I love stories about the miraculous and sometimes comical events that surround the soul’s transition from this life to the next.  Dr Ona Graham, whose husband Ralph died from throat cancer, shared with me some precious stories of his final days. Ralph wanted to see his two beloved horses again before he died. But try as she might, Ona couldn’t summon them. She suggested to Ralph he reach out to the horses using his mind (as he could no longer speak).  Within 60 seconds, she says, the horses appeared next to the house, prancing and peering in. And better yet, the cows on the neighboring cattle ranch got the message too. They thundered in, breaking down a fence, and came to stand vigil round the house.

Ona  is a neuropsychologist, who lives on Spirit Farm in Georgia. Her home is a healing center (part of the Star Nation Healing Arts Foundation). She has long experience of the spirit world and was pretty comfortable she says when she started to see strange beautiful lights surrounding Ralph before he passed. The first light appeared a few days before he died. It was a misty golden light.  She thinks this was probably ‘his energy disseminating from his body. A second much brighter light appeared shortly before he died. It was around 3am. ‘This light came from the spirit realm,’ she says.  ‘It was a 1,000 times brighter and it felt like intense love.  It was so bright I couldn’t see him anymore.  My sister, who was there too, opened her eyes, saw the light and closed them tightly again.  She thought if she didn’t see the light, it wouldn’t take him.’  Ralph died around 8am that morning.

In the days before and after Ralph’s death, Ona said: ‘He also travelled around the country visiting family and friends.’ I had to think twice about that phrase  before I realized what she meant – that his spirit kept popping up in people’s dreams and  sometimes in their houses too.

Laura’s spirit was  pretty active around the time of her death. More so than I originally realized.  Last week, Brendan (one of her catering coworkers) told me how Laura appeared to him in a dream shortly after she passed.  But first you have to know that  Brendan and Laura worked together the day Laura and I first met. Laura was in two minds whether or not to keep our date  She was dithering and Brendan encouragingly said. ‘What have you got to lose?’ She turned up and the rest is history. In his dream, Laura evidently popped back to thank him. She told him ecstatically: ‘Brendan that date really worked out well – didn’t it!’ It sure did.

The Art of Dying Conference

To hear more extraordinary stories about the soul in transition, I suggest you sign up for the New York Open Center’s Art of Dying Conference (October 13-16, 2017). Its a four day event full of joy filled experiences of people criss crossing back and forth between this world and the realm that surrounds us. It has an impressive international roster of speakers, including doctors, hospice workers, spiritual explorers and scientists.   Parts of the conference are also available to stream online.  You can also read my previous and upcoming blog posts on the conference by putting art of dying conference into the search box.

Art of Dying Conference overview: https://www.artofdying.org/art-dying-conference-6-overview/

Art of Dying Conference schedule: https://www.artofdying.org/program/art-dying-conference/