A poltergeist takes up residence in a suburban home terrifying the family who move in there, while a man foresees the mortal danger facing his young son just in time to avert a terrible accident.
It all sounds like the stuff of Hollywood psychological horror films – the kind of thing most of us would probably scoff at if we were told it was happening next door.
But these stories do not come from the imagination of a fiction writer, they are real cases which are being investigated at Edinburgh University.
Each of these stories has been told, perfectly sincerely, to one researcher based at the famous Koestler Parapsychology Institute in recent months, by people who you would otherwise regard as absolutely “normal”, sane and healthy.
There, French clinical psychologist Thomas Rabeyron, 27, is undertaking a year’s research attempting to trace the roots of paranormal experiences.