“Trust me, I saw it was moving right here”, or “Last night I saw someone calling me, and he was without a head”. People make many paranormal claims with these kinds of unshakable beliefs. Decades of psychological research suggested that human memory is not an exact recording of experience but a reconstructive process- vulnerable to suggestions, leading to beliefs and errors. Let’s discuss how memory distortion works. Why does it often appear in paranormal claims and recall cases that illustrate how the human mind can rewrite its experience?
Memory Distortion
When memories are altered or misremembered from what actually occurred, it involves false or inaccurate recollections of events. This can happen due to various factors, including the brain’s tendency to fill in gaps using general knowledge and existing schemes (memory frameworks), misinformation provided after an event, confusing the source of a memory, or cognitive biases.
Memory is A Reconstructive Process
Human memory is a reconstructive process & it’s not like a video playback. Every time we recall some information or events, the brain rebuilds it, using its parts of the original and adds some new information, beliefs or context to it. In their landmark research, Loftus & Palmer (1974) show participants a video of a car smashed and then use different verbs (hit, smashed, etc). In follow-up questions, the wording altered participants’ memories; those asked with smashed estimated a higher speed and even remembered broken glass that was never there.
This study demonstrates how post-memory can distort when we believe we witnessed. (Loftus & Palmer, 1974). In the process of memory reconstruction, details may be unintentionally altered, added or excluded in the context of ambiguous or emotionally charged events, like those perceived as paranormal; the process is open to distortion.
Read More: Psychology of False Memory Syndrome
The Cognitive Mechanism of Paranormal Belief
Paranormal claims often arise in uncertain conditions, dim lighting, surprising events, emotional arousal or stress; in such situations brain is more likely to fill the gaps with belief or expectations. Example- An individual who feels a cold breeze & immediately concludes it is a ghost rather than considering alternatives like a draft from a window. Memories become more vivid when emotion is involved with fear, surprise, awe, etc. And people report high confidence in what they remember, but high confidence doesn’t guarantee accuracy; rather, emotional intensity can strengthen the feeling, not its correctness.
Suggestion and Social Influence are powerful drivers of distorted paranormal memory. In a notable study, Wilson & French (2014)showed a magician’s (supposed psychic) video to the participants in which the magician was bending a key; some participants heard a suggestion that the key continued bending after being placed down. Others witnessed a co-witness claiming it bent again; those exposed to the suggestion or social influence were more likely to remember the key continued bending, even though it did not. ( Wilson & French, 2014)
This exemplified how not only internal belief but external cues from others, even a trusted witness, can reshape memory; in paranormal investigations, witness discussions, or media coverage can retroactively colour everyone’s recollection.
Misattributing Imagined Events as Real Experience
It’s a memory error where the origin of memory is attributed, like mistaking a dream for a real event or thinking you learned something from the news when you actually heard it from others, when the mind is confused with the origin of a memory. overtime especially with repeated retelling, the boundaries between ‘what was seen’ or ‘what was imagined’, source monitoring bias (Johnson,1997). If paranormal regard this means people might generally believe they experienced a spirit or unexplained event, when the memory is partly built from internal imagery, suggestions, or other accounts.
Real-life Examples
1. The Whispering Hallway
A family living in an old house reported hearing knocking at midnight. Over weeks, they began to “remember” opening doors and seeing shadows. However, the investigation found nothing; it turned out creaky floorboards and high wind could explain the knocking. Because the family repeatedly discussed and imagined possible sources of the noise, their memories became richer in detail and more mistakenly attributed.
2. The Group “Ghost Sighting”
During a ghost investigation, a group saw a flicker of light. One person claimed, “I saw it pass by the corner.” Others, when asked later, began to report the same figure. This is memory conformity; plus, source error could affect one person’s assertive memory and influence others’ recollections.
3. Recovering “Hypnotic” Memories
Some therapy practices use regression or hypnosis, claiming to unearth suppressed paranormal or past-life memories. But under these highly suggestive conditions, imagination intrusion is a known risk: people often conflate imagination, fantasy, and suggestion with real events
Why Doesn’t Confidence Equal Accuracy?
People grow more confident in their collection even as it diverges further from reality, belief, reinforcement, emotion, as salience and repeated retailing all boost certainly. Paranormal witnesses often claim a purely 100% conviction in what they remember, but psychological events show that high confidence is unbelievable.
1. Cultural Belief System and Interpretation
Memory distortion filtered through cultural frames and personal beliefs doesn’t act in a vacuum. In societies with strong spiritual or supernatural traditions, an event is more likely to be recorded and interpreted as a supernatural phenomenon. In more sceptical cultures identical stimulus might be remembered as an electrical malfunction.
2. Ethical Considerations and Practical Implications
Dealing with paranormal claims, especially in therapy, journalism, or a legal context/setting, caution is an essential aspect. Belief in an experience is real and deeply felt; dismissing it as just a memory error can harm rapport. At the same time, relying on memory alone as proof of paranormal is risky, given how malleable memory is. Professionals should treat such claims with sensitivity, explore multiple plausible explanations, and avoid leading or suggestive questioning in interviews.
Conclusion
The human mind is remarkable; it can craft, update and refine stories of our experiences, but this power is like a double-edged sword. In ambiguous or emotionally arousing situations, memory distortion can mislead us into believing a paranormal understanding. Memory, while essential for human cognition, is inherently fallible and subject to distortion. Cognitive processes provide a psychological foundation of understanding.
Many reports of paranormal experiences are not deliberate fabrications but natural by-products of the brain. Mechanics of memory reconstructive retrieval, suggestibility, and source confusion. And social influence helps us to appreciate why so many sincerely held supernatural accounts exist. Rather than dismissing these claims outright, we can offer empathy while applying psychological insight to recognise how the mind rewrites its experiences.
References +
Bernstein, D. M., & Loftus, E. F. (2009). How to tell if a particular memory is true or false. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(4), 370–374.
Gabbert, F., Memon, A., & Allan, K. (2003). Memory conformity: Can eyewitnesses influence each other’s memories of an event? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17(5), 533–543.
Garry, M., Manning, C. G., Loftus, E. F., & Sherman, S. J. (1996). Imagination inflation: Imagining a childhood event inflates confidence that it occurred. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3(2), 208–214.
Johnson, M. K. (1997). Source monitoring and memory distortion. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 352(1362), 1733–1745.adaptive perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(10), 467–474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.08.004
Brewin, C. R., Gregory, J. D., Lipton, M., & Burgess, N. (2010). Intrusive images in psychological disorders: Characteristics, neural mechanisms, and treatment implications. Psychological Review, 117(1), 210–232. https://doi.org/10.1037/a00181
Wilson, K., & French, C. C. (2014). Magic and memory: Using conjuring to explore the effects of suggestion, social influence, and paranormal belief on eyewitness testimony for an ostensibly paranormal event. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01289
Wilson, K., & French, C. C. (2008). Misinformation effects for psychic readings and belief in the paranormal. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 28(2), 149–160. https://doi.org/10.2190/IC.28.2.d
