Below you will find information about:

Experience Sharing Project Overview
Research Background
Research Methodology
Research Goals
Research Limitations

  Experience Sharing Project Overview

Dear ADCRF (After Death Communication Research Foundation) Contributor,

        We greatly appreciate your willingness to share your experience! We have now developed the expertise to process your web form contribution and output it into an easily readable format.  As a courtesy, we would be happy to e-mail you back a narrative of the experience you contribute.  You may be assured we have and will continue to keep all experience contributions confidential to the extent you desire.  We will never share any contributor names or contact information with any commercial source.  No contributor will be contacted without their prior approval.

    We have been conducting this type of research on our first sister web site (www.nderf.org, Near Death Experience Research Foundation) for over a year with scores of experience contributions.  There have been no experience contributor concerns at any time regarding any aspect of our research and our maintaining their contribution confidential to the extent desired.  We are committed to continuing our research ethically, compassionately and in gratitude to the willingness of the experiencer to share.
        Your contribution will help us understand ADC and related experiences, and will touch the lives of many!
         As always, our sharing any submitted experience is subject to the advance approval of the experience contributor.

Thanks again for your willingness to share!  -ADCRF

  Research Background

We acknowledge and express our appreciation to the many ADC experiencers who have shared their experiences over the years. The willingness of these special individuals to share is the foundation of our awareness and understanding of ADC.

We further acknowledge and express our appreciation to the many ADC investigators and writers. Their contribution to understanding ADC has been enormous.

  Research Methodology
The After Death Communication Research Foundation (ADCRF) will use the following methodology for this investigation:

1. Develop a web site to serve as the focal point for requesting After Death Communication experiences (ADC).
2. Increase awareness of the ADCRF project and web site. Hopefully our colleagues maintaining other web sites regarding ADC will be kind enough to include a link to our web site. We will strive to maintain links from our sites to other major ADC and related web sites.
3. Accept communications regarding ADC experiences in a variety of formats (see web section titled "Share After Death Communication").
4. ADC submissions will be studied by ADCRF. Results will be periodically published to our web site.
5.  Compare and contrast the ADC experience with other spiritual experiences submitted to our other web sites (www.nderf.org, Near Death Experience Research Foundation, and www.oberf,org, Out of Body Research Foundation).  To the best of our knowledge, this type of research is unique in the world.
 
  Research Goals

It is our hope that this research and the sharing of results will contribute to our collective understanding of ADC, as well as enhance public awareness and acceptance of ADC.
 
  Research Limitations...

One of the strengths of the ADCRF research methodology comes from our understandings from experiences shared on our two other web sites, www.nderf.org (Near Death Experience Research Foundation) and www.oberf.org (Out of Body Experience Research Foundation).  We are convinced ADC is only part of a spectrum of important spiritual experiences.  Near death experience (NDE) and out of body experience (OBE) experiencers often describe loving encounters with their deceased friends and family members.  As we learn more about near death experience and out of body experience, we hope to learn more about ADC.

We acknowledge our efforts to research ADC have some significant limitations. In expressing our awareness of these limitations, we will strive, whenever possible, to minimize their impact on the validity of this research and its results.   A significant limitation is the definition of ADC.  The definition we have selected is (with detailed explanation below): 

"A spontaneous experience of communication with a deceased friend or family member".

Further explanation of this definition follows:

"spontaneous": means developing without apparent external cause, inducement, or plan. This definition excludes deceased entities encountered using mediums, psychics, hypnosis, or through channeling. We recognize communication can occur in these ways, and may be meaningful. If you have an account of such an experience, please share it with us! We would like to study these important types of experiences.
"experience": means something personally encountered, undergone, or lived through.
"communication" means information shared or imparted. Communication may be through any of the five physical senses, or extrasensory sharing of information, such as an awareness of the presence of the deceased.
"deceased" means a previously living earthly being. Generally these experiences involve deceased human friends or loved ones, but may involve a beloved pet, bird, butterfly, or other life form.
"friend or family member" means that the experiencer personally knew who they communicated with prior to their death.  The relationship with the deceased was usually loving. This definition excludes from the ADC definition communication with angelic or other spiritual beings. We do recognize such communications may occur and are meaningful. If you have a story of communication with an angelic or other spiritual being, please share it with us! We would like to study these important types of experiences.

This definition is good, but not perfect.  We consider it a necessity to define ADC for the purpose of this study.  We recognize this definition will be considered too broad by some and too limiting by others.  There are a variety of experiences this definition excludes.  As we learn about ADC, this definition may be modified if necessary.

Studying ADC is difficult. With rare exceptions, information regarding the ADC experience is only available, directly or indirectly, from the experiencer. There is generally (but not always) no associated physical evidence to collaborate the experiencer's account.

In our experience, ADC experiencers generally strive to truthfully and accurately convey their experience. In spite of this, the ADC by definition is often associated with an emotional event which may affect their recall of the experience. Their experience is perceived and conveyed through the filter of their unique belief system. ADC experiences usually occurred many months or years prior to the time it is conveyed, and this may result in parts of the experience being forgotten or distorted. We will rely on the honesty and integrity of the experiencer in sharing their experience. There is no reliable procedure to accurately evaluate the honesty of the experiencer. We may receive experiences that are confabulations. We can only hope it will be rare that we encounter such meaningless deceit.

Our research methodology has limitations. We will receive a disproportionate number of responses from English speaking adults with access to a computer and the Internet. Respondents are further characterized by their ability to find this web site and their will to communicate their experience, implying many of them perceive significance or value in the experience. These respondents contacting us are not representative of the population of all ADC experiencers worldwide. We intend to compare and contrast ADCs among different cultural groups to help clarify the significance of this limitation.

As ADC investigators, we have our own personal limitations. We freely admit our bias that the ADC experience is real and associated with a higher power. Our understanding of other's ADC experiences will be filtered through our own belief system, which may introduce some distortion. We will strive to be conscious of this, and diligent in minimizing such distortion. A firm commitment to seeking the truth will be vital for all of us in this endeavor.

As we collectively seek to understand ADC, it is important to be aware that understanding ADC will be affected by differing individual's belief systems. ADC experiencers often immediately accept the reality and significance of their experience. This acceptance is based on personal experience, which the majority of us lack. ADC experience cures ADC disbelief. Certain things in life require their being experienced to understand. I cannot adequately convey the experience of riding a roller coaster to one who has never ridden. You must ride a roller coaster to understand the roller coaster experience. Similarly, you must experience an ADC or related experience to fully understand ADC.

In understanding ADC, patience will be necessary for both the experiencer conveying the experience, and those seeking to understand ADC. Those of us without a personal ADC experience may not fully understand as the ADC experiencer does, but we hope to understand to the greatest extent possible. This is what ADCRF is all about. It should be noted that Dr. Jeff has personally experienced an ADC.

Sharing an ADC or related experience that may be very difficult to describe will require patience. But most of all, sharing the experience is an act of love. It comes in part from the experiencer's hope that others lives may be enhanced by sharing their experience. We are deeply grateful to the many ADC experiencers who have shared.

There are two groups of people who are skeptical of ADC. There are the "closed minded" skeptics and "open minded" skeptics. Skeptics may have belief systems with both closed and open minded elements.

Closed minded skeptics are characterized by a belief system of unwillingness to seriously consider the possibility that ADC might be real and significant. The ADC experience is so different from their personal life experience that their belief system will not allow them to seriously consider the possible reality and significance of ADC. There are many closed minded skeptics. Sharing an ADC experience with a closed minded skeptic (a significant act of courage) is likely to be unrewarding and stressful. Closed minded skeptics are among the greatest barriers to advancing understanding of ADC. We hope we can all be patient in dealing with closed minded skeptics, and in doing so be reminded of the importance of dealing with issues of close mindedness in our own life.

As public awareness of ADC grows, skeptics are concerned about the temptation some may experience to confabulate an ADC (especially a "dramatic" ADC) for monetary or other gain. Unfortunately this is a reasonable concern. Human nature being what it is, we would be surprised if there were no confabulated ADC experiences among the many published books describing "dramatic" ADC experiences. We believe the overwhelming majority of ADC experiences are conveyed honestly.

We acknowledge and express our appreciation to the many ADC experiencers who have shared their experiences over the years. The willingness of these special individuals to share is the foundation of our awareness and understanding of ADC.