The United Kingdom really knows how to rock the whole Spiritualism thing. In Part 1 of my Mediumship in the UK series, platform medium Marion Hover shares a bit about her background with Spiritualism, two very cool experiences involving her mediumship, and her work with development circles and the Ouija.
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Hear Karen Burton recount some powerful dreams, including those that just may be visits from our deceased loved ones. Learn how she interprets these dreams, and how you can too!
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The Big Seance Podcast can be found right here, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, Google Play Music, and iHeart Radio. Please subscribe, submit a rating, or share with a fellow paranerd! Do you have any comments or feedback? Please contact me at Patrick@BigSeance.com. Consider recording your voice feedback directly from your device on my SpeakPipe page! You can also call the show and leave feedback at (775) 583-5563 (or 7755-TELL-ME). I would love to include your voice feedback in a future show. The candles are already lit, so come on in and join the séance!
I’ve never been big on dream interpretation, and I don’t always recall my dreams, but my soul/subconscious/guides sure know how to fill the void with experiences that I long for in the waking world. This is true for when I’m on a diet and I dream about peanut butter cups, but it’s also true in a deeper sense, like my passion for spirit communication and the paranormal. Do you know what I mean?
Last night I believe I had the fourth or fifth dream that I can recall having to do with seeing the apparition of a ghost. I’m not including spirit visits in that statement, though two of those may be questionable, as I’m not sure if they were just a dream or some kind of message from spirit visitors. No, what I’m talking about now is clearly a dream, where I’m minding my own business, or going through my normal daily life (in a dream, anyway), and suddenly I’m allowed to experience the amazing high of seeing the apparition of a ghost before my eyes. There has never been anything like it in any other dream that I’ve had. It’s an amazing feeling!
In last night’s dream, I was apparently seeking out a spirit. This is usually not the case. I was with my father, and we were investigating what seemed to be the abandoned basement of some large building. As far as I know, this location is purely fictional, but imagine a place like Belvoir Winery (the abandoned sections), or an equally creepy large and abandoned facility. I was leading the way with my father behind me, and I had absolutely no fear of my surroundings. I was on a mission, and that mission was to find evidence or proof of a specific male entity’s presence. Suddenly ahead of me, through the debris and the shadows, I saw what seemed to be a person way ahead of me, crossing in and out of the beam of my flashlight. I remember nonchalantly saying something like, “That’s weird. Someone is in here”, as if I wouldn’t have been frightened of a real person hiding or being with us in a dark and abandoned basement. We kept moving forward, and I expressed to my dad how disappointed I was going to be if I didn’t get some kind of evidence of this spirit that we were looking for. Suddenly, the full and solid figure of a human, down to the face and the clothing, was standing in front of me, again in the beam of my flashlight. You have to ignore the fact that in waking life my fight or flight would have kicked in by this point. Clearly, it would be frightening to find that a stranger is in the dark with you in an abandoned building. Remember–this is just a dream. So my brain was clearly not registering what I was seeing, as it appeared to be just a solid person… completely normal. Excuse me sir, we’re trying to find a ghost here. My dad said something like “Well what do you think you’re looking at? This is what you came for!” It was, indeed, the spirit of the person we came for. And as soon as I realized that, the amazing rush happened… and I woke up.
In real life I’ve never seen an apparition. At least I don’t think so. Do we always know? In a recent dream, one that I had about Miss Owen (who is now a celebrity to my students at school), I was given a sketch of an apparition–a sketch of a moment in time that I was present for. So for that one, I proved that even in a dream I can miss the opportunity to see an apparition with my own eyes!
It is only in recent generations that we began to think of apparitions as being translucent or cloudy visual representations of spirit, and I think Hollywood has helped with that. I blogged about another dream in which I witnessed an amazing translucent apparition crossing the road. But this has been the first dream in which the apparition was solid and looked just like you or I would. It was mind-blowing.
I’m a paranormal blogger, experimenter, and now podcaster. I’m fascinated by spirit communication. My mind is nearly always immersed in thoughts of the paranormal. You would think that I’ve had tons of paranormal experiences. I have not. Oh I’ve sat in dark rooms for hours and waited. I’ve attempted to spark a conversation with unseen spirits in an abandoned farmhouse by myself… in the dark. I’ve watched a motionless planchette on a Ouija board. I’ve studied and tried channeling (it’s supposed to be so easy!) I’ve analyzed hundreds of hours of audio and video, shooting down possible EVP and strange phenomena that don’t convince me. And yes, I’ve gotten a few crazy EVPs. I’ve had a few psychic moments. I recently blogged about a very early fuzzy memory that stands out and could possibly have ghostly significance (but I may never know). I’ve even been grabbed in my sleep by a hand that quickly disappeared. I’ve had fun, but I want to see an apparition! Where is mine?! Bring it!
Is this why I have these dreams? Is this God’s way of giving me some of what I need to keep me going while I wait? Sigh…
Me going down the steps of the abandoned farmhouse. (Thank GOD my dad tried it first!)
One of the books I’ve been reading this summer is My Son and the Afterlife: Conversations from the Other Side by Elisa Medhus, MD. If you’ve ever visited ChannelingErik.com, that’s Elisa. Much of the book comes from the site, which she started not only to work through her grieving, but to serve as a place to share the channeled messages that she received from her son Erik, who committed suicide in 2009. These channeled messages come mostly from Erik’s spirit communicator (medium), Jamie Butler.
I was introduced to ChannelingErik.com two or three years ago, and was immediately blown away and overwhelmed with the wealth of information and transcribed sessions between Elisa, Jamie, and Erik. In fact, one of my very first blog posts featured the site. For many, the site is controversial, and you’ll find several sites expressing skeptical opinions about it all. Elisa herself claims to have gone from skeptic to believer because of this whole journey. If you know me, you know I can’t NOT doubt a bit when I read things like this, but who wouldn’t want this to be authentic and real? I do my best to keep my ego and somewhat analytical mind in the corner while I read his messages, and I find them fascinating!
As I said, the blog itself is a bit overwhelming… and that’s perhaps why I haven’t been a regular reader in a long time. But I’ve really enjoyed the book so far. Having it all organized in book form has really been helpful to me. After giving some background and describing the tragic moments that changed the family’s life forever, Elisa goes right into what I can only assume is a kind of “best of” from Erik. At the moment I’m only halfway through the book, but so far Erik has given answers to most of the typical questions that people wonder about the Afterlife.
I don’t know why this fascinated me so much, but I immediately thought to blog on it when I read it. It’s so simple, really.
Elisa asked Erik how it was possible for him, or spirits in general I suppose, to create smells, good or bad, so that we on Earth notice or sense them. Erik has been known to be a jokester, and so he apparently will often create “rank sock smells”, for example.
He answered by saying “everything has an energy formula on Earth, so I just replicate that energy formula, and I put it in that space.” So stop to think about the energy formula that your perfume or cologne is made up of, or even something we see as solid, like your desk or coffee cup. He says that what we end up sensing or smelling doesn’t actually exist. It’s just the energy formula that we’re sensing.
And do you know what I instantly thought of? It made me think of binary code, or the 1s and 0s used in computer programming, and even the recording of CDs. When would I ever think about or even try to understand binary code? A recording in a .wav or mp3 file, or from a CD playing, can potentially put me in a kind of euphoric state, or make me cry, or transport me to another world. The music and the orchestra isn’t sitting here in my room or living in my headphones, but the code is. So when I stop to think about it now, I totally get it. I mean, I don’t think it’s a concept that we’ll ever completely understand until we get such knowledge and experience on the Other Side, but I’m beginning to process it.
Whether you choose to believe all of this or not, isn’t it truly fascinating when you think about it? Or… am I just a nerd? One of my earliest readers and blogging friends, Ashley, knows a lot about Erik and the CE site, and she created the Facebook group for fans and readers of ChannelingErik.com. I hope she chimes in! *HINT HINT*
This message is for Erik, if he’s reading. I know you’ve been known to visit and play tricks on many of the visitors and readers of ChannelingErik.com. I’ve made the request before, but I’m sure you’re busy. Consider this a formal invitation to bug the hell out of me for experimental purposes! Bring it. And I’ll keep everyone posted.
Peace!
On that day, I had been teaching in a room that wasn’t mine. Occasionally, weird schedule things happen at school, like someone having to use my larger room to photograph groups for the yearbook, or sometimes I end up subbing for another teacher on my plan period. As a middle school teacher, you learn to roll with things like this. So for part of that day, the kids and I were in a more traditional classroom that is very different from the two rooms that I call home when I’m at school.
At the end of the day, a student from one of those earlier classes dropped by to hand me a very nice looking piece of artwork… a beautifully detailed sketch. She was on her way to the bus, so in a rush I thanked her for the gift that was clearly the result of a lot of time and patience… and heart.
For every year, I keep a folder with the title “Treasures” written on the tab, and I knew that this sketch was going in. One of my professors in undergrad suggested I do this, and so right now I have twelve of them, one for every year. Each one is stuffed with various awkwardly shaped items, and so at this point they take up almost an entire drawer of my large file cabinet.
After the halls cleared and the buses were leaving, I got a better look at the sketch as I was walking back toward my office. There I was. Though it was a cartoony version of myself, it was a perfect likeness. It was from the perspective of this student from earlier in the day in the other teacher’s classroom. I was behind the desk in the front corner of the room. The details were amazing. Everything from that room was in this drawing. What made it really special were the words, similar to those wordle things that are so popular now, that were creatively added around me on the paper. These words represented qualities that this student sees (I’m assuming) in me, such as “kind”, “compassion”, “funny”, “music”, etc. Seeing this made my heart melt in one of those moments that any teacher experiences when they receive a gift like this. But I do remember thinking, it’s too bad the setting of this sketch wasn’t in one of our own music classrooms. Ah well. Good kid.
I opened the top file cabinet drawer and was just about to file it in “Treasures 13-14”, when something caught my attention. There was a detail from the sketch that I had completely missed. Are you kidding me? In the opposite corner of the front of the room, as if in the shadows, this student had drawn an older woman standing out of the way. She wasn’t a part of any of the activity going on in the room. She was merely present, though she appeared to have watchful eyes. There was NO older woman present with us in that classroom earlier! The hairs immediately stood up on my neck and arms, and a chill went through my entire body. I recognized those eyes. I recognized the hair. No. It couldn’t be! Or could it? The older woman appeared to be the late Verna Marie Owen, better known as Miss Owen, from several of my recent blogs.
Was my mind playing tricks on me? Did I just have a strange, yet creative student? (She certainly wouldn’t be the first!) Or does she simply have an exceptional ability that most do not? Was this her way of letting me know that a certain someone was keeping an eye on our learning activities? Cool! No… creepy. Both!
I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and fumbled for my glasses. It was close to 5am. Though I added a few creative details to keep you reading, most of this dream was typed out in a simple note on my iPhone… from what I remember.
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“So, I had this dream…” (The Voices Blog)
Why did the full-blown apparition cross the road? (Big Séance)
The Hand That Rocks Your Dreams (Big Séance)
Being Able To Read In Your Dreams (Big Séance)
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Me at work in the classroom… about a decade ago.
My sixth grade choir students were in their performance spots on the risers. With me on the floor in front of them, they were focused and listening to my instructions. With our concert coming up next week, we’ve recently been doing our best to be in a serious and focused place during rehearsals. In plain English… we’re seriously cramming!
Now push pause and briefly travel back in time with me. Let’s travel back three blog posts ago, as I shared both my frustration with the lack of paranormal experiences lately, and my thankfulness for the “completely normal” things in my life. I suppose that was a little whiny request thrown out into the ether. Again in plain English… I asked for it.
Now back to my kiddos on the risers. They really were focused… and so was I. Midway through one of my sentences, I felt someone right behind me waiting to get my attention. I heard something (I don’t remember exactly what it was) very close to my left ear, as if someone was interrupting me (rudely) or needed something. It’s middle school. Rude interruptions and chaos happens all the time. I didn’t think anything of it and turned around, probably a little frustrated, and said “Yes?” I ended up doing a double take and made a complete turn, checking to make sure a choir nerd wasn’t hiding behind me or playing a prank. Absolutely no one was there. I was a bit embarrassed and turned back around to find my choir staring at me in silence. Old Mr. Keller is just losing his mind. I wish I could have captured the looks on their faces for eternity. We all had quite a giggle. I said something like “Well, I guess we have a ghost today.” Many of my students know I’m also a paranormal nerd, and so they giggled and we moved on.
As soon as that class left and I was eating lunch, it all hit me. The evening before this event was when I blogged about my research on Miss Verna Owen in my previous post. She was a teacher in my hometown who taught for 50 years and died in 1986 at the age of 90. The connection started when I realized I own two of her high school yearbooks from the 1920s. She had been on my mind a lot in the last few days. Just that morning at school, I kept relating all of the days activities to how it would have been for her in the 1920s… or the 30s… or the 40s (and gosh, she taught all the way into the 60s). During my morning drive I thought, Miss Owen would have walked to school in those early days. While helping students with typical middle school “issues”, I thought, I wonder how similar these issues are to those in Miss Owens’ class? And what would she have done?
So after that goose bumpy moment, and after some thought, I’ve decided that I just may have had a visit from Miss Owen. Who knows? The very next day, I told the story to my kids. They were fascinated, and now, of course, we’ve had several Miss Owen moments. Not really, but it sure lightens the mood when Mr. Keller is more likely to be cranky and stressed before concert time. Thanks, Miss Owen! Stop by any time…
I am just about finished with Heavenly Hugs: Comfort, Support, and Hope From the Afterlife by Carla Wills-Brandon, PhD. The author mostly discusses and tells stories of Departing Visions, which are often witnessed when a person is close to death (usually within hours). A common example of this would be when the dying person sees a long dead relative and begins speaking to them. Many believe these visitors are there to comfort the dying or even to help them cross over.
But a portion of this book also discusses Afterlife Visitations, and so today I feel inspired to share an experience that my father has talked about many times.
Grandpa Keller holding my dad as a baby.
When I was very little, my dad used to go to work with my Grandpa Keller for a while, and grandpa would come by our house at around 2:30 or 3 in the morning to pick him up. My dad says that you could always hear his old beat up truck with a loud muffler outside when he arrived. Often when my dad was late or if he slept in, my grandpa would get out of the truck and knock loudly on their bedroom window to get him up and going. Well when I was 3 years old, my Grandpa Keller died. Several weeks or a month after that, my mom and dad were woken up in those same early morning hours one spring or summer night. What woke my dad was what he says sounded like grandpa’s loud truck. All of a sudden there were loud bangs on the bedroom window, followed by the sound of the loud truck taking off down the road. My mom says she definitely remembers hearing the banging on the window and feeling shocked or stunned. Dad threw on some pants and took off out the front door to see who was there. No one was there. And he claims that even though you could still hear the truck taking off down the road, there were no lights and no truck to be seen.
Grandpa Keller
I don’t have many memories from this time, and I definitely don’t remember this event, but I love to hear my dad recalling it.
Bill Maher and Near Death Experiences (Big Séance)
Carla Wills-Brandon
Today I listened to an interview of the author, Carla Wills-Brandon, regarding her expertise in the area of deathbed or departing visions. This is when the dying begin seeing or communicating with spirits, entities, or passed loved ones that the living can’t see (in most cases). These very real visions have been known to comfort the dying, and in some cases it is an invitation for them to go ahead and cross over. This specific topic doesn’t always hold my attention, but I thought the author was fascinating. What makes her more interesting is that she is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She is the author of twelve books, but several of them are related to deathbed visions and/or the afterlife. She had great energy and seemed to really know her stuff. I could have listened to her speak all day and I plan on grabbing at least one of her books. You can find more information about Carla in the related article below.
I’m curious… do my readers have any experiences with deathbed visions? Did the dying feel reassured or comforted by the visit? Were you aware of just who was joining or assisting them? I feel we can probably learn a lot from them. Some believe they are merely hallucinations. What are your thoughts?
I’d love to share an experience, if I had one… Please share yours! 🙂
Deathbed Visions (Stephen Wagner, paranormal.about.com)
I suppose I need to add the category of “Dreams” to the right, since I’ve posted several times recently about them. One of my first posts ever was regarding a dream that may have actually been a spirit visit from one of my Great Grandmothers. Then there was the incredibly random apocalypse dream with the massive amount of fire that was strangely pleasant, rather than burning. I’ve been seeing signs, sketches, names, and reading in my dreams… just more vivid in general I suppose.
And then… there are those nightmare-like dreams that I don’t usually have. To tell you the truth (crazy or not), I’m not even entirely sure that the experience I am getting ready to tell you about was really a dream. Let me back up…
Around three weeks ago in my paranerdal update post I told you that something had definitely visited me around 3am a few nights before. To my knowledge I was not dreaming, or at least don’t recall one. I simply woke up with a racing heartbeat and a very uncomfortable feeling from a “charge” in the air. I don’t really know how else to explain how I just knew something was with me. I also heard a few soft popping sounds. Not wanting to wake anyone else up, I stared wide-eyed for a while before turning on the audio recorder on my phone while still in bed. I never saw anything. There were no shadows or slamming doors. And, my recording came up empty other than a few of those popping noises. It took me a while to get back to sleep that night.
That was three weeks ago. Now, cut to about six nights ago. Part of this new dream may or may not have been in a dreamlike state. If it was a dream, then I was sleeping in bed during it. Confusing, right? In my dream (or not) I had been awakened by that same crazy “charged” feeling with heart racing. I knew immediately what it meant. Something was incredibly close. In fact, from off the side of my bed, I was shoved by a hand that came out of nowhere. How can I be sure it was a hand? Being the investigator that I am, I instinctively grabbed for whatever was there… and yup, it was a hand. Cue the same wide-eyed stare with heart racing. I didn’t look at the clock this time. And we had visitors in our guest bedroom, so I didn’t say anything or get up to investigate. Once again, it took a while to get back to sleep that night.
So… my feeling is that whether or not I was dreaming about the presence of a hand shoving me, something was definitely with me and messing with me. It was the exact same feeling both times. I immediately recognized it. Either that or being fat and incredibly out of shape is causing me to have heart attack symptoms in the middle of the night. I often sleep on my left side. Isn’t that supposed to be bad? Is there a doctor in the house?
Now, before I hear from several of you about how I need to cleanse the house or meditate and visualize all the light and love, etc… I’m sitting with this one for a while. It’s not that I’m excited or want to encourage it. I’m just going to watch and investigate this one a bit. I can’t say much, but I may have an idea about where this one came from. Don’t judge me.
Anyone have similar experiences?
I don’t remember my dreams often. When I do it is usually either on the weekends when I’m able to sleep longer, or those rough nights where you only get in a few hours of sleep before having to be up again. But recently I’ve noticed a change in these dreams. It seems that I’m remembering more details, specifically reading things, signs, words, phrases, names of people, etc. One of the first times I noticed this (and in my dream I was very excited about it) I was walking down a street and noticed a storefront awning that was the deepest and prettiest shade of blue. The awning stood out to me and it was clear that I was meant to see it. It displayed the word “VELVET” in large print. I think I instantly woke myself up I was so excited. I have absolutely no idea what “velvet” is supposed to mean for me right now.
In the last week I’ve had two “reading in my dreams” experiences that stand out. The specific details of the first dream are really irrelevant and random, but I observed three or four names (signatures, really) of old classmates from high school. One of these names is not a name that I would have any reason to dream about, and I haven’t thought about this person since my time in those halls. I didn’t even know him well. The other few names were acquaintances whom I knew well in those days. I woke up remembering the names and specifically what their signatures looked like.
And perhaps one of my cooler dream experiences was just a few nights ago and involved a friend and co-worker’s husband who passed several years ago. In my dream I was at the friend’s house working on some kind of project for work. After working on it late into the night I ended up crashing there. When I woke up I found that my friend’s husband (who appeared to be alive in this part of the dream) had left me sketches and notes in the margins of a packet of information that we were working on. He was apparently trying to help us out. It is unclear what the sketches were for and why, but I was able to draw the sketches from memory for my friend yesterday. What makes the details of this dream more important is the fact that before I woke up, he was right in front of me with the warmest light all around him. At this moment it was clear to me that his spirit was right in front of me and I realized that this was not a part of the earlier dream. He smiled at me without saying a word. I told him that he was loved and asked if there were any messages I should pass along. Once again, I really do think that at that point I was so moved and impressed with what was happening that I woke myself up. I never got any messages after asking.
Is it normal to read things and be able to sketch things from memory in dreams? And why have I noticed such a change in details lately? Several months ago I read and posted about the “Hue” technique for remembering your dreams, but I only tried it a few times and haven’t thought much about it since then. What does this all mean?
Feel free to share your own expertise or experiences.
