_ 154 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research Table 4 PERCENTAGE OF PERSONS REPORTING ANY PSYCHIC EXPERIENCE BY MARITAL StTaTuS Living as Single Married Married Separated Divorced Widowed France 46 47 31 56 63 56 Italy 65 54 60 74 85 75 Spain 33 30 46 46 50 41 Belgium 33 24 27 42 35 44 Great Britain 41 42 58 66 51 65 West Germany 41 48 55 63 49 60 Holland 39 32 4] 4! 47 32 Ireland 25 33 32 29 — 32 Denmark 26 23 31 27 39 27 Finland 43 43 47 — 64 67 Iceland 41 54 50 71 59 63 Norway 21 23 24 20 46 28 Sweden 37 28 25 29 48 43 EUROPE 46 43 52 60 53 58 USS. 60 57 71 81 70 68 married, separated, divorced or widowed. The same effect is evident in regard to contact with the dead, and also—but to a lesser extent—for clairvoyance, RDP96-00792R000400100003-0 t Psychological Well-Being CIA The Bradburn Affect Scale was devised as a measure of psychological ** well-being and has been widely used by sociologists for that purpose = (Bradburn, 1969). It consists of 10 items, all of which were included in 0 the EVSSG questionnaire. For the wording of the scale, see Appendix A, 3 Three indicators are calculated: one positive, one negative, and one that 18 & the balance of the two. The positive indicator is found by adding the Nnumber of positive feelings reported: being particularly excited or inter- Gested in something, being proud because someone complimented you, sbeing pleased about having accomplished something, feeling that life is ‘gonderful, and feeling that life is going your way. The negative indicator is found by adding the items of feeling restless, lonely, bored, depressed, oor upset. lL The balance indicator, namely, the value that is obtained when the Gnumber of reported negative feelings is subtracted from the number of Ositive feelings, is considered a fair indicator of psychological well- cing, rather than the values of positive and negative indicators taken sep- Garately. We calculated the Kendall tau (z) correlation between the Brad- Sum Affect Scale and the three types of psychic experiences. In Europe it was — .01 for telepathy and — .03 for both clairvoyance and contact with the dead, and —.02 for all psi experiences combined. In the U.S. the correlation was .05 for telepathy, — .02 for clairvoyance, — .03 for con- Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study 155 tact with the dead, and .02 for reporting any experience. The psychics evidently enjoy neither more nor less psychological well-being than the nonpsychics. An examination of the subscales on negative feelings among Europeans showed that 12% of those who express no negative feeling report telep- athy, 24% of those expressing one negative feeling report telepathy, and there follows a gradual but Steady increase up to 44% of those reporting telepathy who experience all five negative feelings in the Bradburn Scale. The same trend is found in the U.S. sample. The percentage of persgys reporting telepathy rises steadily from 33% reporting no negative sceleee to 64% reporting all the negative feelings. The trend is about similar @er contact with the dead, but it is less noticeable for clairvoyance. 2 For all the psychic experiences combined, this trend is steady for b&b Europe and the U.S. In Europe, the rise is from 37% for no negate feeling to 61% for them all. In the U.S., reporting of any psychic exp - ences increases steadily from 52% among those experiencing no negattye feeling to 89% among those who experience all the negative feelings. 3 Among the Europeans who report no positive feeling, only 24% clair telepathic experience. There is gradual and steady increase up to 44% among those who report all five positive feelings. This finding is repff- cated in the U.S. data. The more that people report positive feelings, more likely they are to report telepathic experiences. The increase rie steadily from 33% to 64%. The same trend—to a lesser extent—is foupH for clairvoyance and contact with the dead. With the three items cog; bined, there is a steady increase with increased affect from 42% to 69% of the persons reporting at least one or more psychic experiences. = We combined the positive and negative subscales by adding thé§ scores, thus creating a new variable that we called the sum of affegS which we correlated with the Greeley items. (See our discussion of 1 sponse bias in Appendix B.) The sum of affect correlated significant{y with telepathy in all countries as can be seen in Table 6. For Europe as@ whole, the Kendall correlation coefficient is .19, and for the U.S. it is 2% For clairvoyance and contact with the dead, the coefficients were lowe but significant. For any psychic experience, the correlation was .20 for Europe and .29 for the U.S. 5 To find out to what extent the reporting of psychic experiences can te predicted from other variables in this study (biographical data, attitudesg and values), regression analysis was carried out for each of the ees with the number of psychic experiences as the dependent variable and = representative subset of other variables as independent variables. The: same analysis was run for Europe as a whole. < The result (see Table 7) is that the number of psychic experiences can be predicted only to a limited extent. The percentage of the variance that can be explained ranges from 6% in Spain to 23% in Italy. Although there is substantial variation between nations regarding which variables play the most important role, several are often found among the five best pre-
CIA-RDP96-00792R000400100003-0 . 156 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study 157 ONOAAD MnFtus Table 6 KENDALL TAU CORRELATION BETWEEN SUM OF AFFECT AND TELEPATHY, CLAIRVOYANCE, CONTACT WITH THE DEAD AND ANY EXPERIENCE + BRESASSSNSeseas Contact with Any Telepathy Clairvoyance the dead Experience wm a < QO nN Fo =) B S France .16** -10** .12** -20** a Italy 278* .28** 28% .32** g Spain ** 10** 04** 15*9? 5 Belgium AT#* 13** AD 218 8 Great Britain .20** .05** LD 20 ‘a West Germany .17** 01 -03* | rB & Ses Holland .19** O7** .04%* 188 a Ireland 17 07+ 09** 19° en Denmark 148* -11** 01 AT 2 Finland 15** 12** -10*# 19° < ie) [aay Zz a z isa} 2 F & 8 & fo] 2 Zz cay Positive Affect 3 51 64 40 32 38 46 40 31 28 57 52 20 27 47 54 2 49 58 35 29 43 48 36 27 Iceland 15** 02 15#* 14S Norway 10** 09** 08** 140 Sweden 13** 01 O7** 13+ EUROPE 19#* 10** 09## 20% US. 28** 13* 1S 298 * p < .05 (two-tailed) ** p< 01 (two-tailed) dicting variables. Sum of affect occurs in 12 of the 13 analyses for in vidual countries. The second most prevalent variable is belief in reincarng-, */SRPRSRSOEn Raman : tion (V315), which occurs in 10 of 13 analyses. The response-bias varie able occurs in 7 analyses and is the second best predictor in the combinegs European data. More details about this variable, which consists of the sup of 50 variables associated with reporter bias, can be found in Appendix FB BAERS The fourth best variable is sex, with four occurrences. There follow thre variables each with three occurrences. These are broken versus unbroker, marital relationships, belief in some sort of spirit or life force (as oppose®? z to belief in a personal god, no belief in any sort of spirit, god, or lifg@ force, and not knowing what to think about such matters), and spending? some moments in prayer (V319). . Negative Affect 3 69 67 33 38 55 54 47 34 2 DISCUSSION Europeans, the figure was 46% when the samples had been weighted ac«£ cording to the size of the national populations. These are relatively high - percentages. Based as they are on large representative national samples, they allow us to infer that perhaps as many as 145 million Americans and over 100 million Western Europeans report at least one of the three kinds of psychic experiences as defined in, the survey. When interpreting these data, we must keep in mind their limitations. We are dealing with reported Approved For Release 2000/08/11 West Germany Holland Great Britain Ireland Denmark Finland Tceland EUROPE Belgium ULS, France Italy Spain Norway Sweden
: CIA-RDP96-00792R000400100003-0 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 158 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research Table 7 RESULTS OF REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR EACH COUNTRY ee % of variance Country explained Var 1 Var 2 Var 3 Var 4 Var 5 France 13 NEGAFF  V315 RBV BALAFF SEX Italy 23 SUMAFF RBV BROKEN WORKRLZ  V319 Spain 6 V315 V253 SELFJUS SUMAFF V317 Belgium 20 V317 SUMAFF -V315 SPIRLIF RBV Great Britain 16 V315 V211 AGE SPIRLIF SUMAFF West Germany 20 AGE V315 TRADFAM = V319 SEX Holland 15 RBV SUMAFF  SPIRLIF V253 V315 Ireland 13 SUMAFF  V31i RBV CONFINS TRADRLG Denmark 13 V315 RBV SUMAFF V253 SOCACT Iceland 18 V253 POSAFF V315 V319 v449 Norway 8 V253 SUMAFF = SEX V156 V233 Sweden 21 V315 SHAPRTN 314 SUMAFF SEX EUROPE 13 SUMAFF RBV V315 SPIRLIF V319 US. 16 SUMAFF  V315 BROKEN SOCACT RBV ee NOTE: Regression analysis was run with number of psychic experiences as the dependent variable and a representative subset of other variables as independent, which were stepwise included. Var 1 indicates the variable that best predicts the number of psychic experiences reported, Var 2 is second best, etc. BALAFF balance of affect on the Bradburn Scale BROKEN marital status CONFINS confidence in institutions NEGAFF negative affect POSAFF positive affect RBV response bias SELFJUS justifying minor immoral acts (tax evasion, lying, etc.) SHAPRTN sharing attitudes with partner SOCACT take part in social activities SPIRLIF belief in some sort of spirit or life force SUMAFF sum of affect on the Bradburn Scale TRADFAM traditional attitude to family TRADRLG traditional religious views V156 state of health V211 having choice and control over one’s life V233 taking pride in one’s work V253 thinking about the meaning and purpose of life 311 belief in the devil V315 belief in reincarnation V314 belief in sin V317 God important in one’s life V319 take some moments for prayer, mediation etc. V449 take interest in politics WORKRIZ finding realization in one’s work experiences only, and the phrasing of the questions is not ideal for as- sessing potentially paranormal experiences. It should, however, not be unreasonable to estimate that the figures roughly indicate the frequency with which people in the samples have interpreted some personal experi- ences as paranormal in nature. The most outstanding finding is the national differences in reporting every kind of psychic experience. Taking the extremes, we find that Americans report telepathic experiences 3.6 times more often than the Danes (54% vs. 15%), Italians report clairvoyance 5.6 times more often Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study 159 than Icelanders, Norwegians, and Swedes (39% vs. 7%), and Icelanders report contact with the dead 4.5 times more often than the Norwegians (41% vs. 9%). Americans and Italians, whom we find to be the most ““psychic’’ nations in this survey, are 2.5 times more likely to report any psychic experiences than are the least ‘‘psychic’’ Danes (60% vs. 24%). Before Haraldsson started this project (Houtkooper joined it at a later stage) and calculated the results, he did not state any explicit hypotheses, but based on the results from earlier surveys, he expected the percentages of reported experiences to be highest for the U.S. and Iceland, with Great Britain, Italy, and Germany nearby. He also expected Denmark, Norwey, and Sweden to be among the least ‘‘psychic.’’ As far as these counts are concerned, the findings come as no surprise. What remains puzzlifg, however, is the finding that so many French people report psychic expg@- ences and that they report them slightly more frequently than the Britigp. Our surprise probably reflects our ignorance of the French people. Slight differences in the translation of the items may also affect the results. & Nationality emerges as a very powerful factor indeed, and this evofes many questions. What is the active ingredient that causes the national ai- ferences? Is it in the genes? Is it due to differences in dominant Philosopby or life styles? Or is it due to the degree of favorable coverage by press Be TV? McClenon’s (1982) survey of elite scientists in the U.S. showed taut they get most of their knowledge of psychic phenomena and research fran popular sources, not from scientific publications. This clearly reveals fe powerful effect of the popular media. An important question is: Whatsif any, impact does the quantity and quality of research conducted and p6B- lished have on the various nations surveyed? Our findings open up mahly questions. = There is a notable difference between France and Great Britain in fRe reporting of clairvoyance. A total of 24% report it in France, but only 14% report it in Britain, whereas the figure for telepathy is about equal for b6h countries. As early as around the turn of the century, French research®\is tended to give more support to the clairvoyance hypothesis, whereas the British overwhelmingly favored telepathy as a leading explanation of Pg- chic phenomena. Perhaps these differing conceptions of early French dad British researchers still exist among the general populations of the cofh- tries involved. Or, were the conceptions of those researchers simply iS- flections of the dominating views of the populations of which they werta part? o In a representative survey of psychic experiences conducted in Icelagd in the mid-1970s, 31% reported experience of the dead (Haraldsson, 1978, 1985). Why do we now find an increase up to 41%? It is possible that t higher figure is due to very slight differences in the wording of the ques- tions. The results of Haraldsson’s survey were widely publicized in Ice- land when they were released to the media (Haraldsson, 1975), and this may well have made people more ready to report contact with the dead when they knew that almost every third person had done so. A British
160 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research survey among widows and widowers revealed that many of those who report experiences of encounters with the dead are reluctant to do so for fear of ridicule (Rees, 1971). The fact that Icelanders top the list in regard to contact with the dead calls for some discussion. It brings to mind some other findings of Har- aldsson’s 1975 survey in that country. It was noteworthy that about every third respondent (32%) had attended mediumistic séances. For the age bracket 50-59, the figure rose to 47% and was even a surprising 29% for the college-educated group. Furthermore, it was found that respondents expressed a relatively strong belief in communication with the dead at séances, with 21% being certain of such communication and a further 21% thinking it likely, as Opposed to 11% who thought it impossible or un- likely. Concerning the high figure of 30% of Americans reporting contact with the dead in the Present survey, we should recall the relevant fact that the United States was the soil from which spiritualism grew and spread to other countries. In the ULS., Greeley (1987) has found a steady increase of reports of ontact with the dead: 27% in 1973, 30% in 1981, and exceeding even 00792R000400100003-0 Lo) a .o} @ fmt fo} i! - Ou .e — Ne) * oO ~~] = =o a i Nh x o_ n fe’) oD 4 1 2 Ss fa) — a Q oD g oD Met 5 3 o ot a ot 2 n = S oO go n oD <t Many more ‘‘psychics”’ are found among women than among men. The Oresults concerning reporting some Psychic experience indicate that in all Stlairvoyance concerns perceptions of events. Rightly or wrongly, women “are often believed to be more person-oriented than men. If this old stereo- Bype is true, it would seem reasonable to expect more women to report Gelepathic experiences (with living and dead) and for men to report rela- @nece correlated only .08 with sex in Europe and .11 in the U.S., both Coefficients being significant because of huge sample sizes. @ A notable absence in the data is a relationship with age, except for a Slight increase in experiences of contact with the dead. @ In the U.S. as well as in Europe, education has no effect on whether Horle report psychic experiences. It should be mentioned, however, that € data have the limitation that we cannot distinguish between those who hold the European ‘‘student’’ examination or a U.S. college degree and those who hold higher university degrees. Findings by McClenon (1982) indicate that this distinction may be more important than the traditional classification of formal education as primary, secondary, and college. Be oe tee ee eee Psychic Experiences: A Multinational Study 161 that as it may, there is no evidence in the results for the “‘deficiency syn- drome,”’ that is, that psychic experiences tend to be reported because of lack of education. Rather striking are the differences in Teporting psychic experiences as regards marital status (see Table 4). The single and married are less likely to report psychic experiences than those living in what we termed ‘‘broken relationships’’ (those living as married, separated, divorced, or Marans Are psychics more likely than nonpsychics to have marital difficulties oP an unstable or broken relationship psi-conducive? Are people who a under emotional strain that may accompany broken relationships mg likely to have psychic experiences? Or do people in such relationships have a greater need for psychic experiences? Or—taking a more skepti@) approach—do those living as married, separated, divorced, or widowéd more often ‘‘feel as though’’ or imagine that they have psychic expegd. ences? The data give no answers to these questions. ne Still more striking is the finding that the ‘‘psychics’’ report significant} more positive as well as negative feelings and emotions than the nonps chics, yet the “‘psychics”’ enjoy neither higher nor lower psycholowiceh well-being (as measured by the Bradburn Scale) than the rest of the pop lation. This is in line with what Greeley (1975) found in his first U. survey. What conclusions can be drawn from the much more frequeff simultaneous presence of both positive and negative feelings (‘‘sum & affect’’) among the psychics? Could this effect be due to a general r&) sponse bias of the yes/no-sayer type because all the items of the Bradburn. Scale are so worded that the respondent is asked if he or she has had thar particular feeling/experience and then is requested to respond with a yes 8 no? Analyses reveal that the findings are not due to response bias. A de tailed statistical analysis of this problem is given in Appendix B. S Are the psychics more emotionally unstable? Apparently people arf more likely to report psi experiences when experiencing either very diffigy cult or very pleasant times. Are the psychics more sensitive to their envig ronment and hence experience more negative as well as positive feelings'’® We can surmise that they are more sensitive, and they probably have richer emotional lives and react emotionally more strongly to eventss around them than do the nonpsychics. The Human Values Study contains a great number of variables from variety of highly different domains. Nationality is evidently the strongest factor determining the frequency of the reporting of psychic experiences,6. followed by the “‘sum of affect.’’ In addition to the factors already men tioned in this discussion, it is of interest that regression analyses revealed three other variables from the religious domain that affect the frequency of reporting psi experiences: namely, belief in reincarnation, belief in some sort of spirit or life force, and taking moments for prayer or meditation. This result is in line with earlier findings (Haraldsson, 1981: Tobacyk & Milford, 1983) that show some religious variables to be mildly but signifi- cantly related to belief in psychic phenomena in general. a LL Oo aw