Table 5.

Assessing Sensory and Quasi-Sensory Experiences of the Deceased (SED) Using (A) Self-Report and (B) Interviews

A. Self-report	Example Questions	Response Format	Sample
Byrne and Raphael122	“Have you felt as though you have seen her, heard her, or felt as though she has touched you?” and “Have you felt as though she is still present?”	Four-point frequency scale ranging from “never” (0) to “often” (3) in respect to the previous 2 weeks.	78 spousally bereaved men
Datson and Marwit1	“It is not uncommon for bereaved people to report sensing the presence of a deceased loved one. The following questions relate to this experience. Please answer as honestly as possible by checking the appropriate response. Thank you. In the time since the death of your loved one, have you ever felt a sense of their presence?” “In what way did you sense your loved one’s presence?”	Yes No Select from: “Sight,” “smell,” “sound,” “touch,” “by general awareness only, without a specific cause.”	87 mixed-bereaved persons
Epstein et al34	“I sometimes ‘see’ him even though he is dead”, “I sometimes ‘hear’ him even though he is dead” and “I sometimes feel his presence even though he is dead”	The response format was not specified, but the items are based on the Bereavement Experience Index (BEI),34 which has a 6-point “true/false-scale.”123 The present items were not included in the published version of BEI.123	45 spousally bereaved persons
Houck13	“After the death of your loved one, was there ever a time when you sensed his/her presence?”	Select from: “Sense of the loved one being in the same room,” “Olfactory sensation, such as familiar scents, perfumes, or odors,” “Auditory sensations, such as voices, footsteps, or music,” “Visual sensations, such as seeing an outline or shape,” “Tactile sensation, such as feeling a presence through touch.”	162 mixed-bereaved persons
Jahn and Spencer-Thomas14	“Did you have any ‘spiritual experiences’ with the person you lost to suicide after the death?” “What was the form of spiritual contact you experienced (select all that apply)?”	Yes No Select from: “Feeling the presence of the person,” “Seeing a vision/image of person while awake,” “Hearing person’s voice while awake,” “Smells related to person” (other types of contact was also listed, eg, “unusual animal/insect behavior”).	1301 mixed-bereaved persons
Larøi and Van der Linden124	“On certain occasions I have had the feeling of the presence of someone close who has deceased” Items from an extended version of the Launay-Slade Hallucinations Scale	Five-point Likert response scale: 0 =“certainly does not apply to me,” 1 = “possibly does not apply to me,” 2 = “unsure,” 3 = “possibly applies to me,” and 4 = “certainly applies to me.”	236 non-bereaved persons
Lee105	“Temporarily thought that you saw or heard the deceased”	Five-point frequency scale from “not at all” (0) to “nearly every day” (4).	135 mixed-bereaved persons 228 mixed bereaved persons
Longman et al7	Open-ended self-report item: “People sometimes feel that they sense the presence of their loved ones after death. These experiences can occur in several ways. Hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, or a special sense of nearness. What happened?”	Open ended response.	97 mixed-bereaved persons
Field and Filanosky21	“I actually heard the voice of the deceased speak to me”, “I actually felt the deceased’s physical touch” and “I actually saw the deceased stand before me”	Four-point frequency scale ranging from 0 to 3, with respect to the previous month.	502 mixed-bereaved persons
Simon et al45	“I see the person who died stand before me” “I hear the voice of the person who died speak to me”	Five-point frequency scale ranging from “never” (0) to “always” (4) with respect to previous months.	782 mixed-bereaved persons
Bennett and Bennett31	Interview study: Questions about the “presence of the dead” were asked when the context seemed to allow it. Questions were couched in vague and neutral terms, such as “Do you ever feel he’s still around?” “Do you ever feel his presence?” and “Do you ever feel the presence of your husband?”	Descriptive, categorizing narratives by sense modality, and discourse analysis.	19 spousally bereaved women
Chan et al15	Client-centered counselors conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews focused on continuing bonds and bereavement as part of the therapeutic process.	Consensual and group-based thematic analysis.	52 mixed-bereaved persons
Conant32	Questions about “experiences of remembering” and “feelings and imagery” of their deceased husbands, taking a closer look at their sense-of-presence experiences.	Narrative analysis including development of composite vignette and heuristic models for the role of sense of presence in grief.	10 spousally bereaved women
Doran and Downing Hansen33	Ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interview focusing on the family’s grief and meaning-making after losing a family member. They also used drawings when interviewing children.	Thematic analysis.	9 mixed-bereaved people
Gondar-Portasany125	Ethnographic fieldwork and biographical interviewing conducted over several years. People were asked about “apparitions of the deceased.”	Ethnography.	1873 mixed-bereaved people
Grimby4,62	“Have you ever felt that your husband/wife has been with you in some way since he/she died?” If confirmed: “In what way?”	Interviewer rating of illusions (ie, the deceased are present in the room) and hallucinations (ie, visual, auditory, tactile, and conversations with the deceased).	50 spousally bereaved persons
Hayes and Leudar3	Participants were told that the interviewer was interested in experiences of continued presence in bereavement and would like to hear about what had happened to them.	Ethnomethodological conversation analysis.	17 mixed-bereaved persons
Klugman28	“Do you have a connection with someone who has died?,” “Do you ever suddenly notice the smell of a deceased person’s smell, and associate it with the deceased?,” “Do you ever suddenly hear their footsteps that you associate with the deceased?,” “Do you ever suddenly hear their voice that you associate with the deceased?,” “Do you ever feel the deceased’s touch?,” “Do you ever have a vision or image of the deceased?,” “Do you ever feel the presence of the deceased?” and “Do you ever converse with them?”	Interviewer registering of response.	202 bereaved and non-bereaved persons
Keen et al37	Interview questions included: “How would you describe what having this experience means to you?” Prompt: “What did you believe was happening? How do you make sense of what was happening? Do you have any explanations about these experiences?”	Interpretative phenomenological analysis.	8 mixed-bereaved women
Nowatzki and Kalischuk29	Interview questions asked participants to describe their encounter(s) with the dead, what meaning the experience had for them, and impact on grieving and beliefs.	Hermeneutic-phenomenological analysis.	23 mixed-bereaved persons
Olson et al8	“Have you ever experienced your husband/wife with you in any way since his/her death” and “Have you ever had other such experiences?”	Interviewer rating of illusion and hallucinations (ie, visual, auditory, talking with, and tactile).	52 spousally bereaved persons
Parker17	Questions focused on the lived experience of having had an “extraordinary experience” in bereavement as well as experiencers’ beliefs, effects, and usages of the experience.	Content analysis, leading to the development of a cause and effect network.	12 mixed-bereaved persons
Steffen and Coyle11	Participants were asked to describe their experiences and what they meant to them as freely as possible while exploring a range of potentially significant dimensions as suggested by relevant theory and research; eg, how presence-sensing might impact on the survivors’ relationships with the deceased and others, their sense-making regarding the death, their belief systems, and sense of self.	Thematic analysis.	12 mixed-bereaved persons
Troyer30	Core question asked: “Have you ever seen a vision of your wife, heard her talking to you, or experienced a touch or smell that made you believe that she was nearby?”	Naturalistic inquiry.	6 spousally bereaved men