The bereaved often have paranormal experiences: they feel the presence of or see the dead. This article examines the relevance to bereavement of the experiences and of the belief in a life after death. Many professional counselors dismiss the experiences as hallucinatory and the belief as a mark of superstition. This article, however, presents surveys of paranormal experiences and data from physical research that can be used to validate the experiences and belief and to help the bereaved restructure their lives.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
DokaK. J., Understanding Grief: An Overview, in Encyclopedia of Death, KastenbaumR. and KastenbaumB. (eds.), Oryx Press, Phoenix, Arizona, 1989.
2.
GinsburgG., To Live Again, TarcherJeremy P., Los Angeles, 1987.
3.
ReesW. D., The Bereaved and Their Hallucinations, in Bereavement and its Psychosocial Aspects, SchoenbergB. (eds.), Columbia University Press, New York, 1975.
4.
ReesW. D., Bereavement, in Death and Bereavement, KutscherA. H. (ed.), Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, 1969.
5.
FreesA., Help for Your Grief, Schocken Books, New York, 1977.
6.
AndersonR. and AndersonW., Veridical and Psychopathic Hallucinations: A Comparison of Types, Parapsychology Review, 14, 1983.
7.
NeppeV. M., The Hallucinations: A Priority System for its Evaluation, Parapsychology Review, 14, 4, 1983.
8.
ParkesC. M., Bereavement: Studies of Grief in Adult Life, Tavistock Publications, London, 1972.
9.
MarrisP., Widows and Their Families, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1958.
10.
YamamotoJ. K.OkonogiK.IwasakiT., and YoshimuraS., Mourning in Japan, American Journal of Psychiatry, 125, p. 1661 ff., 1969.
11.
BertmanS., Communicating with the Dead: An Ongoing Experience as Expressed in Art, Literature, and Song, in Between Life and Death, KastenbaumR. (ed.), Springer Publishing, New York, pp. 124–155, 1979.
12.
RandoT. A., Grieving: How to Go On Living When Someone You Love Dies, Lexington Books, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1988.
13.
PalmerJ., A Community Mail Survey of Psychic Experiences, Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 73, pp. 221–251, 1979.
14.
KalishR. A. and ReynoldsD. K., Death and Ethnicity: A Psychocultural Study, University of Southern California Press, Los Angeles, 1976.
15.
KalishR. A., Contacting the Dead: Does Group Identification Matter? in Between Life and Death, KastenbaumR. (ed.), Springer Publishing, New York, pp. 61–72, 1979.
16.
McReadyW. C. and GreeleyA. M., The Ultimate Values of the American Population, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, California, 1976.
17.
FoxJ. W., The Structure, Stability, and Social Antecedents of Reported Paranormal Experiences, Sociological Analysis, 53, pp. 417–431, 1992.
18.
HaraldssonE., Representative National Surveys of Psychic Phenomena: Iceland, Great Britain, Sweden, USA, and Gallups' Multinational Survey, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 53, pp. 145–165, 1985.
19.
StevensonI., Cases of the Reincarnation Type: Ten Cases in India, Vol. 1, University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1975.
20.
KastembaumR., Ian Stevenson: An Omega Interview, Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 28:3, pp. 165–182, 1994.
21.
StevensonI., The Contribution of Apparitions to the Evidence for Survival, Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 76, pp. 341–358, 1982.
22.
BergerA. S., Evidence of Life After Death: A Casebook for the Toughminded, Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, 1988.
23.
KrausA. S. and LilienfeldA. M., Some Epidemiological Aspects of the High Mortality Rate in the Young Widowed Group, Journal of Chronic Disease, 10, p. 207, 1959.
24.
BergerA. S., Dying and Death in Law and Medicine: A Forensic Primer for Health and Legal Professionals, Praeger, Westport, Connecticut, 1993.
25.
BergerA. S., Aristocracy of the Dead: New Findings in Postmortem Survival, McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina and London, 1987.
26.
MurphyG., Scientific Approaches to the Study of Survival, in Death and Bereavement, KutscherA. H. (ed.), Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, pp. 139–145, 1969.
27.
BergerA. S. and BergerJ., The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research, Paragon House, New York, 1991.
28.
ReesW. D. and LutkinsS., Morality of Bereavement, British Medical Journal, 5570:7, pp. 23–31, 1967.