A Study of Hallucinations in Normal Subjects

C. McCreery and G. Claridge, Personality and Individual Differences, 1996, 21, 5, 739–747.

Abstract: A group of 20 subjects who reported previously experiencing at least one ‘out-of-the-body’ experience (OBE) and a group of 20 matched controls attempted to induce OBEs in the laboratory under conditions of mild sensory limitation and physical relaxation. As predicted, the OBErs were more prone than controls to report hallucinations and involuntary imagery in this situation. The reporting of anomalous perceptual experiences was also positively correlated with scores on schizotypy scales, which measure the incidence of ‘positive’ symptomatology at a sub-clinical level. The results are interpreted in terms of a model of the ‘happy schizotype’ – a relatively well-adjusted person who is functional despite, and in some cases even because of, his or her anomalous perceptual experiences.