General Chat

So am I Andrew - unless he really does think that funeral directors should believe in life after death. As a f/director I do not judge other peoples' beliefs, and treat each client according to their requirements/beliefs with the respect they deserve. My own personal beliefs do not come into it at all. Leonard does not know my personal beliefs on any matter, and I would not deign to be so pompous as to denegrate anyone elses beliefs. As I said before, if comfort is drawn from experiencing the "presence" of a deceased person, then jolly good - it doesnt however mean that if a person has not experienced such things they are devoid of faith or belief. I am really annoyed at him and will e-mail him directly. Jacqui

Jacqui - Have a nice swig of that Glass of red first!! - very nice to read how caring you are about your clients...go easy on Leonard...and hope to read the outcome here!

Jaqui I know nothing of you or your belief system and would never knowingly offend you - or anyone else. If I have done so then I apologise. Any remarks I make on these boards are generalisations. If anyone takes a swipe at me, I will ignore it - suggest you do likewise.

Now now you girls,(and that does include you Leonard) stop being bitchy with each other this is a freindly board and we all have our own opinions, I personally would not be upset by any comments that people make, Jacquie and Leonard should now kiss and make up........Life is too short.........

Gillian - Maybe you should not start a debate then? Being "mumsy" and "patronsing" to the people who have added to your comments..does not seem correct to me....did you want everyone just to agree with you...whilst being "friendly" of course....Leonard and Jacqui seem perfectly adult enough to look after themselves...and sparked a great debate....although not terribly intellectual.....it's a fun subject...and will throw up some strong opinion ( you still with me) :o) Oh, good luck with your "ghost" hope (the ghost) does not cost you to much in new picture frames...... :o) At least, I now know what the "ghost" is trying to tell you ..most satisfying that!!

Update - Leonard has apologised (although his "generalisation" only included funeral directors as a profession - no butchers, brick layers or bomb disposal experts!!) lol. Apology accepted. Gillian - you did open the debate (unless of course you only wanted to hear from like minded individuals, in which case you should have stated that, and those of us who do not necessarily share your views would not have bothered joining in) Andrew - thank you for your support - Me thinks you and I have tongues in cheek!!! Well, off to see what spirits are about - alki versions!!! Jacqui

Hi Gillian, Been away from puter for a few days. I did not say whether I believed or not - just for the record, ghosts to date do not scare me. Just for the record [for the doubting thomas's], I have had more than one odd occurrence, for which there is NO NATURAL explanation. I am not some easily persuaded starry eyed teenager, I'm a silver surfer. Served some years in the armed forces, and have retired having completed 30 years as an operational firefighter. Very much down to earth. I'll not recound the experiences here, but just wanted to reassure you that my flippant comment was not intended to offend, and if it did I apologise sincerely. [I have a flippant sense of humour - it is part of the shell with which firefighters protect themselves] Gillian, if you are genuinely interesed in what I have hinted at, email me. Badger Bill

Jacqui - Very firmly tongue in cheek ! - Hope we bump ..( oh i don't mean when things go bump in the night) into each other again in the gb!

Hi Badger Bill Like you, I have been in the armed forces - in WW2. Seen much death and suffering and, regretably, caused some. I too have had some odd experieces in life which can only be described as being of a spiritual nature. As you, I am of a pragmatic disposition. I studied theology and paleontology is my early days and as a result no longer subscribe to any sectarian religion. My IQ is not what it was, which used to be 156, but I am not yet daft or senile - but I feel quite uplifted when something supernatural occurs. Would love to meet a ghost to exchange thoughts. Even quantum mechanics is exciting.

When I pass on, which can't be long now; well past my sell- by date, I'm taking my mobile with me. Anyone like me to call?

Leonard - If you have not read any of Michael Bentine's books on the subject, I would highly recommend them - He was in the RAF during WWII as an Intelligence Office - His paranormal experiences both as a young man and during the war are a superb read. I thought they would be out of print but www amazon(.)co(.) uk do have them. WWII fasinates me in many aspects, I have to believe that during this time and post - many things of a paranormal nature occurred without a doubt ......I wish you luck with your Ghost search ..I would like to think - that you could be successful, many have tried. As for the mobile phone...Harry Houdini thought he could escape death by "returning" at a set time at a seance - he never escaped! Big, big subject the paranormal one which I personally have a great interest in...some things are amusng though and need to be treated as such - and I can see by your last message you have a sence of fun too - excellent Good on ya Leonard - Best Regards Andrew

....and Leonard, please ask my grandma where the postcard that she promised to send me is?? She was going down below because she said it would be more fun than up above. She went 10 years ago - even allowing for slow post it ought to have got here by now - unless it got burnt on the way up!! Seriously tho - I definitely think there are forces at work that we don't understand - have experienced instances of esp and deja vue, and altho have no proof of contact with the spirit world have heard enough stories that make me wonder....

Hi Leonard. I missed WW2, but I know what you mean. If I reply in full on here, they'll think I've gone maudlin. Give me your number, and let me know when you are gone, and I'll give it a try, provided that you promise to phone me if I go first. Badger Bill

Ghosts....a fascinating subject! I have a paranormal research group....South Jersey Paranormal Research, and our finds can be viewed at www(.)sjpr(.)org. We've captured spirit energy on both video and still pics as well as voices, audibly. Another excellent website, another group I had joined to learn from before starting a group of mine own is South Jersey Ghost Research, www(.)sjgr(.)org....(web addresses to sights are different by a letter.) Andrew, thanks for the head's up on WWII reading....I'll be placing my order for the book. There were two very good books I finished recently on the subject, War Diaries and Ghost Soldiers.....both excellent books! War Diaries were letters written by soldiers covering several different wars, Ghost Stories was a true story of one of the units fighting during WWII. Judy

Andrew I have read the late Michael Bentine's book. I believe one was called The Door Marked Summer. I sent a copy to Dr Jonathon Miller but it was not acknowledged. I corresponded with Michael . I asked why he was so upset at someone's impending death when he knew it wasn't the end. He replied that he was upset because of the suffering the bereaved ones would go through. A very nice man. I do not usually discuss paranormal matters. So many people have no experience of it and most are terrified of the unknown. How do you tell a person who has been blind from birth about a rainbow or sunset or a meadow full of flowers? How do you explain music to a tone-deaf person? I read recently that a group of profoundly deaf parents were outraged by the suggestion that their genetically deaf children should be provided with cochlear inplants that would enable them to hear

Leonard - Super you have corresponded with the late MB. He was a very interesting - extremely intelligent man - must have been a delight to correspond with the man directly., no other "medium" has written in such a genuine, honest and emotional way. Maybe you should say more about your experiences - however, shame on you for palming me off with some old cobbled together philosophy :o) - looks like an excuse to me.... (of which I can only guess as to why) - how would anyone learn or be informed if information was not passed on, to use your analogy even to the deaf and blind although, I am not really thinking of physical disabilities more intellectually - My point being..(at last) maybe you should write your experiences and knowledge, if you have not done so already...I am sure, even if they were published on the internet anonymously..people would find them fascinating and enlightening, just let me know the web address OK!!! :o) Judy - Pleased you will order the book - you will not be diappointed!!! - Thanks for your weblinks, I will check them out! -

My father had difficulty 'passing over', my sister as a teenager saw him passing from one room to the other , not knowing that my mother was on the phone to the doctor to inform of his death and had no knowledge he had died at that point. Unexplainable things kept happening in the house like light bulbs dropping all the time, taps turning on by themselves pictures falling off the wall. We encouraged my mother to speak to the doctor because we thought it might help her come to terms with the loss and that she may have been keeping him there. The doctor said he had seen much of this in his time when a sudden death had occurred. We were put in contact with a curate who did a kind of ceremony in the house, which didn't help, my father was a lovely man but had no religious faith. Eventually after many years I saw a trance medium and was told that my father had had difficulty accepting he was dead. Because of the prayers we had put out for him he eventually received help from passed members of the family names I recognised like his father, his uncle and his best friend (who I didn't know at that stage had also passed on). I had not gone for this information but was given much in a very loving way to put my mind at rest. I know my father watches over us now from a much higher realm, my daughter has had two near death experiences and recovered miraculously, and although you may view this with scepticism there's a whole host of rellies out there watching out for your progress. They aren't allowed to interfere with your lives but can help give you some prompts if you ask. I have been reading this week of someone giving Reiki to her family tree and getting fantastic results from out of the blue contacts. It pays to be sceptical but always keep an open mind. Marion

Andrew My "cobbled together philosophy" was a botched attempt at an analogy. I am a better speaker than writer. In face to face conversation 10% of communication is verbal the remaining 90% is by body language and facial expression. I was attempting to get across how difficult it is to get anyone to understand - or even get a glimmering of - something of which they have had no experience and probably for which they have poor or atrophied receptors. As I remarked before, only personal experience is valid; other people's accounts of the paranormal are merely anecdotal although, if troubled, it is helpful and can be enlightening to talk to someone knowledgable on the subject.. Laurens van de Poste, in his books on the bush people of Namibia suggested that everyone has extra sensory perception but that, in modern society , it is buried under a hard veneer of civilization. I would suggest that transcendental meditation is a way of uncovering it.

Andrew I also wrote to the late Carl Sagan after reading his book on the evolution of the human brain. I did not make personal contact with the man but corresponded with Pearl Druyan his "First Personal Assistant" who, I discovered later, was his wife. I enquired, amongst other things, about ESP and how one could become aware of being stared at by a person not in view. Most people have had this experience (or have stared at someone absentmindedly only to have that person suddenly turn round and make direct eye contact). I never got an reply on the subject from the great scientist but Pearl Druyan wrote to me saying that she once had observed a man on the ground, through binoculars, from behind a screen, from a long way up in sky scraper hotel, only to have that man suddenly look in her direction and, to use her words to "make eyeball to eyeball contact". She concluded "what do you make of that, Mr Preece" forgeting that it was me needing the answers.

Marion Your account is unusual but not that uncommon. I was a counsellor for 10 years and had several clients who had had this sort of experience. I met one young man who was haunted by his brother who had been stabbed and killed in an affray. The man was terrified but I managed to convince him that his brother was not a threat, just someone lost who needed help. It that case the man's priest was enlisted and he sorted things. I once went to a public demonstration at the Spiritualists Association in Grosvenor Square, London. To my surprise, I was selected, out of about 100 people, for a message. It was from my grandfather. He wore a seaman's outfit, walked with a limp and when he passed over did not believe but had changed his mind. I was also supposed to have an oil-painting of him. All this was news to me so I disputed it and was rather terse with the medium for supposing I was gullible. Some months later I was with an elderly aunt and related this to her. First of all she gave me a rocket for dabbling. Then she added that I ought to be ashamed for knowing so little of my grandad. He always wore a seamans outfit. He walked with a limp through stopping a bolting horse with a carriage with people in it and got his leg badly broken - and of course I had an oil-painting of him - it was only small and was in a box of old photos she had given me (unopened at the time). She added that soon after his death, she and her sister,now dead, had. at the sister's insistence, gone to a seance in Brighton but apparently it came to nothing and the seance had to be canceled as "a powerful influence in seamans garb was present, disapproved and was blocking the seance"