By Tim Binnall
A new survey exploring Americans' paranormal experiences found two-thirds of the participants report having had some encounter with what they believe was high strangeness. Conducted by the website YouGov, the poll presented 1,000 adults living in the United States with 13 different scenarios which one might classify as supernatural in nature and asked respondents if they had ever had such a thing happen to them. At the top of the list was "feeling a presence or unknown energy" which was experienced by 37% of the people, "hearing an unexplained sound or music" registered at 33 percent, and "smelling an unexplained odor" was reported by 30% of the participants.
Among the other experiences which respondents said that they have had were an inexplicable change in temperature (28%), lights or devices turning on and off (25%), and observing an object move on its own (22%). Near the bottom of the list of the 13 scenarios were some of the more exotic and almost undeniably paranormal events such as actually seeing a ghost (19%), encountering an angel (13%) or a demon (10%). All told, 67 percent of the survey participants said that they had experienced at least one of the thirteen indicators of high strangeness presented to them in the survey.
Intriguingly, the poll also asked Americans about their own perceived 'paranormal abilities' and a surprising 39% said that they believe that they possess one of seven different 'gifts' described in the survey. Sensing someone's emotions topped the list at 24 percent, followed by hearing the voices of spirits with 15 percent. Additionally, 13% reported being able to "psychically see current events" from a distance, while 13 percent said that they could view the past and 12% claimed to possess the ability to psychically look into the future. At the bottom of the list were the power to read minds, which 9 percent of the participants said that they possessed, and actually communicating with the dead, of which 8% of respondents said that they could do.
As one might imagine, there was considerable overlap between the people who profess to possess some kind of paranormal ability and those who have had experiences with high strangeness. Remarkably, the survey also asked participants if they thought they had ever lived in a haunted house and a sizeable 25% said that they believed that they had. Once again, those individuals were "significantly more likely" to report having paranormal experiences in their life. A similar finding came about when the survey asked if respondents had experienced sleep paralysis.