Abstract

Motivated by previous suggestions in the literature, we addressed the relation between haunt experiences and Paranormal Belief (New Age Philosophy and Traditional Paranormal Beliefs), Participant Expectation, Transliminality, Hypochondriasis, Synesthesia, and Hyperesthesia in a substantial subset of participants (N=134) who visited Edinburgh's reportedly haunted South Bridge Vaults during a recent field study of this commercially-oriented site. The seven perceptual-personality variables significantly distinguished experients and non-experients. Multiple regression analyses indicated that scores on Participant Expectation and New Age Philosophy weakly but significantly predicted the number of reported experiences, whereas Participant Expectation and Hyperesthesia weakly but significantly predicted the number of different categories of experience. Post hoc analyses suggested that Transliminality facilitated both of these processes. Our findings are consistent with the notion that some haunts comprise two distinct classes of phenomena that may have different sources--Psychological Experiences that are grounded partly in psychophysiological mechanisms, and Physical Changes which are perceived in part due to cognitive and motivational biases on the part of the experient.