Psychological Grief Process, explained:

The psychological grief process could refer to the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral ways people respond to loss, especially the death of a loved one. Modern psychology might no longer see grief as a simple linear set of stages, but as a dynamic process of adaptation to loss.

Here are the some psychological models used to understand grief:


1. Stage Model of Grief

Proposed five emotional stages people may experience after a major loss:

  1. Denial: Shock, disbelief, emotional numbness
  2. Anger: Frustration, resentment, questioning “Why?”
  3. Bargaining: Mental attempts to undo the loss (“If only…”)
  4. Depression: Deep sadness, withdrawal, despair
  5. Acceptance: Gradual adjustment to the new reality

Modern psychology could emphasize that people do not move through these stages in order, and some may skip stages entirely.


2. Dual Process Model of Grief

This model could say that grieving people oscillate between two psychological states:

1. Loss-oriented coping

  • Crying
  • Remembering the deceased
  • Feeling sadness
  • Processing the emotional pain

2. Restoration-oriented coping

  • Adjusting to life changes
  • Taking on new roles
  • Returning to daily tasks
  • Rebuilding life structure

Healthy grieving could involve moving back and forth between these modes.


3. Meaning Reconstruction Model

This model might emphasize making sense of the loss.

Psychological tasks include:

  • Searching for meaning in the loss
  • Reconstructing identity (who am I without this person?)
  • Maintaining a continuing bond with the deceased through memories or symbolic connection

This model could widely be used in modern grief therapy.


4. Continuing Bonds Theory

Instead of “letting go,” some people maintain a psychological relationship with the deceased, such as:

  • Talking to the person internally
  • Dreams or felt presence
  • Keeping meaningful objects
  • Ritual remembrance

Psychology might recognize that healthy grief often includes ongoing bonds.


5. Complicated or Prolonged Grief

Sometimes the grief process becomes stuck or overwhelming.

This condition is called Prolonged Grief Disorder and may involve:

  • Persistent intense yearning
  • Difficulty accepting the death
  • Identity disruption
  • Emotional numbness
  • Severe functional impairment

It could require specialized grief therapy.


 In modern psychology, grief might be understood as an adaptation process rather than a disease.
Some people gradually learn to integrate the loss into their life story.

Shervan K Shahhian

Ganzfeld Telepathy Studies, what were they:

Ganzfeld Telepathy Studies might be among the well-known experimental approaches in modern Parapsychology, designed to test whether telepathy (mind-to-mind information transfer) can occur under controlled conditions.


What is the Ganzfeld Method?

The term Ganzfeld (German for “whole field”) refers to a state of sensory homogenization, reducing structured sensory input to make subtle mental signals more noticeable.

Typical Setup:

  • Receiver (percipient) sits in a relaxed state:
    • Eyes covered with halved ping-pong balls
    • Red light illumination
    • White noise or static in headphones
  • Sender (agent) is in a separate room:
    • Focuses on a randomly chosen image or video clip
  • After ~20–40 minutes:
    • The receiver reports impressions, images, emotions
    • Then selects the target from several options (usually 4 choices)

If telepathy exists, the receiver should choose the correct target more often than chance (25%).


Key Findings

Early Results (1970s–1980s)

  • Researchers like Charles Honorton reported above-chance hit rates (~30–35%)
  • Suggested weak but consistent telepathic effects

Autoganzfeld Experiments (1980s–1990s)

  • Improved automation to remove human bias
  • Conducted at institutions like Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab
  • Results:
    • Hit rates around 32%
    • Statistically significant but small effect

Meta-Analyses

  • Daryl Bem and Charles Honorton (1994):
    • Concluded results support a real but weak psi effect
  • Later analyses found:
    • Small but persistent deviation from chance across many studies

Criticisms & Skeptical Views

Mainstream psychology remains skeptical, citing:

1. Methodological Issues

  • Sensory leakage (unintentional cues)
  • Inadequate randomization in early studies

2. Replication Problems

  • Some labs fail to reproduce results consistently

3. Statistical Concerns

  • File-drawer effect (unpublished negative studies)
  • Small effect sizes

Skeptics like Ray Hyman argued that:

  • The results are not robust enough to confirm telepathy

Parapsychological Interpretations

Within parapsychology, Ganzfeld results are often explained using models you’re already exploring:

1. Psi-Mediated Information Transfer

  • Direct telepathy between sender and receiver

2. Super-Psi Hypothesis

  • Receiver unconsciously accesses information via psi (not necessarily from sender)

3. Altered States Facilitation

  • Ganzfeld state may:
    • Reduce mental noise
    • Increase internal imagery
    • Enhance psi sensitivity

Psychological Interpretation

From a conventional standpoint:

  • The Ganzfeld state resembles:
    • Mild sensory deprivation
    • Hypnagogic imagery (dream-like states)
  • Hits may result from:
    • Pattern matching
    • Expectation bias
    • Subconscious inference

Bottom Line

  • Ganzfeld studies are one of the strongest experimental cases in parapsychology
  • Evidence suggests:
    • A small statistical anomaly
    • But not widely accepted as proof of telepathy
  • Interpretation depends heavily on theoretical framework:
    • Psi vs psychological processes
    • Shervan K Shahhian

How Parapsychology interprets certain experiences that maybe different from Clinical Psychology:

Parapsychology and clinical psychology might often study similar human experiences, but they interpret them through very different explanatory frameworks. This is especially true for experiences such as visions, apparitions, telepathy, near-death experiences, or sensed presences. Below is a comparison.


1. Basic Orientation

Clinical Psychology

  • Focus: mental health, diagnosis, and treatment.
  • Framework: biological, cognitive, and social explanations.
  • Goal: determine whether experiences indicate normal coping, stress reactions, or psychopathology.

Parapsychology

  • Focus: possible psi phenomena (ESP, telepathy, psychokinesis, survival after death).
  • Framework: might explore whether experiences may represent genuine anomalous interactions with consciousness beyond known mechanisms.
  • Goal: investigate whether some experiences are veridical (information-bearing) rather than purely subjective.

The main difference could be:

  • Clinical psychology asks “What psychological process caused this?”
  • Parapsychology asks “Could this involve psi or consciousness beyond the mind?”

2. Interpretation of Anomalous Experiences

Apparitions or sensed presence

Clinical psychology may explain them through:

  • grief responses
  • memory activation
  • dissociation
  • sleep-related hallucinations

Parapsychology may consider:

  • survival-related experiences
  • telepathic contact
  • crisis apparitions

Grief visions

In bereavement cases:

Clinical psychology:

  • interprets them as possible normal grief hallucinations or continuing bonds with the deceased

Parapsychology:

  • sometimes might interpret them as possible post-mortem communication

Telepathy or intuitive knowing

Clinical psychology:

  • intuition
  • pattern recognition
  • coincidence
  • confirmation bias

Parapsychology:

  • investigates extrasensory perception (ESP) under controlled conditions.

3. Differences in Research Methods

Clinical psychology

  • DSM diagnostic frameworks
  • clinical interviews
  • neurobiological models: CONSULT WITH A NEUROLOGIST
  • psychotherapy outcome studies

Parapsychology

  • laboratory psi experiments
  • Ganzfeld telepathy studies
  • case collections of spontaneous experiences
  • statistical anomaly detection

A major organization in the field is the Parapsychological Association.


4. Attitude Toward Anomalous Experiences

Clinical psychology might take a conservative explanatory stance:

  • extraordinary claims require strong evidence
  • priority is protecting mental health

Parapsychology takes an exploratory stance:

  • anomalous experiences may indicate unknown capacities of consciousness
  • not automatically pathological

5. Some Areas Where Both Fields Overlap

There is some collaboration in the study of “anomalous experiences”.
Researchers attempt to distinguish between:

  • psychopathology
  • spiritual or transformative experiences
  • possible psi phenomena

Important modern view:
Some psychologists today recognize that having unusual experiences does not necessarily mean mental illness. The key question is whether the experience causes distress, impairment, or loss of reality testing.


Some modern researchers frame this as “the psychology of anomalous experience”, which tries to bridge both fields rather than oppose them.

Shervan K Shahhian

The 4th model that Modern Parapsychologists are Discussing; the “Super-Psi or Living Agent Psi model”:

Modern researchers in Parapsychology discuss a fourth explanatory model for anomalous experiences that might be called the “Super-Psi” or “Living Agent Psi (LAP)” model. This model tries to explain phenomena that appear paranormal or spirit-related without requiring discarnate spirits or external entities.


The Super-Psi / Living Agent Psi Model

Basic idea:
All the information or effects involved in an anomalous experience might come from the psychic abilities of living people, usually unconsciously.

These abilities may include:

  • Telepathy: mind-to-mind information transfer
  • Clairvoyance: acquiring information about distant or hidden events
  • Precognition: knowledge of future events
  • Psychokinesis: mental influence on physical systems

The “super” part of the theory means these abilities that could possibly operate at extremely complex and powerful levels, combining all of the above simultaneously.


Why It Was Proposed

Researchers noticed that some paranormal cases seemed to involve:

  • Accurate information about deceased people
  • Objects moving: or disturbances (poltergeist cases)
  • Visions or voices: that seem external
  • Mediumistic information

Instead of assuming spirits, the Super-Psi model suggests:

The living person’s unconscious psi might gather information from anywhere in space and time and constructs the experience.


Example

A grief apparition:
Someone sees and hears a deceased relative.

Interpretations maybe different models:

  1. Psychological model: grief hallucination
  2. Survival model: the spirit of the deceased actually appeared
  3. Psi model: telepathic/clairvoyant perception
  4. Super-Psi model: the experiencer’s unconscious psi accessed information about the deceased and created the full perception

Where It Is Used

The model may often be discussed in research areas such as:

  • Apparitions
  • Mediumship
  • Poltergeist cases
  • Near-death and after-death communication reports

Some influential parapsychologists who debated these ideas include:

  • J. B. Rhine
  • Ian Stevenson
  • Stephen E. Braude

Strengths of the Model

Parapsychologists might consider it attractive because it:

  • Explains paranormal information without requiring spirits
  • Uses known psi processes studied in labs
  • May theoretically explain very complex cases

Main Criticism

Critics argue the model becomes too powerful and unfalsifiable.

For example:

If unconscious psi can access the mind, at any place, at any time, then paranormal events could be explained by Super-Psi, making it difficult to test scientifically.


Important Debate in Parapsychology

Today the biggest debate in Parapsychology is between:

  • Super-Psi / Living Agent Psi theory
  • Survival of consciousness after death

Both attempt to explain the same phenomena but propose could be different realities.

Shervan K Shahhian

War and PTSD, the connection:

The connection between war and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can run very deep, well-documented, and central to modern psychology and related fields.


1. Why war is a powerful trigger for PTSD

War exposes individuals to extreme, repeated trauma, which is the primary cause of PTSD. These include:

  • Life-threatening combat situations
  • Witnessing death or severe injury
  • Killing or believing one has killed others
  • Moral conflicts (harming civilians)
  • Constant hypervigilance and unpredictability

This might align with the core mechanism of PTSD: overwhelming stress that exceeds the mind’s ability to process and integrate the experience.


2. Historical recognition

The link between war and PTSD has been observed for centuries, though labeled differently:

  • “Soldier’s heart” (American Civil War)
  • “Shell shock” during World War I
  • “Combat fatigue” in World War II

The formal diagnosis of PTSD emerged after former Wars, when many veterans showed persistent psychological distress.


3. Core symptoms in war veterans

PTSD in combat veterans typically includes:

Intrusion

  • Flashbacks (reliving combat)
  • Nightmares

Avoidance

  • Avoiding reminders (people, places, conversations)

Negative mood & cognition

  • Guilt, shame, emotional numbness
  • “Moral injury” (conflict with one’s values)

Hyperarousal

  • Constant alertness (as if still in combat)
  • Irritability, sleep disturbance

4. The neurobiology of war-related PTSD

Consult with a Psychiatrist

War trauma alters mind systems involved in fear and memory:

  • Amygdala: overactive (heightened fear response)
  • Hippocampus: impaired (fragmented memory processing)
  • Prefrontal cortex: reduced regulation of fear

This leads to a mind that is essentially “stuck in survival mode.”


5. Why war PTSD may be especially severe

Compared to civilian traumas, war often involves:

  • Chronic exposure: (not a single event, but repeated trauma)
  • Moral injury: (violating deeply held beliefs)
  • Unit bonding loss: (loss of comrades: grief and identity disruption)
  • Reintegration difficulty: (civilian life feels unreal or unsafe)

6. Prevalence

Rates might vary by conflict, but:

  • Combat veterans might develop PTSD
  • Higher rates in high-intensity combat zones
  • Many might experience subclinical trauma symptoms

7. Clinical vs. meaning-based interpretations

It’s worth noting two interpretive layers:

Clinical model

  • PTSD: trauma-related disorder with biological and psychological mechanisms
  • Focus: treatment (CBT, EMDR) (medication: Consult with a Psychiatrist)

Existential / parapsychological perspectives

  • War trauma may trigger:
    • Altered states of consciousness
    • Dissociation or anomalous experiences
    • Heightened sensitivity to meaning, death, and survival

Some researchers might even explore overlaps between trauma and psi-related experiences, though this remains controversial.


8. Treatment and recovery

Possible evidence-based treatments include:

  • Trauma-focused CBT
  • EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
  • Exposure therapy
  • Group therapy (especially veteran groups)

Recovery maybe possible, but often involves reintegrating the traumatic memory into a coherent life narrative.


The Bottom Line

War could be one of the most potent environments for producing PTSD because it combines:

  • Extreme threat
  • Repetition
  • Moral complexity
  • Loss and grief

PTSD, in this context, can be understood as the mind and emotions adapting to survive war, then after struggling to readapt to peace.

Shervan K Shahhian

Psychiatric Hallucinations, what are they:

CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST

It is recommended that persons suffering from hallucinations get a medical evaluation.

Psychiatric hallucinations are perceptions that may occur without an external stimulus and are experienced as real by the person. In psychology and other related fields, they maybe considered a symptom of certain mental or medical conditions, rather than paranormal or spiritual experiences.


1. Definition

A hallucination is:

A sensory experience that may appear real but occurs without any external sensory input.

The mind may generate the perception internally, but the person experiences it as if it is coming from the outside world.


2. Types of Psychiatric Hallucinations

CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST

1. Auditory Hallucinations

The possible common type.

Examples:

  • Hearing voices speaking
  • Voices commenting on behavior
  • Voices arguing with each other

Common in:

  • Schizophrenia
  • Schizoaffective Disorder

2. Visual Hallucinations

Seeing things that are not present.

Examples:

  • People or figures
  • Animals
  • Shapes or lights

Common in: CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST

  • Delirium
  • Parkinson’s Disease
  • Lewy Body Dementia

3. Tactile Hallucinations

Feeling sensations on the body.

Examples:

  • Bugs crawling on the skin
  • Being touched

Common in:

  • Delirium Tremens (severe alcohol withdrawal) CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST

4. Olfactory Hallucinations

Smelling odors that do not exist.

Examples:

  • Burning smell
  • Rotting smell

Possible causes: CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST

  • Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
  • Brain injury or tumors

5. Gustatory Hallucinations

Experiencing tastes without food present.

Examples:

  • Metallic taste
  • Poison-like taste

Often associated with neurological conditions. CONSULT WITH A NEUROLOGIST


3. Key Features of Psychiatric Hallucinations, CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST

Clinicians look for these characteristics:

  • Lack of external stimulus
  • Strong sense of reality
  • Occurs repeatedly
  • Often accompanied by other symptoms

Such as:

  • delusions
  • disorganized thinking
  • emotional disturbances

4. Conditions Where They Occur

Hallucinations may appear in:

  • Schizophrenia
  • Bipolar Disorder (during mania or depression with psychosis)
  • Major Depressive Disorder with Psychotic Features, CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST
  • Post‑Traumatic Stress Disorder
  • Substance‑Induced Psychosis

They can also result from:

  • sleep deprivation
  • drug intoxication
  • neurological disorders, CONSULT WITH A NEUROLOGIST

5. Important Clinical Distinction

Psychiatry distinguishes hallucinations from normal experiences such as:

  • Grief visions (seeing or sensing a deceased loved one)
  • Hypnagogic hallucinations (during falling asleep)
  • Hypnopompic hallucinations (during waking)

6. Psychological Explanation

Some clinical models may explain hallucinations as:

  • Misinterpretation of internal thoughts or memories
  • Abnormal brain activity in sensory regions
  • Breakdown in reality monitoring

For example, in Schizophrenia, the mind may interpret internal speech as an external voice. CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST


(Parapsychology):
Some researchers in Parapsychology argue that not all anomalous perceptions should automatically be labeled psychiatric hallucinations. They compare them with bereavement visions, psi experiences, and the Super-Psi model.

Shervan K Shahhian

Biopsychosocial Model, what is it:

“CONSULT WITH A MEDICAL DOCTOR”

The Biopsychosocial Model is a framework that might be used in medicine, psychology, and behavioral science to understand health, illness, and human behavior as the result of three interacting systems: biological, psychological, and social factors.

This idea might challenge to the purely biomedical model of disease?


Idea

The model could proposes that no illness or psychological condition has a single cause. Instead, it might emerge from the interaction of multiple layers of influence.

1. Biological Factors “CONSULT WITH A MEDICAL DOCTOR”

Physical and physiological processes in the body.

Examples:

  • Genetics
  • Brain chemistry and neurobiology
  • Hormones
  • Physical injury or disease
  • Sleep and nutrition

Example:
Depression may involve serotonin imbalance, genetics, or inflammation, “CONSULT WITH A MEDICAL DOCTOR”


2. Psychological Factors

Mental and emotional processes that influence behavior and health.

Examples:

  • Thoughts and beliefs
  • Personality traits
  • Coping skills
  • Trauma history
  • Stress perception

Example:
Two people with the same illness may respond to treatment very differently depending on their beliefs, coping style, or resilience.


3. Social Factors

Environmental and cultural influences affecting a person.

Examples:

  • Family relationships
  • Culture and religion
  • Socioeconomic status
  • Social support
  • Life events

Example:
Strong social support may improve recovery from illness, while isolation can worsen outcomes.


Simple Example

Consider chronic pain: “CONSULT WITH A MEDICAL DOCTOR”

DimensionExample
BiologicalNerve injury or inflammation
PsychologicalCatastrophic thinking about pain
SocialWork stress or lack of support

All three together may or may not shape the severity and persistence of pain


Why It Is Important

The model might effect modern healthcare by encouraging holistic treatment.

Treatment may include:

  • Medical care “CONSULT WITH A MEDICAL DOCTOR”
  • Psychotherapy
  • Lifestyle changes
  • Social support interventions

This model could be influenced by fields like:

  • Health Psychology
  • Behavioral Medicine
  • Psychosomatic Medicine
  • Shervan K Shahhian

The 3 Main Models Parapsychologists might use to explain Anomalous Experiences:

In Parapsychology, researchers may often use three main explanatory models to understand anomalous experiences (apparitions, telepathy, precognition, near-death visions, or contact experiences). These models may not necessarily compete; some researchers treat them as different explanatory levels.


1. The Psi (Survival / Extrasensory) Model

This could be the traditional parapsychological model.

Core idea:
Some anomalous experiences may involve genuine psi abilities or survival of consciousness beyond the body.

Examples:

  • Extrasensory Perception (ESP): telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition
  • Psychokinesis (PK): mind influencing matter
  • Apparitions of deceased individuals
  • Veridical perceptions during Near-Death Experience

Interpretation:

  • Consciousness may extend beyond the brain.
  • Some experiences may reflect actual information transfer or survival of consciousness after death.

This model is commonly used in:

  • survival research
  • mediumship studies
  • remote viewing research (including protocols such as Controlled Remote Viewing)

2. The Psychological / Experiential Model

This model emphasizes human psychology rather than external paranormal forces.

Core idea:
Many anomalous experiences may arise from normal psychological processes that feel extraordinary.

Key factors studied include:

  • Dissociation
  • Absorption (psychology) (deep imaginative focus)
  • grief-related visions
  • sleep paralysis
  • hypnagogic imagery
  • expectation and belief

Example:
A bereaved person seeing a deceased loved one may be interpreted as a grief-induced perceptual experience, not necessarily a spirit encounter.

This model could overlap with:

  • clinical psychology
  • cognitive psychology
  • trauma research

3. The Experiential / Constructivist Model

This model might focus on how people interpret unusual experiences, regardless of their ultimate cause.

Please note that:
Anomalous experiences may be genuine subjective events, but their meaning is constructed through culture, beliefs, and worldview.

Researchers might study:

  • cultural interpretations of visions
  • spiritual frameworks
  • mythic and symbolic meaning

For example:

  • A Christian might interpret a vision as an angel.
  • A UFO experiencer might interpret it as extraterrestrial contact.
  • A mystic might see it as spiritual awakening.

This model connects with:

  • Transpersonal Psychology
  • Anthropology
  • consciousness studies.

In summary

ModelMain ExplanationFocus
Psi ModelReal paranormal processesESP, survival, PK
Psychological ModelInternal mental processescognition, perception, grief
Constructivist ModelCultural interpretation of experiencesmeaning and worldview

Interesting point:
Some modern researchers might combine these models into a “multi-layered explanation”, recognizing that an anomalous experience might involve psychological processes, cultural interpretation, and “possibly” psi elements simultaneously.

Shervan K Shahhian

First-Rank Symptoms of Schizophrenia (FRS), an explanation:

It is recommended that persons suffering from hallucinations get a medical evaluation.

Also, PLEASE: CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIC

First-Rank Symptoms of Schizophrenia (FRS) could be a group of symptoms. It could be believed these symptoms were especially characteristic of Schizophrenia and could help distinguish it from other psychiatric conditions.


Core Idea

FRS can be disturbances in the sense of self, where a person experiences their thoughts, actions, or perceptions as being controlled or influenced by an external force.


The Main First-Rank Symptoms

1. Auditory Hallucinations (Voices)

  • Hearing voices that:
    • Comment on one’s actions (“He is walking now…”)
    • Argue or discuss the person (voices talking about them in third person)

2. Thought Insertion

  • Belief that thoughts might be placed into one’s mind by an external agent

3. Thought Withdrawal

  • Belief that thoughts could be removed or stolen from the mind

4. Thought Broadcasting

  • Belief that one’s thoughts are accessible to others, as if “broadcasted”

5. Delusions of Control (Passivity Experiences)

  • Feeling that one’s:
    • Actions
    • Emotions
    • Impulses
      are being controlled by an outside force

6. Delusional Perception

  • A normal perception (seeing a traffic light turn red) is given a bizarre, personal meaning
    • Example: “The red light means I am chosen for a mission”

Clinical Notes

  • FRS might not be exclusive to schizophrenia (they could appear in other disorders), but they could be highly suggestive.
  • Modern systems might not rely solely on FRS for diagnosis.
  • Diagnosis might require a broader pattern of symptoms, including:
    • Negative symptoms (flat affect)
    • Disorganized thinking
    • Functional impairment

Conceptual Importance

FRS highlight a breakdown in some philosophers might call the “sense of agency”, the feeling that:

  • “My thoughts are mine”
  • “I am the author of my actions”

In schizophrenia, this boundary could become disrupted.


(Parapsychology)

Some FRS especially thought insertion or voices might superficially resemble:

  • Telepathic experiences
  • External intelligence communication

However, in psychology, these could be understood as internally generated experiences misattributed to external sources, rather than veridical external communication.

Shervan K Shahhian

Telepathic hallucinations, what are they:

It is recommended that persons suffering from hallucinations get a medical evaluation.

“ALSO CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST”

Telepathic hallucinations is a term sometimes used in psychology and other related fields to describe an experience in which a person believes they are receiving thoughts, messages, or communications telepathically, but the experience is interpreted clinically as a hallucinatory or delusional perception rather than actual telepathy.

It sits at the intersection of hallucinations, delusional beliefs, and anomalous experiences.


1. Clinical Psychology Definition

Telepathic hallucinations usually might fall under auditory or thought-related hallucinations combined with delusions of telepathy.

Typical features include:

  • Believing someone is sending thoughts into one’s mind
  • Feeling that others can hear or read one’s thoughts
  • Perceiving silent messages without sensory input
  • Interpreting internal thoughts as coming from another person

These experiences can occur in disorders such as:

  • Schizophrenia
  • Schizoaffective Disorder
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Severe stress or trauma

Psychiatrists often classify them under passivity experiences or thought interference. It is recommended that persons suffering from hallucinations get a medical evaluation.


2. Types of Telepathic-Like Experiences in Psychiatry, It is recommended that persons suffering from hallucinations get a medical evaluation.

Thought Insertion

The person believes thoughts are placed into their mind by someone else.

Thought Broadcasting

The belief that one’s thoughts are being transmitted to others.

Thought Withdrawal

The feeling that someone is removing thoughts from the mind.

These phenomena might have been described by some psychiatrist
as first-rank symptoms of schizophrenia.


3. Psychological Mechanism (Clinical Explanation) It is recommended that persons suffering from hallucinations get a medical evaluation.

Psychologists may explain these experiences through disruptions in self-monitoring of thoughts.

Normally the brain tags thoughts as self-generated.
In certain conditions, this mechanism fails, leading to:

  • Internal thoughts perceived as external
  • Inner speech mistaken for communication
  • Misattribution of mental events

Brain regions involved often include: It is recommended that persons suffering from hallucinations get a medical evaluation.

  • the temporal lobes?
  • the default mode network?
  • language areas involved in inner speech?

4. Parapsychology Perspective

It’s worth noting that the field treats these experiences differently.

Researchers might distinguish between:

1. Psychopathological hallucinations

Mental health conditions producing telepathic beliefs. It is recommended that persons suffering from hallucinations get a medical evaluation.

2. Misinterpreted anomalous cognition

A genuine psi experience interpreted incorrectly.

3. Psi-mediated information

Some parapsychologists propose that telepathic impressions may occur but be filtered through imagination or dreams.

Researchers such as
J. B. Rhine and
William G. Roll
suggested that some experiences labeled hallucinations could involve psi processes mixed with normal cognition. It is recommended that persons suffering from hallucinations get a medical evaluation.

This idea overlaps with the Super-Psi model.


5. Distinguishing Telepathic Hallucinations from Other Experiences

FeaturePsychiatric HallucinationAnomalous Experience (Parapsychology)
ControlUncontrollableOften spontaneous but meaningful
Emotional toneDistressing or intrusiveNeutral or meaningful
ConsistencyDisorganizedSometimes coherent
FunctioningOften impairedUsually preserved

However, some clinicians default to the psychiatric explanation unless strong evidence suggests otherwise. It is recommended that persons suffering from hallucinations get a medical evaluation.


 In summary:
Telepathic hallucinations maybe perceived as mental communications that feels telepathic but could be interpreted clinically as hallucinations or delusional beliefs, often due to misattribution of internal thoughts.

Shervan K Shahhian