“Although it is hard to estimate just how many people have conscious memories of apparently being abducted by aliens (French, 2001), it is likely that the figure runs into at least several thousand worldwide.” (French, Santomauro, Hamilton, Fox & Thalbourne, 2008).
In a study of hypnotic-like experiences, Spanos and Barber (1968) gave the following instructions to 90 student nurses: I want you to close your eyes and hear a phonograph record with words and music playing “White Christmas.” Keep listening to the phonograph playing “White Christmas” until I ask you to stop. (Mintz & Alpert, 1972).
Thanks to Mind Hacks blog, which recently featured an entry about a paper on Ganzfeld Hallucinations
from the latest special issue of Cortex (an edition which explores the “Neuropsychology of Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs”), I became intrigued by another new paper in the same issue. It’s by Christopher French, Julia Santomauro, Victoria Hamilton, Rachel Fox and Michael Thalbourne, on ‘Psychological aspects of the alien contact experience‘.
There I discovered a rather amusing Christmas theme when investigating belief in aliens!
Firstly, Thalbourne’s work on paranormal scales is something I’m using in writing my own M.Ed studies – in particular, the Australian Sheep-Goat Scale, or’ ASGS’ (Thalbourne & Delin, 1993). In the ASGS, an 18-point scale is used to measure belief in psychic ability terms, and to differentiate groups who believe in paranormal phenomena (’sheep’) and those who do not (’goats’) (Blackmore, 1992; Schmeidler & McConnell, 1958; Thalbourne & Delin, 1993).
The Australian Sheep-Goat Scale cropped up again when I was doing the Koestler Parapsychology online course on Parapsychology created by Dr Caroline Watt. The required studies for the section on “Belief in the Paranormal” discussed the research and how researchers discriminate between what makes a believer and what makes a non-believer in paranormal phenomena.
For my own part, I questioned how we can so easily split people into two categories of either ’sheep or goat’ – could a survey of a large group of people find some ‘middle-ground’ subjects and use them instead for a psi study? That way, eliminate a strictly polarised sheep-goat effect? With only a few weeks left in the course, I can say that it’s been a fascinating journey through parapsychology and how skeptical viewpoints (rather than just nay-saying ‘counter-advocates!’) do indeed enrich and help promote rigorous science in response to paranormal claims.
Even ascertaining what contributes to ‘fantasy proneness’ has its issues – with the concept first introduced by Wilson and Barber (1983) to describe the characteristics of a small group of individuals which they labeled ‘fantasizers’ – they tend to fantasise a lot, have particularly vivid fantasies and report out-of-body and other paranormal experiences. Since I’ve looked into groups like actors (and especially) fantasy role-players like gamers, I’m not surprised that they often demonstrate elevated levels of fantasy proneness. (Merckelbach, Horselenberg, & Muris, 2001). A fairly recent paper looks at the contribution of disturbed or exotic sleeping experiences and their contribution to fantasy and daydreaming:
Fantasy proneness refers to an extensive involvement in fantasy and daydreaming… Self-reports of sleep experiences, such as narcolepsy, vivid and unusual dreams, and deviant nocturnal experiences, but not lucid dreaming, were related to both fantasy proneness and dissociation. However, the relationship between fantasy proneness and dissociation was only partially accounted for by these sleep experiences. This suggests that deviant sleep experiences but also other, as yet unknown, factors contribute to the overlap between fantasy proneness and dissociation. Giesbrect, T. & Merckelbach, H (2006).
In regards to the first author of the 2008 paper, I originally learned of French’s work last year in regards to the psychological variables which appear to be correlated with susceptibility to false memories. Apparently such memories also correlate with paranormal belief and the tendency to report anomalous experiences, including claims of alien contact (French, 2003). Some of this was presented as a part of Dr Krissie Wilson’s lecture at the Australian Skeptics National Conference 2007, in Tasmania (you can see my interview with her on a TANK Vodcast episode, hosted on YouTube).
So, you can understand my interest in seeing this co-authored paper as combining several people’s work that I had learned about! Despite this, I became interested in one particular reference within this newer study:
For example, absorption, dissociation and fantasy proneness are all correlated with hypnotic suggestibility as assessed by standard scales. In this context, a number of investigators have used the “White Christmas” test to investigate susceptibility to hallucinations in both psychotic and normal samples (e.g., [Barber & Calverley, 1964], [Mintz & Alpert, 1972] and [Young et al., 1987]). These studies generally involve asking participants to imagine hearing the Bing Crosby classic although the song itself is not actually played. A substantial majority of hallucinating schizophrenic patients report hearing a clear auditory image during the test, but so do a substantial minority of non-psychotic participants, especially those scoring high on the LSHS. Some participants report believing that the record was actually being played. Such findings have been interpreted as either reflecting hallucinatory reports based upon vivid imagery (e.g., Mintz & Alpert, 1972) or lax judgement criteria (e.g., Bentall & Slade, 1985).
Wait a minute. ‘White Christmas test’?? Any particular reason for that song? In the case of applying it to UFO-enthusiasts world-wide (would it have an international effect?) – is it just as likely to have it recalled at will by those susceptible to hallucinations?
Looking over the original Mintz and Alpert paper of 1972, I concluded that perhaps it was simply due to the popularity of that particular tune which led to it being selected in the first place. Created by Irving Berlin in the 1940s, the song won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the version that was sung by Bing Crosby. When covered again in December 1955, it became the Drifters’ first single that got re-charted in the top 100 – for both 1960 and 1962. You might even remember it featuring in the popular family-film ‘Home Alone’.
What would we use instead for a popular tune these days? Any of the top 100 hits for the past decade? Or would you prefer that you weren’t urged to reflect upon the sounds of Ms Spears or Ms Aguilera? Should a Chinese study of UFO believers instead seize upon the 2008 hit Arashi’s “One Love” for their snappy ballad-style with bagpipe refrain that you can’t get out of your head (no matter how hard you might try)?
Yet I discovered that for a 2001 study (’Another White Christmas: fantasy proneness and reports of ‘hallucinatory experiences’ in undergraduate students‘ – with forty-seven psychology or medical undergraduate students, with a mean age of 20 years), the same song was used again:
Merckelbach & Van de Ven (2001) replicated the basic effect with a sample of student participants, showing that participants who reported hearing “White Christmas” against a white noise background scored more highly on the LSHS and a measure of fantasy proneness. They proposed that another possible explanation of this phenomenon might be the tendency on the part of fantasy prone participants to endorse odd items. Clearly, none of these explanations is mutually exclusive and further research is required. However, it is worth noting that a number of investigators have presented evidence suggesting more vivid self-reported imagery in believers in the paranormal than non-believers (e.g., [Diamond & Taft, 1975], [Finch, 2002] and [Greening, 2002]).
In the conclusion of the French, Santomauro, Hamilton, Fox and Thalbourne (2008) study, it does emphasise that they are taking the study into a particular aspect of paranormal believers and that it does not encapsulate all of the reasons why someone might believe. The earlier comment I made about the ‘extremes’ of ’sheep vs goat’ and taking on the ’sheep’ appeared to apply. Yet the profile appears to associate with a greater tendency towards hallucinations (French, 2003 and French & Wilson, 2006) and high dissociativity in their sample and even a higher incidence of sleep paralysis (often described as typically involving a person feeling paralysed, sensing a presence in their room and experiencing disorientation, fear, hearing distorted sounds, and may even feel as if there is an unshakable pressure on their chest.
This is summarised by Susan Blackmore in her article ‘Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis?‘ (from the Skeptical Inquirer, May/June 1998). Yet those who experienced anomalous stats didn’t differ significantly in a false memory task in comparison to the control group (Brugger & Mohr, 2008).
Despite this, the influence of popular media and the urging of others towards believing in UFOs can’t be discounted; which leads to the question of what difference there is between people who believe who actually experienced what they consider to be alien contact – and those who just attend to the accounts of the likes of Betty and Barney Hill and their tale of abduction in 1961 and consider it a legitimate experience. Did they ever dream of a paranormal Christmas, way back when that song was popular on the hit charts for the second time?
By the way, as I blogged this – I was watching ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind‘ on the cable station. Oddly enough, that features catchy music too… do-be-doo-dee-doop…
Select References:
French, C., Santomauro, J., Hamilton, V., Fox, R., & Thalbourne, M. (2008). Psychological aspects of the alien contact experience Cortex, 44 (10), 1387-1395 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2007.11.011
French, C. and Wilson K. (2006). Incredible memories: how accurate are reports of anomalous events? European Journal of Parapsychology, (21)2: 166–181.
Merckelbach H, & van de Ven V (2001). Another White Christmas: fantasy proneness and reports of ‘hallucinatory experiences’ in undergraduate students. Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 32 (3), 137-44 PMID: 11934126
Mintz, S. and Alpert, M. (1972) Imagery vividness, reality testing and schizophrenic hallucinations. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 79: 310–316.
Wilson, K., & French, C. (2006). The relationship between susceptibility to false memories, dissociativity, and paranormal belief and experience Personality and Individual Differences, 41 (8), 1493-1502 DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2006.06.008
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