i was wondering, there are many stories about people visited by their relatives after they die or at the moment they die.  however, there seems to be a variation in the degree of their visit.  some people see their loved one and can actually feel and embrace them as if they were physical.  some only see them and can't touch them.  some can only hear them or hear them in their head.  some witness lights/radios going on and off etc.  some have received telephone calls or hear a voice where it sounds like a bad telephone connection, as if the dead relative is calling from far far away.

my question is, why this variation?  why does it seem like some spirits can communicate or appear very well and clearly, and others can only hint at their existence?  

also this brings on the question of psychics - why are psychics needed if some spirits can communicate perfectly well with their loved ones directly?  is this a matter of how attuned to the spirit world somebody is?

i've never seen a ghost or heard from a deceased relative or anything, but i'm very open to the experience and wouldn't deny it if it happened, so why hasn't it happened to me?  

Same reason a living relative could walk in your door and comunicate with you in French, I expect - do they speak it, do you?  If so, no problem - if they don't speak it or you don't understand it, no communication.

I've never seen any compelling evidence that the afterlife is any more homogenous than the current one.

Hi Seeker-
We often forget that our thoughts and interpretations are totally dependent on our prior life experiences.  The appearance that we associate with a psychic stimulus is thus projected from past experiences. Imagine how it might appear if a really big ghost cam through the room while you were talking to other epople. Some would see it n whatever terms they normaly use for psychic ideas.  This might be a sense of something totally abstract, or it might be something totally defined and seemingly present. Other people might use other experiences and so on.

This necessity leads us to participate to some degree when we see psychic phenomena, especially the kind that are felt but not directly seen, as opposed to being able to sit back and watch physical objects through a video system. Your way of doing this differs from mine, and probably we have nothing much in common with other people who use different experiential references.

The fact that everybody has different experiences of the same things is one of the major problems in doing psychical research.

dave

That's a great question and I also wondered about it too.

I have had the wonderful opportunity of seeing flashes of light on several occassions right after mt Dad passed away.  I also had my hair pulled.  I'm very grateful. :D