The bottom of the barrel, even for parapsychology

October 23, 2015 • 12:00 pm

For some reason that I won’t investigate, reader Dom found this abstract in the Australian Institute of Parapsychological Research, reporting PTSD in dead people. But one line, which I’ve bolded below, is just freaking hilarious. (Be sure, though, to read the whole abstract, an instantiation of how horribly deluded people can become.)

2013, Volume 13(1), pp. 37–56

OPEN FORUM

Psychological Phenomena in Dead People: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Murdered People and Its Consequences to Public Health

WASNEY DE ALMEIDA FERREIRA

ABSTRACT: The aims of this paper are to narrate and analyze some psychological phenomena that I have perceived in dead people, including evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in murdered people. The methodology adopted was “projection of consciousness” (i.e., a non-ordinary state of consciousness), which allowed me to observe, interact, and interview dead people directly as a social psychologist. This investigation was based on Cartesian skepticism, which allowed me a more critical analysis of my experiences during projection of consciousness. There is strong evidence that a dead person: (i) continues living, thinking, behaving after death as if he/she still has his/her body because consciousness continues in an embodied state as ‘postmortem embodied experiences’; (ii) may not realize for a considerable time that he/she is already dead since consciousness continues to be embodied after death (i.e., ‘postmortem perturbation’—the duration of this perturbation can vary from person to person, in principle according to the type of death, and the level of conformation), and (iii) does not like to talk, remember, and/or explain things related to his/her own death because there is evidence that many events related to death are repressed in his/her unconscious (‘postmortem cognitive repression’). In addition, there is evidence that dying can be very traumatic to consciousness, especially to the murdered, and PTSD may even develop. 

80 thoughts on “The bottom of the barrel, even for parapsychology”

      1. Same here. FFS! I’ve heard of this “phenomenon” in stories on TV, but we’re talking about that series that Jennifer Love Hewitt did, ‘Ghost Whisperer’, which I admit I enjoyed, not a documentary. It was fiction people!

    2. It reminds me very much of some of the ghost ‘psychology’ laid out in Sparrow Hill Road, which I read not long ago. It’s possible that someone read the book and didn’t realize it was fiction.

      I suppose it’s also remotely possible that this is a particularly clever and elaborate form of fan fiction. Maybe; the book was pretty snarky.

  3. I could have accepted this if it left it at this: “dying can be very traumatic to consciousness”

  4. Just occurred to me: I wonder what would have to happen to get a paper retracted from the Australian Institute of Parapsychological Research?

      1. “This paper shows evidence of actual data and a conclusion that may actually be falsifiable.”

    1. More like Edgar Allan I would say. Maybe I could see it better after a few listens to that tune S.O.B.

    2. A Sokal-like hoax? Pleading against this hypothesis, there is another abstract on the same page, titled:
      “Anomalous Experiences as Transliminal Drama: The Case of Wasney De Almeida Ferreira” by James Houran.

      The first line is: “ocial psychologist Wasney de Almeida Ferreira (Ferreira, 2013) recently reported an unusual set of anomalous experiences with the dead that he deliberately induced via an internal attention state.”

      Delusion or self-deception are more probable answers.

    3. That was the first thing that occurred to me. Also that some conferences will accept pretty much every abstract that gets sent in.

  6. Hey this is nothing new – all those shows movies and books about haunting (wraiths, evil spirits, etc.) can now be attributed to PMTSD (that would be postmortem traumatic stress disorder.

  7. That line of research seems destined for a traumatic death.

    Sooner better than later.

  8. I believe Haley Joe Osment discovered the same phenomenon independently. Famous psychologist Bruce Willis could also verify that, were he not dead (spoiler alert).

        2. Ha! I got it all by myself, too!

          (I guess that’s not so difficult, once one tries to think of a famous phrase from Sixth Sense.

  9. I’m almost afraid to ask how this person gained access to dead people for “interviews” – was it in a morgue, or a gross anatomy lab, or across some astral plane that is beyond the sanctions of an IRB?

    I do know that if some parapsychology “researcher” gained access to the gross anatomy labs here and was down there “interviewing” cadavers, I would call campus police immediately. o.O

    1. You’ve probably just given this bloke an idea for his next research project – “The thoughts and perceptions of bodies used in anatomy labs.”

  10. The author is Brazilian, me thinks. However, Australia bears the burden for letting him in.

    1. I wanted to add that interviewing the defunct is an old and respected practice in Brazil. Read the Wikipedia entry on “Chico Xavier”. But don’t laugh; it is serious business.

    3. or as Tom Waits put it:

      “Never trust a man in a blue trench coat
      Never drive a car when you’re dead”

      “Telephone Call From Istanbul”

  12. Can I offer my services as counsellor to the traumatised dead, so they can come to terms with their predicament? Just one question. Where do I send the bill?

    2. You are hopeless as an entrepreneur! Sell to the living for post-mortem counselling. “My friend, when you are dead, you will be having a really bad time: I will be there with you all the way.” – that will be $2500 please.

  13. There’s a New Yorker cartoon in there somewhere. A psychiatrist treating the traumatized dead.

    1. Next cartoon – psychologist being sued for further traumatising the already-dead.
      Third cartoon – psychologist being sued or drummed out of the headologist’s drinking society for refusing to treat a dead person with patent PTSD.

      1. No joke: As long as five years after my mother-in-law’s death, I (and my wife) were getting statements from Medicare detailing bills for psychiatric treatment of my M-i-L. I suggested that Medicare not pay the bills.

  14. Reblogged this on Nina's Soap Bubble Box and commented:
    Being murdered traumatizes people. Clearly we have hit the bottom and need to finally say that education has become dubious. Have we reached peak stupidity yet? I have learned to never underestimate human stupidity

    1. “Clearly we have hit the bottom and need to finally say that education has become dubious.”

      Education may be more dubious, but we have always had anti-intellectualism in our midst.

      “Some people would rather die than think.”

      Bertrand Russell

  15. Those abstracts were interesting; they give some insight into where paranormal research may be going.

    From what I can tell (I’m not a scientist and don’t normally read or interpret experimental protocols) out of seven papers:

    3 were trying to figure out why experiments done outside of the believing community don’t have good results in hopes that believers have more magic powers…

    3 of them were basically about collecting and/or analyzing data about paranormal belief in a more or less neutral framework …

    and 1 of them specifically accepted and explored the paranormal — the amusing piece of dreck outlined in the OP.

    Curiously, only one of them seemed to have been controversial enough to evoke a cascading sh*t storm of counterpoint, argument, support, challenges, and defensive response from the author. Yep, it’s the last one. Which makes me feel a bit better about the overall honesty and intelligence of the contributors to the Australian Institute of Parapsychology and its journal, actually. Even THEY seem to have been a bit taken aback.

  16. The author is going to get into trouble with researchers on the parapsychology of ghosts. So either one can contact the mind of the departed still in their dead body, or they can contact their spirit as a disembodied ghost. Which is it?

  17. I think this person’s Cartesian anxiety (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_anxiety)

    and Cartesian dualism
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualism_%28philosophy_of_mind%29#Substance_or_Cartesian_dualism)

    have clouded his understanding of “Cartesian skepticism”.

    I don’t fully grasp the pun in this picture (in fact “Cartesian well” is a common misconstrual of “Artesian well” and nothing more), but it seems to tie in with my thread.
    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/337346111/sql_putdowns_cartesian_well_mug.jpg?height=225&width=225

    2. I don’t fully grasp the pun in this picture (in fact “Cartesian well” is a common misconstrual of “Artesian well” and nothing more),

      Noooo! Say it ain’t so. I’ve got to get a whole new bottom for my barrel.

      1. What – you never had Michigan Radios on your car?

        As for the PMTSD what’s worse being cremated or being left to rot and be eaten slowly by maggots and other creepy things? So much for eternal bliss in paradise.

        1. Well, my father-in-law thought they were both bad so he opted for above ground entombment in a mausoleum. I guess he assumed he’d be save from maggots and creepy things there.

  20. I’m trying to picture how these sessions went… Did he drag them out on his couch; or prop the coffin up. Were any in urns? Could he communicate with the lid off, or did he open it up. If murder was traumatic, what about embalming or cremation. Did any of them have a British accept, “I’m not dead yet. I think I’ll go for a walk. I feel happy.”

  24. Just the title cracked me up…

    For the rest, I think he’s paraphrasing Terry Pratchett, it is quite descriptive of some of the conversations the recently deceased had with Death. They often don’t realise they’re dead and this gives rise to some delightfully ironic and funny conversations. But Pratchett, of course, was intentionally writing fantasy.

    cr

  25. Well that’s just brilliant, now we have traumatized loved ones thinking their loved ones are lost in the afterlife, traumatized, looking for a therapist. Let’s kick them in the teeth with a lie and stupidity.

  26. “In addition, there is evidence that dying can be very traumatic to consciousness, especially to the murdered, and PTSD may even develop.” Obviously they aren’t all locked up yet, there are still one ar two roaming the Streets.lol

  27. By his name, this chap is Brazilian. The belief that the dead haven’t yet realised it and wander around the house wondering why everybody is ignoring them and so on is common in Brazil. My sisters-in-law are, respectively, an orthodontist and a pharmacist, and both of them believe this stuff.

    1. You’re right on the money. Spiritism (from kardek) is primarily a belief of the middle class here in Brazil and therefore of many liberal professionals (when they have any metaphysical belief). Evangelism and catholicism are followed by the (majority of) poorer classes. And it is funny that some people accept that spirits can enter into a living person body (medium) and take the control of his/her hand to write down massages…(the so called psychography).

        1. But Diane has a point. Whatever else is wrong with it, it doesn’t have measles or chickenpox.

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