The term "after death communication" or ADC is widely used for a broad group of spooky phenomena that may be interpreted as communication with deceased spirits. The term may be used for any of these type of events:
- An apparition sighting in which the apparition seems to correspond to a known deceased individual.
- A deathbed vision in which a dying person may claim to see or hear a deceased relative.
- A dream someone may have of a deceased relative, particularly a vivid dream.
- A "sense of presence" experience in which someone may have a feeling that a deceased person is near, without the person hearing or seeing the deceased person.
- Various types of spooky events in which someone may experience a very hard-to-explain or very improbable sight, and interpret such an event as having been produced by a deceased individual who can interact with our physical reality.
There is a problem with using the term "after death communication" to refer to all of these types of experiences. The problem is that the term is not an impartial-sounding term, but a term that seems to presuppose a particular type of supernatural explanation for an event. But events like the five types of events described above tend to be mysterious events in which the cause of the event is less than certain.
On page 14 of the PhD thesis document here (entitled "A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF RESEARCH ON
AFTER-DEATH COMMUNICATION (ADC)") we have a list of various terms that have been used to describe such phenomena:
"In addition to the term hallucinations, authors have referred to encounters with
the deceased as, in alphabetical order: after-death communication (Devers, 1997;
Drewry, 2003; Guggenheim & Guggenheim, 1995; LaGrand, 1997, 1999; Wright, 2004,
2006); afterlife encounters (Arcangel, 2005); anomalous experiences (McClenon, 1988);
apparitions (Haraldsson, Gudmundsdottir, Ragnarsson, Loftsson, & Jonsson, 1977;
Kohr, 1980; Palmer, 1979); contact with the dead (Burton, 1982; Greeley, 1975, 1987;
Haraldsson, 1985; Haraldsson & Houtkooper, 1991; MacDonald, 1992); encounters with
the dead (Haraldsson, 1988); experiencing the deceased (Devers, 1994); extraordinary
experiences (La Grand, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2006; Parker, 2005); idionecrophanies
(MacDonald, 1992); illusions (Grimby, 1993, 1998; Parkes, 1965, 1970; Rees, 1971);
near-life experiences (Wooten-Green, 2001); perceived presence (Datson & Marwit,
1997); post-death communication (Houck, 2005; Mack & Powell, 2005); post-death
contact (Kalish & Reynolds, 1973; Klugman, 2006); sensing a presence (Conant, 1996;
Hobson, 1964; Lindstrom, 1995; Marris, 1958; Parkes, 1965, 1970; Rees, 1971; Simon Butler, Christopherson, & Jones, 1988; Yamamoto, Okonogi, Iwasaki, & Yoshimura,
1969); and spiritual connections (Sormanti & August, 1997)."
I think most of these terms have one problem or another. The main problem with most of these terms is that they seem to involve a presumption about the cause of the event; and in so many of the cases of these mysterious events it seems best not to presume that the cause is understood. In very many of these cases, there seems to occur some mysterious movement of matter. But can we conclude with high confidence that such cases involve interaction with a spirit of the dead? It seems that usually we can have no high confidence, and that the cause of the event is mysterious.
It is true that in some of these cases there may seem (at least on the day of their occurrence) to be a likelihood of a cause involving a spirit of the dead. For example, as described here, on the first hour of my late father's 100th birthday, a panel in front of my kitchen sink was violently dislodged, landing on the floor. I had predicted that some spooky event like this event would occur on that day, because an equally spooky event had occurred on my late father's 99th birthday (as described here). Similarly, as described here, within a few minutes after putting some coins next to a picture of my late mother (while alone in an apartment), I saw a penny mysteriously rolling up behind me, a coin rolling on its edge. Within 24 hours of the incident I made the diagram below describing the incident. In both of these cases it seemed probable (at least at the time of the event) that there was some supernatural cause at work, involving some spirit of the dead or agency of the deceased.
But in very many other cases I and others observe something very spooky and hard-to-explain, with the cause being so unknown or uncertain that no language presuming interaction with the dead seems justified. For example, consider the phenomenon of mysterious striped orbs, which I have photographed more than 800 times. There seems to be some very important unexplained phenomenon here, particularly given that such orbs so often show repeating patterns, as I document in my post here. But are such orbs manifestations of the deceased? It is hard to say. The cause of such photographic mysteries seems highly uncertain.
It would seem that what we need is some very broad term that suggests but does not presume that some spiritual manifestation is occurring. I propose the term Potential Spiritual Manifestation or PSM. The term has the same advantage of the astronomy term "potential biosignatures," used to describe unusual things seen in outer space which might be signs of extraterrestrial life. Both terms are similar in that they suggest an extraordinary cause, but do not presume such a cause. Both terms are intellectually modest, because they include the term "potential," indicating a lack of certainty.
