Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (1978) 12: 1 1

THE PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF PARANORMAL PHENOMENA* by F. A. WHITLOCK**

Anyone enquiring into the nature of paranormal experiences and events does so with some apprehension and at some peril to himself. To remain wholly impartial in the face of inexplicable and disturbing phenomena is a difficult achievement, and inevitably one is swayed by one’s own biases which may take the form of a determined scepticism or an equally determined belief in the objective reality of the occult. Unfortunately it is an area of investigation which has a certain attraction to tricksters and the gullible; and there can be few psychical researchers who have not at some time in their careers been deceived. Hence one can have some sympathy with Freud who in his lecture on Dreams and the Occult (1933) was so anxious to avoid committing himself to any point of view whatsoever. His audience, he felt, might be thinking, “There is another example of a person who has all his life been a steady-going man of science and is now, in his old age, becoming weakminded, religious and credulous”. He hurriedly assured his audience that none of these deplorable characteristcs could be attributed to himself, least of all the possibility that he had grown religious. In passing, it is interesting to note that Freud, in a letter written in 1921, said, “If I had my life over again, 1 would devote myself to psychical research rather than to psychoanalysis”; and then, in the best Freudian style promptly forgot that he had ever said it (Jones, 1957). Freud, of course, is by no means the only individual of high intellectual standing to find himself attracted to the subject of occult phenomena, as the list of past Presidents of the British Society for Psychical Research (S.P.R.) includes some of the most eminent, competent and clear-sighted men and women of the past hundred years. Whatever misgivings one might have about one’s own tentative explorations in this area, there should be no reservations about the quality of the company one keeps. It does appear that the topic is worthy of serious investigation, and if it attracts older rather than younger

* Presented at the 14th Annual Congress of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists; Brisbane, October 1977.

**

Professor of Psychiatry, University of Queensland.

persons, possibly one contributory factor is a realisation that the physical sciences may not have the answers to every problem and also a more tolerant attitude to phenomena which in the past have evoked the utmost scepticism. An alternative explanation may be that the subject has some of the qualities of improper literature designated by E.M. Forster as “A serious though dreadful branch of enquiry only to be pursued by pseudo-scholars of riper years”. However, whatever the facts might be, it is essential that this apologia should end and that I should try to define what paranormal phenomena are. The S.P.R. aimed “to examine without prejudice or propossession and in a scientific spirit those faculties of man, real or supposed, which appear to be inexplicable by any generally recognized hypothesis”. Among the phenomena to be considered “without prejudice or prepossession” were telepathy, precognition and other forms of non-sensory communication, psychokinesis, which includes anything from poltergeists to levitation, apparitions of the dead or living, lucid dreams, out of the body experiences, f a i t h healing a n d u n u s u a l phychophysiological states presumed to be the basis of such well attested phenomena as fire walking and fire eating, apparent insensitivity to pain or cold and the timeh o n o u r e d , s t r a n g e m a n i f e s t a t i o n s of religious stigmatisation. In a paper of this kind a survey of all these interesting and controversial phenomena would hardly be possible. . Fortunately, it is not my intention, nor is it within my competence to find explanations for them, nor, necessarily, to offer more than tentative evidence for their occurrence. A more profitable exercise might be an examination of certain classes of paranormal phenomena to see whether some at least might be understandable in psychiatric or psychophysiological terms; and, equally important, to consider to what extent some familiar - but unexplained - psychiatric phenomena might conceivably have a paranormal rather than a so-called scientific explanation. Hence let us begin with what is generally regarded as the best established class of events in the series - telepathy and precognition, sometimes discussed under the headings of psi-phenomena, o r extra-sensory perception or E.S.P.

Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Bobst Library, New York University on May 7, 2015

12

PARANORMAL PHENOMENA

TELEPATHY AND PRECOGNITION E.S.P. is not, in my opinion, a particularly good term for what might be called extra-sensory awareness or cognition. However, whatever term is preferrred, the evidence for this class of phenomenon seems as well attested as any other in the whole range of paranormal events. Ehrenwald (1972), after a brisk review of some of the facts, felt that E S P . was a sufficiently well established phenomenon to enable him to dismiss further critical discussion. From our point of view, certain features are of particular interest, notably the finding that communications of this kind occur most commonly between twins and other close family members who comprised 63% of the instances recorded by Ehrenwald. Other examples involving strong emotional ties are experimenter and subject, teacher and pupil, leader and led; and, like many others, Ehrenwald commented on altered states of consciousness as being more favourable to this form of communication than fully-awake altertness. Among these altered states of consciousness would be included dreaming sleep, hypnopompic and hypnagogic states, clouding induced by drugs, hypnosis, transcendental meditation, and possibly, so-called hysterical dissociative states. Parker (1975) who had particularly emphasised the importance of altered states of consciousness in facilitating E.S.P. phenomena, described a number of experiments in which subjects in hypnotic trance apparently were able to report correctly on events taking place elsewhere. When all allowance is made for possible trickery, unconscious distortion and collaborative fraud, there seems to be a core of truth in these ’claims which cannot be explained away by reference to the usual channels of communication. Another point of interest in this context is the finding of minor E.E.G. changes consisting of synchronization and slowing of the dominant alpha rhythm to what is termed an alphoid state of 6-10 C.P.S. However, not all examples of apparent E S P . take place when the subject’s consciousness is altered or impaired, although it is always difficult to be absolutely certain that some of the well-attested examples occurring in the waking state have not been in association with brief micro-sleeps or other drowsy states. The celebrated McConnell case, discussed in detail by West (1962). is a good examDle of this kind of phenomenon where the recipient of the experimce was allegedly awake and in a state of clear consciousness at the time. An interesting variant is when two or more persons appear spontaneously to share the same paranormal experience. Accepting that some form of non-sensory communication can occur, one has to assume that the percipients on these occasions are either communicating their percepts to each other, or that both are simultaneously influenced by a third external source; a point of possible significance when one . considers the phenomena of Folie ‘a Deux.

SOME PSYCHIATRIC ASPECTS OF E.S.P, Freud’s long, ambivalent flirtation with the occult has been interestingly related by Ernest Jones (1957) and more briefly by Roazen (1976). Initially hostile to anything that involved telepathy and precognition, he ultimately accepted the possibility of “a kernel of truth” in these phenomena. His antipathy in 1909 was most clearly expressed during the famous exchange with Jung when

their relationship was about to break up. During a conversation in Freud’s study about paranormal phenomena (Jung 1965), when Jung became angry and tense, there was a loud explosion in Freud’s bookcase. Jung claimed it to be an example of “a catalytic exteriorisation phenomenon”, to which Freud, not unreasonably, replied, “absolute bosh”. Jung then warned that another similar report would come from Freud’s bookcase and a few moments later this occurred. Freud is said to have looked aghast at these events, but in later correspondence he claimed that they were soon deprived of all significance. Yet in 1911, in a letter to Jung, he wrote, “In matters of occultism I have become humble ever since the great lesson I received from Ferenczi’s experience. I promise to believe anything that can be made to seem the least bit reasonable”. Jones has made clear his own antipathies to psychoanalysis becoming in any way involved with the occult. Psychoanalysts, he felt, had enough problems on their hands without becoming involved with dubious goings-on in seance rooms and spiritualist meetings. Hence his hostility to Freud’s suggestion in 1922 that psychoanalysis should lend its support to telepathy. This originated from Freud’s reading of Professor Gilbert Murray’s telepathic experiments with his family, but Jones was so shocked that he wrote to other members of the Psychoanalytic Association warning them of the dangers of becoming involved with the occult. However, despite Jones’ opposition, Freud considered the possibility of telepathic communication through dreams (1922), communications which would be subject to the usual processes of distortion, displacement and symbolisation alleged to occur in most normal dreams. He discussed the possibility that dreams had prophetic powers and wrote, “I have often had an impression in the course of experiments in a private circle that strongly, emotionally coloured recollections can be successfully transferred without much difficulty . . . and on the basis of much experience I am inclined to draw the conclusion that thought transference of this kind comes about particularly easily at the moment at which an idea emerges from the unconscious or, in theoretical terms, as it passes over from primary process to the secondary process”. Finally (1933) he wrote, “I must suggest to you that you should think more kindly of the objective possibility of thought transference a n d , therefore, also telepathy”. Characteristically, he went on to invoke some kind of physical basis for such communications, although Jung had already concluded that explanations in terms of the physical sciences could not even remotely deal with the facts. Admittedly, concepts based on acausal synchronicity of significant events sound equally unsatisfactory, but at least they allow speculation outside the ordinary realms of Newtonian physics (for example, see Koestler, 1972). Compared with Freud, Jung was far more receptive to the possibility of telepathic communication between patient and therapist during psychotherapy. He provided a number of examples of such communications, particularly at moments of crisis in the patient’s affairs. On one occasion he was treating a depressed man who relapsed while Jung was away. That night he had the impression that somebody had entered his hotel room, but on switching on the light found that nobody was there. Jung then became aware of a

Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Bobst Library, New York University on May 7, 2015

F.A. WHITLOCK

dull pain in the front and back of his head, and on returning home learnt that his patient, at that particular moment, had shot himself through the forehead and that the bullet had come to rest in the bone at the back of his skull. Another example of synchronicity occurred when a patient was relating a dream of a scarab beetle. At that moment there was a tapping on the window and Jung, on opening it, caught a cockchafer beetle - the nearest thing to a scarab - which rather uncharacteristically was trying to move from the light outside into the darkened room. Jung defined this as a coincidence in terms of two causally unrelated events which had the same or similar meaning. This, he felt, was an empirical concept which stipulated the existence of an intellectually necessary principle which could be added as a fourth to the recognised triad of space, time and causality (Jaffe 1967). The occurrence of some form of telepathic communication between therapist and patient has been discussed by a number of writers. Gillespie (1956), after reviewing briefly Freud’s views on the subject, recounted three cases in which he felt that some form of extra-sensory communication had occurred between his patients and himself. Ehrenwald (1972) accepted without much demur the occurrence of paranormal communications in the course of psychoanalysis, during dreams and in a variety of situations when there are close emotional ties between the percipient and the communicator. Freud’s views were to some extent supported by Servadio (1967) and by Ullman et al. (1973) who suggested that patients in psychoanalysis may unconsciously resort to telepathic communications in order to gain what they perceived to be the flagging attention of the therapist. These workers have been particularly concerned with telepathic transfer during dreams, but the evidence is not always entirely convincing. An important contribution to this topic has come from Professor Jerome Frank (1977) who contrasted the religiomagical with the scientific aspects of psychotherapy. He felt that the scientific facade covered other more primitive aspects which not only reflected on the faith of the patient, but also included some form of intuition and telepathic appreciation by the therapist of the patient’s needs. He noticed similarities between the so-called telepathic diagnosis and therapy and the interpretation of projective tests such as the Rorscharch and T.A.T. Some individuals. have special gifts as healers and others are singularly competent as interpreters of projective tests. In contrast, there are highly trained professionals who are hopeless at both. Frank ultimately raised the possibility that persons taken on for psychotherapy training should also be assessed for their E.S.P. capacities. He concluded, “Finally, training programmes should consider ways of acquainting students with methods . . . that involved altered states of consciousness. These range from . . progressive relaxation, autogenic training and biofeedback to . . . forms of meditation and trance states that foster telepathic, clairvoyant and mystical experiences. ” Onefinal topicofpossiblere1evancetoE.S.P. 1s thatof foliea deux. Psychodynamic explanations of this phenomenon rely heavily on the degree of social isolation of the participants, yet in the few cases that I have encountered, social isolation of all those involved was never absolute. Hence one might wonder to what extent paranormal communication could be playing a part in reinforcing the

.

13

abnormal beliefs and perceptions of those being influenced by one family member’s psychosis. Such a suggestion is highly speculative but is one which could be considered as an attempt towards a better understanding of the processes involved in communicated insanity. Gralnick (1942) quoted Carrier (1904) as saying that intermental action consisting of the psychical, physiological and social conditions under which the two persons lived played a part in the induction of folie a deux. Such close bonding, one might sugkest, would be the ideal circumstances for some form of E S P . to occur.

APPARITIONS All the best ghost series tend to start off in an ordinary, matter-of-fact way until the author, gradually or abruptly, introduces a phrase or event well calculated to produce a sensation of disquiet. “Jack will show you your room; I have given you the room in the tower”, wrote E.F. Benson; and with increasing emphasis the words are repeated until we are confronted by the final dehouement. Ghosts, apparitions, spectres are variously described and, fiction apart, folk-lore and the alleged reality of apparitions of the dead and the living have been sufficiently often discussed to permit a cautious assent to the claims that certain individuals have had experiences usually described as “seeing a ghost”. There is, of course, no reason whatsoever for believing that a ghost has some external reality, an incorporeal representation of a real person whose presence can occur independently of the person who perceives it (see Tyrell 1946). In short, these are visual hallucinations, often of a vivid and significant kind, whose occurrence should not in the least incline us to regard the percipients as psychotic. In the original Census of Hallucinations carried out by the S.P.R. in 1890, some 10% of 17,000 persons questioned admitted to having experienced one definite hallucination that could not be attributed to illness or intoxication (West 1962). When the census was repeated by West in 1948, 14% of those questioned reported hallucinations of one kind or another. Of these, some 78% were realistic human apparitions, more often perceived by women than by men. Only a small number of respondents admitted to more than one such experience in their lives, and there was a tendency for most positive replies to refer t o hallucinations during the previous three months compared with the 9-10 years before that period. Possibly hallucinations of this kind occur more frequently but are forgotten. Some 65 cases of hallucinations occurred in close temporal association with the death of the person seen, but few of these achieved the degree of corroboration available in the McConnell case. Although many of those experiencing hallucinations claimed to be fully awake at the time, there can be no doubt that such events occur more frequently when the subject is drowsy or in the hypnagogic or hypnopompic state; which perhaps explains the predilection of most writers of ghost stories for the appearance of apparitions at the moment of waking of the percipient. The emotional set of the visionary plays an important role in constructing what will be seen and when this will occur, but on occasions it is difficult to refute the possibility that some extra-sensory communication has set ,the process going, although such a statement tells us nothing about mechanism. In those reasonably well attested cases of apparitions of a person whose death or serious injury or illness is coincidental in

Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Bobst Library, New York University on May 7, 2015

14

PARANORMAL PHENOMENA

time with the percipient’s experience, the most economical explanation is the likelihood that an extra-sensory communication has occurred at the time of crisis in the life of the communicant and that this has elicited a visual experience affecting the waking receiver of the message. In many such cases close emotional ties bind the recipient and the initiator of the message, and in these reports the more dramatic manifestations of a visual kind differ only in degree from extra-sensory communications of a verbal nalure. From the point of view of clinical psychiatry it is too simple to regard all visual hallucinations as evidence of psychotic or neurological disorders. Elaborate visual hallucinations in association with temporal lobe epilepsy and tumours, particularly of the temporal lobe, have often been described (e.g., Baldwin 1962). The induction of %u,ch visual experiences in association with the classic deja vu type of event when the surface of the temporal lobe is stimulated (Penfield and Jasper 1954) provides a neurological basis for some visual hallucinations. Yet other patients, in no way psychotic or suffering from organic brain disease, claim to have experienced vivid recurrent hallucinations which clearly are dependent on the emotional states of the subjects at the time. A good example among my own patients was a young woman, recently married, whose husband shortly afterwards. was called up for military service. Following his departure, she had a vivid visual impression when she went to bed of her busband’s presence by her bedside. She was not unduly disturbed by the apparition and it is far from clear why she reported the matter to her general practitioner who sent her to hospital. The vision did not appear during her stay in hospital, but recurred on returning home, only to cease when her husband was relieved of his military duties and discharged home to his wife. There is no reason for thinking that she made up the whole story to obtain her husband’s return, but there can be no doubt that this was the desired outcome. Not entirely dissimilar are the visual, auditory and “sense of presence” hallucinations often experienced by the recently bereaved (Parkes, 1972). Clearly these too are strongly related to the emotional needs of the percipient and should not be taken as evidence of some external activity related to the soul of the dead. Sedman (1966) in a comparative study of pseudohallucinations and true hallucinations, classed pseudohallucinations as all those hallucinations perceived through the senses but recognised by the patient as not being veridical perceptions. In the majority of instances the content is psychologically meaningful and often comfort is gained by the percipient from the apparition of a human being, frequently a deceased relative. Pseudohallucinations can occur both in clear and altered states of consciousness, although true hallucinations appear to take place more often in clear consciousness apart from those produced by obvious organic brain disease. Sedman regarded pseudo-hallucinations in the hypnagogic state as normal phenomena and not indicative of pathological disorder. It is worth considering the differences between the hallucinations of the psychotic patient and the type of hallucination that Sedman and others have described. Whereas the great majority of hallucinations in psychosis are continuous or intermittent, unpleasant, persecutory or frightening, hallucinations of the dead or living in normal individuals are brief, episodic and often related to specific events of high emotional significance. Although they may

portend to the percipient the death or serious illness of a close relative or friend, in general they do not have the unpleasant affective tone which psychotic hallucinations so frequently carry. Naturally they may arouse feelings of anxiety or unease, but these are understandable in the light of the concern felt for an individual closely related to the percipient.

OUT OF THE BODY EXPERIENCES Most writers on paranormal phenomena refer to “out of the body experiences” (O.B.E.) as examples of individuals becoming aware of their psychological selves existing independently of their bodies, which are then perceived at some distance from their current position in space-time. Most such experiences seem to occur in association with extreme stress, danger and disturbances of consciousness. A good example is given by Parker (1975) who relates the experience of a woman who suffered a head injury in a motor cycle crash. In describing her feelings after the accident she said, “When I hit the ground head-first, I got up from the ground where I lay, surprised that I felt no pain or bruising, and moved away. I saw people running and looked around to see why. Then I saw my body still lying on the road and they were running towards that; some of them passed me as I stood there. I could hear shouts and a woman crying, “She is dead”. And then a feeling of terrible fear came over me. I knew I had to return to my body before it was touched . . . I went back and lay down on top of myself and as I did so, I felt the hardness of the road beneath me and all the terrible pains of bruising, lacerations and concussion that I was subsequently found to be suffering.” MacMillan and Brown (1971) recount the case of a 68-year-old man who suffered cardiac arrest while in a coronary care unit. He recalled his head falling over to the right and then saw himself leaving his body. This was followed by some complex space-travel kind of experience while he reflected, “So this is what happens when you die!” He returned to his own body to find himself being given external cardiac massage by a nurse. A further example from my own experience was a male alcoholic being treated with L.S.D.After about half an hour he suddenly became extremely anxious, shouted and pointed to a corner of the ceiling saying that he was up there and could see his body talking to me at the side of the table. After a short period this experience ceased and he became united with his body again. A more recent example occurred in a setting of alcoholic delirium. On recovering the patient was able to describe what he had experienced with remarkable clarity of recollection, namely that he had watched his body being chased down an avenue by pine trees. He was extremely frightened and after a few seconds his body and psychological self were reunited, following which he lost consciousness. From the point of view of psychiatric phenomenology these are all examples of extreme depersonalization. However, giving it a label of that kind says little more than the parapsychologists who talk about astral bodies, Etheric projections and the like. Tart (1971) observed that most 0 . B . E . s are short-lived, lasting some 30 seconds. After quoting two examples associated with severe illness and impending death, he described some experiments with an individual who claimed to have the capacity to leave her body during sleep and move away to other parts of the room. This was tested by placing a card with a five-figure number high up

Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Bobst Library, New York University on May 7, 2015

F.A. WHITLOCK

on a shelf in the laboratory well outside the range of vision of the individual lying down in bed. During sleep the subject claimed that she moved out of her body up to the ceiling to discover the number which she gave correctly on waking. The period of her O.B.E. was said to be characterisd by a slowing of her normal 10 C.P.S. alpha to an average of 8.5 C.P.S. Two other persons, also tested by Tart, did not obtain quite the same remarkable results obtained by the first subject. There is, of course, no inherent reason for accepting the belief that Tart’s subjects literally moved out of their bodies during sleep in order to inspect cards and pictures whose details they were able to relate and identify from memory of their dreaming experiences. An alternative explanation would be an extra-sensory communication between experimenter and sleeping subject, which gave rise to the dream of becoming separate from their bodies, and obtaining knowledge of the identity of the numbers. Even so, to class these phenomena as disturbances of body image, gets us very little further by way of explanation. Depersonalization - usually of a minor transient kind - is by no means an uncommon experience in the lives of p$!!ectly normal subjects. Sometimes it is accompanied by deja vu, derealization and such “temporal lobe” phenomena as micropsia, hallucinations, changes in perception of time and difficulty in thinking and concentration. A number of writers (Sedman 1966; Sedman and Reed 1963;Dixon 1963; Harper 1969)have commented on the occurrence of depersonalization phenomena in normal subjects, observing that they were most apt to occur during hypnagogic and intoxicated states, fatigue, illness, anxiety and profound feelings of sadness. Harper found that 18% of his subjects had experienced depersonalization, sometimes in relation to emotional upsets. Davison (1964) noted the association of episodic depersonalization with organic brain disease, particularly tumours and temporal lobe epilepsy. He felt that the capacity for depersonalization was a preformed functional response of the central nervous system, possibly protecting the individual from the effects of intense anxiety. He considered that a disturbance of arousal mechanisms in the brain stem was basic to the whole phenomenon and in some instances the onset was in response to surgical anaesthesia, alcohol ingestion and sleep deprivation. Such an hypothesis would be consistent with the slowing of the alpha rhythm in the E.E.G. and the abrupt cessation of attacks in some patients - not always permanently following the intravenous administration of Methedrine. An example of episodic depersonalization known to me was a young man who became acutely depersonalized after drinking a relatively small quantity of liquor. After receiving 30 mgs of Methedrine intravenously, his state of depersonalization disappeared, fortunately without recurrence. Sedman (1970), like Davison, regarded depersonalization as a built-in preformed mechanism in about 40% of the population which, because of its close association with affective states, can be triggered off by depression. There seems to be no good reason for regarding Out of the Body Experiences as requiring a paranormal explanation, largely because so often they have been described in just the circumstances of physical and psychological pathology in which depersonalization is most apt to occur. The notion that some capacity exists for a temporary extra-corporeal existence lacks adequate support, apart from the uncor-

I5

roborated re orts of individuals who have had this kind of experience. ahether astral projection and the like has any explanatory value for this class of event is outside my range of knowledge and understanding. While agreeing that the word “depersonalization” tells us little enough about the psychophysiological basis of the phenomenon, we do seem to have some faint notion of mechanism derived from studies of depersonalization in pathological conditions and altered states of consciousness.

FAITH HEALING AND ACCELERATED CURES If the paranormal nature of Out of the Body Experiences is in doubt it is even more difficult for the average practising physician to accept enthusiastic but unconfirmed accounts of miraculous cures, particularly if the patient is suffering from some serious, progressive disease. That spontaneous cures of malignant tumours and infections like tuberculosis can occur is hardly in question. The belief that these come about either through divine intervention or by some paranormal process involving an individual with special healing powers, is less easy to prove. In general, the medical profession has been sceptical of claims that miraculous cures have occurred, but it is not the medical profession alone which takes a cool look at the whole business. Miracles at Lourdes, psychic surgery in the Philippines and similar marvels have all been critically examined. The results are rarely in favour of the miraculous and sometimes indicate fraud perpetrated on the innocent and the gullible. No doubt many cures of alleged organic disease are evidence of the power of suggestion over subjects suffering from a variey of functional disorders. Even today hysteria is a poorly understood condition but the fact that hysterical illnesses can persist for years, only to clear up suddenly, sometimes following a powerful emotional experience, is a well-attested phenomenon. Suggestion, faith in the healer, placebo effect and the reinforcement of social attitudes through charismatic religious sects, may be sufficient to explain most of the so-called miraculous cures. One of the great difficulties to be faced by anyone investigating such cures is the comparative inadequacy of data on the illnes from which the patient is supposed to be suffering. Weatherhead (1951),for example, quotes instances of cancer disappearing spontaneously as a result of prayer. Unfortunately so few clinical details are given about these alleged cures that it is impossible to regard them as in the remotest sense proven events. In his examination of 1 1 alleged miraculous cures of pilgrims visiting Lourdes, West (1951)found grounds for rejecting the claims of all the examples examined, although one can hardly fail to be impressed by the account of the apparent cure of a sarcoma of the hip following the patient’s visit to Lourdes (Garner 1974). However, leaving aside cases of miraculous cures there is some evidence suggesting that a gifted healer can cause increased rapidity of healing processes, and, in the light of current knowledge today, a change for the better in the immunological defences of the patient. There can be little doubt that hypothalamic mechanisms play a part in bringing about change in the immune defences of the body, and the recent work of Ader and Cohen (1975). demonstrating that the immune response can be conditioned along cIassical Pavlovian lines, opens up a vista of possibilities for psychological influences on bodily processes, which has yet to be explored.

Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Bobst Library, New York University on May 7, 2015

16

PARANORMAL PHENOMENA

There is well established evidence that hypnotic suggestion can alter the body’s immune mechanisms (Black 1969) and it has been shown that hypnosis can cause the regression of congenital malformations of the skin (Mason 1952). Mason’s patient, suffering from the icthyosiform erythroderma of Brocq, was presented at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, and there could be no doubt that an enormous change for the better had occurred in a man afflicted by a singularly disabling and unpleasant skin disease. It would be going beyond the evidence to claim that all alleged miraculous cures can be explained by reference to hysteria, suggestion and alteration of the body’s. However, as Inglis has reasonably pointed out (1964), “What matters to most patients is that they are cured of their symptoms; the symptoms may be functional, hysterical or neurotic, but they can be just as irritating, painful, uncomfortable or unpleasant as if they were organic. If a healer can remove them then he has fulfilled a therapeutic function”. In any case, it may not be enough to ascribe unusual healing simply to the force of suggestion and the charisma of the therapist. The question of whether special powers are being elicited was put to the test by Grad (1961) with an Hungarian healer named Estebany. In a prolonged series of controlled experiments it was concluded that Estebany, by placing his hands on the cages of mice with superficial skin lesions, was able to accelerate the rate of healing in the mice so treated compared with untreated mice or mice treated by persons claiming no special healing powers. Clearly, such a claim requires independent confirmation before it can be accepted without question. In the end, I think it is justifiable to conclude that a small number of gifted individuals have powers for altering healing processes for the better. The evidence for lasting cures is not as satisfactory as one could wish, except in those patients where the illnesses were demonstrably hysterical in borigin. However, few would dispute that the emotional state of the patient, for good or ill, can have a powerful influence on the outcome of orthodox medical treatment. The attitude of the patient has been recognised since the days of Galen as playing a part in the genesis and progress of cancer. If this is so, one should have little difficulty in accepting the notion that positive reinforcement of favourable attitudes might change for the better the patient’s physical condition, even when its organic nature has been demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt.

PSYCHOKINESIS Psychokinesis is a phenomenon more apt than most other paranormal events ro arouse amused incredulity. The moving of objects without apparently using any of the normal physical forces required for this activity understandably leads to demands for cast-iron proof of their occurrence before they can be accepted. Yet accounts of poltergeists come from many reputable sources and examples of levitation of persons of particularly saintly character are well attested. The so-called Flying Monk of Copertino, St Joseph, a man of exemplary piety but allegedly of dullish wits, has been discussed in detail by Dingwall (1947). St Joseph was born in 1603 and at the age of eight had his first experience of religious ecstasy. Thereafter he practised extreme asceticism and fasting and was admitted to the Capuchin

Order at the age of 17. His duties appear to have been menial and his clumsiness, resulting in broken crockery, caused his dismissal after eight months. However, he persisted with his extreme piety and asceticism and was admitted to the Order of St Francis in 1625, being ordained priest in 1628. According to eyewitnesses, after saying Mass, he went into a corner of the church to pray. Suddenly he rose up in the air and with a loud cry flew in the upright position with his hands outstretched to alight on the altar in the middle of flowers and candles which were burning in profusion. His clothing did not catch fire and shortly afterwards he returned to his original place in the church, being carried through the air in a kneeling position. Numerous similar feats of levitation occurred between then and his death in 1663, many of which were witnessed by notables and men and women of integrity. In his final illness the attending doctor found it necessary to cauterize his leg. At this moment, he passed into a state of rapture, rose some six inches off the bed for a period of 15 minutes and could not be pushed down, despite considerable force exerted by the doctor. Another well attested example of levitation was St Theresa of Avila who rose in the air during her states of prayer and rapture. This was witnessed by other nuns in the convent and St Theresa prayed that she might be relieved of this embarrassing achievement lest it interfere with her religious aspirations. Poltergeists have been described in practically all countries and Great Britain seems to be particularly favourable for this phenomenon, judging by the writings of Price (1945) and Sacheverell Sitwell (1940). There is a fairly uniform quality about what occurs. Objects are thrown about but curiously their time and place of departure are never observed. In transit they do not appear to obey the normal physical laws in that a jar hurled through the air may abruptly change speed and direction and even alight quietly on the ground rather than be smashed to pieces. Often in the household there is a pubescent child, usually female, who in some mysterious way is regarded as the cause of the penomenon. A well recorded example occurred in Sauchie in Scotland in 1960 and was investigated in detail by Dr A.R.C. Owen, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1972). The movements of objects in the house were also witnessed by the local doctor and his wife - also medically qualified - the local clergyman and the school teacher. Judging by the reports their evidence must be regarded as reliable. On one occasion the school teacher observed the child, Virginia, trying to hold down the lid of her desk which was opening and shutting as if from some force within the desk. Later when the child was standing near the teacher’s desk her own desk rose up and moved a few inches from its original position. At this stage Virginia burst into tears and said she could not help what was happening. Tape recordings were made of the various rappings and knockings that went on in the vicinity of the girl and Owen concluded, “In my opinion the Sauchie case must be regarded as establishing beyond reasonable doubt the objective reality of some poltergeist phenomena”. Father Thurston (1953), not a man given to excessive credulity, felt that poltergeist phenomena had been so often witnessed by reliable persons as to rule out fraud or childish tricks as adequate explanations for their occurrence. All this may seem remote from psychiatric practice, but Rogo (1974) has recorded the case of a 32-year-old man

Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Bobst Library, New York University on May 7, 2015

F.A. WHITLOCK

recovering from a psychosis who claimed he was being persecuted by a poltergeist. Apparently this was not regarded as delusional and Rogo classed poltergeist phenomena as falling within the realm of psychopathology, indicating a kind of displaced aggression. Indeed he felt that the phenomena themselves might be therapeutic in that they permitted some exteriorization of aggression which might otherwise have been harmful if directed a t other individuals. Jung’s anger with Freud’s scepticism of his opinions on telepathy, ending in explosions in Freud’s bookcase, might be regarded as favouring this interpretation. Rogo personally investigated a case in California, a Brazilian family with five children, the youngest girl, aged 11, apparently being the source of the poltergeist activities. Rogo felt that there was a good deal of pent-up aggression and frustration in the family and persuaded the family to talk about the poltergeists and their own feelings in the hope of ameliorating the paranormal phenomena. In this respect, his approach was very different from that of MacKarness (1974) who, faced by patients suffering from psychoses after dabbling in black magic, occultism and drugs seems to have had little hesitation in calling in the local clergy to carry out the rites of exorcism. After the disastrous results of such an action in Wakefield in Yorkshire in 1975, one might justifiably express serious reservations about including exorcism as a useful adjunct to conventional psychiatric treatment.

FIRE WALKING AND FIRE EATING Certain kinds of physical paranormal phenomena defy any explanation so far devised. The phenomena of fire walking have been witnessed and described in many countries and I have personally known colleagues who have observed and participated in this ritual in India. Some explanations rely upon the mode of walking adopted by the individual as he strides briskly across a trench filled with red-hot coals, said to result in minimal contact between his skin and the fire. Others have claimed that the thickness of the skin of native soles is a protection. Anyone who has witnessed a blacksmith fitting a red-hot shoe to a horse’s hoof would find it difficult to believe that contact of thickened epidermis with red-hot coals would leave no marks. In any case, such explanations hardly cover the apparent immunity of the fire-walker’s clothes, and even leaves and twigs left in the trench, from immediate scorching and incineration. Yet, when the ceremony is over, such inflammatory material which has remained unburned is said to catch fire immediately. Fire eating seems to be a rather similar phenomenon to fire walking and I have personally witnessed a large negro chewing a bunch of lighted wax tapers. O n opening his mouth one could see pieces of wax burning on his tongue and against his palate. Whether he sustained burns or experienced pain I could not say, but judging by his apparent enjoyment of his diet, he did not seem to be in the least inconvenienced. The extraordinary fire handling powers of the celebrated medium D.D. Home have often b5en related (see Grant 1934). To give one example, at one seance attended by nine persons he placed his hands in a very hot fire and carried a large piece of burning coal around the room where the witnesses were seated. On his invitation some allowed him to place the coal in their hands without experiencing pain or harm, although the heat of the ember was too intense to allow them to bring it close to

17

their faces. These and other examples were witnessed by reliable persons and Home’s handling of fire was reported by the scientist Sir William Crookes and a number of prominent men and women who had n o reason to falsify their stories. Neither psychiatry nor psychophysiology is of much help to us here, but I a m reluctant to dismiss these extraordinary phenomena as of no significance to our attempts to understand mind-body relationships.

RELIGIOUS STIGMATA Rather closer to our interests are the phenomena of religious stigmatisation. First described as occurring in St Francis of Assisi in 1224, there have since been more than 300 examples, the great majority of whom have been women. The two most recent and best known cases were The‘rise Neumann who died in 1962 and Padre Pi0 who died in 1968. Very briefly, the phenomena consist of the appearance on the skin of the stigmatist of the wounds inflicted on Christ during his Passion. Most commonly these have taken the form of the wounds from the nails driven through his hands and feet and the side wound inflicted by the soldier after the Crucifixion. In some cases there have been additional marks such as those made by the Crown of Thorns, the scourge marks on the body, and even a wound on the shoulder worn by the weight of the Cross being carrie$,to Calvary. Some cases have wept tears of blood, Therese Neumann being a good example. Practically all the bearers of the stigmata have been markedly neurotic subjects who, prior to the appearance of their marks, had experienced prolonged illnesses usually described as hysterical (Thurston 1952). Many of them had experienced considerable hardship and suffering in their lives and practically all were noteworthy for extreme piety and asceticism during youth. Long hours were spent in prayer and fasting before a picture of Christ Crucified, and there can be no doubt that their contemplation and intense desire to suffer with or for Christ had a very real bearing on the appearance of the stigmata, whose first onset was usually on a Good Friday. Judging by the accounts, the recipient passed into a state of trance or rapture which began on the Thursday evening and lasted until the late afternoon on the Friday. The bleeding sometimes appeared to come through an intact skin or from blisters which burst and bled, as in the case of Louise Lateau. Judging by the reactions of the subjects, considerable pain was suffered at the time when the bleeding first began. Once the marks had appeared they recurred regularly each Friday during the weekly trance states, continuing in this manner for many years. The bleeding ceased during the latter part of the Friday and the wounds healed rapidly, leaving faint scars at their sites. It is said that they never became infected o r suppurated. Numerous explanations of this phenomenon have been offered, ranging from the miraculous on the one hand to deliberate fraud o n the other. There can be n o doubt that conscious or unconscious fraud has played a part in some cases and only a relatively small percentage has been accepted as genuine by the Roman Catholic Church. Neurologists who have written on the subject tend to class the lesions as hysterical, although substituting one label for another tells us very little about the pathophysiology of the phenomena. I personally doubt whether stigmatisation is a homogenous phenomenon and some cases might have been

Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Bobst Library, New York University on May 7, 2015

18

PARANORMAL PHENOMENA

examples of the auto-erythrocyte sensitisation syndrome (Gardner and Diamond 1955), a disease almost entirely confined to women who often have been described as showing a variety of neurotic and hysterical symptoms. Emotional stress is followed by the appearance of painful ecchymoses in the skin and bleeding into other tissues, including the brain. The patient, usually following trauma or surgery, becomes sensitive to her own red cells, but the precise mechanism of the attacks is not known. What does seem paramount in the development of the stigmata is the intense contemplation of the wounds of,Christ coupled with a burning desire to suffer the same afflictions. In this respect, the appearance during abreaction of wheals on the skin of patients described by Moody (1946) and the recurrence of wheals on the back of a patient who was beaten by her father (Lifschutz 1957) are relevant phenomena. In both examples intense emotional trauma had been experienced and relived, resulting in the appearance of the identical wounds inflicted earlier. Other explanations rest on the possibility of recurrent herpes lesions - particularly applicable to Louise Lateau - for we know that emotional disturbances can alter the body’s defences to this ubiquitous virus. The possibility of other blood diseases, including scurvy, cannot be entirely ruled out in some of the earlier examples of stigmatisation, but it has to be said that accounts of the well-attested cases of the phenomena reveal a remarkable uniformity of the events described, suggesting that in the genuine examples a particular psychophysiological process is taking place (see Whitlock and Hynes 1978).

some fundamental aspects of psychological functioning which could be important for our future understanding of normal and abnormal mental processes. The evidence is there for anyone who cares to examine it impartially, but in order to do so it is essential to overcome one’s innate fundamental distaste for involving oneself with concepts which at times appear to be meaningless and devoid of any human explanation. Those who, however tentatively, admit the possibility of unexplained paranormal phenomena are apt to be regarded as unduly gullible, credulous and generally failing to conform to the tenets of scientific orthodoxy. Those who deny the possibility of non-physical causal relationships leave themselves open to charges of having closed minds and refusing to examine obdurate facts however disturbing these may be. Our inner resistance to consideration of matters of this kind has been commented on by a number of writers and one does not have to be a very perceptive psychologist to understand our reluctance in this respect. Hence this discussion may have been of some use if it has interested a sufficient number of readers to persuade them to take another look at what has been presented. If Freud was able to admit that he would have preferred to have spent his life investigating the occult rather than psychoanalysis, and if such well regarded figures as Jerome Frank can give serious thought to the contributions of the paranormal to psychotherapy, perhaps we should not feel too reluctant to follow in the tracks of distinguished men and women who have had the courage to examine closely phenomena for which no rational explanation in terms of Newtonian physics is available.

CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

This discussion has ranged far too superficially over a multiplicity of phenomena, most of which are inexplicable, while some have a marginal or direct relevance to psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychophysiology. The subject is a very large one and merges with other important aspects of emotional life, particularly the phenomena of mystical and religious conversion experiences which have been discussed by Sedman and Hopkinson (1966). A similar investigation into the religious experiences of subjects suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy was reported by Dewhurst and Beard (1970). Topics of this kind which require another, and probably longer, paper for their full consideration raise acutely our own attitudes to alleged communications from God or visions of chiliastic portent on the part of our patients. Somehow these fit uneasily into the conventional attitudes of a secular age. Even more disconcerting can be the assertions of strange, bearded, beaded and gown-clad figures who, heavily drugged, claim profound insights into the complexities of oriental philosophy. Here our capacity to distinguish cultural deviance from plain psychosis can be taxed to the limit.

Ader, R., and Cohen, N. (1975). Behaviourally conditioned immuno-suppression. Psychosomatic Medicine, 37: 333. Baldwin, M. (1962). Hallucinations in neurologic syndromes, in Hallucinations. (ed. West, J.) Grune and Stratton, New York. Black, S. (1969). Mind and Body. William Kimber, London. Davison, K. (1 964). Episodic depersonalization. British Journal of Psychiatry, 1 1 0 505. Dewhurst, K., and Beard, A. W. (1970). Sudden religious conversions in temporal lobe epilepsy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 117: 497. Dingwall, E. J. (1947). Some Human Oddities. Home and Van Thal, London. Dizon, J. C. (1963). Depersonalization phenomena in a sample population of college students. British Journal of Psychiatry, 109: 371. Ehrenwald, J. (1 97214). A neurophysiological model of psi phenomena. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 154: 406. Ehrenwald, J. (1972B). Out of the body experiences and the denial of death. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 159: 227. Forster, E. M. (1927). Aspects of the Novel. Edward Arnold, London. Frank, J . D. (1977). The two faces of psychotherapy: an editorial. Journal of Ncrvous and Mental Disease, 164: 3. Freud, S. (1922). Dreams and telepathy, in Collected Papers, Vol. 4. Hogarth Press, London.

However, leaving aside the problems of religious belief and disbelief, it is clear that the impact of paranormal phenomena on the practice of psychiatry, although marginal, could still warrant deeper consideration. Our cherished scientific determinism and mechanistic assumptions about mind-body relationships can look distinctly shaky when confronted by well-attested evidence of extrasensory communication and psychokinetic phenomena. No doubt for the most part we get along tolerably well by ignoring them, but possibly, in so doing, we are bypassing

Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Bobst Library, New York University on May 7, 2015

F.A. WHITLOCK

Freud, S. (1933). Dreams and the Occult: New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. (Translated, Sprott, W. J. H.) Hogarth Press, London. Gardner, F. H., and Diamond, L. K. (1955). Autoerythrocyte sensitization. Blood, 10: 675. Garner, J. (1 974). Spontaneous regression: scientific documentation as a basis for the declaration of miracles. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 111: 1254. Gillespie, W. H. (1956). Experiences suggestive of paranormal cognition in the psychoanalytic situation, in Ciba Foundation Symposium on ESP. (eds. Wolstenholme, G. E. W., and Millar, E. C. P.) Churchill, London. Grad, B., Cadoret, R. J., and Paul, G. I. (1961). The influence of an unorthodox method of treatment on wound healing in mice. International Journal of Parapsychology, 3: 5. Gralnick, A. (1942). Folie 5 deux - the psychosis of association. Psychiatric Quarterly, 230. Grant, M. (1934). A New Argument f o r God and Survival. Faber, London. Harper, M. A. (1969). DCjh vu and depersonalization in normal subjects. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 3: 67. Inglis, €3. (1 964). Fringe Medicine. Faber, London. Jaffi, A. (1967). C. C. Jung and parapsychology, in Science and ESP. (ed. Smythies, J. R. S.) Routledge and Kegan and Paul, London. Jones, E. (1957). Sigmund Freud, Life and Works. Volume 3. Hogarth Press, London. Jung, C. G. (1965). Memories, Dreams and Reflections. (ed. Jaff6, A. Translated by Winston, R. & C.) Vintage Books, New York. Koestler, A. (1972). The Roots of Coincidence. Hutchinson, London. Lifschutz, J . E. (1957). Hysterical stigmatisation. American Journal of Psychiatry, 114: 527. MacKarness, R. (1 974). Occultism and psychiatry. Practitionery, 212: 363. MacMillan, R. L., and Brown, K. W. G. (1971). Cardiac arrest remembered. Canadian Medical Society Journal, 104: 889. Mason, A. A. (1952). A case of congenital icthyosiform erythroderma of Brocq treated by hypnosis. British Medical Journal, 2: 422. Moody, R . L. (1946). Bodily changes during abreaction. Lancet, 2: 934. Owen, A. R . C. (1972). The Sauchie poltergeist, in A Gallery of Ghosts by A. Mackenzie. Arthur Barker, London.

19

Parker, A. (1975). States of Mind. Malaby Press, London. Parkes, C. M. (1972). Bereavement: Studies of Grief in Adult Life. International Universities Press, New York. Penfield, W. G., and Jasper, H. (1954). Epilepsy and the Functional Anatomy of the Brain. Churchill, London. Price, H. (1945). Poltergeists Over England. Allen Lane, London. Roazen, T. (1976). Freud and His Followers. Allen Lane, London. Rogo, D. S. (1974). Psychotherapy and the poltergeist. Journrrl of the Society f o r Psychical Research, 47: 433. Sedman, G. (1966). Depersonalization in a group of normal subjects. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112: 907. Sedman, G. (1 970). Theories of depersonalization. British Journal of Psychiatry, 117: 1. Sedman, G., and Reed, G. F. (1963). Depersonalization phenomena in obsessional personalities and in depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 109: 376. Sedman, G., and Hopkinson, G. (1966). The psychopathology of mystical and religious conversation experiences in psychotic patients: a phenomenological study 1. Confina Psychiatrica, 9: 1. Servadio, E. (I 967). Psychoanalysis and parapsychology, in Science and ESP. (ed. Smythies, J. R. S.) Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. Sitwell, S. (1 940). Poltergeists Faber, London. Tart, C. T. (1971). Out of the body experiences, in Psychic Explorations. (ed. White, J.) Putnam & Sons, New York. Thurston, H. (1952). The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism. Burns Oates, London. Thurston, H. (1953). Ghosts and Poltergeists. (ed. Crehan, R.) Burns Oates, London. Tyrrell, G. N. N. (1946). The Personality of Man. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth. Ullman, M., Krippner, S., and Vaughan, A. (1973). Dream Telepathy. Turnstone Books, London. Weatherhead, L. D. (1951). Psychology, Religion and Healing. Hodder, London. West, D. J. (1957). Eleven Lourdes’s Miracles. Duckworth, London. West, D. J. (1962). Psychical Research Today. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth. Whitlock, F. A., and Hynes, J. V. (1978). Religious stigmatisation: an historical and psychophysiological enquiry. Psychological Medicine (in press).

Reprint requests to: Professor F.A. Whitlock, University of Queensland, Department of Psychiatry Clinical Sciences Building Royal Brisbane Hospital Brisbane, Qld 4029 Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Bobst Library, New York University on May 7, 2015