An enlightening new survey asking Americans about their paranormal experiences found that a whopping 60% believe they have encountered some form of high strangeness. Produced by the website YouGov, which conducted a similar study two years ago, the poll presented approximately 1,100 Americans with 13 different supernatural scenarios and asked respondents if they had ever had such a thing happen to them. While the total percentage of paranormal experiencers dipped from 67% in 2023 to 60% this year, the results of the survey largely mirrored the previous effort, with "feeling a presence or unknown energy" topping the list at 35 percent.

That phenomenon was followed by "smelling an unexplained odor" (32%), "hearing an unexplained sound or music" (31%), and both hearing a disembodied voice and feeling a temperature change, which were each experienced by 26 percent of respondents. As far as encounters with otherworldly beings went, 16% reported seeing a ghost, 10% claimed to have witnessed an angel, and seven percent were unfortunate enough to have spotted a demon. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one detail discovered in the survey was that people who believed they had lived in a haunted house overwhelmingly thought that they had experienced at least one of the different paranormal scenarios presented in the poll.

Interestingly, while reported encounters with otherworldly beings scored fairly low on the scale of paranormal experiences, belief in such entities was rather high among participants, with 43% saying they think demons exist and 38% indicating the same about ghosts. Fairing similarly well were psychics (43%) and "other supernatural beings," which received support from 36% of respondents. Alas, despite it being peak spooky season, werewolves and vampires were only 'endorsed' by a tepid 6% of Americans.

Another fascinating insight from the poll concerned Americans' belief in their own psychic abilities, with ten percent of the total respondents indicating that they had experienced some form of psi event or possess a unique 'gift.' Specifically, 23% believed that they could "psychically sense others' emotions or auras," ten percent asserted that they could see into the future, nine percent claimed to be able to see into the past, and seven percent told pollsters that they could read minds, remote view, or communicate with the dead.