I tend to think of these "communications with the dead" as dialogues with ourselves. Sort of the devil on one shoulder, angel on the other sort of thing transposed to a deceased relative or friend.

You should listen to these "spirits" the same as you would yourself, since it is yourself in some psychological way.

I don't know if what these alteregos tell you is more important than the usual thought processes. Although quite ignorant of psychology practice, I think psychologists pay extra attention to what disturbed children have their play characters say since it often is closely related to what they are experiencing, but perhaps can't deal with normally.

Your experience that these spirits are as prone to error as we are supports, I think, my claim that they are just our own minds. An alternative explanation that I refute is that dead people are just as stupid after they die as when they lived. I think dead people are dead, they're less than stupid.

Is there a psychologist out there who can add to the discussion?