33 min

Have you experienced the unseen other‪?‬ PsychCrunch

    • Social Sciences

Have you ever had the feeling that there was someone – or something – nearby? Perhaps you were in bed falling asleep when you suddenly became convinced that a person was standing next to you, even though you couldn’t actually ‘see’ or ‘hear’ anyone at all. Or maybe you were out in the wilderness, with no-one for miles around, and couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was following you.
In this episode, Dr Jon Sutton, editor of The Psychologist magazine, talks to Dr Ben Alderson-Day, Associate Professor at Durham University, about the phenomenon of the 'felt presence' – that often eerie sensation that someone is near us. Jon and Ben’s wide-ranging discussion touches on everything from Shackleton’s unusual experiences in Antarctica, to the frightening yet common phenomenon of sleep paralysis and the modern practice of ‘tulpamancy’.
Read a transcript of the interview at The Psychologist
Ben’s book will be released in March and is available to pre-order here
Episode credits: Presented and produced by Jon Sutton, with additional content from Matthew Warren.
Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler.
PsychCrunch is sponsored by Routledge Psychology

Have you ever had the feeling that there was someone – or something – nearby? Perhaps you were in bed falling asleep when you suddenly became convinced that a person was standing next to you, even though you couldn’t actually ‘see’ or ‘hear’ anyone at all. Or maybe you were out in the wilderness, with no-one for miles around, and couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was following you.
In this episode, Dr Jon Sutton, editor of The Psychologist magazine, talks to Dr Ben Alderson-Day, Associate Professor at Durham University, about the phenomenon of the 'felt presence' – that often eerie sensation that someone is near us. Jon and Ben’s wide-ranging discussion touches on everything from Shackleton’s unusual experiences in Antarctica, to the frightening yet common phenomenon of sleep paralysis and the modern practice of ‘tulpamancy’.
Read a transcript of the interview at The Psychologist
Ben’s book will be released in March and is available to pre-order here
Episode credits: Presented and produced by Jon Sutton, with additional content from Matthew Warren.
Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler.
PsychCrunch is sponsored by Routledge Psychology

33 min