Life After Death - Mediums, Ghosts, Heaven or Nothing?

Like GrandtanteJE65 I'm a Christian and believe in a life after death, though not knowing all the details. I do believe that we'll see the people we've known and loved - probably some that we didn't love too, however that works out! I have wondered, in the light of advancing scientific knowledge, whether the afterlife might be on some alternative "dimension," but who knows. Never seen a ghost myself, but as children we lived in a Victorian cottage and my brother always maintained that the ghost of a little old man, dressed in brown, appeared regularly in his bedroom. He wasn't worried about this - my brother is not a nervous type - he just used to say sometimes that he'd seen the ghost again.

My eldest child when around 3 remarked passing a row of houses, there used to be fields here, then on visiting an old farmhouse sitting in the lounge she said there used to ne a big table in here, our friend who bought and modernised the house said my goodness yes this used to be the farmhouse kitchen. The next time was our middle child who was about the same age of 3 said the Soldier man came to see me again last night and told me stories about the war. We think it was the Brother of the owner. We passed it off but he says even now he remembers this. I do believe and pray that we have an after life.

I like to believe there is a life hereafter. When my then 10 year old son had a tumour (which thank Heaven, turned out to be benign) in his tibia , I remember consoling myself by thinking that whatever happened, I would see him again . That was such a dark time in my life 🥲 He is now 52 with a wife and 2 lovely girls.

I know there are ghosts as my late Dad visited me shortly after he died.

There is so much we do not, and cannot, understand. We are blind creatures - goodness, we only can see a tiny part, something like 0.05%, of the electromagnetic spectrum. To believe this world is all there is, is to me, well, surprising. I have seen and heard things that cannot be explained by 'science' and I have 'felt' things myself, that have turned out to be true. Unfortunately it's not always easy for the dead to come back and tell us they are still there - for a start we have to be open and able to perceive. Once someone enters the spirit world there is an immense complexity of experience, and a soul who was a total disbeliever in life might be too bewildered to 'get in touch'. Plus, time operates differently in the 'otherworld.' As to mediums, plenty are fake and unimpressive, but there are some good ones too.

Yes in some form or other

My husband when a very little boy was playing in his front garden. He looked up and saw his Auntie coming along the rod so he ran in to tell him Mum.

His Auntie had died in the night.

I believe that once one dies that’s it, you are no more than a lump of meat, I understand that my opinion might be a bit brutal for some people to embrace, but it’s what I feel 🤷‍♀️

I had a peculiar experience at Earls Court tube station in London during the late 1980s.

It was about 6 pm on a summer evening and my train had stopped to let people in and out. On the opposite platform was a man wearing a 1940s style long brown raincoat and a brown trilby hat. He seemed to be completely still and he looked 'wrong' somehow. When I looked again, he had vanished!

I don't believe in 'the other side'. I really don't think there is anything after death. Its just not scientific to believe there is. I believe people only live on in the memories of others. I stopped believing in God a long while ago.

I told my husband if I were to see him on the other side, I expect to see a young man in his thirties.

Many moons ago, I made the mistake of telling my husband’s cousin - a spiritualist that my grandfather was a spiritual healer and that I struggled to sleep due to menopause.

She told me I had ‘the gift’ and sent through the post sachets of camomile tea and a few mediation books which I read and practiced on.

Not long after that, my husband and daughter started having nightmares and I felt the presence of a a malevolent spirit in my house. At the same time, I started getting messages from the other side. The messages came thick and fast and I felt quite unwell.

Came to the realisation that becoming a medium is definitely not for me. I am a tee total, I do not even drink spirit let alone dabble in it.

I realised now that I was receiving messages about the pandemic ten years before it actually happened.

I definitely believe in life after death because of Jesus. He left heaven, was born on earth, lived, died and rose again from the dead and has promised that those who follow Him will, one day, be with Him. And in John 3 verse 16 it says that 'God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.' As a bible believing Christian I would never visit a medium as in both the old and new testament it is firmly forbidden.

About 15/16 years ago when walking the dogs in the woods early in the morning and not far from where we live I saw a ghost. I didn’t believe in them, I’m not very religious but I definitely saw a very old and very grey looking woman with very long hair. I could only see her from the waist up as she was in the middle of some bushes. I stood and looked for a few seconds before walking on but almost immediately I turned back to have another look and she was just there looking straight at me. It wasn’t anyone I knew.

Most days you’d see lots of people walking, jogging but that morning I was the only person in that part of the woods. Like the old woman standing absolutely still watching me everything was grey and misty, a horrible day. I don’t think I have ever moved so quickly in all my life and legged it out of the woods as I realised that I had just seen a ghost.

jesus spoke to his heavenly ghost father,his mother was a virgin,abraham,moses etc etc probably most other religions founders quoted similar events, were they mediums?

Nope
I'd like to think there's something more, but realistically, no.

I would like to think there is ... not had any experiences myself other than a lot of unexplained deja-vu when I as a teenager.

However, my daughter committed suicide in the house in November 2022. One of my dogs stayed with her that night for 14 hours, in fact it was the fact that he hadn't been down for his breakfast or a wee that made us go up there - he didn't make a sound, but when I am unwell, he alerts by barking, trying to get someone to come and help me. Before she left the house we took the dogs up to say goodbye - the one that had stayed with her sniffed and licked her ear and then left, the other just rolled over nowhere near her wanting her belly tickled ... after that they didn't really go upstairs - until one day several months later when she disappeared one morning, and only noticed as I wondered where she was. I called her and she came down the stairs. Later that evening she vanished again, so I went to the bottom of the stairs and she came and just sat at the top, and wouldn't come down, but kept looking towards the door of my daughter's bedroom which was open. She did this for about 5 minutes so I told her it was okay and left her. She didn't come back downstairs for around an hour. THAT was weird ... and has never been repeated

A few times in the evenings though they have quite spooked me - once she was on my knee and suddenly shot off and stood next to me shaking and terrified, and he was scared too, and another time I got jumped upon in the middle of the night nearly giving me heart failure as she again was shaking and terrified. My other daughter said 'tell C to stop messing about', but I am certain that they wouldn't of been frightened by her as she loved them dearly, but dogs and cats are very perceptive - so, I just don't know?

I believe in “something “ after death. My late husband definitely did not. However, since he passed away my three daughters and I have been the recipients of way over 100 dimes from him. Many of them were dramatic- the one I remember most was in a hospital’s Emergency Room. I had checked in and then sat down to wait my turn. There were about 60 seats to choose from. It turned out that the one I had sat in had a dime on the arm rest.
This is a real phenomenon- please Google it if you are curious

Yes I believe in ghosts as have seen one. Also been to a medium who was very accurate and knew things without me having to prompt him. He didn't even know my name so couldn't have done any prior research. I see a spiritual healer regularly and she is incredible.

Interesting thread, and glad to see that most of us are open minded, not dismissive. I don't believe in life after death as in heaven and angels and such, but I do think that we all have some sort of innate 'sixth sense' or similar which is trained out of us as we grow up, thus the many incidents on here of children, who haven't supressed this sensitivity, talking of events and places which are previously unknown to them. I do like the theory of time being a man made system, and some of us seeing a glimpse of another time level. I do not have this ability or 'gift' but some people do.

All of the above...and experienced all ,except the charlatans....

I have never seen a medium, never seen a ghost and I don't believe in life after death. However, if I do see a ghost or find out after I'm gone that I was wrong then I am happy to be corrected.

Reading the new posts today, I was struck by the fact that quite a few of you have experienced children talking about their former lives, who stop doing so at around the age of five.

I saw "people who were not there" (ghosts) when I was three or four. Around the age of five, this stopped, or perhaps I had just learned not to talk about it, as I do remember often feeling frightened in strange places and not telling anyone because I was afraid they would not believe me. I had been accused of "making up stories", in other words telling lies.

When I was thirteen the ability to see or sense past events in places or foretell the future started again. I learned not to tell other people about this, as they tended either to treat me as a liar, or even worse, want me to foretell the future, which I cannot do on command.

This ability has cropped up quite frequently during my adult life, but here have also been long periods where it has been absent.

I cannot say whether small children remember their former lives or not, but I can believe that around five they either stop remembering, or stop talking about it.

I have seen things I can’t explain so possibly there’s something but I definitely don’t have any faith or belief in the afterlife.
A convent education dinned into me hellfire and purgatory, especially for all of us who weren’t RC - any hint of a question meant detention or worse.
And unfortunate encounters with hypocritical church goers finished off religion for me some years ago.

I always insisted I didn't believe in mediums but, a few years ago I was persuaded by a friend to see one following the death of my husband and father
When I sat down the first thing she asked me 'did you bring your Dad with you today?'. When I told her I was alone she described 'the man' in my car, which could have been my Dad. When she asked if I knew anyone by the Christian name
...... I said I knew 3 people with the name (one was my late DH) and she told me that this ...... wasn't hapoy that I was wearing 'big knickers'!! This shocked me as, on that day, I was wearing a pair of boxer type pants, whereas my DH had always bought me really fancy bikini/thong types! He would definitely have commented on my 'big pants'. I came away after an hour feeling quite shocked at the amount of things she told me that were true. I had never met the lady and lived nowhere near her, so just can't explain how she could know the things she did.

This is a fascinating thread, and there are several things that align to my thinking, and religion.
First as a Jew we are warned not to visit a medium, like the lady who said the Bible also forewarned about this. So I’m not going to see one either.
Secondly the lady who said that time as we understand it may not be the same as an after life , or one where a G-d exists in. We believe our soul continues after we die. I understand this as an essence, or molecule. I don’t understand how we can have our senses, or a brain in the afterlife because we can’t have a physical presence. My husband says we may well have those things- but I’m a bit sceptical. I’ve tried to look for a better understanding- but I don’t think we are supposed to know these answers! I hope that there is something to come.
I too have had some extraordinarily experiences, and do feel that some of us are more sensitive to these things.
I’ve been extremely ill, and we bought a puppy from a recommended pet shop. We went on a cruise, and the puppy was staying with a friend. While we were at sea, in the Baltic, at about 6.00 a.m. I woke up suddenly with a feeling my puppy was on my chest. It wasn’t a dream , it was a very real intense sensation. His heart was pumping slowly and then stopped. I felt him die. About an hour or so later, my friend sent me a message to say that my puppy was very ill. He died shortly after. I had no realisation that he was ill beforehand.
If so many people have had some sort of experience, then I take that as a positive to there being something after we die. Scientists or doctors will tell you there is no proof, but surely there are some things you cannot measure??