Otherworldly Things

From the memoirs of Pat Otterness

OTHERWORLDLY THINGS

Otherworldly things … ghosts and angels … are a part of my world. I am aware of them the way one is aware of the wind. I mostly feel, rather than see, their presence. My family has a tendency to be intuitive, or psychic. Sometimes we have experiences that seem bizarre. We don’t go looking for them, they just happen, and we take them in stride and move on.

????????????From my earliest years, I remember hearing about the time the archangel Michael appeared before my grandmother when she was a young woman. She was sitting up watching over the body of her beloved aunt who had just died, and she said the archangel Michael suddenly appeared before her. She said he was huge, bigger than one could imagine. It had a profound effect on her, and she told the story with amazement the rest of her life.

????????????I had my own encounter with angels in my middle years. I was driving home from work at the University, and it was an hour long drive. I was suffering from the sleepiness that accompanies sleep apnea, fighting to stay awake as I drove. Suddenly, I thought I saw an obstruction in the road, and I swerved the car towards the other lane to avoid it, without looking to see if that lane was clear. Immediately, unseen hands picked up my car and moved it back into the original lane just as a huge 18 wheeler rushed past. The obstruction I thought I saw in the road was only a trick of the light, but I had no way of knowing that. I have always since that time felt the presence of four archangels guarding my life. I think it was they who lifted me out of harm’s way. It was a life-changing experience.

????????????This next thing sounds equally bizarre, but it was part of my experience. I told my story to an extremely psychic massage therapist, and she got very quiet, as if looking within herself. Then, she acted startled, and said, “Oh! I didn’t realize you were one of that host.”

????????????I didn’t ask her what host. Because I knew she was speaking of angels. I wondered what she intuited, but I didn’t ask. I suspect she saw the archangels around me.?

????????????The first ghost I actually saw was my grandmother. I was in the hospital, and it was the morning when I would undergo spine fusion surgery for my scoliosis. I was lying in my hospital bed, waiting to be taken to the operating theater, and I looked up and saw my grandmother sitting at the foot of my bed. She looked so natural, I barely took notice, and when I looked again, she was gone. I think she appeared in visible form to reassure me that I would be fine, to comfort me.

????????????I have always been comfortable with ghosts, because my grandmother saw them, or felt them, and shared her experiences with me along with other daily exchanges. Occasionally, some ghostly entity from her past would appear to tell her of the passing of an old friend or relative, long before we heard through ordinary means. When the phone rang, she always knew who it would be on the other end before she picked up. We expected the unexpected from Mimi. She?knew?things.

????????????For instance, when her daughter was pregnant with her third child, Mimi begged her to get the doctor to deliver the baby early. She feared it might die. My aunt believed her, but the doctor refused, and the baby died in utero, as the result of rH incompatibility just a few weeks before birth. That was a sad time for our family.

????????????I had strange dreams sometimes, that foretold the future. One I particularly remember was about the birth of kittens. We had a Siamese cat named Bobo. She had had several litters of Siamese kittens in the past, but our Siamese tomcat had died, and she was pregnant by some unknown tom. We had her in an outbuilding across the yard from the house. On this night, I dreamed that I got out of bed and went to check on Bobo. I found her in the drawer of a bureau, and she had two gray striped kittens. I felt around in the drawer and discovered a dead black kitten.

????????????When I woke up, inspired by the dream, I went to check on Bobo. She was in the drawer I had dreamed about. She had two gray striped kittens. Because of the dream, I felt around in the bedding, and sure enough, there was a dead black kitten.??Had I had an out of body journey ? I have no idea. But it felt like a?déjà vu?experience.

????????????The only negative vibe I’ve ever had was one I brought on myself. My cousin Jody had died, electrocuted somehow using a blueprint machine at Duke University, and no one knew exactly what had happened. I loved Jody dearly, and in mourning his death, one night I actively tried to make contact with his spirit. I was at college, alone in my dorm room, and the most awful coldness came into the room. It was terrifying, and I felt frozen, unable to move for the longest time. I don’t know what I had encountered, but it was the most negative energy I’ve ever felt. Definitely not my cousin Jody. I have never sought out ghosts again. The ones who visit me of their own accord are friendly, and I sense them from the corners of my eyes.

????????????Another odd thing I have experienced, twice, is the dead visiting me in dreams to tell me they are healed and moving on. This happened to me first when the spirit of my dear friend Larry Anderson who died of lung and brain cancer appeared to me in a dream, and told me he was okay and was no longer involved in photography. He was well and healthy in the dream and there was joy surrounding it. This was my first experience of such an occasion, but later, years after my mothers death, she also appeared to me, healed and happy and told me she was ready to move on. My daughter had a similar experience when her step-mother appeared to her with that message. Her stepsister told her she had had the same experience with my ex-husband appearing to her, healed of his pancreatic cancer and out enjoying his garden again. I don’t think all these visitations can be wishful thinking. They feel so joyful.

????????????The dead visit me frequently in dreams. My mother came often for tea and a chat after her death, and Larry haunted me for years, bringing me messages for his family from the other side. I mourned Larry’s death for seven years. His ghost was one I often saw from the corners of my eyes. Then one day a rabbi told me that G-d didn’t condone long mourning, and I said, aloud, that I guessed it was time to let Larry go. Immediately, Larry disappeared and has not shown himself again, even in my dreams. He was just waiting for me to release him.

????????????One other recollection stands out in my memory. Soon after I moved to Nelson County, I was out walking and I spotted a large group of ghost children on the hillside above me. They were far away, and I was of a mystical frame of mind at that time in my life, so I continued on with my walk. I did, however, mention this oddity to my neighbor one day, and she literally turned white. She told me that 13 children had died on our road during Hurricane Camille in 1969. I had not even been aware that I had moved to the very area where the hurricane had struck. Apparently, my house had been narrowly missed by the mudslides, but those living farther downhill were drowned. I wonder why the ghost children allowed me to see them. I guess, like all of us, they wanted to be remembered.

????????????I have also connected several times with those not yet born. But that’s a story for another time.

Am I crazy? Or delusional? Or just sensitive to other dimensions beyond our reach? As I said before, I don’t do it on purpose. It happens, and I accept it, and I move on.