Do you think deceased loved ones watch over us?

I ask this because at times I've felt this. Once, when I was making a very bad decision, I actually heard my dad's voice saying "Patty, you know better than this!" Maybe it's just the things we learned from our parents, and the "voice" was part of that learning, rather than something spiritual or supernatural. But it was so marked and vivid...one of those experiences that remain with me.
Just wondering if anyone else has an opinion on this.
Patty

Yes I do think our loved ones watch over us (: I often find myself thinking when I'm about to something wrong 'would___want me to do this right now?'

Yes I beleive they do even if in a way that we can't really understand. It is a spirit connection I think. As spiritual beings having a human experience it just makes sense to me that our spirit connects with all other spirits. Those having a human experience with me or without me. In spirit there is no time so spirit can travel through the times of all human experiences.

I think when we hear a voice it could be a spiritual connection. Spirit speaking to spirit. Or it could just be hearing something we might expect to hear if the loved one were still present in human form. Either way it is a connect that is precious. It is love that allows a loved one to speak to us one way or another.

No, I don't think they do. I think it's just a comforting myth people are told to help them through the grieving process. There's nothing wrong with this. If it gives peace to others, far be it from me to disabuse them of their belief. After my youngest brother died some years ago, I went through a period when I gave this idea serious consideration. I reached the conclusion I reached for reasons I won't go into here, mainly because I don't want to upset anyone who may have recently lost a loved one. I'll just say that I sure hope none of my dead family or friends are watching over me. I hope they have better things to do in whatever afterlife there may be than wasting their time watching me.

I do belive they watch over us. I have had too many reasons and experiances to belive otherwise.

They most certainly do. They do the rounds and take care of those they love. I've heard the voice of a DLO telling me to go this way or move out of the way or something similar...Also at times of great personal stress and pain, I've had an overwhelming feeling of being loved and told that "everything will be alright". Too often though people think that because there is mental illness, the voices are just auditory hallucinations.

I've had my Grandfather with me since I was a baby. He told me his name was snow and I didn't find out 'til I was 7 that it was his real nickname because he had white hair from birth. My mum told me he was imaginary not real. But when she was clearing out a draw I saw a photo of him and I grabbed it squealing that it was "My Snow". Dad came home and smiled telling me that was his dad, who passed over 5 years before I was born.

Honestly, no. Not at all. It could be because I'm an atheist, but whatever. My whole reason for it, is that it's impossible. My mom's been dead now almost three years and I haven't "experienced" anything like anyone else. There was once, right after my cat died, that I saw a shadow of him in the window, but I personally blame that on my phycosis or just wishing I could see him again, not actually seeing my cat.

Often I will smell a strong scent of sweetgrass or sage and in our culture we are taught that it means someone in the spirit world is praying for us. It always makes me feel better.

I know there are times I swear I hear my husband's grandmother speaking to me. She was always my rock and comforter. She never took her grandson's side when he was wrong. She was bed-ridden the last few years of her life and her solution to my problems was for me to crawl into the other side of her queen sized bed and tell her all about it. When I am struggling, I can hear her voice talking to me, guiding me, helping me.

Thats lovely Sanityseeker!

I'm a powerful atheist! I base my beliefs on my own deaths. I've died and was gone over 20 minutes, and 12 minutes respectively. What I saw and experienced some folks won't believe but others who have died know that it is a true account. Not all brains have the same chemical make up, so the same experience will not occur for everyone, but when it comes down to some key factors, not one persons account is different, but it has to be experienced to be believed,

Rhi

I am not religious, but I keep an open mind.

My aunty was with a guy since I was about 4 years old, then when I was 11 or 12 he found out he has cancer, so they got married. Then when I was 13 he died. About 3 years ago my aunty started working at a new job, and one day one of the women who she worked with kept giving her funny looks. Then the next day she was still doing the same. Then later in the week she went up to my aunty and asked her if she used to be married to a tall skinny guy with a long beard, and my aunty said yes and asked how this woman knew. She told her that he had been following my aunty around all week but it had been freaking her out after she realised my aunty had no idea he was there (hence the funny looks).
He had been dead for about 6 years, but this lady described him so well. And the week that this woman had been seeing him was also the week of their wedding anniversary (I'm not sure which anniversary it was though, maybe 8th or something)
My grandfather is a 'I'll believe it when I see it' kind of guy, and even he was shocked, he was the one that told me about it, I think that must be the first time I have EVER heard him talk about that sort of thing without being snarky and saying it's crap.

I do believe most things we 'experience' can be explained, I don't think it's always a ghost or whatever. But then there are other times it's just a little bit odd. Yes I do believe it can sometimes be a closure thing, but it doesn't mean it's all it is.
I'll keep an open mind to any possibility.

Yes I do....

Yes, I do. Several years ago we were planning to go out, but I fainted and my head hit the floor very hard. I downplayed my condition and told my husband and son to go ahead without me. I laid down on my bed, face first, with a towel over my head to absorb the bleeding - the pain was excruciating. A feeling of total peace came over me. It felt so good I decided to go along with the feeling....until I heard the very loud and clear voice of my (deceased) best friend. In very clear words, I heard her voice say "WAKE UP - it's not your time."

It could have been my imagination, but I was in too much pain to even be thinking at the time.

After my father died, he visited me in a dream - but before we could do any real visiting, my best friend popped into the dream and started yelling at my father for showing me how he came to visit me. He defended himself by saying he was knew to this. My friend turned to me and demanded I never speak on how my father came to visit me. Um....okay.

Another time I had a dream that involved my mother, ten years after she died. I was sitting in a reception room waiting for my mother. The room had three walls - the couch I was sitting on looked out into space, and I could see the earth. My mother walked into the room, apologized for her delay (10 years), and said it was because she was having so much fun with her new friends. I asked about the room, and she said "Oh this is where we go when we want to check up on our loved ones." She then warned me about an upcoming medical problem and told me how best to deal with the problem. When the problem arose, I followed her advice - so far, so good.

It COULD have been just a dream, but then again, maybe not.

Rest in peace Cris, Dad and Mom.

A lot of people who have nearly died have said that there comes a point where you become really peaceful and relaxed, that could have been why your friend was telling you to wake up.
I think the state of mind we are in as we are falling asleep is where we can pick up on a lot of things. The day after I met my father I went to my mothers house to sleep on the couch for a while before I went to go visit my father again. Every time I started to doze off I could hear my newly found half brother and my dads then girlfriend talking behind me like they were in the room. So I'd turn around to see if someone was there, and there wasn't, so I'd begin to doze off and it happened again. This happened about 3 times before I finally fell asleep. And as you'd probably know, it is literally like they are right there, clear as day, not some dazy voice in the background.
Well when I woke up I called them to let them know I was on my way over, and the very first thing my dads girlfriend said was 'were your ears burning because we've (her and my half brother) been talking about you all day!'.

I mean, they aren't dead, but it's an example of that half asleep then something strange happens situation.

I believe we internalized everyone we meet to greater or lesser degrees (why/how we learn from T) and loved ones especially. But just like here on earth we're "alone" and living for ourselves, I believe if there's an afterlife, that those who enter it move on with their own afterlife. The space and distance we had in life with a person doesn't change; I am "getting to know" my great grandparents through my genealogy work but they all died 20+ years before I was born. That I talk to and feel I know these people, that I see traits in myself that I imagine I inherited from them, doesn't change the fact that I never met them in person. Love and liking a person and enjoying thinking of them never changes but I don't think there is a literal "looking after" by those who predecease us.

It’s a really hard question for me.

Sometimes I hope that loved ones don’t look over me. I mess up too much- I fall down too often, and I don’t want to make them ashamed, embarrassed to have known me. I don’t want them to see me weak, to see me waste my life and falter in whatever course I’ve set. It disrespects their memory. Sometimes I’d get very upset thinking someone I cared about was watching me burn my life away. It would kill me to think someone that meant the world to me was watching me wreck myself.

Then I realized that helped me- the idea that I wanted to make them proud- those who are gone, and those who are still alive. When I can’t live for myself, when I can’t try to heal for myself, I tell myself I need to live for them and heal for them. It’s what they would have wanted me to do- not wallow in my suffering, but to try and carve out a life for myself.

Are they looking over me? I have no way of ever knowing. If it helps me in my darker hours, then I’ll tell myself to think someone in a peaceful place is looking out for me. Maybe I’m kidding myself, maybe I’m not. I wonder if our spirits find a new home when our physical body dies. I wonder if we have spirits. I wonder a lot.

When I feel really alone and worthless I look up some videos of the Northern Lights, and it makes me feel like they’re still here. The Northern Lights has always looked like spirits to me. Everyone finds comfort in different things.

Even if they’re not watching me, if there is no form of afterlife- no loved one is ever truly dead; they have touched my life so profoundly and helped me work towards becoming a better person that the memory of them will never truly be gone. I can only hope that knowing me somehow helped them while they were on the earth, and that I made a small difference in their lives.

Thank you Fenir. I loved reading your thoughts. I do something like that with the stars. Imagine them to be my ancestors.

Fenrir, I love your post. It echoes my thoughts and feelings almost exactly. Well, when I'm not depressed. When my bipolar disorder kicks in and I'm in a bad mood, I tend to see things very black and white. At least when I'm in a good mood there's some grey around the edges, and maybe some color, way, way off in the distance. The idea of dead loved ones watching us disturbs me not because they see me wasting my life, but because...well, voyeuristic dead people!( that last was meant as a joke, so feel free to laugh, or not. It's all good!) No, if there is an afterlife, deceased loved ones should be spending their (after?) lives doing something other than watching me. They can't do anything to help me, and there's only one dead loved one I'd want help from. But that's better discussed outside this thread. And discussing it would resurrect hurts I've put to rest.

I believe that in times of need our loved ones will come. I do not think they sit around watching all the time. Well not all of them anyway. I know that I am never alone, I know that my mother comes to visit often because my son, he's 3 and only saw her when he was an infant, has pointed to pictures of her and said she was playing last night. I also know that my soul mate, true love, whatever you want to call him, is with me on an almost daily basis. He lets me know he's around, or at least I believe he does. He visits me in my dreams and we talk, I talk to his mom about my dreams and she has them too. She and I have met up in dreams too and she's alive. I think the power of the mind is far greater than what we think. I also believe in reincarnation though, but I think reincarnation is a choice, as in when you get to come back, not necessarily what you come back as . Ok I'm done.. I promise I am not delusional

I know that all our loved ones want the best for us and they never leave us. So the answer to that question is yes. They also want us happy, which is the hardest part.

yes i believe they do watch over us - i feel my mums presence at times of stress an d dark days saying get up move on...

Rhiannonsmoon,
I don't mean to pry into your personal life or business but I was wondering if your deaths, or what happened during them, were pleasant experiences like most others... or did you have bad experiences? This is a subject that truly interests me and I read books on this all the time. I am so amazed and fascinated by the subject, yet I've never got to speak to anyone that has ever had the experiences. You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want too because I know that curiosity killed the cat. Thank so very much, ahead of time, if you choose to answer that one question.
Huggles,
She

I believe they definitely do for a time. My lover and myself have both experienced this directly. However, I also think after a time that they pass on. Perhaps they leave a piece of themselves with us though? I'm not entirely sure how it works after the 'passing on' period. I suppose it would depend (according to my philosophy) on which of the routes they took after passing and when they entered that route. I'm pretty sure that for most there is a 'grace period' of weeks to months to even a couple years, though.

You know, I've had death on my mind quite a lot lately, particularly the question of what it's like to die... Especially since my mom recently passed away rather violently.

I know SheSabre just asked you this as well but would you mind elaborating on your experiences? Perhaps in another thread, I don't mean to change the subject or anything. :]

Anyway, I do sometimes feel like my mom is watching over me. Not in a physical way, like her ghost is floating over me and such, but a lot of people have told about dreams where she's come to them and told them everything is fine, or asking them why they're so upset. It's probably more because she's on our minds so much, and she's in our hearts so we still feel attached to her memory. I mean, that is a more logical explanation and all but it's still nice to think that her spirit is there watching us.

Yes I do. Sometimes I can actually feel my mom's presence near me. I firmly believe that they keep an eye on the ones they loved during their life.