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TW paranormal discussion. Are interests in the paranormal and autism connected?

Iain

If any of you are triggered by talk of the paranormal then please close this thread and go back to read something else.



I'm interested in finding how common it is for autistic people to be interested in the paranormal. By the paranormal I will use the Wikipedia definition:

Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding


Back in my 20s I developed an intense interests in ghosts and poltergeists after a particularly eventful seance I attended at university.

At the time I was studying Applied Physics and took a fairly rigorous approach to proving the existance of ghosts and spent a lot of time reading and attending lectures on the subject, mostly from the Society For Psychical Reseasch.

More than a decade later I did not come across a single scientifically provable case and never had an "experience" which was not obviously explainable to other environmental factors or manipulation.


I covered loads more paranormal areas of interest back them, largely thanks the the magazine of Fortean Times which is still on the go today.

That was what brought about my interest and why it waned again once it could not be proved ofter 10 years.

I think my interest was because I was looking for answers beyond the humdrum of our existence, but in the end I think I was looking in the wrong place.

Do you have an interest in the paranormal?
Do you think this is related to your autism?

  • Yes, but nothing go do with any ifiosxncrscies related to my neurology. 

    I struggled to find a spirituality that was right for me, and got into all kinds of deep dark angsts over that. I have always been inerested in divination. 

    However there is nothing like bereavement to generate more interest in the claims of those who talk to dead people. I never had any interest in mediumship but now I do enjoy watching You Tube programmes on psychic detectives, ghosts, reincarnation as explored by Iain Stephenson, and more, whereas before I didnt care for all that.

  • I would say I'm interested in the paranormal but from a rather sceptical point of view- I think it's just as interesting when something turns out to be a weird animal or optical illusion!

    I don't necessarily think the interest itself is connected to being autistic, but my willingness to talk about it and not mind being 'weird' probably is.

  • The more I hear of divergent thinkers who have experiences which cannot be easily explained, the more I am beginning to think we are tapped into something like streams or dimensions of time. 

    I also have Alice in Wonderland Syndrome which after a great deal of thought and research, believe it is something in the vestibular system sense-perceiving gravity and gravity bends space-time.

    We are capable of sensing far more than we can understand. 

  • Fascinating. I've always thought autism and the paranormal could be related. After all, autistic people distinguish patterns others might not recognise.

    I always thought objects or places abandoned or forgotten had a strong connection. I could never explain what that connection was and I don't believe in ghosts, because I am a rational person, but when I feel this "connection" I cannot stop but wonder if there are secrets those walls are not telling me.

  • I'm very much of the logical mindset, yes/no, black/white, true/false, and I really struggle to deal with uncertainty of any kind, so for me unprovable or belief based things are of absolutely no interest. Happy to read about it if it's fiction because then I know it's not supposed to be factual, and in fact I do enjoy paranormal fiction. But I don't think it's real.

  • That's a great question! I do have an interest in the paranormal, I would say it's definitely related to my autism and I've had my own experiences with the paranormal and judging by Debbie's thread it looks like a lot of other people here have as well Slight smile