Mission Statement

Society of Psychotherapy on Anomalous Experiences

     SPAE functions with an appreciation for scholarly and scientific material to help us understand unusual human experience. Such investigation isn't a matter of faith. Instead, SPAE considers anomalous experiences as a fair and worthy study of various epistemological and scientific approaches.

        Anomalous experiences include but are not limited to:

• paranormal activity such as apparition, poltergeists, and hauntings

• UFO or UAP sightings and/or encounters that leave a lasting impression on the witness(es)

• deathbed visions or after death communications

• near death or out of body experiences

• mystical or esoteric transformations that either leave a positive or negative imprint

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     Simultaneously, SPAE encourages conversation among mental health professionals with the hopes of reducing prejudices, publication bias, and dishonesty, especially when it can wound individuals who have genuinely witnessed an event that cannot be explained by natural causes.

     While SPAE respects the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a helpful guide, it does consider arguments that raise questions to the supposed scientific text that judges unusual phenomena as pathology. Current concerns posed by researchers, scholars, and authors such as Gary Greenberg, James Davies, Joanna Moncrieff, and Paula J. Caplan raise doubt about the "Psychiatrist's bible".

        Simultaneously, SPAE seeks to implement a healing paradigm that is slow to pathologize unusual phenomena based solely upon the odd nature of the experience or due to some cultural norm that defines what is accepted as normal. Human experience is honored and, unless a mental health concern is a factor, such experiences are incorporated into treatment to help clients integrate them to their daily lives for personal healing and growth.

      SPAE honors diversity of race, gender, and religion. It will not tolerate epistemic injustice from any one or dominant source. SPAE believes we can better understand human experience using knowledge and eyewitness report from a global perspective. In fact, SPAE is ready to criticize western approaches that fall short of retrieving relevant cross-cultural research conducted by reliable names.

      SPAE likewise respects the wealth of knowledge the mental health field supplies and welcomes it to assist SPAE in its quest for truth that could explain who we are, why we are here, and if there more in this great span of space beside ourselves.