I'm reading Dr. Moody's book "Visionary Encounters With Departed Loved Ones".   It's a great read, it's had me captivated for a few hours now.

This book explains the history of reuniting with the deceased by way of mirror gazing.  I was surprised to learn how far back this practice goes - back to the biblical days.  

I'm almost finished with the book and I'm reading the stories of encounters his subjects had while in his The Theatre of the Mind room and they are truly fascinating.

I've heard that mirrors can be portals of such for the spirit world and I was under the impression that a person would simply 'see' a spirit by merely walking past a mirror as opposed to standing or sitting in front of one and meditating.  Sort of like, the spirit chose to appear to someone when it wanted to and not when a human set their intent and looked for one.  

I was curious to know if anyone has tried mirror gazing before?

Thanks!
katie

I haven't read Moody's work regarding Mirror Gazing, however it's a very common practice in occult circles.  It's typically called Scrying.  Scrying can be done via a blackened mirror (i.e. a black mirror can be made cheaply by painting one side of a glass pane, black (flat black paint) and look at the glass from the opposite side... it will appear dark and reflect dark reflections.), or a black bowl with water in it... or even smoke. Although I've found smoke scrying to be very hard for me to do.

You can also buy a variety of scrying mirrors on the market.  Most are pretty good.  I like Oval ones.  I've seen some on Ebay that are integrated with various Western Magic Practices - having the circular mirror embedded into a Triangle of Manefestation - which is to used to create a "door" for a specifically called spirit to enter.  In fact, years ago I made a scrying mirror embedded into my own triangle of manefestation. it was pretty nifty. 

However, for me, straight imagination and work with the mind is easier then the mirror gazing.  But that's just me. Today, oddly enough, i used a mirror for some work with an angel. 

Years ago I got interested in this too, and like Blink, I tend to get involved with the setting rather than the activity. I never had the "usual imagery" of people in the mirror. However, I get a lot of what seems like "layers" of images, rather golden green in color, in the region near the surface of the mirror.

A few days ago I was reviewing these ideas, and noticed that any shiny surface seems to work. This was especially interesting when I got up in the middle of the night and found the surface of the water in my toilet to be covered by what looked like a layer of "granular smoke" in which some kind of activity seemed to be happening. I had to dissipate the smokey layer due to the business at hand, but I remember seeing it. on top of water, or coffee, in my cup as well. The imagery seems to be refracted into a standing wave pattern of some sort near the surface, and the entire layer appears to respond to air currents, moving about as I blow on it.

Although I didn't measure it, the effect seems strongest when light reaches me at the approximate Brewster angle from the surface, suggesting that polarization might play a part.
dave

Cool!  Thanks for all the relpies everyone.  I had never heard of this before.

I have to admit that I'd find it really spooky too,  therefore I'm not going to try it.  

I'm about to take my daughter and her friend skating for a few hours so I think I'll stop by Barnes & Noble to pick up "Life after Life".  

EDIT to say that they didn't have it.  Instead I bought Destiny of Souls.