One day you will learn that there were many close calls with death you didn’t realize at the time.

It was your guardian who whispered to you to leave a minute sooner or later—so that you would miss what would have been an accident—or guided you to the right place to meet the person who would become your spouse.

As for the deceased, they seem to be especially prevalent—along with angels—at death.

“The first shared experience reportedly was deathbed visions, most often of the dying person’s mother or mother figure,” noted the Los Angeles archdiocesan newspaper, which interviewed David Kessler, who runs a hospice program in California and described what the dying have told health-care workers.

“Their eyes became fixed on something no one else in the room could see as they reached out their hands passionately,” according to many witnesses of deathbed scenes.

A hospital supervisor (whom Kessler calls “Nina” in his book) said her dying husband suddenly started talking to someone in his hospital room, although no one else was present. She clearly heard him say:

“Mom, I can’t believe you’re here.”

Then he told his dead mother all about his living family.

But the supervisor said the “most amazing part” was how her husband kept his eyes focused upward on a particular spot—like his mother was hovering there.

An oncologist was at the bedside of his brother, who had terminal cancer, with their mother. The patient began talking as if there was somebody right in front of him. It soon became apparent that he was speaking to his father’s parents, whom he’d been particularly close to. The conversation lasted for a couple of hours, with the patient smiling and calling both of his grandparents by name.

“As a doctor, it’s very easy to dismiss this sort of thing—until you see it firsthand,” the oncologist told Kessler, adding:
“Before the episode, there was a sense of struggle and tension in the air, but now there seemed to be only peace surrounding my brother. I truly believe that it was a result of my grandparents’ visit as he died.”

Kessler found that deathbed vision experiences shared several consistent elements:

• Death had to be imminent—within at least a week, sometimes even the same day

• Only those who were truly dying had such visions

• The apparitions were remarkably similar: mothers or mother-like figures were the most common

“The more I thought about it,” he reflected, “I wasn’t as surprised as I might have been, because our mother ushers us through this threshold into life—and wouldn’t she be there at the end?”

Many of those on their deathbeds report seeing Jesus and angels.

Many too, as they approach death, say there is a crowd around them—a room full of relatives, friends, and acquaintances, as well as angels or other holy figures.

Remarkable are the cases whereby a person still alive encounters someone already passed…

[adapted from The Spirits Around Us]

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