Measuring Extraordinary Experiences and Beliefs: A Validation and Reliability Study
📄 Original study ↗📌 Appears in:
Plain English Summary
When someone says they believe in psychic phenomena, is that the same as having actually experienced it? Until this study, there wasn't a proper scientific tool to tell those apart. The researchers built a 20-question survey called the Noetic Experience and Belief Scale that separately measures paranormal belief and paranormal experience on a 0-to-100 sliding scale. They tested it on 361 everyday Americans and again on 646 lab participants. Results were solid -- people got consistent scores when retested a month later, and it matched up well with existing questionnaires. Belief and experience were related but clearly distinct, and scores had nothing to do with personality, health, or mood. All data is publicly available online. This tool lets researchers properly separate the 'I think it's real' crowd from the 'I've lived it' crowd -- a distinction that could sharpen future studies.
Research Notes
First psychometric tool to rigorously separate paranormal belief from paranormal experience as measurable constructs. Published as F1000Research open peer-reviewed article (version 3, May 2020) with all data publicly available on Figshare. All five authors from IONS. Enables researchers to control for belief when studying experiential psi claims, and to screen participants on both dimensions. Addresses a long-standing methodological gap flagged by Irwin (2009) and others.
Development and psychometric validation of the 20-item Noetic Experience and Belief Scale (NEBS), which separately measures paranormal belief (10 items) and paranormal experience (10 items) on 0–100 visual analog scales. Study 1 administered the NEBS to 361 U.S. general-population adults (96 retested at one month), demonstrating strong internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.90 Belief, 0.93 Experience), high test-retest reliability (Belief r = 0.83, Experience r = 0.77), convergent validity with three established paranormal belief scales, and a good-fitting two-factor confirmatory model (RMSEA = 0.060, CFI = 0.94). Study 2 confirmed the factor structure in 646 IONS Discovery Lab participants and established divergent validity with negligible correlations to health, personality, and affect measures. The NEBS is the first validated instrument treating belief and experience as distinct but correlated constructs (r = 0.77 general population, r = 0.64 IONS sample).
Links
Related Papers
Cites
Same Research Program
- People Reporting Experiences of Mediumship Have Higher Dissociation Symptom Scores Than Non-Mediums, But Below Thresholds for Pathological Dissociation — Wahbeh, Helané (2018)
- Future Directions in Meditation Research: Recommendations for Expanding the Field of Contemplative Science — Vieten, C (2018)
- What if consciousness is not an emergent property of the brain? Observational and empirical challenges to materialistic models — Wahbeh, Helané (2022)
Companion
Also by these authors
Experimental Investigation of Precognition in Yoga Practitioners
Observer Influence on Quantum Interference: Testing the von Neumann-Wigner Consciousness-Collapse Theory
Who's Calling? Evaluating the Accuracy of Guessing Who Is on the Phone
More in Methodology
Paranormal belief, conspiracy endorsement, and positive wellbeing: a network analysis
Planning Falsifiable Confirmatory Research
Addressing Researcher Fraud: Retrospective, Real-Time, and Preventive Strategies — Including Legal Points and Data Management That Prevents Fraud
Quantum Aspects of the Brain-Mind Relationship: A Hypothesis with Supporting Evidence
Paranormal beliefs and cognitive function: A systematic review and assessment of study quality across four decades of research
📋 Cite this paper
Wahbeh, Helané, Yount, Garret, Vieten, Cassandra, Radin, Dean, Delorme, Arnaud (2019). Measuring Extraordinary Experiences and Beliefs: A Validation and Reliability Study. F1000Research. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.20409.3
@article{wahbeh_2019_noetic,
title = {Measuring Extraordinary Experiences and Beliefs: A Validation and Reliability Study},
author = {Wahbeh, Helané and Yount, Garret and Vieten, Cassandra and Radin, Dean and Delorme, Arnaud},
year = {2019},
journal = {F1000Research},
doi = {10.12688/f1000research.20409.3},
}