Australian Sheep-Goat Scale

🐑 Australian Sheep–Goat Paranormal Belief Scale

The Australian Sheep–Goat Scale is a psychological questionnaire designed to measure a person’s belief in and experiences with the paranormal. In paranormal research, it’s often used to help separate belief from data — because our expectations can shape what we perceive during an investigation. Knowing where you fall on this scale can help you recognize your own biases before heading into a ghost hunt. Whether you score high (a “sheep” who believes) or low (a “goat” who’s skeptical), understanding your mindset helps you stay balanced, objective, and better equipped to tell the difference between a real haunting and wishful thinking.

Printable version

Instructions:
For each statement below, choose the answer that best describes your belief or experience.
Use this scale:
0 = False  1 = Uncertain  2 = True

Write your answers next to each statement, then add up your total score at the end.

1. I believe in the existence of ESP.
2. I believe I have had personal experience of ESP.
3. I believe I am psychic.
4. I believe that it is possible to gain information about the future before it happens, in ways that do not depend on rational prediction or normal sensory channels.
5. I have had at least one hunch that turned out to be correct and which (I believe) was not just a coincidence.
6. I have had at least one premonition about the future that came true and which (I believe) was not just a coincidence.
7. I have had at least one dream that came true and which (I believe) was not just a coincidence.
8. I have had at least one vision that was not an hallucination and from which I received information that I could not have otherwise gained at that time and place.
9. I believe in life after death.
10. I believe that some people can contact spirits of the dead.
11. I believe that it is possible to gain information about the thoughts, feelings or circumstances of another person, in a way that does not depend on rational prediction or normal sensory channels.
12. I believe that it is possible to send a “mental message” to another person, or in some way influence them at a distance, by means other than the normal channels of communication.
13. I believe I have had at least one experience of telepathy between myself and another person.
14. I believe in the existence of psychokinesis (or “PK”), that is, the direct influence of mind on a physical system, without the mediation of any known physical energy.
15. I believe I have personally exerted PK on at least one occasion.
16. I believe I have marked psychokinetic ability.
17. I believe that, on at least one occasion, an inexplicable (but non-recurrent) physical event of an apparently psychokinetic origin has occurred in my presence.
18. I believe that persistent inexplicable physical disturbances, of an apparently psychokinetic origin, have occurred in my presence at some time in the past (as, for example, a poltergeist).

Scoring:

• Add up all your answers.

• Minimum score = 0  Maximum score = 36

Interpretation (just for fun):

• 0–12: You’re a Goat — skeptical and grounded in rational explanations.

• 13–24: You’re a Fence-sitter — open-minded but cautious.

• 25–36: You’re a Sheep — you strongly believe in or have experienced the paranormal.

Source: Michael A. Thalbourne, “Further Study of the Measurement and Correlates of Belief in the Paranormal,” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 89, no. 3 (1995): 233–247.