Dear Julia:

My beloved husband died three years ago, and recently, I have suddenly begun to pick up spiritual energies. We have a very strong ongoing loving relationship. I hear his energy hum and I feel his love vibrate through me when he's near. When relaxed, I hear him speak to me, but I haven't been very visual. I see auras of trees, animals and people, but that's all. For months now when I talk to his picture on the wall, I seem to see his face and even the picture frame illuminated like an aura. His expression changes quickly: different hairlines, younger, heavier, more hair, the angle or tilt of his face - but always with his same smile and eyes. Am I just imagining things? Is this just wishful thinking on my part because I want to see him so much? One of our grandchildren saw him in the mirror, so I am sure he is near. My gut feeling is that I'm seeing him with my third eye, but I haven't been clairvoyant before, just clairaudient and clairsentient. I do want to see him so much that it could just be my imagination. Am I over the edge now because of my desire to be with him again? - Snowann

Dear Snowann:

Holy smokes, Sweetie, what would it take to convince you? As I see it, you've been blessed with all sorts of contact and communication from your departed husband. Also, you write that you've never been clairvoyant before, yet you see the auras of trees, animals and people. If that's not clairvoyant, I don't know what is.

Your letter brought up all sorts of emotions for me. On one hand, I was really impressed with all the experiences you've had and the creative ways your husband has tried to connect with you. It was wonderful to read how you know you have a very strong, loving, ongoing relationship with him.

This is precious and rare: so often loved ones who are separated by death have a hard time really coming together in a conscious way. Often the grieving here will deeply long for some sign from a loved one, but because their vibration is so low, they have a hard time manifesting it. Other times the spirit will very much want to deliver some message to a loved one here in the physical, but will be unable to get their conscious attention.

The fact that you know you have a strong relationship with your husband tells me that you DO. You know that he reaches out to you, and he knows that you are picking up on the many ways he's trying to show you he's still there for you. When true inter-dimensional communication like this is successful, it's like a collective cheer rings through the heavens - it's a beautiful thing!

While I was uplifted by your story, it also made me sort of sad. I keep thinking about what a number has been done on all of us when it comes to spiritual phenomena. Even when spirits hold up a figurative neon sign and we look right at, we tend to rub the image out of our eyes and think we must be seeing things, crazy, or deluded. Sadly, many people deep down even feel like they don't deserve that sort of miracle, so when it happens, they throw it away by convincing themselves that those things only happen to other people because they aren't special enough to receive an experience like that themselves.

So what's over the edge in my opinion is not your hope or belief that your departed husband is trying to give you a sign or reach out to you in this way, but the fact that we've all been so brainwashed by the modern world's obsession with physical evidence and reason that we can't even accept it when our prayers are answered anymore.

This is also one of the reasons that spirits have such a hard time getting through to us. You must be particularly open to this sort of thing or you wouldn't be aware of all the signs you describe. (This really is an extraordinary relationship you have going!) Just think of all the people who can't see auras or sense subtle energies: Their loved ones in Spirit can pull off all sorts of stunts to try to get their attention, but because they're not watching for them, they miss them all.

I know this can be really frustrating for the spirits because many times they've led the living to me so I could communicate for them. (This happens via unconscious impulses because the living can't consciously perceive them.) When they finally get to say all they've been wanting to say, spirits often point out to the living all the things they did to try to tell them that they were near. While the living may have noticed those signs, they never made the connection between those events and their loved ones on the other side, or they did and they just dismissed them as wishful thinking.

Spirits do all sorts of things to try to communicate with grieving loved ones. The less sensitive, open and trusting we are of our own perceptions, the harder they have to work. In terms of difficulty, it's hardest for them to affect physical reality. This is especially true of spirits who aren't earthbound. (The lower the vibration of the spirit, the closer they are to the vibration of the physical dimension, so it's not as much of a stretch for them to affect the physical.) One reason we tend to be creeped out by the idea of spirits so much is because those we perceive most readily tend to be of a lower nature. These are the ghosts and entities that make lights flicker, produce audible sounds, and flit through our peripheral vision.

Spirits of a higher nature can sometimes affect physical reality through electricity, for electricity can bridge the physical world and subtler realms. It's not easy for them, however. I imagine it's similar to us trying to levitate someone or bend a spoon with our minds. This is why it doesn't happen very often.

Finally, there is the spirit communication that takes place between spirits and the people who are able to meet them halfway. This generally involves sensitive, open people of a higher vibration. Those adept at spirit communication also tend to trust that what they pick up intuitively is real and valid.

Aside from that trust, you are so there! You just need evaluate your own perceptions based on how you FEEL when these things happen, and then begin to mentally dialogue with whatever presence you sense is reaching out to you.

To dialogue with spirits, simply raise your vibration and meditate on your departed friends and family with a deep sense of your love for them. You will soon sense their presence, and can then ask them questions in your mind and receive their answers. You will know you're not imagining it by the way it feels emotionally. When I do this for strangers, I often find tears streaming down my face because of the beautiful love that spirits send through me for my clients, and I know it's even more intense when there is a direct personal connection.

This will work for you if you learn to trust that emotion. It's a feeling unlike anything else - a knowing that you're being touched by the divine, that something wonderful, beautiful and beyond words is happening.

Your husband is trying so hard to love you from the other side, my friend. Please let the energy he sends comfort, heal, and sustain you until you can reunite in the same dimension one day.

- Julia