“Isn’t it a bit frightening?” – experiencing the contact with the dead
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/SMS20252809Keywords:
anthropology, the dead, extraordinary experiences, contact with the dead, after-life communication, fear of the dead, death, the deseasedAbstract
This paper explores the personal experience of contact with the dead from an anthropological perspective, defining such contact as spontaneous interactions between living individuals and the dead. These encounters can manifest in various forms, ranging from meaningful dreams and mental communication with the dead to sensory and other perceptions of the deceased. The author challenges the prevalent notion that contact with the dead is inherently frightening and unwelcome, drawing on her own fieldwork as well as relevant studies on afterlife communication. Through the presentation of first-person testimonies, the paper highlights the wide range of reactions to such experiences and demonstrates that fear and rejection are, in fact, among the least common responses to encounters with the dead.
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