Table 2.

Perceptual Content and Examples of Sensory and Quasi-Sensory Experiences of the Deceased (SED)

Sensory Modality	Perceptual Content	Examples Reported by Perceivers
Sense of presence	The deceased as felt presence that can be located in space	“I just completely relaxed inside this car [.] He was with me. It was as if he was sitting next to me really.” 11
	The deceased as nonspecific yet “felt” presence/awareness	“Sometimes I just know he’s around, you know. And other times I don’t. But when I do think that he is it’s such a strong feeling that I’m sure of it...” 61
Auditory SED	Hearing the voice of the deceased	“[A]nd I heard my grandma say, ‘it’s at the back, it’s at the back’. And [.] as I looked towards the back I could see there was like a, thing that needed, needed to be turned,” 3
	Hearing sounds of the deceased	“I’ve heard odd noises once and once I was frightened. I said, ‘Stop that dad’, and it did stop.” 37
Visual SED	Seeing the deceased in full figure	“And, all of a sudden, from nowhere, he appeared! I mean, I just – a vision of him was right in front of me. I mean, it lasted a split second. But, it was there.” 32
	Partial visual perception of the deceased	“Well this was an eye and a nostril, it filled the whole of my, my vision bit there, my vision that you can see and like a nostril, and it was all, sort of, floaty and I thought that looked like my mum when she was young.” 37
Tactile SED	Feeling touched on specific part of the body	“When I sat alone at the dining table, I felt how she put her arm round my shoulders as she used to do when she served me food.” 62
	Feeling held/being enveloped by the deceased	“[A]nd then he gave me this big hug . . . and it was just this intense feeling of peace . . . everything was going to be okay because my grandpa was going to make it okay,” 29
	Touching the deceased	“I was reading when suddenly a figure floated over me about a foot above my head. She was wearing a white, long-sleeved night-dress, and her hair looked as brilliant read as it really was. I reached out and stroked her face, which felt just like any other face. The figure at once faded away” 63
Olfactory SED	Smells emanating closely from the deceased	“I started to smell cigar smoke, and then out of the corner of my eye I saw someone sitting in the chair. And it scared me, and then I realized it was my grandfather and I felt surprised. Now whenever I travel I smell that cigar smoke and that’s how I know he’s around” 17
	Smells more broadly associated with the deceased	“At about 9 p.m., two weeks after Stacy’s death, I was in bed and I started smelling Noxzema; this went on for about two hours. [.] This happened for the entire week. Finally, thinking I was losing my mind, I asked my husband at 9 p.m. one evening if he smelled Noxzema. He said yes, that he thought I had started putting it on like Stacy used to every night before she went to bed.” 41
Gustatory SED	Perceived taste of food linked to deceased (in combination with smell)	“And, it was a very strong, powerful smell. Which, I knew wasn’t in the room but I could definitely smell it none the less. Erm, and, erm, sort of a few seconds after that, I could really taste like[.] the food” 64