When the Dead Contact the Living
There have been a lot of cases of people reporting having been contacted by deceased relatives and friends and even other unknown entities. For hundreds and perhaps thousands of years people have tried through many different means to contact the dead and I think it is fair to say without success. To this day, this endeavor is filled with charlatans who claim they can do it. One thing I really dislike is people praying on other people who are desperate, and there is no denying this is one of those areas. It ranks right up there phony only cures for deadly diseases and such. Having said this, there are some people who claim to have contact with the deceased person either by voice, image or both. I have reported some of the stories in the past.
People don’t like to talk about been contacted by the dead, since they were afraid it makes them sound foolish and I think most of us can understand this, so this limits the information. A study was conducted in 2006 and an incredible number of the people in it say they were contacted by the dead and this number was a whopping 62.6%. The study was known as the Klugman study. Other studies were taken and the numbers of people who admitted having contact with the dead range from 35.6% to over 40%. What is going on? Could it be the dead are contacting the living in large numbers?
It has been said those who have made contact with the dead have a much easier time in their grieving period. This assumes the contact which was made was of a loved one, or very good friend. Can it be we are being watched by the deceased and sometimes the bond between the deceased and a member of the living is so strong the deceased person takes pity on the one who is alive and contacts them to let them know there is nothing to be sad about and they still exist on another plane? Even if we allow for some imagined contacts it would still not account for the high numbers found in the studies. It would seem contact is possible but only from the dead contacting the living and not the living trying to contact the dead.
One of my favorite accounts is of a man who received a phone call from his father. The phone call was not remarkable at the time and the father asked him how he was doing chatted with him for a while and then told him he had to go and he loved him. Later on in the day the son found out his father had died hours before the phone call was made. There is a term for this and it is called ADC or after death communication. It is when a person has been contacted by a family member or friend who has died and this happens spontaneously. It is said most people who receive these messages get comfort from them.
One woman who had become a hospice nurse related stories about how some of the patient’s who were about to die claim they met with relatives and friends who were previously deceased. She said, she actually witnessed this with a family member who started to laugh and when asked what he was laughing at said he was with his family and they were all very happy, and so was he. He then took his last breath and passed away. She says she has seen this many times and this has eased the passing of many people.
I think we all know some people attribute things which happen as some sort of a sign and many of us would not agree with this. Usually I pay no attention to these types of reports, because let’s face it, coincidences can happen and assigning meaning to meaningless events does not prove anything. People have to be forgiven for this because they are desperate in their grief, which is totally understandable. I mean just because the deceased’s favorite book falls off a shelf really doesn’t mean this was a contact.
One report stated ADC contact is usually made 75% of the times in the first year the person was deceased. One person reported having several ADCs with his deceased mother. Family members report they are composed of members of the family smelling her favorite perfume in some of the rooms of the house, appearances in dreams which the deceased gives motherly advice and the advice is on current matters. Since none of these are what I call direct contact, I will let you form your own opinion on whether these people are being contacted from the dead or not.
One of the things which is a factor with people who claim to have contacted dead family members and friends is whether they have a mental illness or they are on drugs either prescription or illegal ones. If all this can be discounted, and somebody knows a person very well and that person tells a story of being contacted by the dead, some say we have to pay attention to what they are telling us. I know a couple of people who are absolutely sane and who both saw the same apparition at the same time. The couple is married and the apparition was of the husband’s mother floating above them in their home. Nothing was said, but they both clearly saw it. They had nothing to gain by telling me this and didn’t tell it to anyone else as far as I know. I have to believe they probably saw the apparition.
Grandpa had just died and some of his grandchildren were over at his former house. The youngest one, which was just a little tyke kept staring at a corner on the ceiling. His parents asked them what he was looking at and he innocently said, I’m looking at grandpa. The little boy believed his grandfather was floating above him in the corner. Nobody else could see anything, but the boy insisted he was there. There has been some talk young children are born with the ability to see into other planes of existence but lose this ability as they start to grow. Whether this is true or not I wouldn’t know, but there are some reports about this.
So, what conclusions can we take from all of this? I think it is safe to say some of these so-called contacts come from the administration of drugs, mental illness and imagination, but I believe we have to say this does not explain all of these contacts which are made by perfectly rational people who are not on drugs, do not have a mental illness and have no history of being other than sane people. This is even reinforced more in the case where more than one person witnesses an event at the same time.