Presence: The strange science of the unseen other Ben Alderson-Day
Event details
We all know the feeling: you're alone but it's like there's someone there with you - a mysterious presence lurking just out of sight. Throughout history this experience has been the subject of religious and supernatural speculation. But does science have the answer?
Psychologist Ben Alderson-Day, author of Presence, digs into historical accounts and contemporary cases of 'felt presence', hunting for the key to unlock this strange phenomenon. Find out about his interviews with ultrarunners and ocean rowers, who often report the sensation of being accompanied on their journeys, and how he has examined the latest work on sleep paralysis, dementia and Parkinson's, conditions closely associated with feeling the presence of someone or something that isn't there.
Join Ben as he reveals how his findings, built on cutting-edge research from psychology and neuroscience, provide remarkable new insights into this longstanding mystery of the human mind.
Book sales
You can buy copies of many of our speakers’ books from Fox Lane Books, a local independent bookseller and Festival partner. In some cases, author signed bookplates are available too.
About the speaker
Ben Alderson-Day is a Professor of Psychology and the Co-Director of the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities at Durham University. He is the co-founder of the Early Career Hallucinations Research group and the Scientific Chair of the International Consortium on Hallucinations Research. A specialist in atypical cognition and mental health, his work spans cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry, philosophy and child development. He is the author of Presence: The strange science of the unseen other (Manchester University Press, 2023).
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