The Extension of Normal to Abnormal

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Many people experience hypnagogic experiences like hearing a sudden shout or a voice in their sleep. It's actually about certain cell bits of cells in the brain stem firing very, very basic parts of the brain. And if they're not aware that essentially this is a kind of fairly harmless neurological thing, it can be scary to them. The reason why you can hear viral arms and things in your sleep is that your auditory networks are still kind of on.

Shermer and Alderson-Day discuss the psychologist’s journey to understand the phenomenon of sensed-presence: the disturbing feeling that someone or something is there when we are alone. Using contemporary psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, and philosophy, Alderson-Day attempts to understand how this experience is possible. Is it a hallucination, a change in the brain, or something else? The journey to understand takes us to meet explorers, mediums, and robots, and step through real, imagined, and virtual worlds.

Ben Alderson-Day is an Associate Professor in Psychology and a Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing at Durham University. A specialist in atypical cognition and mental health, his work spans cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry, philosophy, and child development. His new book is Presence: The Strange Science and True Stories of the Unseen Other.