“Unlike ‘Earth souls’, who are said to reincarnate on Earth, starseeds believe they have reawakened from another planet to be born here. Starseeds believe they are conduits between divine realms and the Earth and that they can transport between galaxies via meditation. Starseeds also believe they can communicate in ‘light language’ – a form of communication that is said to bypass human limitations and be the language of the soul. The idea is widely credited to the author Brad Steiger who wrote prolifically about the unknown and was keenly interested in alien life and extraterrestrials. In his 1976 book, Gods of Aquarius, Steiger introduced his notion that some people originate from other dimensions.” But what makes some people who are experiencing such feelings jump to the conclusion that they must be from another planet? Particularly given that no life beyond Earth has ever been found and there is no evidence that alien life has ever visited Earth. Welcome to the Forer effect. Named after Bertram Forer, the psychologist who first figured out that it was pretty easy to get people to agree with vague descriptions about themselves – see horoscopes.” “Certain personality characteristics may also incline some people to believe in the notion of starseeds. For instance, if you are fantasy prone and often confuse imaginary and real events you may see the theory of alien consciousness as profound and desirable. In psychological terms, this is known as a source monitoring error, which is a type of unconscious memory error whereby a person gets confused between what’s real and accurate and what’s unreal and imagined. It’s commonly seen in schizophrenia and research has found links between schizotypal personality disorder – a common disorder considered to be a mild form of schizophrenia – and belief in conspiracy theories.”—Starseeds: psychologists on why some people think they’re aliens living on Earth”

“A further effect that can encourage such beliefs is what’s known as ontological confusion. This occurs when people cannot discriminate between metaphorical and factual statements such as: ‘Old furniture knows things about the past.’ These may be interpreted more literally than metaphorically and so make it more likely that people then endorse pseudoscientific, transcendental theories. This is especially true when the source of the information is perceived to be trustworthy and knowledgeable. Dubbed the Einstein effect, this is where trusted sources of information are given more credence because of the social credibility they possess.”