Qualitative Research in Psychology

Special Issue: Investigating Extra-Sensory Experiences and Consciousness through Qualitative Research

The focus on the brain over the last few decades has seen an overclaiming of the human condition through brain-based research, materialist/physicalist ontologies and measurement methodologies. This has limited qualitative enquiry into who we are, our subjective experiences and our relationality with others and the world. Physicalist orientations have further excluded a range of human experiences which go beyond our five-sense sensorium and materialist notions of personhood, time and space. These are experiences often attended to in marginalised fields such as parapsychology and transpersonal psychology, referred to as anomalous, paranormal or extra-sensory. Examples might include knowing things before they happen, having visions or engaging with beings others cannot see or hear. The potential for qualitative research in the study of extra-sensory experiences is under explored and warrants critical examination. A focus on extra-sensory subjective experiences, through the lenses of qualitative research, may offer greater affordances for understanding the nature of experience, self and consciousness. Enquiry into the methodological, epistemological and ontological dimensions of qualitative research and extra-sensory experiences is needed from researchers, scientists and practitioners across a range of disciplines. Starting this dialogue within and across fields is vital for generating knowledge about selves, bodies, and the world, that has the potential to inform the field and practice.

This special issue of Qualitative Research in Psychology responds to this under-researched area, through connecting robust methodological, epistemological and ontological discussion – by researchers across parapsychology, psychology, social sciences, transpersonal psychology and consciousness studies. We welcome contributions which show innovative qualitative approaches towards the study of extra-sensory experiences which demonstrate links between experience, self, consciousness and qualitative enquiry. Areas for contribution to the special issue could include:

•  Using traditional and/or non-traditional qualitative methods for investigating extra-sensory experiences with people (children, young people and adults)
• Any benefits and challenges for applying qualitative methods for exploring extra-sensory experiences
• The epistemological and ontological dimensions of qualitative research on extra-sensory experiences
• Connections made between extra-sensory experiences, self and consciousness through the lenses of qualitative research approaches
• Marginalisation or exclusion of fields which investigate extra-sensory experiences from academia, service development and policy formation
• The ethics of researching extra-sensory experiences with vulnerable groups such as children (including practical aspects such as ethics applications and ethics boards)
• Qualitative research on extra-sensory experiences within the contexts of discourse, culture and society (including cyberculture)
• Qualitative research into the nature of self, time, space and/or reality through the lens of extra-sensory experiences
• Debates around extra-sensory experiences, mental health and research methodology

Contributions to the special issue should demonstrate the successes and/or challenges, tensions and frictions for applying qualitative approaches to the study of extra-sensory experiences. The special issue aims to appeal to a wide readership across various disciplines, provoking future research and strongly positioning qualitative research as a necessary process for understanding what it means to be human.