Across the world, thousands of people describe strikingly similar experiences: waking up unable to move, sensing a presence in the room, seeing shadowy figures, or even believing they were taken aboard a spacecraft. These accounts often sound unbelievable at first glance. Yet psychological research suggests something more nuanced than “truth or fabrication.”
Instead, scientists studying these experiences argue that the human brain can generate events that feel completely real, even when no external event is happening, especially in certain sleep states, memory conditions, and personality profiles.
