A few years ago I realized I had a gift. Yet when I shared this realization with others, most were skeptical and some folks outright scoffed. Very few actually believed. Cue the line from the movie The Sixth Sense: I see dead people. Only that's not true because I don't see them, I hear them. And feel their presence. My oldest daughter and one of my nephews sees them and hears them. Not me. But, oh, do I ever hear them!
I won't pretend to know exactly how it works on the other side, when someone dies, but it's not set up how most people were taught to believe. When I've asked others what they think heaven is, or where it is, they really have no clear-cut answer. Let's rip up the after-death myth right here about the floating-around-on-clouds and playing-the-harp thing. It makes for good cartoons but that's about it. When a person dies, there isn't an automatic go straight to heaven or hell, either, except for those very evil. I don't want to get into that aspect, though. So I'll address the heaven part.
In order to understand why I--and others--can hear and communicate with those who have passed on, first you have to understand where the deceased are and what they are. Our bodies are a shell to house our spirits while living here on earth. It's a very significant "shell," but that's a topic better left for another discussion. Just know that when the deceased leave their bodies and go to the other side, they are still the same people who left their bodies. Love, devotion, hope, dreams, nasty attitudes, negativity, benevolence or lack thereof--any good or bad traits they possessed while alive remain with them after "death." Now, having said this, they can change once they're over there. They have the opportunity of being taught the values and truths that they didn't get while on the earth. They can accept or reject these teachings, just like they could while "alive." Free will doesn't end.
How do I know what I just stated? Dead people have told me with statements like, "I'm learning so much!" and "There's so much to learn!" I hear the excitement in their voices and feel it in their presence. That lets me know we can become better over there if we so desire, and that we don't learn everything all at once upon death, like some living people believe. I've also talked to those that I didn't especially care for while they were alive, and sometimes they have changed into magnificent beings who I can't wait to get to know when I arrive on the other side. Other times, they still harbor the same not-so-niceness they possessed while alive, and I cut those conversations short. Just know that if someone cared for you deeply during his or her life, they care just as much--if not more--on the other side, and will do for you whatever they can.
There is a common thread each time I talk to a dead person. This common thread is purpose. These conversations are never idle chatter. The purpose may be: strengthening my belief in an afterlife (though that's been a moot point for several years now), me helping a live person to have hope and believe in an afterlife, comfort (for myself or another), concern (for me or another), requests, ... the list goes on, but there is always purpose. When the purpose concerns myself, I've been extremely grateful for what they are able to teach me. When it concerns others who are alive, the situation becomes a little more dicey for me, as the deceased person usually wants me to get a message to a loved one. I always have the option to accept or reject what they want me to do, which is my free will in action. And I tell the deceased person that they have to accept that the living person may not believe the message or where it came from. I've had results go both ways.
Several years ago, a deceased young woman came to me and asked me to give a message to her mother. Now understand, I had never met the woman's mother before, yet I knew that this mother would recognize my name and know who I was. It took me a day or so to track down the mother's whereabouts and get her phone number. Can you imagine how much I was shaking when I made that call? As a mother myself, I couldn't imagine receiving a call such as that. I prayed earnestly that I would say the right things so this mother didn't hang up on me, but most of all, that she would know the message I was bringing to her from her deceased daughter was true, and meant to give her hope and comfort her grief. I'll not include the message here to protect the sacred privacy of all involved, but the deceased called her mother, Mommy, when she gave the message to me, and told me to repeat the message word for word. When I called that mother and explained who I was and my reason for the call, she was at least willing to hear me out. After I gave her the message, she broke down, sobbing. She said she absolutely knew the message was from her daughter because, even as a grown woman, her daughter still called her Mommy. Then she related some things that had happened to her recently to let her know that her daughter was near and watching over her. My phone call completed that knowledge.
Another call I made didn't turn out so great. It was a message from a deceased husband to his wife. The wife had known me well for many years and respected me. When I told her the reason for my phone call, she was skeptical at the very least even though I said key phrases and words that she and her husband had spoken in private conversations that she had repeated to no one. This aspect of our conversation caught her by surprise and made her stop to think. Yet because of previously-held (erroneous) beliefs, she ultimately didn't believe me. If you think about it, if it wasn't true, why would I have made the call and held myself out there to look like a fool? I even said as much. And her late husband's message was one of confirmation of the beauty of heaven, love, and hope. He also said he'd been trying to talk to her--and others as well--but no one could hear him. He was thrilled that I could hear him. Can you imagine no one being able to hear you when you had something so important to share?
My particular gift does not work like the Long Island Medium, either, though every once in a great while I hear the deceased make comments, which I don't share, or I get an incredibly strong feeling that a person's deceased loved one is near. At times, I experience the feelings of a deceased person as if those feelings were my very own. Those feelings vary from the most intense joy to the lowest low and everything in between.
Bottom line is: it doesn't matter to me whether someone believes or not that I communicate with the dead. Did you get that? I don't care whether you believe me or not. I don't care if you think this entire post is a bunch of tripe, or hocus pocus fodder, or whatever. It's real and it's been proven to me time and again that it's real. Honestly, I've had enough experiences to fill a book. It's also not easy to listen to the dead and experience their feelings; in fact, it's draining. But if by listening to them and delivering their messages I can then help the living, if I can ease someone's pain or grief even the tiniest bit, it's worth it to me. When a person does believe, it's an unimaginably amazing experience for both of us. It's as if the truth sinks into them in the most undeniable way. On the flip side, if a gift that precious is thrown aside by others in unbelief, then don't be surprised when the unbeliever struggles more than he or she should. It's up to each of us to decide where we stand on the matter.
