When spirits speak: absorption, attribution, and identity among spiritualists who report “clairaudient” voice experiences

Figures & data

Table 1. Correlations between Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS), Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale (LSHS-R) auditory and visual subscales and Paranormal Belief Scale (PBS) spiritual beliefs subscale.

	TAS	LSHS-R auditory	LSHS-R visual	PBS spiritual
TAS	–
LSHS-R auditory	.458*	–
LSHS-R visual	.400*	.617*	–
PBS spiritual	.336*	.171	.208	–

*p < .008 (.05/6).

Table 2. Summary of hierarchical linear regression, predicting spiritual beliefs (PBS spiritual subscale) in the general population group (n = 138).

Variable	B	SE	β	p
Model 1
Intercept	10.73	4.71
Age (yrs)	.01	.03	.01	.884
Gender	3.11	1.00	.57	.002
Education (yrs)	−.17	.26	−.06	.503
Model 2
Intercept	7.54	4.47
Age (yrs)	.01	.03	.04	.661
Gender	3.08	.94	.57	.001
Education (yrs)	−.24	.24	−.08	.328
TAS	.26	.06	.34	< .001
Model 3
Intercept	5.24	5.11
Age (yrs)	.02	.03	.06	.478
Gender	3.35	.95	.61	< .001
Education (yrs)	−.20	.24	−.07	.407
TAS	.23	.07	.31	<.001
LSHS-R-auditory	−.11	.27	−.04	.678
LSHS-R-visual	.44	.29	.15	.132

TAS = Tellegen Absorption Scale; LSHS-R = Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale.

Table 3. Frequency and location of spiritual experiences. All numbers represent percentages of the spiritualist group that endorsed the option.

	Clairaudient	Clairvoyant	Clairsentient
Present?	100	96.9	98.4
Frequency
Daily	44.6	43.8	54
Once a week	27.7	37.5	33.3
Once a month	13.8	12.5	9.5
Once a year	10.8	6.3	3.2
Less than once a year	3.1	0	0
Last experience within
Last day	33.8	37.5	58.1
Last week	41.5	50	32.3
Last month	13.8	9.4	6.5
Last year	9.2	3.1	1.6
Longer than year	1.5	0	1.6
Location
Inside head	65.1	87.1	–
Outside head, far away	3.2	1.6	–
Outside head, close by	31.7	11.3	–

Table 4. Descriptive statistics (M, SD) for the TAS, LSHS-R, PBS, and AIQ for the spiritualist and general population groups, results from Mann–Whitney U tests, and effect sizes (r_rb, rank biserial correlation).

	Spiritualists (n = 66)	Gen. pop (n = 143)	Mann-Whitney U
Age (yrs)	53.8 (11.1)	49.9 (14.1)	p = .06, rrb = .16
Gender (% M)	18.5	30.5	p = .08
Education (yrs)	14.8 (2.15)	15.8 (1.86)	p < .001, rrb = .33
TAS	21.28 (6.36)	14.22 (7.21)	p < .001, rrb = .54
LSHS-R auditory	10.20 (3.05)	7.36 (2.05)	p < .001, rrb = .57
LSHS-R visual	6.37 (2.32)	5.63 (1.90)	p = .016, rrb = .20
PBS spiritual	25.91 (2.59)	8.71 (5.39)	p < .001, rrb = .99
AIQ social	21.02 (5.67)	21.24 (4.64)	p = .608, rrb = .34
AIQ relational	40.29 (7.78)	39.36 (8.03)	p = .391, rrb = .07
AIQ collective	21.31 (6.87)	20.66 (5.60)	p = .814, rrb = .02
AIQ personal	40.63 (5.51)	37.31 (5.59)	p < .001, rrb = .04

TAS = Tellegen Absorption Scale; LSHS-R = Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale; AIQ = Aspects of Identity Scale.