When Loved Ones & Friends Pass From This World To The Next

Many people suffer terribly when a family member or dear friend passes from this world to the next. If you are looking for something to ease your pain and/or lift the pain of another, here are a few helpful resources to explore and share…

………………

“It is impossible to die alone. This also includes someone who dies of thirst in a desert hundreds of miles from the next human being, or an astronaut missing the target and circling around in the universe until he dies of lack of oxygen… we will always be met by those who preceded us in death and whom we have loved. This could be a child we lost, perhaps decades earlier, or a grandmother, a father, a mother, or another person who has been significant in our lives.”

— Elizabeth Kubler-Ross from On Life After Death

 

…………….

…………….

Nurse Shares 30 Years Of Spiritual Experiences With Death & Dying

Becki Hawkins is the author of Transitions: A Nurse’s Education About Life And Death

……………….

Deathbed Visions – Hospice Nurses Share Their Stories

……………….

Deathbed Visions – Caregivers Share Their End Of Life Experiences

……………….

Near-Death Experience Accounts

Thousands of near-death experience, most of them first-person accounts, can be found here:

• Outstanding Near-Death Experiences On Rumble
• Outstanding Near-Death Experiences On YouTube
• Near-Death Experiences From Around The World
• NDE Stories Website
• NDE Accounts On NDERF
• NDE Accounts On IANDS
• NDE Accounts On Near-Death.com

……………….

Related Resources

• Shared Death Experiences
• After Death Communications Research Foundation
• At Heaven’s Door: What Shared Journeys To The Afterlife Teach About Dying Well And Living Better
• Kenneth Ring – Miraculous Returns: Terminal Lucidity And The Work Of Alexander Batthyany
• Angels And Near-Death Experiences

……………….

Especially Important Articles

• Nearing Death Awareness As Evidence Of An Afterlife
• What People Actually Say Before They Die
• Top Five Phenomena That Offer Evidence For An Afterlife
• At The End Of Her Life, My Mother Started Seeing Ghosts
• The Dying Process: What To Expect When Someone Is Close To Death

……………….

Dr. Raymond Moody And Paul Perry Discuss Shared Death Experiences

Glimpses of Eternity
By Raymond Moody

Book Description:

Raymond Moody, author of the multimillion copy best-seller, Life After Life, reveals new results from his lifelong investigation of what happens when we die. Raymond Moody revolutionized the way we think about death with his first book, Life After Life, which was stories of people who died and then returned to life. Going through a tunnel, encountering an angelic being or having an out-of-body experience are hallmarks of what Moody termed a ‘near death experience.’ Since the publication of his multimillion copy best-seller, hundreds of thousands of people have contacted Moody to share their own experiences. The startling pattern that Moody discovered is that at the time of death, loved ones also have inexplicable experiences. Glimpses of Eternity is the first book to talk about the phenomenon of ‘shared death experiences.’ Readers will discover deathbed moments when entire families see the light or the room changes shape. Others tell of seeing a film like review of a loved one’s life and learning things that they could never have known otherwise. The stories are at once a comfort and a mystery, giving us a new understanding of the journey that we will take at the end of our lives.

Learn More About Shared Death Experiences

………………….

At Heaven’s Door: What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach About Dying Well and Living Better
By William J. Peters

Amazon Description:

A groundbreaking, authoritative exploration — rich with powerful personal stories and convincing research — of the many ways the living can and do accompany the dying on their journey into the afterlife.

In 2000, end-of-life therapist William Peters was volunteering at the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco when he had an extraordinary experience as he was reading aloud to a patient: he suddenly felt himself floating in midair, completely out of his body. The patient, who was also aloft, looked at him and smiled. The next moment, Peters felt himself return to his body…but the patient never regained consciousness and died.

Perplexed and stunned by what had happened, Peters began searching for other people who’d shared similar experiences. He would spend the next twenty years gathering and meticulously categorizing their stories to identify key patterns and features of what is now known as the “shared crossing” experience. The similarities, which cut across continents and cultures and include awe-inspiring visual and sensory effects, and powerful emotional after-effects, were impossible to ignore.

Long whispered about in the hospice and medical communities, these extraordinary moments of final passage are openly discussed and explained in At Heaven’s Door. The book is filled with powerful tales of spouses on departing this earth after decades together and bereaved parents who share their children’s entry into the afterlife. Applying rigorous research, Peters digs into the effect these shared crossing experiences impart — liberation at the sight of a loved one finding joy, a sense of reconciliation if the relationship was fraught — and explores questions like: What can explain these shared death experiences? How can we increase our likelihood of having one? What do these experiences tell us about what lies beyond? And, most importantly, how can they help take away the sting of death and better prepare us for our own final moments? How can we have both a better life and a better death?

• Excerpts from “At Heaven’s Gate”
• Shared Crossing Project Website
• Shared Crossing Stories Library
• William Peters @SharedCrossings On Twitter
• Shared Crossing Project On Facebook
• Shared Crossing Project On Instagram

Learn More About Shared Death Experiences

…………….

Spontaneous Contacts with the Deceased: A Large-Scale International Survey Reveals the Circumstances, Lived Experience and Beneficial Impact of After-Death Communications (ADCs)
By Evelyn Elsaesser

Amazon Description:

This large-scale international investigation into spontaneous After-Death Communications (ADCs) reveals the circumstances, nature and consequences of these beautiful and consoling experiences. You will discover the powerful beneficial impact of these deeply meaningful contacts, allegedly initiated by the deceased towards their loved ones.

Famed NDE Researcher & Author Kenneth Ring introduces Evelyn Elsaesser’s book here:

Spontaneous Contacts with the Dead
By Kenneth Ring, Ph.D.

Excerpt:

The research reported in this book, which involves more than a thousand cases from three language groups (English, French and Spanish) is now the most definitive study of ADCs ever to be undertaken. But it is not just a collection of anecdotal testimonies, but a thorough, scientific analysis of such experiences, which inform the reader about how often they occur, under which conditions, and how they affect people who report them.

Thanks to this research, we can now estimate that the incidence of ADCs is between 50 and 60% in the general population, mainly, but not always, occurring to the bereaved. So they are surprisingly common, though not nearly so well known as near-death experiences.

The principal author of this book and lead investigator of this project is a Swiss researcher named Evelyn Elsaesser, who happens to be a very dear and long-time friend of mine, someone to whom I am very deeply indebted…

Because of space limitations, I can only give you a kind of generic summary of the main features of a typical instance of an ADC. There is, first of all, a very definite sense of the presence or some other distinctive sign of a deceased loved one, though in many cases, the deceased person is actually seen. In any case, what the deceased person conveys is this: “I am fine, I feel wonderful, do not worry about me. I am alive, just in another realm.”

The impact of such an unexpected and even shocking visitation usually has a profound emotional effect on the recipient. Feelings of gratitude are common, and the recipient usually feels comforted and reassured that his or her loved one continues to exist on the other side of the veil, so to speak.

ADCs occur in a variety of ways, most often when the recipient is either asleep or dreaming, but in the latter case, it is usually stated with emphasis that “this was no ordinary dream, it was real.” Here is a table of the various ways an ADC can manifest and their relative incidence.

Sleep: 62%
Tactile: 48%
Visual: 46%
Auditory: 43%
Sense of presence: 34%
Olfactory: 28%
Coincident with death: 21%

…………….

“Hello From Heaven!” On ABC’s 20/20 – Bill & Judy Guggenheim – After-Death Communication

……………….

Hello From Heaven: A New Field Of Research-After-Death Communication Confirms That Life And Love Are Eternal
By Bill Guggenheim, Judy Guggenheim

Book Description:

“After-death communications,” or “ADCs, ” occur when someone is contacted spontaneously and directly by a deceased family member or friend, without the help of any medium. The authors’ research shows that these spiritual experiences offer hope, love, and comfort for thousands of people. Included are more than 350 first-hand accounts of those whose lives have been changed and even protected by messages or signs from the deceased.

The 12 Most Frequent Types of After-Death Communications

1. Sensing their presence
2. Hearing their voice
3. Feeling their touch
4. Smelling their fragrance
5. Seeing their apparition
6. Seeing a flat vision of them like a photo
7. Experiencing one of these types while half-asleep
8. Having a visitation dream
9. Having an out-of-body experience and meeting them
10. Receiving a telephone call (two-way conversations have actually been reported)
11. Experiencing physical activity such as lights, TVs, and radios going on and off
12. Receiving a symbolic message, sign, meaningful coincidence, or synchronicity

The 16 Most Frequent Messages Expressed By Departed Loved Ones

1. I’m okay.
2. I’m fine.
3. Everything is okay.
4. I love you.
5. Everything will be all right.
6. I’m watching over you.
7. I’ll always be there for you.
8. Don’t worry about me.
9. Don’t grieve for me.
10. Please let me go.
11. I’m happy.
12. I’ll see you again.
13. Go on with your life.
14. Please forgive.
15. Thank you.
16. Goodbye.

……………….

“Hi Dani. It’s Dad. I’m Sorry I Hurt You…”

……………….

Bill Hart: Shoulder Taps

……………….

I See Dead People: Dreams And Visions Of The Dying – Dr. Christopher Kerr – TEDxBuffalo

Dr. Christopher Kerr: Dreams & Visions Of The Dying

……………….

The End-of-Life Epiphany of Roger Ebert

Excerpt:

The one thing people might be surprised about — Roger said that he didn’t know if he could believe in God. He had his doubts. But toward the end, something really interesting happened. That week before Roger passed away, I would see him and he would talk about having visited this other place. I thought he was hallucinating. I thought they were giving him too much medication. But the day before he passed away, he wrote me a note:

“This is all an elaborate hoax.”

I asked him, “What’s a hoax?”

And he was talking about this world, this place. He said it was all an illusion. I thought he was just confused. But he was not confused. He wasn’t visiting heaven, not the way we think of heaven. He described it as a vastness that you can’t even imagine. It was a place where the past, present, and future were happening all at once…

Read The Complete Account Here

……………….

“I’m Not Dead, Mom!”

………………

After the first graphic was shared on Facebook…

…it generated the following comments:

……………….

Daughter Forgives Her Mother Following Shared Death Experience With Her Father
IANDS

Original Link

My whole life changed when I followed my father to heaven and experienced a glimpse of the divine.

Up to this point in my life I had not been a believer in God. Neither was I an unbeliever. I was content living my life without any kind of faith in a life beyond this earthly realm. I was busy with my career as a journalist and my roles as wife and mother. My father’s death turned my world upside down.

I had a near-death-like experience, accompanying him part way on his divine journey. Many people doubt the truth of near-death experiences, citing so-called scientific explanations — patients near death having hallucinations due to lack of oxygen, or having other brain chemical changes when death is near that produce false images. But I was not near death myself when my father passed over, neither was I impaired by drugs or alcohol or anything else that might cause false perceptions. What I experienced that night when everything changed was the TRUTH. All else in this world revealed itself as illusory. Here’s how this extraordinary revelation unfolded:

I knew my father had advanced prostate cancer for which there was no cure, but I refused to accept that he would die. He was my lifetime hero, my fount of unconditional love, and I could not imagine my life without him in it. Certainly, I was troubled by his illness, but I fooled myself into thinking there could be a treatment that would allow him many more years on earth.

One morning, as I readied myself for work, putting on my make up at the sink in the bathroom, something shocking happened. My husband had already left for work and my children were in school so the house was unusually quiet. As I applied my lipstick, the entire master bathroom was enveloped with a fragrance so strong, so unmistakable, it shocked me to my core. It was the unique smell of my mother. I didn’t know on a conscious level what my mother had smelled like but subconsciously the connection of the baby to the mother was cemented by smell.

I knew without a doubt that my departed mother was trying to reach me. I put down my lipstick and sat in a nearby chair, completely stunned. What did she want to tell me? I opened myself to receiving her message. She told me three things: 1. Your father is going to die very soon, 2. There is nothing you can do to change this, and 3. I am going to help him. And then the fragrance withdrew quite suddenly.

My mother had not been a very loving presence in my life. When my sister and I were young she hit us when we misbehaved. She didn’t just use her hand to deliver a spanking. She struck us with sticks, hairbrushes, wooden paddles and more. We were afraid of her anger towards us. She was frequently drunk and sometimes disappeared for periods of time. I remember her passed out most days when I came home from school, but she always put herself back together in time to prepare a nice dinner for my father. She was always attentive to him but at times neglectful of her children. Her mean spiritedness reached a towering hatred towards me one afternoon when I asked if I could visit a friend. Her smile curled into a sneer as she spoke to me.

“Dear Susan, aren’t you the lucky one to feel loved and cared for every day of your life.“ Her voice got low as she snarled, “It’s a lie, little girl. I have never loved you, not then, not now, not ever. Now, leave me alone!”

I was devastated. Was this the truth? Even if it wasn’t, what mother would ever want to deliver such a hurtful message to her child? I cried.

Now I am an adult with children of my own. My deceased mother has come for a visit. She has just delivered an unexpected and unwelcome message to me about my father’s impending death. Was she singling me out yet again for her uncommon cruelty? This felt very different. On some level, I knew she had delivered the truth to me, and it broke through all my defenses. I sat there and sobbed for a very long time.

The following week I had a vision of experiencing my life flashing before me in fast rewind showing me that every decision I ever made was perfect for my journey and totally understandable. I never made a “good” or “bad” decision. The experience felt like a kind of purging of shame, regret, and unworthiness. All things were as they should be, and I need not second guess any decision I ever made.

Two weeks later my father was hospitalized and the siblings and grandchildren gathered by his side in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where he had lived for many years.

On the third day of our vigil, we could see that Dad was deteriorating. He floated in and out of a coma state much of the day. When it was time to go back to his condominium for the night, I lingered at my father’s bedside.

“I love you, Dad.”

And in a strong, clear voice he answered back.

“I love you too, Sue.”

The children and the grandchildren settled in for the night. My sister and I shared a king sized bed in one of the two condos my father owned. I couldn’t sleep but I was not anxious or upset, just quiet and calm. I could hear my sister snoring quietly beside me and knew she was sleeping.

And then my mother’s foretelling unfolded in sights and senses I didn’t know I had.

In the stillness of the night, from my father’s condo, I saw him in his hospital bed with a gathering light coming to the upper right side of the bed. He was very frail. The gathering light was beyond words, inviting, intense, pure, a light unlike any I had seen before. I became aware of movement within the light and focused on that.

I soon saw that my mother was in the light, was part of the light and that this was the light of life itself, the light of God. She was more beautiful than any woman I had ever seen before. There was a purity and innocence in her essence. When I saw her this way there was, in an instant, complete forgiveness for anything I might have perceived as hurtful about her behavior on this earth. When I saw her in the light she was holy and that this was the truth about her then, now and forever.

I knew in this awareness that God is real and His love bigger and mightier than any concept of love I had ever had before. In the earth realm, I could not conceive of a love like this, but in the light beside my father’s bed, I understood a love beyond earthly perception.

I also understood from my mother and God that we are here on this earth for one purpose — to love one another. We have made this life journey on earth so complicated as humans, but in the divine light I understood that everything was truly simple. There was no sense of time in this vision, only an imparting of pure truth, all at once.

I saw my mother reach out to my father and lift him into her light, cradling him in her arms. Then the light began to fade and disappear from my vision. I then saw with my body’s eyes that I was in the bed in my father’s condo where I had been before the vision, my sister next to me still snoring. I glanced at the clock. It was just before midnight.

In an hour or two the phone rang and it was the hospital telling me that my father had died. The nurse asked if we wanted to come view his body before they took it to the hospital morgue. So at about 2 am, we all (my sister and her daughter, my brother, my daughter, and I) got in the car and drove to the hospital. We gathered around his body and said prayers of thanksgiving for his love in our lives.

A nurse came into the room and I asked her if she knew when my father had passed on. She said she had come in to check on him just before midnight and could see he was near death. She left him alone and returned at 12:15 to find that he had died. Then I knew that my vision was real and I began to sob at the sudden knowing of so many things: mother had said she would help my father and she did. She was holy and pure and a child of God. God is love and love is all. Our purpose in this realm is to love each other.

Faith in the truth had come to me like a bolt of lightning and I was forever changed. After my father’s death my sister became estranged from me. I did not understand why she despised me but she made it clear she did not want me in her life, though I tried in letters and phone calls to reconnect. I was very distraught by her hateful attitude.

What followed this revelation was a two year period of what I have come to understand was grace. I was in tears most every day from the joy of the world I was seeing with new eyes. I saw the preciousness of everyone, including high school students in a class I taught who had been deemed “troublesome” by the school administration. I joined a church. My son and I attended Sunday services each week. I cried at the beauty I saw in the people and their rituals. I began to have some insight into why my husband’s first wife was so mean to me. She saw me as a threat to her as a mother and feared she could lose her children’s love because of my presence in their lives. This was utterly baseless, but with this understanding I was able to marshal some compassion towards her.

I only told a handful of people about my huge revelation, even though I wanted to shout to everyone “There is nothing to fear in this world. There is no death!” I realized I could not give anyone the divine experience that changed my life and that some people would think I was at best quirky and at worst insane. I especially didn’t tell my sister because she was in such a troubled state my story would only pour fuel on the fire, so to speak. She neither wanted, nor could accept any comfort from me for some unknown reason.

I went to a healing service at church with the laying on of hands. I had been quite troubled by my sister’s feelings towards me and had prayed she would come to her senses. At this healing service I decided to change my prayer. I asked God to help me surrender my pain about this relationship and accept my sister’s decision to cut me out of her life. I waited in the line leading to the altar for my turn to kneel there and let a healing helper lay hands on me. I did not expect anything to happen to me immediately, but it did. As this lovely church woman put both of her hands on my head I felt a gentle heat surround my head…a feeling of heat and light which filled my mind with awareness and took away all of the pain I had felt about my sister. I experienced a miraculous instantaneous healing. I left the church feeling a great lifting of a burden and a beautiful sense of peace.

It has been 20 years since all of this happened to me. Here are all the things I gained:

• Rock solid faith in God

• No more fear of death

• More loving and accepting of my brothers and sisters

• An understanding of the importance of forgiveness

• A knowing that love is all that is real

• A deep gratitude to my Creator and all that is holy

• More joy, more peace, more contentment

• A grasp of a beautiful concept that giving and receiving are one and the same.

And this is but a short list. As I live this earth dream to its conclusion, the insights keep unfolding and enriching me. And I believe my amazing transformation has touched many loved ones in ways they might not even be aware or could express in words. After all, I have learned there are senses beyond our physical bodies that can guide us to truth.

The question still remains in my mind — why was I given the gift of this brilliant and life changing revelation? In recent years I have become a student of the book A Course in Miracles, considered to be the words of Jesus scribed by Dr. Helen Schucman. One of the most important concepts in A Course in Miracles, perhaps the most important, is the goal of atonement for each of us. Atonement is the undoing of error brought about by unloving thoughts. According to the Course we can achieve salvation through atonement. And the means for this most valuable goal is forgiveness.

I think, perhaps, my mother gave me the gift of this divine vision as a part of her own atonement. She wiped the slate clean, so to speak, by allowing me to be witness to her holiness, thus dissolving any wrong-doing of the past. When I understood the truth of who she really is in God’s eyes — perfect, innocent and holy — nothing she had done in the earth realm mattered at all to me. It was as if it had all been undone. Thank you, sweet Mother, and thank you, dear God.

……………….

Reuniting With Pets In The Afterlife

“The bonds we form with our pets in life are not severed by their death. Our separation from them is only temporary. If we can trust these accounts of pets observed during NDEs, it means that we will indeed be reunited with them after we die. And for any animal lover, what could bring greater joy than to see our beloved cat or dog once more to greet us when we pass over?”

— Near-Death Researcher Kenneth Ring

• Do Our Pets Have an Afterlife? (Near-Death Experience Researcher Kenneth Ring)
• Near-Death Experiences: Will Our Dogs Be Waiting For Us? (BARk)
• Near-Death Experiences With Pets (Near-Death.Com)

……………….

The Tenors: Angels Calling

Angels Calling Lyrics

The sun, the sun is going down.
All I see is love around me.
You know, what I believe.
Now I see it so completely.
I, I need you to know, that time, time is letting go.

……………….

Death: Reports From The Final Frontier
Things Unseen
Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Original Link

How would you feel if you woke up to find your dead parents or grandparents standing at the end of your bed, inviting you to come with them on a journey to the next world? According to one scientist, such deathbed visions are neither false comfort nor the stuff of late-night horror movies — and they may be a strong indication that there’s indeed life after death.

Alison Hilliard explores with three guests how such visions stand up to scientific investigation, and how they sit with Christian beliefs about what happens when we die. Her guests are Peter Fenwick, a neuropsychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London and author of ‘The Art of Dying’; Elaine Storkey, a Christian theologian and philosopher; and Judith Pidgeon of the Martinsey Isle Trust, which encourages people to think and talk openly about death.

……………….

David Kessler – Visions, Trips And Crowded Rooms: Who And What You See Before You Die

Visions, Trips, and Crowded Rooms: Who and What You See Before You Die
By David Kessler

Book Description:

David Kessler, one of the most renowned experts on death and grief, takes on three uniquely shared experiences that challenge our ability to explain and fully understand the mystery of our final days. The first is “visions.” As the dying lose sight of this world, some people appear to be looking into the world to come.

The second shared experience is getting ready for a “trip.” The phenomenon of preparing oneself for a journey isn’t new or unusual. In fact, during our loved ones’ last hours, they may often think of their impending death as a transition or journey. These trips may seem to us to be all about leaving, but for the dying, they may be more about arriving.

Finally, the third phenomenon is “crowded rooms.” The dying often talk about seeing a room full of people, as they constantly repeat the word crowded. In truth, we never die alone. Just as loving hands greeted us when we were born, so will loving arms embrace us when we die.

In the tapestry of life and death, we may begin to see connections to the past that we missed in life. While death may look like a loss to the living, the last hours of a dying person may be filled with fullness rather than emptiness. In this fascinating book, which includes a new Afterword, Kessler brings us stunning stories from the bedsides of the dying that will educate, enlighten, and comfort us all.

……………….

Opening Heaven’s Door: Investigating Stories of Life, Death, and What Comes After
By Patricia Pearson

Book Description:

People everywhere carry with them extraordinary, deeply comforting experiences that arrived at the moment when they most needed relief: when they lost a loved one. These experiences can include clear messages from beyond, profound and vividly beautiful visions, mysterious connections and spiritual awareness, foreknowledge of a loved one’s passing — all of which evade explanation by science and logic. Most people keep these transcendent experiences secret — deathbed experiences, Nearing Death Awareness, and shared death experiences. Individuals and families guard them for fear they will be discounted by hyperrational scrutiny. Yet these very common occurrences have the power to console, comfort, and even transform our understanding of life and death.

Prompted by her family’s surprising, profound experiences around the death of her father and her sister, reporter Patricia Pearson sets out on an open-minded inquiry, a rare journalistic investigation of Nearing Death Awareness. Pearson discovers that roughly half of bereaved people, as well as nurses, hospice workers, soldiers, and others who constantly observe the dying, have had intimations of enduring bonds that can radically help people to process their grief and their fear. Opening Heaven’s Door offers deeply affecting stories of messages from the dying and the dead in a fascinating work of investigative journalism, pointing to new scientific explanations that give these luminous moments the importance felt by those who experience them. Pearson also delves into out-of-body and near-death experiences, examining stories and research to make sense of these related but distinct categories that shed light on Nearing Death Awareness.

Countless people experience these coincidences when a loved one dies, while others experience such visions while they are dying themselves. These phenomena point toward a larger spiritual reality, and the reality of life (or something else) after death, yet are ignored in a cultural framework that dismisses anything that cannot be explained by the physical brain. But by dismissing or discounting these occurrences, we hamper our own healing. Challenging current assumptions about what we know and what we are still unable to explain, Opening Heaven’s Door is a groundbreaking, beautifully written exploration that will forever alter your perceptions of the nature of life and death.

……………….

Heavenly Hugs: Comfort, Support, and Hope From the Afterlife
By Carla Wills-Brandon

Book Description:

Does life end at death? The answer is no!

The nearly 2,000 cases of departing visions and visitations from deceased relatives and friends collected by the author prove that there is life after death. At the moment of physical death, departed loved ones return to the dying to ease travel from this life to the next. Friends, family, and healthcare workers also report seeing these loving spiritual travel guides.

Such encounters — reported by individuals from a wide variety of cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds — clearly illustrate that the personality, soul, or consciousness does not disappear or “die.”

To live our lives to the fullest, we must relieve ourselves of the false notion that death is the end. Departing visions help us do this.

Heavenly Hugs will introduce you to both historical and modern-day departing visions, proving:

• The dying have been reuniting with the departed — for centuries

• Departed loved ones escort the dying to the other side or next dimension

• Something has often been seen leaving the physical body at the moment of death

• Famous people have experienced beautiful departing visions

……………….

Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying
By Maggie Callanan, Patricia Kelley

Book Description:

In this moving and compassionate classic — now updated with new material from the authors — hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years’ experience tending the terminally ill.

Through their stories we come to appreciate the near-miraculous ways in which the dying communicate their needs, reveal their feelings, and even choreograph their own final moments; we also discover the gifts — of wisdom, faith, and love — that the dying leave for the living to share.

Filled with practical advice on responding to the requests of the dying and helping them prepare emotionally and spiritually for death, Final Gifts shows how we can help the dying person live fully to the very end.

……………….

One Last Hug Before I Go: The Mystery and Meaning of Deathbed Visions
By Carla Wills-Brandon M.A.

Book Description:

Death is one of life’s greatest mysteries. Over the years, the bestseller lists have contained many works on death-related phenomena: Betty Eadie’s Embraced by the Light; James Van Praagh’s Talking to Heaven; and Raymond Moodie’s Life After Life, are just a few.

One Last Hug Before I Go is the first book to explore in depth the Deathbed Vision (DBV). Complete with the author’s own encounters and those of over forty other DBV experiencers, this revolutionary work provides research information from the early twentieth century through the present. Included are: survivors’ detailed accounts of their departed loved one’s visions and final words; the survivors’ mystical experiences and premonitions preceding a loved one’s passing; accounts of seeing the soul leave the body; and after-death communications. These final words and visions from the dying provide a poignant, final farewell hug to loved ones, offering peace of mind and hope for an eventual reunion.

After finishing this fascinating book, readers will come away with a better understanding and acceptance of the process of death and see it as a spiritual adventure, not a sad and fearful ending to life.

……………….

Into the Light: Real Life Stories About Angelic Visits, Visions of the Afterlife, and Other Pre-Death Experiences
By John Lerma

Book Description:

Despite our advancements in science and medicine, death remains one of human civilization’s most glorious mysteries. A handful of doctors have written books on phenomena such as near-death experiences, but research and data is scarce on pre-death experiences. Because of this lack of information, Dr. John Lerma has devoted his career to compiling anecdotal and scientific research on pre-death hallucinations from the countless terminally-ill patients he lovingly cares for as a doctor and director at The Medical Center of Houston, Texas.

Now, in the groundbreaking book, Into The Light, Dr. Lerma shares his valuable research and guidance in 16 inspirational stories of children and adults confronting their deaths through the comforting visions of divine beings. By presenting these mysterious visions, synchronicities, and angelic conversations terminally ill patients encounter, Dr. Lerma shows how knowledge of death can ease the pain and fear as we prepare to enter into the light.

In this book you will learn:

• The exhilarating and calming elements of pre-death experiences.

• Healing during the dying process.

• The difference between hallucinations and visions.

• Self-forgiveness and self-love as the key to a joyous life and a peaceful transition.

The mystical experiences described here delve into: the creation of the universe, past and future extinctions, dark angels and white angels, selfless suffering and its effect on humanity, free will as the vital ingredient to create on earth and in heaven, and many more incredible revelations. The poignant stories in Into the Light will leave you feeling uplifted in faith, hope, and love.

……………….

Transitions: A Nurse’s Education About Life And Death
By Becki Hawkins

Book Description:

Transitions: A Nurse’s Education about Life and Death is a collection of stories from Becki Hawkins’s patients over the past thirty years of her career. She started off as a nurse’s aide, became a registered nurse, and began her career in oncology. A couple of years later she also started seeing hospice patients. She also did outpatient oncology nursing, home health/hospice, became a hospice chaplain, and later a hospice volunteer. She now sees patients on a volunteer basis. She began writing a feature column, “Beyond Statistics,” for a local newspaper when her husband told her one evening after her shift at work, “Please don’t tell me about it. Write it down.” The first article was published in 1986. These stories are the patients’ stories and their education to Becki as she visited them about the transitions we make in life and in death. Some of them involve patients in the nursing home, others in the hospital or an outpatient setting, and many others in the patients’ homes. Some of the patients were strangers, some were friends, some acquaintances, and some were family. You will find humor, heartbreak, wisdom, and frequent spiritual allusions in Transitions. The author reminds us that life is brief and fragile, and laced with story after story of how each of us is “learning” in this place that one patient named “Earth School.”

For more information about Becki Hawkins and her book, go here.

……………….

How Uncle Calvin came to help Evan cross from this world to the next…

……………….

……………….

……………….

LAST GOODBYES FROM BEYOND
By Stephen Wagner
About.Com

Original Link

No one knows for certain what happens to those who have died. Many are convinced, however, that they are sometimes in a place where they can still watch over living persons who are most important to them. Strong connections exist among blood relatives and even close friends. And these connections often seem to continue after death.

There are countless personal stories from people who believe they have been contacted in some way by a loved one who has passed on.

Often it’s just a feeling. Sometimes contact is made in a dream. Then every so often this contact is made in much more tangible ways: visions, sounds, smells and even voices.

Here are some remarkable true stories of contact from the dead, making their presence known one last time to settle some unfinished business, deliver a message, give approval or assurance, or to say a final goodbye.

WELCOME BACK, GRANDMA
By Chrissy T.

Everyone loves their grandmother, but for me she was the most important person I had ever met. I loved her so much that I found it necessary to be a part of her death. She died in my arms and it was the most important thing I had ever done. This night as I held her and she slipped away, I asked her to come back to me so I know she made it and she was happy. I am a firm believer in the afterlife and knew that if I asked her to come back, somehow she would.

When I arrived home the night she passed away, my telephone kept ringing. That in itself is not unusual; everyone gets phone calls. But do they usually get them on a phone that hasn’t been plugged in for weeks? The phone rang at least 12 different times that night.

It scared me to death. Worst of all, it scared my husband, who does not scare easily. My husband is a huge skeptic (or at least was).

I inherited my grandmother’s mink stole and her mink-lined ball gown. The night of her funeral, I walked into my walk-in closet and noticed the scent of her perfume. I noticed it because she wore Coty’s perfume, which you cannot find anymore.

My husband, being the skeptic he was, said, “That isn’t so weird. Her mink and gown are covered in the perfume.” It was so strong that usually you could smell it even when she washed her clothes. I agreed with him and didn’t give it a further thought.

Four days later, my husband and I went upstairs to our infant son’s room because we heard voices on the baby monitor downstairs. We weren’t all that concerned because we were unsure of what it was. We went upstairs and the teddy bear mobile over my son’s crib was moving slightly, as if someone had turned it on. As my husband and I stood in the doorway of the room, a slight breeze passed us both with the overwhelming scent of Coty’s perfume. My husband looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, “Hi, grandma. Welcome back.” From that point on, we only sense her perfume in our son’s room. It is great to have her back!

GRANDPA’S FINAL FAVOR
By Phil

My mother and I were in my grandfather’s room; he had recently died. We had gone through his room earlier looking through papers and things that he had made. It was late at night and my mom and I started talking about Sam, one of her really good friends. We had moved away from my grandparents and my mom had lost Sam’s phone number. Sam was always close to my grandfather, and my mother wanted to tell her of his death.

We were lying on the bed when I looked up and saw Sam’s phone number written in big black numbers above his bed! The ironic thing was that we had looked through the room all day and never came across her number. Was my grandfather doing my mom a favor… or was it just a coincidence?

MOTHER APPROVES THE MARRIAGE
By Spirit Wolf

In December of 1980, my girlfriend (now my wife), and her two children, ages 8 and 10, had come to visit me and her sister during the Christmas holidays. One afternoon we were lying on my bed talking. We had both just come away from bad marriages about the same time the previous summer. We weren’t discussing anything in particular when the subject of marriage came up. We were lying on our sides facing each other, when I saw a beautiful Native American lady in a blue dress — or had a blue aura about her — suddenly appear on the bed behind my girlfriend.

The lady turned, looked at me and smiled.

“Wow!” I said, and my girlfriend went stiff in my arms. She asked me to describe what I had seen, and I told her. She told me that I had seen her mother, who had been dead for several years. I had never seen a picture of her mother, but she said that I had described her mother perfectly, and that she had been buried in a blue dress.

We took this as a blessing, and three days later we were married.

DAD CHECKS HER OUT
By Janice B.

My sister Lorraine has been with her high school sweetheart, Bruce, for 13 years now. They were married in 1998 and have a precious baby daughter. At the age of 15, and approximately six months before she met Bruce, she was asleep one night in our parents’ home when she was awakened by the feeling of a presence in her bedroom. She was lying on her back and opened her eyes to see a man’s face suspended above hers and smiling down at her. She described a feeling of total peace and calmly smiled back at him.

The face did not appear ghostly white or transparent, but rather pink and fleshly like a normal human face.

He had brown hair, brown eyes and a jolly round face. She looked at him for a while and then rolled over and went back to sleep. She thought about the face for a while thereafter, but as it didn’t disturb her in any way, she soon put it in the back of her mind.

A few months passed and she met Bruce.

They fell instantly in love and the time came for her first visit to his home to meet his family. Bruce met her at the front door and welcomed her into the entrance hall. On the wall directly in front of her was a collection of framed family photographs. In the center of the group, and occupying the most prominent position, was a photo of Bruce’s father, who she knew had died in a car accident a year earlier. It was the face she had seen months before!

She turned cold and started shaking. Bruce noticed and asked her what was wrong. “Nothing,” she replied, to which he responded, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” About five years later, she decided to tell him the story. Bruce just smiled, and with a tear in his eye replied, “That’s typical of my father to come and check out my future wife.”

GRANDPA ZOOMS BACK
By Carolina

My dad was a talented woodworker and carpenter. When he began to have strokes and lost the feeling in his legs, he started to use a three-wheeled motorized cart instead of a wheelchair. He was a crack-up. He used the thing like a motorcycle, driving all around in it. It made a distinctive whirring sound as it ran and it had a cute little beep-beep type of horn.

We live in a lovely home that my dad helped me design.

He didn’t do the labor, but I always say he built our house. We could hear him coming up the circular drive and beep his horn whenever he wanted to visit. My son Shaun and he were close, seeing each other nearly every day.

A few months after my dad passed, my son and I were at home, he in his bed room, me in the kitchen.

We both met in the entrance hallway, having heard something quite familiar: dad’s cart coming up the drive and his characteristic beep-beep! We just stared at the door trying to get up the courage to open the door. Finally I opened it… to nothing. Is grandpa still coming to chat at the house he built? We think so. I have heard him several times, and it is kind of comforting.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS
By Steve S.

This occurred sometime in the summer of 1991, when mom was selling our house. My father died in 1988. He often climbed onto our roof to check the shingles, clear the gutters, etc. My sisters and I had rooms on the second floor, while my mom slept on the first floor. One night during the summer of 1991, all of us were asleep when we were suddenly awakened.

We all came out of our rooms and asked if we had heard something.

We all described the same noise — the sounds of footsteps on the roof. I had distinctly heard them over my room, and my sisters heard them coming from that same general area. Even my mom on the first floor had heard them. My mom and sisters asked me to go outside to check it out.

As reluctant as I was, I went to investigate… but I brought our dog (and my dad’s old rifle) with me just in case.

I grabbed a flashlight and went outside, while my sisters and mom turned on as many outside lights as possible. I circled the entire house, flashing the roof and checking the surroundings. There were only two spots from which someone could ascend the roof without help. I found nothing and no one (somewhat to my relief, I might add). Plus, the sounds came from the opposite side of those accessible points — we would have heard footsteps well before we did if someone was walking across the roof. “They” would have had to cross over both my sisters’ rooms — but my sisters didn’t hear anything until the sounds were over my room.

Even more unnerving, though, is that the sounds stopped in the middle of the roof — as if whomever was up there just vanished. To this day, we all believe it was dad taking a stroll across the roof before we sold the house.

WHISPERINGS
By Sandra M.

It was a little after 1 o’clock on a Wednesday morning. I couldn’t sleep. I was tossing and turning and hearing all of these voices in my head. Whisperings, “pssss, pssss,” all these voices talking to me all at once in my ears. It sounded like a hundred little voices talking all at once.

All of a sudden, I felt something in my room. I looked around in the dark and felt a presence. I couldn’t touch it or see it, but I felt it.

I actually felt my bed sag like it does when someone sits on the bed to talk with you. I pulled the covers over me and felt the hairs stand on the back of my neck and asked, “Who’s there?” It felt as if someone were watching me. After a while I fell asleep, but was kinda scared to be in the dark. The next day I couldn’t shake the feeling of the last night’s experience.

Two weeks later, my ex-husband called to tell me that our best friend Kay had died. Kay and I had become really goods friend when my husband and I lived in Oklahoma City. She was like a mother to me. Since my mother lived in New York and I was in my 20s, Kay kinda of took the position of mother to me. John told me that Kay had died in the early hours of a Wednesday morning. Suddenly I knew that my friend had come to say goodbye to me. It was Kay who was with me when she passed! Those voices were angels talking to me.

SHIRLEY SAVES HER BROTHER
By Donna B.

My mom told me this story, and she still cries when she tells it. It has never been explained. My sister, Shirley (the firstborn), died of Downs Syndrome at the age of two in 1961.

She had holes in her heart. Almost two years later, my mother had a baby boy, my brother, Steven.

One day in 1962, my mom was up in the attic doing some work, and my dad was in the basement in his workshop. Steven was supposedly napping in a playpen (age one) in the den. My mom heard, clear as day, Shirley’s voice saying, “Dadda! Dadda!” …and it was as though she were right there next to her in the attic. Clear as day. My dad heard the same thing down in his workshop. “Dadda! Dadda!” They both say it was distinctly Shirley’s voice. Loud and clear.

Dad ran up to tell mom, mom ran to tell dad. They both ran into the den, and there was baby Steven with a plastic sheeting of dry cleaner’s covering that he had reached for on the couch — and he was suffocating! Mom and dad both told us later on that it could not have been Steven calling them; he called my dad, “daddy” not “dadda,” and it was not his voice. They are convinced to this day that it was Shirley warning them that her brother was suffocating.