Visions of the departed?
We received the below correspondence and it was too good to ignore. This gentleman is obviously very spiritual. We start with the original. After we responded, he sent the second which added dimension to the first.
I don't know if I am "psychic" or not, but it seems like a lot of strange things happen to me! In the past 20 years or so (I am 40 years old, by the way) I have often had dreams that actually came to life a few short days after the actual dream.
The dreams are of nothing significant, but in the real life versions, sometimes my actions are different than they were in the dream. It's like I use the dreams to keep me from saying the wrong thing, or doing the wrong thing. I have had these "deja vu" experiences many times over the past 20 or so years, and I just wonder what they mean!?
Also, I have "seen" spirits, I believe. A couple of years back, our church was having its annual Christmas play. I stood at the back of our small, country church, chatting with my father in law when I noticed an elderly man and woman enter the church and sit down at a pew that was perhaps 10 feet from where I was standing.
I noticed their arrival, and told myself that I would have to go welcome the visitors to our church. After talking with my father in law for maybe another 60 seconds, I started back toward the elderly couple, but was astonished when I realized that there were not there!
I walked out the door of the church, looking for them, but never saw them again. As slowly as there were moving when entering the church, they could NOT have walked away from me that quickly. I told this story to my mom, and she just smiled and said "Maybe that was Mama and Daddy you saw, Tim."
On the subject of my mom, she swears that she has had "visions" similar to this. Back in 1998, my Uncle O.J. (her brother) was dying of lung cancer. Mom and Dad were in their car at the church, getting ready to leave, when Mom noticed an elderly lady walking up the stairs toward the church.
The lady was small, and looked like my grandmother (Mom's mother) who passed away back in 1971. The lady disappeared into the church, and my mom and dad looked for her, but never found her. My mother instantly recognized this as a vision that her mom was coming back to take O.J. home. He died a few weeks after this episode.
How are these events explained? How does one acknowledge some sort of connection with the afterlife, and how do we live with this aptitude? I am confused, scared, and searching for answers. Any help you can send my way would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.,
Tim
After our first response, we received the following reply.
Thanks for the quick response. It's okay to use my first name with the stories, if you like. I don't know if my "events" are that important or not, but they are disturbing to me. The little old couple at church especially.
Was my mom correct in suggesting that the couple may have been my grandparents who died back in the early 70's? Or were they perhaps former members of the church who came back for a visit? I don't know...but wish I could understand more.
The only reason that I wrote you was after having a sleepless night on Wednesday night. Normally, I don't have "scary" dreams (at least I don't remember them if I do!) but for some reason, on Wednesday, I could not sleep. My wife was out of town on business, and I had been looking after our three young children. I went to bed at my normal time of approximately 11:30 - 12:00 and slept pretty well for awhile.
Perhaps around 5:00 am, I had a "spooky" dream. I was in church, alone, and bent over looking in the pulpit for something. When I stood up, a small woman was entering the church, and she was trying to talk to me, but I could not understand what she was saying.
She was small in stature (like my grandmother) and had a small hat on her head (the kind that Queen Elizabeth wears.) For some reason, this dream startled me, and I thought that someone must be coming down the hallway of our house. I was lying on my left side, with my back to the hallway. When I tried to turn over, I could not move!
Now, maybe I was in such a deep sleep that my brain could not communicate with my body, but there for a few seconds (it seemed like an eternity) I could not move any part of my body. Eventually, I did rollover, and of course, discovered that no one was walking down the hallway.
After that dream, I did go back to sleep, but had another upsetting dream. In this dream, my wife and I were outside a convenience store, walking toward our car. Suddenly, an old, beat up truck came roaring into the parking lot. We stepped back onto the sidewalk, and gasped in horror as the truck narrowly missed a young girl (who was about the size of my daughter, Peyton.) Unfortunately, the truck DID hit a smaller child crossing the parking lot at that time.
My wife and I went running toward the infant as the truck roared off. I told my wife to stay with the child, while I went and hopped into the car to try and track it down. That was the end of the nightmare, but not the end of the story.
On Thursday night, I had to take my 14 year old son into town to practice a play he's involved with. I dropped him off at the playhouse, and started back home. As I stopped at a stoplight on the outskirts of town, I happened to notice the vehicle in front of me. It was a large, dilapidated truck, virtually identical to the truck in my dream! Coincidence? Fate? Some hidden meaning? I have no idea, but it was spooky to say the least.
I wish I could understand more about these events. Do you have any books to recommend? Or other areas on your website?
Any thoughts you may have would be greatly appreciated.
Take care,
Tim
We will print the best response to Tim's questions.