Life After Life: Opinions, Beliefs, And More

[mfh]

http://einsteinsgifts.com/2014/02/26/lucy-died-and-came-back-to-tell-me-about-it/

This blog is in my email today and it reminded me of all the conversations we have had here about Life after Life...(Does it exist? If not, what does? iI so, what is it like? Is there evidence? Why do some believe it does and some believe it doesn't? How does spirituality, faith, religion, philosophy, fit in here?) The questions are endless. So I am starting this topic for people of all beliefs to share whatever they wish. When we lose our beloved, the thing we wish is to be reunited with them, of course, "we want them back" and that leads to discussions of life after life...possibility or probability or reality.

Here is the blog, Einstein's Gifts, that led to this topic being created.

Lucy died and came back to tell me about it.

Posted on February 26, 2014by kjtysver

“The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the rampant growth of the so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no more than a symptom of weakness and confusion. Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions, and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seem to me to be empty and devoid of meaning. “

- Albert Einstein, letter of February 5, 1921

“The

intuitive mind

is a

sacred

gift and the rational

mind

is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”.- Albert Einstein

Albert, it seems that in this instance, you have forgotten the sacred gift. You should have stuck around for quantum physics.

I already told you my true life ghost story and that afterwards I couldn’t go back to being an atheist. It’s not that a ghost proves there is divinity, but it does prove that there’s something else beyond our small world. We can be very egocentric and believe that there is nothing more than us as humans on our very special planet. Why wouldn’t there be beings on other planets? The Sun is one of over 200 billion stars, just in our galaxy! There are billions of solar systems out there in the universe and chances are that at least one or two of them support life forms. The odds seem to suggest that. There is so much we don’t know.

Shortly after my true life ghost story I was reading a book by Raymond Moody, M.D. called Life After Life. Working as a doctor, he had a patient report that they had died and been to heaven and then returned. He dismissed this story as just neural misfirings in the brain causing hallucinations. But, then other patients of his started reporting the same phenomena. Not only did they report near death experiences, but they reported the same sequence of events. It didn’t matter what religious or belief system in which they were raised they all reported the stages in their near death experience.

They all left their bodies, many reported exploring the general area where their body was and beyond, reporting after their revival the conversations they had heard and the people they saw in other areas of the hospitals. To me, the book was fascinating. The people who had a Near Death Experience stated that after understanding they had left their bodies they would then go through a tunnel or doorway and enter a place of brilliant light. They are met by people they know who have passed before them. These loved ones are bathed in light, as if a light radiated from within them. They also meet other beings of light. After meeting these beings of light, they meet what they call God, or Jesus, or whatever their religious or spiritual upbringing would best represent this being of light and love. They are then brought through a life review. Dr. Moody interviewed thousands of people who claimed to have had near death experiences, in fact he coined the phrase. After years of research and interviews he wrote his book.

I was working in a very small nursing home at this time. I really loved my job and like all nurses (and people) I had a few favorite patients. When I got to work that morning i found out that Lucy had been re-admitted the day before from a spell in the hospital. It had looked very bad for her, touch and go, for a few days. She had pulled through and was now back in her room.

When I went in to bring her her meds a little while later she looked pretty weak and was obviously still recovering from her illness. We chatted for a few minutes and I told her how happy I was that she was back. We were close. She started to tell me about her experience. I was astounded. She told me that she had died and left her body. She talked about seeing a doorway and on the other side was a brilliant light. She stepped through the doorway and was met by her aunt. Lucy’s parents had died when she was very young and she had been raised by her aunt. I was so curious. I had just finished reading Dr. Moody’s book and here I was talking with Lucy about her near death experience. I asked her what her aunt had looked like and she told me that she looked as she did when Lucy was a child. Just the way she remembered her. Then she went through another doorway and she was met by God, not in any form, but as love and light. She said that no words were spoken, but she knew everyting that was being conveyed to her. She was taken by God through a life review and she saw her whole life before her. Though her life was shown to her in its entirety it felt as though it took only moments to review. She was shown by God everything she had done wrong, but she said there was no judgment at all. Only love. She didn’t once feel anything but love, even though she learned of all of her mistakes. She was just shown why they were mistakes and she had complete understanding of all.

And her face when she was telling me, at first she was embarassed. Her family and the doctors had told her it was hallucinations brought on by dehydration and exhaustion, but she didn’t believe them. When I listened to her and told her about Dr. Moody’s work she was so grateful. She had been afraid everyone would think she was crazy. Even having gone through the humiliation with her family and doctors she was still compelled to continue to talk about it. Lucy was a bright woman who knew that she might be inviting further ridicule and disbelief, but her intuition told her that it wasn’t a dream or hallucination. She knew it was real. By the end of her retelling of her near death experince she was glowing.

The universe sent her someone to validate her experience. I was sent someone to validate my beliefs. Lucy was so relieved to be able to tell her story to someone who understood. How wonderful for both of us.

She was told by God that she had a choice of whether to go on or go back. She chose to go back. Lucy didn’t stay with us on this plane too much longer, but this much I know, she wasn’t afraid to die.

Intuitive Affirmations:

• There is synchronicity in my life. Everything I need is provided at the right moment.
• I am aware of the synchronistic events in my life.
• I trust my intuition. I know what I know.
• I do not limit my beliefs to what my five senses can percieve. I am limitless.
• I am open to all expereinces.
• I love my life!

Imagine a world where everyone was open to new experiences and ideas. This world would have no prejudice, no bigotry, and no limits.

Check out Dr. Moody’s book, Life After Life.

[Jenna2]

Mary, I respectfully disagree with the central premise of this ^ viewpoint. While I am certain many people have experienced these things, I do believe it is not all it seems to be. I have no doubt many people will think I'm a crackpot.

I believe there is a "show" waiting for us after we die, kind of like an earthly movie theater. It is individually tailored to our expectations, and those who we "see" there are not really there -- they are only illusions. There are no reunions in this place.

I firmly believe in reincarnation. The best I can hope for is to be reborn in the same general area and of a compatible age as my soulmate -- that plus a few other incidentals such as the right gender.

My opinions are my own. I'm sorry to have to contradict what so many believe in.

Jenna

[Maylissa]

Mary, thank you for putting this post up. I admit, though, I'm rather surprised to see some seeming contradictions in what Einstein had to say, since several other quotes by him have supported quite a spiritual bent and understanding in his perspectives on consciousness. But I also always enjoy hearing others speaking of quantum physics now, and how it's helping marry science with spirituality...."about time," is all I can say! I had a "Knowing" about this very thing at about the age of 5 or 6, which I see is now actually coming to fruition in my own lifetime, thank goodness for me, heehee.

In any case, I myself delved quite deeply into "life after life" concepts and research, too, after the devastating-to-me transitions of my beloved furchildren. One of my favourite sites has since become Bob Olson's "Afterlife TV," which I believe Marty also posted about here once, somewhere, where Bob interviews people who've had NDEs, and more. I've also been delighted to find, years later, that what I'd experienced myself as a "knowing feeling" of what a more energetic-based "reunion" (or "re-merging," as I think of it) with my loved ones might look/feel/be like, has since been echoed by one or two of his guests, during their own NDE experiences.

Although I've not had an NDE myself (though I've met someone who has), I've personally experienced a few powerful ADCs (After Death Communications) from each of my furchildren, but most notably from my fur-son, who more "tangibly" visited me, although my husband received a similar one from our blessed fur-girl, too. (I'm pretty sure I'd talked about several of these on the 'old' GH site, back then) The fact that my boy's sister also concurrently heard all of her brother's visits, too, is confimation enough for me to believe in consciousness surviving physical death. She "validated" what I heard, as I did for her. And I certainly know of countless other people who've experienced the same kinds of things, including even more obvious ones that left physical evidence of a visit...many very mind-blowingly "cool" and not easily disputed...particularly those where others (including strangers) witnessed the same things at the same place and time. So yes, I'm a believer, and like the above blogger, couldn't not be now if I tried, as I "know what I know." (there is more to my own experiences, mind you, than just this)

On a philsophical level though, even if one might argue that if All Is (really only) One (Consciousness) and everything is really just an illusion, or "projection" of said Consciousness (i.e. Maya playing with Itself), it would still have to remain that there is Consciousness, or a Universal Intelligence, in everything/everyone that ever existed, no matter if it's seemingly "split" between billions of Its Own "parts" or not. Otherwise, there could be no life force to "power" anything/one at all. I also believe in reincarnation, and I don't think the two concepts need be mutually exclusive.

As A Course In Miracles said somewhere (at least I think that's where I discovered it), "life cannot contradict itself." In other words, "life" cannot contradict its own, intrinsic, and very nature, by being "NOT-life," but an opposite, which would of course be what we consider as "death." I think that's one of the keyest and most brilliant points I've ever read. ACIM further makes the point that it's death that is actually not even real, and we've simply bought into the illusion that it is, because we've chosen not to see beyond the physical for so long now. And of course, for the past few decades actually (though the info was and still is being prevented to a large extent from getting out there), quantum science has unearthed enough evidence that supports the fact that the light (photons) of which everything is comprised, cannot actually "die," but only be transmuted.

These formerly-divergent sectors now merging, thoroughly pleases me. Again, thanks for the post.

[mfh]

Hi Maylissa,

Your post led me to look up quotes on Einstein and life after life because my experience with reading him led me to believe he did not believe in life after life. This link has some of those quotes. http://atheism.about.com/od/einsteingodreligion/tp/Einstein-Quotes-on-Afterlife.htm

In all of his genius his thinking on life after life seems similar to Carl Sagan's agnosticism.

I have read extensively on NDE's and know two people who have had them and others who have had other mystical experiences...I do believe there is much we do not know but it is clear that science and spirituality are merging and evidence is piling up on life after life. It is fun to watch science come around to what I have believed all my life.

[mbkubitz]

My understanding of what "Life after Life" means to me has certainly shifted over time. No matter what I believed then or now...everyone's belief is their own and no one is right or wrong since the fact remains that we can never know until death happens to us. Our beliefs are shaped by our personal experiences and are therefore as unique as snowflakes. I'll paste an article I wrote about my transformation of my beliefs about death last year...

For most of my life, I feared death. As a child, if I let myself wonder about what happens when we die, I would end up in a state of panic and have to go to great lengths to distract myself from thinking about it. I’ve had many nightmares throughout my life where I face certain death – most often of being trapped in a car plummeting off a cliff toward the ocean below – only to wake up seconds before the moment of impact with my heart pounding.

Religion has never been a part of my life, and never will. Not accepting the idea of heaven and hell from any religious perspective, my only two ideas as a child of what happens to us after death were either being reincarnated or to just die and our body eventually becomes part of the earth. Neither one sounded comforting or appealing to my childhood logic. If I was reincarnated, I would be an entirely different person and have no memories of this lifetime. If death equaled nothingness, it amounts to the same thing. The idea that my life, my identity, and my memories would all be erased turned death into the ultimate fear for me.

In 2009, I experienced something far worse than my ultimate fear. Not my own impending death, but the death of someone whose life was more important than my own: my child.

In the early days and months after my daughter’s death, I once again grappled with what death meant. I was forced to face the question of what happens to us after we die? After reading many books and talking with others, I still found no real answers. I found no concrete evidence. I found no absolute reassurance. All I knew was that I desperately wanted her to still be with me. In some moments, I actually wanted to die…if it meant that there was even the slightest chance I could be with her again. Not to mention it seemed the only escape from the oppressive pain I felt. Of course, I knew the pain of my own death would cause my family even more anguish and would never do anything to cause my own death.

During this time, I began to notice what seemed like signs from my daughter. They started off as fascinating coincidences, but the more I noticed them, the more they felt like someone was trying to tell me something. Some signs involved dragonflies, others involved ladybugs, and most often I started seeing repeating numbers or number patterns each day, multiple times a day. None of this had ever happened before her death. I told select people, and some brushed it off as my mind wanting to assign meaning to things that had none, but others accepted wholeheartedly the idea that they were indeed signs from my daughter. Yet, as hopeful as I was that these signs were from my daughter, I was still skeptical on some level.

After years of receiving these signs, I am now fully convinced that they are my daughter’s way of reassuring me that she is always with me. I now believe that we continue to exist after our death. I don’t know how. I don’t know where. But I do wholeheartedly believe it. I am no longer afraid of death.

Then an interesting thing happened: in the past year, I have had several dreams where I’m falling towards the water, just as I had dreamed in nightmares many times before. But in these dreams, I didn’t wake up in a panic just before plunging in. Instead, I went into the water and instead of struggling for breath, I surrendered to the situation and relaxed. And in doing so, I didn’t feel pain or panic. Instead, I felt completely at peace.

I think that must be what death is like: a state of complete and absolute peace.

[mfh]

Dear Maria, what a lovely piece. I know I have said it before but I m sorry for the loss of your daughter. I fully agree with you that each of us has our own beliefs not to be judged in any way. I do want to share a story that you will appreciate. A client of mine several years ago (and she would not care if I shared this...believe me) lost her daughter. After that many nights a week the bedroom closet light in she and her husband's bedroom would go on. After checking the wiring and all...she said she know it was her daughter. But when she traveled to a country in Europe and the hotel closet light went on in two different countries and her roommate (she went with a friend) made sure the light was off earlier...

I do believe we go on and we stay with those we love....

Mary...wishing you peace and love.

[Maylissa]

Hi Maylissa,

Your post led me to look up quotes on Einstein and life after life because my experience with reading him led me to believe he did not believe in life after life. This link has some of those quotes. http://atheism.about.com/od/einsteingodreligion/tp/Einstein-Quotes-on-Afterlife.htm

In all of his genius his thinking on life after life seems similar to Carl Sagan's agnosticism.

I have read extensively on NDE's and know two people who have had them and others who have had other mystical experiences...I do believe there is much we do not know but it is clear that science and spirituality are merging and evidence is piling up on life after life. It is fun to watch science come around to what I have believed all my life.

Thanks for that, Mary...and huh, I'm surprised! I guess I'd just leapt to the assumption that, given everything else Einstein said about rather related matters, and the fact that he was also a believer of the philosophy that "All is One and Interconnected," that would have included believing that nothing and no one could ever truly die, either. My mistake. Seems like rather a disconnect, though, to me. Still, I admire much about the man, and share many of his views on ethics/morals, and religion (as it's commonly been put forth, at least).

I think one of the main reasons the evidence is piling up, as you put it, is because people aren't now as afraid to speak up about their experiences, due to the braver souls who initially didn't allow fear or ridicule to stop them....bless 'em all!

[mfh]

I agree with you, people are stepping up and speaking out.