Presence, a sense of “being there,” is critical to the success of designing, teaching, and learning at a distance using both synchronous and asynchronous (blended) technologies. Emotions, behavior, and cognition are components of the way presence is perceived and experienced and are essential for explaining the ways we consciously and unconsciously perceive and experience distance education. A more complete understanding of the integration of the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional components of presence into distance education teaching and learning will impact the design, instructional facilitation, and experience of distance education faculty and learners. This paper focuses on a literature review of the research in the areas of: emotion as indispensable to the perception of reality, and presence and the role of emotion in creating presence. It builds on models from this research and presents: (a) a framework for creating presence in the blended distance education experience, (b) implications for practice, (c) implications for future research, and (d) a suggested combination of methods for measuring presence in distance education experiences.