Hi,
one example: On a trip in a meditation session I saw an old lady in a warehouse. She looked a bit groggy but normal. I sensed she wasn't in contact with her surrounding, I mean people were walking through her. I went to her and she recognized me. I tried to make her understand that she didn't belong here no longer because (I believe) she had died. She had explanations for all the strange things that were going on, like: Her eyes weren't very good, sometimes she sees things that aren't there, pretty normal for one of her age, she just has balance problems, people today are such rude and politeness isn't known today etc etc. It is common in retrieval cases that those people rationalize the odd things they experience in a way that they are not noticing they have physically died. People who died in an old age often were lonely, and so they are used to be on their own and don't wonder why no one is coming around, and they don't expect it, and that's why nothing is changing until one can get through to such a person.
Also, there are people who are shocked by the death experience and kinda frozen in the moment of their trauma. They began to realize the danger they were in physically and then avoided it to accept it and so they don't go any further in time, and they can't get back in time.
Then there are they who have hope. They hve realized they are dead, but nevertheless do think maybe there is still a chance their body will come to life again, or they are philosophing about reality and dream and what is what and which is which.

And so on.

Spooky

Shawn,

How many time can you realize that you are dreaming?  Sometimes the reality changes in such a way that you may think it was always like this....especially in a place where time has no meaning. Death is difficult to accept especially since for many people it is the end of all things...to continue having conciousness without a physical body  must be really hard to accept for some souls.

Aras: Just about everyone who believes there will be guides to lead them to their next destination when they pass on, will have this happen on that occasion.

The problem is that some people don't believe this will happen. With this belief, they literally filter out or ignore any guides or helpers that may come by. That's why there's such a thing as retrievals. Humans still in a living body rarely fail to get a dead person's attention. We must have something like very shiny astral bodies.

Shawn_michael: All it takes for one not to recognize they're dead is a convincing dream they are still alive. However, I must admit it's amazing how long someone can be stuck in their dream.

-mike