psychology hot topic - intermediary states of random accessing memories

 In parapsychology, the notion of "intermediary states of random accessing memories" can be interpreted through the lens of altered states of consciousness, where individuals enter transitional or liminal mental conditions to retrieve anomalous information, often perceived as memories from non-ordinary sources. These states act as bridges between everyday awareness and purported metaphysical realms, enabling access to memories that may not originate from personal experience but from collective, discarnate, or paranormal origins. Unlike linear recall in normal cognition, this access is often described as random or non-sequential, with information emerging abruptly, symbolically, or in fragmented bursts during trances, hypnagogic phases, or meditative depths.

Key Concepts in Parapsychological Context

• Intermediary States as Trance or Liminal Conditions: These are often equated with mediumship, where a person (the medium) enters a trance to serve as an intermediary between the living and discarnate entities, facilitating the retrieval of specific details or "memories" from deceased individuals. In such states, the process isn't deliberate or controlled like searching a database; instead, information surfaces randomly, influenced by emotional cues, symbols, or the sitter's queries, sometimes blending with the medium's own subconscious recollections (a phenomenon known as cryptomnesia in parapsychological research). Shamanic traditions similarly position the practitioner as an intermediary in altered states to access communal or ancestral "memories" for healing or guidance.
• Random Accessing of Memories: This aligns with reports of anomalous memory retrieval in altered states, such as near-death experiences (NDEs) or out-of-body episodes, where individuals report vivid, non-chronological floods of memories—including past-life recollections or information from external sources—that feel telescopic or condensed, as if time gaps are collapsed into immediate access. Parapsychological studies suggest these could involve psi processes (like telepathy or clairvoyance), where memory and extrasensory perception overlap, treating recall as a form of "generalized ESP" that pulls in random elements from a broader informational field rather than personal storage. For instance, in hypnotic or dreamlike states, messages arrive fluidly and symbolically, bypassing sequential logic.
• Connection to Broader Phenomena: Drawing from philosophical underpinnings, such as Henri Bergson's ideas on memory, pure memory exists independently but manifests through intermediary processes like memory-images during perception-altering states, potentially explaining random access in paranormal contexts. Research on anomalous experiences also links these states to recurring memories tied to emotive or psychobolic phenomena, where hereditary or collective elements surface unpredictably. Classifications of altered states emphasize induction methods (e.g., meditation, hypnosis) that enable this random access, often for therapeutic or exploratory purposes in parapsychology.

Empirical meta-analyses in the field support that some individuals in these states can anomalously retrieve verifiable information about others (e.g., deceased persons' memories), though explanations range from genuine psi to subconscious cues or cryptomnesia. This contrasts sharply with computer science interpretations of RAM, emphasizing instead the fluid, unpredictable nature of consciousness in bridging seen and unseen realms.