Richard S. Broughton
Division of Psychology, School of Social Sciences
The University of Northampton
Northampton NN2 7AL, UK
The two-stage model of receptive psi -- ESP, anomalous cognition -- is generally accepted as a reasonable starting point for understanding how ESP enters consciousness and affects behaviour. While stage one -- how ESP "gets into the system" -- remains a mystery and a likely problem for physics, stage two is thought to involve what Tyrrell has described as, "cognitive and other processes that we are not in the habit of calling paranormal." If evolution has conferred upon humans the ability to make use of anomalous information then it is likely to follow the pattern of brain development in which existing systems are adapted and enhanced to confer new advantages and adaptations.
Roll and Irwin have proposed memory as a likely candidate for one such brain system co-opted for service with ESP. The images that form the basis of spontaneous cases of ESP via dreams or hallucinations seem to be drawn from the recipients' memory, as are the responses in free-response ESP experiments. This raises the question of how are the particular memory images that bring the anomalous information to awareness selected? This paper proposes that the emotional system also plays a role in receptive psi, perhaps an even more fundamental one than memory, though it operates closely with memory. Recent research suggests that the emotional system is intimately involved in the selection of the memory images that comprise dreams, as well as biasing the attentional resources we devote to the various memory images that parade across consciousness. The work of Damasio has highlighted the role of the emotional system, especially the feeling component, in decision-making, thus providing a link with the range of behavioural responses that might be psi-influenced in Stanford's PMIR model, as well as providing insight into the intuitive class of spontaneous cases. Evolution has already designed much of the emotional system's operation to be automatic, unconscious, and not easily subject to intentional control, characteristics traditionally attributed to receptive psi, so it would not be surprising that this system might be adapted by evolution to serve as a "pathway" for anomalous information. The rapidly advancing understanding of the emotional system calls for new and imaginative experiments to examine the joint roles of memory and emotion in the effective use of anomalous information. Recent research on presentiment and ESP-based intuition are promising approaches, but, as always, more work is needed.