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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Consciousness Research
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1365144
This article is part of the Research Topic Emerging Research: Self-ascribed Parapsychological Abilities View all articles

Exploring the Correlates and Nature of Subjective Anomalous Interactions with Objects (Psychometry): A Mixed Methods Survey

Provisionally accepted
Christine A. Simmonds-Moore Christine A. Simmonds-Moore *
  • University of West Georgia, Carrollton, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Psychometry refers to the experience of receiving information about a person or thing by contact with a given object. There is little research to date on the psychological correlates of psychometry and no systematic qualitative research on the nature of the experience itself. A convergent mixed methods online survey study sought to explore how synesthesia and Autonomous Sensory Meridien Response (ASMR) correlate with a range of exceptional experiences, including psychometry, among members of the public. Those who reported that they had experienced psychometry were invited to describe their experiences in an open ended section. Results indicate that those who experience psychometry scored higher on a measure of ASMR than those who did not. Those who experience synesthesia also scored significantly higher on a measure of ASMR than those who do not. However, synesthesia was not significantly associated with psychometry. Both ASMR and Synesthesia were associated with tendencies to report exceptional experiences (with and without a paranormal attribution). A thematic analysis found five themes including: a flash of imagery; lived feelings and intense emotions; noesis and perspective taking/empathy. Subjective psychometry experiences seem to reflect emotional information that is experienced as different to one's normal experiences and felt to be from the perspective of another person. Results are discussed and quantitative and qualitative findings are integrated.

    Keywords: psychometry, exceptional experiences, synesthesia, mixed methods research, Autonomous Meridian Sensory Response (ASMR)

    Received: 03 Jan 2024; Accepted: 14 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Simmonds-Moore. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Christine A. Simmonds-Moore, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, United States

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