Does anyone have experiences that have made them believe in life after death?

[Magicpaintbrush]

My DH died in April. He had bowel cancer and was only 46 years old and not ready to die. I made the mistake today of picking up the photo album I made full of photos of him and I am having a really tough morning, my heart is absolutely broken. The only thing that gets me through the days is talking aloud to him and hoping that he is somewhere 'else' and can hear me or see me, but then I have moments where I think I am kidding myself and I am just a sad, grieving woman talking to thin air. I don't know what to believe, I hover between the two. But today I absolutely cannot and do not want to believe that there is nothing after death, I can't cope with the thought that he exists nowhere at all anywhere. He was so strong and had so much personality, it makes no sense. Does anybody have any personal experiences or know of any true stories that have led them to believe there is 'something' after we die? I would find it really comforting to hear from people that believe and have a reason why they believe. To those who believe we are just dust after death, you may be right, but today I can't hear that, and I don't need to be told that as I already know that is possible - which is why I haven't posted this in AIBU as I know the first 30 replies would be people rushing to tell me I'm deluding myself by hoping there is something more than darkness after we die. If anybody has anything to share that would bring some comfort today I am very ready to listen x

Mind blown!

I’m so sorry for your very sad loss and this is very early days for you.
I lost my daughter and have had several signs. Just a few weeks after losing her,
I went for a walk on my own in the woods.

My daughter loved being in nature as I do.

I was in such despair that I said out loud ‘Janey where are you?’ Almost immediately I heard her voice ‘I’m here mum’. It was unmistakable. I have changed her name here. Sometimes I feel her around me, though less now and I also feel my mum around me at times. I hope you find some comfort here.

@Goonie1 my husband died in April this year also of bowel cancer. As he passed, a tear fell from his eye which was so distressing to see, but your comment brings me comfort at that thought.

It might not be proof to anyone else, but when my dad died suddenly I had to help identify the body. I almost couldn’t believe it was him because it was so very obvious that the “him” part of him just wasn’t there. Like a suit of discarded clothes. It felt exactly like he’d gone elsewhere.

A few days later his brother made a trip to where he’d died and said it felt like dad was standing next to him, just invisible - this is the least imaginative man I have ever met, and he was absolutely adamant. After the funeral he went again and said he’d gone. Our joint conclusion was that he’d moved on, which did match with what he said he’d do after death if he had the opportunity: watch his funeral to be sure he’d been loved, then move on so we could get on with the rest of our lives. But he’d only ever said that to goth teenage me, not the rest of the family!

In that same conversation he also said he hoped people would grieve him fiercely at first, because everyone wants to be loved and needed, but that we’d all get over it again. Otherwise we’d have been worse off for having known him, and that would be the worst legacy for him. Weirdly, when mum was wavering over the ethics of marrying someone else a few years later (something he’d have wanted), on the very eve of the wedding she found something of his that told her she should marry.

(Weird enough that it would genuinely be outing, sorry, but it was a freakish coincidence and out of character).

I’m in a similar situation. My DH died unexpectedly in traumatic circumstances in January 2025. I spend most of my idle moments (amounting to many hours a day) thinking about him and yearning, pining, to catch him up when it’s my turn.

Consciousness is a big subject and I’m not really intelligent enough to follow the sub-atomic facts of it. But it seems no one truly has a very solid, firm understanding of what consciousness is: where is it located in the body or brain? What powers it? What happens to it after death? Could it - or a vestige of it - just possibly endure in some form when the body is finished ? I hope so. So there’s that, which I think of a lot.

Then there are ghosts. I had a vivid experience of one, just once, but it was unmistakably a ghost. (This pre-dated by decades my husband’s passing.). It had a profound effect on me. It gave me the belief (I prefer ‘understanding’ to belief) that sometimes, something goes wrong with the shut-down, end-of-life process and some ‘souls’ (for want of a better or different word) get stuck. This raises the issue of what happens to those ‘souls’ who don’t get stuck and become ghosts. Are they as active and real (as my ghost most certainly was) in another dimension? It’s possible. There is a lot on ghosts and consciousness that science hasn’t adequately explained.

At this point, it’s also worth mentioning that we are not supposed to know if we can merge or communicate with our dead loved ones, for good and obvious biological reason: if we knew we’d be reunited, many people would not wait out the rest of their natural lives. I certainly wouldn’t. I’d be long gone. So I think biology, evolution, maybe even physics (who knows?) have seen to it that we don’t have the answers.

I'm sorry for your loss, @Magicpaintbrush. Truly, there is no pain like the pain of bereavement.

(Bear in mind, the world is more mysterious than we imagine.). Sending a hug xxx

I am the biggest skeptic you’ll ever meet. Completely non-woo… but my dear departed mum is brilliant at finding parking spaces. My son and I always ask her to find us a space when we’re going to the supermarket and she never lets us down. It doesn’t matter how busy the car park is - there’s always a space along the first row, right outside. Nine times out of ten she’ll save us an end one (she knows I’m shit at getting into small
spaces.

I am so sorry for your loss.

I have just lost a dear friend to pancreatic and liver cancer. I cannot imagine your agony.

When my DNan was passing, on her last night, a butterfly flew in her window, and settled on the wall next to her head. As she passed in the early morning, it flew off. My DMum, who sat with her all night, was convinced it was my DGrandad, coming to greet her and help her pass over. She had missed him fiercely in her widowhood.

2 months later, it was Christmas, and I was at home. As I opened up my present sack (a cotton, pillowcase I have had since a child, kept in the loft throughout the year), 2 butterflies flew out and around the sitting room. DNan and DGrandad came back, to comfort us and show that they had found each other again.

Huge condolences to those affected by grief of losing a loved one.

My experience:

The night my adored dad unexpectedly passed in his sleep, I woke up unexpectedly at 3 a.m. thinking of him. My adult son, living at home shortly after came to my room, and said, ‘Are you okay? I just woke up thinking about grandpa. Is he okay?” I said it was too late to call his grandma, and it was just a dream. But I knew I my heart he had passed and visited us to say goodbye. The next morning, a call from my mum confirmed the worst. The paramedics who attended said the time of death was early hours, probably between 2 and 5 a.m. My DD said she woke up just after 3 a.m. thinking of her grandpa. He visited her too. He died in August five years ago. We all went to the family home. The police were present because it was an unexplained death. After they left and his body was taken by the undertaker, I went into the bedroom where he had died and opened the window. To let out his spirit. A huge swarm of beautiful butterflies flew up to the window, hovered, then flew down. I thought I was hallucinating. My DDs and their partners who were sitting on the patio below confirmed they had seen them. A few days later I wanted to, needed,another sign that he had passed to a better place. I looked out at my parched garden, the bird feeder and bird bath, all devoid of birds. Usually full of pigeons and magpies. “If you’re okay, send me a robin” I asked quietly. Like that’s going to happen in August.

A minute later I looked up and saw a tiny bird on the bird table. It fed, then turned around and went to the bird bath. Then it flew directly towards the window I stood at. A robin. My dad,

It's really shit @Magicpaintbrush

I lost my wife last year, and I still talk to her all the time. I hope she can't see me as she'd see what a total mess I'm in, but it would be nice if she could hear me.

It seems many of us are members of the club that none of us wanted to join. Big hugs to you all. It totally sucks.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Mines a bit of a long story sorry I don't even know if it makes sense!

My first daughter passed away in the womb and was delivered in late September, I remember whilst in the hosptial room we had a quiet moment whilst my husband went outside to make a phone call and the midwives were writing notes, leaving us alone - just me and my baby in the late afternoon light, it was that beautiful amber light that soaked the whole room and at that moment a flock of geese flew overhead making a racket. You could hear them through the windows. I remember looking out the window and seeing the flock dissappear from view. I liked the idea of her flying south for the winter, somewhere warm & far away so I said goodbye. It was an oddly special bittersweet moment in a really harrowing time.

Anyways whenever I feel sad or have a moment when i think about her, for some reason geese fly above. I don't think I've even mentioned it to my husband or anyone, just something that brings me peace and comfort.

So ten years rolls by and I am now a mother to two children. My youngest is 5 and experiences a medical emergency which requires resuscitation, it's an awful time we have a long period in hosptial and undergo a lot of treatment. My child has very little recollection of the emergency or their condition, a year later under the advice of the therapist we are looking back at our hosptial stays and my child points to one of the photos of PICU. "I remember before hosptial when i was poorly I was awake then it went nighttime but then It go beep beep, all the time. Beep beep. But then everything stopped and it went warm and cosy, big orange blanket, and I heard honk honk gooses! All around, so noisey mum! It was so warm and I liked it there but not the hospital that was boring."

My dh thought it was just a dream or a hallucination from the strong medication but in all honesty I think it was her sister who had come to keep her safe and bring her back to us.

I do think there is something after death, whether that be heaven or something that wraps you up like a big cosy blanket and bring you warmth & peace but I do think there is something.

I'm so sorry for your loss, OP. And also posters who are hurting from bereavements. Like you, I was desperate for more certain signs, other than white feathers and songs coming on the radio. With time, I became comfortable to the fact that I may never have anything more certain. I paid for a reading from a medium (email) and nothing she said fitted. So that has put me off, unless I can walk into somewhere where they don't know my name or have my details.

Once I was doing Tarot cards (learning them) and the cards indicated I would be in for an inheritance. I thought that must be wrong and absurd, as I don't know anyone to inherit off. Shortly after my existing parent suddenly died and I did inherit, more than I thought I would, as the cards said. So I do think there is something more than we can see out there.

I am 100% sure there is something but I’m not sure what. Twice now I’ve seen my grandmother the first time was the day she passed I woke up at about 5am feeling as though someone was watching me. Managed to fall asleep and dreamt she was with me saying she was pain free in a hospital gown. I learnt later that the 5am was when she passed. The second time I caught sepsis and had an operation and while under I saw my grandma and grandad waiting at our special tree In their garden. I went with them and my grandma stopped me saying it wasn’t my turn yet .

since then I’ve believed in stuff. I forever see robins too and I like to believe I’m being looked after.

My mum died at 57 suddenly a few years ago from a sudden brain bleed and I am always thinking and hoping that one day we will be reunited as I just can’t seem to accept that we just cease to exist and then nothing

I also don’t know if it sounds strange but I’m a nurse and the amount of patients that have left this world holding my hand, I always wonder if their presence will be around when I leave this world. It’s such a privellege and sometimes I think I’m the last voice or touch they’ve had when they’ve been ready to leave this world. You learn about them and their families and I still think about the majority of them and the people they were ❤️ the ones with no next of kin especially stay with me 🥹 none of us come into this world alone so I hugely believe that none of us should leave this world alone

I can't give you exactly what you want, and maybe this isnt the same type of loss, but my mum died well before her time a few years ago and now I dream about her periodically, and hear her voice (which was destroyed by cancer well before she died). You remembering your husband makes him present here still with us somehow. Much love to you xxxx

That sounds like a vivid dream I had about my mum not long after her death. My mum appeared in my dream and I said to her, ‘mum, I thought you were dead’. She replied, ‘not that. Something else.’ That was it really but I’ve never forgotten the words.

I can see and feel energy/spirit. I'm not religious at all. I can see what looks like a heat haze and it forms into different densities. Sometimes I can see it radiate outwards from animals/people but on different occasions I have seen it form by itself.

When my DM died it took a few days and there were other living family members in the room who had never seen it before. Throughout the course of the few days many spirits were in the room with us. I could see DMs soul rising up from her body and going back down several times. The energy in the room changed and I could see it become very dense and the other people in the room could feel the change and at points see lights that I couldn't see. Eventually I saw Mums soul rise and leave her body and it was full of beautiful sparkles like when sunlight hits dust.

For the next few years her energy visited me many times and she sent many signs, I had vivid dreams that were very different from my normal dreams, she doesn't come so much anymore, I guess I don't need her to.

Yes, I had signs, one after the other. So these holidays I have spent quite a lot of money on dental work. 1 day after my last visit I noticed a hole in my front tooth. In my head I asked my late Nan for it to be a quiet fix. On the way home from the dentist I heard a song on the radio made me cry after my late Grandama (not Nan) died. A white feather hit my bonnet and I looked at the radio and the time was 11:11. A wave of calm went over me. It was so surreal.x

I am so sorry about your DH. He sounds wonderful and I can feel your pain and grief through your writing. You write beautifully about him.
I think it’s extremely arrogant for anyone to insist there is no afterlife or nothing after death. Being born is a miracle in itself, and there is so much beauty in the world and so many things we don’t know about the earth and universe.
I have only lost one person close to me and I like to think she is just resting in eternal peace.

I’m so sorry for your loss, I do definitely believe there’s something when we are gone. I’m into science and life is energy and that energy doesn’t just stop when a person leaves their body behind it still exists somewhere and to me that is the soul.

i do have some personal experience from when my mum passed away 3 years ago. She was in hospital recovering from an emergency surgery and told me about a song she was going to listen to when she got home. She was very emotional telling me how the song meant so much and it was the fabric of her soul which was strange as she never would get emotional or say something like that so I knew it must mean something to her. I wrote down the name of the song to listen to later when I had phone signal.
she passed away suddenly 2 days after that and I made sure to play the song at her funeral.
4 months later my son had her old apple tablet which had been reset so he could use it for games etc. my son was at school and the tablet was on standby on the kitchen table, my daughter was at home poorly and my mum was always so concerned when the children were poorly and she was on my mind. I heard a noise coming from the tablet and when I went over the song she told me about was playing on her tablet and the print on the screen said here’s a song picked just for you. I started crying as I knew she was with us that day.

also she always told me she would come back as a raven she was obsessed with them. On the way to the crematorium following the my mum in the car there was a raven sat on a fence watching us drive by it was so comforting. I’ve barely ever seen ravens but I felt that was my mum coming to visit.

also there were so many feathers kept appearing everywhere for a few weeks after she passed away. It was so comforting as there would be big feathers just appearing in all sorts of places. I don’t see feathers much now which makes it feel even more real how many of them there were those weeks after she passed.

i did go to a medium and she said some things nobody else would know, also she had messages from my grandma who was like my second mum. The messages were too specific to be guesses so I do believe in life after death definitely.

i hope you find some comfort with me sharing my story as I really do believe those things were my mum letting me know she was still with us. I have her ashes in my kitchen and I still talk to her so do keep talking if that makes you feel better x

I’m so sorry OP he sounds like a wonderful man. I swear the beautiful robin who comes and sits on my garden chair most mornings just watching is my lovely mum gives me comfort 🩶

I’m really sorry for your loss.

Yes, keep an open mind. There’s either something or nothing and we won’t know until it’s our turn but I’ve seen dying relative talk to their own dead parent. Another heard music on their last night on this earth, another reported being visited by his own deceased Mum (woke up and swears she was smiling sitting on end of his bed).

Keep talking to your DH. It keeps his importance to you and his memory alive and he may well be listening. Having a broken heart 💔 is the absolute worst.

Yes i believe in this @Magicpaintbrush. After my mum died I had a few things happen which I believe were from her. And I went to a medium a few times and I believe my mum and my dad came through. The time with my mum, the medium knew her name, whst happened when she died and some other things. I absolutely clung to that. I dont post about it much on here because you get the pile on telling you what nonsense it is, how they fleece you for money.
No one knows the truth but it helps me to believe it and I still do.

I hope you find a tiny bit of comfort soon, my heart goes out to you💐

I had the feathers thing too. Literally straight away after she died, they were everywhere!! Loads of them, everywhere I went. I posted about my experience of them further up this thread and I really do believe it was my Mum connecting with me and letting me know she was okay.

About a month or so after the funeral they suddenly stopped appearing and now I barely see any. And its not for want of looking for them. So its strange how suddenly they were everywhere and then I never had that experience of them again.