jma
Member/Review Board Member
Posts: 5 
|
Post by jma on May 24, 2014 6:55:02 GMT -5
Hello everyone,
I'm Jean-Michel, from Belgium (my native language is French). Just a little bit of background: I have a master in psychology and another one in philosophy. I also did a specialisation (one year research) in the field of psychology of religion on the topic of paranormal beliefs.
Right know I'm working as a Japanese language teacher for adults. That's my "real job". Beside it I'm currently doing a PhD thesis in psychology about the UFO phenomena and saucerism (the belief in the extraterrestrial hypothesis for the UFO phenomena).
I thus came to be interested in anomalous psychology and parapsychology from the topic of UFOs.
|
|
|
|
Post by Erika A. Pratte on May 26, 2014 15:36:18 GMT -5
Welcome to the boards, Jean-Michel!
|
|
|
|
Post by salexanderhardison on May 28, 2014 10:03:31 GMT -5
Very nice to have you here, Jean-Michel.
I tend to keep the UFO topics (etc) separate from the parapsychological ones. They are quite distinct. That said, fringe areas of inquiry certainly tend to blend into one another and I think all of the subject matter is interesting (or I wouldn't be doing what I do, personally).
|
|
jma
Member/Review Board Member
Posts: 5
|
Post by jma on May 29, 2014 8:35:26 GMT -5
Very nice to have you here, Jean-Michel. I tend to keep the UFO topics (etc) separate from the parapsychological ones. They are quite distinct. I understand where you are coming from, but I respectfully disagree (well, at least with anomalistic psychology, not so much with "straight" parapsychology even if the border is blurry).  I work in the "psychosocial hypothesis" theoretical framework: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosocial_hypothesis In that framework, there are many discussions in anomalistic psychology that are very relevant to what we are doing. Of course, many anomalistic psychology textbooks have a chapter about alien abductions. So here the link is obvious. But beyond that, UFO sightings are a kind of exceptional experience. If people where reporting fairies (or angels & demons, or the Virgin Mary), would it be more obvious that it's a topic that fit right into anomalistic psychology? Well then, just think of the UFO phenomena as the contemporary version of the fairy phenomena/folklore of the past.  |
|
|
|
Post by salexanderhardison on May 29, 2014 12:52:23 GMT -5
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosocial_hypothesis In that framework, there are many discussions in anomalistic psychology that are very relevant to what we are doing. Of course, many anomalistic psychology textbooks have a chapter about alien abductions. So here the link is obvious. But beyond that, UFO sightings are a kind of exceptional experience. If people where reporting fairies (or angels & demons, or the Virgin Mary), would it be more obvious that it's a topic that fit right into anomalistic psychology? Well then, just think of the UFO phenomena as the contemporary version of the fairy phenomena/folklore of the past. If we're speaking of anomalistic psychology, specifically, then, yes: I'm inclined to agree with the inclusion. But, though I often consider anomalistic psychology to be somewhat of a sub-category of parapsychological research, I think that it can branch out into other areas quite effectively. In fact, if parapsychology hadn't really developed first, I might be inclined to consider parapsychological research to simply be a category of anomalistic psychological research. That might actually be more appropriate, in some respects (though, with parapsychology concerns incline more toward the ontological debate of "psychic" phenomena, while anomalistic psychology concerns itself more with ordinary psychological and social questions about the experiences). The borders really are blurry and whatever the classifications may be, I agree that UFO sightings and alien abduction experiences (etc), are quite certainly exceptional experiences. Again, great to have you here. Alex |
|
I work in the "psychosocial hypothesis" theoretical framework: