Varieties of felt presence: Three surveys of presence phenomena in the general population and their relations to voice-hearing.

Felt presence—the sense that someone else is nearby when no one is there—is common in neurology, bereavement, and spiritual contexts, but rarely studied systematically across different groups. A mixed-methods analysis of three online surveys compared felt presence in a general population sample including people with psychosis and voice-hearing (75 participants), people with spiritual beliefs (47 participants), and endurance/solo practitioners (84 participants). Frequency of felt presence was predicted by a general tendency to hallucinate in all groups; paranoia and female gender also predicted it in the psychosis-inclusive sample. Qualitative analysis revealed both shared and distinct features of the experience across groups, with immersive states playing a role. The findings support a unitary model of felt presence.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Experiences of felt presence (FP) are well documented in neurology, neuropsychology, and bereavement research, but systematic research in psychiatry is limited. Reports of FP are a feature of body disruption in psychosis, hypnagogic and hypnopompic experiences, solo pursuits, and spiritual encounters, yet systematic research comparing these phenomena is rare. Here we present a mixed-methods analysis from three online surveys as part of a comparative analysis of FP across three diverse contexts: a population sample which included people with experience of psychosis and voice-hearing (study 1, N = 75), people with spiritual & spiritualist beliefs (study 2, N = 47), and practitioners of endurance/solo pursuits (study 3, N = 84). Participants were asked to provide descriptions of their FP experiences and completed questionnaires on FP frequency, hallucinatory experiences, dissociation, paranoia, social inner speech, and sleep. Hierarchical linear regression analysis indicated that FP frequency was predicted by a general tendency to experience hallucinations in all three studies, although paranoia and gender (female > male) were also significant predictors in sample 1. Qualitative analysis highlighted shared and diverging phenomenology of FP experiences across the three studies, including a role for immersive states in FP. These data combine to provide the first picture of the potential shared mechanisms underlying different accounts of FP, supporting a unitary model of the experience. Data and code for the study are available via OSF.