"Ego Dico Cum Mortuus Populus" ["I Speak With Dead People"] -- "HANK'S HORSES"

Background:

Since the age of about nine when my deceased paternal grandmother appeared to me in “light body” form and spoke to me at length about her death, the hereafter and the direction my own future would take (I really should add right here that this “visitation” occurred on the evening prior to the phone call from my uncle which was the first “official word” that we got informing my mother and me of my grandmother’s demise), I have often “spoken with dead people”. . .

By pure definition, this particular gift makes me a psychic “medium” (not a “trance-medium”, however, because I remain fully and completely conscious throughout the process) -- since it is only “mediums” (such as John Edward and James Van Praague) who speak with the dead.

It’s a wonderful gift, really. . . One that has given me complete confidence in the knowledge that one’s life-force does not “die” when one passes from this life into the next and then simply dissipate into nothingness but that it continues to exist -- only in a somewhat changed form.

Of course, I have dealt with skeptics and naysayers for most of my life who argue that I, and others like me, are completely out of touch with reality -- poor, deluded creatures who are, in all probability, suffering from severe cases of “wishful thinking”. Their opinions don’t have the slightest effect upon me, however, because I am (and have always been) a certifiably sane, reasonably intelligent and completely practical person. I know what I know, I’ve seen and heard what I’ve seen and heard and there’s really no reason that I can think of which would make me take to heart the opinions of people who have never met me, don’t know me and don’t have the slightest notion of what my own, personal experiences have been.

I don’t claim to know why some people have paranormal experiences while others claim they have not but, if I had to offer a guess, I’d say it’s because those claiming never to have had paranormal-related experiences have been overly influenced (perhaps, since birth) by the negatively-held opinions of those around them regarding the extent as to what is “possible” and/or “probable” in our present plane of existence.

I would say that, in effect, these people have allowed those influences to cut off much of the inner dialogue, psychic sensitivity and powers of psychic observation that one must possess in order to experience this type of phenomena freely and with any regularity or frequency. They have been told that such things do not -- and cannot -- exist and this renders them incapable of recognizing signs and perceptions which, if pursued and considered, would eventually lead them to experiences of a paranormal nature.

It is much like the plight of the domesticated, formerly wild, elephant that believes that he cannot escape from his present, thin tether because the strong chains that constrained him early-on in his training (which he could not break no matter how much he struggled) have him convinced that it is now useless for him even to try. . .

It is often said that “perception is everything” and, in the case of paranormal phenomena, at least, it is my belief that this statement couldn’t be truer. . .

To communicate on a psychic level with those who have passed on requires, first and foremost, the ability to recognize the very subtle signs, feelings and perceptions that are the “overtures” that eventually lead one toward that communication.

Secondly, it requires the ability to free one’s psyche of restrictions, constraints and pre-conceived notions of the true nature of “reality” placed upon us by society, the scientific community in general and our own expectations in the specific. This factor, more than any other, is what I believe determines one’s “accessibility to the experience”.

My own experiences have taught me to pay attention to every nuance, passing feeling and detail -- dismissing nothing -- because it is often the tiniest “glimpse” or impression which leads me to the most accurate (and rewarding) communications with those who have passed from this life.

In the case of a fellow volunteer with whom I worked at a local charity for a number of years before his sudden, untimely death, I believe it was my ability to focus mentally and keep my mind open to what I was being shown and told by his spirit that led me to one of the most locally well-known communications that I have ever received from the other side:

Hank:

Hank had a great affection for horses… He owned a matched pair that often pulled the old wagons that he lovingly restored in his spare time. It was during the afternoon hours, in a pasture, while feeding his beloved horses, that Hank suffered his very sudden and fatal heart-attack.

Almost immediately thereafter, I began to perceive his presence around me. . . I believe that he came to me specifically because he knew of my interest and belief in life-after-death, ghosts, hauntings and spirits and I, therefore, represented the most likely conduit that he could think of through which to communicate with the living family members that he had left behind.

When I perceived Hank’s presence during the first few weeks after his death -- and I saw him almost everywhere, every 15 minutes or so -- I saw him as if in a state of extreme agitation, almost to the point of desperation. He told me that his wife of over 40 years, Lena, was very angry at him for his sudden and unexpected departure from this plane of existence. He kept insisting that I contact her to explain that “it was not [his] fault” and that he had no control over the timing of the event of his death.

Having only met his wife on a couple of occasions before that and having found her to be a somewhat “distant” person, I refused; however, I tried to reassure him that Lena was a very intelligent person who I was sure -- once the first stages of her grieving process had passed -- would have no trouble realizing that he had not “abandoned” her by his own choice. I also pointed out that, should I press Lena so soon after his death, it could plant seeds of suspicion in her mind which might very well cause her to cut off all future communications with me, thereby making it extremely unlikely that any messages he might wish me to convey to her at a later time would ever reach her ears.

Hank, however, was very insistent (and persistent) in his requests that I go speak with her personally to communicate his message. Gradually, as the days passed, Hank’s spirit became less and less persistent and, several months later, he finally admitted to me that I had been right about his wife’s state of mind.

Because of Hank’s spirit’s almost constant proximity and my concern over the desperate tone of his communications to me during those first few weeks after his death, I found that, as the months rolled by, I could call up his spirit almost at will. I found that I could go to a bench that had been erected in his memory in a nearby park, sit and -- within just a very few minutes’ time -- be in psychic communication with him.

After a few months, I sensed that Hank’s spirit was considerably calmer and more accepting than he had been at first and I was able to pass the time of day with him much as you would with anyone with whom you were acquainted for several years. He would comment on the state of the site where we both had been volunteers, things that the other volunteers had done there lately that he liked and that didn’t like and how his wife and children were faring -- normal topics of conversation for any two people acquainted on a social basis.

One day as I was “visiting” Hank he communicated to me that he was very happy with a recent development concerning his horses. . .

He “showed” me a mental picture of a large, burly, light-haired man in his late 30s or early 40s whom he indicated that his family had chosen to “take” (or “take care of” -- I wasn’t certain which) his beloved horses.

In my mind’s eye, I could “see” this man getting into a very large, light-colored pick-up truck of the type that has extra space in the cab behind the front seats for additional passengers. There were words painted on the doors of the truck which indicated to me that the man, whoever he was, somehow used that particular vehicle in the course of his work.

Hank told me that his family “couldn’t have made a better choice” than this man in whom he had complete confidence to care for the horses just as well as he had when he was alive. He also indicated that his wife was doing very well at that point coping with his loss -- so well, in fact, that he doubted he would “be around” as much in the future as he had been up until that time.

A few weeks later, I described the man whom Hank had shown me taking over the care of his horses to a third party who was also associated with the same charitable organization that Hank and I had been involved with and, somehow, word of my ongoing communications with him got back to his wife, Lena. . .

I was attending a general meeting of that same organization a couple of weeks after that when I noticed Lena enter the room. She spotted me immediately and made a beeline straight for me.

With an intense and piercing look in her eyes, she cornered me and said, “I hear that you talk with Hank sometimes,” and I was forced to confess that I truly believed that I had been in communication with Hank on and off since his passing. I added that, during one recent communication, he had expressed his desire for me to convey to her how happy he was with the choice she had made of a caretaker for his horses and I went on to describe, in detail, the man and his vehicle that Hank had shown me.

Her eyes widened as she stared at me in shocked disbelief.

At that point, she called over another member of the organization -- a man who had been one of Hank’s best friends in life -- and asked me to repeat my description for his benefit.

“Oh,” Hank’s friend said, “She’s talking about R.”

Turning to me, he repeated, “That’s R. Do you know him?”

“No,” I replied.

“She’s never met R!” Lena piped up, “She says that Hank showed him to her and she talks to Hank all the time!”

Indeed, according to Lena, I had described someone that I had no way of knowing about in perfect physical detail -- right down to the vehicle that he drove.

After Hank’s friend walked away, Lena confided to me that she, too, sensed Hank’s presence: “I feel him around me all of the time,” she confessed.