Life After Life (Part 1 of 7) – Death

A question that has been on the minds of humans since they were able to contemplate their own mortality is, “What happens when we die?”

Spiritual and religious traditions give many answers to this particular quandary. There are contemplations about a heaven, or a place of bliss that exists after we die. Or maybe a hell, based on our actions in this lifetime, or our adherence to a particular religious system. Still other philosophies identify a reincarnation cycle that is associated with the human experience of life and death.

In this series I will be discussing my personal viewpoints about the subject, and why I have over the course of my life come to these conclusions. At a young age I had a near-death experience, and it was this particular experience that set me on the course to becoming an intuitive.

In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

I have also experienced what comes after this life through the deaths of two individuals: my father, and my best friend’s husband. The term used for this phenomenon is “shared death experiences.”

One thing that I am convinced of, with all of my experiences of heaven, whether it is through doing readings for others, or personal experiences, is that what comes after is ineffable.

Dr. Raymond Moody has studied near-death experiences for many years, and has this to say: “What I think happens when we die is that we enter into another state of existence or another state of consciousness that is so extraordinarily different from the special and temporal frame of reality in this physical world that the language we have is not yet adequate to describe this other state of existence or consciousness.”

I agree with Dr. Moody’s analysis of the phenomenon, and with this series about “Life After Life” I will do my best to explain what I have experienced related to the reality beyond this physical life.

Of course you don’t die. Nobody dies. Death doesn’t exist. You only reach a new level of vision, a new realm of consciousness, a new unknown world ~ Henry Miller

I do not view death with any kind of fear or sadness. From my limited understanding I would compare it more to a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. The experience of the caterpillar is profoundly different from that of a butterfly. Instead of crawling around, it has the ability to fly. Instead of eating the bitter leaves from plants, it eats the nectar of life. It is in essence two profoundly different beings, with two profoundly different experiences sharing the same consciousness and life cycle.

My goal with this series is that some of the mystery of death will be clarified through these personal encounters, and that theses reflections on the afterlife will open you up to a new and dynamic experience of your life as it is now.