Feeling an unseen presence

All in the Mind returns for our 72nd series.

An experience hard to put into words but felt by many is the phenomenon of 'presence'. Claudia Hammond hears an account of a fearful-turned-friendly presence from Luke Robertson, an adventurer whose prolonged period of isolation whilst trekking across Antarctica led to continual run-ins with a non-existent figure. The potential neuroscientific and psychological theories behind these sensations are explained by Ben Alderson-Day, associate professor at Durham University and author of "Presence: The Strange Science and True Stories of the Unseen Other".

The All in the Mind Awards are back and this year, we received almost a thousand entries. Over the upcoming series, we will be hearing from our nine finalists who share their stories of how they have been helped in their hardest times. This week we hear from Vicki, who had a psychotic episode after juggling incredibly stressful events. After pausing her studies to care for her father with terminal lung cancer, the pandemic broke her normal confidence in being able to predict how the world worked. At this point, Vicki met Nikki, her care co-ordinator, who helped show Vicki that her situation was normal given all her stresses, and helped her confidence return.

Professor Catherine Loveday from University of Westminster joins Claudia to discuss whether there is a simple way to spot a liar and if botox injections can impact how the brain processes emotions. Produced in partnership with The Open University.

Producer: Julia Ravey and Clare Salisbury