Uncategorized – Page 3 – LIBERTY PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Parapsychology; Mind to Mind Communication:

Mind to Mind Communication may generally refer to the idea that information may be transmitted from one person’s mind to another without relying on ordinary sensory channels such as speech, writing, gestures, or electronic communication.

It may mean different things depending on the framework:

Ordinary psychological communication

People continuously infer each other’s thoughts and emotions through facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, context, and learned patterns. This may feel almost instantaneous, but it still involves sensory information.

Telepathy

In parapsychology, mind to mind communication may often be used as another way of describing telepathy: the purported transfer of thoughts, images, emotions, or other information between people without known sensory mediation.

Empathic or intuitive communication

Someone may accurately sense another person’s emotional state without consciously knowing how they obtained the information. Psychology may explain many such experiences through unconscious perception, pattern recognition, emotional attunement, and inference. A parapsychological interpretation might consider psi as an alternative hypothesis when ordinary explanations appear insufficient.

Altered states and hypnosis

Hypnosis, meditation, dreaming, ganzfeld procedures, and other altered states may have been investigated in relation to unusual forms of interpersonal information transfer. These areas may particularly be interesting to parapsychology because they may reduce ordinary sensory distractions.

The key distinction

A useful conceptual distinction may be:

Communication…information is exchanged through an identifiable channel. Telepathy…information appears to be exchanged without an identifiable sensory channel.

For example:

Person A thinks intensely about a particular image. Person B, isolated from Person A and unable to obtain the information normally, reports the same or substantially similar image.

That would constitute a telepathy hypothesis, not automatically proof of telepathy. A rigorous investigation would need to exclude coincidence, sensory leakage, prior knowledge, cueing, selective reporting, and other conventional explanations.

In parapsychology

Mind to mind communication may be closely related to the concepts of:

Telepathy…ESP…psi…anomalous information transfer

It may be useful to distinguish telepathy from psychokinesis (PK):

Telepathy: purported mind…mind information transfer

Clairvoyance: purported information about an object/event without ordinary sensory access

Precognition: purported information about a future event

Psychokinesis: purported mind…physical system influence

One of the longstanding questions in parapsychology is whether these phenomena represent different abilities or different manifestations of a more fundamental psi process.

Importantly, mainstream science may not or does not want to established telepathy as a demonstrated mechanism of human communication. Parapsychological research continues to investigate anomalous information transfer, while conventional psychology emphasizes known mechanisms of perception, inference, memory, social cognition, and coincidence.

Shervan K Shahhian

Parapsychology; A Paranormal Hypothesis; is a proposed explanation for an unusual or anomalous experience:

A Paranormal Hypothesis is a proposed explanation for an unusual or anomalous experience that suggests the phenomenon may involve processes not adequately explained by currently accepted scientific models.

In simple terms:

“Something unusual happened. Could there be an explanation beyond ordinary physical or psychological mechanisms?”

Examples

A paranormal hypothesis might propose that:

Telepathy: information was transferred between minds without known sensory communication.
Precognition: information about a future event was obtained before the event occurred.
Psychokinesis (PK): mental activity influenced a physical system without ordinary physical interaction.
Apparition: an apparently deceased person was perceived in a way that might involve something beyond memory, hallucination, or expectation.
Remote viewing: a person obtained information about a distant target without ordinary sensory access.
Survival of consciousness: some aspect of consciousness continues after biological death.
Non-human intelligence: an anomalous experience may involve an intelligence not readily attributable to ordinary human activity.

Paranormal hypothesis vs. Paranormal belief

This distinction is important:

Paranormal belief:

“Ghosts are real.”

Paranormal Hypothesis:

“Some reports of apparitions may be produced by a mechanism that may not currently be explained by conventional psychological or physical models.”

The second is testable in principle and therefore more useful scientifically.

A good paranormal hypothesis may have several characteristics

Clearly defined phenomenon: What exactly happened?

Alternative explanations considered: Could perception, memory, coincidence, fraud, suggestion, sleep phenomena, “neurological factors: consult with a Neurologist”, or environmental causes explain it?

Specific prediction: What would we expect to observe if the paranormal explanation were correct?

Falsifiability: What result would count against the hypothesis?

Replication: Can independent investigators obtain similar results?

Controls: Can sensory leakage, experimenter effects, statistical artifacts, and selection bias be minimized?

Proportional conclusions: Evidence for an anomaly may not automatically establish a particular paranormal mechanism.

In parapsychology

A particularly useful framework may be:

Observation…Anomaly…Hypothesis…Experiment…Replication…Interpretation

For example:

Observation: A participant appears to identify information about a distant target above chance.

Conventional hypotheses: cueing, sensory leakage, statistical artifact, recording error, unconscious inference, etc.

Paranormal hypothesis: information was acquired through a psi process.

Test: preregistered, blinded, controlled trials.

Result: determine whether the anomalous effect persists under increasingly stringent controls.

This approach allows someone to take paranormal experiences seriously without automatically assuming that the paranormal interpretation is correct.

An important distinction

“Unexplained” vs “Paranormal.”

An experience may be genuinely unexplained while the ultimate explanation remains unknown. A paranormal hypothesis becomes scientifically interesting when it makes predictions that distinguish it from ordinary explanations.

This distinction may be especially useful: you may investigate an anomalous experience phenomenologically while maintaining separate hypotheses for psychological, “Medical/Neurological: please, consult with a Neurologist”, environmental, conventional physical, and genuinely psi/paranormal explanations.

Shervan K Shahhian

The Art of Adaptation is the ability to adjust, without losing your core values or sense of self:

“Consider Alternative Interpretations and Strategies.Changing your strategy without abandoning your principles.”

The Art of Adaptation is the ability to adjust your thoughts, behaviors, strategies, and expectations when circumstances change, without losing your core values or sense of self.

In mental health, adaptation could be closely related to resilience, cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, and problem solving.

Flex Without Breaking Down

A simple formula

Adaptation: accepting reality, learning from it, adjusting your response, continuing forward.

It may not mean simply “going along with everything.” Healthy adaptation involves knowing what to change and what not to change.

Five elements of adaptation

Awareness: Recognize that circumstances have changed.
Acceptance: Stop fighting the reality that may not be changed.
Flexibility: Consider alternative interpretations and strategies.
Action: Change behavior based on what you have learned.
Integration: Incorporate the experience into your future decision making.

Adaptation vs. Rigidity

Rigidity	Adaptation
“This is how it has always been done.”	“What does this situation require now?”
Resists new information	Uses new information
Repeats the same strategy	Changes strategy when necessary
Sees change as a threat	Can see change as information
Protects certainty	Tolerates uncertainty

An important psychological distinction

Adaptation may not be the same as conformity.

A person may adapt while maintaining strong boundaries and principles.

For example:

“I cannot control what happened, but I can control how I respond to what happened.”

That is adaptive thinking.

But:

“I must change myself to keep everyone else happy.”

May represent people pleasing, fear, or loss of identity, rather than healthy adaptation.

Adaptation under stress

Under significant stress, the mind may become less flexible. A person may enter a survival-oriented mode characterized by hypervigilance, avoidance, emotional shutdown, impulsivity, or rigid thinking.

Effective adaptation therefore involves learning to ask:

“Is my current response helping me deal with the situation, or is it a response I learned in an earlier situation that no longer fits?”

The deeper principle

The strongest adaptation may not be changing who you are whenever circumstances change.

It is:

Changing your strategy without abandoning your principles.

That is why adaptation may be closely connected to resilience and psychological flexibility: bend without breaking, learn without losing yourself, and change without becoming ungrounded.

Shervan K Shahhian

Chauffeur Psychology may be a useful metaphor for a psychological pattern:

Chauffeur Psychology may be a useful metaphor for a psychological pattern in which a person controls, directs, or carries another person through life rather than helping that person develop their own capacity to navigate independently.

It may be understood in several ways:

1. The “chauffeur” as a psychological role

A person may repeatedly:

Make decisions for others
Solve problems before the other person tries
Give constant advice or direction
Protect someone from consequences
Take responsibility for another person’s emotions
Become indispensable to the other person’s functioning

The underlying message may become: “I know what is best for you, so let me drive.”

2. The psychological payoff

Chauffeur behavior may not be necessarily malicious. It may satisfy important psychological needs, such as:

Control: “If I’m driving, I can prevent things from going wrong.”
Significance: “People need me.”
Identity: “I’m the helper/rescuer.”
Anxiety reduction: “If I take over, I don’t have to tolerate uncertainty.”
Avoidance: Focusing on someone else’s problems can distract from one’s own.
Self-esteem: Being needed can temporarily reinforce a person’s sense of worth.

3. The danger may be: learned dependence

If the chauffeur continually takes over, the passenger may gradually become less confident in their own ability.

This may produce a cycle:

Anxiety…chauffeur takes over…passenger avoids responsibility…passenger becomes less confident… chauffeur becomes even more necessary.

This overlaps with concepts such as codependency, enabling, Overfunctioning/underfunctioning, rescuing, and learned helplessness, although those concepts may not be identical.

4. Healthy alternative: “teach rather than drive”

A psychologically healthier approach may be:

“I can support you without taking over your life.”

Instead of saying:

“I’ll handle it.”

The helper might say:

“What do you think your options are?”

or:

“Would you like advice, or would you rather I just listen?”

That preserves autonomy, agency, and competence.

A particularly interesting distinction

There may be a major difference between being a chauffeur and being a navigator.

Chauffeur: “I’ll take you where you need to go.”

Navigator: “I’ll help you understand the map, but you’re still driving.”

In psychotherapy, the second model may be more consistent with empowerment and client autonomy. The therapist provides expertise, structure, and guidance without unnecessarily assuming control over the client’s decisions.

In one sentence: Chauffeur psychology describes the tendency to manage another person’s journey instead of helping them develop the confidence and skills to drive their own life.

Shervan K Shahhian

Compulsive Shopping, loss of control and the function shopping serves:

Compulsive Shopping, also called compulsive buying or buying shopping disorder, is a pattern of repetitive, difficult to control purchasing in which a person continues to shop despite negative emotional, financial, relational, or occupational consequences.

It is less about how much someone buys and more about loss of control and the function shopping serves.

Common cycle

Emotional trigger…urge...shopping…temporary relief/excitement…regret…distress…renewed urge

For example:

Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, anger, or low self-esteem…intense desire to shop…purchase…temporary mood improvement…guilt or financial stress…another emotional trigger.

Common characteristics

Preoccupation with shopping or purchasing
Strong urges that feel difficult to resist
Buying things that aren’t needed
Shopping to regulate emotions
Spending more money or time than intended
Hiding purchases or financial activity
Repeated unsuccessful attempts to stop or reduce shopping
Financial problems, debt, or relationship conflict
Buyer’s remorse after the purchase
Feeling temporarily better immediately after buying

Compulsive shopping vs. Normal shopping

Normal shopping	Compulsive shopping
Usually intentional	Often driven by an urge
Purchases serve a purpose	Purchases may serve an emotional function
Can postpone buying	Difficulty resisting
Little distress afterward	Guilt, shame, regret, or anxiety
Spending generally remains manageable	Can cause financial or relational harm
Behavior is flexible	Behavior becomes repetitive and difficult to control

What may drive it?

Psychologically, shopping may become a form of emotion regulation. A person may unconsciously learn:

“When I feel bad, buying something makes me feel better.”

The anticipation of purchasing may itself produce excitement and reward. Over time, the mind may develop a strong cue…craving…purchase…relief/reward pattern.

Common triggers include:

Anxiety
Depression
Loneliness
Stress
Low self-esteem
Boredom
Trauma related distress
Interpersonal conflict
Feelings of inadequacy or lack of control

Is it an addiction?

There is debate about terminology. Researchers have proposed conceptualizing it may be a behavioral addiction, an impulse control problem, or an obsessive compulsive spectrum condition.

Importantly, compulsive shopping may also occur alongside other conditions, particularly mood disorders, anxiety disorders, ADHD, OCD spectrum problems, and bipolar spectrum disorders. Excessive spending during a manic or hypomanic episode, for example, it may have a different clinical meaning than chronic compulsive buying.

Treatment

Treatment may generally focuses on:

Identifying triggers and maintaining cycles
CBT to modify thoughts and behaviors surrounding purchasing
Developing alternative emotion regulation strategies
Delaying or interrupting urges
Reducing exposure to shopping triggers
Creating financial safeguards and spending limits
Addressing underlying depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness, etc.
Treating co-occurring disorders when present

A useful clinical question may be:

“What emotional state are you trying to change when you feel the urge to buy something?”

Shervan K Shahhian

Parapsychology; Supernatural Threats may refer to perceived dangers attributed to Unknown Phenomena:

Supernatural threats may refer to perceived dangers attributed to forces, beings, or phenomena that are believed to exist outside ordinary physical or scientific explanations.

Examples might include:

Entities or beings: ghosts, spirits, demons, angels, extraterrestrials, or other alleged non-human intelligences.

Paranormal phenomena: perceived attacks, apparitions, unexplained physical events, poltergeist activity, or alleged psychic interference.

Curses or supernatural influence: beliefs that a person, object, ritual, or location may cause harm through non-ordinary forces.

Possession or spiritual attack: interpretations in which an external entity is believed to influence thoughts, emotions, behavior, or bodily experiences.

Occult threats: fears associated with magic, rituals, witchcraft, or perceived occult practices.

Environmental or location based phenomena: places believed to be haunted or associated with unusual experiences.

Three ways to understand them

1. Paranormal interpretation: Within parapsychology or spiritual traditions, a person may interpret an unusual experience as evidence of an external intelligence, psi phenomenon, spirit, or other non-ordinary reality. These interpretations remain controversial and scientifically unestablished.

2. Psychological interpretation: Experiences perceived as supernatural may sometimes arise from sleep paralysis, trauma, dissociation, hypervigilance, expectation, suggestion, perceptual errors, substance effects, or culturally shaped beliefs. Importantly, explaining a possible psychological mechanism may not necessarily mean the person’s experience was fabricated.

3. Social/cultural interpretation: What constitutes a “supernatural threat” varies considerably among cultures. The same experience might be interpreted as a ghost in one culture, a spirit or ancestor in another, or a neurological/sleep phenomenon in another.

A useful distinction

Experience vs interpretation vs explanation.

For example:

Experience: I felt that something was watching me.

Interpretation: A supernatural entity was watching me.

”Explanation: Could involve environmental factors, psychology, sleep phenomena, a cultural framework, or if one adopts a paranormal hypothesis an anomalous phenomenon.

That distinction allows someone to take the person’s experience seriously without prematurely deciding what caused it.

In a clinical setting, the safest approach may be to assess immediate safety and functioning first, while remaining respectful and non-dismissive about the person’s interpretation.

Shervan K Shahhian

Parapsychology; People with Supernatural Powers may mean several different things:

People with supernatural powers may mean several different things, depending on whether you mean religious traditions, paranormal claims, or scientifically established abilities.

1. People traditionally believed to have supernatural powers

Across cultures, certain individuals have been described as having abilities beyond ordinary human capacities:

Prophets: receiving divine revelations or foreknowledge.

Mystics: reporting direct experiences of God, spirits, or transcendent realities.

Shamans: traditionally believed to communicate with spirits and enter altered states of consciousness.

Psychics / clairvoyants: claimed ability to perceive information unavailable through the ordinary senses.

Mediums: claimed communication with deceased persons or spirits.

Healers: believed to heal through spiritual, energetic, or other non-ordinary means.

Witches / sorcerers: traditionally associated with spells, curses, divination, and other forms of magic.

Seers: people reputed to perceive future events or hidden information.

Yogis and advanced meditators: some Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Zen and Buddhist traditions describe siddhis, unusual abilities acquired through spiritual practice.

Saints: some religious traditions attribute miracles, bilocation, prophecy, levitation, or healing to particular saints.

2. Paranormal researchers describe other claimed abilities

In parapsychology, the terminology may somewhat different. Researchers could have investigated alleged phenomena such as:

Claimed ability	Description
Telepathy	Information transfer between minds
Clairvoyance	Perception of distant or hidden information
Precognition	Apparent knowledge of future events
Psychokinesis (PK)	Mind influencing physical systems
Remote viewing	Attempting to describe a distant target without ordinary sensory access
Mediumship	Apparent communication with the deceased
Healing psi	Claimed anomalous influence on health or biological systems
Apparitions	Experiences of apparently seeing deceased or non-ordinary beings

These are claims or areas of investigation, may or may not be abilities established as ordinary scientific facts.

3. An important distinction

There could be major difference between saying:

“This person reports having an extraordinary experience.”

and

“This person objectively possesses a supernatural power.”

The first may be documented phenomenologically. The second requires evidence demonstrating that the ability may not be explained by ordinary psychological, neurological, environmental, or statistical mechanisms.

Interestingly, some people who appear to have “supernatural” abilities may instead have exceptional natural abilities, for example, extraordinary memory, pattern recognition, intuition, perceptual sensitivity, hypnotic responsiveness, or an unusual capacity to read subtle social cues.

4. From a parapsychological perspective

A more neutral question may not necessarily “Who has supernatural powers?” but:

“Are there people who demonstrate anomalous information processing or mind matter effects that may not yet be adequately explained by conventional models?”

That is essentially where parapsychology enters the discussion. It leaves open the possibility of phenomena such as ESP or PK while requiring systematic investigation rather than simply accepting supernatural explanations.

And this distinction is particularly important with prophets, psychics, mediums, remote viewers, and people reporting encounters with non-human intelligences: the experience may be genuine as an experience without the proposed explanation necessarily being established.

Shervan K Shahhian

Irrational Thinking; interpretations are not adequately supported by available sound reasoning:

Irrational Thinking is a pattern of thinking in which conclusions, beliefs, or interpretations are not adequately supported by available evidence or sound reasoning. It may feel completely convincing to the person experiencing it because emotions, assumptions, biases, or previous experiences may strongly influence how information is interpreted.

Common forms of irrational thinking

Pattern Example

All-or-nothing thinking “If I fail once, I’m a complete failure.”

Catastrophizing “If this goes wrong, my life will be ruined.”

Mind reading “I know they’re judging me.”

Fortune telling “I already know this will end badly.”

Emotional reasoning “I feel unsafe, therefore I must be in danger.”

Overgeneralization “Everyone eventually betrays you.”

Personalization “They seem unhappy, so I must have done something wrong.”

Confirmation bias Looking mainly for evidence that supports what you already belive Magical thinking Believing that thoughts, rituals, or unrelated events directly cause outcomes without evidence of a causal connection.
False certainty Treating an assumption as an established fact.

Irrational thinking may not be necessarily “crazy”

Everyone engages in irrational thinking sometimes. Stress, anxiety, fear, anger, grief, trauma, sleep deprivation, and strong emotional states may make reasoning less flexible.

A useful distinction may be:

Thought…Interpretation…Belief…Action

For example:

“My friend hasn’t responded.”

“Something must be wrong.”

“They’re angry with me.”

“I should confront them.”

The initial fact is observable. The subsequent conclusions may or may not be accurate.

Rational thinking may ask different questions

Instead of asking:

“How do I feel about this?”

Rational thinking adds:

What do I actually know?

What am I assuming?

What evidence supports my interpretation?

What evidence contradicts it?

Are there alternative explanations?

Am I confusing possibility with probability?

What would change my mind?

Am I reacting to the present situation or to something from my past?

An important clinical distinction

Irrational thinking exists on a continuum. Ordinary cognitive distortions are different from severely impaired reality testing.

For example:

Cognitive distortion: “My boss didn’t smile at me, so maybe she’s upset with me.”

versus

Fixed false belief: “My boss is secretly transmitting messages into my mind through the office lights.”

The second example raises a substantially different clinical question because the belief involves reality testing, evidence evaluation, and potentially delusional conviction.

A useful principle is:

A thought may feel true without being factually true.

That distinction between subjective certainty and objective evidence is central to rational thinking, critical thinking, and psychological reality testing.

Shervan K Shahhian

The Illogical Mind; the Reasoning Contains a Flaw:

The Illogical Mind could be a way of describing thinking that reaches conclusions that may not follow reliably from the available evidence or reasoning. It may not mean a person is unintelligent. Some may think illogically under stress, fear, strong emotion, social pressure, or uncertainty.

Common forms of illogical thinking

Pattern	What happens	Example
Emotional reasoning	Feelings are treated as facts	“I feel unsafe, therefore I am unsafe.”
Confirmation bias	Evidence supporting a belief is noticed more than contradictory evidence	“I knew this would happen; look at this one example.”
Black and white thinking	Complex situations become two extremes	“Either I’m successful or I’m a failure.”
Catastrophizing	A possible negative outcome becomes an assumed disaster	“If I make this mistake, everything will be ruined.”
Overgeneralization	One event becomes a broad rule	“They rejected me, so nobody likes me.”
Mind reading	Another person’s thoughts are assumed without evidence	“She didn’t say hello because she dislikes me.”
Post hoc reasoning	Sequence is mistaken for causation	“I thought about the storm, and then it happened, so my thought caused it.”
Magical thinking	Thoughts, rituals, or symbols are treated as directly influencing external events without adequate evidence	“If I don’t perform this ritual, something bad will happen.”
Appeal to authority	A claim is accepted primarily because an authority says it	“It must be true because an expert said it.”
Self-deception	Information threatening one’s preferred belief is avoided or distorted	“I don’t have a problem; everyone else is overreacting.”

Illogical may not necessarily mean irrational

There could be an important distinction:

Illogical thinking: the reasoning contains a flaw.

Irrational thinking: the belief or behavior is poorly supported by evidence, disproportionately driven by emotion, or inconsistent with the person’s goals.

A person may have an understandable reason for an irrational conclusion. For example:

“I’ve been betrayed several times, so I assume everyone will eventually betray me.”

The conclusion may be understandable given the person’s history, but the evidence doesn’t necessarily justify applying it to everyone.

The logical mind vs. the illogical mind

A useful conceptual distinction is:

Logical mind:

“What evidence supports this? What evidence contradicts it? Are there alternative explanations?”

Illogical mind:

“It feels true, therefore it must be true.”

The goal may not be to eliminate emotion. A psychologically healthy person may use emotion as information while using reason and evidence to evaluate what the emotion means.

A powerful question

When you notice an intense belief, ask:

“What do I know, what do I believe, what do I feel, and what am I assuming?”

That separates reality, interpretation, emotion, and inference, one of the foundations of good critical thinking.

Shervan K Shahhian

Fake It Till You Make It vs Fake It Till You Become It:

Both phrases may describe using behavior to help create change, but they emphasize different endpoints.

“Fake it till you make it”

Meaning: Act as if you already have the confidence, competence, or success you want even before you genuinely feel or possess it.

Focus: achieving an external outcome

Example: “I’m nervous about public speaking, but I’ll practice confident posture and speak clearly until I become comfortable.”

Risk: If taken literally, it may encourage pretending, masking, or deception.

“Fake it till you become it”

Possibly, popularized by social psychologist Amy Cuddy, this version shifts the emphasis from getting something to developing an internal identity or capacity.

Focus: personal transformation

Example: “I don’t feel confident yet, but I will repeatedly practice confident behaviors until confidence becomes more natural.”

The goal may not be to deceive others; it’s to practice the behaviors associated with the person you are becoming.

The important distinction

A psychologically healthier formulation might be:

“Practice it until you become it.”

That removes the word fake entirely. You may not be pretending to be confident you are rehearsing confident behaviors while honestly acknowledging that you’re still learning.

For example:

Fearful… “I’ll pretend I’m fearless.”vs.Fearful…“I’m afraid, but I’ll practice acting courageously.”

The second approach combines authenticity, behavioral practice, self-efficacy, and gradual identity change.

Shervan K Shahhian