Angel Visions:
How, What, Why, and Where

by Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.

Continued from Part I

Greeley's research showed that the belief in life-after-death experiences is increasing, and that the majority of people now believe in the soul's survival. He wrote:

Belief in life after death has become more prevalent in the 1990s than it was in the 1970s, according to data from the General Social Survey. Roughly 85 percent of Protestants believe in life after death in every cohort. The change occurred among persons from minority religions and persons with no religious affiliation. The proportion of Catholics believing in the afterlife rose from 67 percent of the cohort born 1900-09 to 85 percent of the cohort born 1960-69. Belief in life after death among Catholics who graduated from college runs about 11 percentage points ahead of its level among Catholics who stopped their educations at the end of high school, and 16 percentage points ahead of Catholics who dropped out of high school.

Among Jews, this belief increased from 17 percent of the 1900-09 cohort to 74 percent of the 1960-69 cohort. Finally, the conviction that the human soul survives death increased among adults who have no religious affiliation (has risen) from 44 percent believing, to 58 percent.

Those who have had an apparition experience say that it's not important whether other people believe them. They know that they've truly encountered the living spirit of a deceased loved one. However, they often don't tell other people about their experience because they want to avoid ridicule or skepticism. Yet, those who have had an apparition experience find comfort in the company of believers and those who have also encountered a deceased loved one. I believe it's time for us to "come out of the spiritual closet" and start openly sharing our apparition experiences. Only then can we realize how common it is. We can also benefit from the loving and transformative wisdom imparted by deceased loved ones. Even though people who have had apparition experiences stand by the validity of their meetings with deceased loved ones, science requires additional ways to verify the authenticity of these events. Two ways that scientists "test" the experience is by noting when a person has received new information from a deceased loved -- for instance, if a deceased loved one accurately tells you about a future event, or if you are told that someone has just died and that was something you did not know up to that point.

Second, researchers look for group apparition experiences, where more than one person simultaneously sees the same apparition. Such group experiences have been reported with apparitions of Mother Mary for decades. In a study of 283 people who have had apparition experiences, two or more people saw and heard the same deceased loved one in about one-third of the cases. A similar study found that 56 percent of the apparition cases involved several people seeing the deceased loved one simultaneously.

Dreaming of Angels and Deceased Loved Ones

Is a dreamtime encounter with an angel or deceased loved one any less valid than a waking angel experience? My research and personal experiences show that sleeping and waking angel experiences are equally profound. For instance, my grandmother Pearl (wife of Pop-Pop) came to me in a dream two years after her passing. She was so real, so palpable, so audible. Grandma Pearl said only two words, but they still ring in my ears: "Study Pythagoras."

I woke up and said, "The triangle guy?" I quickly jotted down her words on the notepad I kept on my nightstand. My knowledge of Pythagoras was limited to high school algebra classes, so I wasn't even sure how to spell his name.

Trusting Grandma, I scoured the Internet and specialty bookstores for Pythagorean material. I learned that the ancient philosopher was a strict vegan vegetarian, and that he and his "mystery school" students would meet in caves to study alchemy and alternative healing methods. Among their discoveries were the vibratory patterns of stringed musical instruments. In particular, Pythagoras noted the mathematical formulas behind different musical notes and chords. The vibration of each tone was thought to hold a specific medicinal quality.

His vibrational studies were akin to the numerological work of ancient Egyptians, who devised systems that were the basis of Tarot oracle cards. I learned that each Tarot card was numbered, and that the number held a specific meaning. Each card's title and artwork also had unique vibrational properties. When a person asks a question and then draws a Tarot card, the vibrational rhythm of their thoughts and emotions would automatically attract a Tarot card with similar vibrational properties. This is referred to as "magnetic attraction".

Because my Grandma Pearl urged me to study Pythagoras, I ended up creating a deck of angel oracle cards, similar to Tarot, but with no negative or frightening cards in the deck. The cards have a life force of their own, because of the magnetic attraction that always draws the right card to answer a person's questions.

The dream also led to my interest in numerology. I learned that the angels often speak to us by nudging us, just in time to see certain number sequences on the clock, on license plates, signs, and other locations. I studied the meanings of the various number sequences that people often see, from their angels' guidance, and wrote a chapter on the number divination in my book Healing with the Angels.

One of the qualities that distinguishes mere dreams from truly psychic dreams is that psychic dreams tend to be especially vivid. In a survey of 229 psychic dreams, John Palmer of the University of Virginia found that 80.5 percent of the dreams were described as "especially vivid". Psychic research expert Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia School of Medicine concluded that the data about psychic dreams "suggest that vividness in a dream is a marker of paranormality".

Some of the angel visions also occur when the person is meditating or in the middle of receiving a healing session. To me, these angel visions are just as powerful and real as any other type of encounter. Once when I was working with a spiritual healer, I was in a deep trance. Suddenly, I saw a man's face in front of me. Although he'd died before I was born, and I don't remember seeing any photos or videos of him, I absolutely knew that this was my maternal grandfather.

My grandfather told me about some regrets he had about raising my mother. He said that his parental mistakes had deeply affected my mother's self-esteem, which in turn had negatively impacted my own self-worth. I felt a palpable and auditory "whoosh", as if years of emotional pain were being released from my body. The occurrence affected me in a profoundly healing way.

Could It Just Be My Imagination?

One may wonder about the difference between a hallucination and a true paranormal experience. Researcher Bruce Greyson, M.D., studied 68 people who were clinically found to not be schizophrenic. He found that 34 of the people, exactly half of his subjects, reported having an apparition experience.

Ian Stevenson, M.D., quotes researcher D. J. West as giving the definitive distinction between a hallucination and a true psychic experience:

Pathological hallucinations tend to keep to certain rather rigid patterns, to occur repeatedly during a manifest illness but not at other times, and to be accompanied by other symptoms and particularly by disturbances of consciousness and loss of awareness of the normal surroundings. The spontaneous psychic [now often called "paranormal"] experience is more often an isolated event disconnected from any illness or known disturbance, and definitely not accompanied by any loss of contact with the normal surroundings.

In my clinical experience, a hallucination -- the type we think of as connected with mental illness -- generally involves negative, frightening, grandiose, or paranoid themes. The person believes that the CIA is spying on him; or that some agency, person, or entity is out to get him. Yes, people really do become targets of persecution; however, the type of angel and apparition encounters we are exploring all have one common thread: The person involved improves in mood, outlook, or health as a result of having their angel experience. This is a rare, and even unheard of, result of a true hallucination.

Following a hallucination, most people feel insecure, as if they're losing their grip on reality. Following a true angel experience, people feel loved, secure, and saner than ever. "Everything now makes sense" is a common reaction following an angel encounter.

In addition, psychic researchers Karlis Osis, Ph.D., and Erlendur Haraldsson, Ph.D., note that during most hallucinations, the person believes that he or she is seeing a living human being. During apparition experiences, in contrast, the person believes that he or she is seeing a deceased loved one or ascended master.

It's also interesting to note that Emma Heathcote, the U.K. researcher, studied the angel experiences of five blind people and found no qualitative difference between their visions, as compared to the angel experiences of sighted people.

Seeing Is Believing

In the process of teaching thousands of individuals how to see, hear, feel, and know the angels, I've learned a lot about how the human mind, the ego, the personality, and the emotions all impact the desire to interact with these heavenly beings.

Whether your angel experience occurs in a dream or with your eyes wide open; whether you see an angel with wings, a helpful mysterious stranger, or your beloved departed relative, I'm sure you won't mind if I repeat my favorite quote from Apostle Paul:

"Be careful when entertaining strangers, for by so doing, many have entertained angels unaware."

This article was excerpted with permission from the book

Angel Visions: True Stories of People Who Have Seen Angels,
and How You Can See Angels, Too!, ?2000, by Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Hay House Inc., www.hayhouse.com.

For more info or to order book.

About The Author

Doreen Virtue, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist who works with the angelic realm. She has appeared on Oprah, CNN, The View, and other talk shows, where she is frequently referred to as "The Angel Lady". Dr. Virtue gives angel readings at workshops across North America each weekend; and she teaches audience members how to see, hear, feel, and know their guardian angels. Doreen's workshop schedule appears on her Website at: www.AngelTherapy.com.