Fort Worth, Texas -- Nine years ago, as she first set her eyes on the casket that held the body of her 19-year-old daughter, Ann, Kathy Wilson thought she was going "to die from the pain." But for a moment, as she searched the face of her daughter, a young woman whose life had been cut short by a car accident, Wilson said she also found a degree of comfort.
Can Spirit World Contact the Living?
"Her whole face lit up and her spirit came up over the top of her face and she had the most profound, beautiful smile," Wilson said.
Later that night, Wilson said, she heard Ann speak to her.
"I was just so devastated by grief," Wilson said. "She came to me and said, 'I'm OK, Mom. I love you and everything is the way it's supposed to be.' "
Though movie audiences are accepting of such on-screen spirits as dead boyfriend Patrick Swayze in 1990's "Ghost" and the troubled assortment of spirits in this summer's suspense hit "The Sixth Sense," these same people might dismiss Wilson's experience as the overwhelming sadness of a grieving mother.
But there are some -- many, Wilson would argue -- who would quietly nod their heads in recognition of a similar encounter with the spirit world. It could be the story of a mother offering condolences from the grave, or of a husband saying, "I love you." These incidents would likely be closely held secrets kept to themselves by the people who experienced them, for fear of ridicule.
"The last thing you want to be perceived as is a weirdo or a New Age freak," Wilson said. "But there are a tremendous number of people who have these sorts of experiences."
In "The Sixth Sense," child psychologist Malcolm Crowe, played by Bruce Willis, is faced with a decision as he tries to help a troubled young boy: Will he recognize the existence of the spirit world, or will he use terms such as "pathology," "hallucination" and "paranoia" as he attempts to calm the fears and pain of his elementary-school-age subject, Cole Sear?
But for Wilson, a hypnotherapist in Arlington, Texas, and others, including leaders of various religious traditions, there is no decision to be made. Spirits regularly visit the living, offering comfort and guidance, not fear, as often depicted on the silver screen.
"People need to know that those energies are available and are not negative," said Wilson, who teaches classes on angels. "I have never in my entire life run into something that was a negative experience."
Various religious traditions, including American Indian religions, recognize spirits. In Roman Catholicism, for example, there is a long tradition of spirits -- particularly the Virgin Mary -- reaching out to the living, said Monsignor Charles King, senior pastor of St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in suburban Fort Worth, Texas.
In Medjugorje, a tiny village in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mary is said to have appeared to a group of children; in Fatima, Portugal, she appeared to three shepherd children; and most famously, in Lourdes, France, she spoke to a 14-year-old girl.
Masses are said for the dead and prayers are exchanged between the two realms, King said.
"We believe that contact between the living and the dead is more than possible," King said.
Others are skeptical.
"It may make a great movie, but theologically -- no," said Rabbi Ralph Mecklenburger of Congregation Beth-El in Fort Worth.
In the evangelical tradition, spirits and the living do not communicate, said John P. Newport, former provost and professor of the philosophy of religion at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
And Danny Barnett, president of the North Texas Skeptics, warns that there is a long tradition of channelers or mediums conning widows out of their cash. "I think the likelihood of an actual spirit medium out there is pretty low," he said. "I won't discount it outright."
But there are folks who claim to have the ability to see or hear the dead and use these skills to pass on messages to the living.
[Source: Knight Ridder Newspapers via The Salt Lake Tribune / UT / By Tara Dooley -- - Nov 13 1999]
