The Center for Research on Consciousness and Anomalous Psychology (CERCAP) is a research organization dedicated to the study of anomalous experiences, headed by Etzel Cardeña and based at Sweden’s Lund University.
Contents
Background
In 2005 the Thorsen Chair in psychology was established at Lund University and awarded to Etzel Cardeña following a competitive selection process. Within the psychology department, Cardeña then established the Center for Research on Consciousness and Anomalous Psychology (CERCAP), a research group dedicated to ‘the scientific study of unusual but not pathological experiences and events, including reputed parapsychological phenomena’. CERCAP’s mission statement further reads:
We endorse programmatic research using a plurality of methodologies, and are open to diverse perspectives in this area, as long as they are informed and respectful. Our aim is to continue developing multidisciplinary, national, and international collaborations, and to train undergraduate and graduate students in a supportive environment.1Cercap.eu
CERCAP researchers have focused on anomalous experiences, the neurophenomenology of hypnotic phenomena and dissociation, and the relation between alterations of consciousness and performance in psi tasks, besides authoring reviews of psi research and founding a specialized journal. Its work has accrued multiple awards from various professional organizations, among them Division 30 (Hypnosis) and Division 26 (History of Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, and the Parapsychological Association.
Overview Of Psi Research And Anomalous Experiences
Members of CERCAP have worked at integrating psi into mainstream research by calling for an open, informed study of it2Cardeña (2014). and producing influential reviews of the literature. In 2018, Cardeña published a paper in the flagship journal of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychologist, reviewing more than 10 meta-analyses and concluding that ‘[t]he evidence provides cumulative support for the reality of psi, which cannot be readily explained away … [and] is comparable to that for established phenomena in psychology and other disciplines.’3Cardeña (2018), 663. A full article on psi had not been published in the American Psychologist in decades. A different type of overview is the anthology Parapsychology: A Handbook for the 21st Century,4Cardeña et al.(2015). edited by two members of CERCAP along with John Palmer. This volume includes 31 chapters covering most areas of psi research and won a Parapsychological Association Book Award.
Cardeña and co-editors have also edited an influential overview of the psychological aspects of anomalous experiences, including spontaneous psi experiences.5Cardeña, Lynn, et al (2013).
Editorial Work
CERCAP founded in 2021 the Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition (JAEX) a gold open-access, peer-reviewed university-based journal focusing on empirical and theoretical work on anomalous experience and anomalous cognition (psi). In 2025 Cardeña will take up an appointment as editor of the American Psychological Association’s journal Psychology of Consciousness.
Research
CERCAP researchers have focused on anomalous experiences, the neurophenomenology of hypnotic phenomena and dissociation, and the relation between hypnotizability and performance in psi tasks. Samples of activities follow.
Ganzfeld
In 2011, Cardeña and David Marcusson-Clavertz reported a process-oriented ganzfeld telepathy study that investigated whether positive scoring might be linked to certain variables: belief in personal success, past psi experiences, and high hypnotizability.6Marcusson-Clavertz & Cardeña (2011).
Positive scores were found to correlate with percipients’ expectations of success and reports of previous ostensible psi experiences. The sense of being in an altered state and other alterations of consciousness correlated moderately to strongly with psi scores, but only for high hypnotizables. Dissociation also appeared to play a role in psi performance.
A replication study, focusing solely on highly hypnotizable participants and involving a larger sample, confirmed a moderate correlation between experiencing an altered state of consciousness and psi-hitting (p = .02). 7Cardeña & Marcusson-Clavertz (2020).
David Marcusson-Clavertz and Etzel Cardeña are PIs of an ongoing international, multi-site study of predictors of performance in a precognitive ganzfeld setup.
Precognition Replication
CERCAP participated in a multi-lab experiment8Schlitz et al (2021). that attempted to replicate a a precognition experiment reported by Daryl Bem in 2011.9Bem (2011). Bem adapted a standard psychology experiment in which response times to incongruent stimuli are shown to be longer than response times to congruent stimuli following the subliminal presentation of a priming image. Bem reversed the time sequence, so that the prime was presented after the judgement had been recorded (see details here). Evidence of precognition in Bem’s results was not replicated. Notably, however, exploratory analyses revealed a significant effect in English-language participants, parallelling Bem’s original study, while non-English translations showed no significant deviations from chance.
A second experiment attempted to strengthen the predicted effect by having participants read either a pro-psi or anti-psi statement at the experiment’s outset. While the primary psi hypothesis was not supported, it was observed that those who were exposed to the pro-psi statement had a higher psi score than the anti-psi group (p = .05). Neither experimenter nor participant beliefs significantly correlated with the outcome.10Schlitz et al. (2021).
Dissociation
An EEG study analysed data, produced in a ganzfeld experiment, relating to a highly hypnotizable woman who, in a state of dissociation, unexpectedly recalled a near-fatal childhood drowning and then had marked experiential detachment. Distinct EEG patterns showed significant changes in activity related to the dissociative experience. The findings highlighted the dynamic nature of dissociation and the importance of real-time EEG mapping to understand brain activity and its phenomenological correlates.11Jamieson et al. (2024).
Altered Consciousness
In a two-volume anthology, Cardeña and Winkkleman12Cardeña & Winkkleman (2011). compiled various works showing the importance of alterations in consciousness to understanding the biological and social sciences, the humanities and history. Various studies by CERCAP members have looked at the psychological predictors of alterations of consciousness, including an international correlational study finding significant correlations between hypnotizability, mental boundaries, absorption, and self-transcendence.13Cardeña & Terhune (2014)..
A major thrust of CERCAP work has been to establish the neurophenomenology (i.e., experience tied to neural dynamics) of alterations in hypnosis, as in a study finding that high hypnotizables, but not medium or low hypnotizables, tend to have spontaneous transcendent experiences, which are associated to overall decreased brain synchronization.14Cardeña, Jönsson, et al. (2013). Another overarching goal is to establish a phenomenologically-based taxonomy of alterations of consciousness, through an expert consensus expert classification.15Cardeña et al. (2025).
Automatic Writing
A neurophenomenological fMRI study investigated aspects of automatic writing produced by a person who wrote spontaneously and four individuals who were able to do so under hypnosis. Decreased BOLD signals in areas associated with agency and control were seen during automatic writing, with increased activity in regions related to sensory integration and motor control. Comparisons between the spontaneous automatic writer and the highly hypnotizables highlighted distinct neural and subjective experiences of automatic writing, with notable differences in brain activity and self-reported control. The authors consider the study ‘a first step in the systematic study of very complex automatisms, which deserve greater scientific scrutiny’. 16Cardeña et al. (2023).
Mind Wandering
Marcusson-Clavertz and coauthors examined the relation between sleep and mind-wandering in daily life, using ambulatory assessments. Two hundred and two participants wore wristband devices for a week, collecting actigraphy data on sleep and experience sampling data on mind-wandering. The team measured different features of mind wandering, including task-unrelated thoughts, stimulus-independent thoughts, and unguided thoughts. They also assessed sleep duration, fragmentation, and disturbances. Contrary to expectations, task-unrelated and stimulus-independent thoughts were not associated with sleep measures. However, individual differences in unguided thoughts were associated with sleep disturbances and duration, suggesting that people who experience more unguided thoughts tend to have greater sleep disturbances and longer sleep duration.17Marcusson-Clavertz et al. (2022).
Boundarylessness
A 2023 study investigated neurocorrelates of boundarylessness, the experience of losing the self and experiencing nonduality with the universe, which is often reported to occur during meditation practices. Thirty-two participants were recruited, including experienced meditators. Those who reported low or high boundarylessness, as compared to those inbetween, showed higher functional connectivity within the default mode network during rest, less brain activity in the medial prefrontal cortex during self-referential word processing, and less self-endorsement of words related to constancy. The authors relate these nonlinear patterns to previous findings of a quadratic relation between boundarylessness and sense of ownership of experience. They suggest the results may reflect different stages in meditation practice or altered self-experience. Moreover, they found that focusing on the ‘center of experience’ elicited brain activation similar to meditation onset in both meditators and non-meditators.18Lindström et al. (2023).
Michael Duggan
Literature
Bem, D. (2011). Feeling the future: Experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 100, 407-25.
Cardeña, E. (2014). A call for an open, informed study of all aspects of consciousness. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8.
Cardeña, E. (2018). The experimental evidence for parapsychological phenomena: A review. American Psychologist 73, 663-77.
Cardeña, E., Berkovich-Ohana, A., Valli, K., Bartfeld, P., Gómez-Marín, A., Greyson, B., Kumar, V.K., Laureys, S., Luhrman, T.M., Newberg, A., Preller, K.H., Putnam, F.W., Walsh, R., Willoughby, B., Carter, O., & Yaden, D. (2025). Bringing order to multiplicity: A consensus taxonomy of non-ordinary states of consciousness. [Advance online publication.] Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice.
Cardeña, E., Gušić, S., & Cervin, M. (2021). A network analysis to identify associations between PTSD and dissociation among teenagers. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation 23/4, 432-50.
Cardeña, E., Jönsson, P., Terhune, D.B., & Marcusson-Clavertz, D. (2013). The neurophenomenology of neutral hypnosis. Cortex 49, 375-85.
Cardeña, E., Lindström, L., Goldin, P., Westen, D., & Mårtensson, J. (2023). A neurophenomenological fMRI study of a spontaneous automatic writer and a hypnotic cohort. Brain and Cognition 170/5, 1-12.
Cardeña, E., Lynn, S.J., & Krippner, S. (eds.) (2013). Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Cardeña, E., & Marcusson-Clavertz, D. (2020). Changes in state of consciousness and psi in ganzfeld and hypnosis conditions. Journal of Parapsychology 84, 66-84.
Cardeña, E., Palmer, J., & Marcusson-Clavertz, D. (2015). Parapsychology: A Handbook for the 21st Century. Jefferson, North Carolina, USA: McFarland.
Cardeña, E., Schaffler, Y., & Van Duijl, M. (2023). The other in the self: Possession, trance, and related phenomena. In Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders: Past, Present, Future (2nd ed.), ed. by M.J. Dorahy, S.N. Gold, & J.A. O’Neill, 421-32. New York: Routledge.
Cardeña, E., & Terhune, D.B. (2014). Hypnotizability, personality traits, and the propensity to experience alterations of consciousness. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice 1, 292-307.
Cardeña, E., & Winkelman, M. (eds.) (2011). Altering consciousness. Multidisciplinary perspectives. Santa Barbara, California, USA: Praeger.
Jamieson, G., Cardeña, E., & De Pascalis, V. (2024). Case study A spontaneous dissociative episode during an EEG experiment. Brain and Cognition 174/3, 1-11.
Lindström, L., Goldin, P., Mårtensson, J., & Cardeña, E. (2023). Nonlinear brain correlates of trait self-boundarylessness. Neuroscience of Consciousness 1, 1-13.
Marcusson-Clavertz, D., & Cardeña, E. (2011). Hypnotizability, alterations in consciousness, and other variables as predictors of performance in a ganzfeld psi task. Journal of Parapsychology 75, 235-59.
Marcusson-Clavertz, D., Persson, S., Davidson, P., Kim, J., Cardeña, E., & Kuehner, C. (2022). Mind wandering and sleep in daily life: A combined actigraphy and experience sampling study. Consciousness and Cognition 107/1, 1-15.
Marcusson-Clavertz, D., Simmonds-Moore, C., Cardeña, E., Roe, C., Wittmann, M., Dechamps, M., & Wahbeh, H. (ongoing). Trait x state predictors of performance in Ganzfeld: An international multisite study. Bial Foundation grant 2022/208.
Schlitz, M., Bem, D., Marcusson-Clavertz, D., Cardeña, E., Lyke, J., Grover, R., Blackmore, S., Tressoldi, P., Roney-Dougal, S., Bierman, D., Jolij, J., Lobach, E., Hartelius, G., & Delorme, A. (2021). Two replication studies of a time-reversed (psi) priming task and the role of expectancy in reaction times. Journal of Scientific Exploration 35/1, 65-90.
Terhune, D.B., & Cardeña, E. (2010). Differential patterns of spontaneous experiential response to a hypnotic induction: A latent profile analysis. Consciousness and Cognition 19, 1140-50.