If the Resurrection is resurrection from the dead, all hope and freedom are in spite of death. –Paul Ricoeur
Do we rise again? Do you believe in the resurrection?
Icon of the Resurrection (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
At Easter we retell the the story of the passing of Jesus Christ and how he was resurrected. While the crucifixion is a sad event the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus is a joyous one. The resurrection gives the faithful hope that there is an afterlife where you will be reunited with your loved ones.
What if you’re not sure?
What if you think the story of Jesus being resurrected is just that, “a story?”
I used to think that it was only a story myself.
I am an Orthodox Christian raised in the Greek Orthodox Church. In the Orthodox Church the resurrection is believed to have been a real event:
The Resurrection of Christ is the central event in the liturgical year of the Eastern Orthodox Church and is understood in literal terms as a real historical event. According to Eastern Orthodox tradition, each human being may partake of this immortality, which would have been impossible without the Resurrection; it is the main promise held out by God in the New Testament. (http://religion.wikia.com/wiki/Orthodox_Church)
I spent years going to church with my family on Easter Sunday believing the story of the resurrection was a myth based on mass-hypnosis captured for all eternity in a bible story.
Beliefs and reality are tested
I was sixteen when my uncle passed. That night after his death I awoke a little after 3 am to see him coming towards me. I sat up as he approached and rubbed my eyes to make sure I was really seeing what I was seeing. He bent down and “tweaked” my nose which was his signature way of greeting nieces and nephews. I remember my heart pounding so loud that I could hear it in my head. Then he was gone.
Afterward, I wondered whether I might have been dreaming or hallucinating and stayed awake replaying the event over and over for a long time before I fell back to sleep. I was afraid that what had happened to me was “wrong” and I thought for sure that it was a sin.
The next morning my uncle’s daughter reported a visitation from her father. When we compared notes we found the visitation had occurred at the same time and in the same exact way. Her nose had been “tweaked” too. I felt much better after comparing notes with my cousin. I began to think of what I had experienced as a miracle but, I still wasn’t convinced about the resurrection.
Even after this event I still maintained that the story of the resurrection was a myth.
In my late twenties a strange thing began to happen to me when I was giving intuitive readings. Every now and then during a reading the vision of a person would suddenly appear in my mind’s eye and after describing the person to my client they would identify them but, state that the person I was seeing was no longer living.
At this time, I never put two and two together. The people I saw would move about and speak to me. It was as if I was watching a scene from a movie in my head. I assumed I was reading the mind of my client and bringing forth a memory and left it that.
In my thirties, my father’s sister died. Two weeks after her death I woke up at 3 am and saw her standing at the foot of my bed. I looked over at my husband to see if he was seeing her too but, he was fast asleep. I propped myself up on my elbow as my aunt approached. As she neared I was enveloped in a feeling of love that to this day, is beyond words to describe.
My aunt stood next to me, spoke to me and gave me a very personal message which I heard loud and clear in her own voice. I also smelled lavender her signature scent and cigarette smoke. I was overcome by the experience. It affected me profoundly.
My aunt appeared to me one more time after that. I had been asking her to come back again so I could prove to myself that I hadn’t dreamed the whole thing. She came back a week later and said, “We are only separated by a thin veil,” then she was gone. She did continue to visit me in my dreams but, never physically appeared to me again.
After that, I began having even more frequent visions of people’s deceased loved ones during readings. I also began reading books about mediumship and the afterlife. I learned that the term “veil” is used to describe how we the living are separated from our deceased loved ones who have shed their bodies and are now in spirit. I had never heard that terminology before nor, had I ever had any interest in mediumship or the afterlife. Before my aunt appeared to me it all seemed very much of a fairytale to me.
Years after the event of my aunt’s physical manifestation and after countless readings given for clients where loved ones communicate and give concrete evidence of their survival of physical death, I now believe with my whole heart that we do “rise again.”
The resurrection isn’t a myth or fairy tale. We, our spirit, does survive the death of the body. We continue to “live” as consciousness in a non-physical dimension. When we, the living, are open to it our loved ones can and do appear to us just as Jesus appeared to his disciples after his physical death.
Have you ever been visited by a loved one? What happened? Share your story with us.
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P.S. You can read more about this topic here.
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Hi ,
My boyfriend of 10 years recently passed away. He was all fine and healthy. But suddenly he contracted an illness and finally, with a cardiac arrest, left this world within 2 months of his hospitalization. His last 1 and a half months were in ICU and he was on life support. I keep feeling sad that I don’t know how helpless he must have felt in the final 1 month of his life. He used to be full of energy and never stayed still or silent. I keep wondering whether he was at peace when he left us or was he struggling till the end. It’s been almost 2 months now. I have only been able to dream of him(and remember it) just a couple of times. I keep wishing he would come and talk to me or I would dream of him. But it doesn’t happen. Is there any way I can see him or dream of him?
I also read your other article that explained life like a party and death like just leaving to attend another party or going to another room to enjoy other games in the other room. It was really comforting to read that and understand that he could just be in a happier place and I stopped grieving for him. Now, when I miss him and be sad, I just grieve for me. I try to be happy for him and imagine that he is at another exciting party somewhere.
Where does one begin? or continue to grow?
I often get & hear messages and visits from my loved ones. I feel them so close to me. I’ve never felt lonely, even when alone.
I have many stories and experiences with visits from people close to me. My mother sends me messages through music. She visits me in my dreams and my sister, who lives across the country, gets the same sort of message from Mom. Never identical, but the same message.
very interesting! thank you for your post. I was led here I”m sure .
Dear Christine,
I’m so glad you found my site. You have mediumistic tendencies. Dream visitations are one of the best ways to connect with out loved ones in spirit.
Thank you so much for coming by.
I hope to see you here again.
All my best,
Angela
Thanks for sharing your interesting story about your uncle. If you would read this short post in my blog, “Glimpse of Heaven”, I believe that heaven and earth or the spiritual and physical realm do sometimes crosses over to one another as Jesus was able to do during His transfiguration.
http://www.certaintyofdrawings.blogspot.com/2012/03/glimpse-of-heaven.html
Thanks for visiting Paul. And, for leaving your comment.
I’m spiritual medium so I believe that we, our consciousness, survives physical death.
Hi Angela,
I grew up Methodist. When I was younger I was more pious and zealous in my faith because that was all I knew. I believed what I was taught and accepted it. As I grew older, I began to have more questions. Due to my love for history, I looked through the early history of the Church and found many questionable points. Over time I began to see the ressurection as a story used by the Church to achieve their own ends. Even so, I was very intrigued by Orthodox Christianity mainly because I love the Byzantine Empire and their ways.
While I still feel that much of what we believe in the Bible has been decided for us by the Church, I am not so quick to write off the ressurection as a myth. Personally, I have never been visited by deceased people. I am not sure if I wish to be. But just because this is not my experience does not mean it cannot happen.
When I look at all the other religions and beliefs, all the other people who have had encounters with spirits and so on, it is arrogant to write off ressurection as a myth even though it has not been my experience. Again, I am not asking for a visit, but I do not doubt that there are people who can communicate with others in the great beyond.
Thank you for sharing this lovely article! 🙂
Irving the Vizier
Hi Irving,
Thank you. I understand completely.
Sometimes you just have to see it to believe it I guess.
By the way, I don’t believe in the resurrection the way the church does. I do not believe that Jesus had his body was resurrected.
I believe what people saw was his spirit.
Oh it’s not that I don’t believe it Angela, it’s just that I have not experienced it personally that’s all.
That’s a very interesting view you shared about people having seen his spirit instead of what the Church teaches. It certainly makes things very much more believable and possible. I would assume that the early Christians were more intuitive and thus able to see spirits like you say.
Hah! I wonder why I never saw it in this way. Thanks a lot for sharing your view! I agree with your take and see things differently now. 🙂
Such a beautiful look at death – and leaving the physical world.
“our spirit, does survive the death of the body. ”
The more one opens one’s mind to past the limiting thought of what “rising again” means – the more one can see how real it is.
Hi Aileen,
Thank you. I’m so glad you enjoyed this post.
I do love sharing this information about mediumship.
xoox
Oh yes, I have had experiences of being “visited” by my grandmother, uncle and mother-in-law, all deceased. There were messages, things I needed to hear. However, these “visits” don’t seem to happen physically anymore except for dreams where I would received visits.
I have done a life-between-lives regression therapy before and posted about my experience on my site some years back. I am now wondering how it relates with the resurrection.
Thanks for sharing your interesting stories, Angela! Have a Happy Easter Sunday!
Hi Evelyn!
You know it isn’t easy for spirits to manifest physically. Just consider yourself lucky you saw them at all! lol
It isn’t the norm at all. The norm is to feel their presence or to be visited during dreams. It’s much easier for them to speak to you while you sleep as your logical mind doesn’t interphere like it would when you are awake.
Wonderful stories Angela. I too was a disbeliever until the experiences I had after my husband passed away. I’m definitely in the believing category now.
Thanks for sharing these personal experiences.
Encourage one another.
Elle
Hi Elle,
I’d love to hear about some of the occurences with your husband!
I’m sure they are fascinating Elle.
xoxo
Very intriguing post and comments. I have never been visited as clearly as you describe, although when I was young, I often felt a female presence who would come into my room. She seemed very kind and wanted to tell me something, but I was too afraid and she would always leave. I’ve often wondered who she was and what she wanted to tell me!
HI Galen,
Very interesting. I wonder if she could have been a grandmother?
I do know how you know feel about being scared. I was scared too when I was little.
Hi Angela,
I was surprised too when I started seeing people’s passed loved ones during readings. They always show up at the end of a reading (which helped me to differentiate between seeing guides and passed loved ones, because basically they look the same to me and usually I don’t “hear” them differently). It’s all very interesting! Who knew, right?
Hi Julie,
Yes, it’s definitely interesting!
Good to know what’s going on though.
Like you I always considered the story of Christ a story or metaphor, if you will. While my mother never appeared to me, she sent me signs that she was around. I fluffed them off as coincidences at first. But then there were too many. In a letter I asked her to help me understand the truth about god, afterlife, all things spiritual. Until then I was generally a non-believer. But I did feel that there was something beyond my physical presence that I did not understand. I longed for clarity. My mother led me in the direction of meditation. Her signs were so strong and clear I could nto ignore them. Well, you know the rest. I now believe like you that Christ’s resurrection was like your Aunt’s appearance and unlike the Church’s interpretation that it proved Christ was God, I believe it was his way of letting us know that we were all of God with no boundaries and surely life after death.
Hi Rosemarie,
I believe the same thing you do. The resurrection has been grossly mininterpreted as far as I’m concerned. Jesus appeared to show the world that our physical incarnation is only a temporary part of our soul’s life. Our soul can never die. It can only return to the All from which we are all a part.
Hi Angela,
I don’t believe I’ve been visited by a loved one, but your story fills me with the knowledge that this is possible. I have had very vivid dreams about people that have passed, especially my dad. I wake up and feel strongly about the dream and feel his presence. It is comforting to know that my dad is still with me, even though it is in a different form.
Thanks for sharing your enlightening experiences. Have a good holiday!
HI Cathy,
You’ve definitely been getting visitations in your dreams from your father.
That is the time when we are most open to receiving communications from them.
When you’re awake the logical mind takes over and you think it’s your imagination.
He’s definitely still with you.
xoxo
Fascinating post, Angela. I dream of my Grandmother and Mother regularly – and remember the dreams with pleasure in the morning. There are times when during certain times of the day, I know what is going to happen… when I hear the phone ring, I know who it is and what they’re going to say; I log into email and already know the contents of certain emails that I am expecting …do I make sense? I think I’ve mentioned before that my Physics lecturer taught us to focus and manifest someone – and to this day, it works for me. I don’t know whether it is sheer faith or whether it is the power of focus. Whatever it is, I like it. Another thing I love is how I think about something and my son voices it as a continuation of my thought. It is as though I just did a thought transfer. I feel blessed.
I remember in an earlier post, how you mentioned your father’s presence when you were at the hospital with your Mom, when you met your father’s friend. All this makes me feel very good.
Love and hugs and have a great weekend!
Hi Vidya,
It sounds to me that you are very, very intuitive!
I think you ought to try to develop it further.
It’s definitely not wishful thinking though…on your part.
You might be a natural if you focused your intention.
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Angela,
That is an amazing story of your uncle and your aunt. I had a similar experience the night my grandmother died. I was sound asleep in a very dark room. I awakened by feeling someone sitting on the side of the bed and touching my head. I thought it was someone coming to wake me up for school, but when I opened my eyes it was still the middle of the night and no one was there. I’ve always felt that my grandmother came to tell me goodbye. It gave me such peace and closure.
What a beautiful post filled with hope. Perfect for Easter.
Betsy,
I’m sure it was your grandmother too.
The immediate you thought you got when this happens to you is usually correct.
She probably was sitting there and touching your head.
They do like to say goodbye to their loved ones before they go.