Researchers asked more than 5,000 adults to describe the strangest thing that had ever happened to them, then asked what it did to their lives afterward. About half said the experience left them better off.
The findings, published August 5 in PLOS ONE by a team at the Institute D'Or for Research and Education in São Paulo led by senior author Ronald Fischer, come from a survey of 5,117 Brazilian adults, each of whom reported on one of 38 unusual experiences. Although 20% of participants reported an immediate negative impact and 25% described some degree of suffering or discomfort, 51% rated the experience as producing overall positive long-term effects on their lives.
