ANGELS ARE REAL, ANGELS EXIST.

Real-life encounters with Angels and Archangels. True stories of Guardian Angels helping ordinary people.

By tessy rawlins

All rights reserved circa 2013

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Rise in Angel Sightings.

Angels saving Travellers & Explorers.

Saved by a Mysterious Stranger.

Angels in Combat

Angels on 9/11

Angels in Space.

Angel of the Thames

Angels on Camera.

Angelic Hospital Visits.

Conclusion.

Introduction

Do Angels exist? Are Angels real? Here is the proof. This short book looks into the many accounts of angel encounters; of Angels and Guardian Angels helping ordinary people in their time of need; real stories told by people who were saved by their Angels; tales of divine intervention in times of crisis; of Angels saving travellers, children, soldiers, and many other ordinary people just going about their everyday lives.

Taken from the stories in this short book...“I saw what appeared to be Angels...there were Angels standing in the open area. There were hundreds of them, standing in columns. There was a field of Angels, emerging from the realms of the mist.”

“Then all of a sudden, I suppose it was a few seconds, but time seemed to stop, the Angel was gone.”

‘He saw in front of him a being with huge angel wings, going way over it’s head and al the way down it’s back.’

“I saw Angels all around me, like a wall of protection, holding me, closing in around me.”

“I know my Angel looked after me, lifting me out of the car.”

Here are some of those true stories...

The Rise in Angel Sightings.

The results of a major study into the subject of Angels was published in the Times Newspaper in December 2000.  It reported on a two year research project carried out by Emma Heathcote, a Birmingham University theology graduate. She examined the accounts of over 800 British people who had told her of their encounters with Angels. One particularly fascinating aspect of the study involved group witnesses of an Angel. The Times own newspaper reporter, Carol Midgley, looked further into one of the accounts in Heathcote’s study. The journalist went to interview a Rector, in the county of Hertfordshire, who recalled the day he was conducting the baptism of a 22 year old woman who was shortly to be married and was required to be Christened first. In the Village Church, in front of a congregation of approximately thirty people including the Rector himself, the Church Warden and the Organist, suddenly there appeared a man standing in front of the baptismal font, dressed in a long white robe, so white it was almost transparent. The Rector describes how, “He was just looking at us. It was the most wonderful feeling. The angelic figure didn’t appear to have wings, and he simply stood there silently, looking at those assembled for the service. Not a word was spoken. Various people began touching their arms and faces, because it felt like having warm oil poured over you. The children came forward with their mouths wide open. Then all of a sudden; I suppose it was a few seconds but time seemed to stop, the Angel was gone; everyone who was there was quite convinced that the Angel came to encourage us.”

An in-depth interview with Emma Heathcote by journalist Gill Fry, uncovered a startling array of Angelic encounters from ordinary members of the general public who had responded to Heathcote’s request for information in newspapers and magazines. Contributions came from people of all or no faiths; Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and Atheists alike sent in their experiences. For many, it was the first time they had shared their experiences with anyone, Heathcote said, because many people felt that if they told anyone they would be ridiculed. “People asked me not to use their names, so it’s quite a big step for some,” but she adds that for many of the people who had written in, “their experience has given them hope, calm and reassurance.”

One letter she received was from a credited scientist, who whilst out walking his dog on a canal towpath, began to feel an eerie sensation. He started to say a prayer, and immediately a 6ft Angel stood in front of him, as though his protector.

Over the years, there have been other major public opinion research studies conducted, asking the general public whether they believe in Angels. A Baylor University survey in 2008 by Gallop found that 55% of American’s think they have been protected by their guardian angel at some point in their lives. According to one of the researchers involved, Carson Mencken, “People talk about close calls, accidents; others were victims of assault or survived near-death, others had combat-related experiences. Based on our study, many people who survive those close calls attribute their survival to their guardian angels.”

Angels saving Travellers & Explorers.

Travellers, by any method, it seems, are often rescued by the divine intervention of an angel, with thousands of people recalling their experiences in magazines, books, newspapers, and on TV programmes. People seem far less reluctant these days to tell their stories, so great is the belief of so many people in the acceptance of the existence of Angels nowadays.

The Daily Mail newspaper interviewed people who claimed to have seen an angel, and  retired Magistrate, Leslie Lubert, told the paper that she had been in touch with Angels ever since she was a child. She describes one particular incident, when she used to live in Sweden. She was driving home with her husband and friends very late one night after a party. She fell asleep at the wheel and the car careered off the motorway, hit a wooden post, and flipped over. She was thrown 20 feet from the car. Her neck was broken, yet crash investigators could not explain how she had managed to survive. “I know an angel looked after me, lifting me out of the car to safety. I remember feeling very aware of my angel when I came round.” she says. “Even if some people don’t believe in angels- my son won’t even entertain it, other friends and family, even strangers, find my story compelling.”

On 2nd September, 2001, after forty years as a successful city planner, Tom Lumbrrazo was driving home from work on expressway 65 in America, travelling at about 60 mph in the fast lane, alone in his Jeep, when out of nowhere a really strong male voice firmly said to him ‘Slow to 35.’ In shock, without really thinking about it, he immediately obeyed the voice and slowed his speed down. About thirty seconds ahead of him was a traffic signal, on green. A car shot past him with three young men in it, undercutting him and stopping to a halt at the traffic sign even though it was green. Lumbrrazo knew there was no way he could not hit them, as he was too close and had no-where for the car to go. He slammed on the brakes, and miraculously, although the car slammed into the back of the three men in the other car, no-one suffered serious injuries. Stunned, he blurted out what had happened when the traffic cop arrived on the scene, to which the cop replied that if he had been doing 60mph he would be dead. Lumbrrazo went onto receive messages from the voice for the next three years, until one day he had an actual vision of an Angel. Asleep in bed with his wife, over a series of nights, they were awoken by shaking of the bed, with the bedroom lights flickering on and off. He saw in front of him a being with huge Angel wings, going way over its head and all the way down its back.

Talking across several TV channels in the States, four people recalled a miraculous event following a bad car accident. In Crawford, Texas, on a rainy highway on March 25th 2009, a head on collision between two cars left one of the vehicles upside down and on fire. Inside, Lisa began to pray. She was upside down and trapped by her seatbelt. On the scene were Sheri and Codi Clements. Codi rushed over to the car with a knife, passing it to Lisa for her to try to cut the seatbelt, which she managed to do. Codi reached for her hands, but where the roof of the car had been crushed, it left no room for her to be pulled out of the tiny space left. The situation seemed hopeless, when all of a sudden they both felt another pair of hands enveloping theirs. Lisa says, “As I saw Cody’s hands, I saw another set of white hands around his. As he started pulling me through there was just like this burst of white light.” Cody continues, “Before I knew it we were both outside the vehicle.” Sheri, who had been standing frantically watching Codi try to rescue Lisa, witnessed the whole thing. She says, “God sent an angel to pull Lisa out of the car. I saw this bright white light and then I saw these hands reach past where there was no room, and they grabbed hold of Codi’s hands and all of a sudden they were on the grass next to me.”

In Newsweek Magazine, December, 1993, a tragic story was covered about a young woman Chantel Lakey, and her fiancé Dale, who wanted to show her the view from a trail as they travelled along the Pacific highway 101. It was an area of dense forest with steep cliffs overhanging the coast. They managed to climb to the top of the trail quite easily, but it was as they started to descend that they ran into trouble. Dale had seen an animal trail and thought it would be possible to descend it, however as they headed down, they soon realised they had taken a very precarious path, as it virtually turned into a cliff of loose shale and rock. It began to rain and the path became even more treacherous. It was not possible now to head back up and they had no option but to continue. Dale walked in front, turning around every few steps to help Chantel. As he turned around again, his foot slipped and without warning he fell, to his death. Hysterical, Chantel froze in shock and terror. Clutching onto the loose rock, she was unable to move. She says “I had no particular faith in the being that others call God, but I think desperation draws out of us deep feelings we never knew we had.” She cried out to God, and describes that all of a sudden it was “as though the gateway between Heaven and Earth had opened up, and I saw Angels all around me, like a wall of protection, holding me, closing in around me.” She clung on and yet the next thing she remembers is looking up and seeing the cliff above her. “Somehow I had managed to descend.”  When the rescue team later went to retrieve her fiancé’s body, they could not go down the cliff path that Chantel had descended, declaring the route impossible, even with their experience and equipment.

Saved by a Mysterious Stranger.

John Ronner, a long-time newspaper reporter, has spoken with hundreds of people about their Angel encounters, of which he has gone on to relate on TV and Radio shows. On the radio programme Coast to Coast, which nightly covers supernatural and spiritual topics, he discussed Angelic interventions on the battlefield, such as in the case of Joan of Arc, who said that she received key spiritual guidance on battle matters from Angels. Ronner categorised a number of different types of angelic interventions, one of which he termed, ‘the mysterious stranger,’ where the Angel takes the form of an ordinary human being. This stranger often might know your name, and details about your life. He describes a story told to him by a young woman called Donna, who accidently went the wrong way on the subway in New York. She got off the train to try to find her bearings. She headed up to street level, but spotted two groups of young men loitering and drinking close to the subway entrance, and all around her derelict buildings. She realised she had got off at a very dangerous part of town. “I saw the most ominous sight, two groups of men, all of them stopping their conversations and noticing me. I felt their ill-intentions like a brick hitting me. Heart pounding, I ran back down into the dark subway.” Desperately waiting for the next train, she felt like trapped prey. Just then she felt a presence close by, and wheeling around she saw a tall, well-dressed gray-haired man in a black overcoat. “You’re lost aren’t you,” he asked her, smiling. The mysterious stranger immediately pulled out a map, showing her where she needed to go. “I was so frightened and thanking God for his presence that I didn’t question where the man had come from,” she told Ronner. The man said to her, “I will wait here with you,” and they stood in silence, as she realised that she didn’t feel any fear anymore. None of the men who had spotted her on the street ventured down the subway, and about twenty minutes later her train arrived. The man made sure she got on the train safely, and as it pulled away, she looked down at the map he had given her, which was a detailed tourist map of the exact area she needed to get to.

Brad Steiger, lifelong investigator of the paranormal writes about the mysterious stranger who saved the life of Clara Barton the founder of the American Red Cross. For her tireless humanitarian work during the American Civil War, she was given the title ‘Angel of the Battlefield,’ and yet it was that she herself was saved by her own Guardian Angel. In April 1884, she was aboard a Mississippi riverboat ‘The Mattie Bell’, on a mission to take food and medical supplies to the hungry and injured after a bad flooding. The Captain warned her that the trip could be extremely perilous as the flood had caused deadly crevasses and submerged rocks along the river. Just as the boat was about to leave dock, one of her volunteers approached her to say that a stranger had boarded seeking request to join the journey. Clara told the volunteer to tell the stranger no, but it was too late as the boat was already pulling away. Throughout the journey Clara prayed hard, standing on the deck, hearing the rush of the wild water. Just then she heard a deep male voice, and turned towards it, seeing a mysterious stranger in the darkness. He told her to tell the Captain immediately to go no further, or they would all be lost. Clara did so without hesitation, and they stopped for the night. The next morning, in the clear daylight, Clara could plainly see a drop of at least 500 feet in front of the boat. It was plain that the stranger had saved everyone’s lives. Seeking out the man to thank him, he could not be found. That was impossible as no-one could have left the boat the night before, and yet no-one could find him.

Bestselling Canadian writer Karren Forrest relates one of her favourite stories in a book about Angels. It involved her son. “He and two friends were travelling across country on a terribly cold night. Their car broke down along deserted cornfields, in the middle of no-where. The temperature was so low that it was very possible they could have frozen to death, and in fact, some people did that night. There was no-here close by they could walk to shelter.” She goes on to describe how a tow-truck suddenly appeared, hitched up the car, and took them to safety. When her son and his friends got out of their car to thank the man, he was gone, and so was his truck. Karen says she finds the story compelling because there was more than one witness to the account, it was a declared state of emergency that night and so no rescue vehicles were out, and crucially, the tow-truck left no tracks in the snow.

Reader Kevin Arnett wrote in to New Zealand magazine ‘New Idea,’ “Ever since I was a child I have had premonitions, but the following incident is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me. I had gone to Rockhampton for a day’s shopping, and as I drove into the car park at Kmart, a man who had parked on my left side asked if I knew there was a large bubble on the inside of my rear tyre. He suggested I go and get it checked. I then got into my car to reverse it into the parking space, and as I did so I turned to give the man a wave, but to my amazement he was nowhere to be seen and a woman was driving into the space he had occupied. I asked her if she had seen the man...she said she hadn’t seen the man or his car. After doing my shopping I went to the tyre place...much to their surprise, when they removed the tyre there was a bubble, just as the stranger had described.

Bill Burt, who has been a national reporter in the UK for decades, is someone for whom angel stories have figured heavily, but purely incidentally, in some of the news events he has gone to cover.  He recalls many of them involving puzzling incidents of ‘mysterious strangers’ and good Samaritans; ‘Unsung heroes’ who never seem to stick around long enough to give their name or receive due credit for their acts of bravery. He says “there are some remarkable tales like these that I’ve never managed to get out of my mind, or been able to come up with explanations for.” He writes about one such incident, around thirty years ago, when there was a terrible train crash in South London, in which many people were killed and injured. Sent to the scene to report on it, he found rescue workers tending to the multiple injured, with the train carriages hanging precariously above a steep embankment. In this setting he says he saw what he can only label a real angel. An elderly lady, with a heavy doctor’s bag, who he saw many times over that long evening, tending to the injured. What was odd was that he seemed to see her everywhere. She was at the crash scene, at the medical aid centre, at the bottom of the embankment comforting arriving relatives. Mr Burt approached her to ask her name but she shooed him away gently. When he filed his story, he mentioned her and wanted to identify her to do a follow up story. Over the next few days he tried to trace her, talking to the police, the ambulance staff, the survivors, but none of them could identify her. Even more startling, no-one could recall seeing her at the scene.

Mr Burt also describes another odd incident when he went to cover a story about two schoolboys missing on a climbing trip. By the time he arrived, the schoolboys had been found, however, when he interviewed them, they told him of how a woman in a white dress had approached them on the mountain and beckoned them to follow her, taking the boys straight to the search party. He spoke to the leader of the search party, who repeated the boys’ story, yet added that the search party had seen no such woman.

Lydia M Fish, PhD, a lecturer at Buffalo State University, has investigated over 60 reports of a mysterious stranger hitching a lift with drivers, with the stranger commonly being described as a young, bearded man, with long blond hair, who would talk about Jesus and say that his return was to be very soon, before suddenly, completely, disappearing from the car, without the car stopping or pulling over, or any of the car doors being opened. Jim Bramlett also looked into this phenomenon. Once a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, after 20 years of distinguished military service, he joined a ministry, and from here became involved in researching spiritual matters. He writes about one of the incidents reported to him, saying  that he was never able to trace it to its original source, despite hours of long-distance telephone calls and over fifteen witnesses. “I traced the incident from a friend in California to a United Airlines pilot in Chicago, then to at least fifteen others in Atlanta, including a medical doctor. Each person with whom I have talked has seemed highly credible. The incident occurred as follows. A lady passed a hitchhiker on the expressway, giving no thought to stopping. But she heard a voice say, ‘Pick him up.’ She did not stop, but continued on. Again she heard the voice: ‘I told you to pick him up.’ She now felt compelled to go back. She got back on the access road, but thought it unlikely the man would still be there. To her surprise the stranger was still there, so she stopped. He got in the car. They chatted for a few moments, then after a brief pause the stranger said, ‘Do you know the Lord Jesus is coming soon?’ On hearing that, the woman glanced toward the stranger...but he was not there, he had suddenly and inexplicably vanished! She was so shaken that he had to pull off the expressway. After sitting there a few moments trying to regain her composure, a policeman pulled up and went up to her window and asked her if there was a problem. She replied, ‘Officer if I told you what just happened to me, you wouldn’t believe it.’ The policeman urged her to tell him anyway. He responded, ‘Ma’am, normally I would think that you were one of the craziest people I have ever seen, but you are the seventh person today to give me this same report.’

Angels in Combat

The Wall Street Journal, (one of the many sources reporting the story), wrote in February  2010, of the tale of Lance Cpl Andrew Koenig, a US Marine serving in Iraq, who was hit in the head by a bullet from a sniper during a day of intense fighting, the bullet striking his helmet head on. His colleague with him slid his hand under Koenig’s helmet, looking for an entry wound, as the helmet would surely not have saved him from the shot. Incredibly the only injury was a tiny red welt on his forehead. Word of the Corporal’s near-miss soon spread, and Gunnery Sgt Shelton, responsible for provisioning of the Unit’s supplies, commented that he had never seen a soldier survive a direct shot to the head. Security consultant with the unit, Detective Tim Coderre added, “From a spiritual point of view, that doesn’t happen by accident. He’s alive for a reason.” Even more incredibly, a Cpl Christopher Ahern, standing with the group, mentioned that the same thing had happened to him, and he lifted up the camouflage cloth that covered his helmet, exposing the holes where the bullets had entered. He then turned it over, to show the picture tucked inside, depicting Michael the Archangel, stamping down on Lucifer’s head. “I don’t need luck,” he said.

A famous true story goes back to the Korean War in 1950, when Michael, a young US Marine, sent a letter back home to his Mother, describing an astounding incident. The Navy Chaplain of the Marine’s unit, Father Walter Muldy later corroborated the story, describing it as exactly how the Marine had told him, and the Father later read the letter to a gathering of 500 Marines at the Naval Base in San Diego. The young Marine wrote, “Dear Mom, I didn’t dare write this letter to anyone but you because no-one would believe it. Maybe even you will find it hard, but I have got to tell somebody”...,he continues, “remember when I left, you told me to say a prayer to St Michael the Archangel every day, well I said it every day...” He then goes on to describe in great detail what happened that fateful day. He and his patrol had been sent out to scout for enemy soldiers, when he suddenly realised there was a huge Marine walking alongside him. He started to talk with him, expressing that he found it strange that he did not know this Marine when he knew everyone well in his Unit. The man told him his name was Michael, to which the young Marine expressed in surprise, “but that’s my name too!” “I know,” said the stranger, and started to recite “Michael, Michael of the morning,” – the first line of the prayer the younger Marine said every day.  The weather was bad; freezing cold and soon it started to snow. Oddly, Michael realised that he couldn’t see any breath coming from the stranger. Ominously, he heard him say, “There’s going to be trouble ahead.” Suddenly the snow cleared and they were face to face with enemy soldiers.  Michael dove for cover, shouting at the stranger to get down too, but the big Marine just stood there, stock still. Bullets were flying at them. Michael jumped up to pull the man down to the ground and it was then that a bullet hit him. He writes of remembering being held by the stranger, his big strong arms holding him, before the stranger stood back up. “He seemed to grow, like the sun; there was a terrible splendour on his face, the splendour increasing intensely around him like the wings of an angel. He held a sword in his hand; it flashed like a million lights.” Later, recovering in the hospital, his Sergeant came to visit him. “How did you kill those soldiers?” he asked Michael. Completely confused by the Sergeant, Michael asked him to explain what he was talking about. “They were strewn all around you, each one killed by a sword stroke.”

Far away in the war-torn Country of Zaire, civil-war had spilled over from Rwanda in the 1990’s, and it was in 1997 that, according to Pastor Swope, an ordained Christian Minister for over fifteen years, two angels saved the lives of a fleeing family. Running for their lives, a young girl, Zahirah, got separated with her brother from the rest of her family, as all around the nearby villages, people were being slaughtered like animals. Running through the woods, but separated, Zahirah hid behind a tree as she spotted her parents coming back to look for her, at the same time seeing the Rebel soldiers rounding a bend about to come face to face with her parents. Terrified, Zahirah started to do the only thing she could do, pray. Incredibly, as her Parents spotted the Rebels, and rushed to find a place to hide in the sparse undergrowth, she saw two large beings suddenly appear and stand in front of her family. Zahirah described them as looking like human forms but made out of light, with large swords in their hands. As the rebels came closer, the two angels crossed the swords in front of the family, shielding them, and the rebels carried on walking by, oblivious to the Angels and the family in hiding.

Angels on 9/11

The horrific unfolding events of the tragedy of the day of 9/11 will forever be imprinted in the minds of the world. It was on this day that FBI Agent Lillie Leonardi experienced something she would never have thought possible. A hardened investigator, she was dispatched to attend the terrible scene of the Flight 93 crash site, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Sent to the area to act as a liaising officer for the families of the victims, she joined many other official government responders. As she stood surveying the ground, Ms Leonardi witnessed the most profound sighting. As she stood there in shock, she described “a white mist began to take shape. It moved and swirled in patterns of spectacular white light, then all at once the mist took full shape. I saw what appeared to be angels....There were angels standing on the open area. There were hundreds of them, standing in columns. There was a field of angels, emerging from the realms of the mist. They were Archangels, with their wings arched up toward the sky.” Perhaps some could say the shock of what had happened that day affected the FBI Agent’s senses, however her field supervisor at the time went on record as saying, “I believe her...I know her to be a sane person.”

Earlier that day, Genelle Guzman-McMillan was trapped in the Twin Towers. She was the last survivor to be rescued, 27 hours later, discovered amongst the debris. In her subsequent book she describes her ordeal, sharing her belief that an angel called Paul saved her life. She was working on the 64th floor of the World Trade Centre, when the whole building shook and she began a perilous attempt to get down the stairs. Suddenly the building started collapsing and she was knocked down the staircase, as the floors above her fell on top of her. Trapped, she could not move at all. All that was free was her left hand. To her absolute surprise, she felt another hand take hold of hers. “A voice said ‘Genelle, I got you, my name is Paul.’  He held onto her hand for all of those long hours as she lay trapped. “Paul was telling me, ‘I’m not gonna let you go. You’re gonna be fine.’ Eventually rescuers found her and as she was being taken to the hospital, all she could think about was that she wanted to meet Paul and thank him. Strangely, to this day, Genelle has been unable to find him to do that. For over ten years she has been trying to trace him. She has been on the News, asking about him, and yet no-one has ever come forward, and no-one seems to know who he was. “That’s why I started writing the book. I came to the conclusion that Paul must have been my angel, must have been the angel I was asking for.”

Just after 9/11, rumours started going around that there was a trumpeter playing near the WTC site. In the Journal News, the newspaper servicing the suburbs of New York City, there was a story about a well known local professional photographer, who, along with other colleagues, tried to capture the image of a mysterious trumpeter standing near the WTC on September 18th.  After hearing the reports on WNYC radio, the group of photographers headed down there. They could hear the trumpet as they approached the police barricades, about 150 yards away. The photographer, Mikers, said the trumpeter stood “in this abandoned urban canyon, illuminated by shafts of light.” He saw the opportunity of the photo of a lifetime, yet as he tried to capture the image, his shutter jammed, he was unable to depress it to take the picture. Executive Director of the Arts Council in Rockland County, New York, Male Judelson, spoke publicly about the image, wondering if it was really an angel, in particular, the Archangel Gabriel, who is so often pictured with a trumpet.

Angels in Space.

In 1984, Russia sent soviet Cosmonauts into space in the Salyut 7 Spaceship, to orbit the earth. A report radioed back by the Cosmonauts to Ground Control was to astonish the world. The Cosmonauts were performing routine experiments aboard, high above earth, when a brilliant orange cloud enveloped them, blinding them temporarily. When their vision cleared, they saw the most astounding sight. Valadimir Solevev, Oleg Atkor, and Leonid Kizim, reported, “We saw Seven giant figures, in the form of humans, but with wings and mist-like halos.”  In their estimation, the angels were about 80ft in height, with wingspans comparable to that of a 747 Jet airplane. They said that the angels offered them distinctly “beatific smiles.” They reported that the angels followed them for approximately ten minutes and then vanished as suddenly as they had appeared. This was not the only sighting. Twelve days later, different cosmonauts, Svetlana Savitskaya, Igor Volle, and Vladimir Dzhanibevok, who had joined the others onboard, also had an incredible sighting of the angels. “We were truly overwhelmed. They were glowing. There was a great orange light, and through it we could see the figures of seven angels. They were smiling as though they shared a glorious secret.” The gigantic winged angels kept apace with the space station, as the event was reported again to the ground control team, before suddenly disappearing again. Interestingly, on their return to earth, all of the scientists were given rigorous and comprehensive psychological and medical tests in order to determine whether there would be a very logical explanation for these rather outlandish claims, but according to reputable accounts by trained medical and scientific experts, each astronaut passed every test and no reasonable explanation could be found.

Angel of the Thames

In 2008, during the live filming for a TV show, English presenter David Grant was caught openly dumfounded when he saw what he thought was an angel hovering over the River Thames in the City of London. As he was talking into the camera, standing along the banks of the river, out of the corner of his eye he spotted the vision. The shock and confusion are clearly evident on Mr Grant’s face. (The clip can be easily found on YouTube) Whilst some have said it was a publicity stunt, it is hard to agree that this is the case when watching his reaction. He says to the camera crew with him, “Did you see that?...I did see something..I don’t know how to describe what it is I saw...nobody is ever going to believe me.. I don’t think I would ever say to somebody I stood on the river Thames and saw an angel.” He is actually clearly shaken by the experience, “It freaked me out...” He says to the crew, “I don’t think we should talk about this really...”

It seems that this is not the beginning of the story of the Thames Angel however. It appears that this was certainly not the first time an angel had been sighted along the River. The South London Press, a community newspaper not known for sensationalist reporting, printed a story on 15th September 2006, that so far that year, four people had reported seeing ‘an angel’ floating above the River Thames, near the London Eye landmark. A widely reported story concerned a University student by the name of Jemima Waterhouse, who, on a warm Sunday that May, was strolling along the embankment of the River on her way to meet a friend when something distractedly caught her eye. She stopped and stared, in utter disbelief. To her, it looked like a large winged figure hovering over the water. She says, “I felt a sense of calm spreading over me. It was comforting and familiar.” Using her phone camera, she captured the image she could see before her, just before it disappeared.  When Jemima met with her friend shortly afterwards, and told her friend all about it, her friend was pretty doubtful of her story. Jemima says, “My friend remained pretty unconvinced, until we got the photo onto a computer that evening, then the image became clearer and the outline of what could only be described as an angel became distinct.”

Chief photographer at the time for the newspaper The South London Press, Leah Desborough, commented to paranormal investigator and writer Neil Arnold that she felt there could be a more scientific explanation for the sightings; “There are a number of possible explanations such as boat fumes creating a mirage on the water. Also, it’s possible that the poor resolution of the camera phone could have created a flare; However,” she adds, “It is interesting that all the supposed pictures of the angel capture it in a similar form.”

Looking more deeply into the phenomenon, it seems that reports of an angel on the River go back as far as the Black Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666. The bubonic plague took the lives of thousands of Londoners. When the angel appeared, it was widely believed that it was God’s way of sending a message to reassure the people that their suffering would soon be at an end; and indeed a year later, the subsequent fire which miraculously killed only five people despite it’s massive destruction, helped to kill off the huge rat population which had been spreading the plague. Survivors of the fire began claiming too that they had seen visions of an angel. News of the angel spread across the country, and many people started travelling to the City in the hope of catching sight of it.  As workers toiled hard to re-build much of the decimated City, many of those workers talked of seeing the angel. At the outbreak of World War One, there were many reported sightings again. It is believed by many that the manifestation is an Archangel, sent to watch over the whole city....

Angels on Camera.

On a Friday evening in 2006, Catherine Austin and her sons went to the South Carolina State Fair. They rode the Ferris wheel, and as it stopped at the top, Mrs Austin decided to take some pictures of the night time view. When they all got home, they downloaded the pictures onto their laptop to take a look at them. To their shock, they saw a bright winged figure, hovering in the dark sky. The US papers reported it and quoted one of her sons, Frederick, as saying, “It’s got a head, wings, legs...and if it doesn’t look like an angel, I don’t know what does!”

Similarly, in the UK Newspaper, The Daily Mail, retired policeman Andy Key told of how he was with his wife on holiday in Rome, when he took photos of the stained glass windows of the Basilica of St Peter. Later, when he downloaded the digital photos onto his laptop, he and his wife noticed an unusual image on the pictures; it as what looked like an angel, hovering above the heads of the other visitors in the Church. “No-one can explain it,” he said, “There’s nothing on their heads for the light to bounce off ... it looks almost like a hologram.”  Photograph experts are understood to have examined the photos and cannot explain what might have caused the angelic image.

Angelic Hospital Visits.

Angels seem to offer their assistance in all environments, in all places, and often they are seen at hospitals, tendering to the sick. The Today Programme for NBC covered a story about the recovery of a fourteen year old girl. Chelsea Banton lay in intensive care, so sick with pneumonia that the Doctor had to tell her Mother that there was no more that could be done for her. Just as her mother Colleen agreed to allow her life support machine to be turned off, an apparition appeared on the nearby security camera, visible now on the Internet. An image of a bright light glowed on the screen, distinctly in the shape of an Angel, and within the hour, to the astonishment of the Doctors, the young girl began to recover. The Doctors were at a complete loss as to how to possibly explain what could have happened. Her mother sincerely believes the childs recovery was purely down to this divine angelic appearance. She took a picture of the image as it appeared, and whilst some have dismissed it as just a flare of reflected light, others, including the Nurses on duty, say that the three vertical shafts of light are indisputably an angel.

Catherine Lanigan, author of the books, ‘Romancing the Stone’ and ‘Jewel of the Nile’ which were turned into the films starring Michael Douglas, has spoken openly of her own Angelic and after-death communication experiences. In her books about Angels, she credits the listeners of a radio programme ‘Coast to Coast’ for providing her with stories of their own angel encounters. A Dr Lerna, from a hospital in Houston, told of an unusual case where he witnessed a glow in a terminally ill patient’s face as the patient talked to an unseen entity. Afterwards, in her palm, was a 3 ½ inch feather which she gave to the Doctor. He kept it in a sealed plastic bag, but within a month, it began to shrink and eventually it completely and mysteriously disappeared from inside the plastic bag.

Kyle Gray is known as ‘The Angel Whisperer.’ From Greenock, in Scotland, he says he has always seen Angels. In the Sun newspaper, he describes how he sees people’s angels standing next to them. “I was once drawn to the aura of a little girl. ‘There are lots of angels around you, aren’t there,’ I said to her. They were telling me that they helped keep you alive. The girl’s mother looked at me in shock. She asked me what else I could see. ‘There’s a huge angel standing with your daughter right now. They all know she warms the hearts of others and that’s why they’ve made sure to keep her safe.” Apparently, the mother told him about three life-saving operations the little girl had already undergone. At one point she had been pronounced dead, when she suddenly gasped and sat up. She had told her mum that a voice had guided her back into her body. Kyle says that voice belonged to an angel, the angel that was whispering to him and that was standing beside the girl now.

Donna Gatti is a researcher on near-death experiences, who writes about the studies of a Dr Melvin Morse, who says “at least 50% of the children in my studies see guardian angels as part of their near-death experiences.” Dr Morse also recalls an account told to him by Dr Frank Oski, a professor of paediatrics at John Hopkins University. One night Dr Oski went to bed at the hospital, concerned about the fate of a dying patient. Although he was doing his best for the patient, a young child, it was not getting better. He felt powerless to help and went to sleep wondering why this child had to die. About an hour after falling asleep, he was awakened by a bright light, one that shone in his room like a private sun. He could make out the form of a woman in the glow of the intense light. She had wings on her back. In a quiet and reassuring voice, the angel spoke to him. In a paediatric journal the Doctor wrote, “I will make no attempt to convince you as to the reality of my story, but I would merely ask that you keep an open mind on the mysteries of life.”

Conclusion.

Kyle Gray, the angel whisperer, says, “Everyone has a guardian angel, sometimes several. Always the angels bring goodness and hope. They can help you find whatever you are looking for in life, and to be blessed with love in abundance.”

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Rise in Angel Sightings.

Angels saving Travellers & Explorers.

Saved by a Mysterious Stranger.

Angels in Combat

Angels on 9/11

Angels in Space.

Angel of the Thames

Angels on Camera.

Angelic Hospital Visits.

Conclusion.