Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition
The Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition (JAEX) provides a forum for the rigorous, multidisciplinary study of anomalous experience and cognition. Anomalous experience refers to spontaneous or induced unusual but not necessarily pathological experiences, such as mystical and out-of-body experiences. Anomalous cognition refers to rigorous multidisciplinary research that seeks to improve our understanding of psycho-physical interrelations. It includes the hypotheses that organisms can be affected by spatially or temporally distant stimuli -unmediated by the senses or reason- and that intentions can directly affect physical systems, as well as related attitudes, beliefs, and other variables. Journal's keywords: anomalous psychology, anomalistic psychology, anomalous experience, altered state of consciousness, altered consciousness, anomalous cognition, psi, parapsychology, psychical research, ESP
All articles published in JAEX are open access, freely and universally accessible online, and archived in the open journal’s Lund University website (https://journals.lub.lu.se). Articles in JAEX can be distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License CCBY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, with appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, a link to the Creative Commons license, and an indication if changes were made.
Copyright (c) 2026 Etzel Cardeña https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In Memoriam: Stephen Edward Braude (1945-2026)
Response to Psychedelics as Non-Specific Amplifiers
Copyright (c) 2025 Jos ten Berge https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Having identified a typically Modernist view of what (psychedelic) drugs “do” in “Return to the Real, Part I,” this follow-up article discusses some of the implications of this observation for drug studies in general and for the notion of set and setting in particular. A fourfold diagram is proposed in which the cultural set and setting, the individual set and setting, the drug experience, and its articulation back into culture, are seen as interconnected elements of a feedback loop. Different processes within this loop are described and illustrated with historical examples. Since the main effect of (psychedelic) drugs is to amplify, it follows that their use tends to reinforce prior beliefs. And since feedback loops are by definition cyclical and repetitive, their effect on a sociocultural level would have to be conservative too. On this level, transformative effects are rather due to impactful articulations of drug experiences in receptive environments. Finally, this paper suggests that drug studies require a minimal knowledge of cultural history.
Copyright (c) 2025 Tom Ruffles https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Return to the Real describes how culturally prevalent narratives shape psychedelic experience. Building on Ten Berge’s two-part analysis, our commentary argues that psychedelic effects are best understood within cultural feedback loops linking cultural set and setting, individual expectations, experience, and its articulation back into culture. On this view, psychedelics operate primarily as non-specific amplifiers and catalysts that magnify pre-existing beliefs, rather than revealing unmediated insights. We situate this thesis in relation to contemporary neuroscientific models of the psychedelic experience (CSTC, REBUS), humanistic and anthropological accounts, and evidence on socio-political belief change and clinical outcomes. We show how the apparent “disruptive” effects of psychedelics can often be reinterpreted as context-dependent intensifications. We then identify methodological and ideological obstacles to studying culture in psychedelic science and propose a mixed-methods program, including reflexivity, discourse analytics, neurophenomenology, and naturalistic cohort comparisons, to operationalize cultural variables. Recognizing culture’s constitutive role has ethical and epistemic consequences including caution with respect to metaphysical claims and attention to how psychedelics induce change in clinical settings. By bridging the humanities and cognitive neuroscience we can build a cumulative, culture-sensitive science of psychedelics.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anastasia Ruban, Michiel van Elk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Etzel Cardeña https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In Memoriam Charles Theodore Tart (1937–2025)
This brief erratum corrects errors in the letter to the editor titled Moon Phases and Online Tests of Precognition (Mossbridge, 2024).
Copyright (c) 2025 Julia Mossbridge https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Objective. Within the context of learning, morphic resonance predicts that a skill should become easier to learn as more people practice it due to the pattern of learning existing within a morphic field. Several studies have investigated this theory, with some providing preliminary support for its predictions. The objective of this study was to add to this literature by conducting three studies that used the online game Wordle. We hypothesized that as the day progressed, attempts needed to solve Wordle should decrease because of resonance from earlier players. Method. Study 1 used a questionnaire to collect Wordle scores and completion times in an experimental group that completed the official NYT Wordle and a control group that completed a custom Wordle. Studies 2 and 3 used WordleBot to collect data based on a random sample of Wordle players worldwide. Results. Study 1 did not find the predicted negative correlation between attempts and time of day in the experimental group. As expected, no significant correlation was found for the control group. The results of Study 2 revealed a significant increase in the percentage of players solving the puzzle from morning to evening on the first two guesses. These findings were not replicated in Study 3. Conclusion. Taken together, the findings suggest that if morphic resonance is at play, it is likely a subtle effect that is easily inhibited by factors such as conscious cognitive processes. It may thus require more refined experimental designs to be detected.
Copyright (c) 2026 Georgia Black, Bethany Butzer, Rupert Sheldrake https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Objective. Remote viewing data frequently contain a mixture of accurate and inaccurate elements, which has raised concerns regarding its reliability in applied contexts. The objective of this study was to examine whether remote viewers report being able to recognize when specific pieces of information are correct. Methods. A survey using an experience-centered, phenomenological approach was administered to remote viewers with varying levels of training and experience, recruited through snowball sampling, yielding 122 valid responses. Analysis. Quantitative analyses and thematic coding of open-ended responses were conducted. Results. Results showed that 89% of participants reported experiencing a sense of correctness regarding specific target details that were later verified. Among those endorsing this experience, 37% reported it occurred occasionally, 42% often, and 7% during every session. Most respondents (86%) indicated this awareness was developed independently through personal practice while 14% attributed it to instruction. Participants identified recurring phenomenological markers associated with correctness, including unexpected or surprising information, persistent or repeating impressions, vivid or unusual imagery, suddenness or immediacy, emotional impact, and instant cognitive “downloads.” Attitudes toward the study’s focus were mixed, with participants expressing both supportive and critical perspectives. Conclusions. Remote viewers report subjective cues they associate with accuracy at the level of specific target elements, paralleling reports from participants in forced choice psi experiments, which may have implications for future research on confidence judgments and reliability in remote viewing applications.
Copyright (c) 2026 Debra Lynne Katz, PhD, Jenifer Prather, MPH, RN, PhD(c), Jimmy Akin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Questions about Questionable Research Practices
Parapsychologists have made considerable gains over the decades. For example, they have an informative (and constantly growing) series of meta-analyses, out of which have developed ongoing debates and critiques over methodologies. Some critiques, well-intentioned though they may be, center on so-called questionable research practices (QRPs), and it has even been argued that QRPs alone may account for psi effects. In this article, I critique an article by Bierman et al. (2016) on QRPs that finds a much-reduced but still significant overall effect in a meta-analysis of ganzfeld studies by Storm et al. (2010). The series of “hypothetical” analyses undertaken by Bierman et al. are themselves argued to be questionable. Researchers are advised to be watchful of methodological oversights that misrepresent the available data and ultimately cast parapsychological research in a dim light.
Copyright (c) 2026 Lance Storm https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Past-life Memories and Foreign Languages
Objective. Decades of research into children who appear to recall a past life have highlighted additional extraordinary features of this phenomenon. We explored a large past-life memory database to understand cases coded as exhibiting xenoglossy—the remarkable claim of individuals speaking a foreign language that they should not be able to speak naturally. Methods. We compared 40 cases that exhibited xenoglossy to 872 that did not, between 1959 and 2020. In a series of binary logistic regressions, we tested variables linked to a novel emotion-trauma hypothesis for the presence of xenoglossy, along with other variables that would suggest an ordinary explanation. Results. Xenoglossy was not associated with variables related to an ordinary explanation. The emotion-trauma hypothesis was supported, in that xenoglossy was associated with: (1) participants’ emotionality, (2) desires to return to their purported previous family, (3) claiming to have died as a result of intentional/violent means, and (4) having a stronger case, which is more suggestive of cases having an anomalous explanation. Conclusion. Akin to other remarkable features documented over the years of past-life memory research (i.e., birthmarks linked to a previous personality’s fatal wound, phobias, philias), xenoglossy is another core feature of a previous personality that seems capable of transferring to a new life. The evidence from the database suggests that the phenomenon of speaking, unnaturally, in a foreign tongue is linked to—and strengthened by—the presence of emotion, distress, and violence/trauma in the expression of children’s past-life memories.
Copyright (c) 2025 Philip Cozzolino, Marieta Pehlivanova, Jim B. Tucker https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Bernard Carr https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The currently expanding science of anomalous experiences is unique, in the sense that it necessarily sits at the treacherous borderlands between the often-opposed ontologies of religion/spirituality and secular physicalism. As might be expected in such an inherently charged position, the scientific study of the hallucinatory neurobiological underpinnings of these experiences has resulted in the emergence of certain biased practices, of which the Abstraction Matching Fallacy is a prominent example. This methodological fallacy involves, on the basis of resemblance, using known hallucinatory phenomena as explanations for what are widely considered to be spiritual experiences, despite the alleged resemblance depending entirely on an abstraction of both phenomena, to whatever extent is necessary to obscure the incongruent details and render them apparently resemblant. This entails a subtle form of cherry-picking that manipulates or filters the consideration of data in the interests of theoretical/philosophical commitments, thus making it arguably antiscientific, inasmuch as the primary goal of science is the adaptation of theory to reality, via data collected and analyzed as rigorously and objectively as possible. Examples and further discussion of this fallacy are provided, along with a call for researchers to cease this scientifically problematic practice.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jonathan Dinsmore https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Objective: We wanted to assess how well a Lebanese Druze man, Rabih Elawar, now living in Richmond, Virginia, retained the past-life memories studied by Ian Stevenson when he was a child in Lebanon. Methods: Over a series of interviews, we first asked Rabih to relate all he recalled about the previous life, then presented Stevenson’s report, which he had not previously read, to get his responses to items he had not mentioned spontaneously. Results: Statements Stevenson recorded in his published report and unpublished field notes and memories Rabih recounted to us are highly consistent, although Rabih recalled some events differently and related details Stevenson apparently did not hear about. When we presented the items recorded by Stevenson but not mentioned spontaneously by him, Rabih was prompted to recall these also and clarified points on which there was apparent disagreement. Conclusions: Rabih’s recall of the previous life at 58-60 is superior to what has been reported for past-life memory retention among other Lebanese Druze adults or with Sri Lankan, Indian, Brazilian, and American adults. This may be related to Rabih’s recalling a life in the same village and same extended family that, moreover, ended only a short while (6 months) before his birth, providing plentiful cues to recall from early in his life. Our findings are consistent with those regarding present-life memory retention and loss, supporting the view that the foundations of past-life memory are closely similar to those of present-life memory.
Copyright (c) 2026 James G. Matlock, Khattar Hatoum, Carole Louie https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Look for a Presentiment Model’s Reasonable Parameters
Recently, I proposed an orthodox quantum mechanics’ justification for the presentiment effect, which claims that the very existence of the presentiment effect points to the correctness of the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics. I carried out the mathematical calculations within the framework of the decoherent histories theory and their results depended on two unknown parameters. I suggested that these parameters can be determined by fitting empirical measurements and, indeed, as an example, such a rough fit was tried. I noted that with certain values the effect fluctuates and may have a surprising long duration. The current paper reconsiders these parameters’ preferred values in regular presentiment experiments. I conclude that most probably these parameters should have values that under ideal resolution would reproduce time symmetry of the effect and tiny (if any) fluctuation. I blame the experimental method’s poor resolution between partially overlapping sentiments, the existence of queued, perhaps prevailing, previous sentiments, and operation of positive feedback nervous loops after emotional stimuli for the empirical salient suppressed symmetry and finite duration of the effect. Certain other implications of these preferred values are examined and seem to justify these values in regular presentiment tests, which do not preclude other values under peculiar tests’ designs and peculiar participants.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ephraim Yeruham Levin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2024 Etzel Cardeña https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Forced-choice Precognition Experiment with Selected Cohorts
Objective. We report a pre-registered forced-choice precognition study to test a novel collaborative platform for psi experimentation. The study compared a cohort of experienced meditators and a cohort selected merely for its interest in participating in the study. Method. The Internet-based platform, Psi@Home, was developed to allow participants to contribute at-home experimental sessions using custom software. Each session comprised 20 forced-choice trials. Eighty sessions per cohort were collected for the pre-registered study and the hypotheses for each cohort were the increase relative to MCE of: 1) the variance of session hit rates, and of 2) the total hit rate. A third hypothesis predicted a higher variance of session hit rates for the meditator cohort. Hypothesis 1 was confirmatory and the others were exploratory. Results. Only hypothesis 3 was confirmed (p = .03). However, 90 tryout sessions showed a markedly strong increase of session variance (p = .00003). Conclusion. We successfully tested a novel platform for collaborative psi experiments. Two pre-registered cohort studies found no direct evidence for a psi effect. However, for tryout data whose collection was specified in pre-registration using the same participants and protocol, variance across sessions was highly significant. Differences in participant attitudes during the two periods of data collection may account for the discrepancy.
Copyright (c) 2025 Peter Bancel, Mario Varvoglis, Jocelyne Boban, Anaïs Bensahra https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Objective: We bring together results from 15 published papers describing 26 telecommunication telepathy experiments published between 2003 and 2024 in a meta-analysis to explore the patterns in these results and their overall significance. Methods: The basic experimental design in these experiments involved four potential callers in remote locations. For each trial one of these callers was chosen at random and asked to call the participant, who was on a telephone without a caller ID. The participant then named the caller before answering the phone. Similar experiments were carried out with email and SMS messages. By random guessing, the hit rate would be around 25%. We collected relevant studies from reference lists and online searches and used a random-effects model in the meta-analysis. Results: Overall, hit rates were very significant above chance level (p = 1x10-7). By contrast, in tests carried out under precognitive conditions, the hit rates were at chance. There was no significant difference between the results of Sheldrake and his colleagues, who carried out most of the studies, and independent replications. Selected participants had significantly higher hit rates than unselected participants, and hit rates were significantly higher when callers and participants shared an emotional bond. The effect sizes in telecommunication telepathy are higher than those in ganzfeld and dream telepathy tests. Conclusion: Research on telecommunication telepathy could become an increasingly fruitful area for psi research, especially in conjunction with automated intuition training apps.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rupert Sheldrake, Tom Stedall, Patrizio Tressoldi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Global Consciousness: Manifesting Meaningful Structure in Random Data
The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) is a long-term experiment using a world-spanning network of physical random number generators to collect data continuously, 24/7, since 1998. We have recorded parallel sequences of data from the network, consisting of trials of 200 bits recorded each second at each node and sent to archiving servers in Princeton, NJ. A formal experiment ran for 17 years and comprised 500 replications of fully specified and pre-registered event analyses. These tested a general hypothesis that engaging events of deep interest to large numbers of people around the world would correspond to departures of the random data from expectation. Compounded results across the 500 events confirmed the hypothesis (Z = 7.31) and provided a sound basis for further analysis to help understand the effects. A number of explanatory propositions have been suggested, of which two stand out: a field-like model and an experimenter effect model. In this paper we consider several independent analyses and applications using GCP data, including analyses that examine all the data, not just the identified formal events. Neuroscience tools for assessing evoked response potentials (ERP) are applied to the GCP data to look for possible structure from a stimulus-response perspective. All of these additional analyses and applications identify structure that cannot be explained by an experimenter effect or goal orientation model. They are, however, naturally encompassed by field-like models.
Copyright (c) 2024 Roger Nelson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2024 Diane Hennacy Powell https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Monica J. Harris and Robert Rosenthal were commissioned by the National Research Council to conduct meta-analyses and review five areas of potential human enhancement. Despite finding that ganzfeld psi research followed the most rigorous protocols they were pressured to withdraw their supportive evaluation of psi, but refused to do so. This is their original report, with only very minor formatting changes. Among other things, Harris and Rosenthal concluded that “it would be implausible to entertain the null given the combined p from these 28 studies… when the accuracy rate expected under the null is 1/4, we estimate the obtained accuracy rate to be about 1/3.” They were then asked to analyze the effect of potential design and procedure flaws and, after doing so, they concluded that: “Our analysis of the effects of flaws on study outcome lends no support to the hypothesis."
Copyright (c) 2024 Etzel Cardeña; Monica J. Harris, Robert Rosenthal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In Memoriam: Robert Rosenthal (1933-2024),
Celebrating Three Consciousness Trailblazers
Following the previous homage to Charles T. Tart and considering that Stan Krippner has celebrated more than 90 birthdays, this issue commemorates Stan along with two consciousness trailblazers who collaborated with him while they were alive: Jeanne Achterberg and Ruth-Inge Heinze. Jeanne was a very influential pioneer in mind/body medicine, particularly imagery in healing. Ruth-Inge Heinze had a deep commitment to the study of shamanism and promoted its interdisciplinary study in many ways. Finally, Stan Krippner is the quintessential liminal figure with made major contributions to the study of dreams, anomalous cognition, personal mythology, and other consciousness areas.
German natural philosophy was an important intellectual movement from the late 18th to the mid-20th century. It integrated phenomena such as animal magnetism into a multidisciplinary vision aimed at bringing the sciences closer together. Its influence on parapsychology remains little-known, however. I take the example of Friedrich von Hardenberg, better known by his pseudonym Novalis (1772-1801). Not cited in parapsychological literature, the young scientist and poet nevertheless mentioned his personal experiences of the apparition of his dead fiancée and his practice of animal magnetism. He also theorized a new metaphysics called "magical idealism," which aims to go beyond other forms of idealism to identify, within an immanentist yet moral framework, "magic" as a possible solution to the union of opposites (subject and object, ideal and real). His project seems coincident with that of modern theoretical parapsychology, and in particular dual-aspect monism.
Copyright (c) 2025 Renaud Evrard https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Jesus Personage in Near-Death Experiences
Objective. The near-death experience (NDE) is an altered state of consciousness in which experients generally perceive that they are out of and/or away from their physical body during real or presumed life-threatening incidents and/or near-death circumstances. While this is occurring, experients can also sometimes encounter a presumed deity that usually relates to their cultural and/or religious background. The objective of this study was to explore such encounters with the Jesus personage as commonly occurs in Western NDEs in order to generate thematic elements and determine if such encounters are purposeful. Method. This study qualitatively analyzed 79 such encounters by means of a reflexive thematic analysis with an inductive approach exploring the manifestation, appearance, and function of such a personage. Results. Six themes were generated based on identified patterns in the data. The first theme was that the manifestation and appearance of the Jesus personage can vary greatly, whereas the other five themes were relevant to the personage function toward the experient, which can include interacting on a return to life, conveying an unfulfilled purpose, providing comfort and/or affection, instilling virtues, and divulging theological insight or prophetic revelation. Conclusions. An implication of these themes is that an encounter with the Jesus personage can result in beneficial effects by increasing the experients’ desire to live and enhancing their psychological wellbeing. Additional research is needed to explore exactly what occurs when experients from different cultures and/or religious backgrounds encounter other presumed deities and personages, and whether an analysis of such encounters generate comparable themes with the possibility of similar beneficial effects.
Copyright (c) 2024 Robert A. King https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In Memoriam: H. H. Jürgen Keil (1930–2024)
Copyright (c) 2024 Jim Tucker https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Moon Phases and Online Tests of Precognition
Copyright (c) 2024 Julia Mossbridge https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Investigating the Brain Processes Underlying an Unusual Visual Experience
Background. This case study investigated the neural correlates of an unusual visual experience in which an individual constantly perceives highly detailed holographic images overlaid on his visual field and can modulate them to an extent. We named this experience Upsight. Our aim was to assess how the phenomenon may relate or differ from visual mental imagery (VMI such as hyperphantasia), imagination, or visual hallucinations (e.g., Charles Bonnet Syndrome). Method: EEG (64-channels) data were collected while the participant alternated between 30-second trials of Upsight and visual mental imagery (VMI) conditions (200 trials each). We conducted power spectral density (scalp and source levels) as well as source functional connectivity (FC) analyses, as well as robust statistics to test the null hypothesis of an absence of a difference (nonparametric statistics and spatiotemporal cluster corrections). Results: Scalp results revealed that, relative to VMI, the Upsight experience was characterized by strong alpha and delta power decreases (widespread with a peak in posterior regions), and gamma power increase (29-45 Hz) in the right frontal and left posterior regions, supporting increased engagement of cognitive and visual processes. Similarly, after source localization, we observed a strong decrease in both spectral power and FC in the alpha frequency band, in brain areas involved in visual processing, spatial orientation, and sensory integration, reflecting increased cortical activation of these areas and brain networks. Conclusions: Upsight involves heightened engagement and processing in visual and cognitive networks relative to VMI. We discuss the phenomenology and results in relation to VMI, imagination, and visual hallucinations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Cedric Cannard, Cassandra Vieten, Garret Yount, Mateo Vega, Fadi Kayale, Arnaud Delorme https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0