Time flies

I can’t believe it’s been a whole week since my last post. Perhaps I needed a break to let the full impact of my reading with a medium sink in. I always knew in my heart he survived and was embracing a new life on the other side but to have it confirmed in such uncertain terms by someone who knew nothing about him and who gave me so much evidence that it was undeniable, takes it to another level. What is also wonderful is that it finally confirms it from believing to knowing. My grand mother, in all the times she popped in when I was having readings, never gave such precise information that could confirm without a shadow of a doubt that it was her. And much to my sorrow, none of my aunts did either. Dad did. Thank you Dad. Your performance was outstanding.

I took the risk of sharing snippets of it with my fiance (none of my loved ones believe in life after death) and he said my interest in the afterlife was unhealthy. This did not surprise me. We don’t have to agree on everything. After all, he thinks like the majority of people. But what fascinates me is that he wants to know but he doesn’t so he is constantly torn between curiosity and perhaps some deep seated superstition that come from hearsay. He says he is open minded but frankly I don’t think so. Not in this respect anyway because he didn’t do the only thing that to me indicates that he would be open minded which is: to try it and make up his own mind. He says he has his own mind and he sits on the fence. In a way, I think I take a more scientific approach than him because most of my beliefs have been tested. And tested some more. I have what one would call a healthy skepticism but because I have kept my open mind and tried and listened to “the other side” – the crowd of people who live with the dead on a daily basis – I now know that they tell the truth.

There is no way I am going to mention this to my mother. She would probably send me to a priest to have me exorcised. After all, she considers that illness and suffering are God’s will. When I saw a medium after my grand mother’s death thirteen years ago, she demanded that I speak to someone who would put me straight. Supposedly a wise and saintly woman who suffers a lot (why I am getting an allergic reaction?)  but who never complains. My grand mother used to do that: she would shut us up by reciting a list of all the things we suffered as if it made her more special than us and more worthy. I think that’s a side effect of the teachings of the Roman Catholic church and it’s emphasis on sacrifice and suffering. Yuck! And neither my mother nor my grand mother are religious. It does confirm to me that it does not matter if you are religious or not, when you are born in a culture that has been so massively impacted and influenced by one religion, you espouse its principles whether you go to church or not. Or as it stands in the case of my mother and grand mother, its bigotry and superstitions.

I realised just how much one can be influenced by religious beliefs when living in a country when I lived abroad for one year at the age of seventeen. I was doing a gap year in Finland and I was struck by how influential Catholicism was on the French culture and Protestantism on the Finnish culture even on people who claimed not to be religious. You learn an awful lot about your own culture when you are exposed to the habits of another country. I highly recommend it.

And yet, it is these superstitions that are keeping people from experiencing a sense of peace. It’s certainly no short cut for grief because we are left behind and we can’t hug them and talk to them anymore. And if they did go “before their time” (the jury is still out on this one) we can’t help asking ourselves why. But knowing that they are happy and being able to resolve unfinished business with them if there is, is surely worth taking a little risk. Isn’t it? Even my Dad said so. He, the devout catholic, acknowledge the medium and thanked both of us for making the communication possible for him.

Blessings

Ange de Lumiere

Now you are talking

I booked a session with a medium to talk to my dad. The way it happened was interesting in itself, as this medium had at least a six month waiting list if not longer. But her holiday was cancelled and so she offered some slots on Facebook. So instead of having to wait until November, I got an appointment three weeks later. The most surprising thing is that I saw her message on Facebook announcing some openings as I very rarely go on there. I know, however, that when spirits conspires, it transpires. In other words, spirit works overtime to make things happen.

I was very disappointed by the mediumship performance I went to last week. It wasn’t because the medium was not good: she was brilliant. But because I didn’t get any messages and with one grand mother, three aunts, an uncle and a father in heaven, that is quite a disappointment. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised though because my father was a very private man. I don’t think he would have wanted to put me on the front stage. I don’t think I would like it either, now that I think of it. I am very private myself.

He was there at today’s appointment all right. And boy did he chat. He was unstoppable. The funniest was how he explained that he was finding it very hard to adjust to what the spirit world is like because it isn’t anything like what he had been brainwashed to think by the Catholic Church. He is finding it hard to get his head around it. He showed the medium how he died of pneumonia. And it’s true, although he suffered from advanced brain tumour, it’s a lung infection that actually sped things up and got him to the other side in less than a week.

He thanked me for all the healing prayers I did for him. That was good because I knew he would have not approved of me doing it but it felt right to do it. Healing is still considered by most churches, particularly the Catholic Church, as evil which is particularly ironic considering Jesus was one of the most powerful healers of all times. It’s always hard to know what is right to do for a loved one: do you respect their faith or do you do what you know is right? But he says he finally understands me now. And he can’t apologise enough.

It was good to hear how much he likes my book about death and dying. For a devout catholic, that’s surprising but it goes to show that once we are on the other side, our understanding broadens dramatically. In his own words, he can see things so much more clearly now. He even showed the medium what happened at the time of his passing: apparently he walked up a hill into a monastery of some sort. I am not surprised in the least. My father was such a devout catholic he nearly became a priest and then, I would have never have written this blog. Phew. Life sometimes hangs to a thin thread. He was told he didn’t have it to be a priest and to go home and get married and start a family. Yes!!!

But the sweetest of all was him confirming that the dream I had about him last night was real. Yes, he did come to visit me for the first time in my dreams, in preparation for today. And he said how grateful and appreciative he was to be able to speak to me through a medium today.

Before he said goodbye, he said he would be there in spirit for my wedding next year. I already bought the garland that I will put in my hair and he described it in detail, as if he was there when I bought it. Now, that should give anyone goosebumps.

The medium I saw today knew nothing about my Dad. She didn’t know he was a devout catholic. She didn’t know how he had died, let alone what he died of. She didn’t know my Dad had good reasons to feel sorry and to apologise the way he did to me. She didn’t know I placed my father in a prayer circle, nor that I lit a candle for him as he was dying in his hospital bed in a beautiful church in Montmartre. The level of details she gave was very impressive.

Blessings

Ange de Lumiere

Is there life after death

Given how many testimonials have been given by mediums of the existence of an after life, I am surprised so many people still resist the idea. I have always been open to the idea that we are more than our flesh and bones. But it was only an idea until 2001. I had read almost any possible book on past lives and reincarnation. This contradicted my upbringing as I came from a family of doctors and engineers who also happened to be devout Christians.

Then in 2001, I moved to the UK. And a few weeks later, my grand mother died. We were very close, but unfortunately, the life of a working mum of two young children had made it very difficult for me to visit. Especially as she was placed in a nursing home four hours away from where I lived. My mother had come to visit me in England for a week. She was in constant contact with her sister over the phone, who was keeping her informed of how my grand mother was doing, as we were all aware that her death was impending.

Then one morning, I woke up having made a strange dream. My grand mother was in that dream. She came to me and said “Darling I am going. It’s my time to go. I am very happy. Don’t be sad.” Then she sang me a lullaby that she used to sing to me as a child, the numerous times where she came to look after me, my sister and my brother. I said “Wait, Mamie. Don’t go yet” I had so many questions to ask her but she floated away and waved and kept on saying “Don’t be sad”. That morning, my aunt called to say that my grand mother was found dead in her bed. It was only a dream, you might say. But the fascinating thing was that my sister, who lived thousand miles away in Boston had the same dream as I had. And I remembered that she was in my dream as well.

A year later, I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, when I heard my little girl, who was four years old talking in her sleep. I went into her room and saw that she was wide awake and when I turned my head to look at what she was talking to, I saw a bright light. I went back to bed, told my boyfriend about it, then went back to sleep and forgot all about it. It felt like a dream. When I talked to the grand mother of my children in their Dad’s side three weeks later, she told me that this incident happened at the precise moment her own mum had died. My daughter was very fond of her great grand mother. It seems that she had come to day good bye to my little girl the way my grand mother had a year before. Only children are much more open to non physical beings in their early years. My son was gutted that his great grand mother had not visited him as well but I knew why. He was eight years old. At that age, children have been in school so many years that their intuitive side has been crushed by the huge emphasis on the “real”. Their ability to see invisible people has shut down.

I have read in numerous books written by mediums how people at the time they die go to say goodbye to their loved ones. Most people cannot hear or see them, mostly because we live in an extremely materialistic world, but also because at the time of death of a loved one, we are wrapped on our grief and this grief creates like a cloud around us which prevents us from hearing or feeling their presence. And yet how much comfort would we get from knowing that they are here, close to us and willing to comfort us about how happy they are?

In fact, although I was sad that my grand mother died, I felt incredibly blessed that she had taken the trouble to tell me how happy she was to go and finally give me that proof that I so much needed and had sought. It certainly softened the edges of my grief. Even today, her death feels magic.

And that’s what I wish you to experience, when you lose a loved one. Or if you haven’t, please consider going to a reputable medium to get this comfort.

Blessings

Ange de Lumiere