When a person dies their spirit is permanently free from their body and has the ability to once again move within dimensions. Generally a spirit will hang around, for curiosity sake, until after their funeral, wake, or celebration of life just to check things out. At this time, they are, for the most part, the same as if they were in human form. They have the same feelings, same emotions -anger, depression, happiness, etc. When they see you cry over their passing, it hurts them too. If someone they loved intentionally skipped their memorial, they could be angry or sad over that as well.
Our spirit has about a five day window of opportunity to cross over into the next dimension, or heaven as we often to refer to it. In heaven the spirit reconnects to its Higher Self, its Spirit Guides, loved ones who went on before them, and of course, God. At this time the spirit is released of all the “human” feelings and can look upon their lifetime as if they were a third person. They can reflect without judgment on their own actions, and those of everyone they came in contact with. It’s similar to watching a movie but they truly have no emotions tied to it. They have the ability to move between realms, visit us at will, and help guide us along our path by assisting us with some of Life’s Questions.
However, if a spirit doesn’t cross over during that window of time they will be stuck here. There are a few reasons why this can happen and some of it has to do with us.
The easiest thing that can happen is in this example. Just a few hours before my dad died I said, “Dad, I need you. Please don’t leave me.” He said, (and I believe he said this fully knowing he was about to pass.) “I’ll always be with you.” In a way, I felt he was telling me it didn’t matter if he died or not, he’d still be around. But being the human that I am, I wanted it to mean that he wasn’t dying tonight and I’d see him tomorrow. I didn’t get to see him though because within about five hours, he was gone. It wasn’t until fourteen years later that I became aware of the fact that I was the reason he was earth bound. My simple request to never leave me, and the love a father has for his daughter, prompted him to stay. I believe this to be the most common reason spirits remain earth bound.
Other reasons are that they feel they have something they need to finish, their death was so sudden they don’t understand that they’ve actually died, or they simply piddled around after death and didn’t make it through before heaven’s door closed.
Generally, if they aren’t aware they died or if they just missed the boat to get on outta here, they’re not intending any harm. If they feel like they have unfinished business, well that’s when things can get crazy. Spirits with unfinished business, more often than not, become disharmonious spirits.
Which leads me to tell you that another reason some spirits don’t cross is because they aren’t sure they’re headed to heaven. Maybe they didn’t lead the most upstanding life and they’re afraid to go because of the consequences we’re generally told we’ll have. Souls in this situation more often than not are disharmonious and can cause a big ruckus in the lives of the living. Sometimes it could even become dangerous. You see, souls who don’t cross, no matter the reason, will be left with all the same feelings, thoughts, and emotions they had when they were in body, but they don’t have a body – so they’re neither in the world nor in heaven – they are lost within the in-between.
If you feel you have disharmonious spirits in your life and need help dealing with them, please read Are You Haunted and Clearings for more information. If you feel you have spirits with you but you’re okay with them being around, please for all the love in the universe, read my article Never Keep a Ghost Around.
