Voices from beyond the grave

Several weeks ago, I had a conversation with “Jake.” He is investigating a homicide from nearly a decade ago. He is familiar with my strange stories about receiving visits from dead murder victims. I had shared a story with him about a murdered teenager from over a decade ago.

I had even spoken to the lead detective and shared details with him about the suspect and his accomplices. Jake asked me if any other homicide victims had reached out to me. I told him about a visit from a murdered military veteran. The veteran gave me his name and showed me the person who had killed him. He said a serial killer had taken his life.

After the veteran’s visit, I felt compelled to do something. I confided in two close friends about the case. One of them was a former police officer. However, the problem was I didn’t know when or where this occurred. One day, I was scanning the news and saw a story about a captured serial killer.

What I saw made the hairs on my arms stand up. I reached out to my former police officer friend. I told her to refer to our text conversation about the case. I asked her to review our conversation about the victim and I gave her a link to the story about the serial killer.

She was shocked. I had named the man, mentioned how he died, described his physical appearance, and then told her he was a military veteran. My description of the killer also matched the killer’s. I also identified the killer’s gender correctly. I shared this conversation with Jake.

He was surprised.

From non-believer to believer

I asked him why he was interested in my odd visits that no one believes. I said, “Jake, you don’t believe in that sort of thing. So why are you asking about my visits?” He said, “Marc, I have an unbelievable story for you and I cannot believe I am going to share this with you.”

Again, Jake was investigating a homicide. He recently spoke to five different people who had received visits from the deceased person he was investigating. He said none of the people know each other or even know the same people. But the victim approached all five and shared information about her homicide. Even weirder (if possible)? All five people gave Jake similar information.

He has since become a believer in supernatural visits.

I explained to Jake how this works. Of course, you may or not believe what I am going to tell you because it seems outlandish. It also depends on your faith. The dead can still communicate with the living. And no, they aren’t always demons because our bodies are made of energy that cannot be snuffed out with a gun or knife. I realize if you are a Christian, you think every word you have read up until this point is nothing but blasphemy. However, I am a devout Christian and have no control over these visits.

They just happen.

I explained to Jake how this works or at least how I think this works. You and everyone else have the ability to receive visits from deceased family, friends and strangers. When you are a child, you are highly susceptible to these visits. That is why you hear so many stories about children seeing spirits. As they age, they are told the spiritual world is pure fiction. After a while, people “grow out” of seeing spirits and stop believing—as we do with Santa and the Easter bunny.

I want to give you a simple example of how this works. Everyone has a door in their mind that protects them from spiritual visits. It’s a defense mechanism. Most people never experience unusual spiritual visits because their minds keep the door locked. And this is a good thing! However, some people can open the locked door and allow these spirits to enter through the doorway. It’s a dark world for them. Consider yourself a lighthouse that attracts spirits.

When spirits see the lighthouse, they race to it. But this is problematic. Here’s how it feels: Imagine being the only deli counter worker in a large grocery store. And then imagine having 100 people shouting their orders at you simultaneously. These spirits demand to be heard. It’s confusing and frightening because you have no control over what enters through the door in your mind. And yes, some of these spirits are pure evil. But which ones? They are also experts at deceit.

But there are people who have complete control over what they see. They can select who comes through the door in their mind and can communicate with them. Unfortunately, this is not my situation as I have no control over anything.

Your next question is, “what do they want?”

In most cases, they want nothing other than to be heard. As a Christian, you may wonder what the Bible says about ghosts. There are references, but the Bible has a known Old Testament passage about the Witch of Endor. King Saul, an Israeli, wore a disguise and sought out help to communicate with a ghost.

King Saul wanted to ask a deceased wise man named Samuel for advice on how to defeat the Philistines. The witch did as Saul asked and conjured up Samuel’s spirit from the dead. Samuel told Saul that he and his three sons would die the next day in battle against the Philistines and then afterward, the mighty Philistines would defeat the Israelites in battle.

The vision came true. Saul and his sons died the next day and the Israelites fell.

So why did I write this column? I wanted to write it for people who are struggling with their own visions or unexplained unusual occurrences. If I described you, there likely isn’t anything wrong with you and you aren’t alone. Reading this column may bring you comfort because you now realize you aren’t alone. There are people who can speak to you and provide the answers you seek.