"Though inland far we be, our souls have sight of that immortal sea which brought us hither"  William Wordsworth

The man in my life for many years and I agreed that whichever of us died first would come back with a report of the other side.  He died about seven years ago.  The first night after his death I had a dream:  there was knock on the door and when I opened it there he stood.  I

said "I thought you were dead."  He disappeared without a word.  I woke up immediately and went to the door...nothing.

I waited for a sign from him, being very vigilant.  A psychic told me to look for evidence of contact in nature, new growth, flowers, trees, etc.  About a year later a tree began to grow, on its own, not one that I planted.  It is now about eight feet tall and has dark red leaves and berries.  Very pretty, but I am not convinced that this is a message, probably just a random seed blown in.

According to some experts, dreams are a means by which we can be in contact with someone who has died.  I dreamed about him night after night but mostly about when we were younger and mostly pleasant dreams,  Then the dreams turned on me, and he would ignore me or be unpleasant.  I would wake up feeling sad or even angry, and began to think that I did not want to be in touch.

When I first began to explore a spiritual path, automatic writing  was an experiment for me.  I could do it by just relaxing and holding a pencil upright and waiting.  It would take off and write random, if not terribly profound, messages..   Then the ability just stopped.

One day several months ago, I had been working a crossword puzzle, and as I sat thinking about a clue, the pencil began to move on its own.  Startled, I asked who was there.  The answer " It's me"  We communicated this way for several sessions, lots of gibberish, but then at the

final session he said that he had been reincarnated.  I don't know how valid these writings were, but my obsession of wanting to get in touch vanished.  The mind can make us believe what we want. 

Reincarnation is a timeless belief that is found in Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism, as well as the ancient mystic teachings of Christianity and Judaism.  It is a complex belief in rebirth that includes the idea that one may choose to be reincarnated to fulfill a mission until enlightenment is achieved. 

That the soul is immortal and moves to a higher plane after it drops the body is accepted by many spiritual seekers.  On the other hand, what that soul does once it is free of the body may not concern us.  We may want to contact the person who owned that soul, but he is no longer

there.  The dead don't need us.  Are we interfering with their transformation by trying to reach them, or is it even possible to get to the soul level to be in touch?  Is it arrogance to contemplate such contact?

"At the moment of death you let go lightly, you go towards..God.  The only thing that died, after all, was another set of thoughts of who you were this time around."   Ram Dass from "Grist for the MIll."

Article by Judy Struna