A letter to the editor from Godofredo O. Peteza Sr., 85, from Daet, Camarines Norte, related four occasions when the dead appeared and talked to him.

On one occasion, his daughter told him the provincial treasurer and co-masonic brother had come to visit him, and not finding him at home, went to a common friend’s place and even had a few drinks with him. He learned later that this man had died the day before.

Reader Peteza Sr. then concluded his letter: “I challenge science to explain this phenomenon.”

Well, I have news for Mr. Peteza Sr. Science cannot explain such encounters with the dead, because it is not meant to explain paranormal, psychic or supernatural phenomena. These things are beyond material science, which deals only with the physical world of reality, and anything beyond that is not within its coverage or paradigm, although some try very hard to explain such phenomena in a scientific way. Well, they will be disappointed or sound unconvincing.

As Charlie Brown in Charles Schultz’s “Peanuts” cartoon character said, “You can’t solve new math problems with an old math mind.”

Higher consciousness

Such seemingly impossible or incredible phenomena as close encounters with the dead, astral projection, psychic surgery or even the more common practice in some countries as fire walking, cannot be explained scientifically, unless it considers the existence of spirits and higher consciousness. Only Spiritual Science, which does not exist yet, can explain supernatural and nonphysical phenomena.

By the way, close encounters with the dead, as though they were physically alive and appear solid, are not really that uncommon. It is just that most people do not talk about them because they don’t want others to think they’re crazy or merely hallucinating.

Let me cite only three examples from my files of the dead appearing physically and talking with the living:

1. A woman came one afternoon to a tailoring or dress shop to order a dress she would wear.  Later that afternoon, the daughter of that woman came to the shop to order the same dress. Unknown to the dressmaker, the older woman had died early that morning.

2. An advertising and PR executive who had been confined in a hospital for some time due to leukemia had run out of money to pay his huge hospital bills. His colleagues started to send donations.

One morning, he died. But one big advertising company, who did not know he had died, sent its secretary to the hospital with a check donation. The secretary knocked on the door and somebody answered, “Come in.”

She felt the chill in the room.

She saw a man sitting on the bed and asked if he was Mr. so-and-so. The man replied, “Yes.” The secretary said she had come to give him their company’s donation. The man thanked the secretary, and as she handed the check to him, she asked him to sign the receipt voucher. The man got a pen and signed.

When the secretary returned to the office, she was told that the man she gave the check to had died that morning. The secretary fainted!

3. A priest, the rector of a Catholic high school south of Manila, died one morning. In the afternoon, a school security guard was approached by this priest and asked for the key to his room. The guard handed the key to the priest and saw him go into his room.

Shortly afterward, there were people at the front gate bringing a casket. As the guard opened the gate, he asked who had died. He was told that Fr. so-and-so died.

The guard couldn’t believe it because he’d just seen and talked to him a while ago, and even gave him the key to his room. So he looked at the body in the casket and saw it was the same priest.

In his shock, he ran as fast as he could out of the school and was never heard from again. I knew that priest. My children studied in that school.

If you find these stories incredible, let me tell you an even more remarkable encounter with the dead as related by the world-famous Swiss-American psychiatrist, Dr. Elizabeth Kubler Ross, in her book “On Life After Death,” published in 1991 and reprinted in 2008.

Very much alive

According to Dr. Ross, a patient of hers, named Mrs. Schwarz, died, and she saw her get buried. Many months passed and she had almost forgotten the event, except that 10 months later the very dead Mrs. Schwarz appeared and talked to her as if she was very much alive.

Mrs. Schwarz showed up in front of the elevator where Dr. Ross was waiting. Dr. Ross could not believe her eyes and tried to block the thought from her mind.

Mrs. Schwarz told her she came back to tell her something important. As they walked to her office, Mrs. Schwarz said she wanted to thank her and Rev. Gaines for what they had done for her. And she wanted to tell Dr. Ross that she should not yet stop her work on death and dying, which she had just decided to do. She said her work was not yet finished.

Dr. Ross told her that Rev. Gaines had already moved to another place but that if she would write him a note, she would give it to him. So the dead patient took the paper and pen and wrote him a note. Dr. Ross said she still has that note.

Why could these people see the dead as if very much alive? One, because they are clairvoyant and two, they are channels of the spirit even if they’re not aware of it.

NOTE:

My next Basic ESP and Intuition Development seminar will be on Sept. 8-9, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and the next Soulmates, Karma & Reincarnation seminar is on Sept. 15, 1 p.m.-7 p.m. For details, call 8107245 / 8159890 or 0920-9818962-63; e-mail [email protected] Visit our website, www.jimmylicauco.com