The Poltergeist Levitation

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A family is terrorized by levitations, eerie shadows and invisible attacks

Poltergeist phenomena, it has been noted, seem to strike families with pre-teen children, and the strange events often center around the child or children. This may be the case for Kristi and her family, who a few years ago experienced phenomena that would strike fear in any sane person. Even moving far away did not stop the terrifying incidents. This is Kristi's story...

My children, then 10 and 8, were in bed and later my husband and I also went to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up to the blood-curdling sounds of my daughter Hanna screaming, "Mommy! Help me! Leave me alone! Help!"

I sat up in bed trying to turn on the lights and wake my husband, but he wouldn't budge.

I finally got the lights turned on and tried to open my bedroom door. It wouldn't open. It felt as if someone was holding it closed from the other side. I grabbed the doorknob and yanked as hard as I could, and when it opened, there was nobody on the other side.

I ran down the hallway and tried to open Hanna's door, but it would only open an inch or two before it felt like someone was forcing it shut on the other side. I told Hanna to get away from the door. She screamed that she wasn't near the door. She was still screaming for me to please help her. I was scared and mad that I couldn't get in. I started to slam my shoulder against the door to get it open enough so I could enter. At one point I slammed it so hard that the door flew open.

I flicked on the light switch... and what I saw was the scariest thing I had ever seen in my life!

Hanna, who had a wrought iron canopy bed, was hanging on to the post and levitating in mid-air! She was holding on for her dear life. Black shadows flying around the room quickly gathered and flew out of the window.

(Normally, this window needed something to prop it open, but it was staying open by itself.) When the shadows flew out the window, the window crashed shut and Hanna slammed down to her bed.

I ran to her bed, picked her up and rushed back to my bedroom. I sat on the edge of my bed with her on my lap, asking her what happened. Suddenly, the lights dimmed and my bedroom door slammed shut with such force that the door got wedged in the doorway. Finally, my husband woke up. My son was in his bedroom on the first floor and didn't hear anything.

As it happened, we had a U-Haul halfway packed in the driveway; we were getting ready to move to Florida. The next day we decided to cut out of there early. We got up in the morning and finished loading the U-Haul. My son was the last one out, and as he was coming down the outside back steps and got down to about the third from the bottom, something pushed him and knocked him into the yard about five feet from where he was coming down the steps.

When he landed, his chest hit the grass and his feet almost flew over his head backward. It didn't look like he had simply tripped. By the time his feet finally hit, he turned around and his face was white and loaded with fear. He screamed that something pushed him and held his feet. He said it felt like something held his ankles while he was being pushed. Five people witnessed him being pushed.

We left and traveled to Florida. But that wasn't the end.

Next page: It's right behind you

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Two nights after we arrived in Florida...

In the middle of the night again, I heard Hanna screaming, "Get out of my room! Mommy, make him leave!" I hopped out of bed, hurried to her room and swung the door open. The door hit her sliding closet door and it came off the tracks and fell over, bouncing off the corner of her bed. I went in and took her out and said, "Hanna, nobody is in here."

She started to cry and I took her to my room.

She was lying on my bed and I was sitting beside her on the edge of the bed. The lights started to dim slowly. I started to feel a chill on my neck and down my back and I smelled a slight stench. Hanna started to curl up her toes and draw her legs toward herself. I asked what was wrong. "It's there," she said.

"What's there?" I asked.

"That thing!"

"What thing?"

"Please make it go away," she begged.

I turned around and nothing was there, except my husband David, who was standing in the doorway on the other side of the room. I said, "Hanna, it's just David."

"NO!" she yelled. "IT'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!"

I asked her to describe what it looked like. She said that its feet weren't touching the floor. It was in the air and was tall, very tall. He was wearing a black, long trench coat and a top hat, she said, and she could see through his face as if he didn't have a face, just a head, but could see through him, too.

I was getting a bit angry. "Okay," I told her. "Let's get rid of this thing forever. Let's send it back to wherever it came from!"

I made her sit next to me and I said, "Hanna, if you've never believed in the power of the Holy Ghost before, you have to do it now!" She said she did believe in Jesus. "You have to believe that he's here with us now and he's asking us to ask for his help," I said. "Let's pray."

We held each other's hands in fists and said the Lord's Prayer very loudly.

We asked that our Lord send his angels of protection and rid us of this evil and ban it from entering our lives. "By the power of God's love and through our prayer, send this away from us and leave us forever!"

Suddenly, everything felt normal. The lights were extremely bright, the chill and stench went away... and it was gone.

We never experienced the entity again but have, since then, had paranormal experiences. We've moved back from Florida to Pennsylvania and have had encounters in this house:

• chairs moving in another room while we were all watching TV in the next room over
• lights going on by themselves
• music and people talking in the middle of the night, but nobody there
• shadows hovering above us while vacuuming or doing other things
• people standing over us while we're sleeping.

I once saw a man walking from the bottom of the basement steps into the basement. I thought it was my dad, but when I went down, nobody was there. I got creeped out and ran back upstairs. When I went to go out the front door, I was pushed out and the door slammed shut. I turned around quickly and I saw the face of a man that reminded me of Grizzly Adams, but with a shorter beard. His face disappeared immediately.

People think I'm nuts when I talk about this stuff, but I know what we have experienced, and for some reason I don't think it's the end of it. The house that we're living in is going to be sold soon and so we have to move. But wherever we move to, I know it's going to continue to happen.

Does Claude Monet's Ghost Haunt the Cleveland Museum of Art?

Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art was preparing an exhibit of the works of Claude Monet, the French Impressionist, when a museum staffer snapped this picture. In a balcony, just above a large picture of the artist, stands a figure that looks very much like Monet, beard, clothes, hat and all.

The museum has thus far been unable to identify the man, raising speculation that it could be the ghost of the 19th century painter.

"We thought it was such a coincidence that on the final day of installing "Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse," this man resembling Claude Monet was seen peering down into the lower lobby outside the special exhibition hall," museum employee Kelley Notaro told TODAY.

Of course it's quite probable that the figure is a very alive visitor to the museum, possibly even an admirer of Monet, who chose to fashion himself after the artist.

Or is it just possibly the ghost of Claude Monet?

The art museum has been the site of other paranormal activity in the past, according to the people who work there:

• A person closely resembling the man in the painting "Portrait of Jean-Gabriel du Theil at the Signing of the Treaty of Vienna" has been spotted in the museum staring at the painting.
• The ghost of William Mathewson Milliken, the former director of the museum who died in 1978 has been seen wandering around the galleries wearing his trademark tweed jacket with elbow patches and carrying a mysterious package.

Perhaps the mysterious visitor and Monet lookalike will come forward and identify himself, thereby solving the mystery. Until then, however, the Cleveland museum could be adding another ghost to its gallery of the unexplained.

Halloween Horror

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Anne and her friend were having a peaceful, enjoyable Halloween night... until the unexplained moaning and laughing began.

Some people believe that October 31 - Halloween or All Hallow's Eve - is a time when the space that separates our reality from the dimension of ghosts and the supernatural is as its thinnest. And that is why this time of year is given over to our obsession and experiences with spirits, hauntings, unnatural creatures, and other elements that remain unexplained in our reality.

Can this explain what happened to Anne and her friend on Halloween night almost 40 years ago? Today, four decades later, Anne can recall that night of terror as if it happened yesterday. This is Anne's Halloween story....

In 1973, when I was 16, my younger sister, dad, and I had just moved into a new house that my dad built in this remote area near Vadnais Heights, Minnesota, where there was only one other house a few lots away from us.

We moved in on October 31 - Halloween.

My dad had to leave town for a little while and gave my sister and me a key with the instructions to move our stuff in, so we did. None of his stuff was there yet, except some furniture. I got ready to go to a costume party with my older sister, who didn't live with us at the time. She picked me up at about 7 p.m. just as it began to snow lightly onto the brown grass.

I met a friend at the party, Jay, and we were enjoying each other's company so much so that we decided to continue the conversation at my house. We got there about 1:30 a.m. No, we didn't win the costume contest. I was dressed as a witch, so mind you I was dressed like this during everything that followed, which I think that adds some humor to it, but believe me there was nothing humorous about what happened that night.

My sister and I had our domain downstairs. This house was huge with two kitchens and the whole she-bang -- huge. Jay and I were sitting downstairs in the huge living room that had windows all around right at ground level. Where we were sitting we could see the driveway and the front door. We had one lamp on, and the light at the front door was shining also and illuminating the driveway and the room we were in as well.

So there, I think I have the stage set. It was about 2:30 a.m., and we are sitting on this love seat chatting away about this and that. At no time did we discuss anything about weird, supernatural, paranormal, or anything even remotely like these topics.

THE VOICE

Suddenly, we heard a voice. First, I noticed the tone of the voice was like no other I had ever heard. Then I noticed what the voice was vocalizing. To my absolute horror, this voice was moaning in such a pathetic horrible way, filled with pain and suffering. And loud.

I remember marveling at the tone of the voice. It was so different and seemed to come from everywhere at once. Then, just when I thought I couldn't take any more, it went from this horrible moan to this insane, maniacal laughter. It was absolutely horrifying. Then it went back down to a moan, then back to a laugh, then back to a moan... then it stopped.

Jay and I looked at each other wide-eyed and mouths open. "It has to be a Halloween trick someone is playing on us," I said.

"Yeah...", Jay replied hesitatingly.

"Let's search around and see if we can find out what's going on," I suggested. Jay agreed, so off we both went toward the hallway. He took the stairs up to the foyer, and I continued down the hallway to my little sister's room. I opened her door, and she was truly asleep. I woke her up anyway and asked her if she knew anything about this, or heard it. She was just irritated with me for waking her up, but said she heard nothing, which was absolutely mystifying considering the volume of it.

I went back to the hallway toward the living room as Jay was coming down the stairs. He was as white as a sheet. "I heard it again up there," he said.

"No way," I replied. "I wasn't that far away. I should have heard it, too." I didn't. Neither of us found anything to explain it.

Next page: Despair... and evil

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NO JOKE

We went back to the living room and sat again on the love seat. We talked about what happened and affirmed that we both experienced the same thing exactly. Then we changed the subject and tried to forget about it... when it happened again. This time, though, the sound seemed to permeate our very souls. We suddenly felt so very, very sad. When the moaning and laughter stopped this time, we both knew this wasn't a joke of any kind, but we weren't ready to admit it to each other.

"Okay," I said, "the search is on. We find out who the prankster is or else die trying, right?"

So off we went. We searched every inch of that house. Outside, no one had come near the house in hours; I could tell by the new layer of undisturbed snow. We spent forty-five minutes looking in ovens, freezers, lamps, under every table in the house, under every couch and in every couch, every chair, every corner, cabinet, closet, every wall, doorway - I mean every inch of that property.

Nothing. We found nothing and no one, and I knew no one who would even think of such a Halloween prank, let alone execute it with such professionalism. I truly mean that the voice was like nothing I have ever heard before or since. It was the most frightening voice I have ever heard, and if by some horrible misfortune I was to hear it again, I swear my heart would stop instantly.

Yet our Halloween horror wasn't over yet.

DESPAIR... AND EVIL

We finished our search and went back downstairs. We started to discuss the possibility that something supernatural was happening, but then we brushed it off. In some kind of crazy delusion, we wanted to believe that it was really just a joke somehow.

This illusion would soon be crushed.

The eerie voice began again. Only this time was nothing like the other times. This time it permeated us completely. We were both completely filled with feelings of despair, hopelessness, helplessness, and pointlessness.

I struggled to say something, but couldn't manage it. It was pointless. It felt pointless to think at all.

Tears were streaming from our eyes. We both experienced the sensation of our skin crawling.

I truly believe we were in the presence of pure evil. This was pure evil that we experienced - and on a personal level. When we snapped out of it, we looked at each other and saw the tears on our faces. When our eyes met, I knew that he knew exactly what I experienced, and that he knew that I knew.

We also were convinced that this was no prank. By now it was close to 4 a.m., and we were literally exhausted. Jay refused to leave my sister and me there alone, so he slept on the couch and I went to my room.

I spent a night of terror in fear of going near the bedroom door because of the image of a creature waiting to kill me on the other side. This was not coming from my mind, though; it was coming to me from somewhere else.

I just lay awake until the sun was up and I heard Jay awake out in the living room. It was a horrifying experience that I did not soon forget and remember like it was yesterday. It's hard not to when something touches your soul with evil like that. And it did just that.

The Lost Meaning of Halloween

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All Hallow's Eve, Hallow E'en, Halloween, Day of the Dead, Samhain. By whatever name it has been called, this special night preceding All Hallows day (November 1st) has been considered for centuries as one of the most magical nights of the year. A night of power, when the veil that separates our world from the Otherworld is at its thinnest.

As ubiquitous as Halloween celebrations are throughout the world, few of us know that the true origin of Halloween is a ceremony of honoring our ancestors and the day of the dead.

A time when the veils between the worlds were thinner, and so many could "see" the other side of life. A time in the year when the spiritual and material worlds touched for a moment, and a greater potential exists for magical creation.

ANCIENT RITES

In ancient times, this day was a special and honored day of the year.

In the Celtic calendar, it was one of the most important days of the year, representing a mid point in the year, Samhain, or "summer's end". Occuring opposite the great Spring Festival of May Day, or Beltain, this day represented the turning point of the year, the eve of the new year which begins with the onset of the dark phase of the year.

And while celebrated by the Celts, the origin of this day has connections to other cultures as well, such as Egypt, and in Mexico as Dia de la Muerta, or the day of the dead.

The Celts believed that the normal laws of space and time were held in abeyance during this time, allowing a special window where the spirit world could intermingle with the living. It was a night when the dead could cross the veils and return to the land of the living to celebrate with their family, or clan.

As such, the great burial mounds of Ireland were lit up with torches lining the walls, so the spirits of the dead could find their way.

JACK-O-LANTERNS

Out of this ancient tradition comes one of our most famous icons of the holiday: the Jack-o-lantern. Originating from Irish folkfore, the Jack-o-lantern was used as a light for the lost soul of Jack, a notorious trickster, stuck between worlds.

Jack is said to have tricked the devil into a truck of a tree and by carving an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, he trapped the devil there. His pranks denied him access to Heaven, and having angered the devil also to Hell, so Jack was a lost soul, trapped between worlds. As a consolation, the devil gave him a sole ember to light his way through the darkness between worlds.

Originally in Ireland turnips were carved out and candles placed inside as lanterns lit to help guide Jack's lost spirit back home. Hence the term: Jack-o-lanterns. Later, when immigrants came to the new world, pumpkins were more readily available, and so the carved pumpkins carrying a lit candle served the same function.

FESTIVAL FOR THE DEAD

As the Church began to take hold in Europe the ancient Pagan rituals were co-opted into festivals of the Church. While the Church could not support a general feast for all the dead, it created a festival for the blessed dead, all those hallowed so, All Hallow's, was transformed into All Saints and All Souls day.

Today, we have lost the significance of this most significant time of year which in modern times has turned into a candy fest with kids dressing up as action heroes.

Many cultures have ceremonies to honor their dead. In so doing, they complete a cycle of birth and death, and keep in line with a harmony and order of the universe, at time when we enter into the cycle of darkness for the upcoming year.

As you light your candles this year, keep in mind the true potency of this time, one of magical connections to the other side of life, and a time to remember those who have passed before us. A time to send our love and gratitude to them to light their way back home.

About the Author: Christan Hummel is the creator of the "Do It Yourself Space Clearing Kit" and an international lecturer and workshop leader. She has taught thousands around the world how to create sacred space in their homes and cities through connecting with the divine in nature and ourselves. For information see: www.earthtransitions.com

Amazing Messages from Beyond

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Compelling evidence for life after death

SOME OF THE most compelling anecdotal evidence for life after death comes in the form of messages from deceased loved ones. Sometimes these messages are relayed by full-blown apparitions, while other times they come as voices, unseen hands and even written notes.

Messages from the "other side" are most often words of comfort for the living, that they are okay and are still watching out for us.

In the most interesting cases, however, those who have passed on communicate messages that are not only highly personal, but are of particular significance, important – even life saving. Here are some of those stories.

GRANDFATHER'S GIFT

April had always been very close to her great-grandfather, who was a highly-respected baker and decorator of wedding cakes.

When he died, April was heart-broken. "I barely spoke or interacted with anybody," she says.

A few weeks later, she was awakened from a sound sleep. She noticed something out of the corner of her eye. "I turned to look at the hall leading to my room. There was my great-grandfather standing there with another being. My great-grandfather just looked at me, raised his hand and lowered it back to his side slowly while saying, 'Everything will be okay. I'll always be with you.'"

April was told to lie down and go back to sleep. But her great-grandfather left April with an incredible gift. "Ever since then, I have been able to decorate and make any type of dessert – exactly the way he did. Before that, I had never even tried to ice a cake."

MOM'S VOICE

It was an otherwise ordinary night in August of 1975 when 18-year-old Kris was taking her clothes to the laundromat behind the restaurant where she worked. She put she clothes in the washer and headed back to the restaurant to help her boyfriend, who was a cook there, close up the place.

While walking to the back entrance, Kris's attention was grabbed be a nondescript gold-colored car, although she didn't know why.

"I even turned around to look at it a final time before entering the back of the kitchen area," she remembers. Once inside, she started to walk to the front of the kitchen area, then decided against it and simply leaned against a door area where she could not be seen from the front, as she was not in uniform and could hear customers.

Suddenly, it became quiet. "Thinking that the last of the evening patrons had left, I started to take a step when I heard my mom's voice, as though she were standing there say, 'Kris, don't move!'"

Fortunately, Kris listened. Then one of the waitresses came screaming to the back and grabbed the phone to call the police. The restaurant had just been robbed at gunpoint! "Had I walked into view of the doorway," Kris says, "I would have seen my boyfriend lying face down on the floor, the waitress and the few customers on their knees – and I would have been directly behind the gunman, who was so nervous I probably would have been shot when I startled him."

BROTHERLY TIES

One night in June, 1942, George D. had a conversation with his brother that he could not explain. His brother, you see, was not there. He was flying bombers out of Trinidad, on a mission to destroy German submarines.

"He told me he was going on a long trip and would not return," George says. "I asked if I could go with him and he said not for a long time." When George told his mother and sister about this impossible conversation, they dismissed it as a dream.

Several days later, George's family received the official notification that his brother died in a plane crash on 7 June, 1942. "Many years later, I was wounded and delirious during World War 2," George says. "When admitted for medical care, I could only remember my brother's name, serial number and military organization identification. I am still waiting for my brother's permission to go on his long trip."

Next page: Messages through notes and music

< Continued from page 1

FATHER'S IMPORTANT ADVICE

"I was in a car accident in December, 1985," says L. Young, and although she was taken to the emergency room, she was not seriously hurt. Because the ER was so overcrowded, L. was not able to get X-rays taken that day, but promised the doctor she would return the following day to have some tests done.

That night, however, she received an important message from beyond. "My father had passed away the previous January," L.

says, "but he visited me that night. He stood at the end of my bed, dressed in his work clothes and work boots. He asked me to come downstairs so we could talk and not disturb my husband. I went."

L. to this day is still not sure if this was a dream, but what her father told her convinced her it was real, dream or not.

"We hugged, and he told me to forego the X-rays the following day because I was pregnant, and that he was so happy that I would be giving him his first grandson. He told me to make sure that I told 'Kitten' that he loved her. I wasn't sure what he meant, but I agreed. Our conversation finally ended when my husband came to the top of the stairs and asked me who I was talking to. My father disappeared."

L. went back to bed. The next day, she told her mother about this remarkable experience. "She admitted that my father called her 'Kitten' when they made love – something that I could not have known."

The next day, L. went to the hospital for X-rays, but first asked to be tested to see if she was pregnant.

Although she had been completely unaware of it, the doctors confirmed that she was. In fact, she was only three days pregnant when her father gave her the news.

DAD LEAVES A NOTE

One September morning in 1999, Clair was surprised to find a message written on a little notepad stuck on her refrigerator with a magnet.

The note said, "Rise and shine, Claire." She swears the note was in her father's handwriting. The thing is, her father had died two years earlier, and she knows the notepad was blank when she went to bed the night before.

"I know it wasn't faked," Clair says, "because he had something called benign familial tremor, so his writing was really shaky." Clair's two daughters, neither of whom lived with her anyway, denied any joke on their part.

What's more, the message was personal. "It was something he always said to me when it was time for me to get up to go to high school some 30 years ago. I can't explain it, but I think it really is great that my father hasn't forgotten me!"

PLAY IT AGAIN, GRANDMA

Diane was of high school age when she received a remarkable little message from her grandmother. It was a Friday night and her whole family was at the high school game, as her brother was playing in it. "I had been grounded for some reasons I can't remember now," Diane says.

Her grandmother, who had lived with the family, had passed away about two years earlier. And she was the only one in the family who could play the piano, which was kept in the basement. "I only ever heard her play two songs," says Diane. "One was The Third Man Theme."

Diane was alone in the house. "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 ahold of me by doing this. I will never forget it!"

Next page: Guiding hands and pranks

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GRANDMA'S WATCH

Julie's sister Sue had an appointment to see a psychic medium. Julie wanted to go too, but could not because of other commitments. "At the exact time of her appointment," Julie says, "I remembered our grandmother who had died 14 years previously. I also remembered her old-fashioned watch on a long chain, which had been given to me shortly after she died."

Julie reached into her jewelry box and pulled out the watch.

She then said out loud, "Nan, if there is such a thing as life after death, mention the watch to Sue and this will be my proof." Julie felt a little silly at having said this and thought nothing more of it.

The following day when she met Sue, Sue showed her the notes she had taken at the psychic sitting.

Half way down the sheet of paper were scribbled lines describing a lady who was coming through to the medium, and the words she kept saying were, "Here's your proof – the proof you've been asking for."

Sue was skeptical because she didn't understand the message. "What was really strange," Sue told Julie, "was that the medium described the lady she was seeing as leaning forward holding out a fob watch on a chain, which she was wearing. Didn't Nan have one of those?"

GRANDMOTHER'S STRONG HAND

Karen never knew her maternal grandmother since she died when her own mother was just nine years old. One night, Karen was walking home after meeting with friends. She stepped into the street to cross when she felt a strong hand grip her by the shoulder.

"This hand not only pulled me back on to the sidewalk," Karen says, "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, periwinkle-colored dress with tiny white flowers." Other than that, there was absolutely no one around to account for whoever grabbed her.

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," Karen declares.

When she returned home, still shaken by the near accident, Karen told her 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," Karen says. "She told me that my grandmother had a dress exactly like the one I described, and that it was my mother's favorite. To this day, I feel my grandmother's presence around me. I think she is looking out for me."

BROTHER STILL TEASES

When C.B.'s brother died, C.B. went to his apartment to find papers concerning his military service for burial purposes. But he couldn't find them, although he searched the apartment thoroughly. Fortunately, even without the papers, his brother was given a military burial after C.B. made some phone calls.

"Later, when I returned to his apartment, I was still angry I hadn't found his file," says C.B. "Well, there it was on the kitchen table! And there he was, sitting in his favorite chair with a smug smile on his face. I went to chew him out for putting me through all this trouble... and he disappeared."

Later, C.B. needed the registration for his brother's car so he could have it towed to storage. He asked his brother's landlord to search the car for the missing registration, and he assured C.B. that he had checked very carefully (the visors, the glovebox, the trunk, etc.) and found nothing. The following morning, C.B. went to his brother's apartment to wait for the tow truck and decided to check the car again.

"I opened the driver's door, and there on the driver's seat were the car registration and insurance papers," C.B. says. "Needless to say, the landlord came over to see and freaked out. My brother and I were so mentally bonded, I guess he had to give me a last tease, as he did in life, to leave me loving memories of his shenanigans."

It's All Right on the Other Side

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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.

Ghost at the Top of the Stairs

Photo: Natalie H.

"My niece stayed at my house the night before last," says Natalie H.. "She slept in my son's bedroom, which is opposite the landing. Myself and my husband had gone to sleep as we were both shattered. She was on her mobile phone taking a Snapchat picture directly in front of her to send to her friend. (Apparently, this is what they do and add a caption underneath.)

"As she looked at the screen on her phone, she thought she had noticed something and so saved the picture and changed the contrast on it.

 She then saw what looks like a face peeping around the banister at the top of my stairs. She was so frightened that she lay awake all night, terrified, but didn't want to come and disturb us.

"There have never been any other occurrences... except one. About two years ago, I was on the landing about to hang washing.

I was wearing a onesie with a hood and I felt someone pull it, which at the time really shook me up! I tried to find a logical explanation for it at the time, but to this day I'm not sure what it was.

"My husband says it's the lighting, but I'm not convinced as you can clearly see the shape of a face. It is underneath the carrier bag which was hung on my banister."

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