Voices from the beyond?

[Clematis]

I was going to orchestra rehearsal last night-about an hour away and no gas stations in between, on a windy night with some light precipitation off and on-rain where I was and snow where I was going, and driving through a narrow canyon in between. I thought I had enough gas to get there and left the house with my cello, but right away I heard my dad say, "Better get some gas". I was concerned that I might be late. He said, "They'll wait for you." No, they wouldn't., actually. They would wait for the conductor, but not some cellist, and not even the principal cellist. "Well the hell with them! Just get some gas!" It's funny-that's the kind of thing he would have said-"The hell with them" but I never heard him say it about the orchestra...I bought some gas, and as it turned out, I wasn't late at all.

[KATPILOT]

 What you said makes sense Laura. There have been two occasions where I had a flight well after Kathy died when I was actually inside the aircraft one of which I had even received my clearance when I felt something was wrong. I knew for some reason that something bad was going to happen and on both of those occasions, I shut down the plane, put it back in the hanger and left. It may have been nothing but having felt her presence before, I just don't tempt fate. Er on the side of caution right?

This thread you started is rather cool. It brings out a lot of response both believing and not. I have to laugh sometimes for after you discover it's real, you can't go back. You wouldn't want to anyway.

I was reminded of an event that occurred when I was at an appointment with a medium I have seen which shows how real it can be. I have told this story sometime before but it bears repeating now. I was waiting for my appointment when I felt a hand on my shoulder. The medium had come out to get me when it normally would have been the receptionist to direct me into the office. She appeared somewhat upset and said she had to tell me something. She said Kathy was here and she needed to tell me her father was dying. This woman would never have been aware of that as my father in law was in Canada and I never mentioned he was ill. When we got in the office, she told me Kathy needed me to tell him that she and her mom were waiting for him and that everything was going to be okay. This was pretty dramatic and I knew he was ill, so I called my sister in law later that day and found out he was in the hospital. I booked a flight the next morning and went to the hospital. I sat with him for a bit and when I left, I told him what I had to say. He grabbed my hand as they were taking him off for some kind of test and said "I know". I left, headed to the airport and flew home having seen him for the last time. He would die two weeks later.  So I have no doubt Kathy wanted me there. I have no doubt that mediums can be for real. You can explain away somethings and some you just can't.  There are times when you just gotta have faith.

 

[Clematis]

That is a really amazing story; thanks for sharing it with us!

Amazingly enough, my dad is still helping me, even though he isn't here with me bodily. Last summer he came and rescued me when I ran out of gas, right in the middle of town and with my cat in the car in the heat. I was only 1/4 mile from the gas station and there is an auto parts shop right there across the parking lot. I coasted into the center (turn) lane, jumped out of the car with the cat, purse, and cell phone and sprinted over to the side of the road. I sat under a tree with Lena on my lap and called 911. When they asked me why this was an emergency, I explained that when the police saw my car sitting in the middle of the road, THEY would want to get it moved ASAP, so they might as well get started. Someone came right away and pushed the car off the road while I steered, under the overhang of the entry of a hotel. I went in-with Lena- and apologized for my car bring under their portico, but not much I could do about it. 

I took off walking & carrying Lena to the parts store, calling my dad on the way. I wasn't sure I could carry the cat and a full can of gasoline, especially without getting gas on the cat. He was moving rather slow in those days, but got in his car and drove over to the gas station. I had bought a gas can and was walking to the gas station, struggling with the cat and the gas can, and a woman I know was driving through the parking lot. We jumped in and she took us over to the pump before setting off to work-she said she was late. While I was filling the can, my dad drove up and took us back to my car. In mid November it was unanimous that my dad should NOT be driving anywhere. He was depressed and I panicked. What would I do without my daddy to rescue me? (Ughh...think smarter, don't let the las tank get so low, think about buying a car that has less than 300,000 miles on it...) And now he's gone...but he's not really gone and he's still helping me...

[Thundar73]

The mediums you guys see, do they know your name, number, any info on you?

 

[kayc]

I haven't seen any mediums, but the one person on here that saw a psychic, no the psychic was not given any information.  She was with a crowd of people she'd never met and she knew information about them and their loved ones.

[Margm]

Thunder, just my humble opinion, but your very inquisitive for someone that does not believe.  I think you may be more open to this than you think.  

[Thundar73]

I heard a story once where a group of people were sitting in a room, & the psychic walks in & immediately points to this one person to tell them something about a deceased family member.   Those kind of psychics I wanna see.   The other kinds where they sit in front of you & you are alone with them & they ask you 800 questions & near half of what the psychic was thinking were misses, those types I don't trust.

 

[kayc]

And well you shouldn't.  And I think Margaret has a point.

[Thundar73]

Marg, I'm in no way a skeptic.  I question some things & it's o.k. to question some things, but in no way am I a skeptic.   I do believe in something, not nothingness.   I believe that something is beyond our existence, a higher plane or 2, or 3.    What makes me mad, are phonies.  Some  are on the t.v., hunting for ghosts.  Ghost Adventures, for example, the host goes way too overboard in his emotions, the crew does to...they sound like bad actors from a found footage movie, like Paranormal Activity 5.   It is these types of people that....  1. Gives the whole paranormal thing a bad rap   2.  They lessen the credibility of the paranormal, & that just makes me upset.   I'm just very very hugely careful on what I read or watch, when it comes to the paranormal.   If you ask me if there is anything I don't read much about, is mediums & psychic stories.   There are fake ones & there are real ones.    The fake ones hurt & tarnish, in my opinion, the real ones who are trying to get people to BELIEVE, they actually can talk to the dead.   It's like fake ghost experiences, the fakes hurt & tarnish the field of parapsychology, & that's why I'm careful of what to believe.   Does that explain it better?

[Clematis]

I know quite well what you mean. Sedona has TONS of psychics, mediums, channels, and so on. A lot of it is just a way to make money from vulnerable, tourists hoping for some magic. People go on jeep tours to see the vortex sites, all of which happen to be in places with awesome views. The money-making aspect of all that seems suspect to me, but I don't doubt for a second that my dad is talking to me. And when people tell me their personal stories about psychic connections to people in their lives, I can't explain it but I believe it and think it's a marvel. I also think it's helpful and healing to have contact with people who have "gone" and to feel that they are still around us. My personal belief is that we all have this capability, but in some it is more natural or more developed.

[Margm]

1 hour ago, Thundar73 said:

Marg, I'm in no way a skeptic.  I question some things & it's o.k. to question some things, but in no way am I a skeptic.   I do believe in something, not nothingness

 

A skeptic is a person inclined to question or doubt all accepted opinions.

 I always told Billy I cannot disbelieve but am not sure I believe.  I have never seen a medium or psychic.  My son told me I was psychic, but I told him it was really just psycho.  Right now my mind is blank/blocked, but I sure wish I had my mystical, magical, imagination back again, or just plain faith.  

I do not know about psychics or mediums like you do.  I live in the south and I guess we have voodoo in Louisiana, but I don't know about psychics and mediums.  I am just a country redneck.  Growing up in a small town, traveling, but not to the big cities, I don't know about things like that.  But some do, and some have proof that it works.  I cannot doubt their proof.  I have had a phenomenon called dissociation, but it is a psychiatric word rather than mystical or magic.  The mind is a powerful thing.  Some people's minds more  powerful than others.  I am new to this forum, but I think if you stay on it long enough, just by reading, you and I both might learn the answers to your questions.  .  

 

[kayc]

I learned mind out of body and dissociation when I was married the first time...he was a monster and beat me all the time.  More than beat me, mentally & emotionally tortured me.  At the time I hadn't heard of mind out of body, etc., it was just something that I naturally did to protect myself.  I later learned there was a name for it.  I did the same thing when I went through something very hard.

[Margm]

I'm sorry about that Kay..  Should never happen.  I liked mind out of body.  I got lost one time going to my psychiatrist's office.  That is when I learned about the word disassociation.  I was glad there was a word for that wonderful feeling that saves your mind from overload.  I have not had it since Billy passed though.  And I was always alone when I would have it.  It was not like I depended on someone, even Billy, because I thought I was dying anyhow.  

[Clematis]

Kay and Marg-it's just amazing that you both said that; I had the same reaction to early life situations beyond my control. I was a self-hypnotic virtuoso, but after many years of therapy it doesn't work anymore. I used to be able to put a finger on each temple and be gone. I haven't even thought about it in some time. It seems like it would be good to escape some of this pain, but my grief counselor keeps telling me that ultimately you can't cheat grief-like you can avoid it but it doesn't go away.

I moved out west away from the crazy family and did all that therapy and got to be really tough. There was a ten year period when I did nothing with my father but project/deliver anger at him across the country. Then, having gotten it out of my system I spent about a decade trying to make friends with him.  My sisters stayed in the crazy mess and drank to get through it. When my father moved out here, I said to my older sister, "Isn't it rather remarkable that after all that I am the one who took him on-after all that anger and being across the country all this time?"And she said, "No, it's not-you're the only one who not only would have, but could have taken him on." My younger sister, when she saw us together complimented me on how well I "handled" him. He really was a much nicer person in his last ten years. My older sister gave me credit for that...a huge compliment.

So now, I am grieving and they are drinking and blaming me and drinking and circling the wagons to exclude me and drinking. However I see no signs of their suffering like I am. I do know that the father they lost was not the same person I lost, they hadn't really had any contact with him in ten years, and they really didn't have invested in him, But they have other things I don't have...like guilt, like knowing that they lived their entire lives without a good mother or a good father really, like that the only ten years any of the three of us that had a really good parent-child relationship was mine and pretty much mine alone. My grief counselor told me that I am actually handling this better than they are-that them drinking/avoiding indicated they were in a worse situation than I...hmmm...

When I coaxed him out here, I promised that he would have a fresh start, a new slate-and that as long as he was kind and decent to me, I would never leave him alone for major holidays and would never desert him, but would do absolutely anything I could for him as long as he lived and no matter how bad it got. In the beginning there were some difficult times, but I sensed that I was by far the stronger of us two and I didn't put up with any b.s. If he flipped out some nasty remark to me, I'd tell him I wasn't going to see him until he apologized. And I wouldn't. He would apologize...the next day...then it was a half hour...then it took ten minutes or less for him to apologize...and then he stopped saying mean things to me. And my reward--was his unconditional love, friendship and support. He totally had my back-on everything. Someone would tell him he was a lucky man (referring to me) and he would get all choked up, his voice would crack, and he'd say, "Yeah, she's wonderful" What a payoff-I totally invested in him and gained so much in the ten years I had with him. G-d, I miss him!

And now he's gone (wail) and he's never coming back! I had the ultimate in the way of a friendship with him and there will never be anything else like it in my life. So, I sit here in his condo wondering how I will ever get through this. It would be so much easier if I could just put my fingers on my temples and "space out".

Anyway, Kay and Marg, it makes sense that we three would have this in common; I think it goes with the territory of what we are doing for others here...

[Clematis]

I never tried to contact my mother...but she sure worked hard on contacting me and it took a loo of work! I would be hiking, walking, (and occasionally driving) and would notice a rabbit doing something that is very odd for rabbits. Usually it was a rabbit who would run across a trail or run towards me alongside a trail, stop about six feet away and sit there looking at me. I would stop and we would stay there for a minute or two, gazing at each other. This happened over and over, until I finally got the idea these rabbits were trying to tell me something and that it had something to do with me mother, who had been rabbit-obsessed. I finally started speaking to them..."What is it you're trying to tell me?" And it was not like I heard words like my dad talking to me, but I gradually got the idea she was telling me to take care of my dad. After about a year or so, it stopped. At that point it was obvious to everyone that I was quite committed to caring for him.

[kayc]

[Clematis]

I am so glad I listened to my dad-and the radio-and everyone who urged me to listen to the warnings, advice, and inner voice telling me to not come out here to the reservation in all that wind on Monday. Apparently there were a lot of accidents on I-40, which I must travel with a lot of big trucks, and out at the school-they told me that the wind was so strong it sounded like the roof was about to be ripped off! Dang!

[Clematis]

I had a super vivid dream about my dad last night. I was standing on a street corner with him near his house-where I am now staying. Some man came up to us and was trying to serve one of us with some kind of legal papers. It was addressed to my dad but he was looking (deferring?) to me, while I was trying to figure out what it was. The guy was looking from one of us to the other, saying one of us had to sign for it before we could look at it. I said, "Well I guess that has to be me, since he's dead and I'm the executor", but then my dad turned and started to walk away. He looked much younger and stronger than he did when he died. At the time he died (I now realize) he had lost too much cognitive ability to figure out complicated legal or financial things and would defer to me. But this dad walking away from me looked like a guy who could figure out things-and this was his affairs after all-not mine. I don't know what all he did when he was alive-I wasn't always there, and I sometimes feel like I'm on a detective hunt to figure out what he was really doing-and why. Meanwhile, the guy was trying really hard to get me to sign this thing while I was chasing after my dad to help me. My dad finally stopped about 25 feet away from me, turned around to face me and said, "Don't worry-I'll help you figure it out, whatever it is. But go ahead and sign for it so the man can go about his business." And then I woke up, rather frustrated because I really had the thought that now that I had caught up with him I could get him to explain a few things to me. But no...whatever help I get from him now is not going to come from a Q & A session with my dad whereby he finally explains himself...

[kayc]

But he displayed as a healthier person, and I think that is true of those beyond the grave, and that in itself is consoling.

[KATPILOT]

This thread is rather cool. It brings out a lot of response both believing and not. I have to laugh sometimes for after you discover it's real, you can't go back. You wouldn't want to anyway. Sometimes we are lucky and specific things make themselves understood but as you said Laura often we hear but can't know what is being said. I had a strange occurrence yesterday. I was at work and I couldn't find my phone so I called it but heard no ring. Then I went to my car outside and called it again. Still no ring. I could have sworn I had it with me when I left the house so when I went home I looked to find it there. I called it with my house phone and something strange happened. Kathy's phone started ringing. I keep her phone for sentimental reasons and should my wife's friend be in town from Canada she would have a local phone to use. I charge that phone during the day and my cell phone during the night. They sit next to each other on my nightstand. I tried again and the same thing happened only I let it answer to find it going to my own voicemail. I went back out to my car and looked harder and found my phone. It had called forwarded itself to Kathy's phone. I know I didn't do this and never have done it. It takes a few steps to make that happen. I had to wonder if it was her. I have to say that a year ago while I was in bed watching tv, my cell phone rang. I looked at the number calling and it was her phone sitting right next to mine. I hadn't touched either phone for hours. I knew it was her. I could think of no other explanation. Now I have pocket dialed before but I was "No where near isle seven".  So I leave to you all to consider. I know what I believe but I just don't know what she was trying to tell me. Perhaps just hello?

[Clematis]

Call her up on her phone, leave a message and see what happens...or just ask her out loud in the house, somewhere you feel particularly close to her...you might get an answer in a dream or something. Or you might just hear her laughing...I kind of think you get a response when you fully expect that you will...But who knows?

[KATPILOT]

I think sometimes I am so dense that I miss the obvious. I had my grandchildren spend the night and they are so cute and special especially when the triplets sleep sprawled all over each other. I knew that Kathy would have loved all of this as I get to enjoy so I said out loud to her "I hope your here seeing this hon". The next morning is when I discovered the phone had done it's thing. I think she was letting me know she was there.

[MartyT]

I've no doubt that your Kathy is enjoying this adorable sight as much as you are, Stephen! (I have twin nieces who do the exact same thing when they sleep: draped all over each other. They look like a pile of puppies.) 

[Froggie4635]

I know I have listed my experiences many places on this forum.  Some are just small little moments, and then sometimes there are big OMG moments that I know could only come from my husband, Mark and not just me having wishful thinking.  I know how very deeply Mark loved me, and he would do as much as he could to let me know he was still here.  When I tell people the story of the giant rooster outside my hotel window in Oregon, many tell me they get goose bumps.  I have begun researching/reading about such events and many of those who write from the grief end of it explain that we are so deep in our grief and sadness that we actually block the messages and signs they send us.  For such things to happen, you really do have to be "open" to it, and sometimes the grief just surrounds us too much.  But whether we "get" the messages, our loved ones are there watching and staying near. After all, don't you think they miss us too?

[Margm]

Maryann, I am going through a period that I am angry at Billy.  I don't know why.  I am in Louisiana right now and a loud cardinal wakes me up each day.  I have blocked Billy out, not the memory or hurt, just angry for some reason.  I have no solution or reasoning for this, it is a puzzle.