Journal of Trauma & Dissociation
September 17, 2020
Everton de Oliveira Maraldi, A. Costa, Alexandre Cunha et al.
13 citations
Pathological possession experiences, defined as involuntary and unwanted alterations of consciousness attributed to spiritual forces, were subsumed under dissociative identity disorder (DID) in DSM-5, but this link is contested by researchers across countries. It remains unclear how pathological possession differs from possession delusions in psychosis or from cultural syndromes such as ataque de nervios, which some authors consider dissociative. Nonpathological dissociative experiences, including spiritual experiences during religious or ritualistic practices, are also poorly understood.
PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDIES - Revista da Abordagem Gestáltica
January 1, 2020
Everton de Oliveira Maraldi
2 citations
Anomalous experiences reported during Umbanda rituals—whether or not ayahuasca is used—share core similarities, including reduced voluntary motor control, altered memory and perception, changes in communicability and accessibility of experiences, reception of anomalous information, and heightened interpersonal sensitivity. The study used an auto-ethnographic approach to compare individuals with different levels of involvement in mediumistic practices. The findings support autoethnography as a feasible research tool for investigating subjective experiences that are difficult to study with other methods, and suggest that the phenomenological characteristics of these experiences are similar regardless of ayahuasca use.
April 9, 2026
Everton de Oliveira Maraldi, Amanda Sales Cafezeiro, Taís Oliveira Silva et al.
preprint
A scoping review and bibliometric analysis of 174 studies found that psychodynamic and transpersonal approaches dominate the clinical literature on non-ordinary experiences (NOEs), such as feelings of cosmic unity or sensing the deceased. Intervention techniques more frequently aimed to induce altered states (e.g., holotropic breathwork, meditation, psychedelic-assisted therapy) than to manage NOEs after they occurred. Bibliometric analysis revealed four research traditions: transpersonal/spiritual, psychiatric/psychopathological, psychedelic/meditative, and ethno-dissociative. The field relies heavily on case studies and qualitative reports, with limited experimental evidence, highlighting methodological and ethical challenges for future research.
Transcultural Psychiatry
July 2, 2026
Everton de Oliveira Maraldi, Ronald Fischer, Maria Vitoria de Lima Varejão et al.
A new feature-based, subject-centered approach to measuring mediumship and possession-like experiences was developed and validated in Brazil, where such traditions are rich. Ten key phenomenological features were identified through a multi-step process involving systematic review, input from practitioners and religious leaders, and validation in a Brazilian population sample. Some of these experiences were reported by more than 60% of participants, indicating high prevalence. The findings underscore the value of culturally sensitive, feature-based instruments for studying non-ordinary experiences across cultures and provide recommendations for future research on their phenomenology and cultural interpretations.
Palliative & Supportive Care
December 26, 2025
Taís Oliveira Silva, Bruno Angeli-Faez, Lorena Cândida Ferreira Paixão et al.
Near death, end-of-life dreams and visions (ELDVs) and delirium often overlap, making them hard to tell apart. This case report describes an elderly Brazilian woman with metastatic cancer who experienced both. ELDVs involved vivid encounters with deceased relatives and biographical themes, but many were distressing and occurred alongside fluctuating attention typical of delirium. The Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) identified delirium but could not distinguish ELDVs within delirious states. ELDVs often emerged during lucid windows with preserved recall and insight. Distress alone did not differentiate the two. Supplementing CAM with qualitative criteria—content, vividness, biographical meaning, insight, cultural fit, and recall—may prevent misclassification and support holistic palliative care.