I used to think this was a rarity amongst believing Mormons, but now I'm thinking these visitation stories happen a lot amongst the true believers.

In a few recent gatherings of various LDS relatives, I've heard stories about "visitations" from dead relatives. It's not in a dream, and it's not a physical ghost like in Ghostbusters. The relatives appear spiritually and make themselves known and convey a message (or messages), but are completely invisible.

One person seriously claims that it was manifest to him by Holy Visitations that his deceased father and deceased brother are living in the Spirit World 49 miles apart from each other. I asked how do you know it's not 50 miles or some other distance? He said he didn't make it up - - - that's the message he got and he's 100% certain it's true and correct.

That's interesting that in the spirit world they measure distance in miles and not some other method. Maybe they have magical flying Segway devices that can measure in both miles and kilometers.

My theory is that once a few people start telling about visitations from dead relatives, then some other people (not everyone thank god) become inspired to make up their own visitation stories, and it kind of expands and grows.

But some of them say it's really sacred and special, and so they won't talk about it with Gentiles or nonbelievers or exmos's around.

Does anyone else have wacky relatives or friends who receive these "visitations"?

My cousin witnessed her three year old brother killed when a car hit the curb in front of their house while they were playing and the car rolled over her brother, just inches away from her. 30 years later she had a 3 year old daughter who died of severe asthma that was untreatable. She claimed she saw my Grandfather and her brother, come into the hospital room and talk to her daughter a few minutes before the daughter died. My cousin's mother had some severe mental health issues and she herself had problems with reality a few times that I am aware of, her older daughter also had some mental health issues when a teenager. My cousin was not very religious although was definitely a believing mormon. She passed away recently from a serious disease and last time I talked with her she seemed to be an agnostic and did not really seem to believe in the mormon afterlife but was at peace with her future.

Yep.

My father was in the hospital and told us that his dead parents and sibling visited him. They were standing at the foot of his bed, waving their hands for him to "come home."

Never mind he was drugged to the gills.

There was never a situation that my father couldn't make into a "spiritual" woo story.

Exactly.

My father has thought he was dying for a couple years. So every dream, every drugged out stupor, every oxygen-change-induced hallucination is, of course, his dead relatives telling him he has to get their temple work done. Last summer I tried to humor him and play along, thinking he really was on his deathbed and wanting to put a dying man at peace. But he pulled out one of his death-defying stunts for the hundredth time and is still ticking along. Not sure if he's still hallucinating, but I think a big part of it is just that he's found something he can talk to people about and get them to listen, because the stories get grander all the time.

This has nothing to do with Mormonism, but people who are in the process of dying (such as my aunt, who was dying from pancreatic cancer) frequently see and talk with already-deceased relatives before the people who are dying actually die.

On the other hand, my father (one of the most anti-"this kind of thing" people ever born!!), a few days after my grandfather [my Dad's father] died from leukemia, sleeping in his bed with my Mom, was awakened by my now-deceased grandfather and they carried on a very meaningful conversation for a number of minutes (my Mom was listening to every word my Dad spoke). Some necessary things were said: My Grandpa told my Dad that my Dad had done the right thing in the way my Dad had handled the timing of my grandfather's death (my father had actually pre-determined, with my grandfather's doctor, the time my grandfather would die, so that we could physically get to my grandfather before he actually did die), and there were a couple of other issues which were mentioned in passing.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if, when I die, some of my deceased relatives show up to lend their support as I go through the process.

In my family, it's becoming something of a family tradition!!

:D

Mrs. Boner’s family is full of family-lore regarding dead relatives coming for a visit or coming for someone dying. (She also has relatives who got their second anointings). In the case of coming for the dying, two priesthood holders show up to usher the spirit away.

Of course, these visits didn't happen to us. They happened to Aunt and Uncle so-and-so who were long dead as reported by senior family members.

The death of a loved one is something very difficult to process. The grief and realization someone has died may lead to visions. My own mother claimed my deceased father showed up one night. She was dead drunk when this happened.

I’ve had dreams that seemed to be more than dreams involving dead family members. Most often, the dreams bring me some peace and a realization that the loved one will always be in my heart (at the very least). A psychological explanation would be that my mind was disconcerted and needed verification of an afterlife, so my mind created proof. That could be right, but there are more things in heaven and hell, than are dreamt of in my philosophies! Hamlet’s Boner



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2018 10:45PM by BYU Boner.

I woke in the night and saw my deceased mom leaning over my bed with an alarmed look on her face.

My first thought was that I better go get a mammogram. I hadn't had one in eight years.

I told my doctor that I guess I should have had mammograms all along. She said no, that this cancer wasn't there a year ago.

Now, I look like I ran with scissors.


Thanks, mom!

I am very glad your Mom came for her brief visit to see you, kathleen!!

:)

Me, too. :)

Ah, the power of the human imagination...:)

Is it imagination, Hie, or is it something else?

For me, for example, if my actual deceased mom had been standing over my bed, I’d have called the SWAT Unit. But, *seeing* is a phenomenon that still has mystery to it. I believe that my body/brain alerted me that something was wrong by a method/image (my mom) that I would identify with. The key is knowing that a *vision* is still only a vision.

Our brains present *pictures* of needful things.

Did Joseph Smith really see an angel with a flaming sword? No doubt!

:D

kathleen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Our brains present *pictures* of needful things.

Well...our brains present...somethings. Whether they're "needful" or not.
We "see" faces in rocks and clouds. There aren't faces there. Our brain "recognizes" them as faces (even though they're not faces) for a variety of reasons -- but ultimately what we "see" is a mistaken perception of a face, not a face. Taking that presentation, we can engage the thinking parts of our brain, and consider what our brain has presented us...or not. If we do, we can realize that our brain has been tricked -- that it's rocks or clouds, not a face. And laugh at our evolved brain workings that can be so easily tricked. If we don't, we can imagine the face we perceived is a "god" or an "angel" or something else.

Lots of ways to trick our brains:

https://interestingengineering.com/11-puzzling-optical-illusions-and-how-they-work

> Did Joseph Smith really see an angel with a
> flaming sword? No doubt!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that wasn't his brain being tricked or his imagination or a "vision." It was simply an outright lie :)

ificouldhietokolob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> kathleen Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------

>
> > Did Joseph Smith really see an angel with a
> > flaming sword? No doubt!

I was joking.

> Yeah, I'm pretty sure that wasn't his brain being
> tricked or his imagination or a "vision." It was
> simply an outright lie :)

Clearly that!

Love your voice of reason, Hie!
:)

I knew you were joking. I'm just wordy <grin>!

My deceased FIL had lots of tall tales before he died. One such tale was when he was doing his work for family in the temple. I recall that he submitted about 6 generations of his family, and when the last name was done - he saw every member of his entire family standing against the wall of the celestial room. They were weeping, smiling, laughing for joy, and praising him for doing their work. I ask him, "so did anyone else in the room see them?" He said, "no my eyes were opened so that I was able to behold this glorious vision for myself alone...others present would not have appreciated it, and it was because of my faith that I was able to see this." I thought, "brag much? How convenient that you were the only obedient faithful Mormon among all the other faithful Mormons there...I call pure bull ****...what a crock."

Mormons are weird like this...I agree w/ the OP, it's a trend in Mormonism to make them look oh so special to each other, but to the outside world they just look bat **** crazy.

When my 90+ mother was on her death bed twice she swears her brothers was standing at the top of a staircase with a bright light behind them. She was never a believer in spirits, angels, etc., but when it was her time I do believe she saw something very majestic. My heart was breaking and I leaned over and told her it was okay to go with them. I knew her time was near. She looked over at me and said, "They told me it's not time yet." She old me she wanted to go. I told her to tell them she was coming if they liked it or not. HAHA She didn't die immediately but a few days later.

My family is rife with tales of the departed ones visiting us so my first time through thd temple I fully expected yo see my deceased mother on the other side of the veil.

I remember asking Dad where my mother was. He pointed to my step mother. I said no. My mother.

He said it doesn't work that way.

I said, in a loud voice. Then why the hell did I just go through all that?

I had a dream in high school that was very vivid. My boyfriend's father (deceased) was sitting next to me at a high school basketball game, but the gym was empty. (I used to see him at basketball games all the time, so the setting wasn't surprising to me). He told me that I was making the right decision to get serious with his son, but that I nIeeded to be patient as to the timing of us getting married. I, of course, took this as a sign to keep dating the guy. We ended up getting married about 5 years later and after 4 children, he came out of the closet.

Do I regret this dream and my interpretation of it? Yes, and No. I do realize that the dream was just my own desire to have my relationship with this guy validated.

She was in a comma on her death bed when I awoke in the night thinking she was in the room trying to awaken her son. She was angry that he was sound asleep and I was awake telling her in my mind to go away. I got up and paced the house and she seemed to be there in a fury. It seemed like she was telling me to wake my husband and that she wanted me to sleep and stay out of it.

At about three or four AM I finally felt she was somehow forced to leave and I was greatly relieve to get a couple of hours of peaceful sleep.

This went on for hours. In the morning, we received a phone call from the hospital telling us she had died in the wee morning hours.

It was a creepy experience and might have been totally imaginary though it seemed very real at the time.

My mother died suddenly of a brain aneurysm when I was 13. She was crazy bipolar and abuse. Meds for that sucked in the 70s. I ended up going to live with my father.

A few weeks later I woke up feeling like someone had kissed me on my forehead, and I either heard or felt the words "God bless my little girl."

This was very confusing because I wasn't religious, and didn't have a close relationship with my mom. After the years of abuse and being terrorized by her, truth was, I hated her. I was living in a safer place, with regular meals and clothes on my back. My sister was 21 and essentually became the mother figure in my life. Dad mostly just paid the bills, and if I behaved perfectly and didn't talk back, we got along well. He could get very ugly when he was mad though. I learned to play the game.

I don't get it, because I never felt that kind of love from my mother when she was alive, and I don't see ghosts or talk to spirits at all. Maybe it was just something my mind made up because I needed it at the time.

My grandfather passed away decades ago. Last year he appeared to me and told me that he had come to deliver an important message. "There is no life after death", he said. "The dead do not return to bring messages to the living."

Now I'm really confused. :-)

YOU HAVE LOOK TO SEE IF YOUR VISITOR HAS HIS/HER FINGERS CROSSED!!!

I was visited by the ghost of a spirit (that's twice dead!) of an inhabitant of a methane atmosphere planet located in a galaxy halfway along the Kessel run... I have no idea why this ghost of a spirit visited me, but I was on the pot at the time and was it was deeply moving.

...and then I assume the heavenly orifice slammed shut, and the ghost was whisked away (sounding like the rushing of water or wind). Beautiful. I am sure it was quite moving.

Are you sure it was pot and not LDS (with apologies to Mr. Spock)?

I really need a rimshot tag!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2018 03:43PM by captainklutz.

Link to an article about deathbed visions:

https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/deathbed-visions-research

Link to another related article:

https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/phenomena-relating-danger-death-bereavement

As Nephite #2, I never got to have these death-bed visits, having never had a death bed. Spending eternity changing flat tires and keeping cars from hitting deer can get to be a real drag.

Working as a clerk at that convenience store in Green River did have its entertaining moments.

All brains are capable of inventing events that never happened. We all know that, yet too many people can't connect those dots.

My moms side of the family had a few stories of deceased relatives visiting living relatives as just before or as they died.

None of her family was mormon and the stories were told to my mom before she was mormon.

So there’s more than the 2nd coming of JC, then? 2nd comings all over the church!

Signs of the times.

One of my buddies is attending law school now. He told me that while he was serving a mission he had someone attempt to stab him. Apparently the guy ran towards him with the knife, raised his arm to make the stab, at which point he couldn't lower his arm. My TBM friend looked up and saw his best friend who died in a car accident years before holding the would-be stabber's arm back.

Also once when I was TBM I saw an old man performing a baptism for the dead. It was him and I and only a couple of other people in the room. After his baptism, they sat him down in a wheel chair (the same he rolled in on) and confirmed said dead person a member of the church. I opened my eyes to look at this guy during the confirmation only to see him wide eyed staring at something about 3 feet in the air in front and above him. He burst into tears of joy. I of course couldn't see anything but was convinced afterwards that he had just seen his family member/friend for the longest time.

Now I just wonder if his dementia was diagnosed or not.

I have received many messages, (with witnesses, and other factual evidence), from some of my loved ones that confirm that there is a thin veil between the living and the deceased.

I've done experiments. I'm convinced. I find it a great comfort.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2018 06:17PM by susieq.

A thin veil? In my case it must be taller wider and thicker than DTs proposed wall. never had any dead relatives visit . I have had some contact but then I wake up from a DREAM. I also know people have very wild imaginations.