What are signs from deceased loved ones

mediumship Sep 20, 2021

Losing someone you love can cause immense emotional suffering. There is no correct way to move through the grieving process and healing is an individual experience that often leaves grievers feeling alone or misunderstood. For some clients I work with, the loss of a loved one causes them to awaken to their own spiritual journey and seek a deeper spiritual connection to their loved one in the Spirit World. Many have felt, sensed, heard and seen signs they feel are from specific loved ones. 

Your loved ones that have passed to the Spirit World are always with you and want to bring you the comfort of knowing that they are still present in your lives. If you are open to receiving them, they will send you signs and validations of their presence in your life. It takes energy for your loved ones to communicate and often the signs may be subtle. 

How to recognize signs from your deceased loved ones

1. You Feel It 

Your body is like an antenna for energetic, psychic, and spirit information. When you are experiencing something profound that expands your consciousness, you will feel it. You may have a physical sensation when receiving a sign that your loved ones in spirit are around. Some people say they get “chills” or feel a difference in body temperature. Sometimes it may be that you simply feel a subtle change in the atmosphere, and emotionally you may feel very loved or loving. 

2. Divine Timing

Signs, synchronicities and validations are likely to come to you when you are struggling, in need or ask for help from the Spirit World. Your loved ones may send you a sign to let you know that you are “on the right path” or validation for hard choices you’ve had to make, when you’re trying something new, going through a major change, taking a leap of faith or learning about spiritual topics. 

3. Signs Through Nature  

Being in nature can restore your energy and allow you to feel the natural vibration of the earth and elements. Just as your deceased loved ones have a spirit, you, yourself have a spirit and are both connected to all life including plants and animals energetically. Being in nature allows you to be immersed in life that is ever-changing and many people feel they receive signs when they are outdoors and connecting this way. Perhaps a butterfly that lands on you, causes you to think of a loved one, or an animal that comes unusually close to you. Many people find shapes and patterns or synchronicities in rocks, leaves, or the clouds. Try to remain open and unattached as you allow these signs to come to you. 

4. You are Present 

Over focusing on, and constantly looking everywhere for specific signs, can limit your ability to receive them. There is no limit to how often we can “ask” for signs, but once you do, allow the universe time to respond. Being overly focused on a specific idea of the sign you want or trying to control the process does not lead to more signs and is never helpful in creation. You create your life from the present moment, from now. Constantly looking forwards or backward leaves no time to experience the present moment, which is when you are able to connect with your loved ones who have passed, your guides, or the universe. Set your intention to receive signs and then go experience life. 

5. Numbers and Synchronicities

Many people notice numbers, patterns and synchronicities. The exact number you see repeating isn’t important, rather it’s the importance you place on it. If you associate a certain loved one with the number “77” and you see that sign on a license plate in front of you when you are having a particularly tough day, you get to your office and notice you have 77 new notifications, the following week you are meeting a new client and notice their address is 77. You can be sure this synchronicity is a sign from your loved one that they are around you supporting you. Numbers don’t need to appear in synchronicity to be meaningful, simply having the thought that you miss your friend and then noticing the time is 4:44pm can be meaningful especially when accompanied by a feeling or knowing. Try not to become overly focused; simply be open to these signs and allow them to be brought to your attention.  

6. You Hear Your Song 

You turn on your car radio and a special song that reminds you of your loved one happens to be playing. You go out to dinner with a friend and tell a story about your beloved Grandmother and then notice a song from her favorite musical is playing softly in the background of the restaurant, or perhaps you wake up in the morning with specific song lyrics playing in your mind. Lights flickering, the TV going on, static on the radio, a song that plays at just the right time. Electronic devices produce currents of energy that allow the spirit world to communicate with you, and these can all be signs from your loved ones that have passed. 

7. Visitation Dreams

When we dream, we are most connected to our subconscious mind and so our intuition and connection to the Spirit World all have more direct access to us without our conscious mind interfering. In visitation dreams, your loved ones in Spirit are actually visiting with you. Two of the common elements of these dreams are that they feel very real, and that your loved ones are not angry, sick or hurt. Instead, they are loving, whole and have usually come to let you know they are okay. I used to have these dreams of my Grandmother where I would hug her on the beach, feel the warmth of her skin and smell the oil she used to put on. I could see in detail the side of her face and feel her take my hand. Things I’d forgotten about suddenly were back like the shape of her arthritic curved hands in mine. I could feel them colder at the fingertips and warmer in the middle. I could see the ridges yellowed on her nails from having taken off the polish and laid in the sun. These images are perfectly clear to me even now. I can recall them easily and see it almost as if she were here. 

Going Forward 

A Mediumship reading can provide greater clarity around receiving signs.

Your passed loved ones want to communicate with you and let you know they are with you and witnessing your life. During a Mediumship reading, Spirit people will often give evidence and validation of the signs they have been sending or will send. 

“Your husband says there was a blue bird outside your window just this morning that made you think of him.”

“Your grandmother sends you cardinals.”

“Sometimes you smell smoke when your Dad is around you.”

“Your friend said he was there when you saw that Eagle. It was beautiful and made you think of him.”

“Your Mom loves drawing your attention to pennies with the year you were born.”

“When your son is near you, he says you smell sunshine on your face, It's like you can feel his warmth.”

This type of evidence in a reading helps to keep the connection going between my client and the Spirit World, and is a reminder of their undying love that is always present. 

Learn more about what Mediumship is or see if a Mediumship Reading can help you at this time.    

Learn more about recognizing signs in my book Uncovering Intuition, Guidance, Inspiration and Exercises to Unlock Your Inner Knowing 

When a loved one passes away, some feel their relationship with the person they have lost still lives on. Sometimes, inexplicably, they may even feel their presence at any given moment.

Perhaps it has happened to you when you see a particular bird outside your window. Or hear a song on the radio at a certain moment. Or notice pattern of numbers appears multiple times in the same day.

“They’re not figments of your imagination,” says Bettina Brothers. “Everything has a significance.”

Bettina is a HopeHealth grief counselor who leads Soulful Signs, a support group for those who feel comfortable exploring ways to stay connected to loved ones who have died. In a non-judgmental setting, participants share their experiences of witnessing signs that have meaning to them.

“We’re not just focusing on loss. We’re focusing on living and on meaning.”

Soulful Signs is one of over a dozen support groups HopeHealth offers to help the grieving process their emotions and adjust to new circumstances after the death of a loved one. Seeing signs is one way of perceiving the grief process for those who are open to the idea of signs connected the living to the deceased. Experts say acknowledging signs can bring comfort and relief.

Participants in Soulful Signs learn to notice what they notice. When signs happen, Bettina encourages participants to write down what they observe in a journal and note what their thoughts and feelings were before the sign appeared.

“Grief is about self-discovery,” Bettina says. “It forces you to look inside. We’re not just focusing on loss. We’re focusing on living and on meaning.”

Here are five stories of encounters with signs from participants who agreed to share them:

1. Fly like an eagle

Ed Richard saw a raccoon walking on the frozen pond behind his house one day in December 2013. The next day, he saw a bald eagle feasting on the carcass of a raccoon in the middle of the pond and did what any nature lover would do: He grabbed his camera.

“It got tired of me taking all these pictures and decided to fly away,” Ed recalls. “It had a very spiritual meaning for me.”

At the time, he was participating in a loss of spouse support group after losing his wife Beverly the previous March. She was 66 and they had been married for 26 years. Now Ed is a co-facilitator for a support group to help others grieving the loss of a spouse, He is a believer in life after death and says Beverly is with him every day. “She’s poking at me all day long,” he adds.

Watching the eagle take flight that winter day, Ed felt Beverly’s presence. “It reminded me of my wife’s spirit being free of her ailing body. It was the only way I could look at it. It validated my feelings about the afterlife.”

2. Seeing a light

It was round. It was white. And it wasn’t coming from the window.

“I thought it was a reflection from my sunroom so I closed the blinds,” says Carol Belanger of the orb of light she saw moving back and forth on the wall of her dining room last February.

The orb hovered on the wall over the green granite urn containing the ashes of her late husband Joseph. He passed away on Aug. 25, 2020, at the age of 76. The couple were married for 48 years.

“I felt this chill,” Carol says. But as she kept staring at the ball of light, she started talking to her husband, telling him she missed him and that she was going to be OK. She felt calm and peaceful. “I said to myself, ‘This has to be Joe.’”

Carol also decided to take a picture “because no one’s ever going to believe me.”

The orb lasted several minutes and went across her wall one last time before growing smaller and disappearing.

“If you’re open, it just helps you,” Carol says. “I can’t even tell you the comfort it brings.”

3. Everything is illuminated

The staff at the adult day care center Josephine “Josie” Chapran attended called her a “little ray of sunshine” when she came into the room, says her daughter Leslee Barbosa.

Dementia took away so much from Josie, but not her wit and sense of humor. She lived with Leslee for the last 11 years of her life and passed away at age 88 in February 2020.

A few months after her mom’s death, Leslee was messaging back and forth with participants in a Facebook support group for caregivers she administers while finishing laundry. She was writing about her mother in exchanges for several minutes, during which she went into the bathroom to put towels away.

“Suddenly the light starts going on and off,” Leslee says. “It took a few seconds for my brain to understand what was happening.”

Leslee had her phone in her hand and hit record. The flickering lasted for about 45 seconds. Says Leslee: “I just kind of acknowledged her and said, ‘Thanks Mom for letting me know you’re here!’”

Her husband, an electrical contractor, was at work. “He checked the light when he got home,” Leslee says. “He said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with it.’”

4. See clouds from both sides now

Jennifer Brown and her wife Sue Hickey were in luck when they fell in love with a black schnauzer with a green collar on a Texas breeder’s website in 2005. The dog they named Trevor arrived on a flight at T.F. Green Airport when he was 10 weeks old.

“He was like our child,” Jennifer says. “We didn’t take vacations without him.”

Docile and loving, Trevor was devoted to Jennifer’s mother, Anita Brown, who passed away at 88 in 2018. “My mom loved him,” Jennifer recalls. “As soon as she came over, she wanted him to be sitting with her.”

Trevor developed a bump on his back as he grew older. Jennifer and Sue finally lost him in February 2020.

In July 2016, Jennifer photographed Trevor in the window of a house in Friendship, Maine, she and Sue were renting. An artist like her mom had been, Jennifer added purple fields behind Trevor while editing the digital image.

Jennifer thought of this photo while looking at the sky in front of her house one afternoon in July 2020. She saw the color contrast and texture in the view down her street where she used to walk Trevor and took a photo. The tree’s silhouette even resembled the shape of Trevor’s back against the purple clouds. A few days later, she and Sue were scheduled to leave for a vacation in Maine.

“It blew my mind,” Jennifer says. “I knew it was Trevor, telling me he is good.”

5. On the radio

If she had given a eulogy for her father, Kristen Angela would have described him as the strongest man she’s ever known. She would have talked about his work ethic, his love for his family and his generous heart.

But the funeral for her dad, Jose Araujo, had to be small because of restrictions to protect people from the same virus that took his life. Jose died of COVID-19 in the middle of the night on May 24, 2020, hours after being admitted to the HopeHealth Hulitar Hospice Center and before his family could visit. He was 83 and had contracted the virus at the nursing home where he was living.

“When my mother died, the priest knew her very well and was able to give a very personalized eulogy,” Kristen says. “With dad, there was none of that. We couldn’t even get up and speak about him.”

The priest from Kristen’s parish delivered a brief eulogy for her dad. She had to remind him how to pronounce her dad’s name. “It’s Jo-say,” Kristen says. “My father would get really mad if you called him José because he’s Portuguese.”

When Kristen visited her father’s grave on the one-year anniversary of his death, she felt sadness about not getting to see her father before he died and not being able to give him the sendoff he deserved. She promised him she would honor him by making sure people knew who he was, serving as his living eulogy.

Kristen was emotional as she got into her SUV and waited until she exited the cemetery before turning on the radio. The riff at the beginning of the song playing on the hard rock station was familiar. The song was “Eulogy” by Tool.

“I literally had to pull over and look at it,” Kristen said. “I took a picture because I didn’t believe it. I just felt an overwhelming sense of comfort. To me it felt like him saying, ‘Yes, I heard you.’”

Soulful Signs is one of many kinds of grief support groups offered by HopeHealth. For a complete list of all our support groups currently available, go to HopeHealthco.org/Grief.