Have you ever come in contact with a ghost? If so, you're not alone. Nearly one if five (18 percent) Americans say they have, according to a newly-released report from the Pew Research Center, while 29 percent claim to have been in contact with the dead.
The Pew Research Survey on supernatural experiences was conducted in 2009 on a sample size of 2,003 people. Females were more likely to report have felt in touch with someone who had died (33 percent) or seen or felt they had been in the presence of a ghost (20 percent), while the majority of those surveyed who believed they had contacted the dead were either black or Hispanic, according to the results.
"As we approach Halloween, note that most American adults in the 21st Century say that they believe in life after death and in the devil," Claude Fischer, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in a recent blog post citing data from Gallup and other sources. "Over one-third say that they believe in the spirits of the dead coming back; about that many also say they believe in haunted houses."
It is unclear whether or not belief in ghosts is linked to church attendance or religious beliefs, as just 11 percent of those polled who reported having seen or come in contact with a ghost said that they attend church weekly, while 23 pecent who attend less frequently reported experiencing a supernatural encounter.
Are these experiences a sign of something unexplainable, or can they be rationalized by science? Loyd Auerbach, who has investigated the paranormal for 30 years, believes the latter.
"It's often because people are predisposed - they've been watching too many TV shows, or something bad is going on in their lives," Auerbach told Discovery.com. "Sometimes people are psychologically disturbed, but most of the time I find it's people making mistakes because they're already in a sensitized state due to something else entirely."
Have you ever seen a ghost? Do you believe in the supernatural or paranormal? Share below in the comments!
