Client: I recently saw an image of my father in a half awake/dream state. I was shocked, and felt the pain of our relationship when he was alive. Was the apparition real?
Dr. T: The problem with believing that your experience is supernatural rather than natural, and looking for the paranormal explanations before checking for a natural one is that you are inclined to make faulty gestalts—meanings that are not there or not relevant. That is, you tend to want to complete an incomplete situation before it is integrated, and do so by defining unclear circumstances in ways that support preexisting suppositions, superstitions, and tendencies.
If you believe, for example, that ghosts are real, you will conjure a ghost from a wisp smoke before looking for an underlying budding fire. Question what is at the root of the smoke.
Again, if you fear getting pregnant, you will define missing your period as a sign that you are pregnant before thinking of any other explanations. Further, if you fear losing your job, you will create circumstances to actually diminish your value to your employer. This is the self-fulfilling irony that underlies all excessive or unreasonable leaps in judgment. We must look further into our psyches for explanations to the problems of life before settling for the offerings of narrow thinking and quick assumptions on what is going on outside of ourselves.
Why ask whether the vision was real? Would it not be more appropriate, and healing, to ask “Why would I have an encounter with my passed father? And, what does this say about our unsatisfying relationship?”
In this case, the overwhelming likelihood is that some unresolved issue presenting as a figment of mind is seeking resolution. To discover what it is, examine recent difficulties or even old unfinished business with your father. We are all full of these old unresolved situations and communications. Seek to heal them. If you need help, seek some guidance. Happy Hunting!
(2012)