Hi mjd,

As you're probably aware, these experiences can only really be validated by the experiencer.

I can only offer my opinion and from what I have experienced this kind of thing does happen, even to people who aren't open to it, I wasn't before I had these things happen to me.

From what you have said I would say that the chances of the album moving 4 inches and then falling underneath the wires by itself landing upside down are close to zero. The only way that this can happen is if your stand is not level, if this was the case I'm sure the other things on the stand would have gone for a walk too.

Perhaps your MIL is trying to make amends with you now?

Andy

Hi MJ,

I think you're doing the right things.  You're open to receiving, sending out the message/intent that you want contact/communication.  Then all you can do is just pay attention to anything new that comes into your awareness.  Noticing the details of things around you is one aspect, and there's also noticing your own energy and feelings and thoughts. 

I agree with Andy that only you can validate and trust your experience.  The album moving the way it did definitely sounds like a sign, especially if you trust your sense of logic about how it couldn't possibly have accidentally moved on its own. 

Sometimes we put more work into deducing whether something is possible or not, instead of allowing a sense of possibility open up inside of our belief system and identity.  It's kind of like love.  If you want to find and have love in your life, like an intimate relationship, then you have to have "room" for it inside you.  For a lot of us that means shifting something deep inside at the core which allows us to have that relationship when it happens to pop into our lives.  Otherwise, the possibility for the relationship could be right in front of us but we'd push it away because we're not ready to have it. 

I also think you're doing the right thing regarding your in-laws, and no it's not selfish to want peace in your marriage and your family.  I am assuming your hubby is on your side?  I hope so.  When I was married I had some similar issues with my in-laws.  They didn't ignore me, but they treated me badly if I didn't act like them and do and say and be what they wanted and expected me to be.  So we had a lot of that weirdness going on that no one wanted to really admit was going on.  Unfortunately my husband never took my side or stood up for me.  We're divorced.  When his father died I sent out the message that I was open for him to contact me if he wanted, even though we didn't like each other in life.  I did get something happen right then, but can't say for sure if it was about him or my intent.  Just then in the car, I heard a woman's voice speaking rapidly.  I couldn't understand a word she said, and thought my daughter in the back seat was playing something on her phone or Ipod or whatever.  She wasn't.  I asked the kids what that voice was, and they said they didn't hear a voice.  My daughter thought I was nuts.  My son was in the front seat and he said all he heard just then was a loud hissing sound coming from my side of the car, inside the car.  Neither I nor my daughter heard that.  My daughter said we were both nuts because she didn't hear anything at all!

I think whatever it was was directly related to my message and intention, although I have no idea what it meant or who the woman would have been.  I've never had any other sign coming from him, nor felt his presence or anything like that. 

I hear ya!  Growing up I was constantly told I was dreaming, imaginging, lying, etc.  No one believed all the weird stuff that happened to me.  My kids are teens so my daughter telling me I'm nuts is part of our playfulness together.  Actually, I hear I'm such a dork or a geek more than I'm nuts.   

About what I said about shifting inside you to make room for change...It doesn't have as much to do with believing or having had experiences, as it has to do with shifting your state of consciousness.  We tend to constantly ground ourselves, which means to keep our conscious state at a certain foundation or level where we feel most comfortable given our day-to-day existence.  This constant shift isn't something we feel or notice, it just happens.  I believe that this is why we can one moment see a ghost and think, "Oh my, I'm seeing a ghost!" and then the next moment it's "gone".  The ghost might not have literally gone anywhere.  You shifted states of consciousness without realizing nor intending to, and to your conscious awareness the ghost is the one who left, when it fact it was you. 

Even with strong belief in ghosts and strong desire to want to see them, we cannot help but make these transitions in consciousness.  So with the example of the experience with the album moving, you wondered if you were just making coincidences.  That kind of thinking denotes that you were unsure whether to fully accept that the album moved on its own or if that wasn't possible.  And it denotes that there is such a thing as coincidences. 

Throw out your assumption about coincidences and the general definition of what that means, and believe and trust that there are no coincidences, that everything in your conscious awareness happens because it's supposed to be there.  If you treat it as a sign from your mother in law, even you aren't certain and can't be certain if it really was, then you're at least taking a step in the right direction of allowing more experience to happen to you.  But if you get yourself stuck in trying to debunk whether it was possible for the album to move, when clearly it sounds like it wasn't possible for it to just happen on its own, then you're giving focus to the wrong thing. 

I'm not saying you're reacting wrong, I'm just showing the mistakes I've made and what has held me back for so long.  I'm contiually struggling with making progress to push myself out of just having strange experiences that I'm still not sure about, into having more definitive and helpful experiences that will actually propel my spiritual growth.  I think we have to work on it all the time.  For instance, since my dad's death I've had several visits and signs from him.  I truly believe this.  But for a while now I haven't been focused on that, and subsequently haven't felt any signs or contact from him.  A skeptic would say that that's because we experience what we want to believe.  I don't believe that.  I just think that it's a two-way street of communication.  Also, my dad could be trying to get my attention but if I'm not thinking about him or paying attention, then I'm missing out on those experiences. 

My advice is to send out another invitation for your mother in law to contact you.  In fact, ask her if she's the one who moved the album!  Then see what kind of experiences happens next that's out of the ordinary.  No matter how much experience and belief you already have, it always helps to have more validation. 

Vicky

  Hi Mjd,

  I don't know what your experience means, but i just thought it funny and interesting that both of our spouses share the same b-day, Feb 8th. 

  Oh those stubborn Aquarian indicated types!   

Okay, I know this does not meet the level of interesting experience that you all have described to me, but this is unique for me and it comes as I am ramping up my meditation and mindfulness training. My full tube of toothpaste is missing! That may not sound strange, but it is. I used it yesterday morning and then went to work. I was the last to use it, and we all went away to work and school. Last night I could not find it....anywhere. Wife and kids never touched or saw it. Not in drawers, trash under anything, in anything. Not in the laundry, bathtub, shower, dresser...in short, the F'ing thing is gone. I distinctly remember putting the cap back on it and laying it on the counter (don't ask me why I remember doing that so clearly). This morning I put my kids on the hunt and they looked everywhere, in every room in the house.  Nothing so far.  Weird. If I had to pick an entity who would enjoy this kind of prank it would by my sister who passed two years ago. Its very much like her.

There are a couple of interviews that Bob Olson has that purport to help one learn to communicate with the other side better. One at the top of the page, and one with van Praagh further down. I'm not a van Praagh fan but he might say something that opens a door for you. or he might not.

http://www.afterlifetv.com/page/2/

_

Vicky a dork might be um low on the totem pole, but I thought a geek was a good thing, a compliment. Nuts is universal.

  Will do, thanks Mj--and same to you and your partner.   Oh, she definitely cracks me up sometimes.  She is also one of my best inphysical teachers--helps me to grow via friction and challenge and vice versa no doubt. 

  We are very psychically connected, might as well have been born Twins, and that can be both very nice and also very challenging at other times--especially when one of us is off kilter. 

   Sounds like things might be tough for you, but in a different and more consistently tough way in your relationship.  But it's often the challenges and the testing stuff which helps us to grow the most spiritually.  Making peace with that awareness is really difficult, but very rewarding.

  I hope things work out for your highest good and deepest happiness.