Berserk
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Rob, I read about the study in an NDE book several years ago, but can no longer recall which book reported on it. I'll let you know if I can track it down again. What I don't recall are the criteria for what counted as a "contact" with deceased loved ones. The criteria are important to me because, for example, I am more suspicious of dreams than apparitions as a source of alleged contact.
Eileen, your reluctance to claim contact from these unusual experiences is admirable, given the pressure of wishful thinking. I would encourage you to suspend efforts to resolve whether you believe that any of these incidents are genuine contact. Such an obsession can drive one mad. I suggest you instead meditate on your experiences with a sense of childlike wonder. Perhaps, one of our experiences will grafually loom as the most promising and kindle a sense of knowing. That said, let me share an experience that illustrates why your "odorific" experience seems the most promising of the experiences you reported.
I reported this incident here several months ago. I had coffee with Gordon, an old acquaintance from my youth who is now on a ministry staff. We swapped stories of our encounters with the superanatural. Gordon told me about Anne's death. Anne was an elderly woman in a nursing home. During a visit, Gord noticed a bottle of lilac cologne beside her bed. He asked her if she'd like an application. Anne replied, "Oh that would be lovely." So Gord called a female aide and asked her to apply the cologne. Anne sighed with delight, smiled intently, and lay back, suddenly dead! What a way to go!
At the same time (2PM), several miles away, her daughter was working in the barn with her husband. Suddenly she asked her husband, "Do you smell that? The smell of manure seems to be overpowered by the smell of lilacs." The husband replied, "I was just going to comment on that." Imagine the daughter's surprise when she discovered how and exactly when her mother had died!" No one seemed to know how the bottle of lilac cologne got there. Eileen, your independent confirmation of your husband's cologne odor reminds me of this charming incident.
Don
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