Ever had an experience you can’t explain?
Just about everyone to whom I’ve ever asked this question has said ‘yes’ and then told me about their experience. These have included astounding synchronicities, info ‘downloads’, premonitions about future events, revelatory dreams, NDEs, knowing places never previously visited and much more.
Whatever the words used – eg metaphysical, mystical, paranormal, spiritual etc – these anomalous experiences are much more widespread that we imagine. Here are some survey results:
Researcher David Hay reported that 76% of the respondents to the survey for the BBC’s ‘Soul of Britain’ 2000 review (of the spiritual state of the nation) reported religious or spiritual experiences.
The Pew Research Center reported in 2009 that “about half of the U.S. public (49%) says they have had a religious or mystical experience, defined as a “moment of sudden religious insight or awakening.” And that this number had risen from previous, earlier surveys. (Ref. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2009/12/29/mystical-experiences/)
A YouGov.com survey of 1,000 US citizens on ‘paranormal encounters’ was published on 20.20.22 reported that two-thirds (67%) of the people they polled reported they’d had a paranormal experience. And about half of these believe they have one of the paranormal abilities asked about (eg being able to read minds). (Ref. https://today.yougov.com/topics/society/articles-reports/2022/10/20/americans-describe-paranormal-encounters-poll)
If many people have these types of experiences but are unwilling to talk about them, there may well be a major under-reporting issue. It can still feel unsafe for some to talk about these occurrences – due to the fear of ridicule, being labelled as mentally ill or being ostracised from their communities. And there are certainly some who dismiss these events as a brain effect or delusion – but many more find these experiences meaningful and even transformational.
These anomalous experiences are part of being human and have been recognised by people throughout the ages; talking about them more openly now benefits us all. Through these experiences, we can see there really are myriad ways of connecting to each other and to the intangible mystery we are living. Like fish in water, we’re surrounded by intangible fields of knowing that we easily overlook. And we’ll be able to tune into them more easily when we make them part of our everyday conversations.