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In my last post in this series I discussed the value of coming to grips with whether there was meaning to life as a precursor to understanding the meaning of death. After all if there is meaning to life, it made sense that there was meaning to death. The experiences with death, shared in Part 2, served as data points that I stored in my Death folder while my focus was on understanding the meaning of life. Rather than recount these experiences, let me share the conclusions I made about death.
My time with Tom Sawyer, reviewed in Part 3, was the closer for me with respect to understanding death. The collection of my experiences were all confirmed with Tom’s stories along with the experiences I had with him. Once again my desire to keep things simple, characterized my conclusion that there was meaning to death, just as there was meaning to life. Death in effect is our transition back home. We discard our body, which was essential to our temporary existence in this physical world, but what remains is our energy or soul, our consciousness. This supports the First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation) which states that energy is always conserved, it cannot be created or destroyed. But what happens in this transition? Here are my points of view. There is no order to this discussion since this is my first attempt to pull these thoughts together.
There is a Thin Veil that separates our experience in the physical plain on Earth from our Home.
Do we arrive here on Earth during the birthing process with a knowingness of where we came? I consider this a possibility since you can see the absolute beauty of a newborn child. It draws an aura of unconditional love around them which is a key characteristic of our Home. However, we are quickly acclimated and conditioned to our physical world by those who have forgotten their connection to Home. Our physical existence is a materialistic world, meaning that it is filled with things that become our new reality. The conditioning begins with conditional love, meaning that we must now do specified things to make others happy. We become immersed with our emotions, pain and suffering, learning right from wrong, new dogma, from those around us which all serve to dissipate our knowingness with our reality here on Earth. Hence becomes our life’s journey to regain our knowingness.
We Come In Alone and Leave Alone
Volunteering in hospice care helped me to realize that although loved ones are often around, dying is an inner and highly reflective experience. No one around them has had or recall their experience with death, so we are limited in our ability to help them. They must confront this themselves. During the pandemic I learned that those that died from Covid, died alone, since no loved ones were permitted in. I really felt for these human beings but often our death is alone when we die in an accident, murder, or other traumatic event.
The Circle of Life
The human life cycle is set. We are born, and begin our growth into a toddler and then adolescence. We emerge on our own and establish our independence and begin our own life characterized by work, family and play. We mature and age where we begin to experience the frailty of our human body. We become less independent and then dependent just as we started off our life. Our life slows down until we die. The only exceptions are those that die earlier in their life cycle. Hence the circle of life here on Earth. So let’s focus in on our death.
Awareness During The Dying Process
In Part 2 I shared my initial experience with death when my Mom died. I shared the account of her waking up from a deep coma, where she was fully alert and smiling, saying her good-byes along with the words, “I will be 100% better.” My experience in hospice helped me to understand that these types of weird or strange events often occurred. There were a number of cases where individuals were in a coma state but somehow were hanging on until loved ones arrived to say their good-byes. Almost immediately afterwards they would die. I recall the look on my Mom’s face. She was so absolutely happy instead of showing any fear of her impending death. There appears to be an awareness and acceptance of death for some shortly before they die.
We Leave Our Body and Transition Home
The accounts of Near-Death Experiencers help to understand this transition. Our energy source leaves our body (often leading to an “Out of Body Experience” for those that return). There are frequently accounts of entering a tunnel. Note: although words are used to account for this transition, these words do not come close to the describing the actual experience. A source of light, in a way unlike any light we experience, is seen which becomes a destination. The light is associated with the feeling of intense unconditional love, unlike any physical love we experienced here on Earth. My own view is that this could be the concept of a wormhole where we are able to move through space and time quickly as our energy source ports from the physical plane to total consciousness.
There is a Sense of Self, but in a New Form
NDEr’s often refer to sight and movement, but as an energy form vs. a physical body. What remains is a unique energy form, like a fingerprint, that is now connected to Consciousness, an all knowing source. Thought does not have to be communicated but is instantaneous. Tom Sawyer called this “super-luminal telepathic communication”. Any question was met with immediate knowingness of the answer. There is recognition of other beings and who they are, although this is not via sight as we know it.
A Welcome Communion
Communion is defined as “the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level.” Often we are met and greeted by loved ones. We are able to recognize them even though they are in a new form. I believe that although we are one with everything at this point, which I cannot imagine what this is, we are associated with groups of beings that are our soul mates. These are the others that we plan out our next journey with and often encounter on our journey. We use the expression, “searching for my soul mate” which I believe refers to this, but not just in terms of a primary relationship.
All Are Welcome
It would appear that the Hereafter has attended the Diversity and Inclusion training, since there is no bias or discrimination for those that arrive. Everyone returns home, no matter what their Earthly existence was like. The concept of Hell appears to be a result of our own mental state here on Earth, along with the belief that if we do not live up to our interpretation of God’s Law or society’s law, we are punished forever. Hell relates to our own existence here where we succumb to negativity. Heaven as we refer to it refers to experience we have when we live with pure love. Do not worry, you all return to the same source. I will let possible principles of Karma and Reincarnation deal with how we lived our life.
The Life Review
We often hear the expression for those confronting a potential imminent death is, “my life passed before my eyes.” Many NDEr’s provide accounts of a life review that covers their entire life and with incredible detail along with the ability to see their life from multiple perspectives. There is no judgement here which is a common religious view that we will be judged on how we lived our life and entrance to either Heaven or Hell is then decided by this judge and jury. This is not the case. Instead we see our lives through the lens of love where we learn from our life. This life experience is our unique journey which then becomes a part of the all consciousness so that we can all learn. I shared an example of what Tom Sawyer shared about his life review in Part 3. The level of detail is amazing and powerful. Although we perceive our individualism here on Earth, our life review reminds us that we are indeed all One. The lesson is that the more we live with Love vs. focusing on our ego, the more our ripple effect is a positive on all around us. However, negativity also has a ripple effect which results in a negative impact or influence on everyone.
Entering the Kingdom
This remains a mystery since those that experience a near-death experience, return to Earth. Tom Sawyer lovingly states that he was “kicked out of Heaven” since he wanted to stay there, but instead returned. A common denominator for those returning is that they do not want to return once they are exposed to the unconditional love that is there. I referenced before my view that we exist there in pods or groups. For me, I am excited to experience once again my great friends, family and other loved ones, including my pets. This for me would be an amazing communion.
Reincarnation
Do we return to life on Earth? I do not get hung up on this since I believe what is most important is to focus on what we know we do have, this life! However, this concept makes sense. If we are here to grow, than it can take many lives, each with a different body, personalities and life experience. What has influenced the possibility of this in particular are the well documented stories of young children having accounts of their former life. In addition are others who have specific issues or pain that go through a past-life regression where they came to experience a past life where this specific pain developed. I attended one of these sessions as I opened myself up to different ideas, techniques and methods. A close friend of mine who was a doubter and viewed this as “New Age Bullshit” ended up having a profound experience as he experienced a life that ended in a concentration camp. It was too profound to fully write off and was very relevant to what he was dealing with in this life. For me, my experience was deep, but instead of a past life, I was swimming with a dolphin named “Heaven”. We had so much fun together and then Heaven stated that to understand my life I needed to watch “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and in particular the scene where Rudolph is on the Island of the Misfits. I never would have thought of that on my own, yet it was profoundly true. I was indeed a Misfit in this life.
Karma
I am probably running short on time so I will limit my conversation here. The concept of what goes around, comes around, makes a lot of sense for our physical existence here on Earth. What a great way to learn life’s lessons. Is it true that if we hurt someone that we will return to life to be hurt? For whatever reason I do not believe so. What I do believe is that we do plan out our next life here in order to learn the lessons we need.
Conjecture and a Point of View
And now for the most important point of all. What is shared here is simply my own conjecture and point of view. This was the result of years of focus and research, however, this does not suggest my views are more valid than your own. The wonderful thing about life here is that you get to Choose Your Beliefs. What I can suggest is that spending time learning about the reason we are here and about death does indeed help with the fear that can develop if we avoid these topics. For me I believe that there is both meaning to life and death and for those that are ready for enlightenment, that there are many resources and experiences to help you take that sneak peak behind the veil. This concludes my series on Death as I return to focus on living our life fully. I hope you can rest more comfortably with at least a consideration that we do not have to be afraid of death. So live your life fully!!!
About Me
Michael is an award winning author, speaker, facilitator and coach on the topics of Personal Growth, Self-Discovery and Enlightenment. Visit my website for more information (growhumanpotential.com).
