Supernatural ... Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in a scene from the movie Ghost. Picture: Supplied

The Sun reports that a study has shown that a staggering six out of ten widowed people will see, hear or sense their lost loved one.

The number of ‘hallucinatory experiences’, including seeing a dead partner sitting in a favourite chair or hearing their voice, was ‘strikingly high’, say researchers.

But many will keep the experience to themselves for fear of being judged as mentally ill.

Scientists at the University of Milan carried out the research into the Post-bereavement hallucinatory experiences (PBHEs), which are “frequently reported by bereaved individuals without a history of mental disorder.”

Gone but not ... Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze have a supernatural kiss in Ghost. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

They said: “Overall, evidence suggests a strikingly high prevalence of PBHEs — ranging from 30 per cent to 60 per cent — among widowed subjects, giving consistence and legitimacy to these phenomena.”

The study took in the results of all previous English language research into PBHEs.

Expert Jacqueline Hayes, from the University of Roehampton, also studies the phenomena and has spoken to hundreds of people who have lost spouses, parents, children, siblings and friends.

She said: “People report visions, voices, tactile sensations, smells, and something that we call a sense of presence that is not necessarily related to any of the five senses.

“They happen involuntarily, and, for example, not while someone is deliberately ‘remembering’.

“They are always significant to the bereaved and continue some aspect of the relationship with a loved one; sometimes they also magnify it.

“For example, someone who experienced a problematic relationship with her mother while she was alive now experiences hostility through hearing her mother’s voice.”

Dr Hayes said the experiences, which she calls “experiences of continued presence (ECPs)” could be “healing and transformative — for example hearing your loved one apologise to you for something that happened — and at other times foreground the loss and grief in a painful way.”

Surprise ... Alan Rickman’s character dies but then comes back to Juliet Stevenson in Truly, Madly, Deeply. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

But she said that the closeness of the relationships meant that is was “quite natural” to interact with a loved one after their death.

She said: “It would in fact be quite strange if such interactions, that we come to expect as part of our everyday lives, suddenly stop.”

Examples of ECPs include being soothed to sleep and being told by a dead grandparent to help another family member who is in need.

This article originally appeared in The Sun