What are unusual experiences?

Explaining unusual experiences

Unusual experiences can lead people to feel disconnected from those around them and even the reality that they thought they knew. It can feel completely reasonable in the moment, to think, feel or experience things that others might find challenging to understand. This can be quite an isolating experience and people may find it difficult to feel truly heard by anyone around them.

'Nobody else believed what I believed but I knew it to be true. My experiences confirmed my beliefs and really what else did I have to go on, seeing is believing.'

Anonymous

For some people having unusual experiences is a positive event that they make sense of, accept and move on from. For example, hearing or seeing a loved one who has recently died during the grieving process. For others though it is an ongoing issue that causes significant distress, perhaps even trauma, and is difficult to accept, understand and deal with. The impact of these experiences appears to exist on a spectrum from mild, infrequent and non-distressing to intense, frequent and highly distressing.

'I experienced a few signs from a friend of mine after she passed away, I found it reassuring. Now, whenever I see a white feather I am reminded of her and feel comforted knowing she is okay wherever she is.'

Anonymous

‘I experienced a few signs from a friend of mine after she passed away, I found it reassuring. Now, whenever I see a white feather I am reminded of her and feel comforted knowing she is okay wherever she is.’

Anonymous

Additionally the experiences themselves lie on a spectrum from typical unusual human experiences (hearing your name called when no-one is around or seeing something in your periphery vision but turning to see nothing there) to more atypical unusual human experiences (hearing the voice of a deity or believing that you can fly). The ends of this spectrum have a significant amount of grey area between them and this highlights why each individual’s experience is unique to them.

‘I felt afraid, every thought, every action, every little thing I did was on show and they were watching. As if nothing belonged to just me anymore, there was no privacy. I was part of something, a collective, but it terrified me.’

For more information about types of unusual experiences see our course Exploring Unusual Experiences which you can access via the main courses page.