I also have a first hand account. Nearly 20 years ago, an uncle I was very close to, who had been dealing with alcohol addiction, depression, and a broken family, commited suicide. My uncle and I were both sort of black sheep in a very religious and judgemental family, so we often spoke to each other about our own beliefs, and pondered about what was really out there. We also spent many nights around a camp fire, and he was a self taught guitar player, I knew, and enjoyed his style of play very much.
After his death, and before my road trip to attend the funeral, I am lying in my own bed, half asleep, drifting, and thinking about my uncle, and had the tune of a song, 'House of the Rising Sun' in my head. Suddenly, I don't know why, I get a bolt down my spine, that feeling of sudden shock. I am now WIDE awake and sitting upright in my bed, and I still hear the song. Here's the kicker: my bolting upright wakes my wife sleeping beside me. She sits up and asks what's wrong. I just say "SHHHH!, listen." I didn't tell her what I heard, she told me, it was my uncle, and it was 'House of the Rising Sun'.
My uncle was never recorded playing that song, and it is pretty easy to distinguish his amateur campfire playing vs. a commercial recorded version. It was him, and I wasn't the only one to hear. I immediately got out of bed, thrashing the place (an apartment) trying to find the source. I went out on to the balcony to see if it was the neighbours playing music, by then, it was gone. If it had been the neighbours playing a bootlegged copy of my hippy uncle singing 'House of the Rising Sun', it was the only song they played that night, and it was very strange timing.
To this day I interpret this as my uncle letting me know there is something more after this life, and that he was doing alright. It is the single event in my life which keeps me believing in something. I also tried to pick up the guitar and teach myself. Guess which song I was determined to learn first.
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