Travel There was one initial significant event that made me realize I was definitely entering a new reality. It was my first encounter with spirit travel and came as a surprise. I don't know if I can accurately define the difference between this sort of thing and mundane imaginings, but I'll try. One element was indeed the surprising nature of it. I did not expect the experience to play out as it did. I did not expect the depth of emotion or lightness I felt. I was no longer cognizant of having a physical body. I was in another moment, in another time, meeting a person whom I could not have known in this lifetime but with whom I am closely connected. On one evening in October of 2000, I met my great grandfather and he met me. To put this event in context, I had known for a while that my concept of spirituality was not like the organized religion I'd grown up with. I already felt that there was a better connection than just one godhead and some clergy between me and infinity. I didn't like the exclusiveness of most religions either. I mean, how can a dozen different organizations have 'THE one and only way"? I also didn't like the usual dogma and rituals since I had tripped over them. I had already felt the Oneness, the connectedness to all there is, through moments of clearing my mind and reaching out with my spirit. I felt at one with the rain, the earth, the wind and all of space. If I had received nothing more focused than this, I would still feel quite content with my beliefs and my place in the universe. Rather separate from any of this, I thought, was research I'd been doing on my family's history. For several months I'd had the bug to record my ancestry. I'd been hunting all over the internet for resources and learning the lingo as well as reasonable methods for genealogical research. I had a few generations recorded from other family members, bible records, family lore and so forth. I was moving along pretty well actually, but then I hit the first of many brick walls. Anyone who has done family research knows how this is. You get all these nice connections until suddenly there's no trail to follow at all or a mass of conflicting information. I'd gotten rather frustrated with the lost trail of one branch of my family. I knew my paternal grandmother and her father and his father and his father and then... nothing. There was a tangle of lore and rumor of adoption and possibly Native American blood around the time that it was not a good thing to admit that you had any Indian heritage. You might be dragged from your home and packed out West. The knot hole in the family tree was in the early to mid 1800's when most Indians were being removed from their own ancestral lands to the barren Plains. I decided to try to use some clarity of concentration. I decided to think about my great grandfather, the last one in this branch who was a certainty. I just wanted to clear out the jumble and sort of start again from the known to see what I'd left unturned in trying to find the unknown. There were a few stories to help me concentrate on my great grandfather too. I'd been told a few anecdotes from his life and a particular incident that was rather significant so I thought it might be useful to use those as a focal point. What happened after that was amazing. Initially it was just a thought, like, boy I wish I could ask him who his great grandfather was and who were his mother's real parents, etc. Just wishful thinking from the family treehouse. However, as I thought more about him, I felt really connected. Only oneway communication and in spirit, mind you. The incident in his life that caught my focus was this: In January of 1957, my great grandfather was walking. He had a habit of walking the miles to town on Saturdays. He'd go via a trail through the woods. This habit was in keeping with what most thought him to be, an indian fellow. He kept his hair longer than was fashionable. He had a darker complexion, was a good woodsman and all of that. He hired himself out for work but he'd also gather herbs and roots to trade for other goods for his family. It has been told that when people asked him why he looked so indian, he would say, "Well, I should. My great grandfather was an Iroquois chief." I still don't know if he was teasing or meant it. Anyway, on this one Saturday in January 1957, he slipped on the ice and snow. His hip broke. Bear in mind that he was 78 at the time, soon to turn 79. He had to drag himself about two miles through the woods to the edge of the road. A man on his way to work drove by, saw him, stopped, and took him to get help. So I was thinking about Pappap. Pappap is what my father and his other grandchildren called him instead of Grandpa or Poppaw. I was thinking about him and what this trying day must have been like. It was a pivotal day in his life. My great aunt told me that they had trouble getting him to agree to go to the hospital. The doctors sort of fixed his hip but it was never right again. He never really walked much again. He stayed with my father's parents until he died that March, just three months before I was born. So, he never met me... until the evening of October 16th, 2000. In my mind and in my heart, I went to be with him on that day. I could not help him in any physical sense and honestly his effort was so great, he didn't have much energy to speak back to me, even if he thought to, but I could tell he knew I was there. I went to be with him to lend him my love and my spirit, to encourage him to keep going until he got to the road. I assured him that help would find him there. I told him who I am, including my name. I think he could see me, as I am today, but not as a whole solid person. I could see a little of myself and I was like a picture in light, sort of softened at the edges where the light was brightest. I didn't walk beside him exactly. I sort of floated just above the ground and at an angle so my face was nearly level with his as he half-crawled and used tree branches and such to drag himself along. Despite the 'halo' light effect, I don't look much like an angel, and said so. I reassured him that I was not there to take him to the next plane. I had only come to comfort, to help, to get him through until assistance from his own time was available. Hours for him passed as minutes for me. When we got close to the road, I was sure I saw a car coming. I said goodbye to Pappap then, at the edge of the road. I asked him to please not be so stubborn about going to the hospital and getting a doctor's help. I had told him that we would not get the chance to meet physically on this plane, but I promised to commune with him again when I join him in the hereafter. I asked him to save a hug for me. I have been overcome with profound feelings concerning this particular ancestor, especially on that night. Some would argue that my visit was just the meanderings of a muddled mind but I now know it was some very strong soul magic. My travel to that day in my great grandfather's life has been instrumental in learning to trust my spiritual adventures. I am better for it. In these moments, I again feel connected, even when the connection is focused on a single other soul. I certainly feel that on that night, I was with my great grandfather, even though he died before I was born. The veil between my physical world and the infinite timeless astral plane can be very thin. I reached out with love and was allowed to step through. I have since had several waking visions and dreams about my great grandfather. We sit together on a flat jut of rock, overlooking a forest and a great lake (or bend in a river). We talk quietly but I couldn't tell you exactly what we talk about. I often tease him when he's surprised at some of the things I say and how I say them. After all, there are a few generations between us. There are other travels, some detailed and some which are no more than my light spirit dancing in space. All of them are thrilling. All of them help me feel connected to the Oneness, to other spirits and to my higher self. I thank my great grandfather for our connection, even though I'm sure I am unaware of the full depth of it as yet. (Travel)

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