Introduction:
I’m starting to realize that spirits1 aren’t like genies in a bottle, waiting around to do our bidding. They have their own thing going on, whether it’s reviewing their life, preparing for their next life, or going through a cycle of deep learning2. But if and when they choose, they have the ability to make things happen in our world, which we typically call signs.
When Justin first reverted (back to spirit), we experienced signs quite frequently. We’d smell his cologne, and cigarette smoke several times a day. We’d hear noises upstairs in his room, like footsteps and thumping (as if he was getting out of bed or sitting down at his desk). And he’d play a game with my wife, where she’d hang a bathroom towel against the right end of the rod, and later find it moved one inch to the left (with no one else in the house). She’d push it back against the end, and the next day it would be moved again.
About a month after Justin reverted, one of our cats stood on his hind legs for over a minute, which he’d never done before. It seemed like he was staring at something we couldn’t see3 (as if Justin was playing with him). A few months later, we asked about it through a medium, Chuck King, and Justin said, “yep, that was me.”
Chuck also told us that Justin is in the house a lot, “he wants to make sure we don’t forget him”, and that he’ll let us know when he’s around. Then Justin jokingly asked if we “wanted him to flick the lights again.” I then remembered that I’d recently seen the lamp over our couch dim briefly. Even though that tends to happen when our furnace kicks on, I suspected it was him because I was really close to the bulb at the time, and it felt special. The following father’s Day, I was playing chess5 with his brother Ray, and the same light dimmed twice. It happened again the following Halloween.
The really intense activity lasted a little over a month. Which makes sense because many cultures and religions believe that spirits will stick around for 40 days after they leave the body.
But what’s the point? Why do the spirits of our love ones give us signs (besides wanting to make sure we don’t forget them)? Perhaps to understand, we can put ourselves in their shoes.
While it’s difficult picturing what it’s like to be dead, most of us can imagine being in a foreign land, far from family and friends. Say we have to leave in the middle of the night for an extended trip to American Samoa, but forget to leave a note. On arrival, we’d want to tell the people we left behind that we’re ok, and that we’re still supporting them. We also might want to tell them about this new place we’re discovering. But due to the distance (and lack of internet and cell service), our only options are post cards and unreliable telephones.
The situation is similar with spirits trying to communicate with us. But they need to deal with ‘the veil’4 instead of distance. And for them, dreams, signs, and visions are a good way to send messages, like our postcards. And two-way communications through a medium is like a telephone call (albeit with 1920s technology).
Dreams:
Like us, spirits probably want to achieve the highest impact for the least amount of effort. And getting inside our heads could require less effort than interacting with material things, such as moving objects (although making noises seems to be popular). And what would be easier than orchestrating our dreams, where we’re already one foot in the spirit world?
I’ve had many dreams about Justin. The first was about a week after he reverted: Justin had decided to start drinking early in the morning. I was against it, and we argued. Then he pulled out a bag of weed, to show he was going to smoke that all day instead. I believe this meant that he can now do whatever he wants. This is similar to when my wife, Ceri and I were having dinner with a medium, Diana Harris, and she described a man sitting near us with his legs crossed and smoking a cigarette. Ceri said that sounded like her father, and that he used to smoke. Diana’s response was that he can do that now because it doesn’t matter.
Once, Ceri had a dream where there were three separate Justins. One was dead, wearing a hoodie, and facing the wall. She carried him downstairs (this may have been to give her closure, because after finding him and calling the cops, they wouldn’t let us back into his room to see him). The second was spirit Justin, who was encouraging to her, saying that he planned to help his brother Ray deliver cookies. The third was golden and radiant (I assume that was his soul6).
Ray once had a dream where Justin said, “Here’s my message to you, you’re gay” I asked Chuck about this, and Chuck said, “[Justin] is laughing about it terribly. I wonder if he was just doing that as a joke.” I said he used to say that all the time, “hey Ray, you’re gay.” Then Chuck said, “I like this kid, even in spirit he busts his brother’s balls.” Justin told Chuck that his point behind the dream was, “He [Ray] knows it was me because I said it all the time.”
Dimes:
Coins are a common sign for spirits to leave. The website, ask-angels suggests that leaving something of value is a metaphor for us being valued by them.
Justin leaves dimes everywhere for us to find. Once, Ceri found three dimes in unexpected places around the house, and the next day found one in the middle of her desk. Another time, she was talking to her sister, Megan about the transcription7 of her session with Diana Harris, and found a dime on her calendar, which was a surprise because she uses that all the time.
We went to Vegas in November of 2018 in order to get away for two firsts: Justin’s birthday and Thanksgiving. When we got there, Ray found a dime in the bathroom of our room. I found two dimes on a video poker machine. Then as we were heading out for Thanksgiving dinner, I found a dime on Ray’s bed (after putting all the coins on a table next to the TV). We got back from dinner and found another dime on the desk.
The day after Christmas, we invited Melissa (Justin’s girlfriend) over for game night. She dropped some change out of her pocket, and a dime rolled around the table and landed at Ceri’s feet. The next morning, Ceri found another dime on the couch.
One morning, while in the middle of writing this post, I felt something in my shoe. After walking around for a while, I took off my shoe and found a dime.
Dragonflies:
There’s something spiritual about dragonflies8, and we’ve seen a lot of them. The day after Justin reverted, we were sitting in our back yard with Ceri’s siblings, and there was a big dragonfly hanging out with us. Ceri’s sister, Megan held up her finger and it sat on it for a while. Then it flew over to sit on Megan’s husband Bob’s shoulder, and Megan said, “I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, but the dragonfly smiled at me, I know he did.” Which sounds like something Justin would orchestrate.
On our trip to Vegas, a dragonfly hovered around our car while we were waiting to get into Red Rock Canyon. This was unusual because they usually hang out by water, and we were in a desert. One time, Ceri, Ray and I were driving to a Mexican restaurant, and a hawk (more about hawks in the next post) flew over our car, and then a dragonfly started flying around inside the car. One way to look at these signs is that they show Justin is very present with us, and the waiter who sat us gave us an extra menu, thinking there were four of us.
While writing this, I noticed a huge green dragonfly flying around inside the building where I work. Usually all we see is fruit-flies and hornets. I brought it outside.
Conclusion:
In the spirit9 of transparency, I have to admit that I grouped these particular signs: dreams, dimes, and dragonflies together because the title sounds cool, and Justin loves alliteration. In the next post I’ll talk about hawks and other birds, which form an incredibly strong bond between Justin and his family. And later I’ll cover sights, sounds, and smells (pardon the alliteration).
Notes:
- When I refer to spirits in this way, I’m talking about people who have successfully crossed over. Those who haven’t crossed are known as ghosts, and aren’t covered in this post. Justin told us through a medium that he was led into the light by my parents and Ceri’s Uncle Rob, so he qualifies as a spirit
- The Afterlife of Billy Fingers, p. 32
- It is suggested that cats (and dogs) can see spirits because their vision covers a larger spectrum than humans
- The veil represents the division between spirit and matter. Saint Germain calls it a cross roads.
- Chess was one of the things Justin and I enjoyed doing together. Other favorites were shooting pool and listening to music
- I use Bob Olson’s definitions for spirit and soul (from his book Answers about the Afterlife). Here, the soul, aka the over-soul is the eternal part of us, constant through all our incarnation. The spirit is a small part of the soul that inhabits a body in a particular lifetime, and therefore continues to have the same personality as the reverted person.
- All of our sessions with mediums are recorded, and I transcribe them. This particular session was just Ceri and Diana
- Across many cultures, dragonflies are a symbol of adaptability and transformation
- Pardon the pun