POLL RELEASES June 8, 2001
Americans' Belief in Psychic and Paranormal Phenomena Is up Over Last Decade Belief in psychic healing and extrasensory perception top the list
by Frank Newport and Maura Strausberg
GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- What exactly do Americans believe in when it comes to the paranormal, the occult, and "out-of-this-world" experiences? The Gallup Poll recently updated its audit of Americans' beliefs in a variety of these types of phenomena. The results suggest a significant increase in belief in a number of these experiences over the past decade, including in particular such Halloween-related issues as haunted houses, ghosts and witches. Only one of the experiences tested has seen a drop in belief since 1990: devil possession. Overall, half or more of Americans believe in two of the issues: psychic or spiritual healing, and extrasensory perception (ESP), and a third or more believe in such things as haunted houses, possession by the devil, ghosts, telepathy, extraterrestrial beings having visited earth, and clairvoyance.
Basic Beliefs
The list of 13 experiences tested in the poll is eclectic, ranging from Halloween- and occult-oriented phenomena such as ghosts and witches, to mental experiences such as ESP, clairvoyance, and psychic or spiritual healing.
Americans' overall beliefs in the experiences tested range from a slight majority who believe in the power of the human mind to heal the body, to a low of 15% who believe in the New Age concept of channeling or allowing a "spirit-being" to assume control of a body during a trance.
Here is the overall pattern of results:
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