A questionnaire survey of
interpretation of precognitive folklore among female students.
Toshiaki IMAIZUMI
Kachi Hospital, Department of Psychiatry
ABSTRACT
Objective: The author investigated interpretation of
various spontaneous cases of precognition which were widespread among people. Method:
Using an original questionnaire about 30 factious precognitive stories which were similar
to actual samples, female students of a college, junior college and vocational college
(18-22 years old, N=345) responded interpretation (scoring of four typical categories,
i.e. fiction, psychiatric symptom, accidental coincidence and paranormal phenomena, in
condition that sum of them are 100) and/or popularity of the stories. Results: These
stories were interpreted differently according to the precognitive style and the
background condition. Frequency of the precognition correlated positively to the
interpretation of accidental coincidence, and so negatively to the explanation of fiction
and psychiatric symptom. Popularity of the stories contributed to the
paranormal scores. Conclusions: Various types of precognitive stories had specific
profiles of interpretation.
Key words : paranormal
phenomena folklore, spontaneous case, precognition, questionnaire