Extrasensory Diffidence & Dissonance
Extrasensory Diffidence refers to when an individual has an extrasensory experience followed by overwhelming self-doubt in their capability to determine reality from imagination. This questioning of capability to properly perceive, believe, and appraise the experience can lead to functional impairments if issues arise and the individual does not receive advice or assurance from others. This lack in social support and self-confidence can lead to a number of issues depending on the type of extrasensory experience that is dismissed.
Extrasensory Dissonance refers to when an individual has an extrasensory experience and shares the occurrence of this experience with others. In this case, others experience mental distress and discomfort because they hold foundational beliefs that are contradictory to the individual’s alleged experience. This stress and discomfort may also arise if the experient holds foundational beliefs that are contradictory to the experience.
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Don’t cut the branch a client is sitting on unless you give him a ladder to climb down the tree.” (Belz, 2012)
Religious & Spiritual Dissonance
In general, the fewer spiritual/religious implications involved in the explanation of an extrasensory experience, the less likely one will typically encounter resistance to the explanation. However, while there are exceptions to this approach, proceeding with a purely scientific explanatory model may often be the only approach that will allow the individual to keep their permanent core belief structure intact while integrating their extrasensory experience into their personal story. However, even purely scientific explanations may conflict with core beliefs, and therefore may not be accepted due to those beliefs, or the lack thereof.
Additional Experience-Specific Issues
The following are the most common topics in relation to self-disbelief and the disbelief or dismissal of extrasensory experiences by the experient and their consequences. The following also includes the most common topics in relation to the disbelief or dismissal of extrasensory experiences by others and their consequences. The textbook takes a deeper look at specific diffidence and dissonance issues through brief case reports and recommended treatment options per issue.
- Precognitive Diffidence – Presentation: When an individual experiences guilt or depression due to self-doubt and the dismissal, denial, or withholding of information obtained during a precognitive experience.
- Cassandra Complex (Precognition) – Presentation: When an individual experiences guilt or depression due to the inability to alter known future events and/or the inability to convince others of the validity of their predictions.
- Quasi-Cassandra Effect (Precognition) – Presentation: When an individual has the ability to alter known future events, but experiences depression due to the inability to convince others of the validity of their predictions because the future event has been changed.
- Crisis Notification Diffidence & Dissonance (Contemporaneous Telepathy and/or Clairvoyance) – Presentation: When an individual experiences guilt, depression, or anxiety due to self-doubt and the dismissal, denial, or withholding of information obtained during a real-time remote viewing/sensing experience, and/or the inability to convince others of the validity of their experiences.
- Mediumship Diffidence – Presentation: When an individual experiences guilt or depression due to self-doubt and the dismissal, denial, or withholding of information obtained by a discarnate spirit for a living person.
- Discarnate Communication Dissonance (Mediumship) – Presentation: When an individual experiences guilt or depression due to the inability to convince others of the validity of their communications with the dead and successfully pass the information on to the living.
References:
Belz, M. (2012). Clinical Psychology for People with Exceptional Experiences in Practice, In Exceptional Experience and Health: Essays on Mind, Body and Human Potential. McFarland.
Citation: Kelly, T.M. (2015). Clinical Parapsychology: Extrasensory Exceptional Experiences (Textbook). University of Alternative Studies. Purchase.
Copyright © 2015 Theresa M. Kelly, MsD. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.