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Was it a Ghost or a Dream?

 

This story happened to my wife when we were living in a apartment complex in Maple Shade, New Jersey. One evening she reluctantly tells me of what happened to her the night before only because she really had no explanation for it herself.

In the middle of the night she says she had a very vivid dream as if she was witnessing someone's entire life through their eyes. An older Italian gentlemen's life was being seen like a photo album flipping its pages. Everything of importance in ones life, first communion, graduations, first kisses, marriage, birth of kids, and deaths all were being felt and seen in my fiance's mind all through the classic song of "sea of Love". At the end a voice tells my wife "I know she is very sick" Who or what he's talking about, my wife nor I have any idea.

She did wake up only to the faint smell of a cigar smoke. On the very rare occasion I might smoke a cigar, NEVER had I done it in the apartment.

Now it's a small street level, one bedroom apartment, so as you walk out the bedroom the bathroom is to the left and the living room/dining room is to the right. At night there is a lamp post outside my apartment that shines through the separations of the living room curtain and blinds and it reflects on one of our living room walls which you can notice as soon as you walk into the living room from the bedroom.

As she walked out of the bedroom she said she saw a silhouette of a man by the wall where the light was being reflected. But the strange thing is that she felt the shadow she saw was on the wall itself, it was not being reflected from an outside source. Being that she couldn't believe what she was seeing she turned her head towards the living room window just to make sure no peeping toms were out there which she couldn't tell but when she turned back towards the shadowy figure, he was gone. She ran to the window and open the curtains and no one was there.

Nobody was standing by the window. To cast the shadow she saw the person would have had to be leaning on the window let alone pretty much be in the apartment. That has never happened again.

Later on we started thinking of who could have visited when we came across her best friend's grandmother in-law (Helen) passed away later that summer. She had been very sick for a while and her son (my wife's best friend's father in law) had been taking care of his mother until she passed.

Helen's husband passed a while ago and we have never seen pictures of him so we don't really know if it was him? We could be reaching with that one.

My wife also gets visits in her dreams from her grandmother who passed away in 2003. I believe in the paranormal but I have never heard of anything like this. Asking for any explanation or any similar experiences so I can explain it to my wife.

Is she sensitive to the paranormal?

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The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, djeter2, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will participate in the discussion and I need help with what I have experienced.

djeter2 (2 stories) (9 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-06-22)
An update to this story: talking to my best friend about this story recently which my wife and I was skeptical in telling him, he confirmed everything my wife has seen as his grandfather. The song that was being played throughout her dream sequence was the exact song my bestfriend's grandfather dedicated to his wife who had just passed away. My wife described some of the black and white photos that were being shown in her dream with a man who delivered ice back in a day and low and behold that what his grandfather did. I was stunned and so was my best friend who didn't blink for about a good two minutes from the shock. He's ok.
fruityLOVEyummm (1 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-14)
😕
wow.that was verry odd. But the same thing happened to meh father robert. His girlfreind pasted away like ummm... 1 year ago. And a couple weeks ago he had a dream.

he was dreaming.
he saw NICOLE [[ex gf. Who pasted away^^^]]
she said specifily "i'll see YOU soon..." I talked to a paster from grandmother brown church and the paster [[paster len]] said that its possible to be talked to a demo or an angel through mind communication. As for the situation YOUR fionce had... I DONT KNOW. It could have bean a sighn.warning.or a friendly hello. Good luck.stay.safe. [[i don't mean to frighten iether ONE of YOU.]]
***god bless***
for now ill pray 4 YOU both 😁.
lord please protect this young man and his fionce as well as there close ones.dear.ones.and.ones.around.them.may.you.watch.over.them.and.help.them.figure.out.whats.going.on.in.gods.name.we.pray.
...AMEN.
BUBBI
KELSEY ❤
Axl_the_Hunter (guest)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-14)
she may be, I had the same paranormal experience when I was little. Have your wife try to contact the ghost, or use E.V.P
crmanddkp (18 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-13)
well I really don't know what to tell you I hope that she is never hurt physical or mentally during these "visitings" maybe the guy she saw was the grandma-in-laws son, maybe just maybe 😕 well I hope you guys are doing alright sorry I can't be of any help!
whitebuffalo (guest)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-12)
Oh, yeah, djeter2,
It IS possible that she is a sensitive, and in keeping up with all of the things that fill her daily life, perhaps the only time for an entity to visit with her is while she sleeps. Some people only get the chance at a communication in the hours that they are allowed rest. And SOME of those people appear to be quite gifted.
Thank you.
Tonith (1136 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-09)
This reminds me of what John Edward does. Only your wife was asleep while John does this awake. But it seems like the same principle. It's like your wife is a conduit, a telephone so to speak for those passed over to the other side. Yes I think she is psychic.
RoseForEmily (34 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-09)
Spirits and ghosts, I believe, can give you their history, in this case it's through dreams.
"I know she is very sick..."
Perhaps the ghost just remembers this statement the most in his life, he might see it as the thing that still haunts him. It might have been referring to his wife, his daughter, his mother.
Maybe somehow your wife is related to this.
This is kind of far-fetched but, it's just a thought that floated through my mind, if you believe in life-after-life, or that a ghost can choose to become human again, maybe your wife was the person who became sick, and the ghost is trying to get her to remember.

Like I said I know it's far-fetched.

Anyway thanks or sharing!
Sadie
toastymarshy (3 stories) (17 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-09)
Interesting, I think your right it could be trying to tell her a message of some sort or getting her to notice him maybe? Thats if it is him 😁
KimSouthO (27 stories) (1960 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-09)
I have chosen not to read the other comments as I am delayed in my coorespondence on the site,

I think that in our dream state we are more open and more willing to accept situations and messages than we are when we are awake. It is quite possible that your theory is correct. It may have been a message letting you know that the husband had been waiting for his wife and that he would be there to comfort and guide her as she crossed over.

Remember, just because an entity (for lack of a better word) shows itself as a shadow does not mean that there negative. It takes a lot of energy to manifest.

I would be very interested to hear more of the dreams your wife has. Have you noticed any other correlations to events or persons with her dreams?

God Bless!
cupcake10132 (4 stories) (193 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-09)
I believe she is pyschic. Haveing visions of someone else's life, kind of odd. I believe it was her bestfriend's grandfather in-law who was telling your wife that her bestfriend's grandmother in-law died and they were reunited. I also love your story.
djeter2 (2 stories) (9 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-09)
I would like to thank everyone for thier positive suggestions and feedback. It will be almost a year ago this month that we have moved out of that apartment just because it was time to move out and get a house.
The apartment complex has gone under new manangement so finding out the history of that apartment will be probably hard.

Now her visitions with her grandma IMO have to do with my wife's rocky relationship with her grandma when they were all living together. My wife, mother, and grandma all live in the same house and at the end of her life her grandma was battling a severe bout of dementia. My wife and her grandma were not on great terms prior to the dementia so it got strained even more afterwards so I think that's where the visitation are coming from.
Since we have move to our new home the vistions have been less frequent.
ChrisB (6 stories) (1515 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-09)
I believe that Tammy is right. She has gone through a lot and knows what shes talking. I would listen to her very carefuly. I believe there is someone trying to contact your wife. I think this spirit wants her help. Thanks for sharring this story with us. I hope to hear from you soon and take care
rhodes68 (14 stories) (1596 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-09)
I've been drawn to your story again, and the more I'm reading it, the more I'm drawn to a couple of details that seemed less important in the beggining.

I think the shadow in your home, the cigar smoke and her first dream come from the same sourse. Someone's trying to communicate with her for some reason, maybe to reveal something or simply to ask for guidance towards the light. He hasn't crossed quite likely since he appears as a shadow. He has chosen to approach her during her sleep knowing that this way she will not be as alarmed as when awake and her defense mechanisms won't be as powerful.

I feel she will be visited again, maybe soon. What I would do is to try and find as much as possible about the house and the land it's built on, about previous residents etc. This way, you will have a better view on what has happened there which might be neccessary if you need to assist the spirit in any way.

Keep us posted if anything else happens.
rhodes68 (14 stories) (1596 posts)
 
17 years ago (2008-05-09)
That was a very interesting account djeter2, thanks for sharing.

I believe your wife has had two very different types of dreams: the one involving a family member is called "visitation dream" in which a deceased relative, or a spirit guide visits to warn about a sickness, reassure the dreamer that there's continuation after death and comfort them. Even if the person who has contacted your wife was not her relative but her best friend's, I still think it classifies as a visitation dream.

Now, the first dream she had, I believe it to be something else.

Tart and some other parapsychologists believe that the dream "is a gateway to another world" in which an altered state of unconsciousness becomes active. If we take that for granted then, during that state, a spirit may very easily communicate with the dreamer to either provide them with information or ask for help.

There's another claim though, that some dreams can be a "past life memory" in which the subconscious mind searches for past-life memories with the aim to find the secrets of a past life-that of the dreamer him/herself.

I guess it all depends on your belief system.

I would rather believe that it was the spirit of a deseased, someone who lived in your home or on the land your home was built on who visited to make his story known.

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