Posted on 27 October 2015, 11:04

For decades I’ve been telling those I assist that as physical death approaches, departing visions can happen.  If I’m helping someone whose loved one is getting ready to take flight and cross over, I share with them afterlife reports and accounts I’ve researched, experienced or witnessed. Along with this, I can also share with them examples of historical departing visions from countries around the globe. Learning these experiences are universal gives grieving family and friends permission to begin letting go.  This also reduces societal death phobia.

Why is this so important? It’s essential to understand that even when in great physical pain, the physically dying will often stick around in order to take care of hurting family and friends. If a family can talk openly about physical death, the afterlife and topics like the departing vision, a gentle passing will occur and healing can begin. Such open discussion not only helps families, but assists the dying in transitioning.

When family members can begin to let go by confronting their own fears, the physically dying will feel more emotionally comfortable in separating from their earthly bodies and making their way to the next dimension. It’s imperative for surviving loved ones to know death isn’t the end. Holding on, telling those who are ready to depart not to go, makes physical dying harder.  Historical and present day departing vision accounts help me to heal families and the physically dying. 

The apology

Recently, a friend of mine made the afterlife journey and before he crossed over I spent several days by his bedside.  With his upset, overwhelmed family I openly discussed historical departing visions. As a result of this, everyone began to calm down.  With these examples and more modern day accounts they started to see that death was a myth, life is continuous and the bonds of love would never be broken. Once the dying gentleman saw that his family was more at peace, much to everyone’s surprise, he was able to make a long needed apology. 

The elderly Frenchman had a great deal of unfinished business with his children and wife of forty years.  Infidelity in the relationship had never been resolved.  During World War II he had escaped the invasion of the Nazis, but was then captured and placed in a labor camp.  In other words, my friend carried a lot of painful baggage with him throughout his life.  And, there had been a lot of yelling, hateful words and tears from his family over the decades. Everyone knew about the woman with the blond hair who had tried to steal this husband and father.

As physical death drew near, Frenchman began speaking to his family in the Spirit World in French.  It was obvious the end of his physical suffering was right around the corner, but then there was that emotional pain, shame and guilt.  After speaking with those loved ones waiting for him in the next life, he turned to his wife and words of “I’m sorry” escaped my friend’s parched lips.  This brought both me and his wife to tears, as we both knew what he was apologizing for.  The infidelity during their marriage was a wound she had never recovered from.

With one foot in this life and another in the next dimension, amends for a marital affair that had taken place so many years ago were finally happening.  The apology tied up loose ends for the couple, relieving the surviving wife of resentments she had been carrying for decades. Once the man finally passed his wife was able to grieve more easily.

If the family had continued to be overwhelmed with the upcoming passing, leaving all to walk on eggshells and never speak openly, the amends never would have occurred. The Frenchman, knowing he had already created pain and suffering for his family, would not have wanted to inflict more distress. Sharing examples of departing visions from books, personal accounts and even videos online on You Tube, paved the way for healing. If the fear of physical death had not been addressed, the surviving wife and adult children would have continued to carry pain about the affair. The incident would have remained, “unfinished business” after this man’s. Also, not only would his family have continued to suffer, but the guilt and shame would have followed the Frenchman to the Spirit World.

Is this an unusual deathbed scene? Absolutely not. Apologies such as this have been reported not only throughout history, but my books, “One Last Hug Before I Go”, “A Glimpse of Heaven” and “Heavenly Hugs” share other similar accounts.

As mentioned earlier, the family also witnessed the Frenchman having a departing vision. Watching him speak French to physically deceased family already in the afterlife was not a shocking surprise. Instead, it was comforting.  Such encounters had already been previously introduced to them. Along with this, I had told them about a type of experience survivors have, often called an “awake vision.” This specific type of departing vision takes place when an experiencer is not dying, but wide awake.

While fully conscious, experiencers are visited by departing loved ones, those preparing to physically shed their earthly bodies and move on. We can be fully awake and receive a visitation or this can take place during our dreams. Suddenly they appear out of nowhere, give us a message and then just as quickly disappear. Souls moving on to the afterlife appear very real to those of us on the earth plane who see them. Along with this, the experiencers are often unaware a physical death is occurring or has just taken place. They may not even know the dying person has been ill or close to moving on to an afterlife existence. Because of this, the individual receiving the visitation is taken completely by surprise! Shortly after such a visitation, the experiencer discovers the person who appeared to them has just died in another location.

Hello Before I Go

Andrew Lang (1844–1912) a Scottish poet, novelist, and literary critic, shared the following account in his 1897 work, “The Book of Dreams and Ghosts.”   

In the month of November (1785 or 1786), Sir John Sherbrooke and Colonel Wynyard were sitting before dinner in their barrack room at Sydney Cove, in America. It was duskish, and a candle was placed on a table at a little distance. A figure dressed in plain clothes and a good round hat, passed gently between the above people and the fire. While passing, Sir J. Sherbrooke exclaimed, ‘God bless my soul, who’s that?’

Almost at the same moment Colonel W. said, ‘That’s my brother John Wynyard, and I am sure he is dead’. Colonel W. was much agitated, and cried and sobbed a great deal. Sir John said, ‘The fellow has a devilish good hat; I wish I had it’. (Hats were not to be got there and theirs were worn out.) They immediately got up (Sir John was on crutches, having broken his leg), took a candle and went into the bedroom, into which the figure had entered.

They searched the bed and every corner of the room to no effect; the windows were fastened up with mortar. . . .They received no communication from England for about five months, when a letter from Mr. Rush, the surgeon (Coldstream Guards), announced the death of John Wynyard at the moment, as near as could be ascertained, when the figure appeared. 1

In the above 1785 account, several men in America are visited by the spirit of a dying man in England.  Notice how quickly the man’s brother recognizes this visitation as a sign that his beloved brother is beginning his journey to the afterlife.  During earlier times departing visions were often accepted as messages from the beyond. When an encounter such as this occurred experiencers understood a physical death had occurred, or was going to happen.  Sadly today, living in such a death phobic society, we are totally unprepared for such events.

In the following 1867 account, a visitation from a deceased daughter and sister prepares a mother and brother for an upcoming passing.

The bright scar

“In 1867, Miss G., aged eighteen, died suddenly of cholera in St. Louis. In 1876 a brother, F. G., who was much attached to her, had done a good day’s business in St. Joseph. He was sending in his orders to his employers (he is a commercial traveler) and was smoking a cigar, when he became conscious that someone was sitting on his left, with one arm on the table. It was his dead sister. He sprang up to embrace her (for even on meeting a stranger whom we take for a dead friend, we never realise the impossibility in the half moment of surprise) but she was gone. Mr. G. stood there, the ink wet on his pen, the cigar lighted in his hand, the name of his sister on his lips. He had noted her expression, features, dress, the kindness of her eyes, the glow of the complexion, and what he had never seen before, a bright red scratch on the right side of her face.

Mr. G. took the next train home to St. Louis, and told the story to his parents. His father was inclined to ridicule him, but his mother nearly fainted. When she could control herself, she said that, unknown to any one, she had accidentally scratched the face of the dead, apparently with the pin of her brooch, while arranging something about the corpse. She had obliterated the scratch with powder, and had kept the fact to herself. “She told me she knew at least that I had seen my sister.” A few weeks later Mrs. G. died.

Did the deceased daughter make an appearance to prepare both Mrs. G. and her brother for the mother’s upcoming passing?  A century or so ago, with a lack of medical care and understanding of disease, physical death was very prevalent.  When death is part of the everyday landscape of life, phobic reactions are less common.  With earlier societies, news related to dying and death were included in everyday regular conversation. There was no tip toeing around topic. Because of this departing visions were more readily accepted by most members of the general population.

Maybe you’ve had a departing vision, or as death drew near you witnessed someone you love talking to invisible visitors. If so, you might be asking yourself, “What was this strange, yet profound experience? Have other people had encounters like this? Am I the only one and if not, why haven’t I ever heard about such things?” Know these encounters are normal and that people from every corner of our planet have come in contact with the departing vision.

Being part of the solution

Years ago, the famous American comic and social commentator George Carlin (1937-2008) shared on stage a famous C.S. Lewis quote, “Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.” With brilliance and hilarity, Carlin tackled taboo subjects in his stand-up acts.  One such routine looked at how we as a society deal with physical death and dying.  Standing on a stage littered with tombstones, dressed from head to toe in black, he poked fun at our denial and fears. I saw the show live and thought I’d never stop laughing.

Using humor Carlin did what most in our culture refuse to do. He addressed death phobia head on.  Many of us live as “shut-ins” within our own little box of reality. This box has typically been constructed by our societal institutions and can keep us living in our own heads with a bunch of bad information. We may have witnessed or experienced a departing vision but are scared to (pardon the “pun”) death to share this. Society has sadly taught us to keep quiet!

I chose, like Carlin, to be part of the solution and am dedicated to chiseling away at societal death phobia.  Even when I get knocked down, I pick myself up, dust off the slights of naysayers, and continue on down the path of spiritual illumination and enlightenment. I’m committed to represent the change we as a culture so desperately need. Join me in “trudging” this path of healing and evolutionally growth.

1- Lang, Andrew. The Book of Dreams and Ghosts. 1897, Longman’s, Green and Co. 39 Paternoster Row, London, New York and Bombay, pg 95
2- Leadbeater, Charles Webster. The Other Side of Death: Scientifically Examined and Carefully Described. Theosophical Book Concern, 26 Van Buren Street, Chicago, Pg 264

Carla Wills-Brandon, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, is also the author of 13 published books discussing topics including;
• Mediumship, After Death Contact
• Recovery from grief, loss and death,
• Afterlife research and spirituality
• The Departing Visions of the dying
• Trauma resolution and PTSD

One of her published books, Learning to Say No: Establishing Healthy Boundaries was a “Publishers Weekly Best Seller. The author has lectured across the U.S. and U.K., and has appeared on numerous national radio and television programs, such as Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jesse Raphael, Montel Williams, Coast to Coast Radio Show with Art Bell and George Noory, Uri Geller’s Coast to Coast Radio Show and Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Wills-Brandon has also appeared on several programs with her husband, Licensed Clinical Psychologist Michael Brandon, PhD.

A Glimpse Heaven is published by White Crow Books and is available from Amazon and other online bookstores. Her other books on departing visions, One Last Hug before I Go: The Mystery and Meaning of Deathbed Visions and Heavenly Hugs: Comfort, Support, and Hope from the Afterlife