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Visions before dying


supermishe

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Hello,

Just joined and not sure if this is the right place to post, but thought I'd give it a try...

My mom passed away less than three weeks ago, on Christmas day. I miss her every moment of every day.

The reason I'm posting here is that I was wondering if anyone has/had any experience with their loved one having visions before dying?

My mom was sick with emphysema for quite some time and went on hospice in October. As she became more ill - into December, she started seeing things. Because her medications had been slowly increasing, we chalked it up to her meds.

Most of her visions were of children. She knew they weren't "real", that we couldn't see them, but she was adament that they were there - if that makes any sense. She usually described the children as cute little street urchins, dirty little kids or just little children. I got the feeling she meant they were "Spanky and Our Gang" types of kids.

Anyway, as her time neared, she would wake and although she had difficulty breathing and talking, she would wave to "nothing" and smile. I or my sister would ask her if she was seeing someone and she would smile and nod, usually squeaking out "the little one over there" or something like that.

As I mentioned earlier, she died on Christmas day, surrounded by her three children and her God-daughter - surely the saddest day in my life.

Five days after her death, a friend of hers called my sister to offer condolences and told her that she had a dream about my mother. That Mom was surrounded by children, was playing with them and was laughing and having a wonderful time. This woman would have had NO idea about my mothers visions of children.

I am SO sorry this has been so long winded... I guess my point or question is this - does anyone know anything about visions of children specifically prior to death? I'm very curious to know if others have had this experience.

Thanks to anyone who's managed to read this far!

 

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Hi.  My mother died a little over 4 years ago in a nursing home/assisted living center with pancreatic cancer.  The last month I stayed with her almost day and night.  When I wasn't with her, my brother and sister-in-law were with her.  She "saw" many things and people before her death during those last few weeks.  One time she was waving at someone.  When my sister-in-law asked her who she was waving at, she said it was my father and my two brothers who had died as children.  She said they were waiting for her.  She also saw an angel once.  The nurses in the nursing home said she was having "hallucinations" caused by the meds, but as you will read on this website, many people have these "hallucinations" before death.  I am convinced she was actually seeing people and not having hallucinations.  Many nurses and hospice workers will testify to their patients having these visions before death.  I don't know why it is often dismissed as hallucinations, but I believe they're real.  Interesting and fascinating topic.

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I was a Hospice volunteer for a number of years and during the training sessions we were told that it is very common for those who are near death to see and often speak to loved ones who have died.  I don't know if this can be explained, but I am often reminded of accounts of those who have had near death experiences.  They speak of the "tunnel of light" and how there are often loved ones along that tunnel.  There are those who will say it an halucination, but even if that's true, I say who cares!  If it brings them comfort as they get close to death, I think it's wonderful. 

My youngest brother died nine months before my mom and in the last hours of her life she often said, "Is Ron here yet?"  She was quite lucid and talking to us up until a couple of hours before she died.  About an hour before she lost consciousness she turned her head to the left, stared at a particular spot in the corner for a minute or so and then smiled the most peaceful smile I've ever seen.  After that moment she never asked about Ron again.  I like to think that she saw him.  Whether it's true or not, I don't know, but I know that it helped her relax and pass over to the next life with amazing peace.  It was wonderful to witness.

DianeS

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My Grandfather saw my Grandmother on a white horse just before he passed away.  She passed away before I was born.  He also said he saw his brother's and some other's that had already crossed over in those last days.  Doctor's and Nurse's there also passed it off as being "hallucionations" .  I think this kind of thing happens to ofen and simular to just be a hallucionation.  But I think it's great that they see this stuff, because it is apparent that they have peace before going on.  And who wouldn't want that?

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my mother was ill with CHF and lung failure for like 13 years or longer i think that it went undiagnosed. i took care of her till the very end litterally. the home care hospice left and i took care of her for one day starting @ about 8:00 pm till 10:32 the next morning when she died. i was all alone here with her. i was in a different universe. thats what your mind does to help you i think. i was moving thru the motions but i wasnt still in my body i was just watching myself do everything. i cant explain it but it was so very hard.

 

anyhow before she died like a week before when she was sliping in and out of it,

i asked her do you see  your parents and your grands parents etc ? and was to out of it to speak but was able to gently nod her head yes. i know they were there to take her home. i know they watch me and the others care for her and show as much love and kindness to her as possible bc she was out of it at times and at other times was barely cognitive. there was one day when she was with it enough to speak a little bit not much.

yes i think we go to somewhere when we die either a good place or a bad one.. all the athiest out there may think if they want to please dont be offended here at all but they can think that we die and become trees if they want to. but i believe in something higher and better than what we are now. something that we become with God.  a whole person with no limits or illness etc. you know what i mean. i know God exist's i have spoken to him in my dreams and he has answered me, he is so powerful and magical and controls everything.

it has taken me time to heal it has been like maybe almost 9 months now she died in the beginning of june, and i am starting to go to church every sunday again and am enjoying it some. i am looking forword to moving on as much as is possible after such a humongous, tremedous loss.

yesterday and today i thought to myself its ok to go mom to heaven bc i wasnt able or ready to let her go before. but now i am more able to think its ok mom be at peace i will be ok somehow till we meet again. those moments are short lived but they are there. i will always miss and love her so much but i know she is in great health and is having fun riding horses and singing and laughing again and is probably on a beach somewhere pretty. just seeing her there on a beach like this lady brings me peace i know this letter is so long i am sorry but i had to talk a minute.

i will post a picture in a minute of what i mean

 

 

 

 

 

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For sheela~ AMEN...There is a place, for sure, and pictures like this absolutely and positively prove it...

I am usually at Loss of a Child/Loss of an Adult Child here. Beyond Indigo has helped me so much over the past 3 1/2 years...

God Bless You...My son, Danny, was 25 years old when he departed from this world and moved into his next. His signs have been truly amazing, as he was and still is.

Please, go visit his website and look at all of the photos...

http://www.daniel-pallick.memory-of.com

You will get to know him and his great family after you hang out with him awhile!

LOVE

mamabets

 

 

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SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS,BUT I COULD'NT JUST SIT BY KNOWING THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS AND NOT SAYING ANYTHING. WHAT HE SAW WERE "DEMONS" PRETENDING TO BE LOVED ONES.REMEMBER WHAT THE BIBLE SAY'S, THAT SATAN IS AN ANGEL OF LIGHT,HE HAS POWER. REMEMBER KING SAUL? HE WAS'NT SERVING GOD AND GOD WAS'NT SPEAKING TO HIM, SO HE WENT TO A SPIRITIST (MEDIUM,PALM READER ETC) AND SHE CALLED UP A "DEMON " PRETENDING TO BE THE "PROPHET SAMUEL". THEN THER IS THE STORY OF LASUARUS, A POOR MAN WHO PASSED AWAY ALONG WITH A RICH MAN WHO HAD THE OPPURTUNITY TO HELP HIM BUT DID'NT. THEY BOTH DIE AND ONE GOES TO HELL AND LASAURUS TO THE BOSSOM OF ABRAHAM AND THE RICH MAN ASKS ABRAHAM IF HE COULD GET A CUP OF WATER BECAUSE IT IS HOT AND MISERABLE WERE HE'S AT AND HE IS TOLD THAT IT'S NOT POSSIBLE FOR THERE IS A CHASM BETWEEN THE TWO OF THEM AND NO ONE FROM THERE CAN COME TO WERE HE IS AND VICE VERSA, THEN THE RICH MAN ASK'S IF HE CAN GO BACK AND WARN HIS FAMILY, SO THEY WOULD'NT HAVE TO COME TO SUCH A PLACE AND HE IS TOLD" THAT IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE,THAT EVEN IF HE DID THEY WOULD NOT BELIEVE AND THAT GOD HAD GIVEN HIS BIBLE AND SENT HIS PROPHETS TO WARN PEOPLE SO THEY SHOULD BELIEVE IN HIM.

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[user=19406]johnnyg58[/user] wrote:

SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS,BUT I COULD'NT JUST SIT BY KNOWING THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS AND NOT SAYING ANYTHING. WHAT HE SAW WERE "DEMONS" PRETENDING TO BE LOVED ONES.REMEMBER WHAT THE BIBLE SAY'S, THAT SATAN IS AN ANGEL OF LIGHT,HE HAS POWER. REMEMBER KING SAUL? HE WAS'NT SERVING GOD AND GOD WAS'NT SPEAKING TO HIM, SO HE WENT TO A SPIRITIST (MEDIUM,PALM READER ETC) AND SHE CALLED UP A "DEMON " PRETENDING TO BE THE "PROPHET SAMUEL". THEN THER IS THE STORY OF LASUARUS, A POOR MAN WHO PASSED AWAY ALONG WITH A RICH MAN WHO HAD THE OPPURTUNITY TO HELP HIM BUT DID'NT. THEY BOTH DIE AND ONE GOES TO HELL AND LASAURUS TO THE BOSSOM OF ABRAHAM AND THE RICH MAN ASKS ABRAHAM IF HE COULD GET A CUP OF WATER BECAUSE IT IS HOT AND MISERABLE WERE HE'S AT AND HE IS TOLD THAT IT'S NOT POSSIBLE FOR THERE IS A CHASM BETWEEN THE TWO OF THEM AND NO ONE FROM THERE CAN COME TO WERE HE IS AND VICE VERSA, THEN THE RICH MAN ASK'S IF HE CAN GO BACK AND WARN HIS FAMILY, SO THEY WOULD'NT HAVE TO COME TO SUCH A PLACE AND HE IS TOLD" THAT IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE,THAT EVEN IF HE DID THEY WOULD NOT BELIEVE AND THAT GOD HAD GIVEN HIS BIBLE AND SENT HIS PROPHETS TO WARN PEOPLE SO THEY SHOULD BELIEVE IN HIM.

I am not sure where this is coming from....have you experienced a loss? 

Your comment - BUT I COULD'NT JUST SIT BY KNOWING THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS AND NOT SAYING ANYTHING. Firstly, knowing the truth? By experience, or by stories of old told through the ages?

Your beliefs are so strong and seem to be based in the old Testament......You may find your postings would be better received and understood on the thread -  Grief & Healing from a Christian-Biblical Worldview Page:

As far a visions and such......I nursed my mother in her last weeks.  We sat, I massaged her hands and feet to gain some peace for her.....she never quite settled until my brother was in the room.....in those last days, she would call him Albie (my dad was Albert).  She would hold Bills hand and be calm.  In her final hours she called to Albie to many times......her aggitation settling once she 'saw him'. 

I always acknowledge the strength of faith, the ability of those who 'believe' to overcome much...But comments such as the one above tend to lose the impact of that faith, they evoke a believe or be damned approach that I never understood.......

To those who posted in the spirit of this thread......keep the stories coming....faith and belief can take many forms.....for me, my son has left his earthly being and taken his light and energy to a higher plane........no longer fearful of pain, despair and other human frailties. Not lead or tricked by 'the enemy' but welcomed by those gone before whose energy lit the way for his journey.

Sheela - I think that might by my son on the beach......dark hair.....taking in the sun, sea and wind.......thank you so much.......

As for seeing our loved ones after death......I have one such "visit/dream' that truly touched me and turned my grieving around.  Short version, Mike was sitting in a bright white room, I could barely make him out given the light, but someone (no idea who) suggested looking for the bump on his nose, broken as a young boy.....I came closer and Mike smiled.....the bump was there......It was for me so real, and gave me a calmness that had been lacking in my life for the past year........Fact? Fiction? Real or wishful thinking.....I don't profess to have the answers....but for me....it was so real, he looked straight at me and smiled........

.........Blessed Be....Trudi

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AGAIN, DON'T TAKE THIS PERSONALLY,I MYSELF HAVE HAD LOVED ONE'S THAT HAD PAST AWAY AND COME TO ME IN A DREAM,BUT IKNOW WHAT THE BIBLE SAY'S AND I KNOW THAT THEY ARE DEMON'S,WHEATHER YOU WANT TO DELUDE YOURSELF IS UP TO YOU! YOU CAN ONLY LEAD A HORSE TO WATER,CAN'T MAKE HIM DRINK. AS IT SAY'S IN THE BIBLE "THE GOD OF THIS WORLD HAS BLINDED YOU THAT YOU MAY NOT SEE". I AGREE THAT IT IS A VERY EMOTIONAL TOPIC AND FEELINGS CAN BE SOMEWHAT INTWINNED,BUT YOU CAN'T GO BY YOUR EXPERIENCE'S ALONE. I'VE SEEN PAST LOVED ONE'S AND EVEN ANGELS BUT DO I BELIEVE THEY WERE OF GOD? NOOOO!!! AND THE WAY I KNOW THIS IS FROM READING MY BIBLE. DID'NT MEAN TO CAUSE SUCH A COMMOTION,I SERIOSLY THOUGHT YOU WOULD HAVE AT LEAST CHECKED THINGS MORE THROUGHLY BEFORE YOU JUMP THE GUN ON SOMEONE,INSTEAD YOU LET YOU EMOTIONS GET THE BEST OF YOU(UNDERSTANDABLE) AS FAR AS FAITH GOE'S ,MUSLUMS HAVE IT, THE DEMONS EVEN BELIEVED IN JESUS THAT MEAN THEY WERE RIGHT JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE FAITH? YOU CAN HAVE FAITH IN A COW,WHICH SOME DO! DOE'S THAT MAKE IT RIGHT? AGAIN I APOLIGISE IF I OFFENDED YOU,IT'S APPARENT YOU WERE'NT READY FOR THE TRUTH.   JOHN

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i appreciate your feedback and "no' i was'nt trying to be mean or anything but you being a christian also,when did you plan on telling her? or would you have said anything at all?in eze 33 i believe it says "that if the watchman see's danger and doe'snt warn that person , that  person's blood is on the watchman" meaning you ,who are supposed to be "spiritual", seeing a danger(demons pretending to be loved ones)and don't warn them,then you are held accountable and since i just ran across this site and did not know if i would ever see or speak to this women again.when do you suppose i should say something to her? like the stranger on the street,you sometime's don't have that luxuary . if i had waited,who know's where these demons could lead her.if she was in the spirit as you so like to call it,then the holy spirit should have convicted her and ther ewas no "judgement " made , just a clear statement of facts and reference points to show clairity. it also say's that in the last days people will not listen to sound judgement or doctrine but run after whatever tickles their ears, again i did'nt mean to upset anyone but should i have allowed her to believe a lie when i knew the truth ! or maybe wait ,say until it was to late and they deceived her also?                                         john

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Hey John - I didn't come here to debate, receive or acknowledge the bible, god, demons or such.....I came here because my life altered eternally on January 18th 2007 and this was the one site where my beliefs, social, edcuational or economic standing was irrelevant.

If you want to discuss the matters you write about with such passion, please find a thread/site that welcomes such dialogue.

This thread is for those who want to share, without prejudice or sermon their thoughts, feelings, visions and dreams........

If you have a personal experience that you would like to share, please feel free.

Your previous response was a little confusing to say the least.....to whom were you referring...??

Blessed be

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4everjoeysmom

Hi Trudi, I love the attached image you posted..  Something about angels that now tug at the heart in a deeper way, isn't there?

I thought for a long time and even posted a couple of things in response to John.  But after praying about it for a while, God just told me the battle isn't mine.  We have to reserve our energy for the battles worth fighting, you know?  I think John really believes he's doing the right thing, in the right manner.  But one thing I have learned along the way of this journey is humility.  Some people just need greater circumstances and trial in their lives to learn what that truly means.  You know as well as anyone how I have always interjected my faith in areas where I post, and how uncomfortable that has been at times, which did spark a new thread.  But sincerely, I never want to bash people in the head.  I have too many imperfections in my own life and charecter to know that if anyone needs bashing, I should be first in line.

I think there are people out in the world that look for places like these to interject their opinions and feel like they've done their good deed for the day.  Reality is that if they cannot interject something of their heart, something personal of themselves, something that any one person can connect to and relate with, then their words are generally without soul.  Anyone can open a book and recite a verse.  And John's comment, "should i have allowed her to believe...", well it baffles me that people who do believe in the Bible think that they own control over any situation.  If that were the case I wouldn't allow my mother's husband's Alzheimers to be killing her spirit and wrecking their happy lives.  It takes compassion and empathy, both of which Jesus has, to make the words come alive with meaning for someone who is hurting so deeply.  Some people just don't have that gift.  We are probably best to ignore blatant bashing such as what has taken place here.  It truly is an abuse to this board...  Hugs, Claudia

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4everjoeysmom

John, The title of this particular thread is called "visions before dying".  When I first posted here on this thread I had recalled how Steven, as he was being stoned to death, had a vision of heaven opening up to receive him.  I don't believe demons were associated with his vision...biblically referenced.  And who are we to say we know with absolute certainty that God is not the source of a vision given as a last earthly act of mercy upon a dying person?  One thing I have learned about Scripture, it continues to unfold more knowledge and meaning to me as I study over and over again the same passages and cross references.  There was a time when I, like you, was so adamant that I "knew" what something said and there was no bending it.  But I have learned that there is always something to be learned.  We are not God.  We do not know many of the mysteries of God.  We won't know many things on this side of life.  How do you surmise that all people who have visions before dying are seeing demons when God's word explicity describes what happened to Steven as a godly act?  Revelation is a whole book of one man's account of God-given"visions".  The book of Hebrews is chalk full of exhortation in realizing the unseen over what the world shows us.  "We are to keep our eyes fixed on the eternal", it more or less says.  I agree there is a difference in what some are seeing, but there IS and always will be visions and special insights given from God--to the living and to the dying.  I know, because I "see it in progress" almost daily in the work I do.  Are you saying you know more or have more power and ability than God to know for a fact that people cannot see Him, or heaven, or angels of God before dying?  I'm just curious...  Your posts are pretty haughty...  It seems you, like us, are a continued work in progress, and there is much more to learn.  I don't think any of us have all the answers....yet. 

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Claudia - You are right.  The purpose of being here is to find the understanding and support that affords us the strength to continue our lives. 

The 'spirit' of Beyond Indigo and those within is unconditional care and compassion while on this journey.

To engage in such a 'tirad' of quotes and 'self wisdom' distracts from my reason for being here and confuses the purpose.....so with that thought........

How is being back going?  I noticed you had many visitors on your return.....also, how is Patrick doing.....I find now I have my first year behind me, my vision is returning (metaphorically speaking) and I am learning to live a little....While the loss of Micheal is still predominant in my life, I have found time now for Steven and Melissa (my childen) without being weighed down completely with the cloak of grief..

:D  Trudi

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4everjoeysmom

Trudi, I am glad you are awakening to more relational interraction with your sirviving dear ones.  It takes time for us to feel "life" in our own hearts after what we've been through, and transferring energy that we don;t have to others..  well, that oxymoron speaks for itself.  Patrick is great.  I cherish him.  We talk fairly often.  My mom is having a REALLY hard time...her husband is in advancing stages of Alzheimers and has just in the past couple of days started to have seizures as well.  He's currently hospitalized.  I feel so heartbroken for her, especially hearing her sob as she did when we spoke on the phone earlier this morning.  It tears me up, because I can truly feel that depth of pain, and I know I can do very little but "be there" for her...

I have a visitor coming tomorrow for lunch who is N American and lives here part time, on a nearby farm she owns.  We connected by e-mail last year, but this is our first meeting face to face, and I am pretty excited about that.  I don;t get to meet too many english-speaking people here, except those who visit us from teh States from time to time.  This woman is an anthropologist of sorts, which is what brought here here, I think.  So who knows?  Maybe there will be collaboration on some projects down the road.  A step at a time...  for now, I'm looking forward to the meeting.

Keep being the wonderful support you are for so many here.  It seems like much of the time the only relief we get from our pain is when we feel that something we are doing or saying is helping someone else...at least so it seems to me.  Hugs, Claudia

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There is also a scripture that says that we are "surrounded by a cloud of witnesses."  I like to think that these are loved ones who have gone before us.  I see nothing evil or demonic in those close to death seeing loved ones.  I'd like to think it is maybe God's way of easing us through the transition from life to death, which is often a scary thing for many people.  I think it is a blessing that they are comforted and at peace, leaving those they love here and possibly being led to the other side by those who they have loved and lost.

DianeS

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My father had lost his vision and leg to diabetes in his last weeks before he passed my stepmother would tell me he would look up at the ceiling and see people. My grandmother who had passed came to "pick him up" I'm Devestated that he is gone but I need to keep thinking to myself he is not alone. My father was a generous sensitive all around good person, and I know he is loved and cherished wherever he is now! X

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My father had lost his vision and leg to diabetes in his last weeks before he passed my stepmother would tell me he would look up at the ceiling and see people. My grandmother who had passed came to "pick him up" I'm Devestated that he is gone but I need to keep thinking to myself he is not alone. My father was a generous sensitive all around good person, and I know he is loved and cherished wherever he is now! X

Lala,

My father and my mother-in-law saw "people" right before they passed. We all thought those "people" were angels coming to get our loved ones. You are right--your father is not alone, and neither are you.

We are here if you need us,

ModKonnie

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Im not here to debate but John is doing what the bible says witness to all,You dont have to go over it and over it.You said the right thing and we thank you,but now the ones who want to see for ourselfs its now between God and our selfs .thanks again thoug John

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Jesse David & Taylor Mom

Here is an excellent thread I found on this from the allnurses.com site. These are experiences that are posted from medical people in hospice and end of life care...worth reading through...

http://allnurses.com...ead-428873.html

Another web resource is:

http://www.near-death.com/deathbed.html

 

Just a side note, even Billy Graham's grandmother saw her husband before she died...

 

Hopefully, as time goes on, our culture will gain greater awareness of this phenomena. When such acceptance occurs, more families will greet DBVs as opposed to retreating from them. As was often the case a century ago, visions and otherworldly reunions will once again be viewed as a benefit to all present at the deathbed. For example, the following deathbed reunion was very enlightening for one of America's most famous spiritual leaders.

 

Evangelist Dr. Billy Graham was with his grandmother the day she died. According to a quote in George Gallup Jr.'s work, Adventures in Immortality (1983), Graham's grandmother, who had been very weak, suddenly sat up and announced she was seeing her deceased husband, Ben. Dr. Graham's grandfather fought in the Civil War and had lost a leg and an eye during battle. Just before she died, Graham's grandmother said, "There is Ben, and he has both of his eyes and both of his legs!"

 

The grandmother left this world with a sense of exaltation at seeing her beloved husband whole and healed. The vision must have also been very comforting to Dr. Graham.

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Jesse David & Taylor Mom

From Marth Atkins, Death and Dying Counselor

 

She teaches people about the spiritual aspects of the dying process. From her website:

 

"I see patterns and hear the language + metaphors of the dying. I can help you see and understand them, too.

Being with a dying person can be one of the most difficult yet powerfully transformative experiences of life. If you're prepared, even a little, that will help immeasurably."

 

 

 

More videos located at:

http://www.marthaatkins.com/watch-videos/

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Thanks Laurie, for sharing this with us. I hope it helps to offer comfort to all on this painful journey. 

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Jesse David & Taylor Mom

Article originally posted at:

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-04-22/local/me-518_1_fewer-children

 

*********************************************************************************

 

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-04-22/local/me-518_1_fewer-children

DIANNE KLEIN

The Visions of Dying Children Seem to Bring God Alive

April 22, 1990|DIANNE KLEIN

 

</body>

Dr. Geni Bennetts, director of hematology and oncology at Childrens Hospital of Orange County, is a woman of science. She heals children, or she tries to, with the aid of the world's most advanced medical technology.

I have come to see her today, however, to talk about the vastness beyond the limits of medicine, a phenomenon that fuzzes black and white and verifiable scientific explanations.

 

Talking about this with me makes Geni Bennetts a little uncomfortable. She doesn't want to sound like a kook, which she is most certainly not.

 

"I cannot accept it as science," she says. "I accept it as part of life. I have never tried to prove it--or disprove it. I just accept it."

 

Dr. Bennetts and I are talking about life after death, about hope, and about children's amazingly similar visions only hours, or moments, before they die.

 

Listening to children foretell their own deaths, and then hearing them comfort the parents they will leave behind, has changed Dr. Bennetts' life. Never in her 15 years of treating children with cancer has she found a child's premonition to be wrong.

 

When Geni Bennetts tells me some of these children's stories, her eyes, and my own, cloud with tears.

Seven-year-old Danny had leukemia. He was hospitalized at CHOC and was not expected to survive. His friend, Timmy, had died not long before.

 

Late one afternoon, Danny's mother was at his bedside as her son slept. When he awoke, Danny found his mother in tears.

"Don't cry," Danny told his mother. "Do you see my angel? She's outside my window. She's telling me that she is going to take me to Timmy. She says that Timmy and I are going to go fishing."

 

Danny died later that night.

 

Some of the children that Dr. Bennetts tells me about have come from religious homes; others have not. All of them have been on medication, but their visions, reported matter-of-factly between more prosaic talk of everyday life, belie the suggestion that they spring from a drug-induced haze.

 

"We in medicine have seen people hallucinating," Dr. Bennetts says. "It isn't like that. These children are perfectly lucid."

 

The number of children who have had peaceful visions of their own death is impossible to know. Dr. Bennetts, however, is not the first to publicly talk about them.

 

Dr. Diane Komp, a specialist in oncology and a professor of pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, is writing a book about similar experiences with her young patients.

 

After publishing an article in Theology Today in October, 1988, which spawned further publicity, she says many parents wrote to tell her of their children's peaceful deaths after experiencing such visions--during their waking hours or in their dreams.

 

"I think the impartation of peace from these experiences is what has had the most impact on me," says Dr. Komp, who has been practicing medicine for almost 25 years.

 

Dr. Bennetts says fewer children tell her of their visions these days because, thanks to medical advances, fewer of her patients die. And if it is at all possible, physicians honor requests to transfer terminally ill children to their homes.

 

Still, it seems, regardless of where a child dies, the stories of deathbed visions are remarkably the same.

 

"So many of the kids talk to their angels," Dr. Bennetts says. "One mother called me after her child died at home. She said the angels were there too."

 

And many of the terminally ill, she says, hang on to life until they have completed certain tasks.

Michelle, stricken with bone cancer, had been a patient of Dr. Bennetts for seven years. One day, Dr. Bennetts called on her in her hospital room. Michelle, then 21 years old, asked if she was going to die.

"I said yes. And then I started to cry. I told her I had done my best. She started to comfort me. She said that she just needed to know and then she showed me a list, which I didn't even read then, of the things that she wanted to get done. Before she died, everything on that list was done. . . .

 

"Children seem to know when life is leaving them, even at 2 or 3 years of age," Dr. Bennetts goes on. "I've seen one 3-year-old sit up in bed and say, 'I'm dying,' and two hours later, the kid was dead. . . . These children are not afraid if they are not in pain."

 

Another CHOC patient, 5-year-old Johnny, had leukemia. He had been close to a little girl, Erica, who had died of a brain tumor.

 

Johnny, at the time, was a big fan of "Star Wars." The movie had just come out. Johnny was taken by ambulance to see the movie in a theater, while lying on a gurney. He had all his "Star Wars" toys lined up at the foot of his hospital bed.

 

"I was in the room," Dr. Bennetts says. "And he started talking to someone. He was perfectly lucid. He had been talking to me and his mother. Then he said it was Erica who was there, and that she wanted to play with his toys. He wouldn't let her."

 

Over the next few days, Johnny told of seeing Erica again and again. He still wouldn't allow her to play with his toys.

 

"I had been thinking, as this went on, that if Johnny let Erica play with his toys, maybe he would die. . . . That's exactly what happened. The day that he told his mother that he was going to play with Erica was the day he died."

 

Jonathan, who was 8 years old, had a brain tumor, but he had been receiving chemotherapy and his condition was stable. Dr. Bennetts thought he had, at the very least, several more months to live.

 

"One night, at 2 in the morning, he bolts upright in bed," Dr. Bennetts says. "He says, 'I want to see a priest.' He wasn't Catholic, so I didn't really understand this, but he was demanding to be blessed and to see his mother and father and brother.

 

"They called me, and I told them to go ahead and call everyone. Father Mack (then a chaplain with St. Joseph's Hospital) got out of bed and blessed him. I came in. His family came in. He said goodbye to everyone. He said he knew he was dying and that everything was fine. He lay down and never woke up.

"I couldn't have predicted for anything that he would have died that night."

 

Another boy, a 4-year-old Asian whose family did not practice a Christian faith, had a vision of an angel visiting him and then summoned members of the hospital staff into his room. He thanked each of them for helping him and then he said goodbye.

 

"Then he laid down and died," Dr. Bennetts says. "He was not upset, not at all. But you can imagine. There wasn't a dry eye on the floor."

 

Geni Bennetts says that for most of her life, she did not believe in life after death. She has abandoned the religion of her childhood, and to this day she is not formally affiliated with any faith.

 

Yet her experiences with dying children have deepened her personal conviction that there is indeed a God, one who has taken, and cradled, the children that she loved.

 

"God was real to these children," she says. "It certainly is comforting to me that these kids are going on to a better place, where someone is taking care of them better than I could. I couldn't fix them. . . . These kids have changed my life."

 

 

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jamielagano1977

I dont know if im in the right place or not. But I wanted to share a few things.

In August 1989, my Uncle was murdered. At his viewin, I walk in to see him and my heart sunk. I had just turned 12 in June. My Grandmother, my Mother and I walked back in together to see him again, and this time, I saw him over his body and I started cryin more. I looked down at him and I noticed my Uncle was cryin too. I then pointed it out to my Grandmother and Mother, and said to them, "He's here. Look up." And they did. Tho, all 3 of us were cryin, we were smilin too. How is it possible you ask? Trust me, it's possible! A few days after his death, my Mother and myself, felt his presence multiple times. One of the days, we were cleanin his room: dustin, vacuumin. And as my Mother vacuumed his room, the vacuum shut off. It was still plugged in and we knew somethin was up. My Mother looked at me and I at her, and turns back as to the vacuum and says, "Ok Tommy, we know your here. I need to get your room cleaned up for your children." And all of a sudden, the vacuum turns back on. Another time, my baby sister and I were sleepin in my Mother and Father's old room (they gave it to us because we weren't gonna sleep in same room as my baby brother, and my parents slept in the livin room), my Uncle came out of our room from checkin on us girls and he looked at my Mother, put his finger to his mouth as to say shhh, and then smiled at her. She said the only reason she had seen him, is because, she thought she saw the hallway light come on. But it wasn't on. The light was comin from my Uncle. Different things happened here and there, like, my sister and I were outside by my Grandfather's garage listenin to a cassette tape with my Uncle's favorite song. We had just bought it the day before. We were singin and talkin. We thought the tape was defective because it kept actin weird. So we rewound it and played it again and it seemed to work. It got to a certain point in the song and we heard our Uncles voice. He said hi to us and said he miss us. We knew then that he was with us. Months past, less and less we felt his presence. We had to let go so he could go to Heaven. It was his time.

These next 2 happened to me as an adult. I was married to my 1st ex-husband at the time. His Grandmother had past 2 days before Christmas 1999. A week later, around midnight, we were in bed sleepin. I was awaken by the smell of fresh roses in our room. We didn't have fresh roses in our room! I sat up, looked around, saw roses bloomin in our room. I thought I was loosin it at first. So I laid back down, cuddled up to him and closed my eyes. I was awaken again by a light. A light that was shinin down upon him. Then it was gone. I then realized, his Grandmother knew I could sense and see things other people couldn't. She loved fresh roses. And the light was his Grandmother tellin me that she was ok. She was home in Heaven. Another time was somethin different. I was still married to my 1st husband. We were in bed asleep. It was around 2:30am, and I opened my eyes, yawned and turned. As I turned to lay on my right side, I see somethin and I thought I was dreamin, but I knew I was fully awake now. I sit up in bed, look to my right and I see an Angel. Look up and I see another. Two more at the end of my bed. They were beautiful! I proceed to ask if they were here (in the bedroom) to take 1 of us or my children. They shook their head no. They did not speak verbally. I was confused and puzzled on why I was seein them. Then they left, leavin me puzzled. Hours later we get a phone call. It was my husband's mother sayin that we needed to get over to our sister-in-law's house, that somethin bad happened. Our sister-in-law's father had died an hour before we were called. He worked for a tree service and was in a tree cuttin it when he had his heart attack, fell out of the tree and died. I knew then why the Angels were there for. To worn me that someone was goin to die. I told our sister-in-law a couple of years later what happened that day at 2:30am. I told her I didn't realize who it was gonna be to die. She understood and forgave me.

Today, if I sense anythin or anybody, I watch for the signs. It's not trickery or evil. I know the difference and it's all true!

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