Extraordinary Experiences of Children – Developmental-, Social-Psychological and Sociological Aspects

Pilot Study

In retrospective reports of adults who made extraordinary experiences, one is often confronted with claims that similar experiences had been made in early childhood by the respective persons, but could not be understood adequately at this time of life. Later such experiences had been “exculturated” because they do not fit the dominant world view. Only with encountering similar experienced much later in life these persons could retrospectively understand their earlier extraordinary experiences and incorporate them in an interpretational framework. If taking these claims seriously and thereby deeming them worth investigation then a basic hypothesise can be derived: Already children are confronted with extraordinary experiences and are able to distinguish them from everyday perceptions and states of consciousness without any given cultural interpretation or understanding of it. This means primacy of experience over interpretation (Jamesian “overbelief” model). The pilot study shall access possibilities of investigating this methodologically challenging issue where two basic problems need to be distinguished. One relates to the possibility of perception and differentiation of extraordinary experiences of children from a developmental-psychological perspective; the other is concerned with the social reaction to children’s reports which are evaluated by adults as reports or fantasies of such experiences. Especially the latter problem might provide indications of processes of social stigmatization of extraordinary experiences.

Project Leader: PD. Dr. Michael Schetsche

Staff Member: Dr. Gerhard Mayer