Posts Tagged ‘touched by an angel’

Cherub – Prebirth Meetings with your Baby

Quite a few people these days maintain they’ve been ‘touched by an angel.’ Others have an equally mysterious sense of being trailed by a cherub! Susan Clarke, for example, describes it this way: “During the months before my son was conceived, I could almost ‘see’ this little male cherub floating above my head, laughing.”

In a previous column, Steven and his wife described Steven’s initial vision of a beautiful toddler, a vision that was followed by a series of contacts with the same charming child. “He seemed to be continually tapping us on our shoulders, reminding us of his presence,” said Miriam. This kind of gentle persistence is apparent in many accounts of communication before conception. In many cases, the communicating presence is perceived as a baby or very young child, often manifesting a definite personality. It’s not surprising therefore that some people refer to their visitor as “a cherub.”

One woman speaks of the visits she received as a “courting relationship.” Trilby writes, “I most emphatically had an experience of contact with my little darling before he was conceived. In short, I just perceived a presence near me (with the awareness centered at my third eye) that always caused me to look slightly upward. As I paid more attention to the presence I began to apprehend it as a small flame, similar to what one sees off a lit candle. This ‘courting’ relationship went on for several months before I conceived. During those months I felt as if I were being tailed, and every now and then I’d be aware that somebody was trying to get my attention. It all felt very romantic.”

While some people have visual impressions, for others the communication comes in a different form. In Sarah Hinze’s book Coming From the Light, a mother writes, “My experience with the unborn is very simple. We had five children, plus one miscarriage, and were trying, at this point, not to have another baby. But in quiet moments, I would hear a small, almost audible voice say, ‘My name is James, and I’m ready to be born.'”

A Hovering Presence

Becky began to correspond with me while pregnant with her first child. She described in detail her experience of a pre-conception presence. “In November of last year I began to be aware of a little spirit presence hovering around me,” she wrote. “At first the awareness was dim, then it became so noticeable that I felt it whirring above my right shoulder.” Her story continues:

“A month or so after the dawning of this contact, I began to talk about it with people close to me. Several related that this was a common experience for women about to become pregnant. When I heard this, my inner eyes widened. For a while around this time, my little baby spirit seemed to have wandered away. I wondered if I should have kept its presence a secret. After the turn of the year, the spirit reappeared, this time hovering in front of my left hip.”

Now Becky gained a visual sense of a baby. “She looked to be about six months old, dark blue eyes and dark brown hair, clearly an animated little girl. I tried to have dialogues with her in my imagination from time to time. She seemed to be communicating to me that I should hurry, that she could not wait much longer, that I had to heal my wounds in order for her to have a safe home to dwell in.” As Becky continued to postpone conception, the presence gradually grew smaller until it was only a dot, “still hovering but no longer communicating.” A week after it disappeared, Becky discovered that she was pregnant.

Becky wrote when her daughter was a year old, “Since her birth, my sense of our pre-pregnancy communing is even more grounded, partly because of the perspective of hindsight and partly because she truly is the baby spirit who visited me, physically as well as personality-wise. I will never get over how magical it is, from the pre-beginning all the way through and beyond.”

Playing Peek-a-Boo

Like the “laughing cherub” mentioned above, the visitor in the following story seems to express a playful, joyous spirit. Cambria Henderson writes, “I was busy in the kitchen, cleaning up after lunch for my three year old son, two year old daughter and one year old baby. It had been a hectic morning, but they were all quietly napping at the moment. Or so I thought!

“I heard the giggle behind me and supposed that my son was playing ‘peek-a-boo’ with me. I felt the glee, as my little one peeked around the corner, saw me, and then quickly withdrew before I could turn around. If he weren’t so delighted with himself (and so cute!) I would have scolded him and sent him back to bed. But that happy little giggle had me completely charmed.

“I went busily about my work, cleaning the countertops, pretending not to hear. I suddenly caught a reflection of a sweet little face, in the mirror that was sitting on my counter. I turned quickly, hoping to surprise and delight him and then chase him back to his bed with hugs and tickles. However, I was the one to be surprised! As my little one turned to run down the hallway, I realized that he had taken all of his clothes off. All I could see was the bare backside of this precious child.

“I thought it strange, as I went after him, that when I turned the hall corner, I couldn’t see him. I didn’t think he could run quite that fast. I also noticed and thought it strange that my house suddenly became very quiet. I stopped in front of the door to the nursery, thinking I would play a trick on him. I decided I would sneak up on him. The burst of laughter from him, when I startled him, would tickle my heart forever.

“I plastered myself up against the wall and slowly started sneaking around the doorway, suppressing my own giggles. Suddenly, I stopped short. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. All three of my children were quietly napping in their beds. All three of them fully dressed! I stood in the doorway in amazement. Who was my little visitor? Where did he go? And why did he choose to visit me and be so playful? I didn’t know. I didn’t have any answers.

“Many years later, as my youngest child was playing a game of ‘peek-a-boo’ with me, after getting out of the tub, she turned and ran down the hallway, giggling with delight. She was so pleased with herself, being such a tease with mom. A feeling of deja-vu swept over me, and it all came rushing back. I suddenly realized that she had been my child visitor. I had had the incredible opportunity of sharing a sweet, loving moment with my child, five years prior to her birth.”

A Grandmother’s Story

Most pre-conception contacts are experienced by parents-to-be, but this is not always the case. Grandparents, siblings, other family members and friends may also sense a communicating presence. Sheila Berry enjoyed many visits from her grandsons, from a realm that seems to be simultaneously after death and before birth.

In October, 1994, Sheila’s daughter-in-law gave birth prematurely to twin boys. “The smaller of the two boys had only half a heart and could not survive,” Sheila explains. “Moreover, the twins were in a single amniotic sac, a very rare occurrence. Because of the single sac, attempts to take the smaller twin resulted in the loss of both babies.” Sheila tried to deal with the loss by denying that the babies were real persons. But a year later, they became very real to her. During a group meditation at an A.R.E. conference (Association for Research and Enlightenment), Sheila suddenly felt her grandsons’ presence –a lively, bubbling presence. She relates:

“They stayed with me through the end of the conference, and I kept ‘hearing’ them say, ‘We have to get our mom a birthday gift.’ After the conference concluded, my husband and I stopped at the A.R.E. Visitor Center and went into the book store. I said nothing to my husband, but let the twins guide me in finding a gift for their mother. Angel wind chimes? No. A poster? No, not quite right. A tape or CD? No. Then my husband approached, holding out a book he had found: ‘Our Children Forever,’ messages to parents from their children, discerned by the psychic George Anderson. Yes! And they were clear about the inscription, too: ‘To our Mom, from your boys. Happy birthday. We love you.’

“Initially, I would feel the presence of both twins, but that gradually changed over the next year. It was as if the smaller twin stepped to the background; he had accomplished what he set out to do in that brief expression of spirit in flesh, and was content where he was. The larger twin, Taylor, began to ‘come around’ by himself. I would feel him around me from time to time in much the same way I had at the conference.

“When I learned in 1995 that my daughter-in-law was again pregnant, I understood why. But about three months into that pregnancy, when I once again felt Taylor’s presence, there was a strong sense of sadness around him. I knew something was wrong and called my daughter-in-law. She confirmed what she had just learned, that the fetus she carried was too deformed to survive. ‘Try again,’ I told her, prodded by the soul who wanted to be her child. ‘You’ll have a healthy baby the next time.’

“In March of 1997, I suddenly felt his presence again. This time it was bubbly and vital, playful and almost teasing. I called my daughter-in-law. ‘Are you pregnant,’ I asked, and she said she thought so, but no one knew yet, not even my son. But her son knew. He came around to visit me less and less as the pregnancy progressed and he fitted himself to his new life. On October 13, 1997, exactly three years after his first try, Taylor was born to the parents he was determined to have.”

Choice or Destiny?

These marvelous stories may lead us to conclude that the makeup of our families is a prearranged destiny. But is there evidence that choice also plays a part? In the next column, we’ll look at experiences that suggest the possibilities of creative freedom and flexibility.

Please consider sharing your own stories of communication before conception, through future installments of this column. Contact me, Elisabeth Hallett, by email at soultrek@montana.com, or at P.O.Box 705, Hamilton, MT 59840.

Special thanks to Sarah Hinze for the story by Cambria Henderson; to Sheila Berry for A Grandmother’s Story, and to Susan, Trilby, and Becky, contributors to Soul Trek: Meeting Our Children on the Way to Birth.

Do Children Exist Prior to Conception and Birth?

Elisabeth Hallett

See Elisabeth’s site and books at Light Hearts

Do our children really exist somehow before conception? And if they do, what are the patterns that bring us together as parent and child? Personally, I would love to believe that my children were destined for me and nobody else… that I was chosen as the ideal mother for this pair of wonder-kids. And indeed many stories of pre-birth communication do support the view that our children are predestined to be with us.

An Australian woman recently sent me her story. She had two daughters, and didn’t plan to bear any more children; her husband had undergone a vasectomy following the second girl’s arrival. But six years later, the mother had a vision at the edge of sleep. Three beings in luminous robes presented her with a beautiful baby boy and told her that she was ready to have her “next child,” and that this child awaited her. The message and vision were compelling enough to lead to a vasectomy reversal-and the birth of a baby boy the following year.

The stories in last month’s column (“Trailed By A Cherub”) suggest there are persevering souls who are determined to join their destined parents. But are these arrangements hard and fast? Some experiences point to a certain creative flexibility at play in the pre-conception world. For example, a four-year-old girl told her mother that before she was born, she and Jesus used to sit together while she decided whether to be a boy in one family or a girl in another. “She said she decided at the last minute to come to us as a girl,” the mother reports, “and then she and Jesus laughed and went off to play till it was time to go.” It may not be hard evidence, but it’s thought-provoking!

When parents-to-be experience a persistent “visitor,” there is sometimes the suggestion of a time limit-a window of opportunity. Patricia was fearful of becoming pregnant, although she had powerful dreams of a little boy for over a year. While wide awake one day, she finally heard a clear message that this was her last chance to bear this child, as he had to “move on.” Move on to where? Perhaps to another prospective family?

Sharon was the mother of two small boys when she wrote, “As Daniel is getting older, we think often about whether or not we will give birth to another child. I still feel the presence of a little one ‘waiting in the wings,’ a little blond boy.” After a year of uncertainty, Sharon decided against having another child. But she mused, “I have a question as to what happens to these little guys who seem to have such a strong spirit, when you say ‘no’ to their birth?”

In researching my book “Soul Trek,” I occasionally encountered a situation where a woman felt uncomfortably pressured by the sense of “someone wanting to be born.” In one such case, a mother already had three children but was reluctantly preparing to conceive another boy whose presence she felt around her. “I’m pretty resigned that I will do it,” she wrote, “because I don’t want to get to the other side and meet this person who will tell me that I just didn’t want him to come.”

True, there are stories of pre-birth experiences that seem to suggest we’re duty-bound to bear the children appointed to us by destiny or a higher power. But other stories imply more of a give and take, a process of mutual choosing with freedom on both sides-potential parent and possible child. Such accounts can provide creative ideas for entering into this kind of conversation.

APPPAH member Mary Knight (author of “Love Letters Before Birth and Beyond”) shares her own experience. “For years, I’ve felt a little girl presence waiting patiently ‘in the ethers.’ She appears in my mind’s eye as having dark, black curly hair and brown eyes. When I mentioned her to some writer friends many years ago, one of them suggested that perhaps I was imagining a character in a future novel. In the last few years, her presence has been seen by two psychics on two different occasions-unsolicited. The last one said that if I didn’t bring her in through my body that she’d probably find another way to me-which is what I’ve told her she needs to do.

“Still, there’s a pull… and a little guilt that I’m not complying. However, I know that she wants it to be a free choice for all of us, and I just can’t bring myself to it. There is a sense of loss with this choice. I know that I am missing a precious gift. I think I should probably create and perform a ritual in which we acknowledge letting go of each other. I will promise to be ‘looking for her’ in other places throughout my life.”

A mother of two found that the persistent visits of a potential child helped her to clarify her life’s direction. “About six months after my second child was born, I became aware of another female being who wanted to be born to us. She would always appear off to my upper right consciousness and even though I love babies and nurturing, I knew having another baby would be very hard for me. I sent those messages to her with love whenever she appeared.

“I can’t remember when she stopped visiting me; perhaps four to six months later. I wanted to get back into my music and I have been able to do that now. I feel so vitalized, so excited about what I am doing now that a baby would be quite an adjustment for me. I feel that she hung around a respectable amount of time, giving me time to really think about my priorities, yet not pressuring me in any way; I believe she stopped appearing when I made a firm commitment to pursue my music again.”

Some accounts even offer glimpses of the alternate routes a child may take, when the answer turns out to be “no.” Anne lives in a community of families with shared values. Early in their marriage, she and her husband decided to remain childless. “Around the time that the whole question got settled,” she recalls, “I became aware that someone was hovering around me quite often, hoping that she could be born to us. One day, as I was walking through the woods, the presence became much stronger than usual and it was almost as if I could see her-for it was clearly now a she. It would be an exaggeration to say that it was a vision of any kind. It was more like a clear picture in my mind. She wasn’t pretty, or even cute in the usual sense. But she was very interesting looking. She had lots of character in her face, and dynamic greenish eyes, a largish nose, dark curly hair. Very mischievous and looking very strong willed.

“I spoke to her definitely, telling her that I could see she would be great fun to be with and it would no doubt be a joy to be her mother. But it really wasn’t in the plan for us to have any children at all. So I suggested to her that there were many other fine families around the community that she could join. And if there was any particular reason she wanted to know us, we could still be part of her life. Shortly after this, I didn’t feel her around any more.

“Recently, it occurred to me that a certain girl in our community may be the same soul. Not because I have any particular affinity with her, but because she resembles the girl I saw in my mind and also because the personality she is apparently exhibiting-which is quite forceful and unusual-reminds me of the child that I met in my mind.”

A prominent psychologist has questioned the value of sharing personal stories that suggest pre-birth communication. He asks, “How much of this is wishful thinking or fantasy, combined with a modicum of intuition, and a certain level of inner processing that provides images and inner dialogue?” His point is well taken and sounds a valid note of caution; yet I’m persuaded the subject is worth pursuing in spite of such factors. Our colleague goes on to say, “The main question is what can be meaningfully learned from all of this?”

Perhaps to say “we learn” is not quite right. These stories can change us. They free the imagination to explore what was once an absolute void before the beginning of life. They allow us to guess at possible patterns in the mystery of relationships. On this frontier, our vision of reality may “shapeshift”.

More intimately, they’ve changed the way I see my children, bringing a certain grace of gratefulness. From time to time I find myself thinking — even saying aloud-“Thank you for coming to our family.” The possibility that they might as easily have joined some other set of parents is a humbling one. Consider the surprising conversation with her little boy that one mother recalls:

“When Brett was between three and four years old, he was very angry with me one day. He said, ‘I hate you, Mommy. You weren’t even my first choice for a Mommy.’ I somehow managed to stay centered and asked, ‘Who was your first choice?’

“It was a woman from the Philippines but she was already taken.”

Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Mary Knight for her story.

For more information about her book Love Letters: Before Birth and Beyond, email:singleeyeo@aol.com

Carol Bowman for a short quote from her message board at Children’s Past Lives; contributors to Soul Trek, and Light Hearts.

Please join in exploring this frontier. If you have had experiences that suggest communication before conception or before birth, please consider sharing them through future installments of this column.

You can reach the editor by email or write to Elisabeth Hallett, P.O. Box 705, Hamilton, MT 59840

Brief Book Review

Sarah Hinze: Coming From the Light: Spiritual Accounts of Life Before Life (Simon & Schuster, 1997).

It is often said that when the time is ripe for a new idea, it will occur to several people at once.

Unknown to each other, Sarah Hinze and I both gathered stories of pre-birth and pre-conception contacts over many years. Her book, initially published as Life Before Life, has been revised and reissued in a Pocket Books edition as Coming From the Light: Spiritual Accounts of Life Before Life (Simon & Schuster, 1997). The new edition is enhanced by an Afterword by Sarah’s husband, psychologist Brent Hinze, Ph.D., in which he draws comparisons between near-death and pre-birth experiences and analyzes the aspects of a “typical” pre-birth contact.

Sarah’s approach is deeply spiritual and reverent. She presents more than thirty inspiring personal stories from parents and adoptive parents, describing connections with their children before conception and during pregnancy (or the pre-adoption period). Sarah’s own experiences are perhaps the most remarkable of all, told in the moving first chapter. It opens with the words, “My interest in life before life is very personal. Before each of our nine children was born, I sensed that he or she was preparing to come to earth.”

Excerpts of this lovely book can be read online at Sarah’s website.

INVITATION: Please join in exploring the mysteries of communication before conception. If you have had such an experience, please consider sharing it here! You can contact me by e-mail at soultrek@montana.com or by letter: Elisabeth Hallett, Box 705, Hamilton MT 59840.