Preliminary Findings

  • 'It’s more than just entertainment; it's about connecting with something beyond ourselves, even if just for a moment.'

    (Female, 37, Midlands, working class)

The Weekday Worldviews survey combined bespoke questions about psychic night attendance with the Paranormal Belief Scale, the Existential Death Scale, and the Belief in Science Scale.

While we received over 125 responses, 74 completed the entirety of the survey and submitted their answers. The results below are based on those 74 respondents.

Demographics:

  • Age range: 18-75 (avg. 45)

  • Gender: 71.62% female, 27.03% male, 1.35% other

  • Ethnicity: 83.78% white, 8.11% black/African/Caribbean, 6.76% two or more, 1.35% Asian

  • Number of psychic nights attended: 1 (lowest) to 100 (highest) with an average of 22 and a median of 10

Religion & Paranormal:

  • 71.62% agree that the soul continues to exist although the body may die.

  • 60.28% believe in astral projection

  • 70.27% agree that reincarnation occurs

  • 77.03% agree there is life on other planets

  • 74.33% agree that some psychics can accurately predict the future.

  • 74.32% agree that it is possible to communicate with the dead.

  • 75.68% believe in ghosts

Religion & Science:

  • 74.33% ‘agree’ that science provides us with better understanding of the universe than religion

  • However, 59.46% either disagreed or were uncertain that ‘We can only rationally believe in what is scientifically provable.’

  • And 68.92% either disagreed or were uncertain that ‘The only real kind of knowledge we can have is scientific knowledge.’

  • While only 40.54% agreed that ‘science is the most efficient means of attaining truth’

Death & Anxiety:

  • 58.10% agree that ‘the thought of my own death frightens me’

  • Only 38.36% are sacred ‘that death will be the end of my “self”’

  • In contrast, 79.72% agree that ‘the thought of a loved one’s death frightens me’

  • 63.51% either ‘completely’ or ‘very’ willing to set aside scepticism to engage in the psychic night

  • 56.17% agreed that attending a psychic night eased their grief from the loss of a loved one (10.96% uncertain)

    There is a statistically significant relationship between agreeing that attendance eased one’s grief over the loss of a loved one and being singled out by the psychic when in attendance: X2 (1, N = 70) = 10.3813, p = .001273

    Those reporting “high” anxiety prior to attending are significantly more likely (P < .001) to report “high” anxiety after as well.