Sensed Presence: Why some people claim they have seen ghosts or have met spirits of their loved ones?

 

The ‘sensed presence’ that was shown in the 2013 film Gravity is a more common experience than many of us might have thought of. We have it when we are alone in some sort of a struggling situation. The brain is hyper-functioning at that particular time or is in a phase of desperation.  That is the time that we perceive or feel that a person to whom we were close and who is now dead is there to help us cope with the situation and come out of it. We sense the presence of our loved one though the person is actually not there. 

Sensed presence occurs in alone and monotonous or stressful conditions [Source: YouTube}

This may be just a vague feeling that the person is around us. It may be as vivid as a body appearance of flesh and blood! It may occur in the form of hearing a voice of the lost loved one or finding a striking close similarity in another living person around you. Sometimes these may be visual illusions that one may feel to be the movements of the spirit of the departed loved one. This may take the form of movements of curtains or some light movements or a breeze.

Science and sensed presence

Science has tried to find out the reason behind these unique experiences one gets of their departed beloved ones. It could be due to atmospheric activity, geomagnetic activity, and altered sensations especially during altered states of mind and consciousness. The lack of oxygen, stress, a buildup of stress hormones, or monotonous stimulation triggers a change in brain chemistry.

Olaf Blanke has stated that specific areas of the brain are stimulated during these times and they trick people to feel the presence of someone they loved dearly. Peter Suedfeld, a psychologist also believes that whatever we do cognitively changes at that particular time of experience. When the surroundings are unchanging and monotonous, an individual shifts his or her attention to oneself and this is something that we are usually not trained to process. This leads to such abnormal feelings to crop up.

Hallucination or spirit [Source: Macleans Ca]

Some psychologists also feel that it is due to a heightened response to any threat that may be felt in the environment. A 2013 study of Kirsten Barnes and Nicholas Gibson revealed that these experiences are more common in situations of stress and threat and people who feel them are deeper in emotions and score higher on the scales that measure empathy. They are likely to be more of the sensitive type and think deeply on subjects than others who do not experience these phenomena.

One or more of these factors might be playing in circumstances where sensed presence occurs.

Part of bereavement and vision quests

Such experiences also occur in people who have recently lost a dear one and are in deep grief. They isolate themselves to get over their grief and are in mundane conditions. They are stressed about the whole thing and may experience such out-of-the-world perceptions. Internal reflection to a deeper level can also initiate such feelings.

With this background, some people deliberately push themselves into hardship and remain isolated in order to meet the ‘being’ that would supposedly provide them with wisdom or help them cope with a problem. These are called Vision or Spirit Quests and are common in Asian countries.

Psychology yet has no clear-cut explanation about such ‘sensed presence’ because we know only the human aspect of it but have no knowledge of the other part of the feeling. There is no proper scientific explanation for these phenomena. And we may be wrong either way if we try to put it into the slot of science or spirituality. As Margaret Atwood said: 

"You say, the sensed absence of God and the sensed presence of God amount to much the same thing, only in reverse."

There are three possibilities of all these happenings:

1.       They are real and had happened just as the person has explained.

2.       The person just believes that the phenomena happened but actually, it has not.

3.       The person is aware that the phenomena have not happened and is malingering.

The feeling is some loved one is around even after death [Source: Medium]

There are also instances where these phenomena have happened repeatedly in a person’s life and no one has an explanation for it. It is coupled with dreams as well and the reason remains unknown!!!

Also, read https://healthfitnessnwellnessblog.blogspot.com/2020/11/Whoopi-Goldberg-SpiceFruit.html

I am a medical super-specialist and rely heavily on scientific explanations for all happenings in the world. I too have felt similar feelings multiple times in my life after the death of my parents. Neither I nor my people in the medical fraternity have any explanations for these sensed presences. But I cannot say that these are spiritual happenings since those who believe in it also cannot prove it to me in any concrete way! So it remains an unsolved mystery for me in my life!