Encounters With the Other Side
By Katen Manahan

Since the death of my oldest child, Brad, I have had a lot of encounters with the other side. I think that it actually started out for me in 1985 when my Momma died. I was bowling in a league and, right there in the middle of the bowling alley, I smelled flowers. It was extremely strong and I was shocked to smell this wonderful fragrance. If you can, picture this: a 24 lane bowling alley complete with snack bar, a full bar, and the place being packed. Smoking was allowed and with the smell of heavy smoke, food cooking, people odors and the machines themselves, I smelled flowers. Pretty incredible, I think! The next morning at 5, I got a call from my little brother, Eddie, that Momma had just passed away. A friend of mine took me to the floral shop on base where we were stationed at the time and, as soon as I opened the door, that same fragrance greeted me.

I have had floral smells since then and so has my second child, Amie, who is now almost 29. In 1992, the day before her brother was killed in a car accident, Amie was standing at our front door looking outside. She said, "Mom, I smell roses very strongly." I walked over to the door and picked up a faint smell, but nothing like she was dealing with. It was mid-July and the roses that I had were 15 feet from the door where she was standing. The next day, Brad was killed. He was 16 at the time. Every girl that went to his funeral laid one single red rose on his chest.

Amie and I share a lot of smells and when both of us smell flowers, someone close to us dies. It is almost like a warning that we both receive. When we both smell flowers, it is usually within one to two weeks that someone dies. If I smell flowers, I will call Amie. She lives in Montana and I'll ask her if she has smelled anything lately. She either says yes or no. When she smells something, a few days after I do or vice versa, she or I will call and we will let each other know. We are very closely connected in this way. Sometimes, she or I will pick up a light rose scent and that is our way of knowing that we are being thought of by those that we have loved that have already crossed over.

We have both had encounters with the paranormal world and, to say the least, it is exciting. There are times that Amie blocks them out as she is not ready at that particular time to deal with them. I have seen Orbs with my own eyes and feel that they are passing spirits. I have had a lot of clear forms come into focus... twice I have seen full forms. I have walked out of a room and caught an ectoplasm out of the corner of my eye, turned to watch it, just to see it disintegrate before me. I have seen shadows of people and animals and I have communicated with those that have passed on.

My sister, Vivian, is closely similar to me and she has a lot of the same abilities that I do. My sister, Cindi, dreams about things that are going to happen. My brother, Eddie, has visions and senses things before they happen. My brother, Johnnie, has had a lot of BAD things happen to him so he no longer delves into the paranormal world. My son, Stevie, who is 26, has a lot of sensory perception and his twin brother, Ricky, can detect spirits in a room. He told me once that my place was haunted! My Momma was the same way and I think that it all links together and that families share these things in some cases. Now, my other brothers, Mike and Tom, do not have any experiences with any of this and they just don't get it.

I can go to a cemetery and place my hands on the marker and receive communication from the spirit. I have done this with my father-in-law who died in 2000 and with my own son. A few years ago, my mother-in-law wanted to visit her daughter and grand daughter's grave. We took her to the cemetery and she could not remember where Donna and Mary Jane were buried. This was in Pennsylvania and we were visiting her. This is a very old cemetery with dates on the stones back to the 1600's. I started to walk up the walkway and I heard, "Katen, we are over here." Mind you, I did not know either of them. They had both been killed the same day and in the same car before my husband and I got together in 1979. So, I heard the message again and followed the voice. I stopped at a tombstone and yelled down to my husband and his mother, "What was Donna and MJ's last name?" They both yelled back at me, "Culbertson." I, then, said, "I found them" and they came to where I was. Sure enough, that was their grave site.

My mother-in-law and I share a common experience also. I opened the world for her and she knows when my father-in-law is around. She can sense him and smell him as he always wore Old Spice. One time, she got really sick and nearly died. She had a second surgery and none of us were aware of it. I kept hearing, "Katen, I'm all right. Tell Craigy not to worry about me." (Craig is my husband and her sixth child). I, then, said, "Well, darlin', if you're all right, then how can I hear you?" That was not a good thing as I hear from the dead, not the living. When we were allowed to talk to her on the phone in her hospital room, she asked me straight out, "Did you hear me talking to you?" I said, "Yes, I did." She asked me what she had said and when I told her, she said, "Yup, that is what I said." We have a very close bond and I love her dearly.