My mom had had a very impactful visitation from her father not long after he had passed into Spirit. He looked as he did as a young man, was happy and smiling and assured her that he was fine. This was especially meaningful for her since he had died after a long and challenging time of disability following a stroke. When she described the incident, it she was clear that it was not a dream—that the quality of the experience with him was very real and nothing like something that she had merely imagined or that her unconscious had generated in the dream state. The energy that was present when she recounted her vision carried the truth and reality of what she was saying. I felt it deep in my soul.
That experience made her more and more curious about what lies beyond death. It was clear to her now that there was an afterlife–as an experience not just a belief. She wanted to know more about what that afterlife was like. She would read books on near death experiences and ask me often what I thought our existence was like after we transitioned.
I honored the question and given that I had meditated regularly for about 30 years at that time, I had references for realms of existence that are beyond the physical. I shared with her some of my experiences told her that my sense was that after death we went to some of these other levels of being. My meditation had given me an experience of consciousness outside of the body.
The next time she brought up the subject, she asked: ‘When I go over to the other side, should I come back and tell you what it’s like? I promise I won’t scare you!” It was a sweet and somewhat humorous although very genuine comment. I looked her in the eyes and said “yes.” “And do you know why?” I added. “Tell me,” she replied. ‘Because I want to tell you ‘I told you so”, I quipped.
As it turned out, my mom did indeed give me, and to a lesser degree my nieces who were present in the room when she passed into Spirit, an experience of what it was life on the other side. The room got very bright and joyful. The moment of her passing into Spirit was not simply what many describe as a “peaceful” death. It was like a rocket ship taking off and bursting out of the confines of this very dense level and exploding back into the infinite.
My nieces were amazed at lightness in the room in both senses of the word. One commented later, that as much as she might miss grandma in the future, remembering that moment of her passing, the experience would be one of the joy and expansiveness that my mom shared with us. What a gift to her granddaughters that their first experience of the death of someone close to them was one that was uplifting in this way. My mom indeed “tell us what it was like” through an experience rather than words,
I learned later, that what we participated in is often called a “shared death” experience by those who study death and dying. There are a multitude of ways that those present, and sometimes not present, can glimpse the afterlife through sharing of the experience of the soul crossing over to its higher existence.
Our “rebirth” from this level, as my mom, assured us, is not something to fear, but to welcome. Our job while still on this level is to aspire and work towards a higher consciousness of loving in order to ascend to the highest level we can when we leave this plane.
How do you think about death? Have you had experiences which changed your perspective about it? What have been your experiences around people you know who have died?