There’s a wide spectrum of experiences that a lot of people have had, and almost no one talks about. Déjà vu at the mild end, hearing a voice in an empty room somewhere in the middle, full-on visions at the other extreme. Too strange to bring up casually, too real to dismiss, and until recently, too poorly documented for science to say much about.
According to a 2025 YouGov survey, 60% of Americans say something’s happened to them that they would call paranormal. For 35%, it was the sense that someone or something was nearby. Others heard voices, smelled unfamiliar scents, or heard sounds with no source. These stories are everywhere, yet researchers know very little about how people live with them once the moment passes.
That’s what a new PLOS One study by social psychologists at Brazil’s D’Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR) set out to examine. The team surveyed 5,117 people using a 47-question tool called the Inventory of Nonordinary Experiences, asking whether they’d had any of 38 specific events and, if so, the context and aftermath.
Most People Who Have Strange Experiences Say They Aren’t Negative
What counted as “nonordinary” covered a lot of territory. Sudden overwhelming feelings of joy, awe, or fear. Seeing visions, hearing voices, out-of-body experiences, déjà vu, sensing the presence of someone deceased. Extrasensory perception, near-death experiences, lucid dreams, and a sense of having lived past lives. Those who confirmed any of these were then asked about their mental state, setting, duration, frequency, and who or what they thought was responsible.
Over 60% reported their experiences while awake and alert. Nearly 40% were alone at the time. For 38%, the experience had happened two to three times; another 30% said it had happened just once. About 19% couldn’t say how long it lasted.
On the question of cause, 41% attributed the experience to random chance, 36% said nobody was responsible, and 16% credited a god or gods. Almost half said they felt joy or well-being during the experience, and about half reported positive or very positive effects on their lives afterward. Fewer than 15% reported negative impacts.
Senior author Ronald Fischer, a psychologist at IDOR, said experiences like these “are far more common in the general population than clinical diagnosis rates would suggest” and that most participants “are not unwell.” “For many people, such experiences can be meaningful and lead to personal growth and insight,” he said, adding that the research aims to help remove stigma around reporting them.
For the majority of people in the study, these experiences were positive, fleeting, and handled. They didn’t need science to tell them that.
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