John Kruth, Christine Simmonds-Moore

Rhine Research Center, Durham, NC, USA; University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, USA

—

Introduction: Humans range in their capacity to voluntarily experience visual mental imagery. At one end of the continuum, some people experience a total lack of visual imagery, or “aphantasia”. At the opposite end, others experience vivid, photographic-like visual imagery, or “hyperphantasia”. Imaging ability is implicated in memory, daydreaming, dreaming and creativity and may play a role in exceptional experiences (ExE), including extrasensory perception (ESP). Research supports a role for strong imagery in peoples’ tendencies to report ExE. However, there are different ways of experiencing anomalies and different types of ESP experience and not all ExE are visual in nature. Although some experiences emerge as anomalies in the self-model (internal phenomena that occur in the mind’s eye), others emerge as anomalies in the world model (body-based anomalies and physical anomalies occurring out in the world), others relate to coincidence making, and others are dissociative. Some experiences involve realistic imagery, others involve symbolic imagery, others reflect intuitive experiences and a final group reflect hallucinatory phenomena. The specific roles of imagery vividness (and a lack of imagery) in the etiology of different types of ExE is under-studied. This is a two-part investigation that explores the role of imagery vividness in different types of ExE, how synesthesia interacts with imagery vividness in terms of ExE and what it is like to experience aphantasia.

Methods: For the first phase of the investigation, an online survey explored a battery of measures including imagery vividness (VIVIQ), synesthesia, ExE (the PExE-II, measuring external, internal, dissociative and coincidence phenomena), four questions asking about realistic, unrealistic, intuitive and hallucinatory types of ESP and an open-ended question about ExE. Respondents were categorized into three groups of imager (aphantasia, mid imager, hyperphantasia). A second phase sought to identify ten aphantasic individuals from phase 1 and engage in interviews and qualitative analysis using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).

Results: The project is in progress. Preliminary analysis found that hyperphantasic individuals scored significantly higher than aphantasics and mid imagers on external, internal, and coincidence phenomena. Hyperphantasics scored higher than mid imagers on dissociative phenomena. Aphantasics were no different to mid imagers on all 4 types of ExE. Some aphantasics reported ESP experiences, while others reported none. Realistic, unrealistic, and intuitive ESP were associated with imagery vividness. Hallucinatory ESP was unrelated to vividness of imagery. Synesthesia was independently associated with ExE. Some aphantasics reported synesthesia.

Discussion: Strong imagery vividness plays a role in the etiology of many forms of ExE. However, vividness plays a stronger role for some forms of experience compared to others. For example, hallucinatory ESP may have a different etiology that is independent of imagery vividness. Synesthesia plays an important role in the etiology of ExE. There are aphantasic individuals who report ExE and those who do not. Likewise, there are aphantasic individuals who report synesthesia. There is a need to explore the lived experience of aphantasic individuals to unpack these different ways of experiencing.

—

John Kruth is Executive Director of the Rhine Research Center in Durham, NC, focusing on exceptional experiences and parapsychological research. Christine Simmonds-Moore is a researcher at the University of West Georgia, specializing in anomalous experiences, imagery, and individual differences.

—

The Parapsychological Association is an international professional organization of scientists and scholars engaged in the study of psi (or ‘psychic’) experiences, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, psychic healing, and precognition. The primary objective of the PA is to achieve a scientific understanding of these experiences.

Follow the PA: https://linktr.ee/parapsychologicalassociation

Donate to support the mission of the PA: https://donorbox.org/support-the-parapsychological-association

Published on April 28, 2026