Belief in Paranormal Experiences
 

Types of Paranormal/Spiritual Experiences

Apparitions

Miraculous Intercessions

Night Terror

Near Death Experiences

Past Lives

Precognition

Extra Sensory Perception (ESP)

Out of Body Experiences

Synchronistic Events

Deja Vu

Evidence of the Operation of Transcendent Power

Crop Circles

Shroud of Turin

St. Brigit’s Cross

Marian Apparitions

Stigmata

BELIEF IN PARANORMAL PHENOMENA

                                                    Percent
Phenomenon                               Believing

Angels                                           50

Extra-sensory perception             46

Deja Vu                                         31

Precognition                                  24

Clairvoyance                                 18

Astrology                                       15

Devils                                             37

Witches                                          13

Ghosts                                            15

Big Foot                                          16

Loch Ness Monster                       10
 

ANOMALOUS EXPERIENCES

                                                                      Chinese      American
                                                                      Students     Students

Deja Vu                                                             64               89

Extra-sensory Perception Belief                     76               66

Extra-sensory Perception Experience            71               44

Out of Body Experience                                  55               27

Contact with the Dead                                     40               25

Night Paralysis                                                 58               37
 

Types of Explanation For Anomalous Experiences

1. Psychopathology model

2. Entrepreneurial model

3. Subcultural evolution model

4. Normal revelation model

 1.  Many common, ordinary, even mundane mental  phenomena can be experienced as contact with the
      supernatural

 2.  Most episodes involving contact with the supernatural will merely confirm conventional religious culture

 3.  Unusually creative individuals will sometimes create profound revelations and externalize the source

 4.  Normal revelations are most likely to come from persons of deep religious concerns who perceive
      shortcomings in conventional faith

 5.  The probability that individuals will perceive shortcomings in conventional faith increase during times of crisis

 6.  During periods of crisis, the number of people receiving and accepting revelations is maximized

 7.  Individuals' confidence in the validity of their revelations is reinforced by acceptance

 8.  Reinforcement is likely to yield further revelations

 9.  The greater the reinforcement, the more novel subsequent revelations become

10. As movements become more successful, attempts are made to curtail revelations or at least prevent more
      revelations
 

Location:

Royal Oak, Michigan

Suburb of Detroit

 Population of 70,000

Unidentified man

Two dimensional image man identified as Virgin Mary on the wall of the Starr Presbyterian Church

Observed the image twice in April, 1984

Reported to family and friends on third observation

Family and friends confirmed the sighting

Word spreads and size of crowd grows

300 in early May

500 in late May

Prophetic Disconfirmation

Prediction of a miracle on, the Ascension of Christ, on May 25 does not occur

Crowd size declines

150-200 in early June

20-30 in early July

No crowd in early August

Crowd characteristics

Mostly Catholic

Diverse by age and sex

Facilitators – Pointed out image location

Cheerleaders  – Proclaimed the supernatural origin of the image

Reciters of the Rosary  – Engaged in religious ritual at the site

No prophetic figure

She is here because of all the trouble in the world today

She wants us to be good

No ongoing message

Congregation and pastor took no position on the images

Catholic newspaper discouraged pilgrimage by asserting that God is present everywhere
 

Location:

Bayside, Queens, New York

Veronica Lueken (1923-1995)

Wife and mother of five children

St. Theresa appeared to Lueken in 1968 and directed her to record her poems and spiritual writings

Virgin Mary appeared to Lueken in her home on April 7, 1970 informing her that:

She would appear at the St. Robert Bellarmine Church in Bayside on June 18

Prayer vigils be held there and the Rosary recited

Parish clergy be prepared for Mary’s first visit

A Shrine and Basilica be erected at this site named “our Lady of the Roses, Mary Helper of Mothers.
 
She would return on great feast days of the Church

Lueken should disseminate the messages she received throughout the world

At vigils Lueken received messages from Mary, Jesus, or a powerful Saint

A shrine, Our Lady of the Roses Shrine at Bayside, was erected

Miraculous healings continue to be reported

Miraculous visions and photographs continue to be reported

Vigils of prayer and atonement are held on the great feast days of the Church

In 1986 the Brooklyn Archdiocese issued a “negative memorandum”

The shrine rejects the church’s judgement

Early Life

Tenuous relationship to Catholic Church prior to apparitions

Mother a Spiritualist

Husband a Catholic

Apparition Experiences

November 12, 1949

In bed suffering from heart pain and from kidney ailment

Anxious about inability to fulfill duties as wife and mother because of ill health

Prayed to Virgin and Jesus for ability to perform familial obligations

Saw a tall figure in the hallway wearing a veil

Found experience frightening

Did not immediately tell family members for fear of being thought crazy

Considered alternative interpretations
 

Thought figure might be a spirit of the dead

Thought figure might be saint come to help son in trouble


Husband suggested interpretation of Virgin Mary appearing in response to wickedness in the world

April 7, 1950 (Good Friday)

Insomnia from heart pain

Saw crucifix on bedroom wall glow

Heard a voice commissioning her to go to parish priest and request that people be directed to recite the
Rosary each evening

Reported Virgin told her that she must fast and go to Mass for 15 days as penance for the members of the
community who had not responded to the request for nightly rosary

May 29, 1950

Reported Virgin told her she would receive a final penance on October 7 if people did not respond to the Virgin's request

November, 1950
 

Began experiencing the penance: suffering the wounds of Christ for five Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays

Confined to bed, convulsions, body assumed shape of cross, narrated scenes from Jesus passion which she
claimed to be envisioning

Fridays of Lent and Advent beginning in 1951

Illness and vomiting, inability to retain food, liquid diet for 24 days

Ill health continued
 

Insomnia, nausea, chest and abdominal pains, spinal pain

Confined to a wheelchair permanently

Construction of Apparition Experience

 1. Initially mistrusted senses

 2. Did not immediately inform family of experience

 3.. First experiences more vague than later experiences

Figure does not speak or identify self

 5. Experiences transformed ill health from guilt- inducing inconvenience that interfered with family obligations
     into meaningful spiritual and physical suffering on behalf of sinful community

 6. Early and subsequent messages included warning that she would be met with disbelief, persecution, betrayal
     Warnings not to travel alone, eat with strangers, not sign papers, not drink water except from family well

 7. Rapid increase in public interest

28 people present, including parish priest, for first public apparition on June 4

100,000 people present on August 15

 9. Other visionaries began reporting messages about her and her experiences

10. Clerical reaction mixed

Supported by parish priest

Church investigating committee discouraged interest in apparitions and messages

Hospitalized in 1952 by Bishop to test suffering claims

Official condemnation of Van Hoof's claims in 1955, and interdicts in 1970 and 1975

America threatened by Enemies of God

Russian submarines threatening coastlines

Pray for conversion of Russia

Pray Rosary and do penance

Lead clean lives

Clean out schools

Observe 10 Commandments

Van Hoof died in 1984

Group attached to Old Catholic Church of North America

Location:

        Pensacola, Florida

        Brownsville Assembly of God

Initiators:

        Rev. John Kilpatrick, pastor

        Steve Hill, evangelist

                43-year-old former drug addict

                Sentenced to a religion-based drug rehabilitation center

                Gave his life to Christianity and became a traveling preacher

Event:

        Spontaneous arrival of the Holy Spirit on June 18, 1995

        Kirkpatrick announced he felt a wind blowing through the church and that the revival the church had been
        praying for had come

Rituals:

        Slain in the Spirit

        Healings

        Speaking in Tongues

Organization:

        Revival planned by Kirkpatrick in advance

        Church officials traveled to Canada and observed revival crowd control techniques and prayer team methods
        at the Toronto Blessing

        Revival meetings held four nights weekly

        Eight ministers 

        More than 1.5 million participants since 1995

Opposition:

        Some congregation members have repudiated Kirkpatrick and Hill

        Media Spotlight rejects Hill’s claims of miraculous happenings based on taping of ceremony

        Journalistic Investigation by Pensacola News Journal

        Reports large amounts of money funneled to Kirkpatrick (Feast of Fire Ministries Inc.) and Hill personal
        ministries (Together in the Harvest Ministries Inc.)

                Reports Hill exaggerated drug and criminal history

                Reports Hill did not work as a traveling evangelist

                Reports financial discrepancies in funds reportedly give to charitable causes

                Reports on expensive lifestyles enjoyed by Kirkpatrick and Hill