| Abstract/Results: | ABSTRACT:
Introduction
A spontaneous After-Death Communication (ADC) occurs when a person unexpectedly perceives a deceased person. This may be through the senses of sight, hearing, smell, or touch, but experients might simply “feel the presence” of the deceased person or have a subjective impression of having received a contact or a communication, for example, during sleep (Elsaesser et al., 2021). The deceased person is perceived in a manner that is typically interpreted by experients as indicative of the continued survival of some aspect of that person. This phenomenon is quite common, with an estimated 30–35% reporting one or more ADCs, rising to 70–80% among those who have suffered a bereavement (Streit-Horn, Holden & Smith, 2022). They have been reported in different cultures and times (Haraldsson, 2012; Sidgwick, Sidgwick & Johnson, 1894). Despite their widespread occurrence, ADCs have been little researched and are absent from the media and public discourse. As a consequence, persons who experience an ADC usually have no frame of reference in terms of which to understand, integrate and benefit fully from this experience, and fear that disclosure will cause them to be labelled as credulous, or even as suffering from some pathology (Cooper, Roe & Mitchell, 2015; Evenden, Cooper & Mitchell, 2013; Roxburgh & Roe, 2014).
For many participants, involvement in a research study can be the first time they have spoken openly about such experiences; Rees (1975) reported that only 28% of his participants had previously discussed their experiences with anyone, and just 15% had told more than one person. Although some did not share their experiences because they believed that others would be uninterested or potentially upset by them, approximately half the sample believed that they would be ridiculed, reinforcing the impression that such experiences are stigmatized. This reticence acts as a hindrance to research into the effects of anomalous experiences upon the bereavement process.
Although the vast majority of experients are convinced of the authenticity of their experience (Penberthy et al., 2021), ADCs are, by nature, intrinsically subjective and therefore susceptible to explanation as a psychological response to a deep emotional need. This would suggest that people profoundly affected by the death of a family member or friend might imagine having experienced these perceptions, even unconsciously, as a reaction to their intense suffering so as to enable them to cope with life without the loved one by their side, if only for brief, hallucinatory moments. There are, however, some types of ADCs that are more resistant to explanation in such terms and are therefore more evidential with respect to the survival hypothesis. These include: a) contacts during which previously unknown information is perceived (such as the unexpected passing of the perceived deceased person); b) contacts witnessed simultaneously by more than one person; and c) contacts that occur when the experient is not in bereavement (e.g., perception of unknown deceased persons) so that a psychodynamic explanation is implausible. One research aim of this project is therefore to collect and publicize cases that meet one or more of these criteria, to map their circumstances, phenomenology, and impacts on the experiencer, and to evaluate them in terms of their evidentiality with respect to claims of survival (after Roe et al., 2023).
We reported previously on an analysis of such cases drawn from English, French, and Spanish language surveys (Elsaesser et al., 2022). In order to expand the size and representativeness of the database we have generated, we have sought to create versions of the survey in additional languages. These have been determined opportunistically, depending on the co-operation of associates who are native speakers of additional languages and have access to social networks in those countries to raise awareness of the survey. In this presentation we will focus on new cases gathered from German and Chinese language surveys.
Streit-Horn et al. (2022) do not include any ADC surveys of German or Chinese populations, and Streit-Horn (2011) does not refer to any ADC studies from these countries in her comprehensive review of ADC research. However, Bourke (2024) notes that in North German folklore, ghosts of drowned seafarers called gongers are said to visit distant relatives to announce their deaths, and reports on the experience of German author, painter and poet, Max Dauthendey, who describes experiencing the smell of his father’s tobacco in the hours before he received notification of his death. McClenon surveyed a random sample of dormitory residents at three universities in Xi’an, and found that levels of belief in communication with the dead were, at 40%, higher than for every European country except Iceland, suggesting that ADC cases were likely to be reported to our survey.
Methods
The original research project received ethical approval from the University of Northampton and was pre-registered with the Koestler Parapsychology Unit registry (KPU 1047). The analysis strategy for the current surveys is as described there and as reported in Elsaesser et al. (2021). An extensive online questionnaire was constructed using the JISC online surveys platform that asked about the circumstances of occurrence, type of ADC, message conveyed, emotions and sense of reality associated with the experience, impact and implications for the grieving process; profile of the experient, and of the deceased person perceived (including cause of death). Material was translated by native speakers of German and Chinese. The German survey was open from August 2022 until March 2023 and produced 235 responses. The Chinese survey was open from September 2023 until June 2024 and produced 55 responses.
Results and Discussion
In this presentation we will report on our ongoing analysis of new cases from our German and Chinese samples, comparing and contrasting findings with our earlier English, French and Spanish samples (N = 1,004) in which respondents reported that the ADC communication included information that was previously unknown to them and give an evaluation of the degree to which it constitutes evidence in support of the survival hypothesis.
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Reference:
| Elsaesser, E., Roe, C. A., Cooper, C. E., Morrison, S., & Lorimer, D. (2025). After-death communications: A consideration of German and Chinese language cases that bear on the question of survival. Paper presented at the 67th Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association, Haus zur Lieben Hand, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany |