Scientists on Reddit

Chris French

Psychologist who studies paranormal beliefs

u/Prof_Chris_French ↗AMA only

How we know it's theirs

The 2015 r/science AMA, posted from this account

We retrieved 2 posts and 79 comments from u/Prof_Chris_French, dated 2015 to 2016, most often in r/science.

Best moment

In a thread on r/science

Science AMA Series: I'm Professor Chris French, Director of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. I research paranormal belief and paranormal experiences including hauntings, belief in conspiracy theories, false memories, demonic possession and UFOs. AMA!

u/Prof_Chris_French replied

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I've spent more nights in supposedly haunted houses than I care to remember. As a kid, I was terrified of the dark. These days, I find sitting in the dark in "haunted houses" about as exciting as watching paint dry. If I'm doing it for a TV show, I sometimes find myself thinking, "Why am I doing this? I used to have a proper job." Then I remember - they pay me! ;-)

Nothing has ever happened during these programmes that scared me one little bit - and I am not a brave man!

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More moments

A redditor wrote in r/science

On “Science AMA Series: I'm Professor Chris French, Director of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. I research paranormal belief and paranormal experiences including hauntings, belief in conspiracy theories, false memories, demonic possession and UFOs. AMA!”

Does this fall into your area of interest? Shanti Devi case of reincarnation. I am so skeptical about this I hope this gets proven to be something madeup.

u/Prof_Chris_French replied

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Reincarnation claims in general do fall into my area but I’m afraid I have not looked into this particular case in any detail. I do find reincarnation claims fascinating. So much so that I paid £500 last week to join the Reincarnation Society. I wasn’t sure whether to blow that much money or not but then I thought, Oh well, you only live once

Excerpt

A redditor wrote in r/science

On “Science AMA Series: I'm Professor Chris French, Director of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. I’m back on Halloween to talk about my research on the psychology of paranormal beliefs and experiences. AMA!”

What is a common theme among the people who claim to have had alien contact?

u/Prof_Chris_French replied

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Contrary to the view offered in Hollywood movies, hypnotic regression does not provide a magical key to unlock hidden or repressed memories. Instead, it provides the perfect context for the formation of false memories based upon fragments of real memories (including those from books, films, etc.), imagination, expectation, and so on. With hypnotic regression, you tend to get what you expected to get. If you expect alien abduction memories, that’s what you get. If you expect past-life memories, that’s what you get. If you expect memories of ritual satanic abuse memories, that’s what you get. These are all almost certainly false memories.

Excerpt

A redditor wrote in r/science

What's the most interesting case you know of a debunked paranormal experience?

u/Prof_Chris_French replied

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I have lots of personal favourites but certainly one that would be very near the top of the list would be Melvin Harris’s masterful debunking of the so-called “Bloxham Tapes”. Arnall Bloxham was a Cardiff-based hypnotherapist who used to hypnotically regress people back into past lives and record the accounts given. In contrast to most such cases, the accounts were often detailed and largely accurate. It turned out though that the accounts of one of Bloxham’s star cases, that of Welsh housewife “Jane Evans”, were based upon historical novels based upon real historical figures. For example, Jane’s narratives included not only accounts of her interactions with historical characters who had really existed but also with the fictional characters that the author had made up just to help the plot along.