Beyond The Veil.



Joseph Dunninger wrote the words, “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.”  This statement is true; for faith proceeds miracles and miracles surround us daily when we choose to be open to the possibilities.
I started to write a blog entry every day this week.  Usually the subject matter flows quite easily, but I have struggled for four days with each attempt... this is the blog entry I am suppose to write.   
This Monday morning (November 1) I had an experience where the veil was lifted for a brief moment and I was permitted to see beyond this life and into the next.  This is not my first encounter with a glimpse into the spirit world and I am not certain why I am permitted to see where the two dimensions coincide. 
It’s been difficult this week to concentrate on anything other than this remarkable experience which opened the floodgates to similar events.  I feel strongly impressed to share this entry and I can’t seem to move forward with this blog until I do.  Regardless of your reason for reading this information, please remember that nothing in this life happens by chance or accident and ponder over why you have stumbled upon it today. 
Please step outside of everything you know about this world and into the inner self.  Who are you?  I literally mean for you to search deep inside the center of your soul where all the secrets are kept, until you find that inner child and true persona that lives within the core of your being.  That spirit person is you, the real you... and that spirit entity is briefly inhabiting the physical form of your body until death do you part.
It is true that only you can define who you are, but may I suggest whom you are not.  You are not your clothing, your home, your family, your friends or your financial status. While those things surround you and certainly are a part of daily life, they are not who you are as an entity.  When all the physical forms are stripped away, there lies the spirit and the true identity or inhabitant of the body.  Underneath the layers of flesh and bones dwells a soul; a separate entity from the physical body.  For reason I do not fully understand, I have been allowed to experiences the spirit body without the presence of a physical body and I will convey two experiences to the best of my ability.
Even as a small child I had secretly feared death.  It was the final chapter of the last frontier!  I truly believed we could reverse and change every direction or aspect of our lives, except when death was present.  In most instances, death only comes calling once and no one can escape the final day of reckoning!
Several years ago, I was admitted to the American Fork Hospital with a life threatening miscarriage.  When I arrived, I was near death and I remembered seeing several doctors and nurses surrounding me as my life hung in the balance.  I could feel the intensity in the room and the nature of seriousness, but deep inside the core of my being there was serenity.  
My condition began to stabilize after receiving several blood transfusions and I struggled to regain my strength.  I was taken to a private room across from the nurses station and I lay awake for several hours listening to the rhythm of the machines surrounding my bed.  The nurse came in periodically to check the needles placed in my arms and reassure me that everything was fine.  
There was a window beside my bed and I remember looking out into the blue sky, admiring the brilliant color and pondering over the millions of prayers that pass through the Heavens daily, including mine.  Suddenly, I started losing my physical strength and I felt myself slipping past the connection where the spirit and body intersect.  It was a pleasant and euphoric sensation of softly falling and I was caught up in the tranquillity of this new experience.  At that very moment I heard a familiar voice and I recognized it as the voice of my father who had passed away eleven years earlier.  He instructed me to call for help immediately and warned me there was not much time.  I called out with what little physical strength I had left, but within a few seconds my faculties shut down and I was no longer physically capable.
My spirit had slipped outside of my physical body and I watched the events as they took place from another space in the room.  I was standing in my spirit form when I observed my physical body laying on the bed, it looked strange to me and almost unrecognizable without the light of my spirit. 
This experience, however, felt perfectly normal and I wasn’t frightened or alarmed in anyway.  I watched with great intrigue, but from another dimension as my physician, Dr. Bell and the nurses began to administer to me.  The doctor looked at the monitor and in a shocking tone, he announced my blood pressure was 30/20 and then it flatlined.   Dr. Bell ordered the nurses to transfer me across to ICU immediately.
I was standing by the head of the hospital bed and followed as they quickly wheeled my body down a long hallway into ICU.  I calmly observed everything taking place and my entire being was filled with peace and tranquility; fear was not even a consideration.  I was in a divine place where a higher authority reigned and I watched as the doctors assisted in sustaining my life, but I witnessed the greater power prevail. 
I stood outside my body watching a team of professionals work frantically to restore my life and I was given the complete knowledge it was forthcoming.  My spirit was enlightened with the knowledge that death is only a transition and it was inherently clear that I would be going back into my body.  Within the blink of an eye my spirit shifted and I found myself instantly reconnected with a weak and frail physical existence.  I was both physically and spiritually alive, but the child I had carried for seven months had died during the ordeal and she had left our presence to reside in a much better place than this world.  A few days later, I left the hospital with empty arms, an aching heart, and an overwhelming burden of sorrow that cannot be expressed with words. 
A few weeks passed when I returned to the office of Dr. Bell’s for a follow up visit.  He confided in me that I was the first patient that died while in his care and he confessed it was a miracle that I lived considering the critical circumstances.  Then he read my medical report to me and it seemed surreal to hear his words.  I had escaped the one thing I fear the most and had come to realize that it’s not the sting of death that is to be feared, but being the one that is left behind, bereaving the profound absence.  
This Monday I had another experience that broadened my spiritual perspective.  My mother passed away over twenty years ago and lately I have felt an urgency to work on my family genealogy.  I won’t go into details because of the sacred nature of this experience, but there was another woman in the room assisting me with this work.  
I was sitting in a chair and the woman was not more than a foot away from me when my mother appeared in the room.  I recognized her spirit as it entered the room and her countenance was brilliantly profound and powerful.  I was taken aback when the other woman looked at me with tears streaming down her face and said, “Your mother is here, she is here!”  
I don’t understand why the veil was lifted and I was permitted to see my mother and I was very impressed that another person was allowed to witness a part of my vision. This woman was filled with gratitude for this experience and I was humbled to know that my mother is still very connected to me and is watching over my life. 
There are many things in this life that I do not know and several things I question, but I know without any doubt that there is life after death.  It is sweet and peaceful and fear does not reside there.  I understand that those whom have passed beyond the veil in this life are still connected to those living upon the earth as their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and children.  My mother brought me a sweet messages and I understand why she was permitted to cross over the veil.
I have learned many important promises throughout my lifetime, but none as profound as these two statements; it’s impossible to see what you are not looking for and believing is truly seeing.  There is no death, for the definition of death is the end of life, but there is no end of life, only a new beginning. 
by, Linda Sumner Urza, One Fine Day

Happy Halloween, Scaredy Cats!


Around the beginning of October, all the Halloween movies start crawling out of the woodwork and into the movie theaters.  I got freaked out watching some of the video trailers on television last week; they are so graphic and some of them would frighten the wits out of little children.  Can you imagine what a child would think if they got a glimpse of Freddy Krueger or the Chainsaw Massacre on a television advertisement?  Those images could leave some deep scars and sleepless nights!  
My sister and I had an experience that was chilling when I was eight and she was fourteen.  It was the weekend before Halloween and my parents had gone out to a costume party.  My sister, Libby, and I were the only ones at home and we had decided to watch The Twilight Zone (not a good choice for a child who was afraid of her own shadow; that would be me)!  
It was an episode titled, The Eye of the Beholder.  This chilling story was about a team of doctors who had completed plastic surgery on a woman’s face (the doctors implied she was born with horrifying features that only intense plastic surgery could repair).  The surgery was completed and they were preparing to unveil the woman’s face.
The doctors were hovering around her and all that was visible were the backs of their white jackets.  With creepy background music playing, I watched as the doctors unwrapped the bandages, but they were disappointed to see the surgery had not changed her appearance.  One of the doctors made the comment. “There is nothing more we can do, we’re sorry!”  At this point I was curled up in a ball next to my sister and we were smashed together in my dad’s recliner, just a few feet from the TV screen.
We hung on with suspense as the doctors hovered around the woman with their backs turned to the viewers.  Then they handed her a mirror and she screamed in horror when she saw her face.  At that moment the doctors backed away and we were surprised to see the woman was extremely beautiful!   
Then came the drama; immediately, the camera panned around the hospital room to reveal the faces of all the doctors and nurses and they were the monsters!   The surgery was an attempt to make her ugly like them, for she presumed she was the abnormal one.  I freaked out!  I wasn't prepared and it had happened so quickly that there was no time for me to hide my eyes.  Those scary faces were all over the place and every time I blinked, I saw ugly monsters!
When it was time to go to bed we decided to leave a small lamp on in our bedroom.  Fortunately for me, my sister and I shared a room together in a second story home.  Second story sounds luxurious, but I assure you that was not the case; our upstairs resembled a haunted house!   All the rooms were unfinished, which added to our anxiety.  Each time the lights from passing cars reflected off the windows, it cast spooky shadows that danced across the walls.
We had just started to drift off to sleep when we heard noises coming from downstairs.  It was a banging sound in random patterns that wouldn’t stop.  Libby and I were terrified and I had conjured up the most horrible thoughts in my mind.  I imagined everything from Booger John to Captain Hook and I even thought the Twilight Zone monster doctors were sawing on a patient in our kitchen!  I knew it was just a matter of time before “it” would find us hiding under our blankets.  
Then Libby said the unimaginable, “We have to go downstairs and find out what that is!”  

That was a terrible idea, why would she even suggest that... but I wasn’t about to stay upstairs by myself and each time she took a step forward, I took one too.  She grabbed our brother’s baseball bat that was leaning against his wall and I thought that was a brilliant thing to do, so I grabbed the closest thing I could find and it was a belt.  Libby was disgusted with my choice.
“What’re you gonna do with a belt, dress it or spank it?  At lease get something that will protect us!”  She was preparing me for battle, but my better judgment told me to hide somewhere safe until our parents got home! 
I looked around and found a board, we both agreed that was a better choice and together we crept down the stairs.   At the bottom of the staircase was a door that entered into the living room.  When Libby opened the door the noise seemed so much louder, she hesitated out of fear and I was so scared that I levitated a few inches off the ground.  I was about to run back upstairs when she gave me more instructions. 
“Hold your board up and get ready, the noise is coming from the kitchen.  Stay right behind me.”  
I was so close to her that I could feel her heart beating through mine!  If she had spooked me at any time, I probably would have hit her in the head with the board!  We walked step by step and hardly breathing, fearing the monster would hear us.  The noise was banging and clanging as we rounded the corner into the kitchen.   We had our weapons held high, but we were shocked and relieved to see that one of our little kittens had it’s head stuck in an empty Campbell's soup can.  
Apparently, the soup can had fallen off the top of the waste basket.  The kitten started licking the inside of the can and when it’s head got far enough inside, it became stuck!   The kitten was banging around blindly against our metal cabinets in the kitchen and trying to knock this Campbell’s soup can off it’s head!  It was a hilarious sight to see.  We pulled the can off the kitten’s head, washed it’s face and laughed about how scared we were through the chilling experience.  
We definitely were "Scaredy Cats" that evening!  I am still amazed at how powerful a child’s mind can become when engaged in fear.  If there was a way to harness the amount of energy exerted by my sister and I that night, it could have powered the city for several days. by, Linda Sumner Urza, One fine day.

“.... Come in Earthlings.”


It would be impossible to contact anyone on this planet because most of the inhabitants are already floating somewhere out there in cyberspace.  Their eyes are transfixed on computer screens while their cell phones are embedded deep inside the ear canal next to the brain!
The people of the 21 century are enslaved by cyber technology and from the neck up they are becoming computerized robots.  They have abandon their inherent physical and spiritual strengths for the mechanical beast, but not without a price to pay.  I would like to believe we are still sensitive, interactive and intelligent life forms and that we haven't substituted the uniqueness of our individual characteristics to be an Apple or a Blackberry!  
When was the last time you looked at a sunset, (excluding the one on your screen saver) had a conversation with a person face to face (not using your computer, cellphone or texting) and do you remember the last time you went for a walk with no alterier motives?  Times have changed in the last 30 years and it’s whirling around like the clocks in Alice and Wonderland.  

Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to those days when life was much simpler?  Do you remember how time dragged by when you were young? If there were 24 days until Christmas it felt like 24 light years to another planet. Everything appeared to be evolving in slow motion and in reality, I believe time was on our side.  We demanded our privacy and enjoyed our freedom... in the good old days when we were the master of our soul.
People seemed more laid back and content.  Computer technology was no where in sight and in someways we might have been a little better off without it.  We worked an 8 hour shift and not a minute later; no one wanted to pay overtime and when the work day was done, it was, “hit the road Jack!”  And your boss would never think of calling you at home after hours, unless the office building had burned down or you were fired!  It was important to keep the personal life separated from the professional life and we managed to do it without a hitch!
Resting in the palm of our hand was usually the hand of a loved one, not a cellphone.  If someone called on the home phone while preoccupied, nine times out of ten we would have said, “I am busy, take a message and I’ll call them back later.”  
Our children had fingers they used for something more productive than texting.  They playing the piano, loading the dishwasher, cleaned their rooms, took out the trash, mowed the lawn and even scratched their own heads. They also knew how to tell time on a traditional clock and count change using real dollar bills and coins; these abilities are becoming obsolete. (A few weeks ago, I had to assist a sales lady in counting my change when her digital register shut down.)  Hello, is anyone in there? 
Our society believes that computers, cellphones, iPods, Touch Pads, gadgets and widgets are the greatest innovations of all times.  We were told the computerized generation would free up precious time by allowing us to be more productive during working hours, thus providing more quality time to spend with our families or our private lives.  
Wrong Captain Cyberspace, this generation was taken prisoner in the 1970s by the Darth Vader of computerized technology and the inhabitants of Earth are being held captive according to their free will.  Earthlings now resemble zombies similar to those in the movie The Night of the Living Dead, but the facts conclude that this technology came like a thief in the night!  It crept in slowly like the body snatchers, stealing the souls of our loved ones and leaving us with someone we hardly recognize!  
All the valuable time we dreamed of spending with our families in the privacy of our homes was really just a dream. The average person spends 4 to 6 hours on the computer daily, 1440 minutes on their cellphones, and texting has surpassed all those figures.  


I was siting in the airport trying to have a moment of peace and there were several cellphone conversations going on around me at the same time, bouncing off my ear drums (which was so frustrating because everyone was trying desperately to have a conversation 50 decibels above all the others)!


The average daily work hours have increased considerably because of the cyber world in which we live. People work in airports, coffee shops, restaurants, hotels and even their automobiles.  They sacrifice their personal time and late nights at home to complete work related business.  
When cellphones first came out, I resisted getting one for years; I wanted to preserve my anonymity.  One fine day when I was at my daughters home visiting, she left me one of their cellphones while she went to run some errands.  She wasn’t gone too long when I heard it ringing somewhere in the living room.  I quickly grabbed what I thought was a cellphone, pushed the green power button and placed it to my ear.  My 9 year old grandson said, “Grandma, that’s the channel changer.” That's when I realized I was inept and had to get with the times.
Now, I have become a product of the environment and today I am striving to catch up with technology as it whirls by at the speed of sound.  As a writer, I have my computer running at least 8 to 14 hours a day and my cellphone is always next to me.  Most nights, I sleep with it by my pillow just in case there is an emergency.  A few mornings I have found the button imprints on the side of my face. 
I truly miss the days when we worked less and played more, when a control panel operated the USS Enterprise, a disk was an Unidentified Flying Object, a download was a long time in the bathroom, an upload was hitting the fridge around midnight, a floppy was a bad hair day or a worn out brassiere, a hard drive was when I wrecked my dad’s car, icons were The Beatles, Paul Newman and Elvis, the Scroll Bar was on the corner of 5th & Main Street, the server was the waitress at the Scroll Bar, a boot was what you got if your spouse caught you at the Scroll Bar, user friendly was someone with a bad reputation, a megabyte was the mistake of sharing your pizza with a big brother, and a memory was something we all had when we were young!

Time is the gift of life and must be spent wisely, it cannot be duplicated or replaced!  We cannot kill time, but time can kill us!  We are blessed to have the time to choose, the time to love and the time to live.
                                                                                         by, Linda Sumner Urza, One fine day
I want to thank everyone who has supported my blog and shared it with friends and family.  I love creative writing and enjoy sharing my bizarre experiences and craziness with others. I believe laughter is the best medicine and second best would be sharing a box of chocolates with your best friend.  Thanks everyone, you brighten my days!