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.