Bonnie McEneaney - Messages: Signs, Visits, and Premonitions from Loved Ones Lost on 9/11

T his is a book about men and women who lost loved ones and who have been fortunate enough to have spiritual experiences surrounding these losses. This is not a book about death. It is a book about hope and the deep and loving connections that go well beyond the boundaries that exist between life and death.

After my husband, Eamon McEneaney, died in the World Trade Center, I was almost immediately in touch with other 9/11 family members. Within days I started hearing about their spiritual experiences and, in fact, began to have some of my own. Id like to say that even the most subtle of my experiences have touched me greatly and helped me through my own healing process. They have given me a firm sense that the spirit never truly dies and that our spiritual connection with those we love is never lost. Most of the people who are certain they have known after-death communication say these experiences have given them comfort and peace. Mine have done the same for me. Part of the purpose of this book is to share these feelings with readers who are struggling with loss and may also need assurance and comfort.

Accepting the finality of death has always presented a challenge to the human psyche. Nothing can change it. It just is. Anyone who has experienced a loss knows what it feels like. Time and time again, we ask ourselves the following questions: Where did he go? What happened to her? How could this be? When a loved one dies, communication is terminated forever. This is a difficult concept for us to process and believe. But what if this isnt the case? What if communication doesnt end, but simply is transformed? What if we discovered that most, if not all, of the people who have left our earthly existence have sent their loved ones messagesmessages that we have overlooked because of our own limited human understanding. What if they regularly send signs that we miss because we dont know how to interpret the evidence? What if they are trying to communicate with us, and were just not paying attention? Why is this possibility such a difficult one to grasp?

Many of us belong to organized religions in which we are taught to believe in a higher powera God or Supreme Being. We are told that there is more than this earthly life we leadwhether heaven, nirvana, or any other ecclesiastical representation of what this more might be. But, ironically, even though we are taught religious doctrines from the time we are children, regularly participating in spiritually based practices in various houses of worship and even at home, when theres a possible sign that, indeed, there is more, we tend to remain either doubtful and unconvinced or embarrassed that others will think we are somehow gullible or foolish. We still remain a society that requires proof to believe in anything unconventional. And what defines proof anyway, when it comes to the spiritual world? What has to occur to transform a skeptic into a believer?

In the summer of 2001, my husband was positive that his death was imminent and communicated a series of compelling premonitions, including a discussion on how to escape from the Trade Center in the event of the attack he was sure was coming. This particular exchange took place on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, nine days before September 11th, and precipitated a week filled with numerous other disturbing comments from Eamon relating to the imminence of his deathand that he could handle it now.

After my husbands death, I couldnt help but think about his various heartfelt statements and what his words meant. I was also starting to have an overwhelming awareness of his presence along with the sense that he was somehow trying to communicate and send me signs that he was okay. I was having a difficult time understanding what was happening to me. Was this simply a manifestation of grief? I eventually began to ask others who had lost loved ones on 9/11 if they, too, had encountered anything similar. I was amazed at the responses. Many said that either they or their deceased loved ones had shared strong premonitions. Many also told me about powerful occurrences in their own lives that led them to believe that their loved ones were trying to send messages or signs that were impossible to ignore. Most told me that they had a unique and visceral sense of their loved ones presence guiding them and giving them strength. An astonishing number told me that either they or other family members had actually seen their loved ones spirit.

Several of the people who strongly believed that they were getting messages from their deceased loved ones were reluctant to broadcast their experiences. Respected members of their communities, they didnt want others to think that they were delusional. I was not surprised by these feelings and totally understood how they felt. At the time, although I considered myself a spiritual person, I was also more than a little bit skeptical about the possibility of other dimensions or discovering that there was more after this lifetime; I also tended to view people who had strong beliefs in the paranormal as being a bit off or different. I had no experiences that helped me relate to their thinking. After all, I was a business executivenot the kind of person who tried to solve problems by consulting psychics or mediums.

Nonetheless, as my discussions with others continued, I was extremely motivated to do more personal exploration into what was going on. As Ive pressed forward, Ive been quite taken aback by what Ive observed in my own life. As a result of my own experiences, combined with all the interviews Ive completed, I can no longer question the existence of a spiritual, perhaps divine, component to all of this that defies human logic. The widespread premonitions described by victims before the terrorist attacks are very compelling. What some 9/11 family members have experienced after the attacks may be even more so. These people have told me that they have seen and felt things that they can neither ignore nor explain and that they now approach the world with an enhanced spiritual perspective. As this book was getting ready to go into production, I was shown an amazing photograph of a little girl named Alexis sitting in a field with a beam of light radiating down on her. Her father, Rick Thorpe, perished in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Her mother, Linda, took the photograph in the summer of 2002. They were in Ireland for a family wedding.

It was a cloudy Irish day, Linda told me, and my daughter just walked out to this open grassy area by the church and plopped down. It was very unlike her to do something like that, which is why I took the picture. When she walked out like that, I thought, What is she doing? She looked like an angel, but I saw no beam of light. When Linda got the picture back, she couldnt explain the beam of light. Her father-in-law took the picture and the camera to an expert who assured him that there was nothing wrong with the camera or the film.

Linda was originally very skeptical and disbelieving of the possibility of continued spiritual connection, but this photograph, along with other signs that cannot be explained, has altered her perspective. Initially I thought, This is weird, Linda said. Now I know they are out there. Its magical. Alexiss daddy was at the wedding. He will always be watching out for her and me.

Alexis in a field in Shannon, Ireland

The men and women who lost loved ones on 9/11 represent a cross section of American life. Their many spiritual experiences deserve broader exploration. Of course, it stands to reason that people practicing an organized religion, professing an afterlife, will have the desirethe yearningto believe, even if they are skeptical. The experiences in Messages collectively suggest the potential existence of more than this lifethat there might really be another side. They are important because they arguably serve as some level of evidence that death is the precursor of the transformation of the soul, and our relationships continue. Clearly this is quite a provocative concept, but its one that has existed (and has been repeatedly challenged) since the beginning of time.