Harbingers of Hope: Ghosts as proof of a post death existence.

By Richard Senate

Artwork Ricardo Pustanio

What is the greatest question of them all? It can only be the one that has haunted mankind from the days of our earliest cave dwellers. Do we survive the transition called death? Does a fragment of our essence survive in a new form?

For me the question is settled. There is a post death experience. I do not know what form it will take or what it will look like but I am convinced that it is so. I do not base this upon some religious belief but upon years of research in the study of ghosts and the paranormal. I believe that ghosts offer the best proof that post death survival exists. Too many people have seen too many things for just too many years.

Scientific evidence is lacking but the antidotal evidence is overwhelming. The number of people who have seen loved ones at funerals is amazing. Some may well be wishful thinking, stimulated by grief but the number of them is impressive. Widows report seeing their dead husbands in compelling numbers. One poll listed this phenomena as somewhere in the neighborhood of 80%.

Perhaps the most compelling evidence are cases of crisis apparitions when a person sees a loved one and gets a message only to discover that very time, thousands of miles away, their loved one made the transition called death. The number of such events is staggering. Many are linked to accidents and wars. My files are filled with cases and this is true of many who investigate ghosts and the paranormal.

One typical case was that of a bank manager in Thousand Oaks, California. She is from New Jersey originally. He brother never amounted to much, choosing to live a carefree life based around drinking, drugs and motorcycles. He was a natural mechanic and could always find work, when he wanted it.

One night his sister in California woke up at one a.m. and saw a blue light in the hallway of her condo. She watched as it grew brighter then, it became a floating ball of light blue light. Strangely enough, she wasn’t frightened. She watched as it glided into her bedroom up to the bed. Then, from the ball, came the un-mistakable voice of her brother. “I just came to let you know I’m all right,” he said, “I’m Ok, everything is the way it should be.” Then the ball floated out of the room and back down the hall. She went back to sleep convinced it was some sort of strange dream.

Early the next morning the phone rang. It was her mother in New Jersey calling to tell her that her brother was dead. He had been killed when a van forced him off the road the night before.

She was devastated by the news. She took leave from her job and flew back home for the funeral. After the graveside service, that was attended by nearly a hundred of his biker buddies, they went back to the family home. Her sister was there. She lives in New York where she works for a large investing company. She said as they mourned their loss. “The night Jimmy died I had this strange dream—there was this glowing blue ball…” She had seen the exact same thing! Later, when they checked what was left of Jimmy’s Harley they saw the once beautiful custom bike was painted a light blue.

The story is typical of many. The most compelling part is the message the man gave, it similar to many messages given out by phantoms. They say that everything is OK, they are, in fact, all right. They tell their loved ones that everything is as it should be.

To me this story confirms the basic truth, that there is a life beyond this existence. I like to think that the early Nineteenth Century Spiritualists were right. They said that there were seven heavens. Our role on this earth plane was to discover, learn and grow. If we didn’t learn our lessons, there is another existence to perfect our souls. They called this place “Summerland” and here one must work, live, make friends and evolve into a better person. No harps or wings in this afterlife, only new ways to expand and perfect one’s self. The Spiritualists also believed that some souls could return to the earth and help people. They were the guides and spirit helpers found in every culture.

Perhaps one personal event convinced me of life after death. My aunt Cora was a tall woman. She was a deeply devout Roman Catholic. I don’t believe there was another, this side of the clergy, who had the faith she carried. But, in her seventies she visited a nephew and his large dog jumped up and knocked her down, She broke her hip, then suffered a stroke. She was bedridden for almost two years before, wasting away, she passed mercifully out of this existence. One thing she always did was buy a new car each year. She was a private accountant who knew every trick in the book to save her clients money. She was much in demand and earned a good salary before the accident.
My sister, Peggy, took care of her those last months. She left what money, not much after the doctors and hospitals were done, as well as the car, then three years old, to my sister. She told her that when she died, she would come back and give her a sign that she was all right and that there really was a life after death.

The funeral was a sparse affair. Even the young priest who conducted the Mass didn’t know her. It was a sad day when she was taken from the church she had attended for decades to the Culver City Cemetery. We formed the long procession with the white hearse in front, my sister next, driving Aunt Cora’s car. As they turned into the cemetery, the horn on Cora’s car went off and didn’t stop. It just kept blasting away. We had to stop the car, open the hood and disconnect the horn. I asked why my sister used the horn, there was no one coming. “I didn’t touch it,” she said. “It just went off by itself.”

We knew then that my aunt had given us a sign and that she was, in some way, with us still.
My research has given me a new confidence that this sorry world isn’t the last stop. The grave isn’t the end, only a door to an ever greater adventure.

Also See: Richard Senate's Top Thirteen Haunted Places in Southern California and where you can spot a ghost! Richard Senate's Top Thirteen Haunted Places in Southern California and where you can spot a ghost.

About Richard Senate

Richard Senate is one of the top ghost investigators of our generation. He is an "Historian And Ghost Stalker" author of several prominent books on ghosts and paranormal phenomenon, and has appeared on just about every paranormal television and radio show there is.

California-based author and lecturer. 59 years of age--old enough to know better.
His official web site at www.ghost-stalker.com . Author of Ghost Stalker's Guide To Haunted California (Mass Market Paperback) by Richard Senate (Author), Jane E. Gilbert (Editor, Photographer), John Whyman (Author)

Also see: 20 QUESTIONS WITH Richard Senate

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