ARTICLE: Close Encounters Of The Paranormal Kind: Part Three

Originally published June 22, 2013 on the Bubblews website which no longer exists. I've update this articles and also give additions to this original article

Image~©Melanie Neer~Personal image of my "Samhain" altar

This is the third in a series of articles I'm writing about my past "paranormal" experiences. I invite you to read the first two of which I give a link at the end of this article.

As I previously explained in both prior articles, the mystical, metaphysical and paranormal realms were never strange to me as I grew up in such beliefs due to my way ahead. with it great grandmother. Whenever I had experienced my own paranormal occurrences to me they were normal; they never frightened nor scared me in the least. There was one experience however that was, well, a bit strange even to me. I have to confess I rarely talk about this incident since I can't help thinking that if I did, I could expect a truck with men in white coats coming after me and fitting me in a jacket….But here goes…going to reveal it now.

It was something that took place four years ago and on Halloween night…uh, perfect setting, no? What people don't realize about Halloween is that it's actually based on old Celtic pagan and wicca beliefs and is called Samhain. It is one of the known festivals celebrated by neo-pagans and wiccans of today and is considered our New Year. I say "our" since yes folks, I follow the pagan/wicca path myself.

With Samhain is the belief that the veil between worlds is the thinnest and that the spirits of the dead can visit the living. Such a concept is not only a belief among neo-pagans or wiccans but is also observed and celebrated in other cultures, particularly among people of Hispanic origins, especially in Mexico. In this case the day is known as El Dia De Los Muertos (Day Of The Dead), which by the way has its origins from pre-Columbian times. Many people may be familiar with how the image of the skull predominates El Dia De Los Muertos. Is it no wonder then with our "modern" Halloween that ghosts, ghouls, goblins and skeletons are associated with the holiday itself?

In either case, whether it's a celebration of Samhain, El Dia De Los Muertos or Halloween, it is by no means a "morbid" celebration, but a fond remembrance of those who passed on before us. Since I am of the pagan/wicca path, I too celebrate Halloween/Samhain in my own special way and have a special ritual that I do and have done so ever since I first started following the pagan/wiccan path some twelve years ago.

On this particular Halloween/Samhain in 2009, some nine years ago, I became very reflective, not so much with wanting to honor family members who had passed on, but for some reason I had become rather melancholy with my cats of my past who had left my life. So on Halloween night, I set up my altar that I have in my bedroom, which consists of three candles, my statue of the Ancient Egyptian feline goddess Bast (rather appropriate), my Egyptian type incense holder, and a variety of other items that had special meaning to me. I also decorated my altar with a bouquet of Chrysanthemums, and also with Halloween themed items, such as small pumpkins, fall leaves, and Halloween type candy. Then I went one step further, I opened up a can of cat food and placed it on a plate and placed the plate on my altar.

After my little ceremony, I left the bedroom with the incense still burning and the candles lit and went into the living room area and decided to get some work done in front of my computer. My computer desk is right next to my sofa and I noticed that both my cats that I had at that time, Pyewacket and Kissy were sound, sound asleep on the sofa; they were clearly in full view all the time that I was in front of the computer. At one point while sitting in front of the computer I remembered a book I had in my bedroom that I wanted and decided to get it. Once in the bedroom, I passed by my altar to retrieve the book. As I passed the altar again to go back into the living room, I looked down at the altar and that's when I noticed something. Something was missing. Can you guess? Yes, the plate of cat food was completely empty, not a morsel was on it. Since I can see the living room from my bedroom I still noticed both cats sound asleep, so there was no way either of them could have come into the bedroom and eaten the food.

Perhaps when I think of it, that experience really isn't so odd. I've talked with other pet owners who have had their own "encounters" of pets who had passed on and who have "visited" them; such as seeing a shadowy movement in their peripheral vision, hearing sounds, to even feeling the presence of a former pet hopping on their bed and snuggling up with them as they sleep.

There have been documented cases of people experiencing "encounters" with the spirits of pets, especially with cats. One such good read and of which I highly recommend is Dusty Rainbolt's "Ghost Cats: Human Encounters With Feline Spirits"

Have any of you experienced the presence of a former pet?

Update:

In this article I had mentioned about having two cats at that time, Pyewacket and Kissy. Sadly and very unexpectedly, Pyewacket passed on April 19, 2010. Then on September 1, 2015, my 15 year old Kissy passed on. Not long after Kissy passed on you might say I was given a "sign". I've read countless accounts that often when a "loved" one has passed on, be it a human or pet, they will give a "sign" and sometimes this can be in the form of a feather…yes a feather. Only a week had passed with Kissy's death and I was cleaning my floor, when I noticed something. Yes a small light grey bird's wing feather. The color of the feather was in itself very significant since my Kissy was a grey-stripped tiger cat. Also, there was no reasonable explanation how that feather could have gotten into my place as I have window screens on all my windows.

As you can and might guess, I continue my special "Samhain" ritual in remembrance of former cats that have passed on. I include the urns and a photo of both Pyewacket and Kissy on my altar. It's not unusual to observe something. I include a photo I had taken at one such ritual. See anything? One can clearly see a sort of purple mist in the photo that was by no means apparent by the naked eye, yet shows up in the photo. Coincidence?

To this day, not only I, but my present black cat Ouija "senses" a presence of former cats passed on, as there are times when Ouija stares and stares at one particular spot somewhere and there clearly is nothing that can be seen.

My first article about my "paranormal" experiences:

https://melneer.blogspot.com/2018/04/article-close-encounters-of-paranormal.html

https://melneer.blogspot.com/2018/04/article-close-encounters-of-paranormal.html

My second article about my "paranormal" experiences:

https://melneer.blogspot.com/2018/04/article-close-encounters-of-paranormal_27.html

https://melneer.blogspot.com/2018/04/article-close-encounters-of-paranormal_27.html

ARTICLE: Close Encounters Of The Paranormal Kind: Part Two

Originally published June 18, 2013 on the Bubblews website which no longer exists

Image ©Melanie Neer~Sunrise photo taken at Miami Beach Florida. I chose this image since it looked rather "mystical"

Sometime ago I had written about one of my paranormal experiences I had in my life and I include the link to it at the end of this article should you like to read it.

To me the "paranormal" realm was never a strange or foreign concept, since off and on throughout my life I've had such experiences; ironically to me they were "normal". Two experiences no doubt saved my life.

The one "occurrence" took place during the summer of 1980 when I was 24 years old. I was one of those women who would be plagued by painful cysts every month when I got my period. They would come and go, come and go. Well this one time, a cyst wasn't going away as it usually did, yet I still didn't exactly race to the doctor's to get it checked out. Finally, I gave in and decided to go to the doctor. My doctor was the type where you didn't need to set up an appointment, you just walked in and waited your turn. Upon arriving at my doctor's office though a sign was tacked up on his door indicating he was on vacation and wouldn't be back for a good two weeks or so. The sign also indicated that for any emergency to go to the hospital. I took note of which hospital and went home.

Once home I started to get into my daily yoga routine…I was laying on the floor doing my yoga breathing, my eyes closed and I was nice and relaxed. All of a sudden this very loud booming voice in my mind said, "You need help NOW!" Well maybe to some people if they suddenly hear a loud voice in their heads would probably freak out thinking they were going, well, a bit daft, but as I mentioned since I've experienced "paranormal" type events all my life, it didn't phase me in the least, but I realized, yes, maybe I needed my health problem, my cyst taken care of.

I waited until both my mother and grandmother came home from work and told them that I needed to go to the hospital and told them why; I never had mentioned about my cyst problems before to them and certainly hadn't this time. We got a cab and went over to the ER of the hospital and waited and waited. Once I had a doctor examine me, among other things I had so many blood tests taken it was a wonder I had any blood left at all. Some hours passed by I was admitted to a room and right away hooked up to IV antibiotics. I never exactly questioned my admittance to the hospital, I just kind of took it in stride.

A full week would pass by with my constantly being pumped up with IV antibiotics, and then I was scheduled for surgery to drain out the cyst. All went well and it took another week for my incision to continue to drain and heal and the nurses would change the bandage everyday. Finally I was ready to go home, but before I did one of the attending nurses asked me, "Do you know what your temperature was when you were admitted?" I said no, and never even had thought to ask. She said 106.8. I think my eyes nearly popped out. You see I had absolutely no symptom of a high fever, no dizziness, no fatigue, nada, and it was due to that cyst I had that turned out to be highly infected, thus the antibiotics. Heck, I've felt worse when having a temperature of only 101.

Now we zoom up to May of 1996. I was walking along this very busy area of the neighborhood doing some errands. Upon reaching one street to cross, the light was starting to change against me, but figured I had enough time to cross it. Instead, some "hot rodder" decided to zoom down the street even before the light changed green for him. All I can say is I understand why "roadkill" occurs. Here I was in the middle of the street crossing it, seeing this car coming at me at full speed ahead, and I froze…I just plain couldn't move for some reason. Any second, that car was about to hit me full impact, when suddenly I felt this tremendous push from behind me, pushing me to safety and out of harms way of that speeding car. I was notably shaken up and realized how close I had come to being a fatal statistic. However here was the weird part. When I looked behind me to see who had pushed me out of the way, guess what? No one one was there. Once again I could have been freaked out by such an experience but I wasn't…I realized that some guardian angel no doubt was watching over me and protecting me.

My first article about my "paranormal" experiences:

https://melneer.blogspot.com/2018/04/article-close-encounters-of-paranormal.html

https://melneer.blogspot.com/2018/04/article-close-encounters-of-paranormal.html

ARTICLE: Close Encounters Of The Paranormal Kind

Article originally appeared May 21, 2013 on the Bubblews webs tie which no longer exists

Personal Images: Old photo with my great grandfather, great grandmother and mother circa 1950

Snoopy the white cat which came into my life shortly after my great grandmother's death

I think a little "background" information is needed here. Despite my having grown up in a Christian background and upbringing, from early on I was aware of the more "paranormal" metaphysical and mystical realms, thanks and due to my way ahead great-grandmother. It was she who, despite being Catholic, was into the ideas and concepts of reincarnation, ESP, psychic awareness; she was even "into" Edgar Cayce, the famous psychic who had given "readings" during the 1930s and 1940s, so the whole "paranormal" world wasn't so strange to me. In fact, I was to experience the paranormal on and off nearly all my life.

I had a very close bond and connection with my great grandmother, more so than either my mother or grandmother, which may have explained what happened during the last week of August of 1970 when I was fifteen years old. At that time my grandmother, mother and I were away on vacation in the Lancaster, PA area. One night, fairly late, we were all watching the Johnny Carson Show. All of a sudden I was overwhelmed by this scent flooding the hotel room. I recognized it as the favorite perfume of my great grandmother. I asked both my mother and grandmother if they could smell it; of course, they looked at me as if I were daft.

Very early the next morning we got a phone call. It was from one of my great grandmother's neighbors to tell us that she had been rushed to the hospital but had passed away. When? The exact time I started smelling that perfume of hers flooding the hotel room and this was hundreds of miles away from where my great grandmother was in the NYC area.

Sometime passes and now of course my grandmother, mother and I were home and my great grandmother had her funeral already. One night, very late I would say around near 3 a.m., both my mother and grandmother were sound asleep while I was still awake reading. Something compelled me to look up from my book. At the foot of my bed, I could very clearly see a female form, yes, it was the spirit of my great grandmother.

I guess for many people such an occurrence like this might totally freak a person out no end, but as I mentioned, I've had "paranormal" experiences on and off all my life…to me they're normal. Maybe I'll tell of some of my other experiences I've had at another time. A few saved my life.

This story doesn't end just yet. There's a part three to this story. Now it was November 7, 1970. I was coming home from school and stopped by the so-called local "hang-out" which was a candy, magazine, cigarette and soda fountain type store. I was over at the magazine section looking through a variety of magazines, when all of a sudden this dazzling, gleaming white cat walks into the store. The cat comes right over to me as if I were a long lost friend.

At that particular time, our family already had three cats, but I had never seen an all white cat close in my life and was fascinated by this cat. I asked the store keeper if I could call up my mother at work to ask her if it was all right to bring this cat home. When I told my mother about this cat she said yes, that by all means, it was okay to bring the cat home. I picked up the cat and snuggled it close to me wrapping the cat with my coat I was wearing since it was a chilly November day. He didn't panic at all, but seemed quite content to be near me as I walked home.

Here's the "punchline" you might say. Not long after taking home this white cat, which I was to name Snoopy, my grandmother and mother revealed that my great grandmother always wanted a white cat but never did. Coincidence? For some reason, I don't think so.

ARTICLE: Close Encounters Of The Paranormal Kind: Part 2

IMAGE SOURCE: PHOTO FROM THE INTERNET

This article first appeared on Bubblews on June 18, 2013, a website that no longer exists

Sometime ago I had written about one of my paranormal experiences I had in my life and I include the link to it at the end of this article should you like to read it.

To me the "paranormal" realm was never a strange or foreign concept, since off and on throughout my life I've had such experiences; ironically to me they were "normal". Two experiences no doubt saved my life.

The one "occurrence" took place during the summer of 1980 when I was 24 years old. I was one of those women who would be plagued by painful cysts every month when I got my period. They would come and go, come and go. Well this one time, a cyst wasn't going away as it usually did, yet I still didn't exactly race to the doctor's to get it checked out. Finally, I gave in and decided to go to the doctor. My doctor was the type where you didn't need to set up an appointment, you just walked in and waited your turn. Upon arriving at my doctor's office though a sign was tacked up on his door indicating he was on vacation and wouldn't be back for a good two weeks or so. The sign also indicated that for any emergency to go to the hospital. I took note of which hospital and went home.

Once home I started to get into my daily yoga routine…I was laying on the floor doing my yoga breathing, my eyes closed and I was nice and relaxed. All of a sudden this very loud booming voice in my mind said, "You need help NOW!" Well maybe to some people if they suddenly hear a loud voice in their heads would probably freak out thinking they were going, well, a bit daft, but as I mentioned since I've experienced "paranormal" type events all my life, it didn't phase me in the least, but I realized, yes, maybe I needed my health problem, my cyst taken care of. I waited until both my mother and grandmother came home from work and told them that I needed to go to the hospital and told them why; I never had mentioned about my cyst problems before to them and certainly hadn't this time. We got a cab and went over to the ER of the hospital and waited and waited. Once I had a doctor examine me, among other things I had so many blood tests taken it was a wonder I had any blood left at all. Some hours passed by I was admitted to a room and right away hooked up to IV antibiotics. I never exactly questioned my admittance to the hospital, I just kind of took it in stride.

A full week would pass by with my constantly being pumped up with IV antibiotics, and then I was scheduled for surgery to drain out the cyst. All went well and it took another week for my incision to continue to drain and heal and the nurses would change the bandage everyday. Finally I was ready to go home, but before I did one of the attending nurses asked me, "Do you know what your temperature was when you were admitted?" I said no, and never even had thought to ask. She said 106.8. I think my eyes nearly popped out. You see I had absolutely no symptom of a high fever, no dizziness, no fatigue, nada, and it was due to that cyst I had that turned out to be highly infected, thus the antibiotics. Heck, I've felt worse when having a temperature of only 101.

Now we zoom up to May of 1996. I was walking along this very busy area of the neighborhood doing some errands. Upon reaching one street to cross, the light was starting to change against me, but figured I had enough time to cross it. Instead, some "hot rodder" decided to zoom down the street even before the light changed green for him. All I can say is I understand why "roadkill" occurs…here I was in the middle of the street crossing it, seeing this car coming at me at full speed ahead, and I froze…I just plain couldn't move for some reason. Any second, that car was about to hit me full impact, when suddenly I felt this tremendous push from behind me, pushing me to safety and out of harms way of that speeding car. I was notably shaken up and realized how close I had come to being a fatal statistic. However here was the weird part. When I looked behind me to see who had pushed me out of the way, guess what? No one one was there. Once again I could have been freaked out by such an experience but I wasn't…I realized that some guardian angel no doubt was watching over me and protecting me.

My first article about my "paranormal" experiences:

First Paranormal Experience Article

ARTICLE: Close Encounters Of The Paranormal Kind

IMAGE SOURCE~©MELANIE NEER~PERSONAL PHOTO

Photo of my great grandfather, great grandmother and my mother circa early 1950s

This article originally appeared on Bubblews on May 21, 2013, a website which no longer exists

I think a little "background" information is needed here. Despite my having grown up in a Christian background and upbringing, from early on I was aware of the more "paranormal" metaphysical and mystical realms, thanks and due to my way ahead great-grandmother. It was she who, despite being Catholic, was into the ideas and concepts of reincarnation, ESP, psychic awareness; she was even "into" Edgar Cayce, the famous psychic who had given "readings" during the 1930s and 1940s, so the whole "paranormal" world wasn't so strange to me. In fact, I was to experience the paranormal on and off nearly all my life.

I had a very close bond and connection with my great grandmother, more so than either my mother or grandmother, which may have explained what happened during the last week of August of 1970 when I was fifteen years old. At that time my grandmother, mother and I were away on vacation in the Lancaster, PA area. One night, fairly late, we were all watching the Johnny Carson Show. All of a sudden I was overwhelmed by this scent flooding the hotel room. I recognized it as the favorite perfume of my great grandmother. I asked both my mother and grandmother if they could smell it; of course, they looked at me as if I were daft.

Very early the next morning we got a phone call. It was from one of my great grandmother's neighbors to tell us that she had been rushed to the hospital but had passed away. When? The exact time I started smelling that perfume of hers flooding the hotel room and this was hundreds of miles away from where my great grandmother was in the NYC area.

Sometime passes and now of course my grandmother, mother and I were home and my great grandmother had her funeral already. One night, very late I would say around near 3 a.m., both my mother and grandmother were sound asleep while I was still awake reading. Something compelled me to look up from my book. At the foot of my bed, I could very clearly see a female form, yes, it was the spirit of my great grandmother.

I guess for many people such an occurrence like this might totally freak a person out no end, but as I mentioned, I've had "paranormal" experiences on and off all my life…to me they're normal. Maybe I'll tell of some of my other experiences I've had at another time. A few saved my life.

ARTICLE: Visitors in My Home: The Spirit Kind

(Originally published at Yahoo.voices formerly Associated Content~2/3/2009)

ABSTRACT: Maybe since I've always had psychic leanings, I've experienced many strange occurrences in my life

CONTENT: I think I was inspired to do this article/review after reading one of my friends review at Ciao about her experiences with a ghost in her home, as I've had my own "visitors"...one seen, the rest not seen. Before I relate my first "ghostly" or spirit visitor I have to back track a bit.

This was many years ago when my grandmother, mother and I went on our yearly vacation to the Lancaster, Pa area some 200 miles away from where I lived in the NYC area. At the time my great-grandmother, a feisty, lively 98 year old was still alive and was to be looked in on and taken care of by her many neighbors. The date of this experience was August 31, 1970. On that date, it was late at night and we were all settled in and watching the Johnny Carson show..so figure maybe around 11:45 p.m. All of a sudden I became aware of the overpowering scent of a cologne...Lily of the Valley, the cologne my great-grandmother loved. I asked my grandmother and mother if they smelled it, and the two just looked at me like I had lost my marbles and said no. Very early the next morning, we got a phone call from one of my great-grandmother's neighbor's. My great-grandmother had, had a fall earlier that day. The neighbor, was going to visit her to check in on her to see if see was all right, and from the door, heard a moaning sound. Having spare keys, the neighbor opened the door and found my great-grandmother lying on the floor. She called 911 for an ambulance and she went to the hospital. She was to live several hours, but later died......the exact same time I smelled that scent of Lily of the Valley some 200 miles away.

Years were to pass. Now I've read enough paranormal type books to know that many think that those in the spirit world, time means nothing, to them, many years to us may only seem like minutes to them. It was late one night, around 3:30 a.m. I was still awake reading. Both my mother and grandmother were sound asleep. Suddenly something made me look up from my reading...at the entrance to the bedroom was a white form, a woman's form ...and I recognized the woman as my great-grandmother. The moment I acknowledged "seeing" something however, the form vanished.

Now the really weird thing...why did my great-grandmother appear to me? Was it due to the fact that we had a connection? My grandmother and mother always said my personality was more like my great-grandmother's (and father's) rather than either of them. Also odd, was I've never had a "visit" from the spirit of my grandmother who died in 1986, nor my mother who died in 2006. Was this due to the fact I wasn't as "connected" to them?

However a strange occurrence did take place back in 2006. But this time I believe one of my cats, Pyewacket, a black cat, sensed something. Pyewacket used to love hopping on the sofa and cuddling up with my mother, keeping her company. Then all of a sudden he stopped, he just wouldn't go near her. This went on for about a week or so. Then my mother became gravely ill and had to go to the hospital. She had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in June of 2005, but it wasn't the cancer to claim her life but a case of pneumonia. She was in a medicated coma for about two weeks, with very little hope of recovery. On a Saturday night, August 26, 2006, I was talking on the phone to a friend of mine when I became aware of Pyewacket jumping up on the sofa...he hadn't done that in ages. I even mentioned it to my friend and she said, "Maybe it's a sign of something." The next day I went to the hospital, one to visit my mother, and two, I needed a signed letter from the doctor to explain why she couldn't attend an upcoming court appearance we had to go to on August 30th. While I was waiting for the doctor, I bent over and asked my mother over and over again, "Do you want to go?" As I said, the chances of my mother's recovery was zero, it was getting to the point where I would have to consent to authorize the medical staff to pull the plug from her life support and respirators. So I continued to ask her, "Do you want to go?" Now even though she was in a coma, they say that one can still hear in the coma state. Finally the doctor came in, we talked awhile, then all of a sudden the vital signs all dipped....My mother was "crashing". The crash team came within minutes to try and revive her, but it was a no go.

But what was the story with my cat? Did he sense my mother's presence the night before? Did he sense she was in the early stages of dying?

Now spirit "visitors" I believe don't always have to be of the human kind. Presently, I only have two cats, but for many years I had many more...in fact, I've had cats ever since I was five years old having my first cat, Babette, in 1962. I can't help thinking that often some of my spirit visitors are of the feline persuasion. Sometimes I'm busy, working on my computer, and out of my peripheral vision I see "something", some kind of a form on floor level , but when I look directly at the spot expecting to see one of my cats, nothing is there. Then other times, I swear my two cats "see" something. I probably have the most subdued cats going, very quiet in other words. But then every once in awhile one of them will go absolutely berserk. Now people with pets will know what I mean by this. For those who have more than one pet, you may experience where your two cats or dogs might chase each other, right? Well, that's what happens with one of my cats. One will start running around the apartment as if chasing another cat, but of course, there's no one there. Are they indeed chasing the spirit of one of my former cats?

The next story will probably seem the strangest of all to you. And once again it has to deal with feline "visitors" I swear though it's one-hundred percent true. It was Halloween 2007. I had recently learned that only a few days before one of my cats, Footie who had been adopted by a friend of mine had died. His real name was Koshka, but I had always called him Footie as he was one of those cats who had extra toes. On Halloween, I set up a special place up with candles as part of a ritual I do every Halloween...the idea of remembering the dead, as supposedly the veil between worlds, that of the living and dead is the thinnest. If you are of the Pagan or wiccan persuasion you know precisely what I'm talking about, but it's a belief held by many who don't follow this path, such as Latino cultures who observed El Dia de la Muertos..Day of the Dead. In these Latino cultures they will often go to the cemeteries, set up a virutal "picnic" for the departed and remain there all night.

So here I was, with my Halloween set up, and since Footie had just died, I thought, as silly as it may sound to some, I thought to dish out some cat food and place it on the table near my candles. I then went back to my computer in the living room and was working some more. My two cats were sound asleep on top of the cushions/piilows of my sofa...in other words they were in plain sight of me the whole time, neither moved the whole time. Then I had to get up and go to the bedroom, where I had my Halloween set up to get a book I had there. At first nothing "registered" as I was intent on finding the book, but then I looked to where I had my Halloween candle set up and the dish of cat food...uh, but nothing was there! Yes the dish was there, but the food was completely gone! I'm like HUH? Was it possible the spirit of Footie was there, or maybe any one of my other cats no longer alive? I realize this must sound very "Twilight Zone" to most of you but I swear this event did happen. Consequently, I did the same set up last Halloween (2008)...but didn't have the same experience occur. Whatever did happen though, I really like to think, that one time, my cats did come to "visit" me that Halloween in 2007.

This article also had appeared at Ciao ©2009 as my pen name of pyewacket