Presence
The Strange Science and True Stories of the Unseen Other
ISBN10: 1250278252
ISBN13: 9781250278258
Hardcover
304 Pages
$28.99
CA$38.99
These experiences of sensing a Presence when no one else is there have been given many names—the Third Man, guardian angels, shadow figures, “social” hallucinations—and they have inspired, unsettled, and confounded in equal measure.
While the contexts in which they occur are diverse, they are united by a distinct and uncanny feeling of visitation by another. But what does this feeling mean, and where does it come from? When and why do presences emerge? And how can we even begin to understand a phenomenon that can be transformative for those who experience it, and yet so hard to put into words?
The answers to these questions lie in this tour-de-force through contemporary psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, and philosophy. Presence follows Ben Alderson-Day's attempts—as a psychologist and a researcher—to understand how this experience is possible. What is a voice when it isn’t heard, and how otherwise do we know or feel that someone is in our presence? Is it a hallucination connected to psychosis, a change in the working of 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. Presence is the story of who we carry with us, at all times, as parts of ourselves.
Reviews
Praise for Presence
"Alderson-Day offers a thrilling and erudite survey of the experience of 'felt presence'—where one has the strong feeling that someone, or something, is there, but without any input from our traditional senses. The book brings together rich testimonies of this core human experience, with the insights of myth, history, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry. Reading it leaves one with an enriched appreciation of what we are and how much more we have yet to understand about ourselves."—Matthew Broome, Professor of Psychiatry and Youth Mental Health and Director of the Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham
"The sense that you are not alone—that someone or something is 'there'—is a fascinating topic and this marvelous book draws across many different kinds of experiences to give a coherent account of the kinds of processes that underlie this feeling."—Sophie Scott, Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London
"Drawing on first-person accounts, interviews, and research in various fields such as psychiatry, neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology, the author presents a robust investigation into the phenomenon."—Library Journal (starred review)
Reviews from Goodreads
BOOK EXCERPTS
Read an Excerpt
1A Thickness in the Air
The interview is drawing to an end. We have been talking for over an hour. I look up from my notes at the young man across from me.
“Before we finish, is there anything you want to describe that...