1.
It doesn’t exist. You leave your body behind but
your consciousness remains. You still have a body of sorts, but finer and lighter
than the one you have left behind. You merely step out of one type of existence
on the ‘heavy’ material plane, into a finer, lighter form and plane.
2.
Dying isn’t difficult. You have almost certainly
done it many times before. Even if your final moments of physical existence are
traumatic or painful, the transition is simple and experienced as a form of
release.
3.
You are not alone. You have a spirit guide or
guardian, someone who has taken on the task of accompanying you through life
and aiding your transition at death. You may also have friends and relatives
waiting to greet you when you pass over from this life to the next.
4.
You will not become instantly wise and
omniscient. In fact you carry on much as before, with the same emotions,
cravings, habits of mind and body, likes and dislikes. There is no physical
pain because you no longer have a physical body, but your energetic body
remembers much of the physical body’s experience. Your memories will gradually
increase to encompass much that you forgot when you joined with the foetus,
becoming a baby again in your mother’s womb.
5.
If you have been ill for a while or death was
traumatic, you may need a period of rest and recuperation before finding your
feet in the next phase of your existence. There are healers and helpers there
for this purpose. You may even decide to become one yourself.
6.
The next life, much like this one, is a place
where you continue to grow intellectually and spiritually. It is a life of
love, work and service to others. You will continue to enjoy music, or sport,
or scientific discovery, and to learn new skills. Where you go and what it is
like will depend on how you lived and where you feel most comfortable. As much
of what you see is created mentally, it will reflect the tastes and desires of
you and those around you.
7.
There is no judgment, except the knowledge of
how you lived your life and how it affected those around you. You measure your
own life against the goals you had set yourself. Your life review may be joyful
or painful, or both, but you are treated with loving concern and not
condemnation.
8.
It is possible to get lost on the way, but if
you ask for help it is always given.
Those who get stuck in the lower or darker zones are the people who are not
ready for a lighter, more loving existence. They are not abandoned or
forgotten, but they need to want to move forward.
9.
Some people hang around the earth plane because
they don’t realise they are dead, or are afraid to move on (ghosts). Some lost
souls may even try to possess the living, attaching themselves to their aura
and affecting the lives of their hosts. There are people on both sides who seek
to help those who get stuck here, or who possess or attach themselves to
others.
10. Life
is a gift and a privilege. Death gives it meaning and purpose. Each day is a
chance to grow in love and experience, whatever path we choose to take,
whatever life brings us.
Further reading
Bowie, Fiona (2011) Tales from the Afterlife. Hampshire,
UK: Zero Books.
This short book
presents a kind of road map of what you might expect when you die. There are
ten scenarios regarding the transition and afterlife experiences of
individuals, depending on their personality, character and circumstances. Each
one draws on actual experiences and individuals, and is accompanied by extracts
of channelled writings from those who have died and moved on to the next plane
of existence, which further illustrate each theme.
Fenwick, Peter & Fenwick, Elizabeth (2008) The Art of Dying. London & New
York: Continuum.
Peter Fenwick is a
neuro-psychiatrist, who has spent many years as a clinician studying death and
dying, in particular what we can learn from near-death experiences. In this
book the Fenwicks present accounts of those who are dying and of those who
accompany them, as well as what we can learn from those who have left their
bodies and returned. The message is that death is not to be feared and can be a
peaceful and hopeful journey if we learn how to approach it without fear.
Robert Kastenbaum (2004) On Our Way: The Final Passage Through Life
and Death. Berkeley: University of California Press.
This lovely book moves
between personal reflections, academic works and case studies. Kastenbaum, a
clinical psychologist, draws on many different disciplines to take a look at
the ways in which human beings approach life and death, as well as what comes
after. Kastenbaum introduced the notion of a ‘death system’ that reflects the socio-cultural
ways in which an individual comes to understand and experience their
relationship to mortality.
Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth (1999) The Tunnel and The Light: Essential Insights
on Living and Dying.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross spent much of her life as a
doctor working with dying children. In this personal, inspiring book she
presents her philosophy on dying and living, sharing many of the insights she
gleaned from the children she treated and accompanied along the way.
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