In the article so far you have learned how I met my Dad in what I thought was a lucid dream, but had some strong evidence that it was an Astral projection via the dream state. Now read on to learn about the second dream and the visit to a Spiritualist demonstration where Dad ‘came through’

The Second Dream
I had the second dream of meeting Dad a few weeks later. This time I became conscious in a dream finding myself in front of a Spanish style Villa surrounded by pine trees. Beyond it I could see what looked like a golf course. When I tried to move towards it I found I couldn’t and it took me a second or two to realise why. The further you move ‘away’ –for want of a better term- from the Earth plane the more subtle the Astral plane becomes, and how you move has to change. Moving by walking and running work until you reach a point where it becomes too tenuous for your Astral body to grip, then you have to adapt to the situation. Flying or floating are the two most effective adjustments according to regular projectors. Concentrating on the latter enabled me to move towards the Villa and I found myself passing through the door and into a sparsely furnished living room.

From the window I could see that it was a golf course I had seen from the front of the villa, and on one of the greens were some players. I stared at the group wondering if my Dad was one of them. I thought I recognised him from a distinctive hat, and immediately he was in the room with me and the group on the green was one person smaller. I tried to say hello, but speaking seemed impossible, we appeared to communicate through a combination of concepts, sensation and emotion. I ‘asked’ what he was doing now and in response one of the walls of the room was replaced with a view of the street outside my grandparents’ house. Looking towards where the street began I saw the houses clearly and in crisp three dimensions. looking the other way the houses became steadily more vague, outlines becoming indistinct, until at the end they were just blurs of colours.

Dad pointed up the street and I had the impression that that was where he was heading when he felt he was ready. For now he was content to rest from his last incarnation, ponder what he had learned from it, and catch up with other friends who had died. He was already quite some distance from the ‘normal’ Etheric and lower Astral planes as evinced by the way I had difficulty moving around. I felt that Dad might come back at Samhain, or make his presence known in some other way on the physical plane, but it was extremely unlikely as the further he moved away from the more solid planes of existence, the harder it was to travel back to them. Realising this I said goodbye to Dad and found myself back outside the Villa, then I woke up.

They were both very comforting dreams, but there was no evidence to suggest that they were anything more than that until my wife and I went to a Spiritualist demonstration at a local Sportscentre in 2003. I had never attended a British Spiritualist meeting before, and was curious to see what their techniques were for contacting the ‘mortality impaired’ were. I had been to a few necromantic rituals when I lived in Mexico, but the results then had been inconclusive at best. I had read some of the literature, knew a medium, and even been to Tai Chi classes based in the main hall of in one of the local Temples, but had never actually been to a service.

As a necromantic ritual it had been stripped to the bare bones, there was just a stage with four smartly dressed people on it wearing radio mikes around their necks, and three chairs. The audience seating was in front of it as in a normal performance event. I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a large turnout, suggesting that it was a popular spiritual path. To open proceedings one of the people, who was obviously the person managing the event, gave a short talk on the history of Spiritualism, and an outline of its worldview. The other three, two women and a man, were the mediums who relayed the messages and impressions they picked up to people in the audience who they sensed they were for.

I had taken the precaution of mentally casting a circle around us, mainly to stop any unconscious mind or aura reading by the mediums being taken as “communications from beyond the veil”. I needn’t have worried, most of the communications were of the “Your departed relative is OK and now watching over you as a guardian Angel” type. Which was pleasant, but not the in-depth sort of information that interested me, and I began to detach slightly and look at the proceedings from a psychological and cultural viewpoint. I used my peripheral vision to check for any Elementals, entities, or secondary signs of them such as items apparently moving on their own. Also to see if I could spot any cues from the audience that the mediums might be picking up on. It seemed to me that they were mainly directing their messages to people who were leaning forward and looking anxious. So I surmised that by leaning back and looking neutral I shouldn’t attract attention. I also suspected that by casting the covert circle I might have rendered us un-noticeable to beings on the Etheric and Astral planes, so I wasn’t expecting any communications for me.

My detachment came to an abrupt end when the speakers at the side of the stage suddenly started emitting loud and clear Morse code. All the mediums and the stage manager looked quite surprised, I suspected they had done a full sound check when setting up to avoid any break in the flow of proceedings. Dad’s rank in the Royal Navy had been Chief Petty Officer Signals in the days when most communications were in Morse. A second or so later one of the mediums suddenly looked directly at the entrance to the hall.

“I’m getting the name “Edward” she said still looking at that spot
Surreptitiousness forgotten I checked all the faces in the crowd closely; surely this was for someone else? But they were all looking around and at each other, there was no sign of the usual keenness to attract the mediums attention that there had been moments before. After a few seconds Linda, my wife, nudged me and said “I think that’s your Dad”. Reluctantly I agreed and waved my hand, saying “Er, I think that might be for me”
In the final instalment of the article learn what the medium communicated and the anecdotal evidence that I had visited “The Afterlife”