Paranormal experiences are far more common than you think

Post-bereavement hallucinations are reported across cultures and are distinct from nightmares in several ways: they typically occur while awake or half-awake, they are recognised as the deceased person rather than an unknown figure, and they are overwhelmingly described as comforting and reassuring rather than frightening. Many bereaved people do not report these experiences because they fear being thought mentally ill, which means the true prevalence is likely underestimated. Studies of bereaved spouses find rates of 50% or higher. Psychiatrist and grief researcher John Bowlby documented these as part of normal grief processing, not pathology.

The "sensed presence," a strong feeling that another person or entity is nearby when no one visible is there, has been studied by neuroscientist Olaf Blanke and colleagues. Their 2014 paper in Current Biology described patients with neurological conditions who consistently reported feeling a ghost-like presence nearby. Using a robotic device to create a touch-lag between patient action and sensory feedback, they were able to induce the sensed presence in healthy subjects. The researchers attributed it to a conflict between the brain's sensorimotor signals and its model of the self in space, a misattribution of self-generated signals to an external agent. This provides a mechanistic explanation for one of the most commonly reported paranormal experiences.

YouGov's October 2025 survey found that 38% of US adults believe ghosts exist. Gallup's longer-term tracking data, which has monitored paranormal beliefs since the 1990s, shows this figure has remained relatively stable over time, suggesting this is not a fringe or marginal view but a persistent cultural position held by a large minority. Belief in ghosts is broadly distributed across age, education, income, and political identity, though it is slightly more prevalent among women and among adults in the South and Midwest compared to the Northeast.

The relationship is more nuanced than a simple yes. Belief in specific entities associated with religious traditions (souls, spirits, demons) is higher among those who identify as religious. However, belief in ghosts, psychic abilities, and unexplained phenomena is widely distributed across both religious and non-religious populations. The YouGov 2025 data shows paranormal experience is not concentrated in any particular religious or non-religious demographic. Some researchers distinguish between "religious" paranormal belief (souls, afterlife) and "secular" paranormal belief (aliens, telekinesis, ESP), which show different demographic profiles.

Infrasound, sound below the threshold of human hearing (below 20 Hz), is produced by certain industrial machinery, weather systems, and building HVAC equipment. At specific frequencies, particularly around 18-19 Hz, infrasound has been shown in controlled studies to produce feelings of unease, dread, the sensation of an unseen presence, and visual blurring or peripheral visual distortions. Vic Tandy and Tony Lawrence published research in 1998 linking infrasound to ghost-like experiences in a "haunted" laboratory in Coventry. This is not a complete explanation for all paranormal experiences, but it provides one documented mechanism by which normal physical phenomena can produce genuine perceptual disturbances.

Sleep paralysis occurs when a person wakes briefly during REM sleep while the muscular atonia (paralysis) that normally suppresses movement during dreaming persists into consciousness. The person is awake, aware of their environment, but unable to move, and often experiences vivid hypnagogic hallucinations, frequently a perceived presence, pressure on the chest, or shadowy figures. Sleep paralysis affects approximately 8% of the general population (higher in those with irregular sleep schedules or anxiety). Cross-culturally, it has been described as encounters with demons, witches, incubi, succubi, the "old hag," shadow people, and alien abduction, with the specific cultural framing varying by geography and era but the underlying experience being consistent.

Yes, and this is one of the more interesting findings in the YouGov 2025 data. 60% of US adults report at least one paranormal experience, while fewer (38%) believe ghosts exist. This gap suggests that many people have experiences they cannot explain but do not necessarily interpret through a paranormal framework. They had something happen, labelled it as strange or unexplained, but did not update their belief system to include ghosts or supernatural entities. This distinction between experience and belief is important for understanding how widespread paranormal phenomena actually are in everyday life.

Where this occurs reliably, the most evidence-based explanation involves environmental factors: infrasound from specific structural resonance frequencies, electromagnetic fields produced by old wiring or geological features, mould or CO2 accumulation affecting cognition, or simply the architecture and darkness creating heightened hypervigilance. When multiple people report similar experiences in the same location, they may all be responding to the same physical environmental stimulus. Location-specific "haunting" reports that persist over decades are often associated with old buildings where such environmental factors are more likely to be present.

No clear relationship is found in the research. The YouGov 2025 data shows paranormal belief crossing all educational strata. Studies examining the link between IQ or educational attainment and paranormal belief have produced inconsistent results. Some research finds a weak negative correlation between certain types of paranormal belief and analytical thinking style (not IQ), but this effect disappears when controlling for cultural and religious variables. Many scientists report paranormal-type experiences while maintaining rigorous scepticism. The experience itself is not correlated with lower intelligence; the specific interpretation placed on it varies by background and prior belief.

The YouGov 2025 data indicates premonition or precognitive experience is among the most commonly reported paranormal experiences, consistent with earlier Gallup polling that found approximately 25% of US adults believe they have had a precognitive dream or experience. The psychological mechanisms most associated with apparent precognition are confirmation bias (remembering the dreams that "came true" and forgetting the many that did not), hindsight bias (reinterpreting prior vague thoughts as more specific predictions after the fact), and the sheer volume of dreams a person has over a lifetime, which mathematically guarantees some correspondence with later events by chance.