Not long after leaving my corporate job and joining my husband’s start-up internet company, I was sitting in a conference room, and next thing I knew, I was watching many sets of animal eyes floating around the room. I was not alarmed. I was curious. I thought, “Wow, what the heck is this?”
Afterward, I started to regularly see sets of animal eyes and what looked like a wolf face floating around me. Luckily, I was working with a shaman, who helped me understand that I was seeing totem animals, including my personal totem animal, a wolf. I learned that if I didn’t want to see anything, I could say, “Stop, go away,” and everything I was seeing with my intuitive sight would vanish.
Seeing different dimensions of reality has been a normal part of my life for the past nineteen years. The ability to see these many different dimensions is called clairvoyance, and it’s another way that my internal guidance receives information. Some people see these dimensions in their mind’s eye; others, like me, see these dimensions as if they were appearing before our physical eyes. This clairvoyance also allows me to see spirits of people who have passed on.
As a chaplain working at our local trauma hospital, I once worked a night shift when a young man was suddenly dying from sepsis. I helped to provide support to the grieving family gathered around Carl’s bedside, and I offered words of comfort and assurance. In his final hour, Carl visibly calmed and passed peacefully.
Later that night, at home and in a deep sleep, I was awakened by a large golden angel, the size of my body, hovering over me. It then moved straight into my body. I felt a warmth and soothing feeling go through my body, and I felt surprisingly calm and peaceful. I realized later that this “angel” was actually Carl’s guardian angel, who had come to thank me.
On another occasion, I companioned an elderly man, John, who was dying of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). We had many conversations about life, death, purpose, and meaning over many months. He wanted to die as open and awake as possible. He wanted to teach his family that death was a transformation and not to be feared. The last final days, I sat with him as he moved into the phase known as transitioning and then began actively dying. At times, he would open his eyes and smile and then drift off again. He died peacefully with his family gathered around his bedside.
A few nights after his passing, I was awakened in the night with a shadowy image of his face hovering near mine. I saw his smile, and then he was gone. I knew in that moment that he was okay and at peace.
Many other patients have come back to say thank you and goodbye to me this way. These experiences have reconfirmed what other types of messages from my internal guidance have told me: that death is but another phase on our journey.
I believe there are many layers of reality, and I am grateful that I am allowed to see some of the layers that typically go unseen. In doing so, I receive reassurance and helpful information, and my trust in my internal guidance, my inner connection to God, deepens.
Learning to live in the moment and having an open heart and an open mind are the first steps to seeing more than what is visible to the eye. Opening to the spirit world and consciously inviting it in is another step. My prayer has been, “Okay God, lead me and guide me wherever you want me to go and see.” I invite you to open to the power of prayer and this vast unseen world that is all around us.
Names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of patients and families.