Welcome! Welcome to the jourrnal for the Bristol Paranormal, Religious, and Spiritual Experiences Study. This post explains the details of the study and what to do if you would like to take part in it. Any questions about the study can be asked as a comment to this post, and will be answered as soon as possible!
Who is conducting the study?
Researchers at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK. The study forms part of a doctoral thesis.
What is the study about?
Religious, spiritual, or paranormal experiences! We are interested in people who have had at least one such experience in their lives. The purpose of this research is to explore how individual differences in personality and beliefs relate to how people evaluate their experiences.
How do I participate?
The study takes place entirely online, and is very simple - all you have to do is fill out a series of questionnaires. There are three separate forms, all available online; each one takes about ten or fifteen minutes to complete. If you take part, please fill out all three forms, as well as a consent form - the links are given below!
You will need to provide a username with each form, so that researchers can group the questionnaires together. However, you do not need to put your name, email address, or any personal identifying information on the forms. You will be asked to sign the consent form, but this is kept separately from your actual answers - not even the researchers can associate your consent form with your answers!
To take part, you need to be a native or fully fluent speaker of English (from any country), and over 16 years of age. You also have to have had at least one paranormal, religious, or spiritual experience. Please see below for examples, but any experience will do!
What counts as a spiritual experience?
There are many different types of paranormal, religious, or supernatural experience. You don't necessarily have to be religious yourself - just to have had an experience you feel current science can't fully explain, no matter how small! Examples include:
Seeing or communicating with people or animals who have died.
Telepathy
Objects moving by themselves, strange sounds, smells, or lights
UFOs or supernatural creatures
Visions or psychic experiences
Seeing the future
Precognitive dreams
Witchcraft, practised by yourself or another
Mediumship, seances
Knowing who is on the other end of the telephone before you answer
Feeling a presence
Haunted houses
Poltergeist experiences
Near death experiences
Astral projection or out of the body experiences
Religious experiences, visions, prayer
Experiences related to meditation
...and much more; the only rule is that it should be an experience that you feel current science doesn't satisfactorily explain, and/or that you feel is due to a higher power, psychic abilities, or the supernatural.
If you wish to take part, here are the links!
Please sign the consent form first!
http://www.personalitystudy.net/public_html/consentform.htmThen, the three forms are at these links - please complete them in order. At the end of each form, you can submit your answers to the researchers - please do this for *each* form.
http://www.personalitystudy.net/public_html/first_questionnaire.htmhttp://www.personalitystudy.net/public_html/second_questionnaire.htmhttp://www.personalitystudy.net/public_html/final_questionnaire.htmThank you for your interest in this research!