In the past, scientific parapsychology was largely characterized by the assumption that paranormal phenomena and ExE are related to unknown information or signal transmissions. However, in view of the elusive and non-local nature of exceptional phenomena, classic transmitter-receiver concepts do not seem very plausible.

In dual-aspect monism, psychophysical relationships are not based on direct interactions. Instead, we are dealing with correlations of mental and material aspects of an underlying wholeness. Structural correlations emerge from the symmetry breaking of the psychophysically neutral holism as shown in Figure 1a. They are the familiar psychophysical correlations that have posed the classical mind-body problem, but are considered ordinary because they are reliable and replicable.

However, the relationship between the latent unitary reality and manifest dualism is not unidirectional, but bidirectional, because events in the mental or material realm can have an effect on the holistic realm. Induced correlations are therefore also possible and are considered exceptional or paranormal. For example, as shown in Figure 1b, a repression of psychic content can cause physical phenomena via the unconscious.

Against this conceptual background and based on empirical data from the counseling psychology context of IGPP, heuristic models were developed that describe systematic relationships between ExE patterns and the psychological events of those affected (Fach, 2011; 2014, 2017). Case analyses suggest that conflicts in satisfying and securing the basic needs for autonomy and bonding play a fundamental role in the genesis of ExE.

Families who report haunting phenomena and apparitions in the IGPP consultation are characterized by strong interpersonal dependency. On closer exploration and analysis, one of the family members is almost always found to have a desire for autonomy that is incompatible with the need for attachment. These are often adolescents in puberty who are dependent, conformist and inhibited in their emotional expression. Due to underlying conflict and relationship structures in the family, the burgeoning desire for more independence and autonomy is so threatening and ambivalent that it is repressed. Autonomy, which is kept out of the social system in favor of bonding, manifests itself in the outside world, as shown in Figure 2a, where it is not usually located.

Conversely, in the counseling context of IGPP, there is a clientele that tends towards social withdrawal and describes ExE, which is classified as internal presence and influence are classified as “socially withdrawn”. This ExE pattern typically occurs after a special encounter, an intensive contact or a relationship with another person who had a special effect or attraction on the client. An increasingly aversive connection is experienced, which – after real contact has ended – is percieved as a remote influence in the form of negative emotions, intrusive thoughts, or somatic phenomena. In order to maintain personal autonomy, bonding feelings are warded off by projecting them onto the other person. Figure 2b shows how the projection works back via the holistic area, manifesting itself from the unconscious in an ego-alien way.

The phenomenological classification and the model approaches illustrated in the exemplary comparison of the two patterns have direct relevance for the counseling and therapy of people with ExE (Fach, 2022). The induced psychophysical correlations appear to be similar to non-local correlations in quantum systems. Just as these are destroyed by the measurement process, raising awareness of unconscious correlations can remove the basis for exceptional phenomena.