Are the spirits among us, visiting from the other side, from time to time? Is there any reason to believe the answer may be yes?
Perhaps, but can there be any "evidence"?
Months after my sister-in-law passed away, my brother-in-law told me that he felt she was happy on the other side. He based this on a legend that coins mysteriously found on the floor, or in a shoe, were left by a spirit who was happy. He found coins in his shoe or on his bedroom floor, under mysterious circumstances several times.
As a retired scientist (I have a Ph.D. In Physical Chemistry), I tend to be skeptical of such utterances. I asked him where the spirits get the coins. He had no answer.
A neighbor widow, who claims to have psychic powers, once told me that she entered her house one day and a light went on without her having taken any action, After she turned off the light, she immediately addressed--out loud--her dead husband by name, saying, "If you can hear me, turn on the light again," where upon the light, indeed, went on again. And, again after she turned it off, "If you can see me, turn on the light again." This time the light did not go on. She insisted that as a consequence the spirits can hear us but not see us. It seems to me that even if the whole event was credibly related and represented a true visitation, if the spirits can do one thing they ought to be able to do the other.
Not long after both disclosures, however, I was forced to reconsider my skepticism. It began the night of my wife's demise over two years ago and has continued sporadically ever since. On the night in question my wife was taking her usual after-dinner nap. (She was afflicted with Type 2 diabetes, spinal stenosis and heart arrhythmia). She suddenly awoke and, looking at the TV, asked, "What's this?" I answered "the ballgame" and she seemed to drop off to sleep again.
A few minutes later, the smoke alarm buzzed briefly for a second or two. I looked around for a source of smoke and, finding none, returned to my chair. Another few minutes later, the alarm briefly buzzed again. This time I erroneously assumed the battery was signaling it had to be replaced (the unit normally peeps intermittently when the battery becomes weak). Removing the battery and testing it with my voltmeter, I found it was sound. As I replaced it, the alarm buzzed again.
When I returned to my chair I noticed that my wife was not moving. Checking her, I determined that she was cold to the touch and had no wrist pulse nor carotid pulse, whereupon I called 911. The ambulance arrived shortly, accompanied by a policeman who asked me to wait in another room while the EMT's tried to resuscitate her. While there, convinced that their efforts would be futile since she apparently had been dead for longer than five minutes, I phoned my son who lived four hours away to inform him of what happened.
About 15-20 minutes later, the officer opened the door and informed me that she had been pronounced. While he was informing me of this and we were standing directly beneath the smoke alarm, the alarm briefly buzzed again. This time I looked up at it and, in frustration, said aloud, "Now stop that!" Time passed, her body was removed by the undertaker and the officer asked me if there was anything more he could do for me. I said no, but I told him that the brief buzzing of the smoke alarm was the fourth time it had happened that evening and could not have been due to smoke presence because, in that event the unit would continue to buzz until the smoke was removed (it was located in an alcove where the smoke becomes trapped and has to be fanned away whenever it happens while I am cooking). Did he have any idea why it happened at that time?
His answer was, "Yes, she was trying to say goodbye to you."
Unconsciously or subconsciously I must have sensed the answer or I would not have asked him the question: it had no relevance to anything else. I guess I was too distracted to consciously tumble to that possibility and failed to ask the obvious question relating to how often he encountered this phenomenon.
To reinforce the above, my son and his family arrived a couple of hours later (at 4 AM) and, after a while we went to bed. I set the radio alarm for 9AM which would allow us to get some sleep and still attend to funeral arrangements early on. When the alarm rang at 9AM, I sleepily decided I would spend another 15 minutes in bed (my son was sleeping next to me) and reset the alarm for 9:15. When the alarm went off I noted that it was 9:07! On checking, I found that I had, indeed, set the alarm correctly for 9:15. I then remarked to my son, "I guess that was Mom saying goodbye to you."
About a year later I moved to within 5 minutes of my son so that if/when something happened to me (I was 79 then) he wouldn't have to drive four hours to take care of me.
Some months later I suddenly heard my GPS unit (sitting on my dining room table ten feet away from me) saying, "At the end of the street, turn left". Anyone familiar with a Tom-Tom knows that the "On" button is difficult to activate because it is flush with the frame and needs the help of a finger nail to depress. A month later it happened again.
I also have a "touch on" lamp and it went on three times - with me at least four feet away.
I have also found, twice, on the floor near my bed, a coin, the presence of which I would easily have noticed earlier.
To me, a former skeptic, there is only one conclusion from these events: she's happy. When one of these events recurs I'll try to remember to say, "Hi Cathy!"
Am I kidding myself? Perhaps. Either she visits me or she doesn't. I choose to think she does, and, apparently, she wants me to know that she does.
I still don't know where they get the coins!
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