After Death Communications

One of the most profound paranormal experiences one may have is that which is commonly referred to as an after death communication - wherein an individual has sufficient reason to believe they have been purposefully contacted (in one fashion or another, typically via the dream state) by a deceased loved one, family member, close friend or other.

While after death communications (ADCs for short) may purportedly be brought about by forced means such as seances, mediumships, or other like methods that seem dubious at best, it appears for the most part that ADCs occur during our sleep state. Likewise, it seems that despite our earnest desire for such communication - for our own peace of mind regarding the continuity of those we hold dearest to our heart - the ball primarily appears to be in some other court, not ours, and we, the living, are stuck on the receiving end.

At least for now.

Here is where I'd like to add my privately held opinion that if there is indeed any objective, scientific validity to the continuation of human awareness beyond the grave - then at some upcoming point in man's technological future we will most certainly learn to bridge the gap between Here and There.

We will become the callers, instead of the callees.

We will do this, despite any and all arguments to the contrary, because we must.

Because we are no different than any other living object in that we are are survival driven (which is a whole 'nother topic).

Now, back to the matter of after death communications per se:
For the sake of discussion, let us (at least temporarily) take it as a given that death is not necessarily the end of human continuity - that in some fashion or another man survives his own death.

Let's also assume that we retain some rudimentary sense of self-identity, at the very least. Which is to say, we remember.

For without *self-memory* - we are screwed (which is an awfully sticky wicket, hence the dilemma of *reincarnation*).

But if after death communications are anything to go by, the deceased human being - to some degree for some unknown period of 'time' - seems to survive death and recognize his connection to those he's left behind in life.

For a true example, consider the following: My mother died way back in 1969. My father followed her decades later in 2002. Thirty three years lapsed between the deaths of my parents. Yet, when my father died I believe I may have received an actual After Death Communication.
Arriving to the town of his birth and death, in the wee hours of the morning of his visitation & funeral, I had a few hours to catch a little sleep after having traveled all night.

I dreamed that my father came to me, standing in front of me with my long-deceased mother silently sitting - waiting for him to conduct his 'business' with me - on the sofa in the background of the living room where I lay sleeping.

I knew he was dead, he knew I knew, and without any preamble, my father explained that he wanted me to tell everyone that he'd be there for his funeral, but no one would recognize him because he'd be dressed funny.

As a quick aside here, I'm puzzled as to why my mind, or his communication, used the word 'funny' to describe how he would be dressed, so to speak. The best I can come up with, at the moment, is that it was metaphoric for strange, odd, ironic, humorous, unusual clothing or the dressing of his new soul/energy self. Why the use of a seeming metaphor in the first place? While there was nothing surreal or right brain suggestive of this ADC, I now suspect that the word 'funny' was used as a sort of all-encompassing symbol that held all the possible meanings of the word funny to be true - a shorthand of the mind, if you will. In other words, the one word held many truths.

Anyway, upon awakening I was of course flabbergasted by this dream, or ADC. And also of the fact that after all those long years, it seemed my mother had waited for my father and was present to greet him on the other side.

From this dream I deduced that my mother had retained enough memory and self-awareness to remember her husband after 33 earth years had passed. Not withstanding that time may be different or non-existent there, at least in earthly passage it was a considerable amount of time.

That gave me some hope, clue or indication that we - the living - may not be so quickly forgotten by those who have passed on into death (whatever that really means).

And here is where I have to backtrack, to lay a little groundwork as to why this ADC and peek into the likely continuation of my mother was so important ... when my mother passed away in the spring of 1969, I was only 11 years old. Almost immediately after she died, I had a frightening dream (or was it an ADC?). In this dream I saw my mother walking in the front door, and I knew that she was dead. I was terrified in that knowledge, and didn't think the dead were supposed to be walking back into their homes. Having been exposed at an early age to such mid-century paranormal fare as Shock Theatre, Dark Shadows, One Step Beyond and all the rest, I wasn't intellectually prepared for anything beyond sensational drivel. Thus I was scared senseless by seeing a dead person return from grave, walking in my (our) front door.

As mom continued to glide closer in the dream, I hid and closed my eyes, hoping she'd go back wherever she came from.

And thus went the only dream or possibly ADC from my mother I ever recalled until the time of my father's passing, thirty three years later.

***
As silly and unlikely as this may sound, I've often wondered why I didn't again dream of my mother in the interim between my parents passing - AND the conclusion I've reached, partly based on nothing more tangible than 'feeling', is that my mother was a little 'put out' by my post-mortem rejection of her, and stubbornly decided to 'keep away'.

She wasn't a red head for nothing.

But irony aside, if my feelings were somehow correct, then that would also argue in favor of the continuation of the personality/ego along with the soul energy.

In the 2002 dream or After Death Communication with my father, as I have mentioned my mother sat quietly in the background, waiting for him to finish his business with me. She sat silently immobile, perched ladylike on the edge of the sofa, legs demurely crossed at the ankles with her hands still in her lap, turned in dad's direction as he spoke with me. She gave no indication of my presence, entirely focused on my father as she were.

I did notice that though her figure appeared dimmer or faintly obscured to me, she also appeared far younger and thinner, healthier than she was at the time of her death.

Now, again - if we are to take this apparent ADC at face value - it is plausible that she was not aware of my presence. Since we've really no idea how these things work, the mild obfuscation of her form may have had to do more with privacy or manners than any dimming of vision on my part. Or hers.

Think about it. When someone wishes to speak with us directly, or privately, we tend to move apart from the herd. We sequester ourselves as a means to gaining privacy of discourse. Perhaps my mother's obfuscation was the equivalent of that same social behavior over there.

***
I suspect we have a ways to go before we can fully understand exactly what an After Death Communication truly is. I also seriously consider the case that should there continue to mount evidence supporting the continuance of the human creature post mortem, then man will literally move heaven on it's mount until we have exposed this misty unknown to the full light of human understanding.

Curiosity, along with the survival drive, will most certainly take us beyond the realm of superstition, theology, fear and ignorance.

While urban legend has it that Thomas Edison considered the making of a machine to talk with the dead, someone - sometime - somehow will firmly take such a thing out of the pages of fiction and into the annals of technology. You can bet on it.

Alien Abduction in Dreams

As infrequently as most of us remember our dreams in detail, from time to time there may be remembered a dream of exceptional clarity - one that is stunning in both it's emotional impact upon the dreamer, as well as the unusual content of the dream itself.

Not discounting instances of sleep paralysis (or the Old Hag syndrome) or lucid dreaming, there are those dreams redolent with a particular alien flavor - a certain level of high strangeness - that leaves us scratching our heads come the morning light.

While most of us who have made at least a cursory attempt to understand this type of strangeness have resultantly become familiar with hypnogogic and hypnopompic imagery (alpha state), the deeper slower rhythms of delta and theta states, the increasing frequency of REM (shorter cycles) as the night progress, as well as the roles that melatonin, serotonin and DMT play in regulating our wake/sleep state, and finally - the processing/condensed storage/enhancement of memory via REM common to nearly all mammals as a means to save on *space* [or size of the skull/brain cavity kept within a range suitable to the mother's birth canal].

Okay, so we know all this.

And yet ...

What we do not know is how a mind not of this planet may function. Pre-supposing there are indeed intelligent beings scattered throughout our ever expanding cosmos, they are just as likely to possess brains (a) with one singular undivided hemisphere, (b) have as little as one or two brain wave states, (c) or half a dozen, or (d) have a completely different data processing center as compared to our own brain/nervous system.

So while it can be reasonably stated that man is finally exiting the dark ages as regards the workings of his own biology, the same cannot be said for anything else that may be 'out there'.

Which leaves us with a quite valid conundrum as to whether or not so called alien dreams have any objective validity beyond the subjective worth of the dreamer.

While it may be the height of foolishness to attribute any import to dreams of Greys or Reptilian beings, it may equally well be the height of arrogance/ignorance to disregard such dreams.

For we simply do not know.

***

Now, if my own personal dreams are of any merit, then I can truthfully say that - upon close and detailed examination - they [as is customary with the right brain state] are rife with metaphor and symbolics. As most dreams are.

I can also say that these metaphors and symbols do not extend to the exceptional dream characters sometimes present. Again, to be clear - it is often the dream imagery that is symbolic or overlayed, not necessarily the *communication* as given within the dream.

I'll admit, this is annoying to try and make concisely understood. But there is an unique distinction between ordinary dreams and those that possibly indicate another mind present besides that of the single dreamer.

For a good example - one of my dream characters asked, with the utmost degree of facetiousness (or snarky, if you prefer) - "do you know where you are?"

Unfortunately, I didn't. I would love to know what this character would have said if I had been lucid enough to pursue the line of questioning. Maybe another time ...

Anyway, not knowing how any other mind besides the human mind functions, it is possible, if not plausible, that somehow, somewhere, there may be intelligent beings aware of our existence who reach us via our dream state. In fact, it is not wholly unlikely that for some beings the dream state might be the only way/time they CAN interact with us.

Or interface, as I like to say.

However. There arises potential problems with the above theory, and to name but a few:
1. We do not have any infallible means by which we can distinguish the workings of our own imagination and the intrusion of an objective *other*. God knows, our mental health as a species is on shaky enough ground as is.
2. The gullible, superstitious, ignorant or unstable among us could be made worse by entertaining such a possibility in the first place. Some egos/personalities being more fragile than others.
3. If the human mind is an open door to everyday stimuli of all sorts, is it also *open* to whomever or whatever happens to land on our doorstep? Can we close the door if desire or need be?

On a more positive note, if alien abduction dreams may sometimes be distorted, yet true interfaces with other objective beings ... consider the following metaphors - ones I've uncovered by taking the time to commit all note worthy dreams to the annals of my tattered dream journal:
pregnant - to expect or be *expecting*
doctor/physician - one who heals or examines
baby - to bring forth, new life, young
fossil or dinosaur - old, extinct, buried
hospital - where one is healed
alien - visitor, alien-to-the-dreamer, unfamiliar, unknown

And so forth. I know I'm missing more, but without digging through a 14 year backlog, that's all that comes to mind at the moment. Yet, my point is that one should not necessarily take one's dream surroundings or actions at the same literal value as one does to all things awake. It is too easy to *jump* to the wrong conclusion when one is dealing with right brain imagery.

Which is absolutely not to relegate our right brain workings to the same dung heap as unicorns and dancing pink elephants.

If anything, after years of paying close attention to the amazing charade-like nature inherent in right brain communication, I have developed a deep respect for this often overlooked and easily dismissed portion of our being.

This silent partner who - though without conscious voice - guides, counsels and intuits every man, woman and child from birth to grave.

In conclusion, I'd like to add that though it may be eons before the seeming mystery of what alien abduction dreams truly represent - self, other or some bizarre combination thereof - it is a highly rewarding, often fascinating hobby to keep a dream journal. If you've never done so, or for whatever reason abandoned the practice, now is the time to begin anew.

Especially if you have reason to suspect/fear/desire that you may have been *contacted* - so to speak.

All I ask, ... well, strongly suggest ... is that you keep a level head, good sense of humor and a large grain of salt on hand at all times.

Even IF our minds are not accessible to alien beings, soul guides, angels or what have you, at least we may access our ever faithful silent partner (the right brain) and be a little better off for having done so.

It's a strange world, after all.

Alien Reincarnation - A Completely New Twist

The subconscious, in its ability to creatively express itself - often in overlays so subtle that were one NOT paying attention and keeping a dream journal (which every student of the paranormal should make the effort to maintain a regular log of sorts) one would live their life oblivious to the deeper, hidden riches essentially at our fingertips - May sometimes unexpectedly bring forth some of these riches in the form of eurekas not ordinarily contemplated by the waking, conscious mind.

Think brain barf of the highest order.

Or better yet, for those less graphically inclined ... imagine an onion whereas each layer represents a facet of consciousness - the outer layer being our waking, working beta ego-self and the subconscious buried closer to the center of the self, where it must pass information through multiple barriers until it is finally *epiphany* received and understood (hopefully) by you and I.

Not an easy task, I might add.

Nonetheless. I've long had a standing interest in the western concept of reincarnation. And I use the adjective 'western' because there are variations galore on the whole 'born again' conundrum.

Now, being of a more academic bent with no allegiance to any structured belief system, it's easy for me to take paranormal experiences with a certain nonchalance that only comes when one hasn't the vested interest of a belief system to uphold/defend.

But I have to admit that the whole concept of birth/rebirth lays uncomfortably under my mental skin, like a burr in the saddle. It's not that I see any problem with energy being *recycled* as it were, rather - it is the alleged loss of memory that typically accompanies such recycling, which, in my opinion, seems like a loss of self hood in the most horrible sense. I don't want to forget my loved ones, my experiences and my accomplishments. I don't like the idea of some separate soul prancing merrily through time and space while *I* am reconciled to the back of the personality closet.

However.

I had an epiphany.

Or with less drama and fanfare, ... let us say I had the most amazing dream which opened up an entirely unique way to consider the workings of reincarnation, and in a way far more palatable to the incarnated ego (moi):
"... decades rolled back, and I was once again fourteen years old. Like a character in a play with full awareness of the roll he played, while consigned to do so only within the pre-defined perimeters of his actions - I knew myself to be far greater than the character I was *imprisoned* within.
I was *imprisoned* within this repeated 14 year old persona - ala Groundhog's Day - but what constrained my free will was something resembling a universal mathematics/sacred geometry set in stone - something I barely, dimly was aware of and powerless to affect.
I say "powerless", but it was the character that was powerless. It was entirely up to the buried self to deliberately or accidentally change the *equation* - for lack of a better term.
So, there I was. Repeating my 14Th year, which included major changes that had immense long term ratifications for the remainder of my waking life (me here) ... when suddenly my mother made a slight, innocuous alteration to the original script.
In that moment - I was FREE!!! Free and flushed with a greater understanding as to how reincarnation (perhaps) worked. It was giddy, and I shook with excitement as suddenly I was *released* from the bonds that had kept me chained to playing this role over and over again.
To my mother I joyfully exclaimed, "This time you didn't buy the couch! You made a subconscious choice to do something different and you have changed the probability! We are free to behave differently this time around, and I am going to try much harder to be a better daughter for you."

The crux of the matter was this: Somehow, someway, we (as humans incarnating) are each trapped within a certain pre-designed, laid out plan/script. And that we will repeat our roles, say in my case being born over and over again to the same parents, the same year, etc - until we are able to *break* a pattern or probability. Does this make sense?

These changes in probability occur not in our conscious minds, but rather in the subconscious or super conscious mind. We do not, or cannot abandon (escape) a role until we have "milked it" in as many ways as are productive (in some fashion that is currently beyond my ability to articulate).

We grow in ever-widening circles, so to speak.

Now, obviously, I cannot say with any certainty that this rather bizarre and outstanding dream contained any verifiable objective truth. I can, cautiously, say that it may contain a germ of factuality insomuch as it helps explain deja vu, premonitions, the sense of being overridden at times by an unknown higher self at the helm, and all other sorts of covert intuitions we are subject to as a species.

If nothing else, it's certainly an interesting take on an old chestnut - that is - reincarnation.
Thoughts?