After-Death Communication

After-death communication (ADC) is a spontaneous experience among people who have a feeling or sense of contact with a deceased person. ADCs are common and occur across culture, race, age, socioeconomic status, educational level, and religious belief. In the study of death and the human experience, reports of ADCs naturally occur. When they feel safe in doing so, people spontaneously share their ADC experiences when talking about their relationships with their deceased loved ones, their grieving process, or both. The study of ADCs falls under several disciplines: paranormal psychology, grief and bereavement therapy, religion and spirituality, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and medicine. ADCs are frequently reported as being comforting, pleasant, and life-enhancing. Some people have described their experiences as unpleasant or frightening; however, the unpleasantness is thought to be a result of people having difficulty integrating these experiences into their lives. Despite the common nature of ADCs, they go largely underreported due to percipients' fear of being ridiculed or being thought insane. In the following discussion the topics focus on the history, incidence, characteristics, and types of ADCs.

History

Encounters with the deceased or ADCs have been reported in many cultures. Formal research dates back as early as the 1890s with the Census of Hallucinations conducted by the Society for Psychical Research. Researchers from the Society for Psychical Research found that hallucinations of deceased persons were common among the sane. Researchers in the field of paranormal psychology have typically led the way in the exploration of ADC as a common, normal human experience. At the time of the census study, these experiences were called “hallucinations of the sane” to indicate how encounters with the deceased were common among the general population. Also inherent in the census study was the assumption that these types of experiences are not merely a result of a yearning on the part of a grieving person; the ADC percipient may or may not be grieving. According to reports from the census study, some people actually had an encounter with a deceased person who was not known to them as being deceased. These ADCs are interesting because they debunk the theory that ADCs are just a result of bereaved people imagining they see their loved one out of desperation and intense longing. Since the census study was conducted, people have continued to report experiencing an ADC without knowledge of the deceased person's death.

During the 1960s and 1970s, researchers who studied widows and widowers began noticing the experience of “hallucinations” as a common characteristic of grief. Initially these experiences were thought to be a result of people's intense longing for the deceased and difficulty facing the reality of their loved one's death. However, it became clear that these experiences were beneficial and comforting for many of those grieving and that the people having them were very much in touch with reality. Many researchers and bereavement experts expressed surprise at such an experience occurring to people deemed psychologically stable and fully aware of the deceased's death. Later, as a result of [Page 23]these spontaneous findings, researchers began inquiring into this phenomenon.

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