A friend gave me a book called "Raising Faith" by Claire Waters which I found a worthwhile read. The writer's daughter Faith reported seeing apparitions in the house from the age of four and her younger brother was discovered to have the same ability. It seems to have been the matter of fact manner the daughter spoke about what she was seeing that made her mother pay attention. Parents know that when young children play their games are always changing, but the child was consistent in her reporting and she hasn't grown out of it now at the age of twelve. The writer accepted her daughter was experiencing visits from dead grandparents and sometimes strangers and she then delved straight into studying and developing her own psychic ability, and learning everything she could about the spirit world, which she readily accepts exists. Her husband thinks there must be a more ordinary explanation for what's going on. The writer was concerned and frightened for her children at the beginning but accepted that since Faith sleeps through the night despite saying spirit people are in her bedroom, there didn't seem to be any reason for immediate concern. It's a short read at about a hundred pages and I'd have been happy to read a lot more from this author. She came across as a really wonderful mother, and she writes well. One little fun story:- the family are at the fun fair, sitting waiting for a rollercoaster to start. The writer asks her daughter if any spirit people are sitting in the carriages alongside them. The daughter replies there aren't, but as the ride starts she says they have jumped onboard. "They wait for the empty seats!" I probably over think these things I know, but I'd have thought with the seeming ability to zip about and materialise and disappear at will, a fairground ride wouldn't really do a lot for a spirit person!
Anyone Seen An Apparition?
- Thread starter Ruby
- Start date
"Nearing the End of Life. A Guide for Relatives and Friends of the Dying" by Sue Brayne and Dr Peter Fenwick.
This short publication has been distributed to hospices here in the UK. It can be downloaded from the internet and has helpful advice for those in this situation. It is interesting that it has information on near-death experiences which can include seeing apparitions, and it states that they are far from rare, and this information is out there in the mainstream. I expect a lot of people, if not most, will be startled to read this kind of thing. Many will rationalise it away as an adaptation of the mind to help the dying, but some cases of this phenomenon involve others nearby, who are able to see what the dying person can see, which is naturally difficult to explain normally. The authors don't claim any spiritual or afterlife beliefs in the booklet.
I saw Dr Fenwick on a Zoom lecture recently and his advice is that when we are in the hospice situation, we approach death with curiosity. He really stressed the curiosity. We have to let go of everything material and the whole here and now and the process will be easier.
This short publication has been distributed to hospices here in the UK. It can be downloaded from the internet and has helpful advice for those in this situation. It is interesting that it has information on near-death experiences which can include seeing apparitions, and it states that they are far from rare, and this information is out there in the mainstream. I expect a lot of people, if not most, will be startled to read this kind of thing. Many will rationalise it away as an adaptation of the mind to help the dying, but some cases of this phenomenon involve others nearby, who are able to see what the dying person can see, which is naturally difficult to explain normally. The authors don't claim any spiritual or afterlife beliefs in the booklet.
I saw Dr Fenwick on a Zoom lecture recently and his advice is that when we are in the hospice situation, we approach death with curiosity. He really stressed the curiosity. We have to let go of everything material and the whole here and now and the process will be easier.
Something occurred me after I wrote above about Dr Peter Fenwick's advice to approach death with curiosity and let go of everything material. The parapsychologist Lloyd Auerbach investigated a haunting case in the 1980's which is discussed in Lesley Kean's book, "Surviving Death", the one which became the Netflix series. There is some information online about this case, which is exceptional in that the family involved, specifically the young boy, seemed able to get verifiable information from the ghost. Lois, her name was, had always lived in the house and had a lifetime of not enough church and a lot of partying. She thought this might not bode well for her, so when she felt herself slipping away in the hospital she concentrated very hard on her home, and ended up back there, where she was content and she liked the new family who moved in. Apparently she was still there years later in the early 2000's as the owners would still get the odd glimpse of her, long after the boy had grown up and moved away. Such an interesting story. I must buy one of Lloyd Auerbach's books but I refuse to get them from Amazon. Even the sight of their vast, hideous warehouses is depressing, so I'll go to my local bookshop to order one. Anyway, it seems that the advice to approach death with curiosity if we are physically able and conscious would be worth taking, so we don't limit our horizons, whatever they might prove to be!!
I meant to read the book "Hallucinations" by Oliver Sacks and have now read the pages which deal with bereavement. From what I see, he doesn't include cases which are hard to explain, which of course is the usual criticism. Nor can I find any of these cases on a quick search through the rest of it. There is no mention of joint experiences, for example. And no mention of so-called crisis after death communications, where the ADC happened before the experient was told about the death by normal means.
This seems strange as they are not uncommon. A survey of ADC's was carried out between 2018 and 2020 by Evelyn Elsaesser and colleagues (results online under EE's name) amongst English, French and Spanish speakers and detailed accounts were obtained from a description of the participants' most important ADC and 194 questions. 1,004 completed questionnaires were received and 20.7% of these reported ADC's were the crisis sort.
This seems strange as they are not uncommon. A survey of ADC's was carried out between 2018 and 2020 by Evelyn Elsaesser and colleagues (results online under EE's name) amongst English, French and Spanish speakers and detailed accounts were obtained from a description of the participants' most important ADC and 194 questions. 1,004 completed questionnaires were received and 20.7% of these reported ADC's were the crisis sort.
Betty White, the famous American actress, has recently died aged ninety-nine and apparently her last word was "Allen?" This would likely refer to her late husband who died in 1981, Allen Ludden, also a television personality, presuming there were no other Allens in the room. Well, you have to check it wasn't an Allen junior. How interesting, maybe Betty saw an apparition!
ravensgate
Regular Contributor
Well, let's see if I can bring some of the spookiness back, Ruby! What I'm about to share happened several years ago. We were eating in the dining room that evening (we usually eat in the breakfast room). Between the dining room and the kitchen is the butler's pantry. A swinging door is between the butler's pantry and dining room. That evening we left the swinging door open. Our rottweiler (a sweetheart who had no conception of fear, lol) was resting on the dining room floor, close to us. Suddenly something caught her attention. She stood up and began growling. She was looking at the butler's pantry, and after her growling she began to bark; she'd "charge" toward whatever she was seeing and then back off. This went on for less than a minute, but it was quite the experience for us! We wondered what was going on, we looked but could see nothing, but for Baby Anne (our rottie) something/someone was there and ticking her off to no end! Eventually she settled down and that was it. Odd, eh?
Ravensgate, I'm really pleased to read that at long last someone has seen an apparition!
I'm quite envious of the idea of a butler's pantry, but don't want to ruin the spooky atmosphere of the thread with worldly matters.
This is very interesting. Wouldn't we love to know exactly what Baby Anne could see!
I'm quite envious of the idea of a butler's pantry, but don't want to ruin the spooky atmosphere of the thread with worldly matters.
This is very interesting. Wouldn't we love to know exactly what Baby Anne could see!
ravensgate
Regular Contributor
I would love to know! However, that was not the only time one of our pets sensed "something". One day I was sitting in the living room reading a magazine, and my German Shepherd was at my feet. There are pocket doors between the living room and dining room, and those doors were open; they're also quite wide. Anyway, she started following something, as if watching someone walking from one end of the dining room to the other. It was rather unnerving for me!
Still, I believe one of my "best" experiences happened when I purposefully left my digital recorder our in one of the hallways. I did this shortly after a group of paranormal investigators visited our home.... let's just say my curiosity was at a whole new level after their visit, lol
Anyway, just as I was about to conclude that nothing was recorded, surprise! The recorder picked up the sounds of a little dog barking. I say little dog based on the pitch of the voice. We never had small dogs. Seconds later this is followed by a woman's voice telling the dog, "Stop it; be quiet!" You can clearly hear her quick steps on the wood floor; it sounded like they were both heading toward the front door. It was a brief recording but very, very clear!
One might wonder if something from the outside was picked up by the recorder, but that's not possible because there are no homes around us.... and besides, why would you hear the footsteps on the wood floor? Now, moving quite a few years later, I happened to visit with a relative of the original owner of our home. She described her aunt as a rather short woman, energetic, who used to have a small brown dog. I then thought the scratches at the bottom of several doors might have been the small dog's claws!
These may make for interesting spooky stories, but I am interested in an explanation (yes, I always want to entertain logical explanations
!). I have heard and read about "spirit imprints" but I'm not sure these are imprints. How would you explain them, Ruby?
I haven't a clue. I believe it's future science. I listen to the likes of Bernard Carr and get so far, not far at all to be honest, and then am lost. I don't really understand the implications of any of it, the double slit experiment and so on. "The observer collapses the wave function". I think your recorder is the observer?!? I'm on such shaky ground here. Von Lucadou's ted talk?
I didn't answer the question about the recording of the woman and the dog because when I asked myself: does this solution sound crazy, or does that idea sound completely mad, unfortunately all of it did. It was a very simple exchange; a barking dog and a woman's voice and the pattering of feet on a wooden floor. But it is a clear and proper communication between the two, which makes it more interesting than what is often recovered from these recordings. The "spirit imprints" I have heard reported tend to be brief sounds that when slowed down or otherwise altered say things like, "Go away", and seem to be a tad .. menacing. Maybe what ghost hunters imagine while spending the night in haunted places, although some of the words the recordings seem to say can fit well in the context.
When we were staying in Retford in Nottinghamshire recently we were walking as it was getting dark along a terraced street and passed a parked car which belonged to Retford Ghost Hunters! I was so pleased to spot it. Great car (didn't say "We Believe You!" though!). I wonder how the car owner deals with all the attention as she drives around. If you were next to that car at the lights you'd want to check out who's driving. I enquired online about the company and what they do is virtual tours to subscribers who pay to join in, so they make money and this helps to pay for the electricity and equipment used, which is the most up to date technology. If anything is spotted they have a lot of screen grabs to consult and they think this has already worked in the case known as the Metheringham Lass. It's always impressive if there's more than one observer. I wonder why ghost hunters assume one identity for a suspected spirit, expecting it to be that of a local legend. Are there not more there? Do places teem with spirits just as they do with us living people but for some reason only one or two break through to be perceived by us? Loyd Auerbach is an authority on ghosts and has a very impressive case history, and I keep meaning to buy one of his books.
I used to be a member of the Chesterfield Spiritualist church and we had a couple of guys who were regular 'ghost hunters' around Chesterfield, Derbyshire generally and probably South Yorks and Nottinghamshire. They got together with another older guy from our congregation whose interest was more in the psychic field than the spiritual one. (I felt.) Its leader, though, was very much as myself, a dyed-in-the-wool simple Spiritualist so we got on very well.
Those were my introductory days into matters of the spirit and the religion of Spiritualism, before I found I no longer needed church attendance or to watch mediums demonstrating their gifts in them.
You've asked "Do places teem with spirits just as they do with us living people but for some reason only one or two break through to be perceived by us?" and my response is kinda and no. Places that we experience aren't there in the world of the spirit so if some spirits are perceived by some mortals in some places it's because our places kinda overlay the 'places' where these errant spirits congregate or live.
I see them as close to the 'fringes' of our dimension's frequency (it's hard to find better words) and the fringes of their own but please do remember they aren't living in physical places the way we live in physical ones.
Those were my introductory days into matters of the spirit and the religion of Spiritualism, before I found I no longer needed church attendance or to watch mediums demonstrating their gifts in them.
You've asked "Do places teem with spirits just as they do with us living people but for some reason only one or two break through to be perceived by us?" and my response is kinda and no. Places that we experience aren't there in the world of the spirit so if some spirits are perceived by some mortals in some places it's because our places kinda overlay the 'places' where these errant spirits congregate or live.
I see them as close to the 'fringes' of our dimension's frequency (it's hard to find better words) and the fringes of their own but please do remember they aren't living in physical places the way we live in physical ones.