Many people are familiar with this eerie feeling. You go down to the basement to fold laundry or check the fuse box. Suddenly you feel like you are not alone. Completely confused, you rush up the stairs, slam the door and flinch.
Scientists have a name for this eerie basement sensation: a sense of presence. This usually occurs during moments of sensory deprivation, such as in a dimly lit basement. Researchers are learning more about this psychological effect and why some people may be more prone to it.
What is felt presence?
People have long looked over their shoulders, sensing that someone or something is behind them. Sociologists started looking at This is like a phenomenon of the early twentieth century. Felt presence (also known as sensing of presence; sense of presence) is usually described as the feeling a person experiences when he senses the proximity of another object.
For some people, the sense of presence may be neuropsychological and associated with a sleep disorder, traumatic brain injury, or a disease such as Parkinson's disease that can cause hallucinations. But for most people, the felt presence can also be a normal part of life in which a person simply gets the heebie-jeebies every now and then.
Some scientists associate the feeling of presence with predictive processing. Typically, the brain tries to make predictions based on environmental cues. Sensory deprivation, like a dark room, leads to uncertainty and then to a feeling of discomfort.
But not everyone walks into an unfinished basement, sees a shadow in the corner and thinks: “This is definitely a killer clown.” Researchers have experimented with sensory deprivation and uncertainty and found that some people are more likely to experience presence than others.
Read more: The Origins of Ghost Stories and Creepy Urban Legends
Tends to be present
IN 2025 study V Religion, Brain and Behavior, 126 participants agreed to sit alone in a dark room with their eyes closed and ears plugged for 30 minutes. To add an element of uncertainty, some participants were told that someone might enter the room when in fact no one would.
All participants completed questionnaires that included measures of two psychological traits—imaginative suggestibility and fantasy proneness.
“I thought [these traits] may help understand why not everyone has the same brightness and intensity of perceived presence,” says Jana Nenadalova, lead author of the study and lecturer at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.
Just a figment of the imagination?
The psychological literature generally classifies people with a penchant for fantasy as creative and imaginative people.
“People with this personality tend to daydream a lot, and their fantasies can be so strong that they perceive them as reality,” says Nenadalova.
After completing the questionnaire, participants sat in a room for 30 minutes and pressed a button on a handheld device if they sensed a presence. Subsequent interviews revealed that some participants not only sensed someone in the room, but even felt a form of physical contact.
On 10 occasions, participants reported hearing faint sounds through earplugs and believing that someone had entered the room and was walking around. On eight occasions, the participant reported that someone entered the room and touched him. One person thought the man shook her chair. Another said she felt a “fleeting touch.” Only one participant said she could see through the mask. She saw a doorway, a shadow, and then a man walking.
Surprisingly, participants who demonstrated fantasy tendencies overwhelmingly did not experience presence or touch. The researchers suggested that their brains may have a habit of sensing uncertainty and then turning to fantasy.
“I can only speculate as to why, but it may be because such people simply get lost in their fantasies when they are alone in the dark, which makes them feel safe and oblivious to the outside environment,” says Nenadalova.
This would mean that people who are not daydreamers are more likely to focus on the uncertainty around them and then experience a perceived presence while their brain tries to make sense of it all.
Read more: Why the paranormal and supernatural continue to fascinate us
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