Abstract

MARTINS, Leonardo Breno; ZANGARI, Wellington  and  MEDEIROS, Gabriel Teixeira de. Contemporaneity and anomalous experiences: psychosocial dimensions of culturally frontier experiences. Rev. abordagem gestalt. [online]. 2017, vol.23, n.2, pp. 136-149. ISSN 1809-6867.

Throughout history, "extraordinary" experiences have always been reported, somehow related to the "paranormal". However, such experiences may confront hegemonic thinking in a given context, and lead to stigmatization of their protagonists, which raises questions about its growing. In order to investigate psychosocial variables that mediate the relation between beliefs/anomalous experiences and culture in the Brazilian context, 46 people were interviewed about their alleged contacts with aliens, such as 35 people that did not report such experiences, for comparison. Data gathering and analysis delineated a qualitative-phenomenological research. Using the Theory of Attribution of Causality, it was found that the experiences acquire meaning under a characteristically contemporary combination of scientific, esoteric and traditional religious references, allowing their strength even in face of the stigmatization that protagonists suffer in macroculture while insane, liars, ignorant or possessed.

Keywords : Cognition; Culture; Social stigma.

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