A new study published in Spirituality in Clinical Practice explains that an individual experiencing hauntings and ghostly experiences may have ‘Haunted People Syndrome.’

“Haunting phenomena are complex intertwined phenomena involving personality, ideology, culture, and previous experience towards making sense of an event or series of events deemed haunting,” explains psychologist Brian Laythe.

Collaborators Jim Houran and Brian Laythe, along with other colleagues, recently finished a five-year research program which culminated in twenty peer-reviewed research papers and their recent book, “Ghosted.”

Their primary goal was to use research to build a better understanding of hauntings and related paranormal phenomena.

Haunted People Syndrome was one of the primary theories built out of this research.

Laythe and Houran propose four core features of Haunted People Syndrome, namely:

The meaning-making or narrative created around haunting experiences is influenced by personal backgrounds, beliefs, and personality characteristics
Anxiety and distress regarding hauntings are a function of the nature, closeness, and spontaneity of anomalous experiences
Distress and unease make anomalous experiences more likely to occur
Anomalous experiences tend to be contagious, i.e, anomalous experiences can spread to others