After-death communication (ADC) is a spontaneous experience in which a living person has a feeling or sense of direct contact with a deceased person.
ADC is quite common as shown by a systematic review of all research on ADC (34 studies between 1894 and 2006 involving over 50,000 participants from 24 countries) which found that at least one-third of people have reportedly experienced ADC at some point in their lives. The review found that rates of reported ADC were predominantly consistent across age groups, ethnicities, genders, education levels, incomes, and religious or non-religious affiliations.
Researchers have also found that the grieving people who have experienced ADC seemed as mentally healthy as the general population and almost always reported that it brought relief from their painful symptoms of grief.
Psychologist Dr Allan Botkin, while experimenting with the procedure Eye-Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) discovered he could facilitate ADC for his clients. He has named this technique Induced After-Death Communication (IADC).
Dr Botkin reported that of all the clients with whom he had conducted his two-session IADC therapy, approximately 75% reported an experience of ADC during the process. In nearly all cases he found that once the client accessed and processed the core sadness at the centre of the painful experience of grief, associated distressing emotions, such as anger and guilt, and related negative thoughts disappeared.
Once the sadness and grief symptoms diminished, and when clients reported a sense of relief or peace, clients who experienced IADC described to Dr Botkin that they felt a lasting reduction in distressing grief symptoms.
In this presentation, Dr Botkin discusses his research into IADC and the results he has obtained.
References:
A full list of references is available in the Reference Material section.
- Botkin, A. (2000). The induction of after-death communications utilizing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: A new discovery. Journal of Near-Death Studies 18(3).
- Botkin, A. L., & Hannah, M. T. (2013). Brief report: Psychotherapeutic outcomes reported by therapists trained in Induced After-Death Communication. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 31(4).
- Hannah, MT et al. (2013). Induced After-Death Communication: An Update. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 31(4), Summer.
