Jo
Kinchington, Guest Blogger 7 April 2012
Title: Heaven and the Afterlife?
Any of you
ever watch Ghost hunters or Paranormal State or any of those other popular
shows that explore whether or not we have contact with others AFTER we are
dead? I know, I know, a lot of you, and myself most of the time, figure it’s
all just made up. I have to agree, on
the shows, anyway, there is no clear way to tell whether or not what is
happening is genuine....
I recently
read a book titled “Encountering Heaven and the Afterlife” written by James
Garlow and Keith Wall. I got the book at
first because it was a free Kindle download, but also, because I, like some of
you, have often wondered about the Afterlife.
The book is a compilation of experiences of people with the afterlife,
those who have had Near Death Experiences and those who feel they were contacted
by a close friend or family member after they had passed away. Garlow also points out that although the
Bible seems to confirm the ability of spirits to interact with the living after
death, it also cautions us never to SUMMON a spirit, which can be dangerous.
Now, I am of the Christian faith and I fully
believe there IS an afterlife, in heaven, but I have often thought about being
able to be contacted by family after they have died. That being said, I have had a couple of
experiences myself that I think about often.
The first
experience was about 20 years ago. My
(then) husband who was in the Army, had gone ahead of us to his next post, I
had stayed behind to let the kids finish school. I was sleeping on a twin mattress in our
living room floor, so I could hear the kids in their bedrooms if they needed me
in the night. One night I woke up to someone, or something, pushing my face
down into the mattress. It was very
frightening, and I began to panic. A
couple seconds later the pressure was released and I felt someone stroking my
face and telling me everything would be okay…I saw no one, but I knew in my
heart the voice was that of my Grandmother, who had passed away years
before. The second experience followed closely on the
first, again, I awoke to hear my grandmother whispering my name in my ear and
saying all would be well…I remember even feeling the warmth of her breath.
So, right,
sounds crazy? Maybe it is. Or maybe I just miss her so much I imagine it
all… I have had a few experiences since
then, the most recent being last week. I
was in the office and one of my volunteers was standing with her back to the
door and talking to me as I faced the door.
I saw someone come in behind her and at the same time I saw this person,
my volunteer was turning around as she felt someone behind her. She looked back and me and said, “Did you see
that”…and I had…
I know that
we can easily explain away all of these experiences as dream states or shared
hallucinations, just as Near Death Experiences can be explained away by the by
products of a dying brain…however, it has always been odd to me that all Near
Death Experiences seem to be pretty much the same despite different cultural,
language and religious backgrounds.
So, that’s
my thought for today. I’d like to hear
from all of you, have you ever had any experiences such as mine? What do you think about the whole issue of
life after death?
Wow thank you so much for sharing this amazing post. Those are some most interesting experiences. I believe in unusual phenomenom myself. In fact we lived in a house that was haunted then burned when I was a child. It was of evil so I believe it could have been a demon or something along those lines.
