Hello from Heaven! (1995)

Have you ever had a spontaneous encounter with the other side? They’re being called after-death communications (ADC) in order to differentiate them from near death experiences (NDE) and medium messages. They are not because someone is in deep mourning or specifically missing a loved after death: they could happen when you’re doing something else, or even just after a person dies before the news has reached you in the normal way. Their purpose is to let you know that the person is alright and there’s no need to feel bad. The sense that most feel is one of comfort and peace.

Now Hugh Downs is on the other side, so I wonder if this is his way of saying ‘Hello!’

What does ‘Hello!’ actually mean?

Well, I’m glad you asked me that. Here’s what Wikipedia says:

‘According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo, which came from Old High German “halâ, holâ, emphatic imperative of halôn, holôn to fetch, used especially in hailing a ferryman“. It also connects the development of hello to the influence of an earlier form, holla, whose origin is in the French holà (roughly, ‘whoa there!’, from French là ‘there’). As in addition to hello, halloo, hallo, hollo, hullo and (rarely) hillo also exist as variants or related words, the word can be spelt using any of all five vowels.’

There, is that any clearer? The ferryman may actually be Charon. Now that’s special…

In our household, when someone comes through the door, either the person entering, or the person already there, says “Hello!” That prompts our dogs to start barking loudly. Perhaps it the ‘Halloo’ used by hunters that sets their hounds off that our dogs know instinctively. These days we’re more likely to yell, “Yoohoo!” (You Who!)

Conclusion

I’m not being facetious here: I’ve had many examples of spontaneous contact from my parents, as evidenced on these pages. And since, in 1995, a poll suggested that 50 million people (20% of the American population) have, too, I’m in very good company.