ABSTRACT
It is very common in bereavement to have an experience of perceiving the deceased through one of the five senses or to have a feeling of the deceased's presence nearby. While the majority of perceivers welcome these sensory and quasi-sensory experiences of the deceased (SED), the phenomenon has been controversial in Western bereavement scholarship. This chapter aims to provide an introduction to the phenomenon grounded in the empirical literature, to inform both those who have had such experiences and practitioners in the bereavement field who encounter the phenomenon and want empirically grounded guidance for their practice. The chapter introduces the current knowledge base and main theoretical approaches within which these common yet often described as “anomalous” phenomena have been conceptualized and explained, summarizes the main findings from empirical research into the properties and correlates of the phenomenon, and provides an overview of the literature on how people experience and make sense of SED. It highlights our current understandings of how these experiences may or may not be connected with distress in bereavement and what may or may not be helpful when responding to such phenomena in practice.
