Anticipatory awareness of emotionally charged targets by individuals with histories of emotional trauma

Journal of Parapsychology, The, Spring, 2004 by Theo K. de Graaf, Joop M. Houtkooper

The intimate circular relationship between PSF and CLE--in which both are as much excited by as exciting to each other--has very much to do with the aggressive forces stored within the inner conflict constituting the PSF, and with the ego's constant search for objects or events outside the self in order to get rid of this aggressive tension by means of projection and dramatization of the conflict in the outside world.

Clinical observation supports the assumption that the PSF's striving for dramatization and externalization brings about a continuous "scanning" of the spatio-temporal pool of events, selecting and "attracting" those events that may serve this purpose. It is here that the concepts of PSF and CLE could link up with certain observations commonly classified as "anomalous." For, in certain extreme cases, such as a severe loss or the imminent death of a loved one, the dramatizing power of the PSF may purportedly enable the ego to transcend even the presently acknowledged boundaries of space and/or time, giving rise to such phenomena as so-called "crisis telepathy," precognitive or clairvoyant dreams, or even psychokinetic disturbances (Devereux, 1953/1971; Ehrenwald, 1978; Freud, 1922; Stanford, 1974, 1977). In such a state, an event remote in space-time could fulfill the role of a congruent life event, which then serves as a stepping-stone or hat-rack onto which the dreamer or the "agent" (in case of a so-called "poltergeist") projects a strongly cathected (highly charged) inner conflict or impulse, which presses towards dramatization in the outside world. In case we are dealing with an alleged precognitive dream, the day-residue would then consist of a "CLE-in-the-future."

In the light of the foregoing psychodynamic considerations, spontaneous precognitive events fully satisfy the conditions of Stanford's concept of psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR). According to Stanford (1977), the strength of the disposition towards PMIR "is directly and positively related to: (a) the importance or strength of the need(s) in question, (b) the degree of need-relevance of the need-relevant object or event, and (c) the closeness in time of the potential encounter with the need-relevant object or event" (p. 843). The first two conditions are met by the PSF's urgent need for externalization and dramatization as well as by the CLE's need-relevance in view of its resemblance to, or fitting in with, the psychic conflict constituting the PSE The survival value of a precognition could then consist of a drainage of dangerous, i.e., sick-making, inner tension and anxiety through the externalization and dramatization of the PSF by the dream work.

In the second place, precognitive knowledge of a highly dramatic event, such as may be seen in crisis telepathy, could also be a natural form of stress inoculation, preparing the individual for the worst so that the real event will be less shocking when it comes. The survival value attached to these phenomena could explain why these paranormal abilities seem to be to some extent gene-linked (Rhine, 1977; Taylor, 2003; Zorab, 1974), as illustrated by the frequently heard statement that these gifts run in the family. At the same time, however, these psychodynamic determinants may also explain why the psi faculty remains so unreliable and elusive notwithstanding its evolutionary roots (Taylor, 2003). After all, certain events, such as the imminent death of a loved one, may arouse such strong guilty feelings--in particular when there were also angry feelings towards this person--that the unconscious censorship forbids this percept to reach consciousness at all. A second prohibitive psychodynamic factor could be what has come to be known as "ownership resistance" (Batcheldor, 1984). Apparently, the psi faculty may be intimately connected with a person's fear of his forbidden omnipotent wishes with the result that that person's psi faculties are to be repressed along with the wishes as soon as they emerge. (When people are recounting a precognitive experience of their own about an imminent accident or disaster, they sometimes add that they were scared by it because it could mean, in their view, that they might unwittingly have contributed to the causation of the event.)