Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Why We Look for Signs in the First Place
- Signs Are Not About Chasing Symbols
- Awareness Is What Makes a Sign Real
- When the Unusual Becomes Meaningful
- Signs Are Felt, Not Just Seen
- Asking for a Sign Without Obsession
- Not Every Experience Is a Message
- You Are Not Being Tested
- Becoming Aware Without Losing Yourself
- An Invitation to Continue Gently
Getting Signs From Your Loved Ones
For many people who have lost a loved one, the longing for connection doesn’t end with the funeral. After a loved one has passed, there is often a quiet, persistent hope that they might still be nearby. That they might find a way of letting you know they’re still with you.
People talk about signs from loved ones all the time. A feather on the ground. A butterfly crossing their path. Lights flickering at just the right moment. A song that comes on the radio unexpectedly. These moments can feel comforting, confusing, or deeply emotional all at once.
But one of the most common question, Jock Brocas explores after-death communication with clarity and care. He doesn’t offer a checklist of “12 signs” to look for. Instead, he teaches something far more stabilizing: awareness, discernment, and trust in your experience.
In this episode of Pillars of Grief, Jock Brocas explores after-death communication with clarity and care. He doesn’t offer a checklist of “12 signs” to look for. Instead, he teaches something far more stabilizing: awareness, discernment, and trust in your own experience.
Why We Look for Signs in the First Place
When a deceased loved one has recently departed, grief often brings a powerful need for comfort. People who are bereaved are not just missing a person. They are missing reassurance. Missing guidance. Missing the sense that their loved one is still somehow present in their life.
Looking for signs is not weakness. It’s part of the human response to loss. It’s how many people cope when the physical world suddenly feels empty.
But problems can arise when we begin looking for signs everywhere. When every feather, every butterfly, and every flicker of light feels loaded with meaning. Jock Brocas gently cautions that unusual events are not always messages from heaven, and coincidences do not always mean a loved one is trying to communicate.
Awareness, not desperation, is the key.
Signs Are Not About Chasing Symbols
Many people are told that common signs are universal. A white feather. Finding coins in unexpected places. Seeing a loved one’s name repeatedly. Regular dreams. Hearing an external audible voice. Feeling a presence.
While these experiences can happen, Jock Brocas explains that relying on “common signs” can actually create confusion. Butterflies exist. Feathers fall. Lights flicker for practical reasons. If you expect a specific symbol, you may convince yourself you see it everywhere. Its a kind of pareidolia for the mind he notes.
That doesn’t mean signs aren’t real. It means they are personal.
A sign from your deceased loved one is not about the object itself. It’s about how it arrives and how it meets you emotionally. There's a story, a narrative, and the foundation of something real.
Awareness Is What Makes a Sign Real
One of the central teachings of this episode is that signs from departed loved ones are rooted in awareness, not symbolism. A true sign often involves a sudden shift in attention, emotion, and perception at the same time.
Jock Brocas describes it as a moment when something pulls your awareness out of the ordinary. Your attention moves, emotions respond, and your intuition sharpens. You feel something land inside you, not just pass in front of you.
This is where discernment matters. A real sign doesn’t usually leave you anxious or questioning. It tends to bring a strong feeling of recognition. Calm. Sometimes tears. Sometimes relief. A sense that your loved one is nearby, without needing proof.
When the Unusual Becomes Meaningful
Jock Brocas shares an example involving a departed loved one and a dragonfly. Dragonflies are common where he lives. Seeing one alone would not mean much. But when a large dragonfly became trapped in a closed room with a casket and refused to leave, the situation became unusual.
The person present felt it immediately. Not because someone told her it was a sign, but because her awareness shifted. Her emotions responded. She knew something meaningful was happening.
That combination matters. Signs from deceased loved ones often involve physical signs, emotional response, and intuitive recognition happening together.
Signs Are Felt, Not Just Seen
Many people believe signs are visual only. But after-death communication can involve many layers. People report hearing the voice of a loved one internally. Feeling guided. Feeling a sudden warmth. Experiencing synchronicity. Feeling touched emotionally rather than physically.
Some describe hearing a message from a loved one in a way that doesn’t feel like imagination. Others feel a presence without seeing anything at all. These experiences live in the space between the physical and spiritual world.
What matters most is not whether the sign is dramatic, but whether it brings peace rather than anxiety.
Asking for a Sign Without Obsession
Jock Brocas explains that it is okay to ask. You can ask a departed loved one to send a sign. Or you can ask them to guide you. You can ask them to let you know they are still with you.
What matters is what happens next.
If asking turns into waiting for a sign constantly checking everything, or feeling distressed when nothing appears, the process becomes unhealthy. Your loved one may still be with you, but your nervous system is overwhelmed. You feel abandoned because your cognitive process is now overloaded with expectations you set up yourself.
Signs tend to come when awareness is open, not when it is strained.
Not Every Experience Is a Message
One of the most stabilizing aspects of this episode is Jock’s insistence on balance. Not every dream is a visit, and not every sound is an audible voice. Not every coincidence means a loved one is trying to get your attention.
This protects people in grief from fear, misinterpretation, and emotional exhaustion. It also helps separate spiritual meaning from wishful thinking.
True signs don’t require convincing. They settle you.
You Are Not Being Tested
Many people worry that if they don’t notice signs, they are failing. Or that their loved one has stopped communicating.
This fear often connects to another painful question.
Jock Brocas reassures listeners that silence does not mean absence. It may simply mean you are learning to trust connection without constant reassurance. Signs are not rewards. They are not tests. They are moments of connection that arrive when they are needed, not when demanded.
Becoming Aware Without Losing Yourself
The purpose of awareness is not to live halfway between worlds. It is to live fully here, knowing connection still exists. Signs from loved ones should help you feel supported, not trapped in grief. They should help you engage with life again, not pull you away from it.
If a sign helps you breathe more easily, sleep more peacefully, or feel comforted, it has done its work.
An Invitation to Continue Gently
If you are navigating grief and wondering whether your loved one is near, you are not alone. And you are not broken for asking.
Pillars of Grief exists to offer guidance without pressure. To help people understand after-death communication without turning it into obsession. To create a place where grief, curiosity, and healing can coexist.
You don’t need to force awareness. You don’t need to chase signs. You don’t need to fear missing them. Sometimes, the most meaningful message from a loved one is the quiet permission to keep living.
