It's All Right on the Other Side

Photo: Ralf Nau Stone / Getty Images

Messages, visions and guiding hands from beyond the grave

If there's one pervasive fear that grips humanity, it's the fear of death. It's a scary idea. One moment we're here enjoying a day at the beach or a large latte, and the next we're gone -- perhaps for good. Alive one day, vanished from the planet the next. It's an awesome reality to contemplate. And it awaits us all.

Fortunately, most of us don't contemplate it with any regularity.

It's only when death confronts us to we give it any serious thought: when we lose a loved one or when, perhaps, we have a close encounter with the Grim Reaper ourselves in the form of a bad accident or the diagnosis of a potentially fatal disease.

Why do most people fear death, especially when most people would also proclaim a belief in an afterlife?

Is it because even though we say we believe, we're not absolutely, positively, 100 percent sure? Of course we're not. No one knows with absolute certainly what happens to us when we die. Do we simply cease to exist? Or does some part of us live on in some other realm, dimension or plane of existence? Don't say you know for sure because you don't.

Many people have become convinced -- as convinced as we can ever be -- that there is a life beyond this one through a variety of fascinating and mysterious experiences. Deathbed visions, near-death experiences, voices and apparitions of the recently departed are all ways in which the living have, they believe, received messages from someone on the "other side." Overwhelmingly, these messages are positive: I'm all right.

I'm in a better place. Don't worry about me. There's no need to grieve. It's great here. I'm watching out for you.

Although the skeptical-minded would argue that these assorted visions are mere wishful thinking, flights of fantasy or chemical reactions in the brain, these anecdotes -- and there are thousands upon thousands -- are the only "evidence" we have of life after death.

Consider some of these:

GRANDFATHER'S VOICE

B. was only four years old when his grandfather died, and he was very upset with his mother because she would not allow him to go to the funeral...

• He was my favorite grandparent. After that, I would have times where just thinking about him would set me off crying. One day, however, as I was going up the stairs, I suddenly heard his voice say, "Everything is going to be okay." After that, I didn't have any more crying spells.

GRANDMA'S FAVORITE TUNE

Diane D. was home alone. The rest of her family had gone to a ball game, but she had to stay home because she was grounded for some teenage transgression. But that's when she received her message - in the form of a tune...

• My grandmother, who had lived with us, had passed away about two years earlier. She was the only one in our family who could play the piano. I only ever heard her play two songs. One was the "Third Man Theme." The piano that belonged to my grandmother was in the basement. I had been watching TV, and all of a sudden I heard the "Third Man Theme" coming up from the basement. I got shivers and was scared to death. I think my grandmother was trying to get a hold of me by doing this.

BOYFRIEND IS ALRIGHT

Elizabeth K. experienced vivid apparitions as confirmation of continued existence. One interesting aspect of this encounter is that it was somewhat prearranged...

• In January 1982, a man I was seeing committed suicide. He was living in a house with my elderly cousin, Homer. He shot himself with Homer's 38. As Homer was 80 years old and in poor health, I spoke frankly with him about dying, and asked if he would relay anything back to me about our deceased friend. He assured me he would if he could. The following June, Homer died of emphysema. A few weeks after he died, I was in my room with the man I had started dating in March. It was about three in the morning and we were just sitting up reading when I noticed two people standing in the corner of the room. I was riveted and said to my boyfriend, "Phillip, look at the corner and tell me what you see." "Why, that's Homer and I don't recognize the tall guy with him." When I asked him to describe the tall guy, my boyfriend described exactly what I was seeing -- my former boyfriend. Though Phillip had known Homer, he had never met my previous boyfriend, nor had he seen any photos of him. The ghosts appeared translucent and they didn't speak a word. They just stood there looking at us for several minutes. I feel very grateful to Homer for coming back in such a way that I would not doubt my sanity at seeing him. And he answered a question about what happens to folks who commit suicide. Unless Homer was also visiting from Hell, my friend didn't go there.

Next Page > Saved by Grandmother's Spirit

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ONE MORE TIME

Mel was one of the star baritones in the choir that church organist and choir director Kyzer led. Sadly, Mel passed away, and his rich voice would be missed by the entire congregation... or so Kyzer thought...

• Attendance [in the choir] was down because it was summertime, and as I played the organ for the first hymn, I heard a beautiful, rich baritone voice singing out above the others in the congregation. After the hymn was over, I turned to try and locate the owner of this lovely voice so I could enlist him in the choir, but saw no new faces. After the service, the pastor asked me if I had heard that super baritone. I replied that I had, but couldn't figure out who it might have been. At the same moment, we were struck by the obvious answer: "Mel!" The mystery voice did sound like Mel's, but amplified and made even more beautiful. I like to think he stopped by to sing one last service with us.

MOTHER'S COMFORTING SPIRIT

Pamela S.'s mother died two days before her tenth birthday, and she often wondered how her life over the past 30 years would have been different if her mother had lived. Perhaps we aren't meant to know, but Pamela's mother did appear when Pamela needed her the most...

• When I was 36 years old and pregnant with my daughter, I suffered a hemorrhagic stroke. I was in a coma for three days, in intensive care for five days and spent a total of 15 days in the hospital. A blood vessel had burst in my brain and filled my brain with blood. I simply don't remember anything that happened after my husband left for work that morning. But I do remember lying in a hospital bed, and someone sitting on my left, stroking my hair. I turned my head to see who it was... it was my mother! She looked exactly the way I remembered her. She hadn't aged. I opened my mouth to talk to her, to ask her why she was there, but she put her finger on my lips to shush me. Then she smiled the sweetest smile and started to stroke my hair again. I turned my head away from her and fell asleep. When I woke up, she was gone. The only reason I can come up with is that I was pregnant with a girl, and my mom knew that I had already decided to give the baby my mother's name as her middle name.

GREAT-GRANDMOTHER'S SPIRIT

Children seem to have a special affinity for experiencing these incredible events. Although this happened to Daniel S. when he was just three, he remembers it as if it happened yesterday...

• In 1978, my great-grandmother died of natural causes. After the funeral, which I don't remember, the family gathered at my great-grandfather's house, which I do remember. I remember my sister, who was five at the time, standing (or sitting) in the bedroom in which my great-grandmother used to sleep. She was crying. I was standing in the doorway of the bedroom and I saw my great-grandmother float down from the ceiling. She passed through her mattress, then stopped between the floor and the bottom of the bed. She wasn't on the floor, but a couple of inches above it, just floating in mid-air. She looked at my sister and said, "Don't worry, Amy. I'm with Jesus now." With that, she floated back up through the ceiling.

SAVED BY GRANDMOTHER'S SPIRIT

In the most remarkable of these kinds of stories, the spirits of the dead return not just to relay a comforting message, but to physically save a life. Such stories have spawned the theory that our loved ones may become our guardian angels. You won't be able to convince Karen S.

otherwise...

• I never knew my maternal grandmother. She died when my own mother was only nine years old. One night, I was walking home after meeting with friends. I stepped into the street, preparing to cross the street, when I felt a strong hand grip me by the shoulder. This hand not only pulled me back onto the sidewalk, but was strong enough to land me on my posterior on the sidewalk. When I glanced around me, I caught a glimpse of a light blue, sort of periwinkle-colored dress with tiny white flowers. Yet there was absolutely no one around me. At the exact same time, a car came whizzing around the corner at breakneck speed. If I had been standing where I was a moment earlier, I would certainly have been run over and either seriously injured or killed. I returned home, visibly shaken and disturbed. I told my mother what had happened. When I told her that I saw a periwinkle-colored dress with white flowers just after I was pulled out of harm's way, she blanched and became completely still. She told me that my grandmother had a dress exactly like the one I described, and that it was my mother's favorite dress. There was no earthly way I could have described this dress -- my grandmother passed away 30 years before I was even born. To this day, I feel my grandmother's presence around me at times. I think she is looking out for me.