Signs From Loved Ones in Spirit (And How to Recognize Them)

Most people expect signs from Spirit to be obvious.

They wait for lights to flicker, objects to move, or something dramatic enough to convince them they aren’t imagining it. When those things don’t happen, they assume nothing is happening at all.

What I learned — first as a grieving sister, and later as a medium — is that Spirit rarely communicates through spectacle. It communicates through recognition.

I started noticing signs from Miles early on. I sensed him. I felt his presence in the office when my parents were discussing his casket, I felt him in the car when they were driving as if he were sitting next to me in the backseat. It wasn't my imagination. Subtle differences are easily dismissed. But once I focused on learning in my psychic experience, I found out how real each time was. And I knew that healing had to come to make sure that I was aware of him and not just wishful thinking.

In Miles Away, I described my Mediumship experience plainly:

“These conversations in my mind were definitely not my thoughts alone; the thinking was completely different than mine.”

That distinction matters more than any sign someone could point to. And it was the validation I needed to see that those early feelings, the signs that we were getting, truly belonged to my brother's intercession to make us see that he was still alive - just somewhere beyond our physical world.

Signs Are Usually Subtle — On Purpose

Spirit communication is not meant to override free will or logic. It’s meant to be noticed, not forced.

Common signs include:

• thoughts of them as you see a cardinal in the window

• sudden feelings of wanting to find a family recipe, or to knit or crochet, or to do the things that passed over person loved.

• a sudden sense of presence without fear

• repeated prompts of number that repeat or music that was distinctly theirs.

These experiences don’t shout. They register quietly — often in the body before the mind tries to explain them away.

The Difference Between Thought and Contact

One of the hardest things for people to trust is their own internal experience.

We are taught that thoughts are ours alone, so when something arrives that feels different, the instinct is to dismiss it.

That’s why this realization from Miles Away is so important:

“I realized that I had been relying on my connections with Spirit my entire life.”

Recognition doesn’t come from believing everything you think. It comes from noticing when something doesn’t feel like you. Or that you begin to internally ask questions and receive the answers from a whisper within or a sign from above.

Signs Don’t Always Look the Way You Expect

Spirit will often use what already has meaning to you:

• shared memories

• familiar phrases

• emotional impressions

• moments of sudden clarity

So, it is not all birds and butterflies. People miss signs because they are waiting for proof, not relationship. What is true to your relationship is the key to understanding the signs. I had a client who's father came through in a reading. He mentioned the Rose of Tralee. When the reading was over she said that was her sign that it was her dad. He was an Irish American through and through.

Spirit doesn’t communicate to convince strangers. It communicates to reconnect with those who already know the language of love. People in Spirit come through for people that they know - not a stranger to them. One reading began with a young man that had just passed but the client knew his mom and dad. That was significant enough to give her the message to pass to his parents. After, he departed, her family in Spirit was happy to begin the reading. But the assistance to give his parents the message through her to them was just a prayer away from her bringing the good news to grieving parents.

Why Doubt Is Normal — and Healthy

Doubt does not block genuine connection.Fear and obsession do.

I questioned my experiences for a long time. I didn’t want to believe I was communicating with my brother. It felt unreasonable. It felt unsafe. It felt easier to deny. I had terrible feelings of grief that did not match up for his experience. We had lost him. However, he had never lost us.

That resistance didn’t stop the connection — it slowed my willingness to acknowledge it.

Signs continued anyway.

What Signs Are Not

This matters.

Signs from loved ones in Spirit are not:

• intrusive

• frightening

• commanding

• designed to control your decisions

If an experience creates panic, pressure, or dependency, that’s not Spirit — that’s fear seeking interpretation. Never make a huge decision when you are in fear or pressured state. To center yourself, be calm and relaxed, and then make the decision, will give you the best guided from above assistance you can find.

True Spirit contact feels:

• calm

• familiar

• steady

• emotionally neutral or loving

Even when the message itself is serious or urgent.

A Grounded Way to Approach Signs

If you think you’re receiving signs:

• Notice before you analyze

• Observe patterns without forcing meaning

• Allow doubt without shutting down

• Stay grounded in your daily life

You don’t need to announce it. You don’t need to label it immediately. You don’t need to convince anyone.

Recognition unfolds in layers.

A Closing Thought

The most meaningful signs rarely arrive with certainty.They arrive with familiarity.

And over time, you begin to understand that connection doesn’t always come from the outside world — sometimes it arrives quietly, from a place that feels closer than memory. It is guided to you from within.

Anne St. John, Heaven's Medium for grief and healing Author of Miles Away

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