Anomalous Experience Research Unit (AERU)
The AERU was established in the summer of 2006 to research into the contexts, characteristics and consequences of experiences which suggest anomalous psychological processes and agencies, and exceptional states of consciousness. Although based in the Department of Sociology at York, the Unit seeks to develop interdisciplinary social science research on anomalous experiences.
Research Projects
Research in the Unit addresses four (overlapping) issues
- The language of anomalous experiences
- The exploration and application of new social scientific methods for the study of anomalous experiences
- The role of the researcher in the study of anomalous experiences; ethics and reflexivity
- The social and cultural context of parapsychology and its relationship to the social sciences
Current research projects include:
- Cross cultural comparison of the discourse or anomalous experiences
- The internet and psychic/spiritual services
- New technologies and the study of naturally-occurring anomalous experiences
- Experimenter-participant interaction in parapsychology experiments
- Geographic information systems and experient profiling