title: Ghosts, meaning, and faith: after-death communications in bereavement narratives.
abstract: After-death communications (ADCs) are reported encounters with a deceased loved one, a contemporary type of ghost experience heralded as therapeutic in coping with bereavement. Pertinent literature generally illustrates the healing power of ADCs with brief self-contained episodes. The functions of ADCs over the course of grief need exploration. To that end, this article analyzes 20 published book-length autobiographical stories of bereavement in which authors report ADCs. Two functional patterns are identified--instantaneous relief from painful grief symptoms and reinforcement of a consoling religious worldview. The second dynamic links ADCs to meaning-making and religious coping within Christian and Spiritualist frameworks.
authors: Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Radford University, Virginia, 24142, USA. skwileck@radford.edu
authors: Susan
authors: S
authors: Kwilecki
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001601:Bereavement; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D029221:Faith Healing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008093:Literature, Modern; D008297:Male; D010268:Parapsychology; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D029181:Spirituality