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I am pleased to post this guest blog from my friend and
colleague Dr. Andrew Nichols. I know you will find it a fascinating article!
The Phantom Zone:
Altered States and Paranormal Experiences
FAUST:
“Come, I think hell's a fable.”
MEPHISTOPHELES: “Aye, think so still, till experience change thy mind.”
Christopher Marlowe - Doctor Faustus
As a parapsychologist I am often asked if I have ever been
really frightened during an investigation.
I have certainly spent many nights in dark cellars, dusty attics and
deserted European castles, but I can honestly say that I have rarely
experienced anything which I found particularly scary. I have personally
witnessed apparitions and poltergeist activity on several occasions, and
although these experiences were startling and fascinating, I never regarded
them as personally threatening. Most
haunting investigations are rather tedious, and involve hours and hours of
waiting for something…anything, to
happen. However, some years ago I
suffered a particularly terrifying sleep-related experience following my
investigation of a poltergeist disturbance.
The case involved the phenomena typically associated with
such events; unexplained movement of objects, percussive sounds emanating from
the walls and ceiling of the home, and (somewhat unusual) sightings of
amorphous, shadowy apparitions. The ‘epicenter’ of the phenomena appeared to be
an 11 year-old girl with emotional problems. The family believed their home was
haunted by a “demon.” In view of
subsequent events, I am forced to admit that the family’s simple religious
explanation may be closer to the truth than my ‘scientific’ one.
I have investigated a number of such cases during my four
decades of psychic research, and - like most academically-oriented
parapsychologists - had always tended to attribute such disturbances to
unconscious projection of paranormal energies from a human agent, described in
parapsychological jargon as recurrent
spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK). My
experience with this case led me to seriously reconsider the ‘spirit hypothesis’
as a possible explanation for some haunting and poltergeist cases, and to
re-evaluate certain cases of alleged ‘demonic possession’ as well.
I had gone to bed along with my wife after a day of
investigation at the home of the poltergeist-infested family. Some time in the
early morning I ‘awakened’ to find myself in the midst of an out-of-body
experience. I found myself floating face down about four feet above my physical
body. I could clearly see the details of my sleeping body below, lying on my
back, and my wife sleeping on her side facing away from me. I had a couple of
OBEs previously, but none as vivid as this one.
I was delighted, and wanted to maintain this wonderful sensation as long
as possible. As I hovered there in mid-air, I was contemplating an attempt at
‘astral-travel’ to discover if I could project my etheric body to some distant
location. At that moment, the experience turned into a terrifying struggle for
my sanity, and - corny as it sounds – my soul.
Unexpectedly, the eyes of my sleeping body below me opened.
The eyes (my eyes!) were completely
black. No pupils, no iris, no sclera. Just pools of blackness staring up at me.
I knew instantly that those eyes could see
me, although I was also certain that my floating astral body would have been
invisible to anyone else standing nearby. I knew with absolute certainty that something had taken possession of my
body, and that the thing – whatever it was – could see me perfectly well. My
body below grinned at me. It seemed
to be enjoying my terror, and I was instantly aware of two things: first, I
knew I had to get back into my body very quickly, or I would be forever
displaced by this entity which, I had absolutely no doubt, was evil. Somehow (telepathy?) I also knew
that this thing intended to harm my wife.
I began to struggle to re-enter my body, and the feeling was
like pushing against an invisible barrier, similar to the feeling one gets when
trying to force two magnets of opposing polarity together. This struggle to reincorporate
myself was the last thing I remembered until I suddenly found myself back in my
physical body. Except I was no longer lying supine in bed, but was crouching
over my wife with my hands around her throat as she fought to break my grip,
screaming at me to “wake up!”
After we both regained some degree of composure, I explained
to her what I had experienced, and she described her version of the story. She
was awakened by the sounds of me groaning and muttering what sounded like a
foreign language which she did not recognize. She assumed I was having a
nightmare, and when she tried to awaken me, I attacked her, my eyes wide open
and apparently growling at her like a rabid dog. She said that the voice which
emanated from my body was deep and gravelly, totally unlike my own, and the
expression on my face she described as “leering and hateful.” My attack only
lasted for a few seconds before I came to myself again. Now, my wife is no shrinking violet. She has for
many years suffered a husband who spends his time ‘chasing spooks’, but this
was really too much! She informed me
sternly that if my episode had lasted
for a few more moments, she would have treated me to a broken nose. To this day
I am amazed that I didn’t land in jail, find myself hauled into divorce court,
or at least spend the rest of my married life sleeping on the couch. However,
my long-suffering spouse seemed to take the experience in stride, although I assure
you she slept with one eye open for some time afterwards. Thank God there have
been no recurrences of this condition of ‘possession.’
So, was I actually ‘possessed’ by some dark spirit? I am a
long way from being convinced, although I confess I can’t dismiss the
possibility either. I can’t state with scientific certainty that this
experience was anything other than a particularly vivid and horrific nightmare.
I have no witnesses other than my wife, and no evidence that this was anything
other than subjective. Certainly my
psychologist colleagues would dismiss the incident as a dream – a variation of
the ‘night-terror’ syndrome, possibly induced by anxiety associated with my
involvement with the poltergeist case. Psychoanalysts would probably also
speculate that repressed hostility toward my wife was at the root of the
experience. I cannot offer any evidence to contradict these explanations, but
the experience was so terrifying, so real,
that I can’t help wondering if the Spiritualists’ interpretation of possession is
closer to the truth. Their conclusions are drawn from centuries of practical
experience, unlike the armchair savants of academia and other self-appointed
arbiters of reality.
My purpose in relating this personal anecdote is to
illustrate several important points about the nature of paranormal experiences.
First, such experiences are inherently transformative.
In my case, my tendency to ascribe most such experience to purely psychological
factors has significantly decreased. Although I still believe that many
paranormal experiences have conventional explanations, I am far more prepared
to accept seemingly spiritistic phenomena at face value, even if the bulk of
the evidence is subjective eyewitness testimony. I have never been particularly
religious, and I can’t say that this experience has converted me to a regular
church attendee. However, I am far less skeptical than I once was, and I
believe my ability to assist my clients who are experiencing paranormal
occurrences has been enhanced by my ordeal. Whether my case constitutes actual spirit possession is
questionable. But I have no doubt that my experience
was identical to that of possession as reported throughout history.
The second important point illustrated by my experience is
the crucial role played by altered states of consciousness in paranormal-type
experiences. I was asleep prior to the onset of my experience, which naturally
would lead the skeptics to attribute this event to dream-imagery. Western
science – grounded in philosophical materialism - regards dreaming as a type of
hallucinatory experience (i.e. false sensory perceptions); a type of drama
orchestrated by the subconscious mind during sleep. However, mystical and
occult traditions have always asserted that dreaming is a gateway to alternate
realities, and a means by which discarnate spirits communicate with humans. To
most scientists this stance is regarded as superstitious nonsense, but there is
persuasive evidence from parapsychology to support the claim that dreams and
related states are more than just the product of brain physiology.
For decades, the best evidence for psi (ESP) from the
laboratories of experimental parapsychologists has been obtained through the
use of a mild sensory-deprivation technique known as Ganzfeld. This method induces a state of consciousness similar to
hypnagogic states experienced at the onset of sleep, or hypnopompic states
experienced while awakening, a type of ‘waking dream.’ This suggests that such
altered states may be conducive to actual paranormal experiences – by allowing our
minds to tap into alternate realities, perhaps even the ‘astral plane’ of
occult tradition.
Another line of evidence comes from case studies of reported
paranormal experiences. It is evident that the bulk of paranormal experiences
occur during nocturnal dreaming or similar states such as the twilight zone of
hypnagogia described above. Even psychic phenomena which occur with the
percipient wide awake often seem to be associated with a state of reverie
(daydreaming), when the conscious mind is occupied with some habitual and
repetitive task, such as washing dishes or folding clothes. All of us
experience such altered states fairly regularly, including the type of
dissociation known as ‘highway hypnosis’ experienced while driving an
automobile.
These facts emphasize the importance of carefully
considering the role of altered states of consciousness in paranormal
experiences of all kinds. Some paranormal investigators feel that this
undermines the case for such experiences being ‘real’ rather than imaginary.
This is not the case. It is quite possible for paranormal experiences to be
subjective and genuinely anomalous. My
approach to psychic phenomena these days is from the perspective of ‘humanistic
parapsychology’, which acknowledges the meaning and value of subjective
experiences, and is less reliant on scientific standards of evidence demanded
by mainstream scientific method and laboratory-based experimental
parapsychologists. Unlike laboratory experiments, the human psyche is not
subject to mathematical laws.
Web Site: www.parapsychologylab.com
NOTE: There is an entire chapter devoted to Dr. Nichols and
his work in John Kachuba’s book, Ghosthunters:
On the Trail of Mediums, Dowsers, Spirit Seekers and Other Investigators of
America’s Paranormal World.
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