spirituality – LIBERTY PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Psi Mediated Communication is a term used in Parapsychology:

Psi mediated communication is a term used in parapsychology that refers to the hypothesis that information may be transferred between people (or between a person and their environment) through means that do not involve the known senses or conventional physical communication.

It is a theoretical concept used to explain reports of apparent information transfer that cannot easily be accounted for by ordinary sensory channels.

Types of Psi Mediated Communication

Researchers generally divide psi communication into two broad categories:

Telepathy
- Mind to mind communication.
- Information is thought to pass directly from one person’s consciousness to another without spoken words, gestures, or technology.
- Example: Someone suddenly knows what another person is thinking before they speak.
Clairvoyance
- Direct acquisition of information about distant objects, places, or events.
- The information is not believed to come from another person’s mind.
- Example: Describing a hidden object without seeing it.

Some researchers also include:

Precognition: information about future events.
Retrocognition: information about past events that could not have been learned normally.

How the Idea Is Used in Research

Within parapsychology, psi mediated communication has been proposed to explain phenomena such as:

Spontaneous telepathic impressions
Crisis apparitions
Shared dreams
Reports of after death communications
Some cases of remote perception
Certain experiences during meditation or altered states of consciousness

Researchers have investigated these possibilities using methods such as:

Ganzfeld experiment
Dream telepathy experiments
Forced choice card guessing tests
Free response experiments
Remote viewing protocols

Some studies have reported small statistical effects, while others have failed to replicate them consistently. As a result, there is no scientific consensus that psi mediated communication has been demonstrated.

Psi Mediated Communication vs. Ordinary Communication

Ordinary Communication	Psi-Mediated Communication (Hypothesized)
Speech	Telepathy
Writing	Direct mental information transfer
Facial expressions	No known sensory cues
Phone or internet	No physical communication channel
Hearing and vision	Claimed extrasensory perception

Psi Mediated Communication vs. the Super Psi Hypothesis

These ideas are related but distinct:

Psi mediated communication: proposes that information is exchanged through psi abilities, such as telepathy or clairvoyance.
The Super Psi hypothesis: suggests that exceptionally extensive psi abilities, combining telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and unconscious information processing, could account for experiences that some interpret as evidence for survival after death, without requiring consciousness to continue after death.

Scientific Perspective

From the standpoint of controversial psychology and neuroscience: please, Consult with a Neurologist.

There is no accepted mechanism that explains how psi mediated communication could occur.
Reported findings remain controversial, largely because of challenges with replication and methodological disagreements.
Consequently, psi mediated communication is considered a hypothesis under investigation, not an established scientific phenomenon.

Researchers in parapsychology continue to study the possibility, while most scientists remain skeptical until stronger, consistently reproducible evidence is available.

In summary:

Psi mediated communication is the proposed transfer of information without the known senses. It includes concepts such as telepathy and clairvoyance and is used as a theoretical framework in parapsychological research to explain certain anomalous experiences. While intriguing, it has not been established as a scientifically verified form of communication.

Shervan K Shahhian

Parapsychology and Psychical Research are closely related:

The terms parapsychology and psychical research are closely related, but they are not identical. The main difference lies in their history, methods, and scope.

Psychical Research	Parapsychology
Began in the late 19th century.	Emerged in the 20th century as a more scientific discipline.
Studies all reported paranormal phenomena.	Focuses primarily on testing specific psi phenomena under controlled conditions.
Includes investigations of survival after death, hauntings, mediumship, apparitions, and psi.	Primarily studies extrasensory perception (ESP), psychokinesis (PK), and related phenomena.
Uses historical cases, eyewitness reports, field investigations, and experiments.	Emphasizes laboratory experiments, statistics, and controlled research.
More interdisciplinary, drawing from psychology, philosophy, history, and anthropology.	More closely aligned with experimental psychology and neuroscience.

Psychical Research

Psychical research is the older field, dating to the 1880s. Researchers sought to investigate claims of paranormal experiences using the best scientific methods available at the time.

Common topics may include:

Apparitions
Haunted locations
Mediumship
Near death experiences
Deathbed visions
Reincarnation research
Poltergeist cases
Survival of consciousness after death
Telepathy and clairvoyance

Psychical researchers may often combine:

Case investigations
Interviews
Historical documentation
Field observations
Laboratory experiments (when possible)

One of the earliest organizations devoted to this work was the Society for Psychical Research.

Parapsychology

Parapsychology developed later, especially in the 1930s, as researchers attempted to bring paranormal claims into the laboratory.

Typical research areas may include:

Telepathy
Clairvoyance
Precognition
Psychokinesis (PK)
Presentiment
Ganzfeld experiments
Remote viewing

Parapsychologists generally rely on:

Controlled experiments
Randomization
Statistical analysis
Replication attempts
Peer-reviewed publications

The emphasis is on determining whether there is evidence for psi that cannot readily be explained by chance, bias, or known psychological processes.

Areas of Overlap

Both fields investigate phenomena such as:

Telepathy
Clairvoyance
Precognition
Psychokinesis
Apparitions
Survival of consciousness
Mediumship

The difference is mainly how they study them.

For example:

A psychical researcher: might investigate dozens of reports of people seeing an apparition shortly before learning of a loved one’s death, comparing witness accounts and historical records.
A parapsychologist: might conduct a controlled experiment to test whether participants can accurately identify concealed images at rates above chance.

Modern Relationship

Today, the distinction is less rigid than it once was. Many researchers use methods from both traditions:

Researchers interested in survival after death often describe themselves as psychical researchers because they investigate spontaneous experiences, mediumship, and historical cases.
Researchers focused on laboratory studies of ESP and PK are more likely to identify as parapsychologists.

Both fields remain outside of controversial scientific consensus. While some studies have reported statistically significant findings, many claims have proven difficult to replicate consistently, and there is ongoing debate about methodology, interpretation, and the strength of the evidence.

In Summary

Psychical research: is the broader, older discipline that investigates a wide range of reported paranormal experiences using both field investigations and experiments.
Parapsychology: is the more specialized branch that emphasizes controlled scientific testing of psi phenomena, particularly ESP and psychokinesis.

You may think of it this way:

psychical research asks, “What kinds of unusual experiences are people reporting, and what might they mean?”

While parapsychology asks, “Can specific psi phenomena be demonstrated under controlled experimental conditions?”

Shervan K Shahhian

Consciousness researchers study the nature of conscious experience:

Consciousness researchers study the nature of conscious experience, how subjective awareness arises, how it functions, and whether it can exist independently of the mind. The field is highly interdisciplinary, involving psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, medicine, computer science, physics, and, in some cases, parapsychology.

Some of the major areas of research may include:

1. The Neural Basis of Consciousness

Researchers investigate which brain processes are associated with conscious awareness: (consult with a medical doctor)

Key questions include:

Which brain regions are necessary for consciousness?:(consult with a medical doctor)
What distinguishes conscious perception from unconscious processing?
How does anesthesia temporarily eliminate consciousness?:(consult with a medical doctor)
What happens during sleep, dreaming, and coma?: (consult with a medical doctor)

Researchers may use: (consult with a medical doctor)

fMRI
EEG
MEG
Intracranial recordings
Brain stimulation techniques

2. The “Hard Problem” of Consciousness

This asks:

Why do physical brain processes produce subjective experience at all?: (consult with a medical doctor)

For example:

Why does seeing red feel like something?
Why isn’t the brain simply processing information without any inner experience?

This remains one of philosophy’s biggest unanswered questions.

3. Altered States of Consciousness

Researchers examine:

Meditation
Hypnosis
Psychedelic experiences
Lucid dreaming
Flow states
Dissociation

Questions include:

How do these states differ from ordinary waking consciousness?
What neural changes accompany them?
Can they have therapeutic benefits?

4. Sleep and Dream Research

Scientists study:

REM sleep
Lucid dreams
Dream recall
Nightmares
Sleep paralysis

They investigate how consciousness changes during different sleep stages and why dreams occur.

6. Disorders of Consciousness

Medical researchers work with patients experiencing:: (consult with a medical doctor)

Coma: (consult with a medical doctor)
Vegetative state: (consult with a medical doctor)
Minimally conscious state: (consult with a medical doctor)
Locked in syndrome: (consult with a medical doctor)

The goals include improving diagnosis, communication, and recovery prediction: (consult with a medical doctor)

7. Artificial Consciousness

Researchers ask:

Can machines ever become conscious?

Current work explores:

Artificial intelligence
Self-awareness in machines
Cognitive architectures
Computational models of consciousness

Whether current AI systems are conscious remains a matter of philosophical debate, with no scientific consensus that they are.

8. Development of Consciousness

Researchers may study how consciousness develops:

In infants
During childhood
Across aging
In animals

Questions include:

When does self-awareness emerge?
Which animals possess forms of consciousness?

9. Near-Death Experiences (NDEs)

Some researchers investigate reports from people who were close to death.

Topics include:

Out of body experiences
Life reviews
Feelings of peace
Perceptions during cardiac arrest

Most mainstream researchers explore neurological and psychological explanations, while a minority examine whether these experiences might have implications for the possibility that consciousness can persist beyond ordinary brain function. The evidence remains debated, and no consensus has been reached.

10. Psi and Exceptional Human Experiences

Some researchers, may associate with Parapsychology or Psychical Research, investigate

reports of:

Telepathy
Precognition
Psychokinesis
Apparitions
After death communications
Mediumship

These topics remain controversial. While some researchers report statistically significant findings in certain experimental paradigms, many controversial scientists question the reliability, replicability, or interpretation of the evidence. There is no broad scientific consensus that psi phenomena have been established, because they don’t know how to explain it or do not want to accept it no matter how much evidence is out there.

Today, consciousness research spans a broad spectrum. Most scientists focus on understanding how the mind generates and supports conscious experience through neuroscience, psychology, and computational modeling. A smaller but active community explores questions about exceptional experiences, such as NDEs, reported psi phenomena, and survival related claims, using empirical methods, though these areas remain scientifically controversial.

Across all of these domains, the central goal is the same: to better understand the nature, mechanisms, and limits of conscious awareness.

Near-Death Experiences and Survival Research

Some researchers investigate whether consciousness may persist independently of the mind. Their work is controversial and not part of the controversial science, but it has generated ongoing empirical research.

Certain organizations cover a spectrum from controversial neuroscience and philosophy to research on anomalous experiences and survival claims.

Shervan K Shahhian

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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

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.
Reciprocal Dreams
- Person A dreams about Person B, and Person B dreams about Person A at roughly the same time.
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

Podcast Episode: Parapsychology And Consciousness

Pip: Liberty Psychological Association — building what it calls the most comprehensive online library on mental health, psychology, and parapsychology in the world, which is either a mission statement or a very committed filing system.

Mara: Shervan K Shahhian and Liberty Psychological Association are covering serious ground today — psychokinesis and how researchers try to measure it, psychic experience and the question of non-human intelligences, and auditory hallucinations on the clinical side.

Pip: Let's start with things that move without being touched.

Psychokinesis: From Table Tipping to Large-Scale PK

Mara: The question this territory is asking is whether the mind can directly influence physical matter — and if so, at what scale, and how would you even test it?

Pip: The table levitations post sets the historical baseline. Nineteenth-century spiritualist gatherings, hands lightly placed, tables rocking. The post notes that researchers studied these claims and concluded "many cases could be explained by unconscious muscular movements exerted by the participants."

Mara: That's the ideomotor effect — people producing small muscle movements without conscious awareness, and those movements combining across multiple participants into something that looks dramatic but isn't.

Pip: So the séance table was basically a group ouija board running on collective fidgeting. Scientifically humbling, but also kind of elegant.

Mara: The large-scale PK post extends this into much bigger claimed effects — weather modification, disruptions to power grids and electronic systems, and collective consciousness influencing random number generators, as in the Global Consciousness Project. These are called macro-PK claims when effects extend beyond localized environments.

Pip: And then there's micro-PK, which is the quieter end of the spectrum — subtle statistical influences on random number generators, radioactive decay, quantum-level events. Not visible to the naked eye, detectable only across many trials.

Mara: The micro-PK post is careful to note that mainstream science attributes reported effects to statistical fluctuations, experimental error, and publication bias. The evidence hasn't met the bar for replication required for scientific acceptance, though parapsychology researchers continue investigating.

Mara: The scale question matters — from a table tilting in a Victorian parlor to weather anomalies to dice outcomes — it's the same underlying hypothesis about consciousness and matter, just tested at very different levels.

Pip: Which raises the question of what counts as a psychic experience in the first place.

Psychic Experience and the Question of Non-Human Intelligences

Mara: The psychic phenomena post maps the full terrain — telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, remote viewing, mediumship — and offers a working definition: "experiences or alleged abilities involving the acquisition of information or influence that appear to occur outside the currently recognized mechanisms of the six senses or known physical processes."

Pip: That's a carefully neutral framing. It doesn't claim proof, but it doesn't dismiss the reports either.

Mara: Right — and the post is honest that psychological processes like pattern recognition, confirmation bias, and unconscious social cue detection can account for many experiences that feel psychic. The open question is whether any remainder survives that explanation.

Pip: The non-human intelligences post pushes into stranger territory. NHIs are hypothesized entities — spirit intelligences, extraterrestrial or interdimensional beings, collective consciousnesses — believed by some researchers to interact with people through psychic means.

Mara: Associated experiences include telepathic communication, apparitions, UAP encounters, and near-death experiences. No scientific consensus that NHIs exist, but the concept sits at the intersection of parapsychology, ufology, and consciousness studies, and the post treats it as a live research question rather than a closed one.

Pip: And there's a podcast episode in this batch — Psi, UAPs, and Consciousness — that pulls these threads together directly, which tells you something about how seriously this library takes the overlap.

Mara: Both posts land in the same place: whether these experiences represent independent intelligences, aspects of human consciousness, or something else remains genuinely open.

Pip: From entities that may or may not exist, to experiences that are very much real — and need clinical attention.

When the Mind Hears What Isn't There

Mara: The auditory hallucinations post is clinical and direct: these are "hearing sounds, voices, music, or noises that are not actually present in the environment," ranging from simple buzzing or ringing to complex voices.

Pip: The causes run wide — schizophrenia, severe depression, sleep deprivation, substance use, epilepsy, dementia, even high fever. The post is explicit that treatment depends on identifying the cause, and that persistent or distressing experiences warrant professional evaluation.

Mara: The warning signs flagged are specific: voices commanding harmful actions, difficulty distinguishing hallucination from reality, sudden onset with medical symptoms. The post directs anyone in that situation to seek urgent help immediately.

Pip: From tables lifting in Victorian parlors to statistical anomalies in random number generators to voices that need a clinician — it's a wide library.

Mara: The common thread is taking unusual experience seriously enough to ask the right questions. More from the library next time.

Parapsychology: Place Related Apparitions:

Place Related Apparitions are reports of seeing, hearing, or sensing a presence that appears to be connected to a specific location rather than to a particular living person or witness.

In psychical research and folklore, these experiences are often described as recurring phenomena associated with a physical location, house, battlefield, castle, hospital, road, or other site.

Common Characteristics

The apparition is repeatedly reported in the same location.

It often appears to follow the same pattern or behavior.

It may seem unaware of observers.

Witnesses may report visual sightings, sounds, voices, footsteps, or a sensed presence.

Reports sometimes persist across many years or generations.

Examples

A figure repeatedly seen walking down a particular staircase.

A soldier reportedly appearing on a historic battlefield.

Sounds of footsteps or voices heard in a specific building.

As an example: A “lady in white” reported at the same location by multiple witnesses.

Parapsychological Interpretations

Researchers in parapsychology have proposed several explanations:

Residual Haunting Theory

The location somehow “records” past events, which are later replayed under certain conditions.

The apparition is not considered conscious or interactive.

Survival Hypothesis

The apparition represents the continued existence of a deceased person’s consciousness.

The entity may occasionally interact with witnesses.

Psi Based Explanations

Witnesses may unconsciously obtain information through psychic processes and construct an apparition experience.

This is sometimes related to the Super-Psi hypothesis.

Environmental Theories

Certain environmental conditions (lighting, acoustics, electromagnetic fields, expectation, suggestion) may contribute to unusual experiences.

Psychological Perspectives

Some Psychologists may examine:

Perception and misperception

Memory reconstruction

Suggestion and expectation

Emotional significance of places

Cultural beliefs about haunted locations

These explanations do not necessarily imply that witnesses are imagining the experience; rather, they explore how normal cognitive processes may contribute to unusual perceptions.

Research Status

Within science, there is no generally accepted evidence that place related apparitions are caused by spirits or surviving consciousness. However, such experiences remain an active area of study within the fields of parapsychology, anomalistic psychology, and consciousness research.

Place related apparitions are particularly interesting because they raise the question of whether certain locations may become associated with recurring anomalous experiences, regardless of who the witness is.

Shervan K Shahhian

Podcast Episode: Loving-Kindness Meditation (LKM), also known as Metta Meditation:

Pip: Liberty Psychological Association covers territory that most of us quietly need a map for — the inner kind.

Mara: Today we're looking at a contemplative practice with deep roots and measurable effects, courtesy of Shervan K Shahhian at Liberty Psychological Association, The Most Comprehensive Online Library Regarding Mental Health, Psychology and Parapsychology in the World. Let's start with Loving-Kindness Meditation — what it is, how it works, and why the research behind it is worth taking seriously.

Loving-Kindness Meditation: Training the Heart and Mind

Pip: The premise here is straightforward but easy to underestimate — that you can deliberately practice goodwill the way you practice anything else, and that doing so actually changes something.

Mara: The post frames it clearly from the start: "Loving-Kindness Meditation is a contemplative practice that involves intentionally cultivating feelings of goodwill, compassion, warmth, and kindness toward yourself and others."

Pip: Intentionally cultivating. That word choice matters — this isn't passive mood management. It's structured repetition with a direction.

Mara: The structure is quite specific. You begin with phrases directed at yourself — "May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I be safe. May I live with ease." — then extend those same wishes outward, moving from a loved one to a friend, a neutral person, a difficult person, and eventually all beings.

Pip: The difficult person step is the one that earns its keep. Anyone can wish a friend well on a Tuesday.

Mara: The post is careful to define what loving-kindness is not — it doesn't mean approving harmful behavior, ignoring personal boundaries, or forcing yourself to like everyone. The phrase used is "recognizing the shared humanity of all people while maintaining healthy boundaries."

Pip: Which is a useful clarification, because the practice could easily be misread as emotional bypass.

Mara: From a psychological standpoint, the post explains that repeated practice may strengthen neural pathways associated with empathy, emotional regulation, and social connection. Research suggests it can increase positive emotions, reduce self-criticism, lower stress and anger, and support overall psychological well-being.

Pip: So the upshot is: this is less about feeling warmly toward the universe and more about retraining a threat-detection system that runs a little hot by default.

Mara: That's exactly how the post frames the mechanism — counteracting the mind's tendency toward threat detection and negative mental commentary. Modern therapies including mindfulness-based interventions and compassion-focused approaches already incorporate it for exactly that reason.

Pip: Goodwill as a trainable skill — that reframe does some work.

Mara: It does. The inner architecture turns out to be more malleable than most of us assume. More on that next time.