Neurological and Thermodynamic Mechanisms Underlying Anomalous Presence Perception

This hypothesis explores the neurological and thermodynamic mechanisms underlying anomalous presence perception, the experience of sensing a deceased person's presence. Among the most universally documented phenomena in human history, reported across all cultures, all eras, and all psychological profiles, it has never received a unified scientific explanation. This hypothesis proposes that anomalous presence perception is not supernatural, not pathological, and not imagined, but a precise biological consequence of five interacting mechanisms: infrasound induced cortical arousal operating below conscious sensory threshold, predictive processing failure during bereavement, Neural Persistence, Cardiac Neural Persistence, and the Negativity Threshold, a proposed residual signature left by sustained self hate, regret, and chronic stress that a visitor's subconscious can detect as mismatch even without any personal relationship to the deceased. Version 3 extends the framework in three directions: the Negativity Threshold mechanism itself, a distinction between actionable and unactionable threat explaining the disorientation reported during presence experiences, and a resolution of the apparent conflict between predictive hallucination and genuine anomalous detection, arguing both describe the same underlying mechanism viewed from either side of it. The hypothesis remains strongest in explaining presence perception following the death of a loved one, and is now more developed, though still evolving, in accounting for stranger reported experiences at haunted or suicide associated locations. Have feedback on this work? Share it here: https://tirth-kapadia.github.io/tirthkapadia.github.io/ Paste this link in chrome or any browser