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Berserk
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Thank you, Vikingsgal,
Your nickname nicely complements mine! I am Swedish and, as you know, Berserkers were ferocious Viking warriors.
I suspect the trauma of his Dad's destruction of his son's grave and his subesequent suicide powerfully energized your husband to seek out those who really matter to him. In reply #4 this thread, I lay out the biblical grounds for believing that our loved ones can monitor our earthly progress at certain stages in their afterlife pilgrimage and to an undetermined extent. Your husband's announced mission to take you home was probably more an expression of longing for your regular company than an assigned mission that was abruptly cancelled. Since you mentioned my report on why our deceased loved ones can cause us dismay by their failure to contact us, I thought I'd repost my comments on this issue for your convenience.
A few years ago I read a study on alleged communicatation from the recently deceased, e.g. through waking visions or a strong sense of presence reinforced by paranormal physical phenonema such as moving objects, a sense of loving touch, or a characteristic fragrance. The study found that 50% of Americans and 48% of the British can report such postmortem phenomena, generally within the first year since the loved one's passing. Later contacts are also reported but are relatively uncommon.
The question of why is one of the most important questions to be asked with respect to postmortem survival. To most of us it seems inconceivable that we would never take advantage of the chance to contact our loved ones after death to reassure them of our wellbeing and of their glorious postmortem future. Most famously, Houdini pledged to verify his survival to his wife, by revealing the content of a message sealed in an envelope. No one can explain why he never kept this promise. I believe in postmortem survival, but acknowledge that this deafening silence is one of the best arguments against such survival. Many desperate rationalizations have been offered to deflect the force of this objection.
Yet where Houdini failed to keep his promise, two distinguished professors may well have succeeded. William James (Harvard) and James Hyslop (Columbia) promised each other that whoever died first would contact the survivor and confirm the reality of the afterlife. William died first, but nothing happened; so Hyslop forgot about their pledge. Then a year later, Hyslop was contacted by a couple in Ireland. They had been playing with a Ouija board and were continually receiving an insistent message from a William James, who kept on saying, "Track down my friend, James Hyslop, and give him this message, `Remember the red pyjamas.'" For quite some time the Irish couple did nothing. They had never heard of WJ or JH and the message seemed silly to them. But then curiosity prompted them to try and track Hyslop down. When they gave him the message, he was initially dismissive. But then he remembered a conference he and WJ had attended in Paris during the winter. Their luggage had not arrived and both men had to shop for winter essentials. Hyslop was forced to buy some gaudy red pyjames and WJ had relentlessly teased him about his taste. WJ apparently sent this message because its vivid and concrete nature made it less susceptible to interpretive distortion.
Two common rationalizations for contact failure are worth discussing here. (1) It is often reported that spirits contacted during astral exploration go through a stage when their memory of earthly life becomes very dim (e.g. Robert Bruce). When and to whom this happens and for how long are mysteries without resolution from a consensus among astral adepts. In any case, one would expect most of these forgetful souls to contact their loved ones at the first opportunity before their memories fade or after they are restored.
(2) It is also claimed that deceased souls soon ascend to planes where contact with earthly loved ones is no longer possible or much more difficult. This claim often seems negated by mediums who claim to contact loved ones at will, regardless of how long they have been dead. In my view, most mediums' claims of contact are bogus. That said, the claim that postmortem contact gets increasingly more difficult finds its most poignant illustration in the EVP research of engineer George Meek.
Consider these quotes about his research in David Fontana's excellent book, "Is There an Afterlife? A Comprehensive Overview of the Evidence:"
"In 1973 Meek began working with...medium William O'Neil who apparently was then contacted by a deceased scientist Dr. George Mueller. Mueller gave O'Neil a number of personal and seemingly obscure details about his life on earth, many of which were subsequently found by Meek and his colleagues to be correct. Meek claims that none of these details were known by himself, by O'Neil, or by their colleagues, and he concludes that the Mueller case provided `one of the best documented cases of survival for more than 100 years.' A summary of some of these details is given below, together with their verification:"
I will list just some key details and omit the tedious discussion of their verification: Mueller's social security number; his daughter's address; 3 of his degrees and the universities where he obtained them; his membship in the Haresfoot Club in Wisconsin; his meritorious civilian award; his top security clearance from the US Army.
"The instructions on how to build the [EVP] machine [Spiricom] came over a period of time, firstly through the mediumship of O'Neil and subsequently apparently through Spiricom itself (at which point all communications were audio-taped by Meek.) From where did these instructions originate if not from Mueller (p. 362)?"
"The [independent] report on Mueller's voice prints [from the University of Tokyo] suggested that the voice might possibly have been computer-generated, but pointed out that computer-generaton of this kind would require a million dollar computer set-up (Remember we are talking about the equipment costs obtaining in 1982.) and many hours of complex rehearsal and adjustments far beyond Meek's financial resources and O'Neil's competence (p, 363)."
"...As 1981 wore on, it became clear from Mueller's communications that `he was beginning to shed his dense earthly vibrations and was starting his progression upwards' through the various levels of consciousness said to exist in the next world. It became increasingly difficult for him to communicate through Spiricom, and he began to give instructions on how to build a more advanced model that would enable him to remain in contact. However, before these instructions were complete, Spiricom fell silent (p. 364)."
(3) What seems so difficult for most ordinary people and astral adepts was apparently easy for Emanuel Swedenborg. During his astral visits he successfully tracks down most of his dead friends and relatives. He is able to contact the dead loved ones of others on demand and bring back spectacular verifications of his claims. Many of you have read my documentation of some of these contacts in my earlier Swedenborg thread. As for famous deceased people, ES claims extended contacts with the philosopher Aristotle and the famous theologians John Calvin and Martin Luther.
Don
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