Probably the most
important aspect of an exceptional human experience (EHE) is its
aftereffects, and yet—with the exception of near-death
experiences—little attention has been paid to what happens as a result
of an exceptional human experience. The experience itself has been the
center of attention, and not even the experience as such, but the
objectively verifiable facts associated with it. In an attempt to
redress this situation, the EHE Network is undertaking an investigation
of the aftereffects of all types of EHEs along with descriptions of what
the experience felt like and the meaning of the experience for the
experiencer.
The sources of the aftereffects listed were varied. One was a
preliminary survey of the 171 essays submitted in 1994 to the Eighth
Imich Essay Contest, which was on EHEs. Many of the essayists
concentrated only on what happened during the experience, so we do not
know whether they had long-range aftereffects or not. Some, however,
wrote EHE autobiographies, a form that allows long-term effects to be
described. White contributed some, based on her general knowledge of
aftereffects from her reading and personal experience. Additional items
added by Suzanne V. Brown from her own reading and experience. A number
of published sources, described next, were searched by White and the
authors’ names are listed in parentheses after each aftereffect found
in one or more of them. They are referenced fully at the end.
Sir Alister Hardy founded the Religious Experience Research Unit at
Oxford. Hardy and his group collected many accounts of spiritual experiences,
and he reported on 3,000 of them in a book (Hardy, 1979). Several types
of EHEs were represented. Million (1992) surveyed 22 people who had had
paranormal experiences in regard to aftereffects. Kennedy and Kanthamani
(1995) also investigated aftereffects of paranormal and transcendent
experiences (i.e., EHEs). We will also list below aftereffects cited in
... three of these studies, indicating which one by citing author’s
or authors’ name(s) followed by the page number in parentheses. Note:
Several of the phrases are synonymous but we included all forms used.
(We have listed both short- and long-term aftereffects in one
alphabetical order. Sometimes the same aftereffects occur not only at
the time of the experience but later, as well.)
The original list based on the above was augmented by two studies
performed since it was compiled. One was an examination of the
concomitants, triggers, and aftereffects of 50 accounts of experiences
taken from 50 of the essays from the 8th Imich Essay Contest selected
randomly. For that study, which was funded by the Institute
of
Noetic Sciences, we used three checklists White had prepared, including the aftereffect
one. Before the analysis was begun, Brown and White added any additional
aftereffects they could think of from their reading and experience. We
then used the checklists during the analysis to check off any
aftereffects noted, each researcher working independently. If an
aftereffect was not on the list, we added it. One of us (White) tended
to add specific items, whereas Brown tended to go up one or two levels
of generalization. (Ideally, both methods should be used for the whole
list, and White hopes to do this.) The new aftereffects we noted have
been added to the current list. The preliminary report of the entire
study will be in the library on EHE Research. (White hopes to prepare a
fuller report of the study after the data have been rechecked.)
In addition, for the 1999 meeting of the Institute for the Scientific
Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM), White prepared a
paper on aftereffects of various types of anomalous experience and
anomalies of personal experience based on a literature survey of studies
she could locate within a one-month period working as time permitted.
She found 71 individual and group studies and searched them for
aftereffects to add to the list. A short version of that paper, listing
the most frequent aftereffects noted, is listed here under About EHEs.
Here are some of
the references checked in looking for aftereffects. The full list [[see
Rocamora's note below References.]] will
be presented eventually, but will require hours of work we do not have
available at this time.
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References
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1
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.
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Hardy,
A. (1979). The Spiritual Nature of
Man.
Oxford
,
UK
: Clarendon.
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2
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.
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Kennedy,
J.E., & Kanthamani, H. (1995). An exploratory study of the
effects of paranormal and spiritual experiences in peoples’
lives and well-being. Journal of the American Society for
Psychical Research, 89, 249-264.
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3
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.
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Milton,
J. (1992). Effects of "paranormal" experiences on
people’s lives. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research,
58, 314-323.
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NOTE
ABOUT "THE FULL LIST": I [R. Rocamora] have yet to find
this list. But it must be in some form in a fairly progressed
stage, since this article was published in 2001, and Rhea still had a
few good years left before she became too ill to continue her
work. She passed away in early 2007. I hope to be able to
track this down shortly and will certainly keep you posted.
