Why Spirits Attend Their Own Funerals
Early in my investigation of the afterlife, I wondered if the deceased attend their own funerals, and, if they do, for what purpose. Here's what I discovered.
Early in my journey investigating what happens when we die, I wondered if the deceased attend their own funerals, and, if they do, for what purpose. What I learned is that there are two reasons they make an appearance, neither being to see how many people showed up or if we purchased the trendiest casket or urn for them.
People in spirit attend their own funerals and memorial services because they feel the love that those in attendance radiate for them. Since the most powerful force in the universe is love, it increases a spirit’s vibration to feel the love being expressed at such services, which helps them with their own evolvement.
We all love to be loved, even after our passing, so funeral services are the perfect opportunity to express our love for the recently deceased before settling back into the distractions of our day-to-day life. The fact is that our deceased loved ones are with us whenever we think of them, and their funeral services are no exception to this. Thus, sharing happy memories of them at any time is a wonderful way to memorialize their life.
Still, feeling our love for them is not their principal motive for attending their own funerals.
What I learned from various sources of evidence—including mediumship to near-death experiences and dream visitations—is that our loved ones in spirit are, in fact, trying to comfort our pain due to their loss, even immediately after their passing. They want to ease their loved ones’ feelings of loss and heartache, and they want to make their presence felt, if possible, so the bereaved know they’re still around.
My first example of this involves the death of a 35-year-old man who died in an automobile accident. The woman who was tasked with watching over his 5-year-old boy during the funeral told me the child was drawing on paper with crayons in the church, using the pew as a desk. Rather than draw pictures of people or trucks as he would normally do, the boy drew waves of various colors. He filled the paper with scribbles of blues, pinks, purples, greens, and yellows.
Shortly after the funeral, the boy’s mother had a reading with a medium. The deceased husband told the medium that he was sending waves of healing energy over the congregation, which he showed the medium. She explained to the mother that this energy appeared like a rainbow of colors. The medium added that it also served to distract the boy from the words being spoken in the eulogy and funeral sermon. It was only after the reading that the mother noticed her son’s drawing from the church.
As a second example, an Afterlife TV viewer shared an enlightening account of how spirits comfort us after their death. She told me the story of her son who found his father in bed soon after he’d died. The mother’s account depicted a sad story of this young man in shock and grief upon seeing his deceased father. Then this woman told me about a dream her son had a short time later, which provided an appreciably different perspective of what was happening in that room.
In the dream version, the son saw himself walking into the bedroom and discovering his father, the same scene but now the son was viewing it as an observer. From this perspective, the young man now witnessed what was really happening in this moment. He saw his father’s spirit holding him—hugging him—attempting to comfort him from the shock of what he was discovering.
The purpose of this illuminating dream was to give the son a behind-the-scenes view of what was really going on in that moment. The father had died, but he wasn’t gone. He was alive in spirit and doing what spirits instinctively know to do, even right after death, which is to relieve the suffering of their living loved ones.
This isn’t exclusive to people who discover their loved one’s body after death. Evidence indicates that our loved ones in spirit hug us with their ethereal bodies upon our learning of their death from afar.
The police show up at your door to announce your favorite uncle has died due to an accident, murder, or food allergy, and your deceased uncle is there to ease your burden. Or the nursing home calls with the news that your grandmother passed, and she’s beside you, lightening your load with a celestial embrace. You might even read in the newspaper’s obituary column that a guy you knew from school took his life, and despite his tragic demise, he’s beside you as you read the paper, using his otherworldly influence to ease your sorrow.
This is what happens at funerals and memorial services too. Our loved ones in spirit do attend their services, yet they primarily attend for our sake in order to send us comforting, loving energy. And while assisting us is their principal motive for attendance, they do appreciate their life being remembered and feeling our love for them.
This knowledge can change how we experience wakes, funerals, and memorial services. The next time you attend one, imagine the deceased being honored by the event as she absorbs the love felt by everyone who has come to mourn her passing. At the same time, imagine her showering you and the entire community of people in attendance with a rainbow of love and peace. It’s a selfless, kindhearted act of compassion and sympathy from our loved ones in spirit, which holds the power to profoundly shift how we experience these events once we’re aware of it.
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Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of two books, Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the reputable directory of vetted psychics and mediums, BestPsychicDirectory.com. His newest venture is Bob Olson Connect, a Substack newsletter where you can read his stories, listen to an audio of each article, and ask him questions or share your otherworldly experiences.
I totally felt my husband hugging me both days at his funeral. If I concentrate real hard, I can feel his hugs around my shoulders anytime.
Hi Bob, I enjoy your articles. This one in particular is affirming of an experience I had when my Dad Passed. My step mom and I sat by his bedside reminiscing for a few hours, knowing his passing was eminent. It was a mild, sunny February day. I opened the window in his nursing home room to cool it down and heard the drip of icicles melting outside. My chair was between the window and his bed. After several minutes passed, I felt a tingle through my body which lasted more than a few seconds. My immediate response was to stand and close the window. While turning to do this, I realized the breeze like sensation came from within the room, passing from my front to back. I immediately felt for my dad’s pulse and found none. He was gone. I have always felt that sensation was him giving me a farewell hug.