SURVEY OF CLAIMED ENCOUNTERS WITH THE DEAD

• Main Author: Erlendur Haraldsson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.563.891; http://www.hoje.org.br/site/arq/artigos/CLAIMED_ENCOUNTERS.pdf

In a national survey in Iceland, 3 1 percent of respondents reported “having perceived the presence of a deceased person. ” A multinational Gallup survey conducted in sixteen western countries showed widespread claims of personal contacts with the dead, as well as, considerable national differences. Such experiences were reported most frequently by Icelanders and Italians whereas Norwegians and Danes, considered culturally closest to Icelanders, reported the lowest incidence (9%). In the Iceland survey, interviews were conducted with 127 persons on the nature of these experiences, their relationship with the deceased, the conditions under which these experiences occurred, and various characteristics of the interviewees, as well as, the deceased persons. Attempts were made to test some theories of what may elicit such experiences. Recent survey data indicate a widespread belief in life after death in most countries of Western Europe and North America. but also large national differences in belief. Malta, Iceland, and the Republic of Ireland lead in western Europe with 76 to 84 percent of respondents reporting belief in continued life after death. France and Denmark have the lowest percentages with 35 percent and 26 percent respectively. For western Europe as a whole. Gallup estimates the percentage of believers at 43 percent and disbelievers at 38 percent [ 11, the percentage of believers being far below the United States ’ percentage of around 70 percent [2]. Some persons not only believe in life after death, but they also report encounters with the dead. Studies of al leged personal encounters with the dead have found their way into the recent thanatological and medical literature [3,4], but nineteenth-century British researchers did the first large systematic study of “apparitional experiences ” of persons whose presence was reportedly perceived