Speaking With “Dead People”

I’m used to people giving me “the look”. I’ve been getting “the look” all of my life...

You get “the look” when you mention that you’ve just seen Luther Burbank (who died in 1926) walking around his Gold Ridge Farm, watched a group of Union soldiers attack a farmhouse or mention to someone that you’ve spoken with their deceased grandfather that afternoon because there was something that he wanted you to tell them…

The first time I remember seeing “the look” was at the tender age of nine or so on the face of my mother when I told her that I’d just been visited by my paternal grandmother (who was in ill health at the time and lived about 100 miles away).

The next morning my uncle called to tell my mother that my grandmother had passed away in the night.

“Seeing dead people” is not at all how the Mel Gibson movie that is famous for that line portrayed it.

First of all, the images are not as concrete as those; they are more like impressions. They are more like little snatches of video tape that play in your head for a second or two. The images are fleeting but they usually leave what I would call the “psychic residue” of a complete thought or idea in their wake. Sometimes, you have no conscious awareness of an image at all and the words describing it seem to just pop out of your mouth of their own volition.

When one experiences one of these insights, it is as if far more information is being conveyed within that split-second of imagery than can be accounted for by its visual properties alone. Sometimes, knowledge of the entire story of what has gone on before the fleeting image or the events that happened after it comes with it and is conveyed within that split second of time.

Most people think of “ghosts” as autonomous; they imagine the manifestations of these spirits just come and go of their own accord and that the person who observes them is merely that, an observer, with no active part in the manifestation. In this regard, it may be that I relate to these spirits just a bit differently. For me, most images come to mind much clearer if I focus my thoughts upon the person whose spirit I wish to contact.

I am then rewarded (if I’m lucky) with an image or two at a time but, usually, no more than that. However, as I said, most of the time, so much information is conveyed to me in that second or two, that there is little need for more.

Most of the time, especially in cases of missing persons, the bulk of the information concerning the case comes to me disjointedly and out of chronological sequence as it did in the case of the murder of Elvin Bishop’s daughter.

I received many impressions about this case almost immediately upon hearing about the murder of Miss Bishop’s mother and her boyfriend whose bodies had just been discovered in Miss Bishop’s residence. (At that time, Miss Bishop was officially considered to be “missing” and no other details were given.)

The many details that I “saw” in those first few moments -- regarding a related murder of an elderly couple in the East San Francisco Bay Area, another female of approximately the same age as Miss Bishop who was involved and the two brothers who perpetrated all of the murders -- disjointed facts which, at the time, appeared to be unrelated, were later (much later, in some cases) proved to be completely accurate as the details about this case were revealed over a period of months and even years…

I don’t know why it is that certain cases trigger these impressions when I first hear about them on the news or read about them, why I seem to sense more details with some cases than I do with others, or why, in some cases, I sense nothing at all. I don’t seem to be able to pick or choose which case will be one that I receive impressions about.

However I can and do summon many spirits of those whom I have known who have passed on and, most of the time, speak with them at will.

Since a very young age, I have spoken (and still speak) in just such a manner with my paternal grandmother. I have also spoken regularly with my husband’s mother and grandmother – and even with his grandfather whom I actually never met in life. I also speak with, among others, a former associate of mine, a former boss of mine, the father of a former boss of mine and even the child of a schoolmate who was killed in an accident many years ago.

Another aspect of communication with those who have passed over which I seem to have no control are the times when I find myself in an area that is (what I call) “saturated” with either the spirits of the passing of many people or a location that is associated with someone who experienced a particularly violent or unjust death. In these cases, the events and the shades of the people who were involved in these events are just “there” – like a never ending movie on a 380-degree screen. I seem to simply “walk into the scene” at any point in the action and that action continues whether I stay or go.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee was, for me, just such a place. As we traveled through the town, and for a few miles on either side of it, the images I “saw” in my mind’s eye were so varied and many that, in some places, I was forced to swivel my head from side to side almost constantly in order to take it all in.

I have never been anywhere else where five or six different scenes on an astral level were taking place around me at once. At one point, I saw two children hiding behind a buckboard wagon while soldiers searched the bushes for them, a man being hung by a military guard, a company of Union soldiers on foot being led in a charge by an officer on a horse and two or three other groups of soldiers and/or civilians shooting at each other or sniping at each other from positions up in the trees or from behind the walls of long-gone buildings, all going on at once.

If I have known the deceased subject personally, I can usually go to a location that I associate with him or her, quietly concentrate and, most times, I am rewarded within a few minutes with a sense of their presence. At that time, images -- often accompanied by impressions of ideas and situations surrounding those images -- will be imparted to me by the person who has passed.

Sometimes, these reflect a message that the person wishes me to convey to someone who is still living; however, I find it all but impossible most of time to pass these messages on in a frank and honest manner due to most people’s lack of belief in the possibility of after-death communication.

I’m not certain why I have been given this gift (or “curse”, perhaps)... At times I find it very comforting -- but, at other times, it can be just plain "disturbing". . .


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