Visitors from Beyond: Or Lucid Dreams?

Put briefly, a lucid dream is a dream where you are aware that you are dreaming. This can range from simply realizing that what is happening is not physically possible in the real world; therefore, your mind accepts the fact that you are indeed dreaming and the events transpiring around you are not real events. Lucid dreams can, and do, take many forms. It is this basic low level lucid dream where you are aware that the events are part of a dream, but you exert no control over the course of the dream, that I wish to concentrate on.

My mother passed away when my first born was nine months old. It came as a great blow to me. I loved my mother dearly and wasn't quite ready to let her go. I am told that a day or two prior to her passing she ventured outside to view the wondrous sights of nature near her home. When she returned, she exclaimed of the beauty God had bestowed on us in the natural world and added that where she was going was even more beautiful. Within days, she had passed.

Which leads me to the episode of lucid dreaming I wish to share with you. Several months later, when her birthday arrived, I found myself in the midst of a dream that has lingered for 20 years.

I was in my dining room when suddenly my mother appeared. Instantly, I realized that she could not be there, as she had passed on; yet I was so eager to see her that I joyously began a conversation with her. We talked for what appeared to be several minutes.

What we talked about escapes me. It is what happened next that has etched itself into every fiber of my being.

I knew she couldn't stay for long, I believe she told me that, but perhaps it was merely knowing that she had passed that told me this. I really don't know. I began to tell her about my son and realized she had not seen him for several months. I asked her to wait while I ran to get him out of his crib, so she could see him before she left. I ran down the hall and plucked him out of his crib only to return to an empty room. On the table was note written in my mother's handwriting.

What is said has haunted me through time. "Life is so unpredictable that even death doesn't play by the rules."