Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 10:33:36 -0800 (PST)
To: stories@ghosts.org
Subject: Story Submission
I have several.
Gramma – My grandmother died in Fall 1995 of Alzheimer’s complications. After she died, I kept dreaming of her. Each time, she would try to talk to me and I couldn’t understand her. It started to really bother me because she seemed somewhat agitated.
A friend came over one day and commented that my cat (who had died the Summer of 1995) was curling around my feet. I asked him if he could contact my grandmother and he said he would try. We went into a quiet room and he asked for the guidance of D.K., a Tibetan monk who will supposedly channel with anyone who asks.
He contacted her and described her setting. Remarkably similar to the house she lived in before the Alzheimer’s set in. My friend had never seen this house (half a continent away). I asked what she needed to say and got the answer that she was fine and wanted me to stop worrying. She also let me know that Alzheimer’s doesn’t follow you into the next plane. I felt her presence strongly and a great feeling of peace.
Paul – A good friend died of AIDS in Spring 1996. Both my husband and I saw him in the days following his death. My husband is a scientist and not given to any paranormal or occult explorations. He scoffs at anything that cannot be proven in a laboratory. I told him that I had seen Paul. That Paul was coming into the house in the afternoons and sitting on the couch (just like he did before his death) and looking as if he wanted to talk. I would get a little freaked out and tell him that he was dead and didn’t need to be here.
When I told my husband, he blanched. He had had a similar experience. We both talked about how to handle any other occurrences and decided to let Paul know that he could go and that we love him. The next time, he came to my husband and was bid farewell. He didn’t come back in that form (bodily), but I continued to get a feeling that he was around.
After reading “Talking to Heaven” by James Van Pragh, I tried to contact him. I woke up one morning and told him that I would turn on the radio and that if he was there I wanted him to play a Peter Gabriel song. I turned on the radio and after the song playing ended, “Don’t Give Up” by Peter Gabriel played next. I sat down and felt him all around me, like he was holding me. I cried and thanked him for still being around even though we’d told him to go.
Since then, he’s with me frequently. It sounds silly, but I even ask his advice on wine because he was good at picking it out. I’ve communicated with him through the Ouija board once, but it is more satisfying just to “hear” and “feel” him without a “tool”. This experience with Paul has renewed my faith in the enduring quality of the human soul and has removed quite a bit of residual fear about dying.
Oz – My cat of nine years who died in a collar accident (it was a safety collar that got “caught”). Oz continued to sleep on my bed for several years after his death. My other cats wouldn’t come up on my bed when he was “there”. I would feel him jump up during the night and I would wake up and look and see nothing – except a depression in the covers. I knew he was really gone when Catfish (my current cozy cat) started sleeping on my bed at night after we moved houses.
Previous experiences:
House in West Texas. This house belonged to a good friend’s parents and we rented it after they had moved. The room I stayed in had a strange feel. It had been my friend’s mother’s room and when she lived there, she had battled alcoholism and depression. It had a strange “negative” feel. My cat wouldn’t come through the doorway on his feet – he would leap over the threshold like he was scared of it. He also wouldn’t stay long in the room.
I asked my friend several years later if they had ever thought that room was haunted. She said she wouldn’t have been surprised, but had never seen any ghosts.
House in College Station, Texas – This house was built in 1910 and I lived in it in college. There were many nights when a woman would come into my room and sit on my bed. Oz would jump off the bed and sit on the floor looking at the spot. One time I got up the nerve to feel the bed and it was cold. It gave me the creeps, but I loved the house and didn’t even consider moving. I still have dreams of the house – it left an odd psychic imprint on me.
Blue Lady, Atlanta, Georgia – There is a house in Atlanta that I visited when I was about nine years old. We had dinner there (my stepmother knew the occupants) and after dinner the owner had us all ask a favor of the “Blue Lady”. She was a lady depicted in a bust in the house. The house was very old (a Victorian) and he said that she lived there and haunted the house. Being of a practical mind, I asked to find a $20 on the ground. I did, eventually, 10 years later. I don’t know if she was responsible, but I couldn’t help wondering about the vagaries of spirit.