context,prevalence_or_frequency,source,notes
Meditation practice,significantly elevated in meditators (N=221) vs controls (N=860),Persinger 1992 Perceptual and Motor Skills,Effect size suggests specific subpopulations affected
Bereavement,30 to 60 percent of bereaved across populations,Sabucedo Evans Hayes 2023 Transcultural Psychiatry; Kamp et al. 2020 Schizophrenia Bulletin,Cross-cultural; religious and non-religious populations
Sleep paralysis,approximately 40 percent of sleep paralysis episodes,Cheyne 2003 Dreaming,Often interpreted as intruder or shadow figure
Isolation / extreme environments,common in mountaineering and solo sailing,Suedfeld; multiple mountaineering literature accounts,"Shackleton effect, known to polar explorers"
Psychedelic states,common (entity encounters documented),Psychedelic subjective effects literature (Griffiths; Barrett et al.),Interpretations vary by set and setting
Spiritual practice / prayer (evangelical),frequently reported,Luhrmann 2012 When God Talks Back,Interpreted as God/Christ/Holy Spirit within evangelical frame
Neurological clinical (epilepsy / migraine / Parkinson's),documented across conditions,Alderson-Day et al. 2023 Lancet Psychiatry review,Neural basis identified through case studies
Psychosis,46 percent in one schizophrenia sample (isolated from voices),Alderson-Day et al. 2023 Lancet Psychiatry review,Often described as 'guardian angel hallucinations'