SPIRIT TALES AND MAGIC
Our host; Dr.G had his first paranormal experience at only eight years old. With over five decades of storytelling, magic and paranormal story collection he is an award winning story teller on a mission to revive firelight and the telling of stories!
SPIRIT TALES AND MAGIC
Haunting Dreams and Heartfelt Messages (top 3 of 2024)
Dive into a powerful journey of love, loss, and connection in this episode of Spirit Tales and Magic. Together, we explore the mysterious ways our loved ones reach out to us from beyond the grave. With heartfelt stories set against the culturally rich backdrop of Louisiana, we unravel how spirituality intertwines with everyday life, impacting the ways we mourn and remember.
One listener shares a vivid experience: the dream of a brother who passed away unexpectedly—a message of love and pride just before his sudden death. This captivating story unveils how deep familial ties remain intact even when separated by death, resonating with anyone who has lost a loved one. As we discuss the signs that linger in our reality, such as odd occurrences and unexpected reminders, we invite you to reflect on your own encounters with the unseen.
Join us in this exploration of transcendent connections that serve as a comforting reminder that love knows no bounds, whether in life or after. Share your stories with us to keep these conversations alive! Subscribe, leave a review, or share this episode with someone who might need a comforting word today.
Good morning everybody. It's Dr G and you're listening to Spirit Tales and Magic. I'll apologize for the space between episodes, but we are moving and right now it's kind of a secret, but we will keep you posted. The studio will be changing locations, the studio will be changing locations and Cassandra and I will be in the great unknown for a minute or two. We thought that, given the events of November 1st, which is on the podcast, that we would take a little break. So we're going to read a story today from our friend, andrea Holbert.
Speaker 1:I think it's important to start by saying if you've never been to Louisiana, it can be a strange place. Many people first think of New Orleans, and the city is a beautiful, beautiful place and it does have its own palpable atmosphere. But it's magic and unique and it gets into your blood. But you must keep in mind that there are other corners and other places with their own flavor as well, with their own flavor as well. She's from central Louisiana. It is an intensely Catholic community full of rice fields and yards, with Virgin Mary statutory on display and half-buried porcelain tubs. The local grocery store has its fair share of rusted trucks and even a horse tied up outside and a tractor that someone drove in. Jesus fish adorned most bumpers. Luckily the horses were spared. For all its religiousness and condemnation of anything perceived to be deviating from the path, it is also an intensely superstitious place. The farmers look for signs and portents, old ladies tut-tat about and fuss and can tell you all sorts of things just by looking you over. And though no one ever discusses it outright, everyone knows to see the local traitor. That's a faith healer If you need something special.
Speaker 1:My mother, who openly mocked and belittled me when I mentioned some of the things I'd experienced when I was younger, went to see one when she was convinced that someone had set the devil on her. Admittedly, it was a little odd to suddenly have snakes showing up every single day in our house or, more specifically, in her path in general. I think it was the snake in the toilet that finally sent her over the edge. She was given some special instructions to bury various saint medallions in the four corners of the property and some other secret things, but suddenly the snakes stopped. So, as I said, it's a strange place full of secrets and magic and good old Catholic guilt. As I mentioned, I had various experiences over the years.
Speaker 1:My imaginary friend in the house I grew up with with my father was Charles. This sweet, sad man was there for me many times to keep me company. He told me that he had died in my room, which, in that matter-of-fact way as a child, I accepted it. It explained the rope around his neck, and really the only reason it ever came up was because I was curious and I asked. I think the only one time that anyone else ever really believed Charles was real was the time my sister was insisting he didn't exist, that I was way too old to have an imaginary friend, and suddenly the child's guitar in my room was strummed I always keep it next to the closet door and we were home alone. She never said anything about Charles ever again. This isn't, however, the story that I wanted to tell.
Speaker 1:My parents had gone their separate ways when I was very little. Mom eventually remarried and my stepdad, who we'll call John, was an old family friend. I'd known him and the rest of the family my entire life, so to me his two children were just my brother and my other sister. My brother, though let's call him Sam, was older by 15 years Now. Sam had a rough go of things as a kid, I saw family whisper that he was no good, that he was lazy and the things along those lines that people say. Regardless of all those things, the image I have always held of my brother is the wide-shouldered, tall man with a booming voice who was quick to laugh and quick to jest. He was sharp as a tack always and invariably had a baseball cap on his head and a can of Coke in his hand. He would leave half-finished cans of Coke all over the house, in the cars and everywhere.
Speaker 1:I had almost finished with high school and just before my senior year my best friend tells me she's going to Florida and that I should come with. In my teen years I had moved in permanently with my mom, so she and John agreed that I could do it and decided while I'm gone they would take a dream vacation to York. They flew off that night and I stayed at my friend's house before we drove to Florida. I had a dream, but it didn't feel like a normal dream. I woke up in the guest room of their house and sitting at the foot of my bed was Sam. Sitting at the foot of my bed was Sam. I asked him what he was doing there. Sam just smiled. He told me he was sorry he woke me up, but that he wanted to see me before I left and tell me he loved me very, very much and that he was proud of the person that I had grown up to be. He told me to go back to bed and to remember that he was always there for me In my agitated state. I told him I loved him too, and to shut up because I was tired. The next morning I told my friend about the dream. We laughed about it and forgot it very soon. After Driving home a week later we got the call. My mother was frantic. They'd returned from Europe in the night before and found Sam dead. They found him. He had been dead for about a week. The coroner assumed that he had died the first night we all left. That is the exact night that I had the dream.
Speaker 1:Needless to say, the weeks that followed were mostly a blur. I remember very little. There was the Catholic service held by a reluctant priest who made sure to let us know that ending your own life was a sure way to burn in hell forever. I don't think at that moment all the traitors in the state could have healed my stepdad's heart At home. I went about mindless tasks cleaning the house as much as possible, cooking whatever it took. I kept picking up half-finished cans of Coke and I explained it away as I must have had one and forgot that I ever even drank it. Or my mom or John. I'd find lights on or off when I was the only one there and again assumed that I just must have forgotten. And sometimes I, or all of us, would sit and stare into nothingness, lost in our own thoughts. Sometimes it was just too much to try to keep busy.
Speaker 1:On one of those occasions I was sitting next to John in the living room of our house. The living room was situated in such a way that there was a couch under the front windows which caught the afternoon light, diffused by the giant oak tree in the front. There was a narrow strip of wall between the front windows and the front door, which was often open to let even more light come through the storm door. When you walked in there were two more big chairs to the left, the kitchen and hallway leading to the back of the house in front of you and the computer room across the way. That had been for many years Sam's bedroom before he'd grown and moved out on his own. So John and I are sitting there. John and I are sitting there.
Speaker 1:We had forgotten to turn on the lights or open the blinds, but the sun was shining in. The front door was open. I think I was just staring at the pattern of leaves swaying on the square of the floor in front of me. In my periphery I saw my mom walk past me to the left from down the hall, across the kitchen and into the computer room. I registered the white of her t-shirt, slip past and away. Maybe 30 seconds later I see her again Glide past my left, coming from the hallway and into the computer room.
Speaker 1:A heartbeat later my brain caught up with that and I glanced at John who at this point had also looked up and was staring slightly bewildered. He was looking at the hall from the entry of the computer room and back again. So I called out Mom, did you forget something back there? She poked her head out of the computer room and didn't know what I meant. She said that she'd been in there for an hour and never came out, and of course she hadn't seen anything weird. John and I just looked at each other, both confused, and slowly went back to our own thoughts.
Speaker 1:Now I mentioned the way the house was oriented, for good reason. We live in a rural area, off a back road, across the way are some rice paddies and behind us were cow pastures. And behind us were cow pastures. It was common for family to drive by, pull in and come visit if they saw a vehicle parked in the front, and because of that big front window you could see their silhouette on days like today, when they walked up to the front door and the blinds were closed. So we're sitting there. We see a shadow, a tall, broad-shouldered shadow with a baseball cap and a can in its hand. It walks past the front window and as it gets closer to the door that narrow strip of wall no wider than the light switch plate for the front room to the wide, open, clear storm door, it disappears.
Speaker 1:John and I both felt like white knuckle grips on the chairs and he looked at me with a look I cannot even begin to explain and ask me girl, please, please, go, look and tell me there's a car out there. Tell me someone's come to visit. Tell me there's someone in the yard. I have never been more scared and more hopeful than in that moment. So I went to the front door. I looked everywhere. There were no cars, no one driving past. There was no one standing there on the front walk or by the tree or anywhere else. I even walked around the house to be sure and out to the gravel drive. Eventually I came back in and as I went to sit down I told John there is no one there. I didn't see a soul. When there went the shadow again going back from the door across the window, back the way that he had come, john and I watched it. We watched the familiar gate, the head bob, we watched Sam leave, we looked at each other and I remember telling him that I thought maybe Sam was coming to check on us and he made sure that we saw him coming to visit and he made sure that we saw him coming to visit. The cans of Coke stopped being everywhere. The lights were always the way that I had left them and I think he really did leave In his own way. He had been lingering to check on us and make sure that we were okay.
Speaker 1:I won't say that life was ever quite the same, but I think it makes John reconnect with reality and what was in front of him again. We never discussed that moment again either. I'm older now than Sam was then, and sometimes, once in a great while, I see Sam sitting there to talk to me. Over the years there have been three dreams, including the first, and each time he makes sure to tell me he wanted to see me and that he loves me and that he's proud of the person I've become. And I tell him I love him too.
Speaker 1:Annie, that's a great story and you can probably tell it makes me a little bit weepy. It's very similar to the one I have with my Aunt, agnes Wagner, which is on the podcast. We say that there indeed is a world all around us, a world unseen which is all around us, a world unseen which is all around us all the time, and every now and then, for whatever reason, we catch a glimpse of it and the dead get in. I'm DrG. You've been listening to Spirit Tales and Magic. Thank you, ann, and until we're all moved in and back on a regular schedule, we'll see you inside your mind.
