Visits From Heaven. Josie Varga

Michael had died about a week before the testing. It was so odd, even for me, knowing that he had been there physically in January and now, six months later, he had joined his son.

      Right after the first testing when Michael went to his biker bar and shared with everyone about what had happened, he started doing things that were totally unlike him—which is often a tip-off that the person's soul knows that the transition to the afterlife is near. For instance, Michael had never used a computer in his life, but Patricia was to find a number of love poems and letters from him on the computer after his death. And two weeks before their thirtieth wedding anniversary, Michael had started saying things like, “If I don't make it to our anniversary, know how much I love you.” This was very out of character for Michael. It was revealed that Michael was now with his son Michael, Jr.

      Needless to say, when I turned around after the session to see it was Patricia, I was in shock knowing her husband Michael had just joined their son.

      After our session, she left to be read by John. I was finishing up with one more sitter when the next thing I knew John with Patricia and one of the facilitators came running over to me. John said to Patricia, “Tell Suzane what you just told me.” Patricia turned to me and said that when she was around John, she kept hearing the name Paul. Paul is my father's name, and he did the same thing as her husband Mike: worked on cars and was a car salesman as well.

      John and I looked at each other knowing, “That's two!” He had the validation of his deceased mother coming through Laurie, and now I had the validation of my father coming through Patricia and Michael. Both John's mom and my dad were playing their own tricks of the day from the Other Side and giving us two mediums our own personal validations pretty much on demand.

      And so our secret experiment within the afterlife experiments had been an unforgettable success. All of the experiences were evidence of the fact that love truly never dies. And not even death can stop us from connecting to the ones we love.

       About Suzane Northrop

      Suzane is a nationally recognized trance medium and an expert in physic phenomena. She can be seen on TV in the Afterlife with Suzane Northrop on OUT TV in Canada and HERE TV in the United States.

      She also hosts The Suzane Northrop Show on BlogTalk Radio.com. The author of A Medium's Cookbook: Recipes for the Soul; Second Chance: Healing Messages from the Afterlife; Everything Happens for a Reason and The Séance: Healing Messages from Beyond, Suzane is a faculty member of The Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. She has lectured extensively in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain and has appeared on several radio and television programs including an HBO documentary, “Life Afterlife,” Extra, Entertainment Tonight, MSNBC, Fox TV, The Bill O'Reilly Show, and the Discovery and History channels. For more information, visit her Web site at www.theseance.com.

       A Reunion with Grandma

       Raymond Moody, MD, PhD

       www.lifeafterlife.com

      Reprinted with permission from Reunions: Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones

      Ivy Books, Division of Random House

      I was sitting in a room alone when a woman simply walked in. As soon as I saw her, I had a certain sense that she was familiar, but the event happened so quickly that it took me a few moments to gather myself together and greet her politely. Within what must have been less than a minute, I realized this person was my paternal grandmother, who died some years before. I remember throwing my hands up toward my face and exclaiming, “Grandma!”

      At this point I was looking directly into her eyes, awestruck at what I was seeing. In a very kind and loving way she acknowledged who she was and addressed me with the nickname that only she had used for me when I was a child. As soon as I realized who this woman was, a flood of memories rushed into my mind. Not all of these were good memories. In fact many were distinctly unpleasant. Although my reminiscences of my maternal grandmother are positive, those with my father's mother were a different matter.

      One of the memories that rushed into my mind was the annoying habit she had of declaring, “This is my last Christmas!” She did that every holiday season for the last two decades of her life.

      She also constantly warned me when I was young that I could go to Hell if I violated any of God's many strictures—as she interpreted them of course. She once washed my mouth out with soap for having uttered a word of which she disapproved. Another time when I was a child, she told me in all seriousness that it was a sin to fly in airplanes. She was habitually cranky and negative.

      Yet, as I gazed into the eyes of this apparition, I quickly sensed that the woman who stood before me had been transformed in a very positive way. I felt warmth and love from her as she stood there and an empathy and compassion that surpassed my understanding. She was confidently humorous, with an air of quiet calm and joyfulness about her.

      The reason I had not recognized her at first was that she appeared much younger than she was when she died, in fact even younger than she had been when I was born. I don't remember having seen any photographs of her at the age she seemed to be during this encounter, but that is irrelevant here since it was not totally through her physical appearance that I recognized her. Rather, I knew this woman through her unmistakable presence and through the many memories we reviewed and discussed. In short this woman was my deceased grandmother. I would have known her anywhere.

      I want to emphasize how completely natural this meeting was. As with the other subjects who had experienced an apparitional facilitation, my meeting was in no way eerie or bizarre. In fact this was the most normal and satisfying interaction I have ever had with her.

      Our meeting was focused entirely on our relationship. Throughout the experience I was amazed that I seemed to be in the presence of someone who had already passed on, but in no way did this interfere with our interaction. She was there in front of me, and as startling as that fact was, I just accepted it and continued to talk with her.

      We discussed old times, specific incidents from my childhood. Throughout, she reminded me of several events that I had forgotten. Also she revealed something very personal about my family situation that came as a great surprise but in retrospect makes a great deal of sense. Due to the fact that the principals are still living, I have chosen to keep this information to myself. But I will say that her revelation has made a great deal of difference in my life, and I feel much better for having heard this from her.

      I say “heard” in an almost literal sense. I did hear her voice clearly, the only difference being that there was a crisp, electric quality to it that seemed clearer and louder than her voice before she died. Others who'd had this experience before me described it as telepathic or “mind-to-mind communication.” Mine was similar. Although most of my conversation was through the spoken word, from time to time I was immediately aware of what she was thinking, and I could tell that the same was true for her.

      In no way did she appear “ghostly” or transparent during our reunion. She seemed completely solid in every respect. She appeared no different from any other person except that she was surrounded by what appeared to be a light or an indentation in space, as if she were somehow set off or recessed from the rest of her physical surroundings.

      For some reason, though, she would not let me touch her. Two or three times I reached to give her a hug, and each time she put her hands up and motioned me back. She was so insistent about not being touched that I didn't pursue it.

      I have no idea how long this meeting lasted in clock time. It certainly seemed like a long time, but I was so engrossed in the experience that I didn't bother to look at