James Houran

A Rasch scaling validation of a 'core' near-death experience.

For those with true near-death experiences (NDEs), Greysons (1983, 1990) NDE Scale satisfactorily fits the Rasch rating scale model, thus yielding a unidimensional measure with interval-level scaling properties. With increasing intensity, NDEs reflect peace, joy and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences, while the most intense NDEs involve an awareness of things occurring in a different place or time. The semantics of this variable are invariant across True-NDErs gender, current age, age at time of NDE, and latency and intensity of the NDE, thus identifying NDEs as core experiences whose meaning is unaffected by external variables, regardless of variations in NDEs intensity. Significant qualitative and quantitative differences were observed between True-NDErs and other respondent groups, mostly revolving around the differential emphasis on paranormal/mystical/religious experiences vs. standard reactions to threat. The findings further suggest that False-Positive respondents reinterpret other profound psychological states as NDEs. Accordingly, the Rasch validation of the typology proposed by Greyson (1983) also provides new insights into previous research, including the possibility of embellishment over time (as indicated by the finding of positive, as well as negative, latency effects) and the potential roles of religious affiliation and religiosity (as indicated by the qualitative differences surrounding paranormal/mystical/religious issues).

Temporal lobe lability in the highly transliminal mind

Abstract Transliminality is “a hypothesized tendency for psychological material to cross thresholds into or out of consciousness,” which has been proposed to derive from hyperconnectivity between temporal-limbic structures and sensory association cortices. Accordingly, it might be expected that transliminality would positively correlate with temporal lobe lability. To test this hypothesis, 135 undergraduate psychology students at an Australian and a British university completed the Revised Transliminality Scale (Lange et al., 2000) and the Personal Philosophy Inventory (Persinger, 1984a), a validated measure of temporal lobe lability. As predicted, scores on transliminality showed a strong association with the general temporal lobe scale (r=0.72), as well as moderate correlations with a number of other scalar variables and individual items. The findings are consistent with the idea that transliminality is related to more ungated processing related to temporal lobe functioning, and furthermore that temporal lobe phenomenology promotes transliminal experiences with mystical or religious overtones.

Redefining Delusion Based on Studies of Subjective Paranormal Ideation

The DSM–IV definition of delusion is argued to be unsatisfactory because it does not explain the mechanism for delusion formation and maintenance, it implies that such beliefs are necessarily dysfunctional (pathological), it underestimates the social component to some delusions, and it is inconsistent with research indicating that delusions can be modified through techniques such as contradiction, confrontation, and cognitive-behavioral therapy. However, a well-replicated mathematical model of magical/delusional thinking based on a study of paranormal beliefs and experiences is consistent with the hypothesis that attributional processes play a central role in delusion formation and maintenance. The model suggests attributional processes serve the adaptive function of reducing fear associated with ambiguous stimuli and delusional thinking is on a continuum with nonpathological forms. Based on this collective research an amendment to the definition of delusion is proposed and its clinical implications are addressed.

PRELIMINARY VALIDITY DATA ON THE RASCH MANIC-DEPRESSIVENESS SCALE

The 18-item Manic-Depressiveness Scale was revised via a Rasch ‘top-down purification’ procedure to provide a new 12-item scale with no significant age or sex bias. Application of this scale to previously collected data indicated that patients with manic-depression and schizophrenia receive comparable scores, which are significantly higher than those of a control group of students. Moreover, for a subgroup of patients with manic-depression, scores correlated .55 (p < 001) with number of manic-depression-relevant medications being taken. These findings lend support to the validity of the Rasch Manic-Depressiveness Scale as a general measure of psychoticism and psychiatric status.

A review and reevaluation of the Revised Transliminality Scale.

To facilitate continued research on the transliminality construct, we revisited Lange, Thalbourne, Houran, and Storm’s (2000) Revised Transliminality Scale (RTS) to examine its conceptual foundations and validity. Keyword searches in several academic databases revealed many multidisciplinary studies that collectively align with the idea that transliminality is related to syncretic cognitions involving unconscious-conscious processing. A psychometric check of the RTS (N = 577), similar to the original Rasch analyses, found that four questions had significant item drifts, suggesting that respondents’ interpretations of these items exhibited cultural dependency effects. However, these item drifts did not significantly bias the Rasch scoring scheme. Our review supports the RTS as a robust tool for use in consciousness studies, and particularly calls for new, more sophisticated research designs that explore the leading hypothesis that transliminality is best modeled in terms of neuroplasticity.