Psycho-Physiological Hypothesis about Visual Mental Images Projection

Abstract

The investigation aims at analyzing some psychophysiological aspects concerning the visual projection phenomenon. We effectively define these aspects as the perception-like of a depictive mental image sent outside and localized in the external environment. This phenomenon has been studying in the literature on perception-imagery similarity and interaction. The similarity between these two processes poses some physiological questions that the current research aims at focusing on. We hypothesize that in the visual projection a physical component is present, probably consisting of weak electromagnetic waves (according to Bòkkon). The investigation consists of two studies; the first one, in which 31 participants (undergraduates students of Psychology, both male and female) were asked to imagine a lit candle and to send this image, with open and closed eyes, towards two white not reflecting panels placed at 90° to each other. Then, the participants were asked to send, initially with closed eyes, the same mental image towards two mutually reflecting mirrors, whose presence they were not aware of, placed in the same position of the panels. A second study repeats the same experiment but in the dark. The participants were 67, both males and females, undergraduates students of Theatre and Literature. As the results of both the experiments have showed, when the mental image was projected on the mutually reflective mirrors, a duplication or a multiplication of the subjective perception-like mental image appeared. This phenomenon did not appear sending the image toward the two not reflecting panels. The mental image projected on the mirrors would act in a similar way to a light beam generating an optical reflection phenomenon.