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What Does It Mean
To Be Dead?
Life-After-Death Stores of Lost Souls
by
Melanie Rodriguez
with Patrick Rodriguez
Preface
"I see
dead people." This eerily whispered
phrase became the movie slogan for seeing ghosts
and spirits.
Well, I too see dead
people. Very similar to the little boy in
the movie - except I usually don't feel a drop
in temperature and they rarely ever appear in a
scary way.
They are everywhere and
they look just like you and I, still holding
their last physical appearance and occupying a
physical space. They are almost
transparent, oscillating between this earthly
plane and the other side. They are
physically dead, yet their spirit is unable to
transition.
There are millions of
them and they roam the earth, most of the time
feeling lost, confused, lonely, puzzled and
searching. Searching for what? For
someone to finally acknowledge their presence,
to notice them, to talk to them and to give them
the answer to the question that they keep asking
themselves: Where am I?
As we are finding out,
there is no quick answer. Many of them
don't know they are dead, or if they do know,
they are in total denial.
The more interactions
that we had with these spirits the more we
realized that their stories had to be shared.
Our encounters with these transient souls have
greatly alleviated our own fears of death and we
hope that their stories will also bring you the
same comfort in knowing that Heaven, God - or
whatever your conception may be - always waits
for us even when we become lost along the way.
Each of the following
stories is unique; each spirit has its own
character, with its own personality, experiences
and beliefs.
We hope you will enjoy
these individuals and their stories as much as
we have.
Melanie
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How It All Started
Late Night Visitor
Patrick and I
are husband and wife. I have been actively
using my psychic skills for the past 10 years.
My life experience had been out of the ordinary,
but nothing compared to what I now experience on
a daily basis.
Patrick is also highly
intuitive. Our skills are complementary.
I am a messenger, a channel and he is an
emotional healer. I hear the messages and
he is able to convey them in the best manner to
our clients when we work together.
This is the story of
how Patrick and I started working together as a
team and communicating with the dead. If
you are like me, the very words "speaking
with the dead" conjures up images of living
dead beings, zombies and other creatures from
the after life.
Well let me tell you
that dead people appear to me just as alive as
living people do and as real as you and I.
They look nothing like the gruesome creatures of
my imagination. Most of them are very nice
and respectful and are really just searching for
some answers.
Our story began one
night when I started feeling a presence in our
home. This sent chills up and down my
spine. I didn't want to feel or see or
hear anyone. Not anyone that was dead
anyway. It had taken me several years to
become accepting of the fact that I could hear
and communicate with spirit guides; but
communicating with a loving spirit guide was one
thing, having some dead person appear in front
of me was quite another.
One night, I began to
panic when I started hearing footsteps in the
hallway outside of our bedroom. Even our
two dogs would wake up and bark upon hearing the
noises. However, when we would get up to
investigate, there would be no one.
I reached a breaking
point when I started hearing the furniture in
the kitchen being moved around. Someone
was pulling out a kitchen chair, sitting down on
the chair and then pulling the chair back close
to the table. I knew that this someone was
a HE and that he was inviting me to sit down and
have a chat with him. I was too scared to
leave our bed.
Finally, with my
husband's reassurance and loving patience, I
agreed to listen to what the spirit had to say.
As it turned out there was nothing scary about
the experience. The young man looked like
any other young man, except that he was wearing
clothes from a different era. Using me as
a channel, he started chatting with Patrick and
after much discussion, the young man was able to
transition back to God, ready to move on.
To say that my husband
LOVED the experience is an understatement.
He was thrilled and exhilarated and he felt he
was doing a lot of good. He got so much
personal satisfaction out of the experience that
he wanted to repeat it with another spirit!
On my part, I was just glad that it was over and
I was eager to put it all behind me.
Did you hear that?
A few weeks later, we
were sitting in the kitchen and I heard
something. I turned to Patrick and asked
him if he could hear it. He said, yes, he
could hear the airplane passing overhead.
Only, I wasn't hearing a plane, I was hearing
organ music coming out of nowhere.
I could see a spark
light up in Patrick's eyes. "Do we
have a visitor?" he asked.
Reluctantly, I had to answer yes. Thrilled
beyond words, Patrick went to fetch our portable
tape recorder. He quickly made a set up
around the kitchen table and he was ready.
It took a lot of courage for me to sit at that
table - and now, in retrospect, I am so glad
that I did.
The organ music came
from a church where a little girl was at her own
funeral. She was scared and just wanted
the music to stop. She was stuck in that
ONE everlasting moment in the church, playing
the music back in loops, unable to understand
what was happening, and unable to escape.
Patrick gently listened
to her story and reassured her. He then
led her out of the church and into the light.
It was one of the most beautiful and loving
moments that I had ever seen. The
experience stands out for me because it was
filled with tremendous peace and love.
However, that was not
enough to cause me to embrace my skills and for
the next several months, no one else came by.
We eventually moved
into a new home and Patrick thought for sure
that we would receive a steady stream of
"visitors" from the other side.
He was hoping that this would become a normal
part of our lives. Some people watch
television at night, we would chat with spirits.
It turned out that no
one visited. However, it was not because
there was no one there, but because I was
determined to block out and tune out the
spirits. It was enough for me to deal with
the living without having to deal with the dead
- especially since I was the only one to feel,
see or hear them.
Turning Point
One Saturday afternoon
we went to the home of our friend, Francine, for
a visit. Francine is a psychotherapist and
she had just finished showing us a technique to
release fears when I started feeling the
familiar and almost dreaded
"presence". Knowing that if I
said anything Patrick would jump at the
opportunity to perform Spirit Therapy, as he
calls it. So naturally, I remained quiet,
trying to ignore what I was sensing.
Francine, who was
sitting across the room from me, noticed that
something was going on. When she asked me
what was happening, I casually dismissed it,
claiming that I was processing stuff.
However, she quickly saw through me and asked if
I was feeling anything. After attempting
to stall for a while, I reluctantly admitted
that there were several spirits in the
apartment. In any case, it was almost time
to leave and I knew that there was no time to
get into any spirit therapy at that point.
Sigh of relief.
Francine then explained
that she had, on a few occasions, helped souls
transition back to the Light, or to God.
This came as a big surprise to me, as she knew
nothing of Patrick's high interest in the
subject and of the fact that spirits seem to
want to use me as a channel.
Jokingly Patrick said
that it would be very funny if they followed us
home and if we were then able to help them.
I simply replied that we shouldn't steal
Francine's clientele. I was still in
denial and little did I know that this visit to
our friend's house would be a turning point in
our lives.
Weird Trip Home
We were in the
car and almost home that evening when Patrick
asked me if anyone had followed us from
Francine's place. I was hoping that he
would drop the matter altogether. Ever
since we had left Francine's house, I kept
feeling a presence in the seat behind us in the
car.
From my hesitation to
answer his question, Patrick knew that I was
hiding something. I tried to be casual
about it answering with a meek "I don't
know". He asked me again.
Again, I gave the same answer. Finally, he
asked me if there was someone with us. I
replied "maybe".
The truth was that
there was indeed someone in the car with us.
A young woman was sitting in the seat behind
Patrick. She was as real to me as anything
else.
She wore very large
thick glasses as well as a winter hat and
jacket. She was also wearing her seat
belt. Her hands were quietly folded on her
lap and she just sat there.
I don't know if she saw
me or not but that didn't really make a
difference to me. There was a dead person
riding in the car with us! I couldn't bear
the weight of that fact alone. After
turning around several times to make sure she
was really there and not going away, I blurted
out to Patrick that there was indeed someone
riding in the back seat.
Patrick became very
excited and, as expected, wanted to speak to
her. I was nowhere near ready to engage
her - I was still hoping that she would
disappear! Finally, he agreed to give me
some time to adjust and to come to terms with
what I was seeing. I knew it would be a
brief respite because I knew that Patrick's
curiosity and excitement could not be contained
for too long.
We arrived home shortly
after and, to my great despair, she was still
following us, walking a few feet behind us.
Clutching Patrick's arm, I whispered to him that
she was still following us. I started
racing and told Patrick that I wanted to lose
her. How silly of me. As soon as
Patrick made it through the door I slammed it
shut and locked it, leaving the woman stranded
on the porch.
As we were taking off
our jackets, he asked me if she was still with
us. I said that she was just outside the
front door. We had been home for only a
few minutes when some of the fear started to
ease off and I could think again. To my
surprise, I started feeling guilty for having
locked out our visitor. I was wondering
why she simply wasn't just coming through the
door. Then the answer dawned on me, it was
out of respect. She knew that I was scared
and that I did not want her in our house so she
decided to wait outside.
With that realization,
I went to the front door, unlocked it, opened it
and invited her in. I felt like such a
fool. To anyone else watching this I was
talking to myself and I can only imagine what I
looked like. I then offered to take her
jacket and invited her to take a seat on the
living room sofa, which she did.
Patrick was watching me
closely, not at all surprised or phased out;
weird things were part of our life together.
I explained to Patrick that out of respect for
me she had been waiting to be invited in and
that her name was Beatrice. I told him
that I felt really bad for leaving her outside
and that she seemed very nice.
With my fear subsiding,
I also realized that if she had followed us all
the way home she must have really wanted our
help.
In a flash, Patrick was
setting up the tape-recorder on the kitchen
table and getting ready to ask questions and
take notes.
Our Mission
On the pages
that follow, we will tell you Beatrice's story
along with the stories of many others.
In the days that
followed that first meeting with Beatrice, there
has been a constant stream of spirits in our
home. At times, I had to ask the spirits
to wait outside because they were too loud for
me and I couldn't focus on anything else.
I will apologize here to our neighbors if this
has caused them any inconvenience, but chances
are that they could not hear or see them anyway
(or so I hope).
It is very clear to us
that helping these spirits find their way back
home to the Light is part of our mission.
Patrick and I work as a team and the more I
accept my role as a channel for these spirits
the more helpful we become.
Our intimate encounters
with these beautiful beings have dissipated all
of my fears of spirits, or ghosts, as some would
call them. I no longer fear them and I now
see spirits everywhere. They are in our
home, in the subway, at restaurants and even in
offices. They are living a life parallel
to ours, wandering and looking for someone to
shed light on their situation. For many of
these spirits, Patrick and I are that light.
Throughout the
following accounts, you will have the
opportunity to share a slice of their lives, of
their sorrows, but also of their love and
healing and the beauty of them finally seeing
the Light and finding peace after many years -
sometimes decades - of wandering.
Other authors have
written much about after-death experiences, or
near-death experiences, but not much has ever
been written about the transition from the
spirit's perspective. Here we hope to
share their experiences with you, for in these
experiences we have found just how beautiful the
Light, the Angels and Heaven will be for us all.
Our mission is to help
these spirits to at last transition and to share
their stories with you. We sincerely hope
that their stories will alleviate your fear of
death and allow you to see the process for what
it really is: a reunion with God and a beautiful
transition into the next life.
Enjoy!
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Now available as eBook
download
Also available in paperback from
Amazon.com
and Amazon.ca.
What
Does It Mean To Be Dead?
Life-After-Death Stores of Lost Souls
by
Melanie Rodriguez
with Patrick Rodriguez
ISBN: 1-4241-0598-6
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