Dream or reality?
This was a hugely distressing phenomenon.
My father died back in 1986 and we were very close. He was a veterinary surgeon and as such, a confirmed atheist. I spoke to him constantly after his death (without reply) and had the odd dream about him. One night a had a ‘real’ experience of him – he was saying ‘time to let me move on now Sue – I’ll still be around but you’ve got to get on with your life’. This was different to a dream – an almost tangible meeting with him.
I had another ‘real’ experience with Rowie some six weeks down the track. I had been going through an angry phase of my grieving; blaming myself for not having said ‘no’ to his going to his girlfriends on Boxing Day; blaming his dad for having to work on Boxing Day making it a ‘non-event’ which freed him up to go away for the day; angry with God for taking our beautiful, warm, funny son when there are so many mongrels out there in the world (yep, a truly unchristian attitude to be sure)! That night I had a ‘real’ visitation from Rowie again; totally different feeling to a dream. This time we were in the local community hall and he was hiding behind a curtain; peering out at me with scared eyes. I realised that it was time to forget my anger. I needed to start reading, researching – to find out what other people say about death, dying, the afterlife. I wanted to know with an absolute certainty that I would see Rowie again one day and that he would be there waiting for me.
One of my work colleagues suggested I read Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, MD., On Death and Dying, 1969. This started me on a journey that I am only 9 months into as I write this, but a journey that has already opened my heart and my mind up to so many amazing things. Another colleague said to me ‘it is what it is’ – a statement that baffled me at first but one that I now understand. She suggested I read some written material from various modern-day mediums; James Van Praagh, Kelvin Cruickshank, Lisa Williams, Allison DuBois to name but a few.
These guys opened up my mind to all sorts of other possibilities; preset death dates, soul lessons, soul purpose, spiritual growth and evolved consciousness and reincarnation.
I then progressed to authors with experience of NDE’s (near death episodes). This part of my journey was fascinating (more later).
I favourite book of mine, The Art of Happiness by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Howard C Cutler should be read by every man and his wife and children. If everyone could live to His Holiness’ simple guidelines to happiness; love, compassion and forgiveness, the world would heal itself overnight!
In my next blog I would love to share with you my views on a simple statement “there are no coincidences” because this statement has cropped up in every book I have read. It is a statement that has proven itself ten-fold to us since Rowie died.