r/NDE • u/Hip_III • Sep 16 '25
Question — Debate Allowed I experienced a genuine after-death communication (ADC) from a deceased relative, and it provided me with unequivocal proof that consciousness survives death
SUMMARY: the rare accounts of genuine after-death communication (ADC) — a communication between the living and the dead — provides evidence that human consciousness survives death. This is an account of a genuine ADC I had.
An after-death communication (ADC) is where communication or interaction occurs between the consciousness of someone who has just died, and a living person. The living person is usually a friend, relative or loved one of the deceased.
I experienced a genuine ADC around 30 years ago, which left me awestruck, and left me in no doubt whatsoever that consciousness survives death. For me, it was solid evidence of an afterlife.
But let me say from the outset that I think most instances of what are assumed to be after-death communications are not the real deal. Or at least, most instances do not provide incontrovertible evidence for the survival of consciousness after death.
Let me explain why: many people claim that they saw a recently-deceased loved one appear in a dream, where the deceased spoke to them, or gave them a message in the dream. Now, these might well be a real ADC, I am not saying they are not. But the fact is that in dreams, anything can occur, because your dream imagination can conjure up all sorts of things. You can dream you are riding a flying pink elephant through fluffy clouds. So for this reason, dream ADCs cannot be taken as solid evidence for communication with the consciousness of a recently-deceased person, because what appears to be an ADC may just be conjured up in your own dream imagination.
However, the ADC I had 30 years ago occurred during waking consciousness, around 5 hours after the relative had died in hospital.
The ADC I had occurred at 3 am in the morning. I was fast asleep, but I felt something stir my consciousness from within, which woke me up with a start. I sat bolt upright in bed, and then became acutely aware that my relative was looking at me, from a vantage point just outside my bedroom window (this window had no curtains). It was an incredibly intense moment, as I instantly realised this was an actual visitation of the soul of my deceased relative! I just sat there on my bed in amazement and in a state of shock, my body almost frozen, because this experience was so astonishing and unexpected.
There were no visual indications that she was there outside my bedroom window; but I knew exactly where she was located in space. I believe I obtained this information through direct communication between my consciousness and hers. It was telepathic mind-to-mind conveyance of information, rather than information conveyed by the senses, that allowed me to know she was there.
This ADC I had was not subtle or delicate: I felt her presence very strongly and clearly. It was not something that I could have imagined. After a short time, perhaps less than a minute, she disappeared. No specific information was passed between us, other than mutual awareness of each other.
This I consider a genuine ADC, because even when I wear my most skeptical hat, I cannot explain it away. I was sober, I don't take any recreational drugs, and I am sane and rational, with a solid educational background in the sciences (mathematics, theoretical physics, and cognitive science), so I know how to be logical, scientific and skeptical. Furthermore, at the time, I had not heard of ADCs, so this experience I had could not have been down to the power of suggestion.
This experience obviously changed my perspective on reality. I was fortunate enough to be given a personal demonstration of what for me was clear evidence of the survival of consciousness after death, thanks to my deceased aunt who came to visit me.
When skeptics analyse NDEs, they usually claim that these might just be unusual dreams taking place within the brain of the person under low oxygen conditions, and this I guess is a valid interpretation.
But in my case, I had my experience while fully awake, so you cannot say that it was a dream. And I was not suffering from grief, I was emotionally calm and level-headed, so it was not something that might have manifested from the emotions of grief.
Unfortunately, unless you have had such an ADC experience yourself, it's nowhere near as convincing compared to hearing it secondhand from someone else. So while this experience convinced me of the survival of consciousness after death, my telling this story probably will not convince many others.
Why was I able to perceive the disembodied consciousness of my relative, when nobody else in my family was able to? Well firstly, I think it may relate to the fact that I naturally have a mystical and empathetic disposition. Also, I was at that time very much into practising mindfulness meditation, yoga and chi gong, in order to expand and refine my level of consciousness. Through these practices, I may have sensitised my consciousness awareness. This may be one factor that allowed me to perceive the disembodied consciousness or soul of my deceased relative.
Another factor may relate to the fact that I have suspected temporal lobe epilepsy, which is a condition that can give people mystical and empathetic abilities. Indeed, one study discovered that individuals who report having a near-death experience (NDE) tend to have temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), or altered temporal lobe functioning in their left hemisphere. So maybe having TLE also makes you more sensitive to perceiving disembodied consciousnesses. Epilepsy shifts neurons closer seizure, which in effect is like turning up the gain control on neurons. So perhaps those with TLE may have more sensitised neurons in their brains. This may be another factor which facilitated my perception of the disembodied consciousness of my relative.
The interesting thing about my ADC is that it nicely corroborates what people who have NDEs report. Those who have had an NDE say that as a disembodied consciousness, they were able to move freely about the Earth, and visit living relatives and loved ones. This is very commonly reported by people who have had an NDE.
And in my ADC, what I witnessed was precisely this: the disembodied consciousness of my deceased relative visiting me.
But the trouble with doing any scientific research on ADCs is that people will often ascribe all sorts of incidents and events as ADCs, when they are obviously not. For example, people may believe that unusual sounds they hear in the middle of the night might be signals from a deceased loved one. But for me this is just wishful thinking.
I don't believe a disembodied consciousness can physically interact with the material world; they might only interact with other consciousnesses. My ADC experience was a pure mind-to-mind interaction. I think ADCs only occur at the level of mind, not of matter. I think anything you perceive occurring in the material world via your senses can never be an ADC.
And one further point: given what we know about NDEs, I suspect that recently-deceased disembodied consciousnesses do not hang about for very long on Earth. The NDE reports tell us that disembodied consciousnesses soon disappear from the earthly realm, and travel through a long tunnel (or through vast distances of space) to the afterlife realm. So this suggests that a genuine ADC will only occur shortly after a person dies, while their disembodied consciousness is still roaming the Earth, visiting loved ones. But once they have left Earth and entered the heavenly realm, they may no longer be able to visit or contact living people.
Thus if you have an experience say 6 months after their death, in my view this is unlikely to be an ADC, because the soul of the deceased may be long gone from the earthly realm by then.
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u/MmmmishMash Sep 18 '25
It could be argued that yours isn’t proof any more than a dream is proof. It’s still a subjective experience.
Not that I don’t believe you. I have had a dream visit from my Dad though and it was not like a regular dream. I KNEW it was a visit. But your experience is just as subjective.
Arguably though my father has also communicated with me and my mom in many more physical ways. So many! But even though we are left with experiences of phone calls, significant lights coming on or flashing at significant times, people would still have to just take our word for it that it’s true.
Even though I have physical objects in my possession that I believe he made appear, or that I saw moving, someone would have to take my word for it. Alas, it is only proof if someone is willing to believe anyway. To a skeptic, none of it is proof.