With Halloween around the corner, Lifeway provided an overview of recent surveys of American’s opinions on the existence of supernatural beings conducted by YouGov and Pew Research.

A survey by YouGov found that well over a third of Americans believe in:

• Psychics (37%)
• Demons (37%), and
• Ghosts (36%)

With women more likely to believe in these phenomena than men:

• Psychics (46% vs. 28%),
• ghosts (44% vs. 28%), and
• ghosts (44% vs. 28%)

Hispanics also had a higher rate of beliefs:

• Ghosts (48%),
• Demons (45%), and
• Psychics (45%).

Overall beliefs in such things as vampires and werewolves were in single digits.

A Pew Survey found that 53% of Americans stated that they have had contact with a dead relative, with 46% stating they were visited in a dream and 31% stating they were contacted differently.

Among the 31% who stated they had contact with a dead relative in a different way:

• 34% stated they had felt the presence of a dead relative,
• 28% said they had spoken to a dead relative about things that had happened to them, and
• 15% stated that a dead relative had contacted them.

Curiously, 26% of atheists stated they had been in contact with a dead family member.

READ: Spooky Season: Some Americans Are Open to Supernatural, Contact With Dead