Anomalous Experiences and Health
How extraordinary experiences shape wellbeing, identity, and access to care
Around the world, people report extraordinary experiences that do not fit neatly within dominant scientific or medical explanations, including encounters with spirits, perceptions of unseen forces, or other events described as paranormal or anomalous. While often marginalized within Western clinical and scientific frameworks, these experiences remain deeply meaningful to those who live them. My research examines how people interpret and respond to anomalous experiences and how those interpretations shape health, wellbeing, identity, and access to care. Using ethnographic methods, I explore how meaning-making around the unusual or unexplained influences distress, stigma, help-seeking, and relationships with medical and social institutions.
I also examine how broader systems of knowledge—such as medicine, religion, and community belief—respond when lived experience challenges established explanations. When dominant frameworks fail to account for what people experience, individuals may encounter disbelief, marginalization, or barriers to care, while alternative interpretive frameworks may provide coherence, support, and strategies for coping. By studying these dynamics, my work contributes to a more culturally informed understanding of health that recognizes how belief, embodiment, and lived experience interact to shape wellbeing across diverse contexts.
Culture and
Meaning-Making
Stigma and Marginalization
Spiritual health
and healing
Anomalies
The Anomalies Study is an ongoing research project that brings together individuals who report extraordinary or anomalous experiences through surveys and in-depth interviews. By documenting lived experiences in participants’ own words, the study seeks to better understand how people interpret, navigate, and make meaning from events that fall outside conventional scientific and medical explanations. Our goal is to develop a more complete, human-centered account of anomalous experience—one that reflects the depth, complexity, and real-life significance these experiences hold for those who live them.
Recent Work
If your work engages extraordinary experience, belief, or wellbeing…
I’d love to learn more about your work.