The Afterlife
Death and life after death are not easy topics to discuss. However, it is a topic that I have been interested in and have studied extensively from both a physical and spiritual perspective. I have read countless books about near death experiences, past life experiences, reincarnation, and mediumship, which is about gifted men and woman who can communicate with those who have passed on. I have studied and have had personal experiences regarding signs from the afterlife and how we can connect with our loved ones who have crossed, and finally, I have explored a fascinating body of research regarding the investigation of life between lives and have had personal experiences regarding this topic.
People often ask me, and I have also asked myself as well, why focus on the afterlife? Would it not be a better use of one’s time to focus on what is happening right now in this life. The answer I have discovered from research, study and meditative inner work is that learning about the entire cycle of the journey of the soul helps us live more authentic, balanced, and meaningful lives now. Understanding the physical experience from the vantage point of the soul demystifies death and the afterlife. Instead, it gives meaning and a higher, spiritual perspective to all experiences here on the earth plane, both joyful and painful.
In eastern cultures such as Hinduism, for example, death is a natural part of life. Hindus believe in reincarnation which is, that until we reach the full evolution of our soul, we will continue to return to the earth plane, probably living many lives. They also believe in karma which is a combination of cosmic and moral cause and effect. In other words, we are responsible for our thoughts and actions and eventually, can rectify and balance the Karma incurred by those choices, through reincarnation. Hindus rarely have an advanced directive like a DNR (do not resuscitate) because they believe being kept alive by a machine, for example, interferes with Karma and inhibits the natural course of death. For this culture, death is not to be feared because it is not the end and life will continue. Therefore, it is much easier for them to accept and talk
about death. That said, Hindus are not immune to the sadness sorrow and grief that is inevitable when losing someone they love to physical death. However, along with those emotions there is also joy, and celebration in knowing that physical death is simply change and their lives will continue.
In western cultures, like here in the US, it is not so simple. Though things are changing slowly, death continues to be a topic to be avoided until we are directly faced with and cannot escape it. We either face our own mortality or that of a loved one and then, like a frightened child being forced to leave our parents, enter the scary unknown, and head off to our first day of school, we sometimes fight with everything we have, to avoid the inevitable.
As late as the 1950’s, the topic of death was an avoided topic of conversation. In 1958 Elizabeth Kubler Ross, a swiss psychiatrist, moved to the US. Once here she was shocked at the way hospitals, she worked with dealt with death and dying., “Everything was huge and depersonalized, and very technical,” she said many years later. She also said the dying were left alone in hospitals and no one talked to them. At that point, this courageous woman, made it her life’s work to change the way we view death and dying. She gave a voice to the terminally ill making it acceptable to talk about death and what awaits us after we cross over.
Ross was met with stiff opposition from colleagues in the medical field but eventually people stood in line to hear what she had to say. She was the pioneer of hospice and palliative care. She created the five stages of death which includes denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. So, Kubler-Ross helped the way we view death and dying. Her work did and still does help both the dying person and their loved ones trying to accept death, by making it easier to acknowledge and understand what happens when we die. If you’d like to learn more about Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, she wrote a fascinating book called, On Death and Dying among others.
So, talking about the afterlife and what happens after we die and move on from the physical world, before being faced with it, is still a topic that is uncomfortable for many but not all. Sometimes certain religions tell us that communication with the dead is wrong and against the teachings of that religion. In that case one must do what feels right for them, hopefully without judgement for those who find the need to explore it. For a large majority of us we are hungry for any information we can find that can help us believe that life continues once we die. We want proof. We long to know that our loved ones are ok, happy, and peaceful wherever they are. Some want to go a step further and hear from our loved ones in spirit. They long to tell them, once more, that they love them. They also want to know that the love between us and them does not die with the end of a physical life.
Then there are some people, like me, who need to delve further and further into the meaning of life, death, and beyond. I believe that understanding life after death by hearing of other people’s experiences of it and having valid, personal experiences, helps us integrate life and death in a healthier way. I believe there is great wisdom we can access by connecting with the other side, or the spirit world. Spirits can reveal to us, what they have learned since returning home to spirit, and that can help us live a better, more purposeful life ourselves.
I also believe that, through a greater acceptance of and belief in things we cannot perceive through our five senses, has allowed humanity to move to a higher state of consciousness. In doing so, the veil between this world and the next has been thinned. We have learned how to raise our vibration and spirit has learned how to lower theirs so that we can connect the two worlds making communication achievable. This has made it possible for all of us to have experiences that can unite us with our loved ones in spirit as well and our angels, spirit guides and God.
I hope over the next few weeks to discuss the different topics that I listed in this blog post. I will do my best to discuss each one responsibly, sensitively, and professionally by giving you both direct experiences from myself and others and offering the research that has been done by some in the medical community. The discussion about death and loss can be emotional as well. So, I am sure we will be discussing many of the feelings that come up as we delve into the mysteries of both death as well as the continuation of our lives once we move on. I hope that you will all feel free to share any experiences you may have had regarding our discussion, and I thank you for allowing me to touch your lives in such a personal way.