DISSOCIATIVE EXPERIENCES AND PARANORMAL B ELIEFS - COMPARISON OF GERMAN AND VENEZUELAN ADULTS

Investigated the relationship between dissociative experiences and par anormal beliefs among 488 adults from Germany and Venezuela. Both, the Germans and the Venezuelans consisted of a clinical sample of schizop hrenics and a non-clinical control group. The clinical groups from bot h countries had a higher dissociation level as their normal counterpar ts. The Venezuelan groups had stronger paranormal beliefs (here: belie f in witchcraft, psi-phenomena, precognition and spiritualism) than th e German groups. The German clinical group showed a stronger relations hip between dissociative experiences and paranormal beliefs than the t hree other sub-groups The results were discussed with respect to the c ulture-specific meaning of paranormal beliefs In Western countries.