Interesting Ian
5th September 2004, 09:52 AM
A paper with interesting statistics regarding apparitional experiences.
Go here. (http://www.hi.is/~erlendur/english/omega.pdf)
For example
Rees, of the University of London, interviewed 293 widows and widowers in Wales [4]. 50 percent of the widowers and 46 percent of the widows reported hallucinatory experiences of their dead spouses in a clearly waking state. The experiences seemed independent of sex and age. but relatively more professionals and managers and their widows reported them than members of other classes. Social isolation had no effect on the occurrence of the phenomenon, nor was it more common among those who had, according to their medical reports, sought help for depression after losing their spouse.
. . .
Greeley [lo] and Haraldsson [l l] have since verified in large national samples that about half of all widows and widowers report hallucinatory experiences of their deceased spouses.
and
Osis and Haraldsson conducted an extensive cross-cultural interview survey with physicians and nurses in the United States and India on the hallucinatory experiences of terminal patients [ 121 . Most of the 471 incidents occurred within twenty-four hours of death and were of deceased relatives and friends who the patients perceived-often joyfully-as coming to “take them away.” These experiences seemed to occur independent of medication and the nature of the disease.
and
In the thanatological and psychiatric literature, apparitional experiences have frequently been associated with bereavement or grief [4, 17, 181. We distinguished between the feeling of grief at the death of the person allegedly perceived (henceforth we shall refer to that person as the agent), and grief felt at the time of. or just before, the reported experience. Grief at the time of the experience or just prior to it was reported in eleven of the seventy-three cases in which the identity of the agent was nown. In about one-fourth of the cases the percipient had been grief-stricken at the death of the agent. In thirteen cases the percipient did not know at the time of his experience that the agent had died. Grief or bereavement therefore played a minor role. Medical and physiological factors some times known to cause hallucinations were practically absent in our interviewees. They were in a normal healthy state; only six were bedridden; none were feverish; and only one was under the influence of medication.
Go here. (http://www.hi.is/~erlendur/english/omega.pdf)
For example
Rees, of the University of London, interviewed 293 widows and widowers in Wales [4]. 50 percent of the widowers and 46 percent of the widows reported hallucinatory experiences of their dead spouses in a clearly waking state. The experiences seemed independent of sex and age. but relatively more professionals and managers and their widows reported them than members of other classes. Social isolation had no effect on the occurrence of the phenomenon, nor was it more common among those who had, according to their medical reports, sought help for depression after losing their spouse.
. . .
Greeley [lo] and Haraldsson [l l] have since verified in large national samples that about half of all widows and widowers report hallucinatory experiences of their deceased spouses.
and
Osis and Haraldsson conducted an extensive cross-cultural interview survey with physicians and nurses in the United States and India on the hallucinatory experiences of terminal patients [ 121 . Most of the 471 incidents occurred within twenty-four hours of death and were of deceased relatives and friends who the patients perceived-often joyfully-as coming to “take them away.” These experiences seemed to occur independent of medication and the nature of the disease.
and
In the thanatological and psychiatric literature, apparitional experiences have frequently been associated with bereavement or grief [4, 17, 181. We distinguished between the feeling of grief at the death of the person allegedly perceived (henceforth we shall refer to that person as the agent), and grief felt at the time of. or just before, the reported experience. Grief at the time of the experience or just prior to it was reported in eleven of the seventy-three cases in which the identity of the agent was nown. In about one-fourth of the cases the percipient had been grief-stricken at the death of the agent. In thirteen cases the percipient did not know at the time of his experience that the agent had died. Grief or bereavement therefore played a minor role. Medical and physiological factors some times known to cause hallucinations were practically absent in our interviewees. They were in a normal healthy state; only six were bedridden; none were feverish; and only one was under the influence of medication.