Hi Stephanie,

I don't know if you'll receive a response or not from those who have had IADCs, but I wanted to write my comments.

You wrote,

"I lost my mom 10 months ago."

Stephanie, you didn't lose her. You have a new relationship with her now, but she's still accessible to you when you think about her. She knows your grief and enjoys your happiness at those moments when you're not missing her. She wants you to be happy. She now knows you're just not communicating in the same way for a while. It won't be long before you can communicate with her openly and freely, after you've finished your life's journey. She's now with you in another way, and she's in your future. You haven't lost her.

You wrote,

"It was as if someone (I hoped it was my mom) was trying to "lift me" out of my sadness, and burden."

In any after-death communication, the most important indicator that it was in fact a communication is your sense of it. When you sit where you are now, imagining an image of your mother or remembering your mother, you don't have the sense that you are having an after-death communication. When you have one, the spiritual part of you knows it. That's consistently true across all the methods of after-death communication.

You wrote,

"Lastly, I felt sommething I've never experienced; I felt as if I was coming out the top of my head. I did NOT have an out of body expeience, but, felt this lifting, and it felt distinctly like the energy or force was coming out the top of my head. It was as if someone was vacumming me out the top of my head. I never did come out of my body, but I felt that energy in there."

EMDR is very powerful, and the experiences people have vary greatly. Your mind, the part of you that is eternal, isn't in your body. If you read my book, Your Eternal Self, you'll see why I say that. You can read the chapter from my book explaining that at http://youreternalself.com/chapter1textlink.htm.

And so, when something remarkable happens to the mind, the body simply feels something, but it's your mind that is having the experience. The body's reactions can be anything, and can have little significance. What was going on in your mind is all that matters.

You wrote,

"I was hoping for something visual. I was hoping to see my mom clearly, as many if not most of the IADC's in Dr. Botkin's book describe. I was hoping she would look at me and talk to me. I did "feel" her words, in my head, but it was my voice, not hers. It was if the words were just being communicated to me, but I never heard her voice. I hope it was her, but, I can't help but wonder if I was making it up. The most amazing thing about this whole process was the "altered" state I was in. This I KNOW I did not make up."

Then that's what it was. You just know. We tend to doubt our inner knowing because we've been reared in a society that teaches us to mistrust what we feel inside. We're taught that all knowing comes from outside: books, schools, scientists, clergy, or concrete experiences that come through the senses. We're told that what we just know inside is meaningless or demons or something else negative. But that's not true. What you just know to be true is the real truth of the universe. That's what comes from the Higher Power and from those on the next planes of life telling you about yourself and your place in eternity. Your sense and your knowing are the truth. If you felt you were having an after-death communication, no one outside of you needs to validate that. You were having one. Trust your own knowing. That's the most profound knowledge in the universe.

Few people have an actual conversation with their deceased loved one. Nearly all have a sense of their presence or see a smiling face. The fact that you heard her words means you were having a deeper experience than most people have. Mediums and intuitives who communicate with those on the next plane of life don't "hear" them. They know what they're saying, and that knowledge then translates into their own language and sounds like their own voice. That's normal. The knowing is what is the communication. Don't expect in an IADC to have a conversation like sitting down at the dining room table having a talk. That's unusual. And even then, most people say they don't hear words spoken. They communicate through thoughts, meaning even then they don't hear their deceased loved one's voice, they know it is them speaking, telepathically. You had a strong IADC experience, and it was your mother. Have no doubts about that.

Also, you will know it's her if the words ring true to you. Sometimes, they may contain a message you weren't expecting to hear. That may or may not be true, however, and is just another indication it was her. The fact that you knew her message is what's important. It's like that conversation over the dining room table, but you skip the hearing words vibrating through the air and just go straight to knowing what was communicated.

Ask me other questions about the afterlife, your mother, or IADCs if you wish.

Love and peace, Craig Hogan