In an online survey conducted recently by Beliefnet, respondents wrote in responses to the question: "Have you ever felt as if a dead person was trying to communicate with you? Describe your experience." Here are a selection of their answers, organized by faith.
I have seen saints or passed on loved ones in the spirit when I am praying, or sitting in my room, smiling for an instant. I feel this is a gift from God to encourage, exhort or comfort through the Holy Spirit when I am missing them... or need assurance I am not alone. I know I always have Jesus, but it helps. They DO NOT speak, nor I with them, just comforting presence.
I believe this is possible, but, it IS NOT the dead "person" doing it, it is a demon and/or evil spirit attempting to gain the trust of that person. That is why NO ONE should partake in ouija boards, psychics/mediums or witchcraft in any form, as they ALL open doors to this kind of activity.
Husband's voice said my name as I was falling asleep while smoking a cigarette.
My aunt passed away years ago but I had a dream in which the phone rang and my aunt was on the line telling my that she arrived in heaven and that it was beyond anything she ever imagined, and that she was with Jesus and He was handsome.
I have experienced an attempt at contact, however, I believe it comes from demons impersonating people who have died.
I lost my son a year ago as a result of an accident at his work place. I believe Mark has talked to me by telling me not to cry for he has only joy where he is. Whatever is going on is making me truly believe in a beautiful hereafter. Whether or not this sounds crazy, I think this is the way of the Lord helping me to be strong.
There is a spirit that remains inside the four walls of my apartment that finds it amusing to turn on and off lights move pictures, open and clothes doors. He doesn't bother me really but it can get spooky when i'm home alone.
I have never felt that but I would give any thing to have that feeling. I truly believe that people have those powers. I have lost two children and I would give any thing to communicate with them.
Right after my daughter was killed I asked for a sign that she was O.K. and the tree in our front yard got one single huge white bloom on it. It has not bloomed before, or since.
Only once; I was 3 1/2 months pregnant, and while cleaning my daughter's room I suddenly felt my mother's presence all around me. Later that night, I began miscarrying. I think my mother was there to take the soul of my unborn child to Heaven.
I believed my father and I had a conversation once, but was told by a Spirit Guide that I had imagined it.
When my mom died, we were going through her things and trying to decide who got what. My brother and sister and I were getting a little testy with each other. Then we decided to pray. We formed a circle with each other as well as some of the grandchildren. While we were praying, I saw my mom in heaven holding a jewel box and pouring out the most beautiful, sparkling jewels out over us. They were just falling over and all around us. Then, she told me that all the stuff we were worrying over was worth nothing. That what we would have when we get to heaven is priceless like the jewels she was showering us with. I stopped our prayer and shared this vision with everyone. After that we were in perfect accord with the distribution of everything. There was never another selfish or hurtful word uttered between us. It was almost 9 years ago.
Yes, my mother came to me in a dream. All she did was point her finger at me and say, "QUIT SMOKING!"
The Bible clearly states we can not communicate from one world to the next in the story of Lazarus, yet I've seen enough spectres to keep me confused.
I think one who is alive should be with what they know: life. Let the dead move forward with what the afterlife has to offer.
I saw my mother about two years after her death standing in my dining room window. Didn't say anything to husband or child. She did it to my husband and scared the bijebers out of him. ha! ha!
No, I have never had that feeling. After my mother died, I sincerely hoped that she would communicate with me. But, I mostly felt that she had moved on to the next stage whatever that is.
Several years ago, i lived in a apartment, once when i walked in the door, i looked towards my table in my dining room and superimposed over the table was a man sitting on a large green chair reading a newspaper with a small black and white dog by his side. I mentioned him to a lady who had lived in the neighborhood and she had said she had seen him also in the yard and on the balcony. She said he had died in the 1920s and seemed to very happy to share the apartment with whomever moved in.
I believe this is a two-way street, so if you're not open to it, those who have passed cannot be heard, seen, etc.
My father appeared to me in a dream and told me: "Being dead takes some getting used to, but you'll like it".
Yes, but being a Christian I recognize the paranormal activity for what it is. Purely a device of Satan.
Without Christ's light I most probably would have been fearful of the supernatural happenings in my life. For the record, I have never sought out or pursued any interest in the occult or even wanted to acknowledge my spiritual side. I just knew that as sure as there's a physical and tactical dimension in this world, the spiritual world is just as real.
Jewish
I have sometimes felt that my late father has offered me advice through my dreams to help me solve some conflict.
I experience "visitations" from people I know shortly after they died and then thereafter whenever I'm feeling very emotional, missing them or in need somehow.
I have been blessed with the knowledge that death is simply a continuation of a journey. I often smell a cigar, when there are none around, and I know that three of my loved ones are near.
Don't be ridiculous.
On several occasions. Each time the "message" was given visually and not in words.
NO. I believe (but don't know for sure) that the soul returns to G-d and exists in another dimension not perceivable by flesh humanity. While on rare occasions G-d sends a messenger (definition of Angel) that is quite rare. Most occult is indeed evil and poor deluded folks fall for it.
At the first yizkor service after my father's death, I was crying and felt a touch on my shoulder. I turned around and nobody was there. I knew he was with me.
I consider the experience negative, because I was afraid. I have seen my mother, father, dog that passed during surgery, and my father in law.
I have had dreams where the dead have asked me to do something for them to help them transition to the afterlife more easily. I am not a psychic. I am just a simple Jewish Rabbi.
Only when I have asked for guidance.
Jews do not believe in this and I am Jewish. I do not believe (as it is said in the Torah), that we are NOT to communicate with the dead; to leave them to rest with their own.
Muslim
I sometimes feel that the spirits of my parents and sibling are trying to communicate, particularly when accidents or a death in the family takes place.
My first wife died and I wasn't present, we had been separated for 16 years. She came to me in a dream and we embraced and we both said we were sorry, I awoke the next day to learn she had died that night, at about or close to the time I was dreaming about her.
No, I belive we should allow them live in their world with calm and only pray for them. Why should we want to bring them here! God will help them and he is that one that will give us life again, in a day that no one knows!
I have had several experiences that have been unexplained. Some pleasant, some not so pleasant. It is difficult to assess if the negative experience was from someone dead or if it was an evil spirit. The positive experiences have been from those who have passed on. The signs are there if you pay attention and trust your gut. That is the gift that god gives us. Praise be to him.
My dad communicated to me through a friend who has had a near-death experience so I know he is alive forever.
After the sudden (car accident) death of my son I saw his spirit very clearly. I feel his presence around me, I see him in my dreams, he is always with me.
Yes and it is impossible to describe it.
I am visited in my sleep from people that have passed on. Most times I haven't met these people before but, I know someone in their family and they have a message for them. I pass the messages on.
I have had some spirits/guardians try contacting me. They are actually my "guides" who help me whenever I need it, give me strength when I am weak, and I somewhat have the ability to heal people by using these spirits; however, my skills in that field are weak and need a lot of hard work. These spirits where once humans whoms occupations where Muslim sheikhs (Islamic priests) and healers. I have inherited this gift from my ancestors.
My mother-in-law tries to tell me things and recipes for food. She died last year.
Hindu
Yes, I have had dreams of people who were dying at the exact time the death happened.
I have held my daughter in my arms about more than a dozen times after she passed on. The last time I held her in my arms was the month I conceived again and she said to me that she was very happy and I could call her anytime I wished for her to be with me. Now I know she is reborn to me because my little son gives me the feeling always that he is her. She passed on when she was seven years old.
As a hospice nurse I am surrounded by death on a daily basis. One woman I took care of for five years, she was mentally retarded and had cerebral palsy. She was paralyzed from the neck down. She died suddenly at the group home where I worked. For weeks I couldn't go in her room because her energy was so strong over her bed. I would hear a buzzing noise, and the energy was cold. I felt like stuff was crawling up my skin. Then one night I fell asleep on the couch and I literally saw her as a little girl. Not figuratively, but literally. I saw a girl in a blue and white polka dot dress. I screamed and she was gone. I knew it was her. I never saw her again.
I wish they would.
My experiences are mostly thru dreams and physical "pushes" (they guide my directions).
Yes, this person was murdered in 1980 and he visits me in my dreams. I can sometime feel his presence and sometimes he is communicating or trying to tell me something he is unhappy about. If I meditate intensly he will come to me. Sometimes I can feel he just wants to be with me because we are on the same plane and he won't communicate anything specific with me.
I felt the presence of a dear cousin as I was leaving the jewelry store after having a piece of her jewelry restored. It was a very positive experience.
It happens all the time. A fact of life for me.
I don't believe in souls/spirits - it is a fundamental Buddhist teaching that we do not have a soul.
Nope, I think the only reason any type of religious or superstitious material exists is to make life more comfortable for people who need to have closure upon the death of loved ones, or need to feel that their life has meaning, but I could always be wrong.
I never have, and believe that taking to the dead takes ones mind away from the true nature of human suffering.
Wiccan
I can feel them in a room with me in times of stress, illness, happiness. It seems that they're there to help and guide me.
Growing up, I would often hear singing in my house when no one was there but me. I would feel something touch me, or find things moved. After having lived in the house for several years, my family discovered that a young boy had died as the result of an accident in the front yard. Coincidentally, he had lived in the room that I occupied.
While I do believe that the human spirit is reincarnated, I think it happens after all living memory of that person has "died". I speak to my grandmother and "listen" for her whispers in my mind. She's very wise and good and I try to follow her advice (especially when cooking or gardening!!). Other ancestors guide me, too, but she is the one who is closest and strongest in my heart.
My deceased son communicated extensively with me through dreams, moving objects, pendulum/Ouija, and psychic medium. Once I was able to deal with his death (as if you ever really can) as best I could, he and I agreed he must move on and I felt him release and go. It was very emotional and changed the way I see death.
My mother communicated with me the evening after she died, I felt her give me one last hug.
The body feels as if an electrical pulse is inside you, room temp can change from hot to cold depending on the positive or negative nature of the spirit. But these cues will differ from person to person. Sometimes you become very emotional for no reason at all, from giggles to tears. It's a gift I wouldn't give up for anything. I know life goes on beyond this shell.
Yes. At a Samhain Sabat I attempted to contact my mother by inviting her to join the circle during meditation. It was a clear autumn night, not too cold and very dry. As I mentally spoke to my deceased mother, invitingly, and with much love and longing in my heart, a gentle soft rain began to fall, this rain was very comforting upon me. I noticed that all the candles were burning brightly, seeming to have no ill effects from the steady rain that was falling. I looked up into the deep black sky, (cloudless) and noticed that the Moon was shining brightly, and there was a beautiful double ring, or halo around it. I felt as if my mother was there holding me in her arms, and gently weeping for the lost relationship, that we might have shared, if she had lived. I was 9 years old when she passed into the next reality. I was 42 years old when this happened. I was in no way frightened, or disturbed. Moments after this experience occurred, the light rain stopped, and I felt a slow departure of the presence that had just comforted me in such a loving way.
I feel a rush of cold air; something will brush against my neck.
I have had many experiences with communication with the dead since I was a very young child. What I originally thought (in later years) were my "imaginary friends" turned out to be the souls of two young girls that had been buried in a nearby yard that was once a family burial area on their land.
I have seen the spirit of my tomcat on the day he died. When I was commuting in a train, some 50 miles from my home, suddenly the cat was sitting on my lap.
Spiritual not Religious
I've heard a voice in my head saying "stop" or "watch it" to help me avoid car accidents.
They appear before me like a hologram in my mind, meaning, they aren't in the airspace in front of me, they are like a memory that they have been there. Then we converse, like the living. No big deal.
No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, all the time, my spirit guide is with me everyday and someone is coming to me in my dreams nearly every night with messages for others.
Since I was a child I have seen and felt things that are not of this realm. I could fill much more than this page of my experiences. I know that I am psychically connected to a life beyond our own and I have learnt how to channel it appropriately. I am very comfortable with my spiritualism.
Never. I wish.
I was asleep one night after my mother died and having a rough time. I woke up with a feeling like when someone brushes you hair back. I responded with "Thank You Mom," cause somehow I knew it was her.
My last experience was with my deceased Father-in-law. I was in his house packing items, feeling sad, as I look at his collectibles, when I was being mentally fed these jokes and situations he had in his life, I was next laughing like crazy and speaking out loud to him as if he was there.
It is as normal to me as talking to a living person.
My father-in-law communicated with me in a dream and helped me recover $400 I thought was lost. My grandmother communicated with me when I was play Czeck Christmas carols. My cousin communicated with me through a psychic.
My loved ones who have passed on speak to me when I seem to need their encouragement.
One Monday morning I was sitting in a meeting at work holding a pen loosely in my hand ready to take notes when someone gently took my hand and began writing. A family had been involved in a multi-car crash on a motorway and all had been killed that weekend. The mother and two children were ready to pass to the light, however the father did not wish to leave. It turned out that before the crash he had been having an affair and was going to leave his wife and children. He now wished to stay earthbound to be near his lover. They passed on, he stayed in this dimension. Nobody can be forced to leave.
Only when I have a question or when I feel so lonely, I feel my husband's hand, arm, hug. Other than than that I've told him not to rattle chains or even try to scare me.
After my 7-year-old nephew was killed, toys in our home were playing by themselves.
When my son completed suicide, the paramedics would not let me hug him before they took his body away. My grief was unbearable. About 3 or 4 months after he died, I met him in my dreams and told him I didn't think I was going to make it. That regret of not just doing it, instead of listening to someone else, was killing me. One gets to hug their child when it is born, why not when they die? He replied "I'm here now, Mom. Hug me now." So I did and kissed him on the top of the head. I truly believe that experience helped me to continue on my healing journey.
I felt other souls were darting in and out of my chest cavity. It didn't hurt, it felt like I was on a roller coaster dropping straight down to the bottom. I felt very strong emotions of sorrow, despair and like they wanted me to help get them out. It was like they were stuck in between dimensions.
Yes. you just call their name and if they are not busy they will reply.
I have been in conversation with a 17-year-old girl who was murdered May 2004. The best way for me to sort out what she says to me is for me to type at my computer. I have about thirty pages of conversations with her. Her mother and I have become close and her mother is grateful for the communication. The girl began speaking to me shortly after her death, wanting me to talk to her mother. I did so. But we are still in communication; we've become friends of a sort.
It's more like a voice in my head--when I ask for guidance from angels, guardians and guides, I sometimes hear the answer in my head.
I was about to move with my sons 200 miles away from my family because of my job & boyfriend. One night on the way home from looking for a house in the area I was moving to, I smelt Ben Gay in the car with me. I opened the windows and it didn't go away. My Grandmother stayed with us at night and she always put on Ben Gay at bedtime. So I recognized the smell. A few days later I had spent the night with a friend, in the area I was moving to, and I woke up to smell & then see Grandmaw sitting on my bed beside me. "She said, "Go home." Then she was gone. But on the bed was a perfect indentation where someone had been sitting. I got up, dressed, quit my job, called and turned down the house (I was scheduled to sign the lease on that same day) and came home. I've never seen her again but when I'm about to make a bad decision sometimes I smell her Ben Gay.
Touch on the head. Scalp tingling when certain music is played. Sounds in the night. Dreams that persist in memory. Objects appear at times that are coincidental with thoughts. Voice speaking in next room. Some incidents of coldness connected with certain places.
I believe the communication between the living and the dead may be as simple as hearing your answer in the words of the next song you hear, words on a billboard, in a newspaper, or the utterances of a stranger on the street. We only need to listen and look for the answers and not expect to hear the exact "voice" of a person who has passed on.
My best friend died on November 17, 2004 and I asked for a sign. I got two signs but on December 5th as I was dreaming I felt someone touch me. It was as if the hand of God had touched me. It felt like pure love. I awoke and I could still feel the hand still patting my head. The feeling was of love and awe. Joy flooded my body and soul and removed some of the darkness of her death.
Yes, My Great-Grandfather came to me to say good bye the night he died, when I was 13 years old.
The sensation was one of comfort, of letting me know I was not alone, of support.
Atheist/Agnostic
Had a dream of my brother after he had committed suicide. He was at the end of a road at night and after I came up to him and saw that it was truly him, we hugged and he told me that he was so sorry for the hurt he was causing our family.
Just warnings or prediction to avoid or go forward in a situation. Cold breeze, hair on neck rises and I see image of future event but only of very close friend or family members. Situations are usually only up to 30 days in future. In crisis, physical or emotional, an angel type vision appears in my eyes when closed, she is near a waterfall and helps me think of a solution or way to get help.
I died in July of 2000. I was dead for over 10 minutes. I've been there and back. There is NO THERE. When you are dead, you are DEAD, period!
I sometimes capture faces in my pictures. I don't know what they are, but they aren't the faces of living humans. These are not so-called "orbs," but are instead faces that seem to be looking directly into the camera. Is this an attempt at communication? I don't know, but it is freaky.
Yes--my dad appeared in front of me and said "It's all right now, i feel fine, you don't have to worry about me anymore." He looked young and happy, and had died in hospital around the time I saw him.
I saw, in a clear dream, a woman being murdered. I told my husband details of the dream in the morning. Later in the day, that very same murder was announced on the TV in the area where I lived. Another dream, I saw missing teenagers under water. A month later, their car was discovered near the dock I had once seen. Further, two children were missing in Mass. When I spoke to my daughter in Mass, she described what they looked like (their mother was our daughter's friend.) I said I saw them in a marshy area inside a sewer pipe; their bodies were found inside a large pipe in a marshy meadow. Their father had murdered them. I've seen a missing baby girl in a dream and told the police they should look for her in a "gingerbread house in the attic." The child has never been found but I believe she was abducted & is alive and well.
No, the idea is ridiculous.
