A belief in the paranormal and psi phenomena with college students in Brazil

Jalmir Freire Brelaz de Castro

Presented at the 37^th Annual Convention of The Parapsychological Association – pa, held in conjunction with Society of Physical Research – SPR. Brighton – England, August 1997

In this paper we present the first results of a survey conducted with college students in Brazil. Much it is said about paranormal phenomena but it is only presumed their acceptance in society. We intended to find out the extent of the belief in the paranormal in a college population and if the people who accepts psi consider themselves able to produce it.
The 77% of psi acceptance was higher than we expected and it was not originated basically from direct experience that was related by 21% of the students which it may suggest a favorable social context to the acceptance of paranormal phenomena.
We also intended to find out the characteristics of the presented paranormal phenomena. We looked for the occurrence of ESP, PK, Psychic Healing, Outstanding Performance or Extraordinary Knowledge under altered states of consciousness and also the occurrence of out-of-body experiences (OBE) and near-death experiences (NDE). The survey also checked the way the paranormal information was expressed, such as dreams, hallucination, alteration of personality, comparing the results with other findings.
The survey focused on the subjective point of view (phenomenological) and it involved 363 students of two different areas – biological sciences and technology. The results available so far showed that technology students tended to believe less in psi and considered themselves less capable of producing it, but the percentages for experiencing psi were nearly the same for both areas.

1. Introduction

In this survey we intended to know psi in relation to a college community in Brazil. Would psi be a reality or just fiction , calling their attention only when some anomalous information or interaction takes place, in which the usual notions of time, space and energy seems to be broken, but afterwards left to the non sense and apart from daily life? We intended to find out if psi belongs to people’s reality to the point of believing in it, believing in being capable to produce it or even having already experienced it.
We wanted to know the extent of people who believed in psi and how the idea of paranormal phenomena was accepted. We also intended to know if the students considered themselves capable of producing psi.
We wanted to find out the extent of students who considered to have paranormal experiences and to obtain information about their characteristics. We looked for the occurrence of ESP, PK, Psychic Healing, or Outstanding Performance or Extraordinary Knowledge in altered states of consciousness and also the occurrence of OBE (Out-of-Body Experiences) and NDE (Near-Death Experiences).
The survey also checked the way the paranormal information was expressed, such as dream, hallucination (perception, such as seeing, hearing, touching or smelling an object or fact without its physical existence), alteration of personality, comparing the results with other findings as well as some of their characteristics such as how long it took, when it occurred and if it was repeated.
We used the phenomenological approach, referred by Krippner (1995) and Zangari (1995), referring to Rhea White (1990), which is centered on the subject and the meaning of the experience for him or her, not only on the results.
The belief in the paranormal and how it can affect the results has been studied in various ways for a long time. Since Gertrude Schmeidler studies in 1942, at City Hall University in New York, the terms “sheep” and “goat” have being used (in the context of a test ) to refer to those who believe the reality of psi and have a significant deviation above chance and those who do not and were significantly below. In our case as we will further see in Discussions, the belief in the paranormal is not strongly correlated to the people who experienced psi.
This survey also intends to correlate in the coming months (with the data already acquired but not processed so far) if the people from biological sciences (studies oriented to living systems or directly dealing with human or living beings) present results significantly different from technology students ( studies are oriented in informational systems, software and hardware).

2. Method

Participants
– All the participants, N= 363, were Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (Federal University of the State of Pernambuco) students. As shown in the annexed graphics the students were 54%females and 46% males, these proportions switched according to the students background. For biological sciences students 63% were female and 37% male while for technology students 69 % were male and 31% female. It means, for biological sciences students about 2/3 were females and for technology students 2/3 were males..
– 91% of the students were less than 25 years old, 4% between 25-29 years, and 5% over34 years, there were no students between 30-33 years. Biological sciences students were 96% less than 24 years old, 3% between 25-29 years and 1% above 34 years. Computer science students, by its turn were 77% less than 24, 8% between 24-29 and 15% over 34 years old.
– 54% were females and 46% males, the proportions switched depending on area. In biology sciences 63% were females and 37% males while for technology students the percentages were 69% for males and 31% for females.
– This survey was conducted in May and June of 1997.

Questionnaire

To avoid misinterpretation of the results the questionnaire had a brief definition of what a paranormal experience should be, so the students would not misunderstand the questions and could give objective answers.
Some hypotheses consider the interaction between the experimenter and the subject (in this case the one who is administering the forms and the students) can affect the results. In this survey none of the people who administered the questionnaires were parapsychologists, although most of them were sympathetic to parapsychology, for they wanted to carry out this survey , and had no previous knowledge about this subject so they could not encourage the students’ answers. It means that the supposed influence of the experimenters (the ones who administered the formularies) could have had was lessened. We think this also makes the results more conservative.
The questionnaire was divided in 2 parts. In the first part, all the students participated answering their belief , or not, in the paranormal , and if they believed they could produce psi, and also data concerning course, age and sex. The second part was answered only by the people who said to had undergone paranormal experiences. The questionnaire in its integrity is shown in the annex.

Procedure

We made contact with the coordinator of Biological Sciences Basic Courses (first and second years) and a professor of the graduation and post-graduation in Computer Science, to whom we explained the nature of the research and asked for their help. Then they administered the questionnaires as well as they asked other professors to do so. In biological sciences some monitors (students who help the professors) administered the forms. All the students in a classroom were asked to participate, even those who did not believe in psi, in this case they should only answer the first part of the questionnaire, in this case we should have a complete sample of each classroom.

Analyses

These are the preliminary results of the survey , not all the data can be processed and and correlated. Basically we used Microsoft Excel to help in the analyses and generate the graphics, the results are statistically descriptive rather than analytical.
Table 1
TABELA 1

UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE PERNAMBUCO – UFPE

AREA COURSE NrSTUDENTS Be-lief in PSI BELIEF IN THE CAPABILITY OF PRODUCING PSI – % HAD PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES -%
Biology, Fisiotherapy, Nursering 45
BI-OLOG PhysicalEducation 19
ICAL Medicine and Odontology 87 81 26 23
SCI- Nutrition 20
ENCES Psychology 26
SUBTOTAL 268
TECH-NOLO Computer Sciences 78
GY Post graduation in Computer Sciences 17 66 27 16
SUBTOTAL 95
TOTAL GERAL 363 77 26 21

4. Parcial Results

Belief in the Paranormal and Considered Themselves Capable to Produce Psi

– 77% is the overall result of the belief in the paranormal (54% females and 46% males). 81 % due to biological sciences (63% females) and 65% due to computer science students (69% males);
– In the overall 26% of the students considered themselves able to produce psi, 26% for biology sciences and 27% for technology;

Had Paranormal Experiences

– 21% of the students considered to have experienced paranormal or psychic experiences (23% biological sciences and 16% technology students);
– Among the students who believed in psi and believed they could produce psi 20% told they had paranormal experiences, (19% biological sciences and 23% technology students);
– An interesting finding was that among the people who believed in psi but did not believe they could produce psi, as a matter of fact 10% related they did, (13% biological sciences and 1% technology students);
– 0% of the people who said not to believe in psi related paranormal experiences.
– Among the students who had paranormal experiences 48% said to have the information confirmed by another person – ESP (48% biological sciences and 47% technology students);

Way of Getting Paranormal Information and Characteristics of the Paranormal Experiences

– 39% of the students relate their paranormal experiences to the present and 61% to the future (for the latter 63% biological sciences and 53% technology students)
– The experiences were related 52% to the own person (47% biological sciences and 75 technology students) and 48% to known people , such as parents, boy or girls friend (53% biological sciences and 25% to technology students); among the experiences related to known people.

PK Experiences

– 9% related PK experiences (11% biological and 0% technology students);
– 8% related the PK experience was confirmed by another person (9%biological students and 0% technology students);

Had NDE

– 5% of those who went through spi experiences related NDE experiences (5% biological and 7% technology students);

Had OBE

– 9% in the overall of the students related OBEs (10% % biological and 6% technology students);
– 44% of the people who related ESP experienced OBEs (45% % biological and 43% technology students);
– 8% of those who went through psi? experiences related OBEs with ESP confirmed by another person, (8% biological and 7% technology students);
– 6% among the people who experienced psi related OBE with PK (8% biological and 0% technology students);
– 2% among the people who experienced psi related OBE with PK (3% biological and 0% technology students);

Psychic Healing

– Among those who said to have experienced psi, 21% related to had been psychically healed by someone (21% biological and 20% technology students);
– And also 21% considered to have psychically healed someone (21% biological and 20% technology students);
– The most common ways of people considered to had been healed were through xx imposition of hands, xx prayers, xx psychic surgeries and xx others.

Experienced Extraordinary Performance or Knowledge in Altered State of Consciousness

– 11% said to have presented extraordinary performance or knowledge while in altered state of consciousness (11% biological and 13% technology students);

Other Characteristics

– 11% repeated ESP, PK, OBE and Psychic Healing more than once (11% biological and 13% technology students);
– The last experience occurred in 29% of the cases , 22% in less than a month less, 24% in less than a year and the rest 25% over a year;
– The people were 39% of them awaken, 46% sleeping and 6% others;
– 63% of the people do not know what caused the experience, while 8% considered was induced by another person, 10% self or auto-induced and 18% said a strong emotion triggered the experience
– 25% of the students considered the experience took seconds, 32% minutes, 13% hours and 30% did not know..

4. Discussion

Though this sample is not representative sample of the general population we hope in conducting this research we can contribute to a better understanding of paranormal phenomena in the context of the Brazilian society
– The 77% belief in the paranormal was much higher than we expected. We attempted to have the questionnaires administered as neutral as possible as already described in method. But we consider two factors may have improved this percentage, first, the means of communication in Brazil, specially TV have constantly approached paranormal phenomena, though many times in a phantasmagoric way, such as showed in soup opera everyday and broadcasted throughout the country, this makes the idea of the paranormal closer to people. The second factor was the age of the participants, 91% were 24 or less years old, and younger fellows seem to be more open to accept the contradictions new ideas, such as the existence of paranormal phenomena which seems to contradict the commonly accepted mechanist view of the world.
– Technology students (computer science) showed less tendency to believe in psi – 65% (mostly males – xx% , for this area traditionally are more requested by men) compared to the 81% presented by biological students (mostly females – xx%, many of the courses of this area like nutrition??, nursery??, physiotherapy are highly requested by women). These results may suggest that individuals devoted to technical sciences, and intrinsically their mechanical paradigms, tend to believe less in psi phenomena, for paranormal phenomena contradict the referred paradigms.
– Mario Varvoglis (1996) refers to a survey, conducted in the early seventies, among readers of the interdisciplinary scientific magazine New Scientist (mostly scientists and technologist), to find out what a scientific community thought of parapsychology, it showed that in 1500 answers , 88% thought parapsychology as a legitimate scientific discipline and 67% considered ESP as a “probable possibility” or as a “established fact” (Evan, C – 1973. Parapsychology. What the questionnaire revealed. New Scientist, 57, 209). This 67% last presented percentage is closer to the one we found.
– It was not the objective of this survey to focus on the commitment of the belief in the paranormal nor its behavioral consequences, in this sense it is more na indicator of acquiescence with the phenomenon, as we will further see it seems not to be originitade form direct experience.
– Technology students (computer science) showed less tendency to believe in psi – 65% (mostly males – 69% , for this area traditionally are more requested by men) compared to the 81% presented by biological students (mostly females – 63%, many of the courses of this area like nutrition??, nursery??, physiotherapy are highly requested by women). These results may suggest that individuals devoted to technical sciences, and intrinsically their mechanical paradigms, tend to believe less in psi phenomena, for paranormal phenomena contradict the referred paradigms.

Belief in the paranormal and paranormal experiences

– In the overall 21% of the people (23% biological and 15% technology) considered to have had paranormal experiences ( 1 out of 5), or 33% if it is considered among the ones who believe in psi (1out of 3) this seems to indicate, as expected, that the belief in the paranormal was increased by the ones who experienced psi. Though we consider this an expressive result, 1 out of 5 said to have experienced psi, the results are quite different from the onez presented by Zangari@Machado (1994), conducted with college students, 89,5%, and Palmer (1979(, 60%, in a small town in the United States. We do not know the details of
– These percentages are much above the ones we found for psi in general, but Apparitions, OBEs or seeing Auras, in princilexxx, can not be considered a paranormal experience in and of itself .
– Correlating
– In the overall 26% of the people (25% in biological sciences and 27% technology students) considered to have lived a paranormal experience (1 out of four), or 33% of the people who believed in psi (1 out of 3) . It seems to show it suggests that believing in psi slightly helps experiencing paranormal phenomena., in nowadays situations.
– It may seem obvious that the rest of 23% of students who do not believe in psi none of them – 0% experienced paranormal experiences, but it may reflect difficulties in recognizing a different form of accepting , or interpreting paranormal information as non possible or just disregarding them.
– According to this survey one considering to be able to produce psi does not seem to affect results of have experienced psi for: considering all the students 21% (25% in biological sciences and 16% technology students) related to have experienced psi, nearly the same percentage considering only the students who believed they could produce psi – 20%.
– Once again technology students tended to believe less they could produce psi but it did not affect the results .
– An interesting finding was that among the people who believed in psi but did not believe they could produce psi, as a matter of fact 10% related they did, (13% in biological sciences and 1.5% technology students) psi but answered in the questionnaire. Again technology students had no doubt the had went through a paranormal experience . Is interesting that these percentages shows that paranormal phenomena contradicts people’s perception of reality but only 1% of technological students allow themselves to expresses this contradiction. This is some how connected to the 35% disbelief in the paranormal, these two percentages may indicate that almost there is no space for doubt of what is paranormal and what is not .

I assume this makes the resulted presented here more conservative compared to other surveys that were applied to parapsychology students, and these seems to be reflected in some percentages, as the ones we will see bellow, such as OBEs
The incidence of OBE was xx in general, and among the people who believe they could produce psi in psi. Previous resulots
The fact someone experience an OBE or NDE does not mean the experience is paranormal.

Way of Getting Paranormal Information and Characteristics of the Paranormal experiences

– 39% of the students relate their paranormal experiences to the present and 61% to the future (for the latter 63% biological sciences and 53% technology students)
– The experiences were related 52% to the own person (47% biological sciences and 75 technology students) and 48% to known people , such as parents, boy or girls friend (53% biological sciences and 25% to technology students); among the experiences related to known people.

Even though we expected to find good acceptance for paranormal phenomena, since now a days movies, TV shows, and esotericism is in fashion in Brazilian society, also TV soup opera programs very popular in this country exploits in the “supernatural”, the percentages found in this survey shows a high acceptance of psi
The results we have got from OBE, OBEs with occurrence of ESP, and OBE
These results show less incidence. These percentages seem to be less conservative possibly because the people who administered the questionnaires no previous information about parapsychology and they could not “encourage” none of the answers, and the environmnt was a normal. O
No one who said they did not believe in the paranormal as expected

References
Alvarado, Carlos s. & Zingrone. (1997). Out-of-Body Experiences and Dissociation. Paper presented at the 40th Annual Convention of the Parapsychologycal Association, Brighton, UK.
Blackmore, Susan J. Experiências Fora do Corpo (translated from Beyond the Body – An Investigation of Out-of-The Body Experiences). 1986. Editora Pensamento SP. Brasil
Borges, Valter da Rosa. Manual de Parapsicologia. 1992. Edição do Instituto Pernambucano de Pesquisas Psicobiofísicas. Recife-PE. Brasil
Castro, Jalmir F. Brelaz de (1997). Out-of-Body Experiences with College Students in Brazil. Paper presented at the 40th Annual Convention of the Parapsychologycal Association, Brighton, UK.
Machado, Fátima Regina (1995). Considerações sobre Ética e Educação em Parapsicologia no Brasil. Trabalho apresentado no XIII Simpósio Pernambucano de Parapsicologia, Recife – PE. 1995
Roe, Chris A..(1997) Belief in the Paraformal and Attendance at Psychic Readings. Paper presented at the 40th Annual Convention of the Parapsychologycal Association, Brighton, UK.
Kripner, Stanley . Advances in Parapsychologycal Research 7
Varglovis, Mario (1996). Psi Explorer – A Voyage into the Universe of Pshychic Phenomena . PC CD-ROM 1996. UGM_IGK Multimédia.
Zingrone, Nancy & Alvarado, Carlos (1997). “Broken” Marital Relations and Claims of Parapsychological Experiences. Paper presented at the 40th Annual Convention of the Parapsychologycal Association, Brighton, UK.
Zingrone, Nancy & Alvarado, Carlos (1997). Correlates of Aura Vision: The Role of Psi Experiences, Dissociation, Absorption and Synesthesia-Like Experiences. Paper presented at the 40th Annual Convention of the Parapsychologycal Association, Brighton, UK.
Zangari, Wellington (1995). Avanços e Desafios da Parapsicologia Atual: O papel dos Pesquisadores Brasileiros. Trabalho apresentado no XIII Simpósio Pernambucano de Parapsicologia, Recife-PE. 1995.
Acknowledgments: We would like to thank the UFPE professors Sonia Pereira Leite and Jaelson F.B. Castro, for their willingness and for administering the questionnaires, without whom this survey could not have been done

Annexes
A Questionnaire
B Graphics and Tables

QUESTIONNAIRE – 1st. PART (TO BE FILLED OUT BY EVERYBODY)
1) Do you believe in paranormal phenomena? YES o NO o 2) Do you believe you can produce it? YES o NO o
3) Please tell some personal data? Age___ Sex: male o female o Course:___________
Note: O fenômeno paranormal pode ser entendido como um conhecimento (informação) que não se origina dos sentidos ou da razão e nem resulta do aprendizado prévio estruturado a nível consciente.O fenômeno paranormal pode ser ainda uma ação extraordinária da mente humana sobre seres vivos, objetos ou o meio ambiente. Ação esta que não envolve os meios físicos conhecidos.
2a. PARTE (A SER PREENCHIDA SOMENTE POR AQUELES QUE CONSIDERAM QUE PASSARAM POR EXPERIÊNCIA PARANORMAL)
4) Você já passou por alguma experiência que considere paranormal ou “psíquica”, i.e., obteve alguma informação que não pudesse ser obtida através dos sentidos ou da razão? YES o NO o
5) Essa informação deu-se a evento que aconteceu no presente ou passado, ou foi conhecimento antecipado de fato que aconteceu no futuro? (lembre-se se essa informação não pode ser deduzida de outras informações nem obtida através dos sentidos) Presente ou passadoo Futuroo Ambaso
7) Como você obteve essa informação?oAtravés de sonhos. oAtravés de forte impressão ou sentimento. oPor alucinação ou aparição visual oPor alucinação auditiva oPor alucinação tátil oPor alucinação olfativa oAtravés de alteração de personalidade, ou seja, falava, escrevia ou agia de qualquer outra forma, como se fosse outra pessoa. Por favor especifique_______ oAtravés de meios eletrônicos, tais como, telefone, fax, e-mail, fotografia, imagem de vídeo, imagem de TV, imagem de monitor de computador, sem que ninguém pudesse dizer sua origem. Por favor, especifique________ oOutro meio. Por favor, especifique________
8) Essa experiência estava relacionada a quem ou a o que?oA você mesmo. .oA pessoa conhecida. Por favor, Quem?_____ oA algum local. Qual?____________ oA algum acontecimento futuro? Qual________
9) Alguma vez já afetou fisicamente à distância seres vivos ou objetos ou o ambiente em que se encontrava, sem o uso de meios físicos conhecidos? oNÃO oSIM Por favor especifique o que afetou___________
10) Esse evento pode ser comprovado por outra pessoa? oNÃO oSIM Quem?__________________
11) Você já passou por alguma Experiência de Quase Morte (EQM), em que foi considerado clinicamente morto? oNÃO oSIM (neste caso peça ao pesquisador um formulário em anexo)
12) Você já passou por alguma experiência em que se considerou fora do corpo (EFC)? oNÃO oSIM
13) Na experiência Fora do Corpo (EFC), obteve alguma informação que não pudesse ser obtida através dos sentidos ou da razão? ?oNÃO oSIM
14) Essa informação obtida na EFC pode ser comprovado por outra pessoa? oNÃO oSIM Quem_______
15) Na EFC afetou fisicamente à distância seres vivos ou objetos ou o meio em que se encontrava?
oNÃO oSIM Por favor especifique o que _____________________________
17) Já foi curado por alguém de doença ou mal físico que não pode ser explicado por meios convencionais, sem uso de ervas ou medicamentos? oNÃO oSIM por imposições de mãos o oraçãoo cirurgia psíquica o outras o favor especificar____
18) Já sentiu que você curou alguém por meios não convencionais?
o NÃO oSIM por imposição de mãoso mediante oração o por cirurgia psíquica o
outras o favor especificar___________________
19) Em estado alterado de consciência, ou seja, diferente do que considera seu estado de atenção usual, já apresentou desempenho ou conhecimento extraordinário, na arte (pintura, escultura, dança, música etc), literatura ou outra área do conhecimento? NÃOo oSIM Indique o que_________________________
20) Teve qualquer desse tipo dessas experiências anteriores (tais como, as das perguntas números 9, 12 e 18) mais de uma vez? oNÃO oSIM Quantas vezes___________ oFreqüentemente (mensalmente pelo menos durante algum período da sua vida) Qual experiência?_____________________________
21) Quando foi sua última experiência? oHá um mês ohá seis meses
oHá um ano Para período acima de um ano, por favor especificar_______________
22) Qual o seu estado de consciência durante a experiência? o Acordado o dormindo o Outro. Por favor especifique_____
23) Para você o que causou a experiência? oNão sabe o Induzida por terceiros o Induzida por mim mesmo oForte emoção (ex.: morte, doença, acidente etc) relacionada a alguma pessoa. Dizer qual pessoa e a emoção associada_________ Por favor indique a experiência que se referiu nos item acima_________
24) Quanto tempo durou qualquer uma dessas experiências? oSegundos ominutos oHoras onão sabe