's threat-detection systems adapt to a dangerous environment, which is protective short-term and exhausting long-term.
Pip: Clinicians, the post notes, don't start by deciding whether the surveillance is real. They start by asking how it's affecting daily life — sleep, work, relationships, concentration.
Mara: That trauma-informed framing matters. The focus is on distress and coping, not on adjudicating the person's account.
Pip: Which connects directly to the second post, on the straw that broke the camel's back — because that piece asks what the breaking point actually looks like for someone carrying this kind of load.
Mara: The answer is that the final event is usually small. Seeing a familiar vehicle. Receiving one more unwanted message. Losing a sense of safety in a place that used to feel secure. The post describes this as the point where accumulated stress exceeds a person's coping resources — and notes it can tip into feelings of helplessness, emotional collapse, or even anger directed at the perceived stalker.
Pip: The weight isn't in the last straw. It's in everything stacked underneath it.
Mara: That's the clinical takeaway from both posts — the longer those conditions persist, the more urgent it becomes to address both practical safety and the psychological toll together.
Pip: From sustained external threat to something that originates internally — auditory hallucinations are next.
Auditory Hallucinations And Symptoms
Mara: The post on auditory hallucinations opens with a clear definition: they are "hearing sounds, voices, music, or noises that are not actually present in the environment," ranging from simple buzzing to complex voices.
Pip: The causes span a wide clinical territory — schizophrenia, severe depression, sleep deprivation, substance use, neurological conditions, even high fever. The post flags one scenario as requiring urgent help: voices commanding harmful actions.
Mara: Treatment depends entirely on cause — therapy, medication, sleep restoration, or addressing an underlying medical condition. The post is direct: persistent or distressing hallucinations need professional evaluation, not self-management.
Pip: Both territories today — chronic stalking and auditory hallucinations — come back to the same point: prolonged stress reshapes how the mind perceives and responds to the world.
Mara: And recognizing that reshaping early is where clinical intervention does its most useful work. More ahead.
Healthy optimism is the ability to expect that positive outcomes are possible while still recognizing challenges, risks, and reality.
It differs from blind positivity because it does not deny problems. Instead, it maintains the belief that difficulties can be managed, overcome, or learned from.
Characteristics of Healthy Optimism
Realistic: Acknowledges obstacles and setbacks.
Hopeful: Believes improvement is possible.
Flexible: Adapts when circumstances change.
Action-oriented: Focuses on what may be done rather than what cannot.
Resilient: Recovers more easily from disappointments.
Example
Healthy optimism:
“This situation is difficult, and there may be setbacks, but I can take steps to improve it and learn from the experience.”
Unhealthy or unrealistic optimism:
“Everything will work out perfectly, so I don’t need to prepare for problems.”
Benefits
Research in mental health studies, it has linked healthy optimism to:
Better stress management
Greater resilience
Improved problem solving
Higher motivation
Better physical health outcomes
Lower risk of depression and hopelessness
Healthy Optimism vs. Exaggerated Positivity
Healthy Optimism
Exaggerated Positivity
Acknowledges pain and difficulty
Denies or minimizes pain
Balances hope with reality
Insists on positivity regardless of reality
Encourages practical action
May discourage discussing problems
Supports emotional honesty
Can lead to emotional suppression
From the perspective of positive psychology, healthy optimism may often be described as “realistic hope”, the belief that the future may be better while accepting the realities of the present. This balanced outlook tends to foster resilience, perseverance, and psychological well-being.
Exaggerated positivity is the tendency to push optimism, encouragement, or “good vibes” to an unrealistic extreme, especially when difficult emotions, problems, or risks are being ignored, minimized, or denied.
It may sound supportive on the surface, but it may unintentionally invalidate real experiences.
Common examples may include:
“Just stay positive.”
“Everything happens for a reason.”
“Don’t think negatively.”
“You should be grateful.”
“Good vibes only.”
Key Characteristics
1. Dismissing difficult emotions
Instead of allowing sadness, fear, anger, grief, or uncertainty, exaggerated positivity pressures people to appear emotionally “fine.”
Example:
Someone says: “I’m exhausted and overwhelmed.”
Response: “You just need a positive mindset.”
The struggle gets bypassed rather than understood.
2. Unrealistic optimism
It may involve denying genuine problems or risks.
Example:
Ignoring warning signs because “everything will work out somehow.”
Healthy optimism recognizes challenges while still maintaining hope.
3. Emotional avoidance
Sometimes exaggerated positivity becomes a defense mechanism against discomfort, vulnerability, anxiety, or helplessness.
A person may use positivity to avoid:
grief
trauma
conflict
uncertainty
emotional pain
4. Pressure to perform happiness
People may feel they must constantly appear upbeat, successful, spiritually evolved, or emotionally strong.
This may create:
shame about normal emotions
emotional suppression
loneliness
self-criticism
Psychological Concepts Related to It
Emotional invalidation: dismissing or minimizing emotions
Avoidance coping: avoiding distress rather than processing it
Cognitive distortion: oversimplifying reality
Spiritual bypassing: using spiritual ideas to avoid psychological issues
Toxic positivity: a common modern term for excessive positivity
Healthy Positivity vs. Exaggerated Positivity
Healthy Positivity
Exaggerated Positivity
Acknowledges pain
Denies pain
Allows mixed emotions
Demands happiness
Realistic hope
Unrealistic optimism
Encourages coping
Suppresses feelings
“This is hard, but manageable.”
“Just think positive.”
A More Balanced Approach
Psychological resilience usually involves:
accepting emotions without drowning in them
realistic thinking
emotional honesty
flexibility
hope without denial
Example:
“Things are difficult right now, and I still believe improvement is possible.”
That is different from pretending suffering does not exist.
A moral compass is a person’s internal sense of right and wrong that guides their decisions, behavior, and judgments. It helps people determine what they believe is ethical, fair, and appropriate in different situations.
A moral compass may be shaped by many influences, including:
Family values
Culture and society
Religious or spiritual beliefs
Personal experiences
Education
Reflection and critical thinking
Examples
Returning a lost wallet because you believe it is the honest thing to do.
Standing up for someone being treated unfairly.
Refusing to cheat, even when you could avoid being caught.
In Psychology
Psychologists view moral development as a process that evolves throughout life. Researchers proposed that people progress through different stages of moral reasoning, from avoiding punishment to making decisions based on universal ethical principles.
Components of a Moral Compass
Values: What you consider important (honesty, compassion, justice).
Conscience: Feelings that help you recognize when an action aligns or conflicts with your values.
Empathy: Understanding how your actions affect others.
Moral Reasoning: Thinking through ethical dilemmas and consequences.
Why It Matters
A strong moral compass may help people:
Make consistent decisions.
Build trust and healthy relationships.
Maintain integrity during difficult situations.
Navigate complex ethical challenges.
In simple terms, a moral compass is the inner guide that helps you choose what you believe is the right thing to do, even when the decision is difficult.
Consciousness Studies is an interdisciplinary field that investigates the nature of conscious experience how and why we are aware of ourselves, our thoughts, emotions, sensations, and the world around us.
It brings together researchers from several disciplines, including:
Psychology
Neuroscience
Philosophy of Mind
Cognitive Science
Artificial Intelligence
Parapsychology (a controversial and widely accepted field)
Major Questions in Consciousness Studies
Researchers explore questions such as:
What is consciousness?
How does subjective experience arise from mind activity?
What is the relationship between the mind and the consciousness?
Do animals possess consciousness?
Could machines become conscious?
What happens to consciousness during sleep, anesthesia, meditation, or altered states?
The “Hard Problem” of Consciousness
The philosopher David Chalmers coined the term “hard problem of consciousness.”
It asks:
Why does physical mind activity produce subjective experience at all?
For example, neuroscience can identify which mind regions process color, but why the experience of seeing “red” feels the way it does remains an open question.
Major Theories
Some influential theories may include:
Physicalism
Consciousness emerges from physical processes in the mind.
Panpsychism
The view that consciousness, or proto-consciousness, may be a fundamental feature of reality.
Areas of Research
Researchers study:
Attention and awareness
Dreams and lucid dreaming
Meditation and contemplative states
Hypnosis
Near-death experiences, NDA
Altered states of consciousness
Brain injuries and disorders of consciousness: Please Consult with a Neurologist
Psychedelic experiences: May Cause Life Long Hallucinations
Consciousness Studies and Parapsychology
Some consciousness researchers investigate reports of phenomena such as telepathy, psychokinesis (PK), remote viewing, and other anomalous experiences. These topics remain highly controversial because evidence has achieved broad scientific consensus. Mainstream controversial consciousness research generally focuses on phenomena that may be reliably observed and replicated under controlled conditions.
Why It Matters
Consciousness studies addresses one of the deepest questions in science and philosophy:
How does subjective experience arise, and what does it tell us about the nature of mind, and reality?
Despite major advances in neuroscience, consciousness remains one of the most challenging and fascinating subjects in modern inquiry.
Macro-PK (Macro-Psychokinesis) refers to alleged psychokinetic effects that are large enough to be directly observed without specialized scientific instruments.
In parapsychology, psychokinesis (PK) is the claimed ability of the mind to influence physical objects or events without any known physical interaction. Macro-PK is distinguished from micro-PK, which involves very small statistical effects, such as attempts to influence random number generators.
Examples of Reported Macro-PK Phenomena
Table levitation
Movement of objects without physical contact
Bending of metal objects
Spontaneous movement of furniture
Apports (the alleged appearance or transportation of objects)
Physical disturbances associated with poltergeist cases
Reports of psychically induced electrical or mechanical effects
Historical Context
Reports of Macro-PK have appeared in:
Spiritualist movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Claims surrounding Prophet Ted Owens, who attributed large-scale weather and societal effects to interactions with non-human intelligences.
Scientific Perspective
Macro-PK remains highly controversial. While numerous eyewitness accounts and case reports exist, mainstream controversial science has not accepted Macro-PK as a demonstrated phenomenon because:
Mainstream controversial science has not accepted Macro-PK , because they can not or do not want to accept it. Not being able to explain a fact, does not make it false.
Controlled replications have been difficult but in many instances successful.
Alternative explanations such as it being real, misperception, suggestion, coincidence, fraud, or methodological weaknesses often cannot be ruled out.
No widely accepted physical mechanism explains how consciousness could directly produce such effects, but it is a fact.
Some individuals claim to possess psychokinetic (PK) abilities but are unable to demonstrate them. These individuals may be fraudsters who deceive others into believing they have genuine PK powers.
Within parapsychology, Macro-PK is often considered the most dramatic category of psychokinetic claims because it involves effects that, if conclusively demonstrated under controlled conditions, would have major implications for our understanding of consciousness and physical reality.
Micro-PK (Micro-Psychokinesis) is a term in parapsychology that refers to the alleged ability of the mind to influence physical systems at a very small or microscopic level, typically in ways that are not observable with the naked eye.
Unlike Macro-PK, which involves dramatic claims such as table levitation, object movement, or large scale physical effects, Micro-PK focuses on subtle statistical influences.
Examples of Micro-PK Research
Researchers have investigated whether human intention may influence:
Electronic random number generators (RNGs)
Radioactive decay processes
Quantum-level events
Computer-generated random events
Dice-throwing outcomes over many trials
The idea is not that a person can consciously control each event, but that intention might produce a small statistical deviation from chance expectations.
How It Differs from Macro-PK
Micro-PK
Macro-PK
Small statistical effects
Large visible effects
Requires many trials and statistical analysis
Allegedly observable directly
Often tested with electronic devices
Often involves physical object movement
More frequently studied in laboratories
Rarely demonstrated under controlled conditions
Scientific Status
Micro-PK remains controversial. Some researchers in parapsychology argue that experimental results suggest a genuine anomaly, while many mainstream scientists attribute reported effects to:
Statistical fluctuations
Experimental errors
Publication bias
Methodological weaknesses
Difficulties reproducing results consistently
As a result, Micro-PK is not accepted as an established phenomenon within mainstream physics or psychology, though it continues to be investigated by some researchers in parapsychology and consciousness studies.
In parapsychological theory, Micro-PK is often viewed as a possible interaction between consciousness and physical systems at a subtle level, whereas Macro-PK may represent a much larger and more dramatic manifestation of the same underlying process.
LIBERTY PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 