Belief in the "paranormal" and "sanity"

[dragon wench]

I just took the test in the personality disorder thread. I ended up with "low" in everything except Schizotypal in which I received a "moderate." The reason for this being that I answered yes to the question concerning a belief in extrasensory perception.

I realise that these tests are basically just for fun, but IMO this reflects the frequent mainstream view that anybody who deviates even slightly from the norm is somehow imbalanced. I am highly intuitive, and my gut feeling has saved me from potentially dangerous or nasty situations on numerous occasions. Further, whenever I have ignored my gut feeling I have regretted it profoundly.

I don't consider myself to suffer any sort of personality disorder (though others may well differ ), but I do believe in the existence of a sixth sense.

What are people's thoughts on this subject?

[Vicsun]

I think that it might have been your answer to the extrasensory perception question that made you moderately Schizotypal since as you pointed out the test reflects people's views and not actual sanity. If you go around claiming you are a prophet and can see the future (yes I'm exaggerating) most people would not think you quite sane

[fable]

Originally posted by dragon wench
I realise that these tests are basically just for fun, but IMO this reflects the frequent mainstream view that anybody who deviates even slightly from the norm is somehow imbalanced.

That's been the objection to psychological profiling--on the job, at school, etc--since these serious testing first became widespread in the 1950s: the tests aren't accurate, since they work off a mythic norm. This norm was important to post WWII scientific behaviorists who felt that everybody is better off when they share the same dreams, goals, likes, dislikes, etc.

During the 1950s and 60s, people were expected to take these tests and score in a certain way. Fortunately, they became a lot less popular as the society diversified in the 1970s; suddenly we were no longer just a bunch of white Anglo-Saxon males who always enjoyed the same things--we were black, brown, female, handicapped, Italian, Russian, even Canadian.

I once read an hardhitting expose book on the tests, that concluded with nine of those most used in industry. It also provided a list of the "proper" answers and the actual methodology between their choice. Quite hysterical, in a frightening sort of way. One of the two most popular employment tests asked which of four acttivities you would enjoy most, and men were expected to demonstrate their virility by choosing "precipice jumping." If you didn't, you lost heterosexual points.

[Jaesha]

Well I am told on a daily basis that I have a screwy mind and a twisted sense of 'umor...

Moo!

[Yshania]

I also answered yes to that same question but scored low. My opinion is that these types of tests are inconclusive, and it would be inaccurate to draw a conclusion on the basis of one answer to just one question anyway. There must have been a few other answers that influenced this moderate score, DW

[Gwalchmai]

I answered yes to that question but scored high in Schizotypal! What does that test know that its not telling us?

[Yshania]

Originally posted by Gwalchmai

I answered yes to that question but scored high in Schizotypal! What does that test know that its not telling us?

LOL! well I am sure if you paid the fee, you might get a full report but do you really want to know?

[dragon wench]

@Fable,
I have read about those tests conducted in the 50s and 60s, and IMO they are frightening in the extreme..... This is somewhat outside my area but I seem to recall that this was also a period that showed a high incidence of people being committed to institutions...... I would not be surprised if there is a direct link between the two.

This conversation recalls to mind a wonderful book I read by Lyall Watson, called Lightening Bird (see:http://www.lyallwatson.com/Watson%20...LIGHTNING.HTML) I quote Watson here:

This is a true story. My account of what happened to a young Englishman who arrived in Africa at the age of sixteen and ventured into the bush alone, on foot, equipped with nothing more than a pocketknife and a plastic bagful of salt, to look for a world described a century earlier by Livingstone and Selous.

Against all the odds, Adrian Boshier found it. And I didn't believe him. Not at first.

He was a spellbinding raconteur, a lean, abrasive man given to extravagant gestures. And the claims he made of unlocking some of Africa's best-kept tribal secrets, seemed impossible ones for one so new to the continent and so white.

We didn't like each other, but when he died under strange circumstances at the age of just thirty-nine, I discovered his secret. He was epileptic, and in Africa that made him not sick, but very, very well. Not an invalid, but someone special, someone seen to be possessed by the spirits of the ancestors. Just the sort of person who, despite his background, would be encouraged and admitted to the inner circles of tradition.

So I backtracked him and found that everything he had said about his twenty years of adventuring in the bush was true. His short and extraordinary life was rich in scientific discovery and insights of considerable value.

[Gwalchmai]

Originally posted by Yshania
LOL! well I am sure if you paid the fee, you might get a full report but do you really want to know?

I suspect they have a committee of psychics on line 24 hours a day just so that they can assess the Schizotypal quotient of people regardless of how they answer the test!

edit: that may just be my paranoia coming out....

[dragon wench]

@Ysh and Gwally, lol!

Well.... *cough* I also admitted to bouts of anger and liking to be alone... Though, again, the latter indicates IMO a prevailing belief that those who actually enjoy solitude are "strange."

[Yshania]

I copied this from the quiz:

Schizotypal

Many believe that schizotypal personality disorder represents mild schizophrenia. The disorder is characterized by odd forms of thinking and perceiving, and individuals with this disorder often seek isolation from others. They sometimes believe to have extra sensory ability or that unrelated events relate to them in some important way. They generally engage in eccentric behavior and have difficulty concentrating for long periods of time. Their speech is often over elaborate and difficult to follow.

I sense that the test looks for key answers, not just one. There are references in this summary to:

isolation
extra sensory perception
eccentric behaviour
concentration
conversation being difficult to follow

There was a question relating to each of these traits. I would hazard a guess that if you answered yes to five of the five that you would score high. If you answered yes to three or four of the five you might get moderate, and two or less of the five a low return Just a thought.

@Gwally and DW LMAO! I see we are doomed!

[Gwalchmai]

I actually went back and changed my answer to the ESP question, and I still scored high!

I'm sticking with my first theory....

[Mr Sleep]

Originally posted by Yshania
isolation
extra sensory perception
eccentric behaviour
concentration
conversation being difficult to follow

Oh dear, I guess there is no hope...

[Yshania]

Originally posted by Gwalchmai

I suspect they have a committee of psychics on line 24 hours a day just so that they can assess the Schizotypal quotient of people regardless of how they answer the test!

edit: that may just be my paranoia coming out....

So you are one of The Chosen Few then?

@Sleepy, LMAO! so you are saying you won't bother with the rest of the test then?

[Gwalchmai]

Originally posted by Yshania
So you are one of The Chosen Few then?

That must be it. I wish they would tell me things like this.... send out a memo or something....