Psychopathology
January 1, 2023
Cherise Rosen, Sohee Park, Tatiana Baxter et al.
13 citations
Sensed presence—the feeling that someone or something is there despite no one being present—is a common experience that can occur in many contexts, from isolation to psychosis. This online survey of adults found three distinct clusters of people based on their levels of sensed presence, attenuated psychosis symptoms, and transliminality (a trait involving absorption, fantasy proneness, and heightened sensitivity). One cluster had few sensed presence experiences, low psychosis symptoms, and low transliminality. A second cluster had moderate sensed presence, low psychosis symptoms, and moderate transliminality, along with increased closeness to God.
Psychopathology
January 1, 2026
Tatiana Baxter, Sohee Park
1 citation
Felt presence—the sensation that someone else is nearby despite no evidence—is linked to psychosis risk in the general population. An online survey of 376 adults found that felt presence and anxiety together predicted elevated psychosis risk. People at high risk reported more frequent, distressing, vivid, and multisensory felt-presence experiences. Distress during the experience predicted psychosis risk even after accounting for anxiety and other factors. Cumulative trauma was tied to more frequent and vivid felt-presence episodes and to knowing the identity of the sensed entity. Depression, anxiety, and stress were associated with stronger physical sensations and distress during the experience. Resilience unexpectedly correlated with more frequent and vivid felt presence. The findings suggest that qualities of felt presence may serve as markers of psychosis risk distinct from other psychosocial factors.
November 7, 2022
Joseph M Barnby, Sohee Park, Tatiana Baxter et al.
1 citation
preprint
The felt presence (FP) experience—the sense that someone else is nearby without sensory evidence—ranges from benevolent to distressing and can be personified or ambiguous. FP occurs in neuropsychological conditions, psychosis, paranoia, sleep paralysis, anxiety, endurance sports, and spiritualist communities. This review covers philosophical, phenomenological, clinical, and non-clinical aspects of FP, along with psychometric, cognitive, and neurophysiological measurement methods. It presents current mechanistic explanations, proposes a unifying cognitive framework, and identifies outstanding questions. FP provides a window into the cognitive neuroscience of own-body awareness and social agency detection, an intuitive but poorly understood experience in health and disorder.