Wooooo ….
Just in time for Halloween. When it comes to the paranormal, how do you stack up against the general public? To find out where the country stands, from Oct. 16th to 18th, AP and Ipsos did telephone interviews with 1,013 adults about supernatural beliefs and superstitions. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The results:
- 23% say they’ve actually seen a ghost or felt its presence
- 19% say they accept the existence of spells or witchcraft.
- 31% of liberals report seeing a ghost.
- 18% of conservatives say the same.
- 33% have awakened sensing a strange presence in the room
- 48% believe in extrasensory perception, or ESP.
- 14% say they have seen a UFO
- 20% say they are at least somewhat superstitious
- The most admitted-to superstition, by 17 percent, was finding a four-leaf clover
Put me down for a belief in ESP, and I’m not too sure about demons, in or out of the White House. Nix on the rest.
Via the Seattle PI
October 26th, 2007 at 10:28 am
One in seven adults have seen a UFO, and there’s still no proof of extraterrestial intelligence? I’m calling sampling error.
I’ve become a serious skeptic in mid-life. I am willing to admit that we don’t know everything, and there may yet be mysteries beyond our understanding, but I want evidence, and without evidence, I’m not buying it.
October 26th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
By the way, the poll was the top story in my local rag of a newspaper today. Not the top wire story, or on the front page, but top of the front page, full width headline.
Yikes.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
I try to be skeptical but on some things I just can’t pull it off.
I guess it would be more accurate to say that I like the idea of ESP and wish it to be true. The same with alien life, though I’m under no illusion that either will be confirmed. I grew up reading too much science fiction to give up the ideas easily.
On demons, that’s a factor of my religious upbringing. I found The Exorcist and The Omen more terrifying than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for that reason. It’s a gut level thing, below conscious reason, even though I know how nuts it is.
October 26th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
I have no problem with the idea that ESP might be possible, but the evidence so far is too thin for it to be meaningful. I have no problem with the idea of extraterrestrial intelligence — hell, I’m rooting for it, and gave over a few thousand hours of computing time to SETI once upon a time — but “UFO sightings” aren’t proof of anything.
And the demons thing? Well, it wasn’t my tradition, but I definitely understand that some childhood traditions are too strong to not react to. With me, it’s mezuzah on the doorposts and stepping on cracks….
October 27th, 2007 at 9:44 am
I guess I’d put myself in the “somewhat superstitious” group, but only insofar as say sprinkling a little spilled salt over my left shoulder. It’s not anything I’d lose sleep over. I lived in a supposedly haunted house once and did hear definite footsteps when my house-mate claimed to be safely in bed asleep but otherwise nothing. So I guess I’d go down as pretty skeptical.