Have you been contacted by a loved one who has died? An after-death communication (ADC) is defined as an experience occurring when a person is contacted directly and spontaneously by a loved one who has died. ADCs are probably as old as human history and may explain why ancient cavemen buried their dead in ways suggesting they were aware of their afterlife. However, the Guggenheim's study of ADCs during the twentieth century is the first complete study and analysis of this phenomenon. ADCs are extremely common all over the world and are discussed openly and freely. Between 1988 and 1995, the Guggenheim's interviewed 2,000 people from all over the U.S. and Canada, ranging in age from children to the elderly, who experienced an ADC. They came from diverse educational, social, economic, religious, occupational backgrounds. The Guggenheim's conservative estimate is that at least 50 million Americans (or 20% of the population) have had one or more ADC experiences. In their study, they collected more than 3,300 firsthand accounts of ADCs from people who spontaneously and directly had such communications. No third parties such as hypnotists, psychics, mediums, or devices of any kind were involved.

Based upon the Guggenheim's ADC research, below are the 12 most frequent types of ADCs people report having with their deceased loved ones:

According to the Guggenheim's research, the purpose of these visits and signs from the "Other Side" are to give comfort and reassurance to surviving families or friends who are grieving. They want to convey the message that they're still alive, that you'll be reunited with them when it's your time to die, and they'll be there to greet you when you do. The most frequent messages expressed verbally or non-verbally during an ADC include the following:

You may be asked to pass along a message to somebody else. The Guggenheims recommend writing down such messages verbatim and to hand deliver it, if possible. Such an action may help the recipient far more than one realizes.

Nearly all ADCs reported are joyful and uplifting encounters that can reduce grief, provide lasting comfort and hope, and accelerate emotional and spiritual healing. The Guggenheims encourage people to trust their own experiences and to accept them as being authentic afterlife communications. People who are aware of this ADC phenomenon generally have no trouble accepting and dealing with it. Unfortunately, some people react with fear when they have such an experience which usually stems from ignorance. They may be startled by the "paranormal" aspect of it, or fear they are "losing their mind" or "going crazy." Other people might find it difficult to incorporate their ADC with their philosophical, religious, or non-religious beliefs.

Obviously, not everyone are not always contacted by a loved one who has died. The reasons for this are unknown; but it appears that anger, fear, and prolonged grief can inhibit the possibility of having one.

Based upon the Guggenheim's ADC research, they recommend the following:

The Guggenheim's ADC research reveals how ADCs are a natural and normal part of life. ADCs have been recorded in ancient religious texts such as the Bible where they are mostly mentioned as dream state ADCs. The Book of Revelation appears to be the record of an out-of-body ADC where John the Revelator is actually taken to heaven. ADCs deserve to have the same common knowledge and acceptance as NDEs. For most people, an ADC from a deceased loved one is a profound and sacred experience that will be cherished for the rest of their lives. ADCs can also expand one's understanding of life, death, and life after death. They are consistent in communicating this critical spiritual message: "Life and love lasts forever and does not end with death."

Another technique to induce ADCs is a method discovered by Dr. Allan Botkin. He began experimenting with variations of a relatively new and very powerful psychological treatment called Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). He discovered, by accident, how one variation of EMDR reliably induces an experience almost all patients believed was authentic spiritual contact with the deceased. Dr. Botkin believes the most important aspect of this discovery is its clinical application: it simply works and it gives relief to people who are suffering from the loss of a loved one.

a. Tragedy Foretold: A Visual ADC Experience

  Christine Baker, a 37 year old real estate manager in Florida, had a blessing of compassion bestowed upon her at the precise instant she truly needed it. Here is what she experienced:

Our fourteen-year-old daughter, Heather, was spending the night at her girlfriend's house. My husband and I had gone to bed at 11:00. I was asleep when the telephone rang and woke me up about 1:00. A dispatcher on the other end said, "Mrs. Baker, the police are at your front door. Would you please answer it?"   I said, "Okay," and hung up the phone and kind of just sat there on the side of the bed. I was thinking, "Did I leave the light on in the car or what?" I put my robe on and was zipping it up as I got to the door of our bedroom. In the hallway, I could see Heather and her grandfather, whom she had been very close to. But he had been dead for six years! They were standing in the air, and he had his arm around her. They were very solid, and I could see them just as clear as day. It stunned me! I kind of shook my head and thought, "Why am I seeing Dad with Heather?" Then Dad said, "She's okay, Baby. I have her. She's fine!"   He was my father-in-law and he always called me "Baby." It was his voice - I could hear him. Dad was smiling at me and was very peaceful. They were both very happy. I shook my head again in amazement. The minute I opened the front door, the police were standing there, and they asked me to sit down. I said, "Tell me what's wrong. Please, just tell me!"   They told me Heather had been killed in a tragic car accident. I realized later that Dad was trying to lessen the blow for me, and I knew Heather must be with him. This experience has helped me in accepting the loss of my only child.

b. More Than One Witness: An Example of a Verified Visual ADC
  Benjamin, age 21, works in the publishing business in Iowa. He and his wife, Mollie, age 20, reported having a virtually identical after-death communication with his mother just a few days after she died of cancer.

Mollie's Testimony: The night of his mother's funeral, my husband, Ben, and I went to her house and visited with his family. We were there quite late. As we got back in the car, I looked at the front door. I saw his mother standing in the open doorway waving good-bye to us! She looked very peaceful, very healthy, and younger. In times past, when we would visit her, she always stood by that door and waved good-bye. So this was just like she had done many times before. I looked over to Ben and said, "Did you ...?" and he started crying real hard. I realized we had both seen his mother at the same time, but Ben wasn't able to speak. As soon as I looked over to him, she was gone. I think the reason I was allowed to see his mother was for confirmation for Ben so he would know she was not a figment of his imagination. Benjamin's Testimony: The day of my mother's funeral, my wife, Mollie, and I visited my cousin and her husband at Mother's house. We stayed well into the night, and then Mollie and I got into the car. I put the key in the ignition, and as I did I looked up. About ten yards away, I saw my mother standing in the doorway behind the clear glass storm door! She would always stand in the doorway out of kindness and courtesy to make sure we had gotten safely to the car. This was a common practice of hers - I had seen it a thousand times. The inside door was open so the light from the house was illuminating Mother from the back, and the porch light was illuminating her from the front. She appeared to be in good health and was very solid. She was there waving good-bye. She seemed relieved - less tired, less stressful. I got the definite impression that this was a "don't worry" type of message. Instantly, I had a tremendous physical feeling, almost like being pinned to the ground. It was like a wave came over me and went completely through me from head to toe. It seemed like an eternity, yet it seemed like a split second. I tried to speak but I couldn't. At the same time, Mollie said, "Ben, I just saw your mother in the doorway!"   I bowed my head and said, "So did I," and I began to cry.   That was the first time I had shed any tears over my mother's death. I have never wept so hard in my entire life. And I felt a sense of relief, like "good-bye for now."

c. A Sinner Goes to Heaven: A Visual ADC
  Emily, an office manager in New York, was deeply concerned about her brother, Leon, after he died of cancer at age 49. Her is her description of her experience:

Leon was not a religious man, and when he was dying of cancer, I decided I would try to get him to accept Jesus into his life before he passed over. The Lord had made a big difference in my life, and I wanted my brother to be with him, too. But when Leon died, he still had not accepted the Lord into his life, and that really worried me. I was so fearful he was in hell, and I just couldn't accept that. I prayed about it a lot, and I told everybody how worried I was. I had many, many other people praying for my brother, too, and each day I asked for some sign that Leon was finally with Jesus. About five months later, I was driving home from my sister's house one afternoon. It had been raining hard with thunder and lightning, when suddenly the storm started to clear and the clouds separated. A vivid ray of sunshine came down through the clouds, and when I looked up off to my right, my brother was there with the Lord! They were life-sized - very, very real, very solid and distinct and three-dimensional. They were very close, shoulder to shoulder, and I only saw the upper portion of them. Leon was facing me, the Lord was wearing a robe and facing him, and they were both smiling. My brother appeared younger than when he died and looked very healthy. Nothing needed to be said - Leon was with the Lord, and that's all I wanted to know. That was so wonderful! I was so relieved to finally have my answer, and I was so thankful. It was absolutely total relief for me because I knew Leon was finally at peace and with Jesus.   I had assumed you could not be saved once you died. I suggest that anyone who is under the same assumption I was to not give up their prayer vigil. I think prayers finally made it possible for my brother to be with the Lord. I gained an awful lot from this experience, and my own walk with the Lord became that much stronger. Anything is possible through the Lord. I believed it before, but now I know there is nothing that is impossible!"

d. Healing a Vengeful Heart: A Visual ADC
  Glen is a mail carrier in the Southwest. He had this spiritually transformative after-death communication with his son, Ron, age 21, who was murdered, and with Ron's mother, Helen, who had died of cancer 16 years earlier. The following is his description of the experience.

My son, Ron, was killed on a Monday night, but I didn't find out about his death until Tuesday morning. The next day, because it was a homicide and I was the next of kin, I had to go down and identify his body. That's probably the hardest thing I ever did in my life. This image of him lying on the table in the morgue remained whenever I would think about my son. It would come speeding to the front of my consciousness, and that's all I could see - this ugly, dirty picture of my boy. On Thursday, I woke up about 4:00 in the morning and raised up and looked at the alarm clock. Suddenly, Ron was there standing in front of me! It was like there was a floodlight in back of him, but I could see all of him clearly. He was dressed in a T-shirt and blue jeans. He looked solid, he looked real! When he smiled at me, I knew he was in perfect health. His teeth were all beautifully formed and totally white. Before he was killed his teeth were chipped and discolored. Then he brought his mother, Helen, to me. When I buried her body sixteen years earlier, I buried her in my mind too. I didn't believe in God, and I didn't believe in an afterlife or heaven. I didn't believe in anything except this life. Ron and Helen were holding hands. She looked perfectly healthy with all of her hair. She had lost her hair to chemo and radiation treatments. Now she looked like I remembered her when we were first married. She was in a flowing dress and looked very pretty. I said, "Helen, I'm sorry. I forgot..."   And she said to me, "I understand, Glen."   She understood that I had forgotten about her. Then she was gone, and I could hear myself sobbing. Ron smiled again, and I realized that my son was in heaven or that he was going to go to heaven. I filled up with a glow - I've never known a feeling like that before. I felt like I was going to bust all over - I felt so good! All of a sudden, I believed! I knew that God, Jesus, the Holy Ghost, the saints, and everything that I had been taught was true! I just knew it! Then Ron said, "No hatred, no anger, Dad," and he repeated it, "No hatred, no anger."   I think he was trying to tell me he didn't hate anybody and wasn't angry with anybody. And he didn't want me to hate or be angry with anybody either. Ron also said, "Don't worry about me. I'm happy."   That made me feel good, and I asked him if he would be there to meet me when I die.   He said, "Hey, Dad, I'm just a rookie here. I don't know!" Then my present wife, Linda, who was sleeping beside me, woke up and touched my arm. That ended my experience with Ron. Even though I could no longer see or communicate with my son, I felt so euphoric, so at peace. A month or so later, I thought, "What if it was the devil that did all this?"   Then I kind of slapped myself in the face and said, "Hey stupid, why would the devil do something like that to turn you away from him?"   Satan had me in his grasp for about forty years. Now I know that God is a lot stronger than the devil. After Ron was murdered, I was going to terminate the man that killed him. I was going to make sure that man's life was ended. Now I don't feel that way anymore. I feel sorry for him because he has to live every waking minute with the fact he murdered my boy. You can't believe how happy I am that my son is in heaven with his mother! This experience changed my life. It opened my eyes. It made me know that there is a God and there is a heaven and he created all of us.

e. An Experience Validated: A Visual ADC
  Leslie, age 39, is a volunteer worker in Virginia. She had this happy reunion with her father 4 months after he died of cancer. This is her description of her experience: 

I had just gone to bed and turned the light off when I saw my father standing in the doorway! All the lights were out in the house, yet I could see him very clearly because there was a glow around him. I kept thinking, "This is really Daddy! This is really him!"   I was so excited that I sat up and said, "Daddy!"   I wanted to go over and touch him, and I started to get out of bed. He smiled and said, "No, you cannot touch me now."   I began to cry and kept saying, "Let me come to you."   He said, "No, you can't do that. But I want you to know that I am all right. Everything is fine. I am always with you." Then he paused and said, "I have to go look in on your mother and Curtis now." Curtis is my son, and he and my mother were in the next room. I got up and followed my father to the hallway. But he disappeared - he just faded away. So I went back to bed and kept saying to myself, "This is just your grief. Daddy wasn't really here."   Then I finally fell asleep after tossing and turning for quite some time. The next morning I got up, and Curtis, who was three, almost four at the time, came out in the hallway.   He said, "Mommy, I saw Granddaddy last night!"   My mouth fell open and I said, "You did?"   He said, "Yes! He came in my room. He was standing by my bed." How could a three year old come up with that?   I questioned him, "Were you dreaming?"   He said, "No, Mommy. I had my eyes open. I was awake. I saw him!" So then I knew that Daddy had to have actually been there. There was no way to refute what had happened. It was a wonderful experience for me because I learned that love continues on.

f.  A Dream of Hope: An ADC During Sleep
  Gwen, an artist in Maryland, had a dream and this after-death communication after her 22 year old son, Christopher, died when his neck was broken in a motorcycle accident. Her experience is as follows:

The day after Christopher's funeral, I was feeling so awful. I was in a terrible state! The next day, while everybody was out, I was going to take sleeping pills in order to be with my son. That's how low I was. That night I had a dream. I was in a place that was very light, and there was soft music playing in the air. I've never heard such instruments or such music - it was beautiful. Stretching out from me as far as I could see was this big table covered with a white cloth. On the table were gold dishes with food. Everything was very attractively arranged like you would see on an ocean liner. There were a lot of people there walking around very slowly. Some were helping themselves to the food, and they all looked very happy. Everybody was dressed in long robes of different colors. It was such a beautiful, peaceful, happy scene! Then I heard Christopher say, "Mom," and when I turned, he was standing there! He had on a white robe and a large gold cross on his chest. He was all shiny with light and seemed very happy. It was such a joy to be with my son again! Christopher had a big plate of food, and he held it out to me as he said, "Mom, this is for you." He seemed very proud to be giving me this food. Then Christopher smiled and turned his head to each side to show me that his neck was no longer broken. I woke up knowing deep in my heart that I had actually been with my son. And I threw the sleeping pills away at once! Christopher saved my life - I'd swear to it! I'll believe it until the day I die. And I feel when it's my time, he'll be there for me. Whenever I'm down, I think of this experience, and it lifts me up again.

g. Excessive Grief Holds a Loved One Back: Hearing a Voice ADC

  Neil is a retired mail carrier in Mississippi. His 19-year-old son, Ken, died suddenly in his sleep from heart arrhythmia.

h. Stepping Into a Vision: An Out-of-Body ADC