4 Ways Your Loved Ones in Spirit are Trying to Contact You
Dealing with the death of a loved one can be difficult. As a medium who communicates with spirits, I know that the smallest message or sign from a loved one in spirit can mean the world. Your loved ones in spirit have several ways to get messages to you, but their messages are subtle, so you may overlook or discount them if you don’t know what to look for.
When a Loved One Dies, Do They Visit You?
There are countless cases of loved ones contacting their living counterparts after they’ve passed, or in some cases while they’ve been clinically dead, before being brought back to life.
In one instance, recounted by Dr. Raymond Moody, the researcher who coined the phrase near-death experience or NDE, a surgeon once told him that while operating on a young man, his patient went into cardiac arrest. Believing he had lost the patient, the man’s wife burst into the room screaming that her husband had visited her in the waiting room and told her the doctor thought he was dead, but that he was still alive and able to be saved. The surgeon immediately began to perform resuscitation techniques and brought the patient back to life (click here for the full story).
After-death communication is very common soon after a loved one passes away. And while everyone’s loved ones have different ways of communicating this, the signs we see are usually more than sheer coincidence.
When looking for the sign of a loved one visiting or communicating to you after they pass, think of things from their life that they had a predilection for, whether that’s a particular animal, flower, or song. These personal affections typically appear in their attempts to reach you, and rightfully so, if there’s one thing you’d associate strongly with them, it’s sure to stand out.
Four Common Signs From the Other Side
When looking for signs from the other side, it can help to reminisce on the life and accomplishments of the loved one who passed. Thinking back on their life and the things they did or were interested in might help clue you in on some of the ways they may try to reach you.
If you aren’t entirely familiar with certain periods of their life, doing some research by reconnecting with other family members or digging through their memorabilia may provide more insight into their passions. Knowing more about these passions will allow them to connect with you easier.
Here are four common ways your deceased loved ones in spirit may be trying to contact you:
Visitation Dreams
When your loved ones visit in a dream, it will feel peaceful and more real than a typical dream. Instead of just watching your dream like a movie, you’ll be able to control what you say and do.
My grandfather was a jazz drummer, and in one of my dreams, I suddenly realized I was hearing drums. Then, I saw my grandfather playing the drums and smiling at me. His eyes sparkled, and I felt filled with love and peace. He waved to me, and then I woke up.
It’s common to wake up after you’ve received a message from your loved ones, so if you suddenly wake up in the middle of the night, try to remember what you were dreaming about.
To make it easier for your loved ones to visit you in dreams, start paying attention to your dreams and writing them down. Have a notebook and pen by your bed, and let your loved ones know before you go to sleep that you’d like a visit from them.
Electrical Phenomena
Electricity is easy for spirits to manipulate. Recently, my husband and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary, and we were thinking of our loved ones in spirit. Just as we clinked our champagne glasses in a toast, the lights near us started flickering. I knew our loved ones in spirit were joining our celebration!
When you’re thinking of your loved ones or celebrating a family event, watch out for lights flickering, strange phone calls, uncanny songs that come up on a playlist, a stereo suddenly turning on and playing a loved one’s favorite song, or phones or other electronics malfunctioning in ways that can’t be explained logically. It might be a little “hello” from your loved ones in spirit.
Signs
A million different events happen in your day, and none of them stand out to you. When a seemingly benign event suddenly grabs your attention and makes you question if it’s a sign from your loved one in spirit…it probably is.
Before my husband’s great aunt passed away, she told me that butterflies were her symbol of being free from the physical body. A few days after she passed, I was watching a television show where the main character had just given birth, and it stood out to me that the walls in the nursery were painted with butterflies. They named the baby Elle, which is short for Elizabeth. Mark’s great aunt’s name was Elizabeth, and I knew this was her way of saying hello to us.
Most signs are subtle. You probably won’t get a marching band coming to your house with a sign that reads, “Mom says hi!” It’s much more likely that when you’re thinking about your mother, a picture of her falls off the wall, a dove with white feathers flies by, somebody gives you a bouquet of her favorite flowers, or you stumble upon a card from her that you’d forgotten about. It may not be the specific sign you asked for, but if you suddenly wonder if it’s a sign and think of your loved one, it’s a sign.
People
You might see someone who looks just like your loved one. It will look as if your loved one’s image is superimposed on another person’s face or body. One of my clients was walking in a park one day when she smelled her grandmother’s perfume. She turned and saw a woman on a bicycle smiling and waving as she rode by, but instead of the woman’s face, she saw her grandmother’s.
Another way your loved ones in spirit can say hello is by appearing in the dream of a friend or family member. When your best friend or family member tells you about their experience, you might wonder why your loved one in spirit didn’t come directly to you. If you’re experiencing a lot of grief over a loved one’s passing, it may be difficult for you to recognize a direct message from them, so they will send you messages through people who are close to you. They are just letting you know that they are okay.
It’s also possible to get in touch with a deceased loved one through a psychic medium, empaths, tarot readers, or some other person who is gifted with mediumship. Looking into a medium that is able to provide you with a numerology reading around your loved one’s past life can also help. Though it’s always good to exercise caution and fully vet this person as there are unfortunately charlatans out there.
Seeking Comfort
During the grieving process, it’s necessary to seek comfort in whatever it is that can bring it to you. Whether that means reaching out to your spirit guides/guardian angel, family members, a mental health professional, or the solitude of being with your inner self, it’s natural to find a way to ease the pain.
Whether you’re grieving over a deceased friend, dead relatives or a dead loved one, it’s ok to seek comfort anywhere you can, as long as that which is comforting you isn’t self-destructive or addictive.
Now that you know four common ways your loved ones in spirit can contact you, be on the lookout for signs and messages from them.
Updated by Gaia Staff 10/2/20
About the Author
Can This Brainwave Study Explain What Happens to Consciousness When We Die?
A new study records the brain waves of a dying person in detail for the very first time. Could the findings explain what happens in our transition into death?
While there is plenty of anecdotal evidence from people who have had Near-death Experiences or NDEs, there is little to no hard scientific data on what happens in the brain as people are dying.
Now, researchers who recorded 15 minutes of brain wave activity in a dying man, are speculating that the findings may explain the phenomenon of life recall or review that many near-death experiencers report.
Dr. Eben Alexander is a neurosurgeon who, in 2008, experienced an NDE as he lay in a coma caused by a serious case of viral meningitis. After a miraculous recovery, he went on to write about the experience in several best-selling books.
“There’s a tremendous amount of evidence that, at the end of life, our consciousness does not just disappear as one might assume if the brain created consciousness,” Alexander said. “But in fact, our consciousness seems to expand in dramatic ways, and I think this is where a deeper understanding of NDEs is crucial for us to understand the mind-brain relationship and the nature of consciousness itself.”
To Alexander, while the study is a step in the right direction towards understanding what happens when we die, it is fraught with some misunderstandings.
“Now, there are many problems with this study and the main thing I’ll point out here is, first of all, do not confuse correlation with causality,” Alexander said.
“This is a common mistake in neuroscience and it results from the unproven assumption, and in fact, I would say a disproven assumption, that the brain is creating consciousness, and therefore, to find any change in phenomenal consciousness we must look for a neural correlate; some physiologic change in the brain. And modern studies just show that that reasoning is false, there’s more to it than just what’s going on in the brain.”
