WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY?
This study aims to explore relationships between social factors and anomalous experiences, like changes in perception, spiritual-type experiences, hearing voices, or extrasensory communications. As we expect these experiences to vary during the day, we are interested to measure feelings and thoughts in the flow of daily life. In practice, this involves using a mobile application (‘app’) that beeps ten times a day at random moments. After each beep, you will be asked to answer some questions regarding what you are doing and how you are feeling at that moment. These questions will always be the same and completing these will take no longer than two to three minutes. This should be similar to answering a text message on your mobile phone.
Recent research has shown that many people describe having anomalous experiences. For some people these experiences have a negative impact on their life and result in input from mental health services. For others, these experiences have a positive impact and can be life-enriching. This research will attempt to identify what distinguishes between people whose experiences are positive from those whose experiences become distressing. Furthermore, we are interested in the role of your personal environment and the fluctuation of positive and negative feelings during the day. Therefore, capturing a picture of daily life is highly informative and provides individual information that could be used to identify patterns of experiences and feelings in relation to the environment. By providing us with this rich information, you will contribute to increasing our knowledge of how positive and negative feelings are linked to anomalous experiences and the environment.
MORE INFORMATION
Participant information sheet: open pdf in new tab
Information leaflet: open pdf in new tab