Ghosts, Ouija boards and ESP: psychology and the paranormal, with Chris French, PhD

Speaking of Psychology

Kim Mills

Health & Fitness, Life Sciences, Science, Mental Health

4.3 • 781 Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2021

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Just in time for Halloween, we talk about the psychology of strange stuff – including ghostly visitations, alien abductions, ESP, and more – with Chris French, PhD, head of the anomalistic psychology unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr. French discusses how psychological explanations such as sleep paralysis and inattentional blindness could underlie many people’s paranormal experiences, and the role of skepticism and science in testing and evaluating paranormal claims. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	How about listening to the sounds of Istanbul?
0:15.0	Beautiful, isn't it?
0:16.7	But you can't discover the coolest city in the world just by listening.
0:21.2	Check Istanbul.orgiotrkiia.com now and plan your Istanbul trip today.
0:30.7	It's almost Halloween.
0:32.6	Time for kids of all ages to dress up as ghosts and monsters, watch scary movies, and indulge in all things
0:38.6	spooky and supernatural. The costumes and treats are just for fun, but surveys suggest
0:43.9	that many people take ghosts quite seriously. One 2019 poll found that 20% of Americans believe
0:50.8	that ghosts definitely exist, and another 25% say they probably exist.
0:56.2	Many others believe in extrasensory perception, demons, space alien abduction, near-death
1:01.9	experiences, and all sorts of unearthly things.
1:05.9	Where do these beliefs come from?
1:07.8	What is behind their enduring appeal?
1:09.9	And what explanations, psychological rather
1:12.7	than supernatural, might underlie paranormal experiences? What does the science tell us?
1:20.9	Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association
1:25.9	that examines the links between
1:27.6	psychological science and everyday life. I'm Kim Mills.
1:34.0	Our guest today is Dr. Chris French, an emeritus professor of psychology and head of the
1:39.2	anomalistic psychology research unit at Goldsmith's University of London. He studies the psychology of paranormal
1:46.2	beliefs and anomalous experiences, looking for psychological explanations for phenomena, including
1:51.9	near-death experiences, ESP, and ghostly visitations, for example. He's written more than 150 journal
	...

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