Encounters With The Other Side

It's OK by me if you want to let the story out. I think it's very healthy and sensible to vent it, rather than keeping it in to fester, if it is uncomfortable.

Hypnagogic sleep phase happens every time you go to sleep. It's that odd, dreamy phase when you're falling asleep, and thoughts and images can flow freely, but you're still semi-aware of what's going on around you, and sometimes stimuli from the environment and your thoughts combine to make very interesting, fantastical blends of meaning. (Poets and film makers love it. ) Sometimes, if you are really tired, it is very short and you don't really sense much of anything. And sometimes it's full of interesting images and feelings, sounds and even words. It has also been called "lucid dreaming."

http://library.thinkquest.org/11189/slpmech.htm

But it's not really REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, like when you are really asleep and really dreaming. If you had just had a very intense experience, it would be as natural as can be (even predictable) for the image you described to happen during the hypnogogic phase. (Someone who works with spirit manifestations might say that you were particularly open to a visit in that stage of pre-sleep. )

Non-ordinary reality is the way the modern researchers of shamanism describe the mental state and experiences of shamans when they are on a soul journey or spirit quest; it also describes the other worlds they believe they travel to. Shamanism is all over the world in history, and as old as our species. The healing versions of shamanism seek to either retrieve a lost piece of the soul, or get rid of some spirit that has moved in and is causing illness or depression. The celtic version is fascinating, and it is at the roots of a lot of Welsh and Irish legends (Excellent book: Fire in the Head: Shamanism and the Celtic Spirit, by Tom Cowan). The indigenous American versions are beautiful, sometimes frightening, sometimes very moving, with the whole tradition of totemic "power animal" spirit guides.

Some researchers think non-ordinary reality is pretty much the same thing as a sort of intentional, extended lucid dreaming, with the regular world perceptions right there and available, at the same time as the other world experience or "journey" is unfolding.

http://www.spiritwatch.ca/LL%204.2/Out%20o...dreams-Rogo.htm

The classic modern research on shamanism was done by Michael Harner, and his book is called The Way of the Shaman. I recommend it big time. Sandra Ingerman, a shaman and psychotherapist, was maybe his most famous student, and she is a master at soul retrieval, which she uses as a complementary kind of psychotherapy for trauma (the theory is that a piece of the soul just checks out and goes somewhere else to protect itself during severe trauma, and doesn't find its way back. It's very close to the idea of dissociation in modern psychotherapy, which is a big symptom of trauma, including PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder. You could perhaps also see it as an explanation for fragments of feeling or human images lingering round battlefields, for example. . . ) She also trains modern shamans.

http://www.shamanism.org/fssinfo/singerbio.html

From all these interesting comments I can tell I hadn't given my "experience" much thought beyond the actual events that occurred. Given me something to digest.

Eventide,

You've had a very intense experience, and I'm not surprised that it keeps resurfacing. I'm glad that you've been able to share the whole thing here, with us, and I hope that doing so will help you to settle it internally. I know you've not wanted to keep in touch with your friends from that night, but I wondered if just checking up on them now, briefly, might also help you to put an ending to the whole thing. It's almost as if there is a small "unfinished" aspect to the experience that keeps it remaining with you, instead of allowing it to fade, a bit, as most things do. Wouldn't finding out that they're all okay, and happy, bring peace of mind?

Just a thought.
Dreamer1

Hi Dreamer1 --I have thought of it, who better to understand than someone who shared the same experience? We gradually went our seperate ways over a period of time, somehow the bond of friendship felt strange after the that night. I'm quite sure they're fine and hopefully they've made peace with themselves.

I have lots of Stories of stuff that has happened to me, but i will only tell you the one that started it.


When I was 3 we lived in this 100 year old house in Denver. The house was hunted by an 8 year old boy who died from Scharlotte Fever in the room that was mine. My room was his when he was alive and we think that he didn't know we were not his family and that he thought I had replaced him because he would come it to my room through the wall behind my bed and scare me and all my good clothes went missing. We moved a year later but by that time it was to late the damage was done. I couldn't sleep alone in a room until I was 12. So that's my story.


Slainte Mhath

I don't know exactly how this will be viewed by those whom choose to read this but, like the boy in Sixth Sense I see dead people. I know it probably sounds like I am a little crazy but, it is true. I have been communicating with the dead since I was 10 years old and helped quite a few finish whatever business was keeping them here and sending them to the light. It is not quite like the Ghost Whisperer but, pretty close. Right now I am working on the loved ones of a friends past lives. He would see faces in everyhting and had no idea what was going on. I expained to him after talking with a spirit guide that they were the loved ones of his past lives and they needed to finish something so they could move into the light. So far we have released 1 soul and are currantly working on another one. The first time I had seen a ghost it freaked me out because one minute she was there and the next she was gone. After that first siting she started to talk to me in whispers scaring me even more. It took awhile and a lot of reading to get me used to this new thread in my life. I have seen some really scary things through the years and feel sorry for those whom are just recieving this "gift". If anyone needs help I would be glad to offer assistance.

These stories are very interesting. I don't think any of them as crazy. I love reading these. Keep them coming.

Slainte

That sleep phase you're talking about....I'm all too familiar with that. Now I know it has a name! I've had these "visions", if you will...all my life, and almost always, they happen just as I'm falling asleep, or just as I'm waking up. Have had a few that jolted me awake from a deep sleep. More often than not, I've learned that those with some sort of a "feeling" associated with them, that I've come to recognize as being significant and to pay attention to them (as well as to be aware in the following days/weeks...kinda of a "head's up") and not just those random dreams that really don't mean anything.

Being told something important...in one short sentence...by a great grandmother who passed 50 years before I was born. That was a few years ago...but I knew exactly what she meant and...it helped me immensely in the following months. Another great "let me know" that she's "with" me....and she's been dead....nearly 200 years....that one is very bizarre indeed.

In recent years there have been a few occasions when they occurred during waking hours.....I could be doing something as mundane as washing the dishes, and once..while I was driving. Thankfully these only lasted a moment or two. Sometimes I recognize what they're about, sometimes I don't, until later on. So far these have only been little trivial things...such as seeing a friend busy at a craft, which, a few days later I discovered...that's exactly what they were doing at that particular moment on that day, and the details were....spooky. I have no control over these things whatsoever. Wish I did.

There have been too many experiences to mention here.....I just know that the older I get, the more frequent they've become. They never occur on a regular basis, though they'll usually happen in "clusters", if that makes sense?

Interesting topic.....cuz I don't (and can't!) talk about these things with just anyone. Occasionally I will talk about some of them with my mother....she's experienced them, too, throughout her life.

When I was 5 we had a wood stove in our kitchen and my mum would go downstairs to stoke it at about 3am. On her way one morning she found both our doors (kitchen and porch doors) open to the outside world and all the lights on downstairs. She insists that it was after my 81 year old grandfather died (he left all the lights on in his house in life) but my dad says it was before...I prefer to think it was Grampy and have had other run ins with him.

When I was 12/13 I was spending the night at my aunt's and I was sleeping in her bed while everyone else was still up in other parts of the house. I looked at the foot of the bed and there was grampy (he died when I was 5) the room I swear was bigger and darker than normal and he was just standing there looking at me in his red plaid shirt. I covered my head and then he was gone.

A few years later I was at the ice rink where my dad works and I was alone in the stands looking at the ice surface where they getting ready to remove the ice. Everyone else in the building was upstairs in a meeting and I was waiting for a lift home and then I saw grampy, with his back to me, bending over an ice cutter. This makes sense he used to coach hockey and work at our old rink, maybe he was just curious.

Now, since I was 5 when he died I don't really remember his voice. But one evening I was in my bedroom with my cat, Cookie (I didn't name her). Cookie took off out of my room so fast...then Grampy called my name twice. I know it was him, I recognized his voice even though I can't recall it on command in my head. Disembodied voices freak me out...

My Nan's family is from Cornwall, England (CELTIC!!!) and is habitually haunted I think. I find out more of out stories, like my great uncle who's house had a bloodstained floor , the ghost that followed them from England to Canada, and others, and I'll post them too.

I guess I'm kinda like that. I randomly see people around me, even in my school computer lab, that are so real that I talk to them and then they're not there. In the lab I was sitting beside a girl who I was going to ask the time and in the 3 seconds it took me to turn around to face her she was gone her computer was on the log-in screen and the chair was cold (I checked). They are always in contemporary clothes and most people think it's just stress from working on my masters degree...that or they just humours me I think.
It's weird because I come from a "Haunted Family" and can usually sense ghosts no problem but these ones slip by me...maybe becuase I have to be tired to see them...any advice?

Back 1998 or 99, when I was able to work, I worked for a Hospice as a nurse. I went to check on a patient whose daughter told me she was restless. I went to see how she was, and I saw she was moving back and forth in her bed. I knew it was a little early for any medicine, and I was going to see if she needed a pillow moved. I heard she was mumbling, and I asked what was the matter.
She started to say “Sheep. There were Sheep all around. Don’t you see them?”
I asked her “what color were the sheep?”
“Black” was her answer
I asked her if there was a Shepherd with the sheep? She said “Yes.” I asked her if she wanted to go with the Shepherd. She said “no”. I then asked to describe the shepherd.
She said he was “Big, Black, and he was wearing an Ugly Mask.”
Right then I gave a quick little prayer and asked if she would like to have the “Good Shepherd in her life.” She said “yes,” and She asked Jesus to come in her life. After that, she was more comfortable and wasn’t restless.
I came in to work the next day, and I saw she had passed away that morning. I saw her daughter was there talking with the day-shift nurse, and I told her what had happened after she had left for the day, and her daughter told me “I wondered if something had happened. The sunset looked the same way, as when my dad passed away.”

I just came across this thread, and i have to relate three quick stories..

First....about 10 years ago, I was at te club that I belong to. The building had been resurrected due to a fire, and people had said that the youn lad that was killed in the fire that destroyed the first one roamed th halls occasionally.
There was only 2 of us sitting in the bar area, myself and the bartender. She had just shut the doors, since it was near closing time. there is a metal door that connects the downstairs with the upstairs...suddenly we both heard it open, and a sistinct shadow ran past the bar to the other side.....all that I told the story to said that it must be "Joey." Now, when the juke box comes on in the bar, it is said that "joey" is playing.
I wonder how he likes therenovatins of the bar that we have recently done?

Another occurred shortly after my husband dies...He visited me, and literally climbed into bed with me....the shades blew, although there was no wind, and the windows were closed....he touched me and stayed in my bde with me for about three hours...

And the third.....My boyfriends house is definetly haunted..doors and shades open for no reason....Dewayne said that a little girl has visited, but I have yet to see her..
I saw the shades move,a nd the door open this weekend, about four times during the night. The spirit has also pulled a chair away from me when I went to sit down into it......I really hope he is friendly........
Marti

It wasn't until I was grown that I came to understand that not everyone can see or hear the spirits. Our house has always been filled with good spirits. At first I didn't know the people were spirits that no one else saw nor heard until the day I saw my grandmother holding a picture. I looked at the picture and said that's Granddaddy Scotty. He had gone Home when momma was only 14 so I had never met him here, yet I knew him. He had always been in the house watching over us and keeping us safe. Many times I have looked at family pictures and I know them before anyone tells me. My family is always watching over me. When I was 16, grammy was taken Home, yet still she visit from time to time and always watches over me.
Jean-Thomas walked always with the angels and though he is in Heaven he is also always here with us. A few months after he went Home I received a letter from a man looking for his family. He had a few names and dates and no one could help him. A little angel came to him and told him to write me. His names matched some of ours and I traced them to find we were cousins and our common grandparents. I sent him 4 generations and a picture of Jean-Thomas, yet told him nothing of the picture. I got an email within a day from him all excited. That's my angel! Who is he? I told him it is my son, gone to Heaven. We have been writing off and on ever since. This has happened many times. Right now Jean-Thomas is with dad, who is very sick, to help him Home across the Rainbow Bridge to Heaven.
On 9-11-2001 Jean-Thomas' picture turned as the buildings fell. Sarah was upset because she couldn't find him. A few days later a picture came out drawn by a young boy that survived 9-11 of Jesus above the buildings gathering the people and taking them Home. Sarah looked at that picture and smiled for next to Jesus stood Jean-Thomas gathering in the children. Every once in awhile his picture turns and Sarah looks and says Jean-Thomas has gone to help some folks Home and he will be back in a bit. Sarah is a gentle child and she too hears the spirits speak and often sees them. Always she hears and sees Jean-Thomas when he is here which is most the time.
RebeccaAnn

A sister-in-law gave my girlfriend and I an old dresser. It was not particularly attractive but with two teenagers we needed the storage space. It was brought over and placed inside the front door until space could be made for it. There is a small (not wide) wall between the kitchen and the front door and we placed it against the wall to be out of the passage. It could not be seen from the kitchen, however 1 of my 4 dogs became VERY upset immediately and raised his hackles and growled in that direction. This is a very mellow, friendly-to-everyone Labrador so his behaviour was extremely unlike him. In fact he is 9 years old now and that was the only time he has ever growled at anything or anyone. When the back door was open he ran out and absolutely refused to come back in the house - even for food (again...VERY unlike him). He continued to growl in the direction of the house and ran off when I tried to bring him in. Keep in mind he could not see the dresser, no shadows were cast from it that he could have seen and it was not bumped into the wall or scraped along the floor. The 3 other dogs had no reactions at all, but if you knew my canine crew that would not be a surprise, this one dog has always been a little special since he was a puppy.
Being people who don't discount the possibility of anything, and we are not only very close to our animals, but we also both work with animals so their behaviour is no mystery to us, we deduced that the problem must be the dresser. While the dog was still in the backyard (he could not have seen us) we removed the dresser to the end of our property until another home could be found for it. When the door was opened the dog returned with only a small amount of trepidation, and within moments was back to his normal self !
I don't know if this thing had an odour that my girlfriend and I could not detect and the dog could, but remember, the 3 other dogs (2 retrievers and a terrier) were oblivious to it's existance completely the whole time.
We will always believe that some presence had attached itself to this piece of furniture for some reason. I never did know it's history and it was given away to a charity so I don't know where it ended up. I only hope it is happy wherever it is !