Varieties of felt presence: Three surveys of presence phenomena in the general population and their relations to voice-hearing.
Ben Alderson-Day, Peter Moseley, Kaja Mitrenga, Jamie Moffatt, Rebecca Lee, John Foxwell, Jacqueline Hayes, David Smailes, Charles Fernyhough
October 8, 2021 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/n4kth (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Mixed-methods analysis of three online surveys Qualitative |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 206 |
| Population | People with experience of psychosis and voice-hearing, people with spiritual & spiritualist beliefs, and practitioners of endurance/solo pursuits |
| Keywords | Paranoia Population Neuropsychology Clinical psychology Phenomenology philosophy Psychosis Developmental psychology Cognition Psychotherapist |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key findings | Felt presence frequency is predicted by a general tendency to hallucinate across all three groups, with paranoia and female gender also significant predictors in the psychosis-inclusive sample. |
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.