Discourse with the Dead

One pioneering doctor helps trauma victims cope with their grief by utilizing a most unusual technique.

Illustrations by Brendan Leach

Sitting in an auditorium in West Virginia, almost 2,000 miles from her Arizona home, Diane Greer knew she would be chosen.

“It was like some voice said, ‘You need to do this,’ and I knew it—it was like the universe was in charge,” Greer recalls.

It was June 8th, 2013—a few days after the 35th anniversary of her father’s sudden death from heart failure at the age of fifty-eight, an event that still haunted her decades later. A friend had told Greer about the conference on dealing with the grieving process. Greer felt she had to attend.

When a psychologist called for volunteers to demonstrate a relatively new form of grief therapy called induced after-death communication, Greer says she instinctively knew that the therapy would finally help her put the grief around the loss of her father behind her. Soon she found herself sitting on stage, wearing headphones that played something called “hemi-sync” music, which combines instrumental and wave sounds that get lo…