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4. DISCUSSION 

 

4.1 PARANORMAL BELIEFS AND RELIGIOSITY 

 

The main aim of this study was to determine the potential relationship 

between paranormal and religious beliefs.  A significantly positive 

correlation was revealed and a simple model emerged

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.  This result provides 

supporting evidence for a relationship between the two constructs that was 

initially suggested in Goode’s (2000) exploratory study and Haraldsson’s 

(1981) Icelandic samples of belief in psychic phenomena and self-reported 

religiosity (consisting of items related to praying and the reading of religious 

material).  The findings in this study are in contrast to those by Hillstrom 

and Strachan (2000), who reported negative correlations between religiosity 

and beliefs in telepathy, precognition, PK, psychic healing, UFOs, 

reincarnation, and communication with spirits.  The results are also opposed 

to the view expressed by Sparks (2001), stating that there are sound 

conceptual reasons, by which the non-close relationship between these two 

domains of belief can be explained.  The reasons he suggested were the lack 

of treating or endorsing most paranormal phenomena in any detail in any of 

the religious traditions -therefore religious believers may reject the possible 

occurrence of this kind of phenomena - secondly, the explicit teachings of 

many religions, which rely on its followers to demonstrate faiths that are 

untestable using the scientific method (for example, the central belief of 

Christians that Jesus Christ dies for people’s sins). This is different to 

paranormal phenomena that have been test in laboratory conditions (e.g. 

Zener card tests for ESP).  This view may be somewhat simplistic though, as 

even the most deeply religious of people would be exposed to other 

environmental and social influences that could affect their interpretation of 

events in the world without unduly impinging upon their religious activity 

and beliefs.   

 

                                                 

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 The equation for this simple model is Y’ = 99.28 + 0.26X where X is an individual’s 

paranormal belief score and Y’ is the best prediction of their religiosity score 

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Precognition was found to be the best (and most significant) predictor of 

religious beliefs. The other paranormal subscales were not able to 

significantly predict religiosity.  This is an interesting result and one that has 

been seen before, such as in Tobayck and Milford’s (1983) study, which 

showed that items pertaining to Traditional Religious Belief (belief in 

survival, devil, God, heaven and hell) constituted a factor supposedly 

independent of the other belief dimensions on the RPBS and that they 

correlated positively with belief in precognition (r = 0.23).  The fact that 

precognition is significantly related to religiosity might be considered 

‘common sense’ when considering the number of examples involving 

prophetic visions and dreams that are recorded in the Bible (Sparks, 2001). 

 

Of similar interest was the finding of the Orthodoxy and Second Naiveté 

religious subscales as the most significant predictors of paranormal belief.  

The common factor between these two subscales is the Inclusion of 

Transcendence aspect in respect to Wulff’s (1991, 1997) two-dimensional 

model of religiosity.  This relates to the belief in an afterlife, spiritual or 

some other form of existence beyond the physical realm.  Past research 

indicates that, with the exception of a few countries such as the former East 

Germany and Slovenia, the majority of the population believes in a life after 

death and that the amount of people expressing this belief is actually 

increasing (Greeley, 1995).  The common thread that might link paranormal 

and religious beliefs is the explanation of the belief in transcendence as 

some kind of anxiety-reduction process regarding the anxiety about death, 

since Osarchuk and Tatz (1973, p. 256) had concluded that one function of 

belief in an afterlife ‘might be to help the individual to deal with anxiety 

over death’.  Perhaps most pertinent of all is a study by Thalbourne (1989), 

which collated evidence showing that those who believe in an afterlife also 

tend to believe in, and report the experience of, paranormal phenomena such 

as ESP and psychokinesis.  Siegel (1980, p. 917) has go so far as to remark 

that ‘our belief in survival after death is probably related to some deep 

biological craving of the organism’.  This anxiety regarding death may 

reflect a more general disposition towards anxiety that is found in 

paranormal believers in the previous studies (Okebukola, 1986; Wagner and 

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Ratzeburg, 1987).  Anxiety ratings or scores for religious believers have not 

received much interest, so whether this is an important contributing factor 

towards these two beliefs remains to be examined by future research in this 

area. 

 

4.2 PARANORMAL BELIEFS AND PERSONALITY 

 

Conscientiousness was found to be the only personality factor significantly 

predicting paranormal beliefs and it was negatively correlated to it.  This 

finding was in contrast with previous research, which revealed mixed results 

regarding personality correlates of paranormal belief. Some studies 

suggested that neuroticism was significantly related (Thalbourne, Dunbar 

and Delin, 1995), while others did not (Lester and Monaghan, 1995; 

Willging and Lester, 1997).  Similarly Extraversion was found to be a 

significant correlate of paranormal belief in some studies (Thalbourne, 

1981; Eysenck 1967; Thalbourne and Haraldsson, 1980), while not in others 

(Lester et al., 1987; Windholz and Diamant, 1974).   

 

The influence of the Conscientiousness factor upon paranormal belief may 

be a reflection of the relatively small sample in the study and the use of the 

RPBS, which has only been used in a handful of previous studies. So it may 

in turn reflect the differing operational definitions of paranormality as a 

construct (Irwin, 1993).  As can be seen, no clear consistent picture is 

emerging regarding personality correlates of global paranormal belief. 

Further research is necessary and perhaps an approach investigating those 

subscales that share similar attributes is required, e.g. superstition and 

spiritualism have been shown to correlate positively with external locus of 

control, and psi belief has correlated negatively (Wolfradt, 1997), so perhaps 

a more consistent picture with regards to personality factors may emerge 

taking this route.    

 

 

 

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