Consciousness and Cognition
June 20, 2016
David Saunders, Chris A Roe, Graham Smith et al.
93 citations
A meta-analysis of 34 studies from 1966 to 2016 estimated that 55% of people have had at least one lucid dream in their lifetime, with a 95% confidence interval of 49% to 62%. A separate analysis of 25 studies found that 23% of people experience lucid dreams at least monthly, with a 95% confidence interval of 20% to 25%. The analysis used a quality effects method to reduce the influence of study quality on the estimates. Moderator analyses found no systematic bias from suspected sources of variability. These findings align with earlier estimates but are based on more robust evidence.
European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling
April 3, 2015
Elizabeth C Roxburgh, Sophie Ridgway, Chris A Roe
16 citations
Synchronicity experiences (SEs)—meaningful coincidences between inner events and external occurrences—can strengthen the therapeutic relationship and provide useful information about the therapeutic process. Based on interviews with nine practitioners (counselors, psychologists, and psychotherapists) who reported SEs in their sessions, three themes emerged: a sense of connectedness, the therapeutic process, and professional issues. SEs are perceived as helpful for overcoming communication difficulties and offering insights into a client's experience of themselves and others, whether or not the client acknowledges the SE or the therapist discloses it.
Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice
February 26, 2026
Natasha Tassell-Matamua, Karalee Kothe, Michael Nahm et al.
Terminal lucidity—unexpected mental clarity shortly before death—has been reported across cultures and eras, but its characteristics in children had not been systematically studied. Using a 42-item online survey, this study collected case reports of terminal lucidity in 11 children aged 16 years and under. Terminal lucidity typically occurred within the final hours to minutes before death and manifested as notable changes in mental abilities, behavior, and emotions. It was not preceded by any changes in medical regime and often happened despite children being semi- or comatose just before the episode. These results suggest a surge of mental clarity in terminally ill children occurs contrary to medical expectations, which may inform end-of-life care and understanding of consciousness at the end of life.
Journal of anomalistics
December 1, 2025
Evelyn Elsaesser, Chris A Roe, Callum E Cooper et al.
Spontaneous after-death communications (ADCs) occur when a person unexpectedly perceives a deceased individual through sight, hearing, touch, smell, or a sensed presence, often while awake, asleep, or in transitional states of consciousness. A long-term international mixed-methods survey in six languages collected 1,311 completed questionnaires. This complementary analysis of 235 German-language responses focused on the perceived state of mind of the deceased and its impact on grieving. Most participants who sensed the deceased's state of mind reported positive moods, with the contact centered on offering comfort and support. A minority perceived negative states, where contact focused on the deceased's difficulties and did not provide comfort, potentially complicating the grieving process. Positive effects on grief are attributed to the experience feeling real, the belief in a continuing connection, and the perceived messages.
University of Derby Online Research Archive.
February 8, 2019
Lance Storm, Adam J. Rock, Simon J. Sherwood et al.
Dream-ESP is a form of extrasensory perception in which a sleeping person supposedly gains information about a randomly selected target without using normal senses or logic. A meta-analysis of studies from 1966 to 2016 found significant effects supporting the ESP hypothesis. A critique by Howard (2018) reported much weaker effects after re-analyzing the data using inverse-variance weights. While Howard replicated some findings, other results are disputed. The authors discuss meta-analytic methods, including publication bias and handling outliers, and present re-analyses challenging some of Howard's conclusions.
Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.)
March 1, 2020
Charmaine Sonnex, Chris A Roe, Elizabeth C Roxburgh
A randomized controlled trial examined whether modern Pagan spell-casting produces measurable healing effects. Forty-four participants were randomly assigned to receive the intervention either early or later. All participants wrote requests, provided a photograph and personal item, and attended weekly guided body-scan meditations before completing the WHOQOL-BREF quality-of-life measure. General health improved significantly across all participants from weeks 1 to 4, and physical and psychological domains also improved. However, there were no significant differences between the groups that received the spell-casting intervention at different times, indicating that the improvements cannot be attributed to the spells themselves.
November 3, 2017
L. Storm, S. Sherwood, Chris A Roe et al.
A meta-analysis of 50 experimental dream-ESP studies from 1966 to 2016 found that dream content can be used to correctly identify target materials more often than chance. The overall effect size was small (0.20), and the combined result was statistically significant. Studies from the Maimonides Dream Lab showed a larger average effect (0.33) than independent studies (0.14), but this difference was not significant. No significant differences emerged between types of ESP, presence of senders, perceiver characteristics, or REM/non-REM monitoring. Effect sizes did not improve with study quality and declined over the 51-year period. The authors conclude the paradigm warrants continued investigation with design improvements.