Epistemological and conceptual problems in the scientific study of anomalous experience

Abstract

Anomalous experience is defined as an unusual experience and although it is experienced by a substantial number of people in a population, it differs from ordinary experience and thus from commonly accepted explanations of reality. It is essential to point out that there are reports of an enormous and complex variety of so-called anomalous experiences, encompassing a diversity of experiences, leading to a conceptual difficulty. To this end, we carried out a reflection, based on theoretical and bibliographical studies in the concept of anomalous experience, in order to explore the terminologies concerning the anomalous and to verify the reason for the difficulty of consensus about the theme. Exploring the existing terminologies in relation to the anomalous experience, a difficulty of clarity and conceptual systematization guided in its nature was identified in appropriation and conceptual use. In our discussion we explain certain historical-epistemological points of nomenclatures and areas of knowledge used in diverse experiences, specifically those linked to anomalies, such as the parapsychological experiences marked by Parapsychology and the religious experiences by the Psychology of Religion and Phenomenology of Religion; in order to problematize the difficulty that Anomalistic Psychology presents in the study and differentiation of these experiences.