Percepfual atzd Motor Skills, 1996, 82, 755-762.

O Perceptual and Motor S l d s 1996

CONTEXTUAL MEDIATION O F PERCEPTIONS IN HAUNTINGS

AND POLTERGEIST-LIKE EXPERIENCES '

RENSE LANGE, JAMES HOURAN, TIMOTHY M. HARTE,

AND RONALD A. HAVENS
U~ziversityof llli~zoisa/ Springfield

Stonmary.-The content of perceived apparitions, e.g., bereavement hducina-

tions, cannot be explained entirely in terms of electromagnetically induced neuro-
chemical processes. It was shown that contextual variables influential in hallucinatory
and hypnotic states also structured reported haunting experiences: As predicted, high
congruency was found between the experiential content and the nature of the contex-
tual variables. Further, the number of contextual variables involved in an experience
was related to the type of experience and the state or arousal preceding the experi-
ence. Based on these hndings we argue that a more complete explanation of haunting
experiences should take into account both electromagnetically induced neurochemical
processes and factors related to contextual mediation.

It has been hypothesized that haunting experiences are induced by the

effects of variables such as geomagnetic activity (Gearhart Persinger,
19861, ionizing radiation (Radin & Roll, 19941, and electromagnetic and elec-
trostatic fields (Persinger & Cameron, 1986) on human physiological func-
tioning. In particular, Persinger (1993) reports correlational evidence indicat-
ing that factors such as geophysical activity coupled with bereavernenc may
be associated with hallucinations because these two factors depress melato-
nin and serotonin levels, leading to microseizures in the temporal lobe. Al-
though physical factors may prechspose individuals to hallucinate, it seems
clear that such factors alone would not account for the exact content of hal-
lucinations. In agreement with research on hypnotic and hallucinatory states
(Counts, 1983; Gauld, 1983; Erickson & Rossi, 1979, 1981; Erickson, Rossi,
& Rossi, 1976; Havens & Walters, 1989; Horowitz, 1975; Orne, 1962; Zea-
nah, 1988), we investigaced the possibhty that the contents of such halluci-
nations may be shaped in part by cues provided by contextual variables with-
in the percipients' environment.
Contextual Variables
The source of underlying contextual cues might be quite obvious such
as a widespread cultural belief in ghosts (Gauld, 1983). As noted by Counts
(19831, such cultural beliefs and expectations tend to structure or induce am-
biguous experiences. Further, the demand characteristics of a situation, in-
cluding the suggestion that a particular environment is associated with un-
'Address correspondence to R. Lange, Psycholog Program G11, University of Illtnois at
Springfield, Springfield, IL 62794-9823, or via e - m a l a t : lange&is.edu
756 R. LANGE, ET AL.

usual experiences, has been shown to induce physical complaints, physiologi-

cal alterations, and hallucinations (Orne, 1962). Similarly, the context sur-
rounding various psychophysiological states are an obvious source of structure
and imposed meaning. For instance, Zeanah (1988) discussed the effects of
unresolved mourning as a source of imagery during a hypnogogic state, and
Horowitz (1975) noted that the same ambiguous round shape might be per-
ceived as an orange or a cup of water depending on whether the subject is
hungry or thirsty.
Also, subtle, nonconsciously recognized environmental cues that closely
precede or immediately follow an ambiguous stimulus may structure an am-
biguous sensory experience as well as the report and memory of it. For ex-
ample, an object placed in the subject's line of sight but never mentioned or
a slightly emphasized word or phrase can serve as an embedded cue or indi-
rect suggestion for highly responsive hypnotic subjects (Erickson & Rossi,
1979, 1981; Erickson, Rossi, & Rossi, 1976). Some therapists use the fact
that such unconsciously registered inputs can transform a previously painful
sensation into a f e e h g of warmth or alter virtually any other perceptual ex-
perience in a variety of ways. In fact, the perceptions of hypnotically respon-
sive subjects can be simply altered with subtle implications of metaphorical
or symbolic references (Havens & Walters, 1989). These effects are relevant,
given findings (e.g., Irwin, 1985) that people who tend to experience extra-
sensory perception and related phenomena also tend to score high on mea-
sures of hypnotic responsiveness.
Based on the above, it was hypothesized that (a) contextual variables
play a role in most haunting experiences, (b) there is a close correspondence
between the content of the experience and the nature of the contextual vari-
able(~), and (c) contextual variables should affect the condition under which
people are most susceptible to noticing haunting phenomena.

Source of Case Experiences

Because it is difficult to study the role of contextual variables in haunt-
ing cases directly. we tested our hypotheses based on an analysis of a series
of 924 experiences extracted from 127 of 128 cases reported by Myers
(1986, 1990, 1993). This series is comparable to Persinger's (1993) sample
from Fate Magazzne. Most cases describe multiple and distinct experiences,
sometimes involving groups of percipients. AU distinct experiences were
scored on the first five factors listed in the next section. If at least three of
these five factors could be scored, the sixth factor (congruency) was scored
also and the experience was selected. Approximately one-third of the experi-
ences did not meet this criterion, leaving a total of 924 experiences for
analysis.
 CONTEXTUAL MEDIATION OF APPARITIONS 757

Scoring System
A total of 16 variables were identified. As shown below, these variables
can be grouped into six major categories.
A. Context of perception.-This category has two options, either the experi-
ence was perceived individually or it was perceived by two or more people
simultaneously.
B. Type of experience.-Seven distinct types of experience were distin-
guished. More than one type could apply to each experience.
1. Visual: Perception of a form, e.g., a moving shadow, amorphous
light, or a defined apparition which is mistaken as a real person.
2. Auditory: Sound phenomena that cannot be accounted for, e.g., foot-
steps, percipient's name being called out, or knockings.
3 . Olfactory: Anomalous or unaccountable odor, e.g., the smell of flow-
ers or cigars.
4. Tactile: Physical sensations, e.g., cold, heat, or a touch on the shoul-
der.
5 . Sensed Presence: F e e h g of being watched or not alone.
6. Object Movement: Subjective certainty that an object either unac-
countably disappeared, appeared from seemingly nowhere, physically moved
while in sight, or an inferred movement, e.g., losing a personal item, finding
an object in your residence which does not belong to you, or a door open-
ing on its own accord.
7. Erratic Functioning of Apparatus: Unaccountable malfunction or ir-
regular operation of mechanical fixtures or electrical equipment, e.g., electri-
cal current surges, telephone rings, light bulb failures, jammed door locks,
and film processing difficulties.
C. Percipzent's State of Arousal.-Only one of the following could apply.
1. Alert: The person is primed or is actively s e e h g out paranormal
phenomena, e.g., a "sensitive" conducting a seance, a research team investi-
gating reports, or an individual observing either of these activities.
2 . Reverie: Any mood which indicates that the percipient was in a high-
ly relaxed state, e.g., daydreaming, awoke from sleep, sleeping, or mehta-
tion.
3. Routine: A person enveloped in his or her daily living activities, e.g.,
at work, eating in a restaurant, or touring a site unaware of any reported
phenomena.
D. Contextual variables.-Each experience could be characterized by one or
more of the following variables:
1. Cultural beliefr or expectations: A predsposed cultural, e.g., religious
or heritage, belief in ghosts, demons, or other supernatural entities.
2. Demand characteristics of the situation: A direct or indirect sugges-
758 R. LANGE, ET AL.

tion that the environment or situation will produce paranormal phenomena,

e.g., folklore, rumors, advertising, or a seance.
3. An emotional or physical state of the person related to susceptibility:
Any intense emotional state, e.g., bereavement, physical or mental dness,
e.g., delusional disorders or substance use, e.g., narcotics, which alone would
facilitate hallucinations.
4. Embedded cues: Characteristics within the environment which may
have structured or are incorporated into a psychological experience by the
percipient, e.g., olfactory sensations of Macs in the vicinity of a painting with
prominent lavender hue.
5 . Metaphorical or symbolic reference: A situational characteristic which
elicits a stereotypical meaning or inference, e.g., the name of a site such as
Dead Man's Curve, a specific time of day such as 12:00 midnight-the Be-
witching Hour-or a specific event like Halloween.
E. Type of percipient.-Three types of percipients were distinguished: ( I )
male, ( 2 ) female, and ( 3 ) "unknown" (which included groups of nonspeci-
fied percipients). Wherever group members could be identified individually,
each member was treated as a separate experience with a collective context
of perception (see Category A above).
F. Congruence of experience content with contextual variables.-The corre-
spondence between the content of the experience and the nature of the con-
textual variable was rated on a three-point scale with categories.
1. Incongruent: The experiential content does not agree with the situa-
tional context, e.g., perceiving an elephant in a saloon.
2. Uncertain: Either the detail concerning the experiential content or
the contextual variable is too vague for proper dscrimination, e.g., a "hu-
man form" is witnessed by a percipient who is aware of reports that a lady
apparition has been at the site.
3 . Congruent: The experiential content has close congruence to the
identified contextual variables, e.g., the sound of "waltz music and people
dancing" perceived by a person in an empty ballroom.
Interrater Reliability
After practicing the procedure of this checkhst format, the 924 in-
stances were scored by two raters who worked independently. O n e rater
scored about two-thirds of all experiences, whereas the remaining one-third
was scored by the second rater. T o estimate interrater agreement, a random
sample of 20 experiences scored by the second rater were also scored by the
first one. The intraclass correlation (Bartko, 1966) over variables A through
E ranged from .923 (Fly,,,= 25.00, p < .001) to 1.00. The intraclass correlation
for the congruency of ratings was .978 (F,,,,,=42.21, p<.001).
 CONTEXTUAL MEDIATION O F APPARITIONS

RESu LTS
Preliminary
The data were analyzed both at the level of individual experiences
( n = 924) and at a case level where all experiences for each of the 127 cases
were averaged. The following analyses focus on those experiences at the in-
dividual level that were replicated at the case level. A comparison between
the two levels is given in a later section.
Contextual Varzibles
Consistent with our main hypothesis, approximately 720 (78%) of the
924 experiences contained a reference to at least one contextual variable.
Only 8.5% of these experiences involved more than two contextual vari-
ables. Table 1 shows that demand characteristics were the most frequently
occurring contextual variable, whereas psychophysiological states such as be-
reavement (cf. Persinger, 1993) occurred least frequently.
TABLE 1
FREQUENCY
OF CONTEXTUAL OVEREXPERJENCES
VAR~ABLES

Contextual Variable n %
Demand Characteristics 569 61.6
Belief in Paranormal 275 29.8
Embedded Cues 242 26.2
Symbolic-Metaphorical References 60 6.5
Psychophysical State 33 3.6
Note.-Percentages do not total 100% because experiences could contain more than one con-
textual variable.

The total number of contextual variables, excluding the distinction be-

tween indviduals and groups, involved in an experience is greater (F,,77, =
94.58, p< ,001) when percipients are alert (M=2.02) rather than involved in
reverie (M= 1.00) or in routine activities (M= 1.04). The number of contex-
tual variables is highly correlated ( r = .64, p < ,001) with prior belief in the
paranormal. The correlation between belief and alertness (Phi= 0.44, p <
,001) suggests that believers notice conditions that confirm their expecta-
tions. Thus, contextual variables might also be related to the detection pro-
cess.
Individuals us Groups of Perczpients
A comparison of individual experiences versus collective experiences in-
dicated that individuals were more U e l y to perceive visual phenomena than
groups (Phi=.177, p < ,001); however, groups were more U e l y to notice au-
ditory sensations (Phi= ,128, p < ,001). Assuming that visual stimuli are less
ambiguous than auditory sensations, it seems that groups of percipients are
susceptible to contagion effects in the detection, interpretation, and report
760 R. LANGE. ET AL.

of ambiguous stimuli. This interpretation is supported by the finding that

demand characteristics were found more often in the experiences involving
groups (Phi=.120, p < .001).
Type of Experience
Our classification scheme distinguished a total of seven possible modal-
ities. Their frequencies over all 924 experiences are shown in Table 2. It can
be seen that most experiences were of a visual nature and that olfactory sen-
sations were the least likely to be mentioned. The primary type of experi-
ence showed a strong association with the number of contextual variables
( F,,9,, =8.80, p<.OOl).
TABLE 2
FEQUENCY A N D AVERAGE O F CONTEXTUAL
NUMBER VARMBLES
BY PRIMARYMODALITY
O F EXPERIENCE

Primarv Modalitv )z M
Sensed Presence 99 1.77
Olfactory 20 1.65
Auditory 194 1.34
Visual 289 1.28
Tactile 79 1 08
Equipment Malfunction 74 I 0s
Movement of Object 169 1 05

Over-all, a weak correlation was found between the number of different

experiences and the number of contextual variables ( r = .06, p < .06). This ef-
fect must be attributed mainly to the experience of a sensed presence ( r =
.22, p < .02). In addition, Table 2 shows that a sensed presence and olfactory
sensations were associated with the greatest number of contextual variables.
By contrast, tactile sensations, object movements, and erratic functioning of
equipment were related to the least number of contextual variables.
Congruence
The congruence between contextual variables and the content of the
experiences was judged over all 720 experiences that contained at least one
contextual variable. Our main hypothesis was supported in that the contents
of 70.6% of these experiences were rated as congruent with the cues con-
tained in the contextual variables available to the percipients. In only 2.6%
of the experiences was there a direct contradiction between the content of
the experience and the context. Lastly, congruency could not be determined
for 26.7% of the experiences.
Congruency showed significant correlations with equipment functioning
(r = .13, p<.001). This finding is not surprising because such readily per-
ceived manifestations are lkely to dictate the content of a person's experi-
ence.
 CONTEXTUAL MEDIATION OF APPARITIONS 761

Experience Versus Case Level

Our main hypothesis was also supported at the averaged case level: the
contents of 68.5% of the experiences were rated as congruent with the con-
text, only 2.8% of the experiences showed a contradiction, and the congru-
ency could not be determined for 28.8%. However, several dkferences were
found. (1) At the experience level, the presence of embedded cues weakly
enhanced congruence (r = .12, p < .002) but not at the case level (r = .07,
p < .43). ( 2 ) At the experience level an increase in percipients' beliefs in the
paranormal was related to congruence (r = -.13, p < .001) but not at the case
level (r = -.09, p < 35). ( 3 ) Experiences of individual percipients showed a
significantly (F,,,,,=10.61, p < .001) lower congruence (M=O.63) than that of
groups (M=O.76); however, congruence did not correlate with the propor-
tion of individuals (r = -.08, p < .42) or groups per case ( r = .06, p < .53).
DISCUSSION
The result strongly supported our hypotheses: (1) contextual variables
could be identified in 78% of all experiences analyzed; (2) the content of
the experiences was congruent with the nature of the contextual variable(s)
in over 70% of all experiences; and (3) contextual variables were also re-
lated to percipients' states of arousal and the type of their experiences.
Thus, the findings extend Persinger's (1988, 1993) etiology model by expli-
cating the factors that determine the actual content of hallucinations once
instigated by electromagnetic field activity.
The present study was correlational only, hence the causal directions of
the relations between physical and contextual influences have yet to be es-
tablished. For instance, research (e.g., Berg-Cross, 1993; Brainard, Rchard-
son, Petterborg, & Reiter, 1982; Hoes, 1982; Moody, 1992; Thompson,
1985; Tder & Persinger, 1994; Shopsin & Feiner, 1984) has shown that var-
ious psychophysical states can induce physiological effects similar to those
identified by Persinger (Persinger, 1993; Persinger & Cameron, 1986). Thus,
to the extent that contextual variables stimulate emotional states, electro-
magnetic field activity may not be needed to induce hallucinations. It is con-
ceivable therefore that contextual variables alone are sufficient to account
for many hallucinatory experiences.
Research is currently under way in which physical energy influences in
the environment are studied together with contextual variables. A combina-
tion of both types of variables should provide a better insight into the ori-
gins of both the onset and content of ostensibly paranormal experiences and
other types of hallucinations.
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Accepted March 6, 1996.