What Do Spirit's Look Like?

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Turns out it was her grandma that at 35ish on the Other Side, did not have time to change for Sylvia to her long gray hair.

Being thirty-five or so is when we're 'at our best', it's been uphill until then and we've reached our peak, after which it's downhill as our bodies and brains go south. Being in Spirit is the 'peak' of our existence. There's a similar process with dream interpretations.

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

Since then, I have seen human and animal spirits in a similar manner and they have always looked as I remembered them.

Grab yourself a copy of Robin Williams' Whatever Dreams May Come, that explains it all. It's not about what Spirits look like it's about how they appear to us, and your memories are 'source material'. As is our own consciousness in general. How we perceive Spirit is a 'translation', and dream interpretations are a very similar process.

[bobjob]

Much as I love both the book and especially the movie, 'What Dreams...', they're not documentary accounts of what we'll find on our return to the etheric dimensions. Neither are the accounts of how spirit visitors/communicators appear to mediums (or other observers) when they perceive them clairvoyantly.

Each individual spirit will present in a way intended to communicate something about their identity. Distinguishing physical characteristics are good ways to present to a medium in order that they may be passed on to the intended recipient as evidence of who the communicator is.

Choosing an earth age appearance representation for a specific recipient is important. A sitter may never have known a grandparent, for example, other than as an old person. And someone who passed as an adolescent would never have been known as a mature adult. Hence they must present to a medium with characteristics of the age a recipient family member would remember.

As a footnote, a lost baby or child - now in adult form in spirit - would have no recognisable way to present to a medium. To identify such a young individual, evidence would have to be provided in alternative ways. In a sitting with a medium, for example, I would have no way to identify our lost son from his appearance. Other evidence of identity would have to be provided.

Originally Posted by bobjob

Each individual spirit will present in a way intended to communicate something about their identity. Distinguishing physical characteristics are good ways to present to a medium in order that they may be passed on to the intended recipient as evidence of who the communicator is.

Not just identity, it depends on what the Spirit is trying to convey and yes, while it might be identity it's not always the case. Often people visit mediums to find out if their Loved Ones are in a 'better place' than they were when they were here, so a person having been ravaged by cancer, for instance, might appear as a thirty-five year-old to convey that they are in a better state of existence. Similarly with children or even babies, parents can derive a lot of comfort knowing that their babies have 'grown up'.

I have a 'Spirit kid' who was aborted and now comes back as a young lad, and that's how he chooses to appear to me.

When I was going through my mediumship course it was proof of survival that was paramount, not proof of identity. Proof of survival means the Spirit can show, via the medium, that the Spirit is indeed who they say they are. Spirits don't have an identity as such. If I as a medium give someone information that only their Loved One would know - and sometimes that includes using figures or speech, for instance - then the person receiving the message would know that it could only come from one 'person'. The proof isn't specific, it's about what the Spirit conveys and what the person would take as proof. Same as the movie.

And no, the movie isn't a documentary account as such but that doesn't mean it's complete fiction, it's based on recognised Spirituality. And therein lies the understanding.

[BigJohn]

Taking what you wrote about your 'Spirit kid' that comes back as a lad......

or could it be he appears as a lad because that is what you want to see?

What I am interjecting is what we see might be what we want to see as opposed to something 'appearing' to us.

[bobjob]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

Not just identity, it depends on what the Spirit is trying to convey and yes, while it might be identity it's not always the case. Often people visit mediums to find out if their Loved Ones are in a 'better place' than they were when they were here, so a person having been ravaged by cancer, for instance, might appear as a thirty-five year-old to convey that they are in a better state of existence. Similarly with children or even babies, parents can derive a lot of comfort knowing that their babies have 'grown up'.

It's correct that not everything is about identity but until identity is established all the rest would be meaningless - it's vital that a recipient knows who the 'message' is from for the content to have relevance to that recipient.

[bobjob]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

When I was going through my mediumship course it was proof of survival that was paramount, not proof of identity. Proof of survival means the Spirit can show, via the medium, that the Spirit is indeed who they say they are. Spirits don't have an identity as such.

It's a distinction without a difference......

Proof of survival is contingent on knowing that a communication comes from a particular 'loved one' as we refer to them. That's the element of identity that I personally write about; the identity of the person known by the intended recipient.

I don't see it as accurate to assert that spirit individuals don't have an identity. They may not have a conventional one in the sense we'd know it as their identity - eg Josephine Bloggs, West Wallaby Way, Bristol BA1 2NG - but there is still an element of identity in the next dimension from what I've gleaned, even though it's not a format we'd necessarily understand or recognise.

[bobjob]

If I as a medium give someone information that only their Loved One would know - and sometimes that includes using figures or speech, for instance - then the person receiving the message would know that it could only come from one 'person'.

A potential issue there is that without first identifying who the info is coming from there's the risk that it might be coming from the sitter, the medium unaware it's happened.

These are general observations and not directed at you and your role of medium.

[bobjob]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

Same as the movie.

And no, the movie isn't a documentary account as such but that doesn't mean it's complete fiction, it's based on recognised Spirituality. And therein lies the understanding.

The movie/film is a fine one which I watch a couple of times a year. I like its star - Robin Williams - in a serious role and I love the theatricality of the whole thing. And I agree it's based on stuff that guides me - I don't call that 'spirituality' though.

I do agree it's not all fiction although the story is. Please know you're 'speaking to a protagonist for this film, something I've recommended many, many times as a way of helping folk 'picture' what the next world may 'look' like.

I have used ' ' marks around certain words because our language doesn't properly cover the situation.

[bobjob]

Taking what you wrote about your 'Spirit kid' that comes back as a lad could it be he appears as a lad because that is what you want to see?

My guess would be that the lost son presents in a way he's found his dad can identify with..... Parents will think of their lost children in whatever way works for them individually and it's logical a child will 'pick up' on that way.

It might be confusing to have a child present at an age never seen, a form never known, so logically the wishes of the parents would help guide the spirit of the former child about how best to present itself to the parent.