Many believe that the soul is a form of energy that, in accordance with the laws of physics, can neither be created nor destroyed. This is a comforting thought, because it offers hope me that Erik still lives somewhere in that form and that he has simply shed his body as though it were a set of clothes. As I would soon discover, theoretical physicists and other scientists are now just beginning to explore the existence of an afterlife and other spiritual phenomenon once relegated to the domain of New Age “kooks” and opportunistic gypsies hunched over crystal balls.  There is concrete physics and mathematics supporting it all. Nevertheless, as a physician with a strong background in science, I confess that I’ve been extremely skeptical about such matters all of my life. My journey, my research, and my experiences would eventually turn me into a believer. Our first sightings of Erik represent a huge step in that direction.

However painful the visitation and funeral were, we longed to commit every detail to memory, because to forget any moment was to let part of Erik go. We weren’t ready for that, so we took hundreds of photographs. When we mustered enough courage to look at the photos, we were struck by what we saw. Each one had glowing orbs hovering around in various places. We were sure it wasn’t something on the lens, because they appeared in different areas from the same angle and were produced by multiple cameras. Had we seen these in previous pictures? After reviewing almost 2000 photographs taken from that same camera over the last several years, we did not come across anything like it.

The days after our discovery, we began to shoot photographs everywhere around the house. On one photograph, you can clearly see a glowing orb hanging around the casket. On another, an orb is hovering around Uncle Jim’s left elbow. The next day, that elbow had a swelling the size of an orange. He had developed an olecranon bursitis in it, which needed to be drained and then treated for over a month. Was Erik warning us?

In the last photo, Michelle and I were headed for Erik’s room to take more pictures when suddenly Michelle’s hair stood on end, and she felt a definitive and intense presence that to her was clearly him. So, she quickly raised the camera, pointed it in the direction of that presence, and snapped away. When she reviewed the photograph in the viewfinder her jaw dropped.  If you examine the picture below, you’ll notice how everything is in sharp focus except that one orb. Furthermore, it appears to have a comet’s tail as if it were it’s moving rapidly past everything else in the room. Could it be Erik following his Mama? Maybe he wants to make sure I don’t mess with the stuff in his room!