Supernatural experiences - do you believe?

When my grandmother died suddenly 40 years ago my heart was broken and has never really mended. I have always wondered why she hasn't come back to me to tell me she's okay not to be sad but it hasn't happened. Even though I think there's more to life than we know I just want to see her once more and then my sadness might go.

I want to warn that, when people die, they don’t suddenly become sweet angels. If they were angelic on earth then their souls will go that angelic plain. That’s what is meant by Jesus when he talks about many mansions. There are some ‘not so nice’ people who pass over, so best not to mess with the occult. Sons who died in WWI often found ways to let their parents know they were still existing. Anyway I try to be good so I’ll go to a nice mansion. I pray for my forgiveness and try to do better. I know it sounds childish, but unless ye become as little children...... that means childlike...not childish. Hold fast to that which is good! Xx

Folk do have experiences that convince them but the Koestler Institute (which studies ad investigates the paranormal) has never found any evidence they cannot explain.

Penelope, how do you know what Jesus meant? My own interpretation of "many mansions" is nothing to do with a supernatural order of being.

Alexa, the afterlife for an aetheist is not one I’d recommend.

i disagree. i am a christian .attend church regulary. ordainary person.yet i see people who are not meant to be there .take my grandma i was aged 13 and a half.(ok puberty age .yes i know what you going to say) my grandma appeared to me in my bedroom.me i was scared and hid under the blankets .(most kids do). when i looked again she was still there ,and smiled and waved her funny wave.and i felt warm all over ,then i got up and rushed into my mum and dads bedroom ,saying grandma is in my room. dont talk daft says mum .dad says really? yes says me she waving her funny wave, oh go back to bed .says mum you dreaming.next morning schoool .half way through morning my brother (went to same school) came up to me and tells me grandma died this morning..i was stunned/shocked/upset. but i knew i had seen her the night before.. dont give me that they dont exist: spirits do exist.!! i have seen people at stately homes that have walked through a garden wall(gate was once there) and a medieval man walk past my friend and i at bodium castle(he was in full armour) ,when we turned to see him he had vanished in a field that was at least a mile from the exit..two of us saw him ,and we both saw he was no-where in sight .hampton court i have smelt the perfume and seen anne bolyn ,she wore peach perfume .i asked a helper there what the smell was as it was lovely and she said anne bolyn wore it .yeah right says me. its air freshener right? .no she says not many people smell that .and the cold in the corridor to the bed chamber .this was nov 2017 i took my usa penpal there..it was freezing in the bedroom apartments. no said the guide its all one temperature. yet he could clearly see the goosebumps on my arms....and i could clearly see someone sitting on the end of the bed..so no way can you tell me that spirits do not exist.

maybe you should PRAY to your grandmother. maybe that will give you some peace. maybe she found her loved ones again .maybe she so happy that she doesnt want to bother you and make contact with earthly things again. she does love you and await the snow drops near the apples trees.

Marjgran, I was a subject for an experiment at the Edinburgh university (Koestler) parapsychology place and the result was inconclusive. More precisely, there was no statistical correlation. I think this is what always happens to their experiments. Sorry, Arthur Koestler, coincidences are just coincidences.

That is do strange about the arm round the shoulder. My brother to whom I was very close, has several times seemed to put his arm round me, I wasn’t thinking specially about him at that minute, but it has been indescribably comforting, the warmth has stayed with me, it’s wonderful. I have also felt the closeness of one of my aunts, whom I loved dearly,and others too. Always these experiences have been entirely unexpected and positive in that I don’t fear death. I am sure they could all be explained away, but each has been as real and warm as their presence in life, and I am so grateful.

Alexa, the afterlife for an aetheist is not one I’d recommend.

It's deplorable a religionist would threaten an unbeliever in that way.

PS But maybe EndlessStrife was jonly joking

I would put rustling from a corner of a room down to mice!!!

When I was a child the family went to stay with my mother’s cousin who lived in an old Manor House in Suffolk. The bedroom my parents slept in had two doors opposite one another. My mother said during the night one door opened and shut and then the opposite one opened and shut. Our cousin said that was the ghost. A few years later I went to stay there and was put in the same bedroom and the same thing happened .

I am aware of things... I used yo read the tarot and it was like words going around my head and me randomly picking them. I could do a host strangers cards and know things I really had no way of knowing about them. I will say that I never ever charged anyone for reading their cards. I am also aware of spirits. My children are as well My ex was as well If the Universe was a sandy beach the earth is but a grain of sand in it....fact. We do not know what is out there.

A dear friend was given just a few weeks to live. As her time approached I had a very vivid dream in which she was waving me goodbye. I woke up waving to her. I was convinced that she had died in the night and told my husband of my fears. She hadn’t died and she lived for several more weeks. My point is, had she died that night I would have been convinced that it was the result of a supernatural power instead of which it would simply have been a coincidence, as many of the stories we read here are. I remain a non believer in all forms of an after life.

“Proof of Heaven” is a book written by Eben Alexander,a neurosurgeon who died and came back. Interesting to read what he experienced.
What has always boggled me is that people believe Jesus died and was resurrected but yet they don’t believe in ghosts.

I guess we all believe in something different Alexa. In my head a belief in God and belief in life after death are inseparable but I respect others will have different opinions.
My Dad, like myself, was brought up as a Welsh Methodist, and whilst he claimed to have completely rejected it I suspect maybe a little bit of what he was brought up to believe in still remained deep down.

I do not belong to any religion and I do not believe you have to belong to a church organisation to appreciate the wonders of the world we live in. I too have had spiritual experiences concerning my late husband, and before he died he along with myself experienced strange happenings in our small, relatively modern house. Since he died my daughter and myself have spoken to various mediums and mostly they convey information relevant to my husband before she or myself have uttered a word!! We are both highly educated and grounded individuals.

I do believe in the paranormal and have myself experienced several strong premonitions. However I am prepared to believe that there is often a strong element of coincidence involved or subconscious thought triggered by an outside source. As for ghosts appearing to some people, I have always thought that this phenomenon is more to do with the person seeing the ghost or experiencing poltergeist activity. I certainly don't believe that ghosts are hanging around in a bored state, waiting to frighten some unsuspecting visitor. A more likely explanation is some sort of photo-magnetic 'memory' of an event or person which for some reason is perceived by a living person. Hopefully in years to come such things will be explained by science.

HettyMaud the fact that you love your grandmother so much is surely a sign that she is there. What better sign can there be but love? How lovely she must have been for you to feel like this all these years later. I am quite sure she is alright. Death is so much harder for the ones left behind. I believe that in heaven there is no such thing as time, so when you two are reconciled, it'll be like the blink of an eye for her timewise.

During the First World War there were several occasions when mothers reported that they had seen their ‘dead’ sons after they had been told that they had been killed. But eventually their sons came home alive as the parents had been given wrong information. The human brain is so mysterious

If we experience ‘something’ then it is real to us.
Many things are unexplainable.
Although it would be better if we had some ‘proof ‘ there never seems to be any. .... but for me the fact that we can describe the incident & talk about it gives it meaning & truth.

I am a Christian, and I know that the Bible forbids us to have anything to do with spiritualism, but my own Grandmother had second sight. I worried that this "gift" would pass to me when she died, as we were very close (it didn't). However, when I was 15, and grandma was still alive, while chatting at the dinner table about her (she lived elsewhere at this time) I said "Grandma always was a good cook, even when Grandad was alive". He was in hospital at this time, but not considered to be in any danger. I was very upset and had no idea why I had said this at all. Later that day, a Policeman came to tell us that he had passed away - we didn't have a phone and lived in a small village. Yes, he died around the time of our mid-day meal! Since then, I've had several experiences, both hearing things and seeing things. I do believe that in some cases, spirits can linger. I would never visit a Medium, though. I think many are fake, but there are genuine people with genuine gifts.

I absolutely love this thread. People who don't experience the inexplicable seem very quick to explain others' experiences away. And it's not true that things don't exist just because you can't prove them. Who can explain the following? My grandmother died on a Christmas day when I happened to be on holiday in Africa with my husband. When I went back to work in the new year, my good friend who sat opposite me, asked me if I'd had a nice time. "Yes it was good, but I'm very unhappy because my grandma died on Christmas day," I told her. Her eyes widened and her face went as white as a sheet, then she covered her face with her hands. "What's wrong?" I asked, feeling concerned. "Last night I dreamt that you were coming down the steps of the plane, and you told me that your grandmother had died." I was completely shocked as there was absolutely no way she could have heard this news except through me. She didn't know my grandmother either or have any contact with any of my family. While we were both trying to find the right words, she told me "My aunty has 'the gift', but I don't want it!" By gift she meant the ability to know things about people without prior knowledge. It is one of the strangest things to have happened to me, but my mother has a whole host of stories, including one of bi-location (of a living person)! We should never have the arrogance to think we know and can explain everything. I think a bit of mystery is good for us all!

There's a strange thing. Just after I wrote my post, I read the one before (CBBL) which is also talking about the 'gift'. Looks like we posted a minute apart! Coincidence? Or something else! Oh, and also talking about grandparents.