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Open research questions in Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs

50 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 2,815 Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Cross-Species Extension Differences among species should be investigated as differences in constructed reality rather than ranked solely according to humanlike behavior. It is not simple functionalism because abstract input-output equivalence is insufficient. Synthetic Life Mere simulation should remain insufficient.

    The Process Model of Consciousness 2.0 · 2026 · DOI

  • Designers and policymakers can govern generative systems so that they remain epistemically anchored, that is, tied to evidence, transparent about inference, restrained in authority, and willing 19 of 20 to abstain when grounding is insufficient.

    AI Hallucination as Epistemic Proliferation · 2026 · DOI

  • A bstract Objective: The lunar cycle has long been suggested to influence various physiological and neurological processes; however, its potential effect on pediatric vasovagal syncope (VVS) has not been previously investigated.

    Chronobiological Evaluation of Pediatric Vasovagal Syncope in Relation to Lunar Phases: A Retrospective Study · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper argues that the fundamental claim of approaches to cognition that are ‘representation-eschewing,’ such as the enactive one, must have been more intuitively plausible in some cultures where the self is not understood in terms of an inner entity that can feel alienated or separated from the world.

    Understanding 'Representation-Eschewing' Approaches · 2025 · DOI

  • This hybridised analytical tool is provisionally put on a metaphorical beta blocker and remains to be further expatiated on and deployed in force on a more comprehensive corpus, however the paper shines a light on cognition, culture and along with grammaring as the “fifth” skill and brings it into synchronous orbit.

    WITHIN THESE FOUR WALLS: THE PERILOUSNESS OF ELUSIVE GUARD RAILS AND IMPERMANENCE OF SAFETY · 2024 · DOI

  • "4 Given Saussure's well-documented reluctance to publish even his most developed work—whether on general linguistics or the anagrams of [End Page 23] antiquity—it is scarcely surprising that he should have refrained from attaching his name to passing observations on so contentious a topic.

    Sensuous Linguistics: On Saussure's Synesthesia · 2019 · DOI

  • Thus, in the present work, we will expose how Jung chose to respond to this issue arousing interest in post-modernity, even more so as the dilemma is not solved, the query is still lacking a clear answer and Jung, although he provides his own interpretative opinion, urges to a caution specific to analytical wisdom in thought and action.

    The Ufology in the Version of C.G. Jung’s Psychoanalytical Thinking · 2018 · DOI

  • Though not well known (only two references in English in the PEP archive), TH proves to be remarkably versatile and productive for thinking about psychoanalytic theory, technique and clinical work.

    Transformations in hallucinosis and the receptivity of the analyst · 2014 · DOI

  • What remains to be explored further regarding the PMIR model is the salience of unconscious psi tasks, and so the same paradigm begs exploration in both a covert and an overt manner.

    Comparison of Outcomes with Nonintentional and Intentional Precognition tasks/Comparacion De Resultados En Tareas De Precogniceon Intencional Y No Intencional/ Comparaison De Resultats Avec Des Taches De Precognition Non-Intentionnelles et Intentionnelles/ ein Vergleich der Ergebnisse Von Nichtabsichtlichen Mit Absichtlichen Prakognitionsaufgaben · 2014

  • The mode of transformation for any ESP signal remains unknown, and the primary receptors involved in detecting paranormal information have not been identified.

    A Possible Mechanism for ESP at the Initial Perceptual stage/Un Posible Mecanismo Para Pes En la Fase Inicial De percepcion/Un Possible Mecanisme Pour L'esp Au Niveau Perceptuel Initial/ ein Moglicher ASW-Mechanismus Zu Beginn der Wahrnehmungsphase · 2012

  • , Bradley, 2006; Eisenhardt, 1999; Eisenhardt & Zbaracki, 1992; La Pira & Gillin, 2006; Parikh, Neubauer & Lank, 1994)--the influence of transliminality on occupational behavior and outcomes has not been studied.

    A Transliminal View of Intuitions in the Workplace · 2010

  • Subsequent exploration of neuroscientific findings relevant to the mind–brain problem (Meissner, 2006a, 2006b), of conclusions from the study of brain dysfunction in forms of psychopathology and dreaming (Meissner, 2006c) and of aspects of psychosomatic functioning (Meissner, 2006d) led to the conclusion that traditional dualistic and monistic resolu-tions of the mind–body problem were insufficient.

    Mind–Brain and Body in the Self: Psychoanalytic Perspectives · 2009 · DOI

  • Furthermore, because source of information anomalously reported by mediums has not been determined, it is possible that in future, when process is better understood, knowledge acquired through AIR may benefit scientific, technological, and social progress.

    Contemporary methods used in Laboratory-based mediumship researCh · 2007

  • Most of the research used beginners in meditation and only a handful of studies were run, with mixed results that do, however, give highly significant results on a combined analysis (Honorton, 1977).

    Yogic Attainment in Relation to Awareness of Precognitive Targets (1) · 2006

  • In his long essay on synchronicity, Carl Jung enlisted the help of a relatively complete but little known near-death experience (NDE) to illustrate his thesis.

    Jung's synchronistic interpretation of the near-death experience: An unnecessary mystification. · 2004 · DOI

  • The importance of these questions was appreciated at the birth of the British Psychological Society (BPS) a century ago, though the experimental methods to study them were lacking.

    The psychology of action · 2001 · DOI

  • Informal reports (Isaacs, 1992; Stanford, 1977/1986) and descriptive analyses (Gissurarson, 1997) have previously revealed a number of factors that seem to correlate with PK performance, but what those factors mean, and how they might relate to each other, remain unclear.

    The Pk Zone: A Phenomenological Study [1] · 2000

  • Gissurarson (1992) has suggested that future research might consider reporting and exploring more systematically what subjects claim to do and experience while trying to use their PR (p.

    The Pk Zone: A Phenomenological Study [1] · 2000

  • Although loss and recovery of consciousness are integral parts of the near-death experience (NDE), the role of altered states of conscious ness in the NDE has not been thoroughly investigated.

    Psychophysiologic correlates of unconsciousness and near-death experiences. · 1997 · DOI

  • But how far? Far enough so that all intentions have become conscious, or potentially conscious? Long before Freud, La Rochefoucauld wrote, Quelque dicouverte que l'on aitfaite dans le pays de I'amour-propre, il y reste encore bien des terres inconnues [Whatever discoveries have been made in the land of self-love, many regions remain unexplored].

    <i>Kafka's</i>Trial:<i>Between</i>The Republic<i>and Psychoanalysis</i> · 1995 · DOI

  • The exploration of unusual personal changes at the time of an abduction or NDE certainly warrants further attention, but investigators should give the well-being of the experiencer top priority.

    Comments on Stuart Twemlow's "Misidentified flying objects? An integrated psychodynamic perspective on near-death experiences and UFO abductions". · 1994 · DOI

  • the Trojan horse, bugs, The contents-vomitus, flatus, feces, tears, blood, urine, semen, water-were evidently felt and treated as equivalent to crude emo tions such ~s anger and tension, although even as emotions they were still poorly defined, to thoughts, and also to some sense of essence of life.

    On the Development of the Experience of Mental Self, the Bodily Self, and Self Conciousness · 1971 · DOI

  • from 395 396 BOOK REVIEWS true; is not accorded the hero-worship impartial outlook or abstaining it never seems to dawn on the author certain former accounts, while keeping a rigorously polemics.” This is only partly ideas; the imagination. This leads me to the second major criticism vvhich relates to his obvious modem psychology. There are a few curiously jumbled mentions of psychological concepts Eilenberger field vvhich has provided so many empirical disproofs of the theories recounting. This book can therefore be recommended as a historically accurate account of the development of certain ideas, but must be said to be completely lacking in any evaluation of the present state of knowledge regarding these ideas. This seems a pity, but it would probably be too much to ask of any historian not trained in psychology to do more than Ellenberget has done. Certainly, for anyone interested in the development of these theories, and the interactions of the various protagonists, this is LindoLlbtedly the best available reference. from any kind of the people concerned, but their that these ideas might be untrue and nothing but figments of ignorance of studies relating to the ignorance of this barge is is concerned with, but these betray little but overwhelming the history of Hhich Ellenberger II. J EYSENCK S. LESSE (Ed.): ~12.00.,411 Edmtion of the Restdts of tire P.rbdtot/rerupies. Thomas: Springfield, 1968. 368 pp. THIS book comprises ment of Psychotherapy. the field of psychotherapy, the papers presented at the 1965 and 1966 meetings of the Association represent “an undertaking inaccurate. The Editors’ claim that the contents indeed, in ail of medicine” is unfortunately for the Advancethat is uniquein The second half of the book has little or nothing papers include items such as “Witchcraft of the book is not entirely without interest, in Liberia and its Psychiatric Implications”. Although it is a curious selection For a book of this title. to do with an evaluation of psychoti~erapy. The this section The first section of the book is a disappointment reaching conclusions about psychotherapy. of the Phipps Clinic Study patients at the ten-year remission and Ferster’s account of reinforcement model of persistence but will give little comfort more information on the nature of spontaneous to some verging on uselessness. and, with some exceptions, does little to assist in The most useful papers are those by Imber er a/. on the status Jurjevich’s experiment on spontaneous follow-up, therapy with autistic children.

    The discovery of the unconscious · 1970 · DOI

  • Whether “distinct” here means individually recoverable or merely a coherent statistical contribution of unusual richness is the open question identified in §3. This remains speculative and depends on resolving the open question above.

    Vol II Note 16: Post-Death Leakage of Consciousness – Return to the Pure Energy/Thought Fields · 2026 · DOI

  • Even if quantum resources are being consumed in the brain, it remains unclear how these processes scale up to influence macroscopic perception and behavior in a reliable (and naturally selectable) way.

    Qualia from quantum magic: a quantum resource approach to phenomenal consciousness · 2026 · DOI

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50 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 2,815 Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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