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To our knowledge, no study has directly examined the link between hypnotic response and the personality trait of transliminality (which is underpinned, for example, by magical ideation, mystical experience, fantasy proneness, absorption, hyperaesthesia). In order to further understand the correlates of suggestibility, the aim of the current project was to investigate whether transliminality is associated with hypnotic and imaginative suggestibility (considering: objective response, subjective response and involuntariness). Another aim was to assess the contribution of transliminality as a predictor of suggestibility when a range of previously studied personality trait measures were considered. Participants completed: the Revised Transliminality Scale, Tellegen Absorption Scale, Creative Experiences Questionnaire, and the Dissociative Experiences Scale II. To avoid context effects, where knowledge or measurement of one trait or ability might influence measurement of another, a separate standalone study was conducted where hypnotic and imaginative (without hypnosis) suggestibility screenings were carried out in-person in small groups using the modified Carleton University Responsiveness to Suggestion Scale. The merging of these two datasets enabled the analyses. Transliminality was weakly correlated with the imaginative suggestibility subjective response measure (r = 0.19). Likewise, weak correlations were found between transliminality and the hypnotic suggestibility response measures (objective, r = 0.21, subjective, r = 0.23, involuntariness, r = 0.24). The multiple regressions (forward selection) reflected the pattern of correlations, with no model for any of the variables, retaining more than a single significant predictor. In summary, this study combination, avoiding context effects, shows transliminality to be a weak predictor of response to suggestion.

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INTRODUCTION: The experience of "sensed presence" or "felt presence" in the absence of "other" has been described as a complex multimodal experience to which meaning is given. Sensed presence (SenP) is a transdiagnostic experience that exists along a continuum that can appear during isolation, spirit quests, exposure to extreme elements, bereavement, anxiety, and psychosis. Given the prevalence and vast heterogeneity of SenP, in addition to a surprising lack of targeted research into this phenomenon, this research examined the interrelationship of SenP, attenuated psychosis symptoms (APS), and transliminality. Transliminality is composed of absorption, fantasy proneness, paranormal belief, mystical experiences, increased creativity, and hyperaesthesia. METHODS: A completely anonymous online survey of unusual experiences and mental health was distributed via social media (i.e., Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and mass emailing lists) to recruit participants. Demographic data were analyzed using χ2 tests and one-way ANOVAs. A two-step cluster analysis was conducted to identify distinct sub-categories of transliminality followed by ANOVAs with bootstrapping at 1,000 iterations to compare SenP, increased APS, and transliminality. Pearson's bivariate correlations were conducted to determine the association between SenP, APS, and transliminality. RESULTS: Together with descriptive findings, we show distinct characteristics between clusters. T1 cluster consisted of individuals with few SenP experiences, low APS, and low transliminality. T2 consisted of individuals with a moderate prevalence of SenP, low APS, moderate transliminality, and increased overall feeling of closeness to G-d. There was no significant difference in APS between T1 and T2 or in the level of distress associated with APS. T3 individuals showed a significantly higher prevalence of SenP in all domains (frequency, distress, vividness, and total score), higher APS, and higher transliminality, compared to T1 and T2. The T3 cluster met criteria for high risk to develop psychosis. CONCLUSION: Thus, our findings demonstrate a strong association and entanglement of these experiences which suggests that the interrelatedness of transliminality/absorption and APS may serve as a potentially provocative underlying structure in the phenomenology of SenP.

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By assessing interrelationships among variables within a specified theoretical framework, network analysis (NA) provides nuanced insights into how associations between psychological constructs are related to outcome measures. Noting this, the authors used NA to examine connections between Paranormal Belief, cognitive-perceptual factors (Schizotypy, Transliminality, and Manic-Depressive Experience), and well-being (Life Satisfaction, Meaning in Life, Somatic Complaints, Perceived Stress, Depressive Symptoms). Data derived from a sample of 3,090 participants (mean age = 50.30, standard deviation = 15.20; 46.5% male, 53.1% female) who completed standardised self-report measures capturing the study constructs online. Transliminality, Unusual Experiences (positive schizotypy), and Depressive Experience demonstrated high expected influence centrality. This indicated that these factors were the most strongly connected and influential in the network. Moreover, Transliminality was a connecting variable between Paranormal Belief, positive schizotypy, and psychopathology. Depressive Experience bridged the relationship between Transliminality and well-being. The conceptual implications of these outcomes are discussed with regards to better understanding relationships between Paranormal Belief, cognitive-perceptual factors, and well-being.

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Evaluation of prior research suggests that belief in the paranormal is more likely to be associated with negative psychological functioning, when presented alongside cognitive-perceptual factors that askew thinking and insight. The current study examined this notion using a sample of 3,084 participants (1,382 males, 1,693 females, nine non-binary). Respondents completed self-report measures assessing Paranormal Belief, Transliminality, psychopathology-related characteristics (Schizotypy and Manic-Depressive Experience), and well-being (Perceived Stress and Somatic Complaints). Responses were analysed via correlations and moderation. Paranormal Belief correlated positively with Transliminality, psychopathology-related measures, Perceived Stress, and Somatic Complaints. Moderation analyses revealed that Transliminality and psychopathology-related variables (i.e., the Unusual Experiences and Cognitive Disorganisation subscales of schizotypy, and Manic-Depressive Experience) interacted with Paranormal Belief in complex ways and were allied to higher scores on negative well-being outcomes. This indicated that within paranormal believers, Transliminality and specific psychopathology-related variables in combination predicted susceptibility to negative well-being outcomes.

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This study investigated relationships between thin mental boundary functioning, creativity, imaginary companions (ICs), and anomalous '(entity) encounter experiences.' A convenience sample of 389 respondents completed the Revised Transliminality Scale, Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences, Creative Experiences Questionnaire, Survey of Strange Events, and a measure of Childhood Imaginary Companions. Competing testing with path analysis found that the best-fitting model was consistent with the causal chain of 'Thin Boundaries (transliminality and schizotypy) → Creative Experiences → ICs → (Entity) Encounter Experiences.' These results suggest that deep-types of ICs (i.e., showing apparent independent agency) are perhaps most accurately characterized as syncretic cognitions versus hallucination-like experiences. The authors examine these findings relative to study limitations, as well as discussing the need for future research that approaches ICs as a special mental state that can facilitate allied altered-anomalous experiences. In this context, this study furthered understanding of relationships between conscious states related to mental boundaries, childhood imaginary companions, creative experiences, and entity encounters.

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Haunted People Syndrome (HP-S) denotes individuals who recurrently report various "supernatural" encounters in everyday settings ostensibly due to heightened somatic-sensory sensitivities to dis-ease states (e.g., marked but sub-clinical levels of distress), which are contextualized by paranormal beliefs and reinforced by perceptual contagion effects. This view helps to explain why these anomalous experiences often appear to be idioms of stress or trauma. We tested the validity and practical utility of the HP-S concept in an empirical study of an active and reportedly intense ghostly episode that was a clinical referral. The case centered on the life story of the primary percipient, a retired female healthcare worker. Secondary percipients included her husband and adult daughter, all of whom reported an array of benign and threatening anomalies (psychological and physical in nature) across five successive residences. Guided by prior research, we administered the family online measures of transliminality, sensory-processing sensitivity, paranormal belief, locus of control, desirability for control, and a standardized checklist of haunt-type phenomena. The primary percipient also completed a measure of adverse childhood events and supplied an event diary of her anomalous experiences. We found reasonably consistent support for HP-S from a set of quantitative observations that compared five proposed syndrome features against the family members' psychometric profiles and the structure and contents of their anomalous experiences. Specifically, the reported anomalies both correlated with the family's scores on transliminality and paranormal belief, as well as elicited attributions and reaction patterns aligned with threat (agency) detection. There was also some evidence of perceptual congruency among the family members' anomalous experiences. Putative psi cannot be ruled out, but we conclude that the family's ordeal fundamentally involved the symptoms and manifestations of thin (or "permeable") mental boundary functioning in the face of unfavorable circumstances or overstimulating environments and subsequently acerbated by poor emotion regulation, histrionic and catastrophizing reactions, and active confirmation biases.

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In this paper, we propose a clinical approach to the counseling of distressing subjective paranormal experiences, usually referred to as anomalous or exceptional experiences in the academic field. These experiences are reported by a large part of the population, yet most mental health practitioners have not received a specific training in listening constructively to these experiences. This seems all the more problematic since nearly one person in two find it difficult to integrate such experiences, which can be associated with different forms of psychological suffering. After having described briefly several clinical approaches already developed in this area, we outline the main aspects of clinical practice with people reporting exceptional experiences, in particular the characteristics of the clinician's attitude toward the narrative of unusual events. We then present the core components of a Psychodynamic Psychotherapy focused on Anomalous Experiences (PPAE) based on three main steps: phenomenological exploration, subjective inscription and subjective integration of the anomalous experience. Such an approach, based on a non-judgmental and open listening, favors the transformation of the ontological shock that often follows the anomalous experiences into a potential source of integration and psychological transformation.

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Resumen: La experiencia fuera del cuerpo (EFC), se define como una experiencia en la cual el "yo", o el centro de conciencia, parece ocupar una posición remota respecto a su propio cuerpo. Un problema en la evaluación de ciertas anomalías perceptuales que se extrapolan del contexto de la psiquiatría clínica es su excesiva dependencia a ciertos fenómenos alucinatorios. La hipótesis de la transliminalidad sugiere que la fuente inmediata de nuestras percepciones se procesa primero a un nivel inconsciente, luego a través del umbral de la conciencia. El constructo de "límite" permite comprender ciertos factores que subyacen en la variedad de las experiencias excepcionales, como las experiencias fuera del cuerpo. Se ponen a prueba tres hipótesis específicas: (1) personas que tienen experiencias fuera del cuerpo (EFC) tienen una mayor frecuencia de experiencias cognitivas anómalas (2) son más transliminales, (3) y tienen límites más "finos" en comparación con un grupo control (sin EFC). Cien individuos con EFC (47 %) fueron comparados con otros 111 que no tuvieron EFC (53 %), con un rango etario entre 18 a 83 años (M = 44,92; DT = 13,29). Individuos con EFC puntuaron más alto en experiencias anómalas, límites más finos, y alta transliminalidad, lo cual confirman las hipótesis. Este estudio concluye que las experiencias fuera del cuerpo representan la sensibilidad de un individuo debido a los límites permeables del yo. Esta sensibilidad, relacionada con ciertas diferencias fisiológicas en el procesamiento perceptual, puede también representar una forma de transliminalidad.

Abstract: Out-of-body experience (OBE) is an experience in which the "self", or center of awareness, seems to the person having the OBE to temporarily occupy a position spa tially remote from the body. A drawback of assessing perceptual anomalies by extrapolating exclusively from the context of clinical psychiatry is the overreliance on hallucinatory phenomena. Transliminality hypothesis suggests that the immediate source of our perceptions is not our eyes or our ears, but rather the subliminal consciousness: percepts are first processed at an unconscious level and then, usually speedily, they are presented across the threshold to consciousness. The boundary construct is highly valuable in terms of understanding the factors which underpin the varieties of exceptional experiences, such as out of body experiences. Three specific hypotheses are tested here: (1) people who report OBEs (experients) have a higher capacity for cognitive anomalous experiences (2) higher transliminality, (3) and thinner boundaries who score differently than control (non -experients). Participants who experienced OBEs (n= 100, 47%) were matched with participants who do not report OBEs (non experient, n= 111, 53%), ages ranged from 18 to 83 years old (M = 44.92; SD = 13.29). OBErs scored higher on anomalous experiences, higher on "thin" boundaries, high transliminality than for non-OBErs, which supported the three hypotheses. The paper discus ses OBE phenomena as an experient's sensitivity due to permeable ego boundaries. This sensitivity, may be related to some physiological differences in percep tual processing may also underly it.

Resumo: A experiência fora do corpo (EFC), se define como uma experiência na qual o "yo", o centro de consciência, parece ocupar uma posição remota quanto ao seu próprio corpo. Um problema na avaliação de certas anomalias perceptuelles que se extrapolam do contexto da psiquiatría clínica é su excesiva dependencia a ciertos fenómenos alucinatorios. A hipótese da tradução é sugerida por uma fonte imediata de nossas percepções se processar primeiro a um nível inconsciente, em seguida, através do umbral da consciência. O construto de "limite" permite compreender certos fatores que subentran na variedade de experiências excepcionais, como as experiências fora do corpo. (1) Penseis que tenham experiências fora do corpo (EFC) têm uma previsão de experiências cognitivas anómalas (2) son más transliminales, (3) e têm limites mais "finos" em comparação com un controle de grupo (sin EFC). Cien nos com EFC (47%) foram comparados com outros 111 que no tuvent EFC (53%), com um rango etario entre 18 a 83 años (M = 44,92; DT = 13,29). Individuos con EFC puntuaron más alto em experiências anómalas, limites mais finos, e alta transliminalidad, lo cual confirman as hipótesis. Este estudo conclui que as experiências fora do corpo representam a sensibilidade de um indivíduo a um limite de limites permeáveis ​​do yo. Esta sensibilidade, relacionada com outras diferenças fisiológicas no processo de percepção, também é representativa de uma tradução de tradução.

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Objetivo. Comparar la transliminalidad y el límite fino en personas que tienen experiencias de apariciones y sensación de presencia con un grupo control. Se plantea como hipótesis que las personas que reportan experiencias aparicionales y sensación de presencia tienen: (a) mayor propensión a tener experiencias anómalas, (b) mayor transliminalidad y (c) límites más finos en comparación con un grupo control. Método. Se administraron cuatro medidas, la Escala Cardiff de Percepciones Anómalas, la Escala de Transliminalidad (revisada), el Inventario de Experiencias Anómalo/Paranormales y el Cuestionario de Límites, a una muestra compuesta por 203 participantes interesados en experiencias paranormales (151 mujeres y 52 hombres). Resultados. Se confirmaron las tres hipótesis, esto es, mayor nivel de experiencias anómalas, transliminalidad y límite más fino en individuos que reportan la experiencia en comparación con quienes no las reportan. Conclusión. Estos resultados indican que, particularmente, el constructo de límite fino refleja unos procesos atencionales o hiperestesia particular para la detección del entorno en aquellos involucrados en presuntas experiencias aparicionales.

Objective. To compare the experiences of people who have apparitions and a sense of presence with a control group (without experience) in the degree of frequency of other anomalous experiences, transliminality and thin boundary. Three specific hypotheses are tested here: (a) people who report apparitional experiences and sense of presence score higher anomalous experiences, (b) higher transliminality, (c) and thinner boundaries than control. Method. Four scales were used, the Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale, the Revised Transliminality Scale (RTS), the Anomalous/Paranormal Inventory (AEI), and the Boundary Questionnaire. A sample of 203 participants (151 females and 52 males) who experienced apparitional experiences and sense of presence were matched with participants who did not report such experiences. Results. The three hypotheses were confirmed, that is, higher scores of anomalous experiences, transliminality and thin boundaries in individuals reporting experience compared to those who did not have it confirmed. Conclusion. The construct of a thin boundary reflects some of the attentional processes and/or hyperesthesia present in those involved in alleged apparitional experiences which are used for the detection of their environment.

Escopo. Comparar transliminalidade e limite "fino" em pessoas que têm experiência de aparições e sensação de presença com um grupo de controle (sem experiência). Nossa hipótese é que pessoas que se reportam experiências aparicionais e sensação de presença têm: (a) maior propensão de ter experiências cognitivas anormais, (b) maior transliminalidade, (c) limites mais finos em comparação com um grupo controle. Metodologia. Foram administradas quatro medições, a escala Cardiff de percepções anômalas, a Escala revisada de transliminalidade, o Inventário de experiências anômalas/paranormais e o Questionário de Limites, para uma amostra de 203 participantes interessados em experiências paranormais (151 mulheres 52 homens). Resultados. Foram confirmadas as três hipóteses, ou seja, maior nível de experiências anômalas, transliminalidade e limite mais fino em indivíduos que reportam a experiência em comparação com aqueles que não o fez. Conclusão. Estes resultados indicam, particularmente, que o construto do limite fino reflete uns processos de atenção e/ou hiperestesia particular para a detecção do entorno em aqueles que estão envolvidos em supostas experiências aparicionais.

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This paper presents the complex case of a male patient who started life as an unwanted pregnancy and adoptee in an era of socio-cultural shame and blame. When able to contact his birth mother later in life, he experienced a number of confronting synchronicities as well as visions which he felt were related to failed abortion attempts and to other pre- and post-natal events. The case material lends weight not only to Freud's, Ehrenwald's and FitzHerbert's assertions that the earliest form of mother-infant communications is telepathic in nature but that this mode of communication can be retained if emotional trauma inhibits normal developmental processes. Contemporary neuroscience research is presented supporting the hypothesis that emotional memory can become imbedded in the psyche/soma of the foetus. Such memory traces can later emerge into imagery and/or words if the traumatic impingement has been substantial enough and if other defensive strategies are in place. Clinical implications are then suggested regarding analysts' attention to the emotional conditions underpinning their patients' conceptions and foetal development; the connection to projective identification components of the countertransference as being aspects of the earliest telepathic mother/infant communication channel and the need for reductive analyses in analyst training programmes.

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Seemingly precognitive (prophetic) dreams may be a result of one's unconscious processing of environmental cues and having an implicit inference based on these cues manifest itself in one's dreams. We present two studies exploring this implicit processing hypothesis of precognitive dream experience. Study 1 investigated the relationship between implicit learning, transliminality, and precognitive dream belief and experience. Participants completed the Serial Reaction Time task and several questionnaires. We predicted a positive relationship between the variables. With the exception of relationships between transliminality and precognitive dream belief and experience, this prediction was not supported. Study 2 tested the hypothesis that differences in the ability to notice subtle cues explicitly might account for precognitive dream beliefs and experiences. Participants completed a modified version of the flicker paradigm. We predicted a negative relationship between the ability to explicitly detect changes and precognitive dream variables. This relationship was not found. There was also no relationship between precognitive dream belief and experience and implicit change detection.

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