It was around 1 a.m. The room was veiled in darkness and my head lain peacefully on the pillow, staring up at the ceiling. Everything seemed normal; I must have just come out of a deep slumber and was getting ready to move into the next cycle of sleep.
But suddenly, there was a presence, just to my left at the edge of the bed. Within seconds, I felt a small body leap onto my chest and then curl down between me and my wife. It was our cat Jasper who had passed to spirit back in March! His presence (and purring) immediately put me at ease and I was so happy to see him.
A few minutes passed, and then I found myself walking through the home. Jasper was with me, and I also recall seeing some of our other deceased pets along the journey. My wife was also up and walking around, and I have a vague recollection of other people visiting. It all seemed to so natural – like this happened every single day. All our furniture was the same, even the junk left haphazardly on the floors needing to be tidied up. Nothing seemed or felt unusual… Totally status quo… That is, until I looked out the windows.
I saw blue skies and sunlight. It was gorgeous. I suddenly remembered “Wait! It’s passed 1 a.m., the sky should be dark.”
It hit me like a ton of bricks: I was not asleep, but actually astral traveling in a spirit world reproduction of my home! As that realization flooded my consciousness, I felt myself literally SLAM back into my body lying on the bed, with such force that I awoke with amazing dizziness… Waves of vertigo passed through me, like I was on some gigantic roulette wheel with a dealer crying out “Place your bets! Place your bets!” I’m sure the dizziness only lasted maybe 15 to 20 seconds at most, but it seemed like at least 2 to 3 minutes.
What does this event mean?
I’ve read and been told by many over the years that during the night we leave our bodies and astral travel. According to some, during these journeys we meet and interact with our loved ones on the Other Side, and that this is a very natural thing – that all of us do it. In looking back on my experience, that would explain why it all seemed so natural. It felt completely normal – which would be correct if it is something we do nightly. It also answered why I saw my wife walking around and interacting during the event -- she was astral traveling at the same time I was. Truth be told, if I hadn’t remembered that it was around 1 a.m. when seeing the sunlight out the windows, I probably would have returned to my body “naturally” and do whatever is we do to forget these journeys when we wake up in the morning.
Since I now believe we do leave our bodies nightly and interact with those in spirit (and that this is a natural part of our sleep-cycle schedules), it has deepened my understanding of love from those on the Other Side when it comes to the process of mediumship. Think about it. We have opportunities to meet up with our spirit loved ones nightly in an astral plain, yet they are willing to go the extra mile to come through a medium in our waking state to let us know they are there. What incredible love! They could just as easily NOT make that connection, instead leaving the knowledge of their survival strictly to the “dreamstate” astral traveling environment. Yet, for whatever reason, we often forget these visits upon returning to this dimension… So they come through to us here in a mediumship reading as best they can. WOW WOW WOW.
I cannot explain why we forget these astral visits when we rise in the morning. Perhaps it has to do with how we compartmentalize ourselves (and thus our focus) and what we believe about “waking” reality versus “sleeping” reality… and how it gets internalized at the subconscious level. It’s an incredible mystery.
Nevertheless, those in spirit still want to let us know they are here, trusting their mediumship messages through total strangers in order to reach your waking mind versus simply leaving it alone because of nightly astral traveling. Now that is LOVE literally going the extra mile.
We are never alone. We can (and do!) visit those in spirit during our sleep states. And occasionally, they will come through in a reading with a medium. How magnificent!
Take a moment and ponder that… Huge THANKS to our loved ones in spirit.
(As an aside, I caught myself out-of-body in bed again last week. This time our other cat – who is still quite alive and sleeps in his own bedroom with the door closed – was lying between me and my wife. Upon the realization that he had astral traveled from his room to be with us on the bed, I slammed back into my body, with the resultant vertigo effects all over again. What a trip!)