Dianne Arcangel

What we're like in the afterlife: an interview with researcher, Dianne Arcangel

Comment: SpiritLinks

After fifty-seven years of working with the bereaved, hospice patients and other researchers, Dianne Arcangel asks the next big question, does the personality of the departed influence afterlife encounters?

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Dianne Arcangel speaks with a velvety southern drawl that transports me to a burnt sienna den in front of a crackling fire with a cup of hot cocoa, a plate of not-too-sweet cookies and two Irish Setters at my feet. A natural born storyteller, Dianne soothes and captivates with well-documented tales of contact with those who have passed. This former hospice worker, director of the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Center, colleague of George Anderson, Rupert Sheldrake, Gary Schwartz and numerous others involved in studies of consciousness reassures us that all is well on the other side. In addition to her extensive work with the dying and the bereaved, Dianne backs up her claims with extensive inquiry. Her previous investigation into afterlife encounters involved 827 international cases over a 5 year period. Arcangel presents 90 accounts of visitations from deceased loved ones in her 2005 book "Afterlife Encounters: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Experiences." I reviewed the book for United Press International ReligionandSpirituality.com in my column of October 30, 2006, "Spirits bring comfort to the bereaved."

I recently re-interviewed Dianne for an update on her activities and current projects. In our conversation, I learned more about interactions between the departed and their loved ones and two new online surveys Dianne is currently conducting.

Diana (R&S): In your book "Afterlife Encounters" you say your first experience as an advocate for those who connect with the departed took place when you were in the first grade with little Jimmy who's deceased grandfather visited him. That evening you learned of your own family's encounter with a fortune teller who stopped your Uncle Harry on a boardwalk to deliver a message from the wife none of the rest of the family had known existed. All these years since, you have continued the role into adulthood. How do you feel about your vocation?

Dianne: I feel that we still have a long way to go yet. There's still so much we do not understand, so much we don’t know about consciousness. If we survive death, where do we go and for how long?. There's just so many more questions that we have to answer.

Diana (R&S): You've taken up quite a banner with this work are you hopeful?

Dianne: It has been a passion with me since I was six. When my dad said that the important thing is how it affected Uncle Harry. I apply that to everyone in general: How it affects people who have afterlife encounters. The value it brings to their lives, and the comfort and hope that it gives them.

Diana (R&S): You are a scheduled speaker and panelist at the Investigations of Consciousness: Proof of an Afterlife conference at Fort Mason in San Francisco, January 19-20, what will you talk about?

Dianne: I'm going to discuss afterlife encounters. Some of it will be from my book, such as evidence of life after death. I'll present some of the anecdotes that go along with my research. But, also, I'm going to be presenting some new research that I just recently posted on the internet on Afterlife-Encounters.com.

For years we have looked at the living. People ask me 'Why does my sister have visits from my mother but I don't?' Why do some people have encounters while others do not? No one has ever asked about the deceased – the discarnates. So, if they survived death and are able to come back and have contact with the living, then wouldn't afterlife encounters depend at least to some degree on them? So, that's what I'm investigating, the discarnates, those who come back and visit, what were their personalities? And then, for the people who have just longed for an encounter with the person, I ask similar questions about the personality of their loved one. I have 2 different surveys. One with people who have had an encounter with a certain individual and the other for those who have longed for an encounter with a certain individual but have not had one.

Diana (R&S): Does the difficulty with making a connection have to do with avoidance, disbelief or fear?

Dianne: As for encounters not occurring, I don't believe it has to do with avoidance and I don't believe it has so much to do with disbelief, simply because of the skeptics who have taken the survey. A high portion have had encounters and completely turned their lives around. They were absolutely, positively sure, beyond any doubt there is no afterlife. But then they have the encounter and they say, 'Whoa, what was that?' Then they investigate. In fact, a lot of researchers come from that paradigm of not believing and being totally skeptical and having something happen to them.

I do believe that it seems, so far, that fear, when we fear something it does have an effect. I give an example in my book of a grandmother who's grandson came to her. He was deceased. She was getting up in the middle of the night to go to the restroom and when she looked up, she saw him and she was so frightened that she covered her head and said, 'No, no, no, no, no!' Then, as she sat there for a while, she thought, what in the world am I doing? She took the sheet off but he was gone. The next morning she told her daughter, 'Why did I do that?' Like, 'I was so fearful, he left.'

This is what usually happens when a person is fearful, the spirit vanishes. They don't want to intrude. They're always spiritually correct. This is why a lot of them don't talk to us, and then if we initiate the conversation they will. Sometimes somebody will email me that I saw my aunt but she didn't say anything. A lot of times they don't. We have to invite them to speak.

Diana (R&S): Do the departed change their perspective from when they were in body?

Dianne: What do you mean? Do they change their perspective, in what way?

Diana (R&:S): For instance, are they sorry for things they did, which they wouldn't admit when they were here?

Dianne: Oh, that's a great question Diana. Yes. The discarnates do seem to change their perspective. Their values change. And what it is, is there's so much evil here on this earth and many of them get wrapped up in that evil or discontent. All the things that we have here, they don't have there. So after they graduate to the other plain, over there, they realize the things that go on here that they were a part of. So, yes, many of them do apologize and say, 'I'm sorry.' Every time there's an afterlife encounter there's a purpose in it. It’s usually for our growth and saying I'm sorry, will you forgive me, that's part of our personal growth.

Diana (R&S): What other reasons do they come back?

Dianne: So far, in the research, it seems that their purpose is always for the growth of everyone involved. Some examples I gave in my book are discarnates who come here who's purpose has nothing to do with the sitter.

For instance, Deanna Dube had an encounter with a famous actor who asked her to please, please contact 2 people, 2 women that he knew, because he had a personal message for them. That had nothing to do with Deanna. However, she said, not only did she find these 2 people that Andrew wanted her to contact and it did bring them growth. It brought them the answers he wanted them to have and that they wished for. But, Deanna also said that she grew through the experience. Even when the purpose is not meant directly for the sitter, or the witness is a proxy, it still brings them growth. Every body involved has a chance to grow from it.

Diana (R&S): Do they usually come back to one person?

Dianne: They often come back to a number of people, not just one. The person that needs it the most, if they can, they come to that person, Many times, a dozen people may need, say, Aunt Tillie, for example. So, Aunt Tillie will come to a dozen people. However, say Aunt Tillie has that one little niece and that little niece really needs her and she comes, but for some reason she doesn't recognize, she doesn't acknowledge that Aunt Tillie is there. Then Aunt Tillie may go visit 11 other people and say, 'I visited her and I want her to know this, but she didn't recognize me.' When I say recognize, I mean not visually, but that they didn't get the sense that she was there.

One of the cases in my book was about Murphy who was a retired vacuum cleaner salesman who they didn't think had any money. He kept visiting Charles Vance. He said, 'I have a huge amount of money hidden in the wall.' Which seemed impossible because Murphy was very poor. He had this little, tiny vacuum cleaner store. But when Charles didn't go and tell his (Murphy's) wife about the money, Murphy visited his daughter.

Now, Charles was in Houston and the daughter was in Florida. Neither one told the widow, because neither really believed. Where could Murphy have gotten that money? Finally, Charles told the widow, she knocked down the wall and indeed it did have a huge amount of money. She called the daughter and said, 'You won't believe what your dad did.' And, the daughter, without the mother telling her, said, 'Oh, dad's been coming to me in a dream, telling me there's money in the wall.'

So, there's an example of 2 people who witness the same apparition, actually at the same time and in different parts of the country. And, the apparition's purpose was for his wife to get the money out of the wall. The wife said, 'Why didn't he visit me?' Oh, she was angry about it.

We don't know. Maybe he did try to visit her. Maybe he visited her in dreams like with the other two, but she didn't remember the next morning. We don't know why.

Diana (R&S): Is there anything new in afterlife encounters research?

Dianne: The only thing new is that when it comes to grief and bereavement specialists, they are recognizing, even more so, that encounters are helping individuals with their grief and comfort and living more fully. Encounters give them personal answers beyond life after death.

As far as research goes, as far as advancement in things, most researchers are historians and teach at universities about the afterlife and none of us have run across any kind of research ever being done asking specifically about the departed. Do encounters depend somewhat on the discarnate? This is a totally new area, a total breakthrough. Always before, we've looked at the living. Nobody has looked at the discarnate. So, if we have determined that there is an afterlife, why haven't we looked at them?

The survey questions of my new research asks three basic questions:

1. Did they have a strong personality?

2. Were they creative or inventive?

3. Did they have any kind of psychic phenomena while they were living?

The reason I came up with these questions is that after 57 years of study, investigating and researching, every time somebody would tell me they wish they could have something with their deceased loved one but they couldn't, and I would ask what they were like, they would tell me, 'She was really quiet. She hardly ever said anything and she didn't really do anything. She kind of sat at home.'

In other words, they were not artistic, not creative, they'd never had any type of psychic experience. And with those who did have all these afterlife encounters, the deceased seemed to be real strong. With me, personally, when I've gone to a medium who was accurate, and my family members or friends would come through, the ones who were really quiet I never hear from. So that's why I came up with those questions, from years and years of research.

Diana (R&S): Do their personalities come through when they connect? The personality they had when they were in a physical body?

Dianne: Yes, and I'm so glad you asked that because actually, in my book, is a widow who didn't identify herself and wouldn't even tell us what state she was calling from. First of all, she was concerned if they survive, but her big question was if the person has changed. In other words, if my husband isn't now, after death, all that he was when he was here, what difference does survival make? If they aren't the same, who cares? And she had an unbelievable afterlife encounter two-way telephone call. She's very wealthy and went back and involved the police and the telephone company and she hired a private detective, the best in the state. And, finally, he came forward and he said, 'Lady, this call did not come from this earth.'

And she said what was the more relevant part of it for her, the most significant part, was 'that my husband is everything now that he was then, and that's what I needed to know.'

So, yes, they may change, and become better as far as those who were in gangs or something like that. They will realize the mistakes they made and apologize, but the basic personality of them, loving and giving and caring remains. In other words, we leave everything negative when the body dies, everything negative stays with the body. Any resentment, shame, hate, loathing, evil, anything like that stays here. In the next life, goes the love, peace and joy. That part of the person stays in tact.

Diana (R&S): That's beautiful.

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Diana deRegnier is a freelance writer and writes the weekly column SpiritLinks for ReligionAndSpirituality.com from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her articles appear in numerous Internet and print publications. Diana is also editor and webmaster for the non-profit program spiritlinksnews.org for spiritual explorers of any or no religious affiliation. © Copyright 2007 by Diana deRegnier.