It has been a while since I had anything about which to blog, mainly because I'm working hard at interviewing for new stories throughout New England. I hope to have "New England Ghosts" finished and on the market by October of 2010.

One of the sites that I continue to work on is a nursing home in Vermont. Nursing homes and hospitals (but very seldom funeral homes) are common locations for encountering the shades of those departed from their bodies. Some slip out of their human form during a sleep state or coma while their body dies. Understandably, their consciousness or spirit mind isn't sure that death has taken place, as the entire experience of entry seems so much like waking up in the morning; only the physical world is far less responsive. So, these individuals may return home to turn the lights off and on, or open and close doors, or rummage through the closet in their former bedroom, so as to verify that a permanent transition has taken place.

Others die very rapidly, say in a war or accident, where the passage into spirit is instantaneous. For many of these individuals, there is disorientation and a seeking for someone to assist them. I know a woman who, in October 1983, encountered four (what she took to be) "soldiers" in her cellar game room during a class that she was giving on psychic development. She asked why soldiers had come to her and they corrected her by identifying themselves as Marines. Then, they noted that they were lost and had gone out on patrol. In that process, they claimed to see the light emanating from Gail's study group. She was then able to direct these souls to the White Light. The next day Gail learned that at that very time (7 p.m. EST) terrorists had blown up the US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, instantly killing over 220 Marines. That event took place at 2 a.m. Beirut time, though it was the previous evening (7 p.m.) at Gail's home in Glens Falls, NY.

While I have learned that many spirits attend and observe their funerals (watch your whispered comments about the deceased at funerals!) and burials, they also tend to exit rapidly from the funeral parlor--these aren't places that any of us want to remain in. Such recently-departed individuals are interested in seeking out people and places that they knew in life (for various reasons, especially for "closure" of some kind).

Life goes on, friends. Consciousness continues. Do pay attention to the types of events and issues where you put your mental energy. Various mediums have told me that these thought patterns become "habitual abodes" for those in spirit. You experience what you create...for quite a while after the body dies.