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Presence review: A lively look at why we experience ghostly presences

Many people feel an uncanny "presence" when no one is there. Ben Alderson-Day explores why this is, in a lively and comprehensive book

By Jason Arunn Murugesu

29 March 2023

2F618EY Landing of the James Caird On South Georgia, 1916

Ernest Shackleton’s rescue mission lands in 1916. Some crew later felt an “extra” presence

Science History Images/Alamy

Presence
Ben Alderson-Day (Manchester University Press)

THE idea that we experience ghostly presences through sensory phenomena is as old as time. But for some time now, we have accepted that many people hear voices, see unexplained phenomena and experience presences for which there is no rational account.

So how do we explain them? What do they tell us about how the human brain is wired – or what we mean by the concept of “self”? These …

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