“Are you still with us?”: The Embodiment of Robot-Induced After Death Experiences

Introduction

Between 30 and 60% of the world’s population have experienced a sense of presence in the form of a deceased loved one (Castelnovo et al., 2015; Elsaesser et al., 2021; Streit-Horn, 2011). Having a “sense of presence” is the most common modality, but people also report seeing, hearing, touching, or having sensations of taste that they identify as associated with a deceased loved one. These experiences, sometimes called ghosts, or bereavement or grief hallucinations, may also be generally called after death experiences (ADEs). And while these experiences might have previously been thought of in scientific circles as happening “in our head,” there is growing evidence that suggests that these experiences are very much embodied. In this paper, I will argue that 4E cognition, or the notion that cognition is shaped by dynamic interactions between the brain, body, and physical/social environments, plays a key role in understanding the cognitive underpinnings and behavioral outcomes of ADEs as both universal experiences and those deemed religious or spiritual (Newen et al., 2018). Drawing from mixed-methods experimental research in cognitive neuroscience, I posit that sensorimotor manipulations of a bereaved individual may induce experiences of presence more readily than in non-bereaved controls. Based on pre-existing data and pending preliminary findings, I will explore how future research relying on 4E cognition principles may impact the study of religious or spiritual phenomenon.

Background

Cognitive scientists have long been interested in religious, spiritual, and otherwise nonordinary phenomena. However, there have been different challenges in creating reproducible, testable scenarios for studies. Whereas humanities scholars are happy in the gray spaces, where clear hypotheses and results can give way to interpretation and context, this is the foundation of scientific inquiry. 4E approaches to cognition offer a way to bridge the gap that separates many different approaches to studying human phenomena (Parada and Rossi, 2020). Even though some may fear that indeed this may shift researchers to “focus resources and efforts on understanding organic and artificial cognitive abilities, forever forgetting supernatural accounts” (Rossi and Parada, 2021), if humanities disciplines join the fray the impacts can be lessened. And by turning to supernatural experience rather than belief, we may more easily apply these 4E cognition lenses to benefit both sides of this academic divide.

In this way, ADE study is primed for a multi-disciplinary approach. Much of the information we currently have about ADEs is based on anthropological, phenomenological reports and sociological/clinical questionnaires. Because these events are often spontaneous and often unreported, we have little information about the experience itself. The term ADE encompasses phenomena ranging from merely “feeling” as though a deceased loved one is present, to seeing, hearing, touching, or otherwise interacting with the deceased (Barnby et al., 2023; Castelnovo et al., 2015). Typically, the ADEs under study are spontaneous—the participant is reporting on an ADE months or years after it happened. There have been rare instances of facilitated ADEs in which the bereaved experiences the deceased directly or indirectly through techniques like mirror-gazing, eye-movement desensitization, and reprocessing, or ingesting psycho-active substances (Beischel, 2019).

To better understand how ADEs relate to 4E cognition, I turn to studies about the embodied nature of hallucinatory experiences. Previous research has demonstrated that presence hallucinations can be induced using a robotic sensorimotor stimuli, connecting the experience of presence with the body (Bernasconi et al., 2022; Blanke et al., 2014). Therefore, a natural progression is that these specific kinds of hallucinatory experiences, ADEs, are also connected to a sense of embodiment. This is only bolstered by the idea that our interactions with the deceased are also embodied—we hug, kiss, hold hands, or speak face-to-face with those that we love. As we go through life, having conversations and mental connections with other people, our interactions and cognitive processes are largely influenced by what we call 4E cognition.

Methods and Preliminary Results

This paper introduces our innovative research design that joins experimental cognitive neuroscience and anthropological approaches in the study of ADEs. Our study uses a novel robotic system previously found to induce presence hallucinations, psychological questionnaires, resting-state fMRI, and ethnographic interviewing. Both bereaved and non-bereaved control participants are asked to complete each of these tasks.

Although this experimental data is still pending analysis at the time of this writing (data will be available in the coming months in early 2024), existing qualitative data provides compelling case studies for the experience of ADEs in people's daily life and how these might be connected to 4E cognition. From our existing data of Parkinson's patients, six have described having sense of presence that they identified as a deceased loved one. Each of these participants had this ADE at home, where they most often physically encountered their deceased loved one (participant transcripts, 2020-2022). This differs from more general presence hallucinations that also occur among these populations, which can happen in places outside of the home.

Conclusion

Although the connections with the body and environment seem to be a natural progression in our understanding of cognitive processes, we don’t leave cognition completely behind. There are some notions—like beliefs—that are more difficult to locate in this 4E framework (Grafman et al., 2020). The interplay between the body, the external world, and the mind are continuously changing, hence our multi-modal design that attempts to understand ADEs phenomenologically, behaviorally, and neurally. There are also some questions that remain outside of the grasp of experimental methods for philosophers and scholars of religion to tackle using historical, ethnographic, or textual methodologies. This project highlights how both methods can work together to learn more about these kinds of phenomena.