Spitfire,

I have spoken to you with great gentleness in your recent postings. 

With no unfriendliness I respectfully ask you to remove yourself from the negative energy which is attracting you here to this thread.

Please trust me on this.

respectfully, blink

Got curious, so I backtracked a few pages to one
of my old posts.
Spitfire is "Q" all right... same command of the English language (non-existent, that is) and same
narcissistic little-boy-pulling-wings-off-flies attitude.
At least he isn't dirtying up the reputation of
the REAL "Q" on Star Trek anymore (my favorite character on the show..!)
Kids must be picking on him at school. Poor little
fellow. One thing's for sure... he'll be back again, again, and again (probably with a new handle.)
"I was a Highwayman" by Waylon Jennings comes
to mind...

B-man

And for this I thank you, my young friend.
It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words.
But I'd append a new axiom to this statement...
"A poem, is worth a MILLION words."
Who can deny this? A poem captures the yearnings
and expressions of humanity's collective soul, in such a way that even one afflicted with dyslexia (such as yourself) can appreciate... and its scope is INFINITY (the infinity of the human soul, that is... so to say that a poem is worth a million words, is something of an understatement, no?)
It is said, my young friend, that poetry soothes the soul, and sets the spirit flying free.
(Hey! Sounds like something familiar, doesn't it?)
Prose, by contrast, is so... LIMITED. I could say, for instance...
"Spitfire, your mother should have kept her thighs together."
But that's so OBTUSE! Where's the subtlety, the expression of the soul overcoming the mundane?
It could have been DIFFERENT had the East become dominant over the West in cultural matters instead of vice versa, Spitfire. The tail has been wagging the dog ever since the West overtook the Orient in terms of technology and weaponry.
It wasn't always this way.
Centuries ago, my young friend, the Japanese developed a form of poetry which condensed the entire enterprise of poetry, and the very soul of the poet, into three short verses... One of five syllables, the second of seven, and the third of five.
It is called haiku. (I'm sure you have heard of it in Remedial English at Numbnuts High sometime in the last four years, unless you were sleeping through class, like I did back in the day (Study Hall) when I was in high school. I'm assuming that with you being 18, and this being September, that you graduated last May. If you didn't and had to repeat the year, then I suggest you spend it learning proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. You don't want to sound (to the mind of the reader) like the bronze medalist in the 50-yard stumble at the Special Olympics when you write... which you DO, my dear Spitfire, oh how you DO.)
But back to haiku.
Haiku, for the better part of the last thousand years, of Japanese history, has inspired mighty Samurai to heroically vanquish vast Mongol hordes... has inspired humble peasants to serve their Shogunate with the grim smile of of determined patriotic grit on their faces... and has inspired drunken Japanese businessmen to happily puke on their wing-tip shoes in back alleys behind brothels purveying illicit sensual delights. Sweet dreams (and triumphant reality) are indeed made of this...
Which is why I can think of nothing better, than to offer a haiku expressing my feelings concerning your presence in this august forum of ours.
Here it is...
*****************
I stroll through the oaks
Did a fairy just flutter?
Squeaks of a titmouse...
*****************
Have a nice day, titmouse.

B-man

Come on, throwing barbs at each other doesn't solve a thing. If we can't get along here, then how do we think that there will ever be world peace. Maybe you don't think there can be, but it all starts with each of us looking within and seeing that we are all ONE. When you try to tear someone down, you are only doing it to yourself.

In Spirit of ONE,
Mairlyn

Brenden, I am really sorry of your loss. And the content in this thread makes me feel awful...it shouldn't be this way. I know that I would be totally devastated if I had received this kind of feed back at a time in my life as this. I wasn't going to post here but go to the other thread...however, I haven't seen the other yet and don't know what is in it, therefore this might not be appropriate there.
I don't know if this is going to help you but I will try.....as a few others have said here already, you can reach your cousin all by yourself. As far as retreivals go, I don't know anything about them, but there are people who do them and successfully at that. Retreivals are 'real' and in vice versa as well.....my dog died a few years ago and came back to retreive me......isn't that just somethin'!
Just sit back, relax and focus on thoughts of your cousin and then just start talking as if he were right there in the physical form beside you. When you are talking, keep your inner ear open and listen to his replies. I guess it sounds weird, but you will hear him speaking with you but you have to open yourself up inside to hear him. And believe in his voice when you hear it...don't shrug it off as nothing. Another way you can communicate is thru your sleep....before going to sleep you can focus on him and you may very well have an opportunity to converse that way as well. We seem to be incredibly sensitive to the afterlife when we are asleep.
And you know what? He can contact you as well.....pay attention to anything that might seem strange like, a feeling you are being watched, or some else is in the room with you...that kind of stuff. At those times you can try communicating too.
I hope this helps....I don't always say the right things at times and end up making things worse....but I hope that this has given you some help.....at least to show you that your presence is a welcome and much loved part of this board. So don't take off. I like to read your posts as does everyone else here.
And for what it matters, I couldn't figure out the chatroom thing either....had nothing but grief over it.....AND for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to get my pic on here and ended up getting Alysia and Shirley to do it for me. For the love of God.

Spitefire.....what I mean when I say that I don't know anything about retrievals but there are people here who do them successfully means: I have never done a retrieval myself...never even tried to. But there are people here who have done them and do them well.
I believe in retrievals...believe that they work and are a viable aid in helping stuck souls. In fact, I myself may need one some day because I am so dazed and confused that I might not know what the heck I doing when I reach that day of cross over. So, retrievals better be real! Or I am in trouble.
As far as my dog goes, it is a long story....Ceasar was a shep/wolf cross... he was my best friend and I loved him dearly. He suffered brutally at the hands of my ex husband. Ceasar disappeared when I left the ex. I searched everywhere for months and months for him and never found him. For the next couple of years that followed I my heart was heavy with grief and guilt over what my dog had gone thru in his life.( By now, I knew that he was no longer alive )
One night I had a dream...I was sitting on the floor and the front door was open. Suddenly, Ceasar came running in, leaping and bounding like the overgrown puppy that he always was. Tail wagging and twirling behind him...tongue hanging out....all excited and so very happy to see me finally. And I was equally as happy to see him. He leaped up onto my shoulders with his front legs and paws and hugged me around my neck. He 'communicated' to me...telepathically, that he was A-OK and happy...and that he never once held me accountable for what my ex had done to him....he forgave me for the actions of the ex....and told me not to feel guilty and sad anymore. And then he turned and ran and leaped back out the door again...to go back to the business of chasing butterflies and cats.
He came back to retrieve my hurting soul...to get me unstuck from the misery that I was wallowing in. He wanted me to understand that all was ok and that he was happy and that I was to move on in life without the terrible things that I was feeling over what had happened to him in his life.
And from what I understand, it is not uncommon for pets to do  retrievals of this nature.
I hope this helps you understand what I was talking about.

I don't follow any religion....just what is in my heart. So therefore, I am not following the rules and regulations set out by anyone as such.
I don't believe what you have said about dreams....or about my experience with my dog as just a peice of brain matter resurfacing........some things are just dreams, yes. But I have dreams that are beyond what a dream is..and I can tell the difference between them....because there is a very definite line of distinction.
However, you will learn some new beliefs of your own as you progress in your quest for spiritual knowledge. 
I have had incredible contact with loved ones thru sleep....and one such contact was with my mother who died when I was 8 years old. I had a very nice visit with her when I was 20 years old. A conversation content that was not conceivable in an 8 years old mind.

I just wonder why, if such incredable things are possible, people have not claimed the 1 million dollar prize money?.

I want someone to prove to me, that what they say happens really does. I have read many books on astral projection/OBE etc, but they all have different experiences, there never seems to be 1 common thing connecting them together.

If someone who has never met each other, lived on earth, they could explain to me the colour and shape of grass. They could draw identical pictures. They can do this through common experience.

I just want some solid proof, that OBE'S are real. Somthing i can look at and say yes....it's true with out a shadow of a doubt, i could make a book and fill it with words which sound nice. But they could be a pack of lies.