Ancient Wisdom Boards Prayer & Mourning

After Death

We’ve all heard stories of people who have felt the presence of someone who has died. Has this ever happened to any of us? How have we dealt with the experience, and what has it meant to us?

I have not had this experience myself, but I do believe that the funeral rites of religion are as much to console the soul of the deceased as for purposes of memorialization, consoling the family and so on. It must be a somewhat gradual process of detachment of the consciousness from the body, and if it happens suddenly, I would think it would be quite a shock! So religious rites are to comfort the person and to send him on his way. (In the old days, there was the fear that the ghost would hang around and cause trouble.)

Call me crazy, but....

I'm not sure if this counts, but I was visited by a pet in a dream. My dog Andy died many years ago. He was my constant companion, and we grew up together. He simply got very old and passed away. It was difficult but I got over it. In the dream, I was walking along my favorite trail in the woods near my childhood home. He was running along a trail close to me, not in a playful way though. He was on the lookout. Later on in my dream, I grew aware that Iw as being followed and watched by something sinister - a wolf! Andy came to me and herded me towards a clearing where I ran for safety. I was going through a horrible divorce at the time and I believe that my trusted friend was trying to tell me to be very careful. It turned out that my ex husband had been trying to steal money from my parents. He was the wolf.

The Vietnamese have a ritual after death, where if a parent dies, the children do not accept the death and continue trying to push the soul back to the body by waving an item of clothing of the deceased in the air above the body. There have been times when I got a sense tha a presence was in the air after someone passed on. I grew up following these same rituals and do believe that the soul lingers around those in mourning. It is like the person who has died still feels they are responsible for those still living.

I'm sorry, but I think when we die we literally return back to this earth. We become dust and part of the cycle of life on earth...not a cycle of our own various reincarnations and lives. I think people who have had "experiences" frequently believe what they claim, but I believe it is such a strong desire to continue after this life that makes them believe they see certain things.

a ghost.

When i was still in my mothers belly, we had a bus crash wich went down the hill. and miracously i survive even though i was always sick as a baby. now i never grew up with my parents. I think the afterlife is too complicated for us to understand in our physical form. i believe is better, i believe in reincarnation to a certain point, but i believe there is something almost like a life after this LIFE. i believe in different levels of intellegince and freedoms and thats why i believe there are levels in the after life.

I dont know if I believe in that.

I've only heard that from people on television, but I havent heard of it in real life. And if I did, i think its one of those things you can only believe if it happens to you or someone you love.

that sounds like hooey!!

think like raj. i just dont think that that kinda stuff is humanly possible.. people are just grasping at the unknown!

Death

Death is very real and very scary. The people that have died who were close to me has really left on impact on me.

A Loving Goodbye to a Mother

Just over a year ago, our son was killed in an on the job accident. He had fallen 180 feet to his death while installing antennas on top of a cell tower. During the months prior to his death, he had been going through a very hard time of depression following the breakup of his marriage and subsequent loss of his business. Because of the fact that he had been so upset just prior to his passing, the unacceptable possibility that his death might have been deliberate did cross both his mothers and my mind. Keep in mind that OSHA had just started their investigation and no one had any clear ideas at what had happened. It was on the first night of his death that my wife was visited by our son in a dream. In this vision, our son was very adamant in wanting her to know that he did not take his own life and then, in words and pictures, he went on to explain exactly what did happen. Without going into detail, I will just say that six months prior to the release of the US government OSHA accident report, my wife and I knew exactly what had happened. While working he had leaned back expecting the harness that he was wearing to support him. It did not. The safety hook on his harness failed and as he started to fall he tried to grab the antenna that he was working on but being of light construction it bent towards him causing him to lose his only grip. He told his mother repeatedly that never at any time had he wanted to die. He had also told his mother facts of what had happened to his body that would not be revealed until three months later in the autopsy report. The most important message to his mother was that he had felt his spirit leave his body just prior to hitting the ground and in looking at him she could tell by an overall glow flowing from him that he was truely happy and at peace. With all of the confirmable facts that our son had revealed to his mother, I am now and will forever be convinced that an afterlife of love and purpose is waiting for all of us who want it.

Re: A loving Goodbye to a Mother

I think it is great your son spoke to his mother. I am sorry for your loss!