Tag Archive: afterlife


Can Souls Splinter?

Filed Under: Healing, Karma, Reincarnation, Strange Phenomena by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Can Souls Splinter?

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. :)
 

 

Have you ever heard of souls splintering? Is it possible for someone to have so much karma that their soul splinters? Does this lead them to have more than one body in future incarnations?
– Laura

Dear Laura:

Let’s begin with the idea that parts of us can splinter off, and then try to relate that to the process of incarnation.

Many spiritual and psychological models support the notion that people commonly disassociate from certain parts of themselves in response to trauma. It’s like going into a state of shock during an emergency: it helps us to cope with an intolerable level of physical, emotional, or mental pain.

Problems arise when we remain partially numbed or shut down following such experiences. Then these traumas or issues go “unconscious,” and until we deal with them, they remain energetically frozen. This can lead to mental and emotional problems like depression, numbness, emptiness, phobias, addictions, compulsions, unconscious habits and even physical illness.

Most of us sense that there is more to “life” and more to “us” than we normally experience. As we have a natural compulsion to make ourselves “whole” again, we are constantly seeking to fill this inner void. For most of us this quest takes place on a less than conscious level, and as a result, we try all sorts of things that don’t work, or only seem to work temporarily.

In the shamanic tradition, these frozen parts of ourselves are believed to be stuck in a dimension beyond the physical, and by journeying into that dimension, the shaman can find those lost parts and return them to us. This process is called “soul retrieval.”

While the traumatic experiences that lead to disassociation may occur in this life, they can also occur in “past lives.” I put “past lives” in quotes here, because in order to understand how our souls can “splinter,” we need to remember that time isn’t linear, so past lives are perhaps better labeled “other lives” or “parallel lives.”

Imagine that the life we think we are living is just the movie we are choosing to watch right now. There are many different stations playing many different shows, but we are only aware of the one we are watching at the moment. When we step back and begin to observe ourselves, we become aware that there are lots of other stations running other story lines, and by switching the channel on our awareness, we can view them.

It’s pretty hard to wrap our heads around these notions because our brains are programmed to think in this physical dimension of space and time. When we shift our consciousness outside of the body into higher states of mind, we can transcend the limits of space/time thinking and tap into information about the so-called past and future, like information about other lives.

Obviously, time DOES exist within each physical dimension. As parallel dimensions are not in linear relationship to each other, however, you can shift from any point in one physical dimension to any point in another.

Since these other lives are not really past or future, we are living other lives while living this one. You could say that our soul has “splintered” into more than one life, but that would be true of everyone. Who we think we are now is just a fragment of our totality. We are always exploring many different lives/levels of experience. The more we evolve spiritually, the more we tend to gain awareness of these other parts of ourselves.

For example, as we grow spiritually, it’s common to begin to remember our dream life, and our dreams are real explorations in other dimensions. We may also gain awareness of “past lives” and have conscious out of body experiences. The more we grow in awareness, the more refined our journey toward personal growth becomes, for we can then begin to purposefully “retrieve” and heal parts of ourselves we may have disassociated from.

Often trigger events awaken old memories, energies and issues that need healing. These may be sparked when we reach a certain age, meet someone we have known in another life, or experience some trauma that touches a “sore spot” that has been wounded before.

As for why we aren’t normally aware of these other lives, it’s important for us to think that this life is our only life, and that everything that happens here is “real” and very serious. It’s sort of like life is a fire drill: if we knew it was just a drill, we wouldn’t respond the same way – in fact, we may begin to fail to respond at all.

When we become “enlightened,” apparently that is just what happens – we realize that it’s all a drill or a movie, so there is nothing to get all worked up about. At this point, we generally evolve beyond the cycle of rebirth in the physical, because it’s no fun anymore.

For some reason, the idea of parallel lives seems harder to accept than the idea of past lives, though if you think about it, it’s no weirder than believing in the life we’re living right now. Because it seems so far out, however, I rarely talk about the experiences I’ve personally had that support the notion that I may be living other lives simultaneously.

For example, I have at times believed that I was channeling spirits, only to find out that I was channeling some aspect of a living person. The first time this happened, I was reading for a man who lived in Germany, and I brought through “a spirit” named Klaus. I described him in detail, including his clothes, mannerisms, and smoking habit. My client wrote back to inform me that he didn’t know anyone in Spirit like this, but I had described his coworker Klaus to a “T.” We concluded that Klaus was unaware of this whole interaction, which led me to realize that it is possible for aspects of our being to do all sorts of stuff without us ever knowing it.

Also, many years ago I had an amazing dream in which I WAS a dolphin. There are no words to convey the way this whole experience felt. I had a dolphin body and a dolphin “family” and community. Having a dolphin body was fantastic, and having a dolphin “mind” was totally foreign to anything I’d ever experienced before. I was completely in the moment and totally carefree. This dream made me wonder if I had been a dolphin in a past life or something.

Following this experience, I had some amazing dolphin encounters. Then some years later, I gave birth to a daughter who has grown up obsessed with dolphins. She wants to be a marine biologist someday, and her room is ocean blue and filled with dolphin things. Mind you, I never told her about my own connection to dolphins because my dolphin experiences happened long before she was even born, so it was really striking when she developed this obsession with dolphins on her own. She even has the ability to telepathically communicate with dolphins. (Alas, my space is limited here, or I would share more about these amazing dolphin experiences.)

When I encountered the idea of parallel lives, suddenly it hit me: maybe instead of having a past life as a dolphin, I am living a parallel life as a dolphin – and perhaps my daughter is too! As I see it, it’s really no stranger than believing we may have had past lives as dolphins.

Of course, there are no hard and fast answers when it comes to matters this deep – there are only theories, intuitions and best guesses. No one can tell you for sure exactly how we incarnate, if it’s possible for our souls to splinter, or even if we do lead parallel lives. I am certain, however, that the Universe is far stranger than we could ever comprehend, and there is much more happening “behind the scenes” than we ever realize.

 

Tags: , , ,
Permalink

Do Spirits Move Out of Range at Some Point?

Filed Under: Afterlife, Spirit Communication, Spirits by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Do Spirits Move Out of Range at Some Point?


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I lost someone dear to me some time ago, and he has sent me some wonderful after death communications since he passed. Lately I’ve been hearing a song by Kelly Clarkson a lot. It talks about being “already gone” and “moving on.” I am wondering if this is a sign from Scott telling me that he has already gone on to higher realms and won’t be with me as much or send me as many signs and messages as he used to. I would love to get your perspective on this.

H.

Dear H.

I’ve looked up the lyrics to this song, and I think it’s a lovely one for a spirit use as a sign. I do think we should step back from your assumptions about what it may mean, however, especially since you don’t report any decrease in contact from him.

To me, this song suggests that what happened was destined to happen; Scott is telling you that it would never have worked out because he was destined to leave this world when he did. He knows how much you loved him but he wants you to move on with your life because he’s no longer here; he wants you to be happy and find new love. I lost my first love at a very tender age, so I know it can be very hard to even imagine falling in love with someone else, but you might look at it like this: What if you had lost someone else years ago, and as a result of that loss, you closed yourself off to new love and therefore never got to meet and fall in love with Scott? If there is someone out there you’re destined to love just as much, you don’t want to close your heart to him. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to connect with the departed, it does seem that the main reason spirits reach out to us is to make sure we are okay and encourage us to let go and move on with our lives.

No one truly knows whether spirits move beyond the range of communicating with the living at some point, but I can offer you what I’ve come to believe based on my own history with spirit communication and what I’ve read from researchers and other experiencers.

First, it does seem that there are some spirits long dead who communicate with humankind. (Whether these spirits are really who they say they are, no one can say for sure.) The more interested in spirit communication a person was before they died, the more likely they are to continue to attempt interdimensional communication after they leave this world. Some examples that come to mind include the EVPs of Konstantin Raudive and Thomas Edison. This evidence suggests that at least some spirits can communicate indefinitely.

In my experience, there are perhaps two main factors that affect the power and frequency of spirit contact: skill and need. When someone first dies, there is a tremendous need for us to hear from them. Despite this, spirit communication can be very difficult to affect at first for a number of reasons. For one thing, when we’re grieving, our vibration is too low to perceive higher frequencies of energy, so even though a spirit may be trying hard to reach us, we may be unreachable. Further, at first, most spirits don’t know how to achieve a conscious connection with us.

When dramatic phenomena does take place, it’s usually in the initial weeks following death. This is because the spirit still has more of a foothold in this dimension and is better able to affect physical reality. Recently departed spirits are also highly motivated because they want to comfort their grieving loved ones. Since it can be very hard for spirits to get the attention of the grieving, many go to great lengths to send unmistakable signs like lights flickering, phone calls from the other side and other semi-physical phenomena. As they move up into the afterlife, this ability fades. This is why we tend to see striking signs in the first weeks after someone has passed, after which signs and visits become more subtle.

Perhaps the main factor affecting how long a spirit puts a great deal of effort into contact is how his or her loved ones here are doing. This is another reason why most contact happens close to the time of death, for this is when people are most in need of comfort. However, I have heard many stories from people who had contact with a departed relative at a time of great need that occurred decades after the spirit’s passing. For example, one man’s mother had been gone for more than 25 years when she visited him the night before he was planning to kill someone and then take his own life. He awoke in the middle of the night to find her standing near his bed, telepathically comforting him and urging him to reach for forgiveness and choose a higher path.

In many cases, spirit communication actually picks up after a period of time. This is because many spirits need time to figure out how to bridge the dimensions. They also study their own efforts and from this determine who is most receptive to them and what tends to work best in terms of getting that person’s attention.

My best friend from high school died last spring. Despite many years of successful spirit communication experience, I found it impossible to contact her at first. I would reach out to connect with her energy and get nothing but a void. When I asked Spirit about this, I was reminded that my friend didn’t believe in an afterlife. I was made to understand that she was experiencing what she expected to experience when she died: a state of nothingness. In time, she would begin to wonder “who” was experiencing that nothingness and open up to new awareness. Interestingly, some months after she died, I began to get dream visits from her; recently, I got my first official message from her.

Similarly, I now interact with my father in Spirit far more than I could when he died five years ago. At first communication with him was difficult because he seemed so out of it. After a few months, I began to be visited by him in the night. I would wake to the sound of a “phantom doorbell” and sense his presence. Soon I began to experience dream visits from him. Though he died years ago, he seems to be getting better at visiting in this way, for it’s happening more and more.

While there are exceptions to these rules, most of the time overt signs such as visually appearing, calling on the phone and making lights flicker fade pretty quickly. After that, interactions can get more involved and complex via altered states of consciousness. So if you notice that you’re not getting as many outer signs, you might shift your efforts within by either trying to connect with your loved one via meditation or working with your dreams.

If you want to get more information about what your loved one in spirit is trying to tell you, you might try something called induced spirit communication in which a hypnotherapist guides you into a deep trance and facilitates a connection with the loved one in question. In this state, you can dialogue with your loved one and ask him what he’s trying to tell you and also if you can expect to keep receiving signs and messages from him.

Soul Arcanum

Tags: , , , , , ,
Permalink

Spirits Can Take Many Forms

Filed Under: Spirit Communication, Spirits by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Spirits Can Take Many Forms

 

My mother passed away unexpectedly, and we were very close. I’ve had no communication with her since she died, except one night, a ball of light appeared to me. It was beautiful and filled with what looked like sparkling white diamonds. When I looked at it, I felt complete joy. When I blinked, however, it was gone. Was this my mother? I would never have expected a spirit to look like this. Are there many different forms spirits can take when they appear?
– Joan

Dear Joan:

The ball of light you saw was definitely a spirit of some kind. It could have been your mother, or it could have been a spirit guide or another divine being that appeared in the wake of your mother’s passing to give you comfort and boost your faith.

Spirits can appear to us in many different forms. Usually when loved ones in Spirit come to us, however, they take a form we will recognize, or we “just know” it was them. This only makes sense, since the point behind such visits is to let us know that they continue on and are doing fine. Given the beauty and joy of this experience, what you encountered here sounds like a being of a high spiritual nature like a guide or an angel, though certainly departed loved ones of a highly evolved spiritual nature might appear in such a way.

There is something of a spectrum of spirit manifestations. At the low end are “ghosts” and earthbound spirits. In residual hauntings (where ghosts are not conscious of our presence or trying to interact with us), we tend to see things in our peripheral vision, but when we look in that direction, nothing is there.

Before I awakened psychically, my college roommate and I saw a ghost like this in an old house where we were babysitting. We’d catch a flash of a long skirt swishing around the corner, but when we looked in that direction, nothing was there. There were other phenomena as well; in particular, it sounded like big, heavy furniture was being dragged around the foyer in the middle of the night when no one was down there.

When entities are of a conscious nature and trying to interact with us, we are far more likely to either see them straight on or at least get a clear impression of them despite seeing them only fleetingly or in our peripheral vision. This happens because the spirits are actively trying to appear to us, but it takes a great deal of energy for them to manifest in physical form.

Also, our brains are constantly filtering our perceptions, but less so in our peripheral vision, so we may perceive something peripherally, but then when we look right at it, our brains filter out our awareness of anything that is a shock or challenge to our belief system. In my experience, these sorts of encounters tend to be frightening, either because the entity involved is of a lower nature or because we are afraid of such encounters to begin with.

The most common way to perceive our own loved ones in Spirit is in our dreams. I believe that all of us dream of our departed loved ones, but not all of us remember it. When we do, these “dreams” have a special quality. We feel we have actually been with our loved one, and usually, we are aware in the dream that our loved one is “dead.” We may even wonder at our ability to see and talk to them since we know that they have died.

Similar to this but a step closer to a conscious waking experience is something I’ll call a “waking dream.” Many people occasionally awaken at night to the presence of a departed loved one. They may actually see a vision of that spirit in the room with them, sense their presence, or smell something they associate with them. This is sort of like peripheral vision, in that we are not fully conscious, so our brains aren’t filtering out stuff it can’t make sense of. It’s like there is this little gap in our perception, and spirits that are trying hard to get through to us will take advantage of that gap by slipping in while we’re dreaming, and then rousing us from our slumber.

Often just spirits’ presence is enough to wake us, but if they are strong and skillful, they could do something like make a light flicker or the doorbell chime. Usually, however, this happens on an astral level, so we may awaken to a “noise” that sounded real, but not be sure if we heard it with our physical ears or “in our dreams.”

Finally, when our own vibration is high enough and we are psychically awake enough, we may have a fully conscious, waking encounter with a spirit. This is what it sounds like you had. In such an encounter, there is never a sense of fear, but rather a sense of profound peace.

When we’re in this state of heightened vibration and awareness, we may hear a spirit talking to us. This may seem like it is physically audible, but most of the time, it happens mentally. Sometimes, however, there is a short burst of physical phenomena in the beginning to get our attention.

For example, we may hear a spirit whisper our name, which draws our attention. Since the spirit can’t maintain the energy that physical phenomena require, however, the experience will seem brief and inexplicable if we’re unable to tune in to what is happening metaphysically. If, however, we know how to use our psychic senses, we can shift into an altered state of consciousness to prolong the experience on a subtler level.

The initial attention-getting event can be a smell, a touch, a vision, etc. For example, we may perceive something like your ball of light or energy. In fact, this is just how I perceived spirits of departed loved ones early on.

The first time this happened, I was sitting on the floor with my one-year-old son and thinking with great love about my grandmother. Just as a feeling of her presence came over me, I saw a big ball of purple energy hovering in the air above us. The fascinating thing is that as this happened, my infant son looked right at that spot and stared at it just like I was doing, even though his back was to me.

I have perceived spirits as balls of colored energy like this a number of times, and perhaps more commonly, as transparent energy that is similar to heat waves rising off of hot pavement. Always these visions are accompanied by the feeling of a spirit’s presence.

It’s important to note that with time, I have perceived spirits less and less with my physical eyes, and more and more on an inner, mental level. I believe this is because the more physical the phenomena, the more energy it takes for spirits to appear. I imagine it’s a bit like paying for something you want: if spirits can communicate with me for $2.00 worth of energy, why would they pay $20?

Sometimes spirits do expend more energy, however, and that’s to convince us. So often if we just “see” or “hear” a spirit in our minds, we doubt the experience and dismiss it as wishful thinking. When we do this, we really make our loved ones work hard, and sometimes they just don’t have the power and skill to come through to us in a more physical form.

While many people long for a sign from a departed loved one, few realize that there are things they can do to help spirits fulfill their desires. For starters, they can learn how to perceive spirits’ presence, and trust in their subtle experiences so spirits don’t have to work so hard.

I believe that your encounter was meant to affirm for you that spirits really do exist, and thus your mother must continue to exist as well. I also believe that if you cherish this experience and let it boost your faith in such matters, it will empower you to manifest another spiritual encounter that erases any doubts in your mind and helps you heal your grief over your mother’s passing.

– Soul Arcanum

Tags: , ,
Permalink

Fear of Death Due to Hellish NDEs

Filed Under: Afterlife, Death and Dying by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Fear of Death Due to Hellish NDEs


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I’ve read about some hellish near-death experiences and now I’m terrified of dying. Can you help me work through this fear?

Donny

Dear Donny:

It’s interesting to note what different individuals choose to focus upon. All of life is composed of both darkness and light, yet some people cling to the light they see, while others obsessively worry about the dark. In the case of NDE’s, the tremendous majority of experiences reported are beyond positive. People describe them as blissful, ecstatic, moving, and life-changing in wonderful – even miraculous – ways. Since nearly all of this research is so positive in nature, I often recommend people study near-death experiences to overcome their fear of dying.

Nevertheless, it is true that some people have reported dark or hellish near-death experiences, and to ignore these negative experiences is just as foolish as it would be to fixate on the dark, dangerous and ugly we find in life. The physical universe is full of contrast: good and bad, positive and negative, dark and light. It is this contrast that gives life meaning. Without the contrast, we could not know happiness, beauty, love or even wisdom.

One aspect of spiritual wisdom is to know darkness but no longer fear it. Some people seek peace by ignoring everything that disturbs them and denying their own faults and weaknesses. This does not produce true and lasting peace, of course, for “reality” is constantly rearing its ugly head and marring their idyllic view of themselves and the world. To find lasting peace, we must seek the truth instead of running from it and rise above needing life and people to be anything but what they are. We must acknowledge the darkness as well as the light, and not only accept that this is the nature of reality but embrace and appreciate the perfection of All That Is. It may seem ironic, but it is only by letting go of our resistance to darkness that we begin to shine so brightly that we move beyond being affected by it.

According to ancient teachings such as those found in The Tibetan Book of Death and Dying, death is something of an obstacle course. The more prepared we are for death, the better we will be able to control what happens when we cross over and where we end up. While I’m certainly not a fan of traditional religion, I do believe it’s foolish to throw the baby out with the bath water by actively disbelieving in everything ever taught in a church, temple, or religious text. Every culture around the world and throughout history has shared some key beliefs, including the belief that there are heavenly and hellish realms in the afterlife, and that how we live here on Earth will have a strong influence on where we end up when our time here is over.

I think what scares people the most about death and “hell” is the sense that they have no control over what happens to them. This is where you can begin to work through your fear, for all knowledgeable sources from esoteric teachings to the very near-death experiences you reference suggest that we DO have control over what happens to us and where we end up when we leave this life.

For example, people who have had negative NDE’s tend to have some things in common. Many of them almost died due to suicide attempts or drug overdoses. Others were atheists who had lived according to very superficial values. Basically, their spiritual lives were either non-existent or a mess. It’s my understanding that we are constantly building our home in the afterlife from the inside out, so if our inner worlds are full of darkness, heaviness, sorrow, anger, or other negativity, we will find ourselves in similar realms when we leave our bodies.

People who have had positive NDE’s also tend to have some things in common. Though they may not have been overtly religious or even spiritual, they had cultivated a lot of love in their lives. In fact, the main reason most of them returned was to be here with their children or other people they loved with all their hearts. They had good reasons to live: relationships, goals and dreams they had been cultivating that they wanted to see through to the end. Most of these NDEs involved accidents or illnesses and were not a result of self-destructive choices.

Further, in nearly every account of a positive NDE that I’ve read (and I’ve read many!), the person who almost died lost all fear of death. Interestingly enough, even people who have negative experiences tend to be changed in positive ways and, despite the darkness of their experience, also lose their fear of death. For most people, a negative NDE is a valuable wake-up call that makes them realize that that the direction they are heading in life is not going to lead to where they really want to end up.

The Earth plane has its own hells and paradises, so why wouldn’t other realms? People who make poor choices in the physical can end up in slums or prisons, while people who make wise choices can create their own paradise on Earth. It’s my understanding that the same is true in the afterlife, only what we do physically doesn’t matter so much as what we do metaphysically: what we think about, how we feel, and what we intend. The more we fill our inner worlds with love, faith, peace and gratitude, the more likely we are to end up in a higher realm when we leave this world. Given all of the above, you are wise to be facing your feelings about death and reaching for greater peace and faith.

Fortunately, there are all sorts of things you can do while you’re alive to align with a positive experience when you leave this world. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that most of these things are the same practices that various religions and spiritual teachings have promoted throughout the ages.

First we have the age-old prescription to meditate. Through meditation, you can become conscious of the inner world upon which your afterlife experience will be founded, and gain control over your thoughts and feelings to purposefully cultivate a beautiful inner landscape. Through detachment from the physical, meditation also promotes a deep sense of peace and well-being, a higher vibration, and all sorts of spiritual wisdom, insights and powers.

Though I’m not in harmony with “fire and brimstone” sermons on all the reasons we are surely going to hell, I do think that the idea that to go to heaven, one must be a “good” person is valid. Since our inner landscape becomes the world we inhabit when we leave this life, we are wise to make our thoughts and feelings as beautiful as possible. The more we purify our minds and hearts of negativity, make peace with life and other people, and strive to do good in the world, the more we will be blessed both in this life and in the realms beyond it. We are all wise to cultivate the highest personal vibration possible, and to do this, we must constantly strive to grow into better people. Ignoring our faults, putting off the hard work of facing ourselves and overcoming our weaknesses is foolish, for we take the shadows in our hearts and souls with us when we leave this world.

Finally, I think one of the best things we can do to prepare for the next world is to begin to explore it now by learning how to lucid dream and astral travel. The more adept we are at traveling in metaphysical realms, the more at home we’ll feel when we shed our bodies and move on to new adventures.

Soul Arcanum

Tags: , , ,
Permalink

The Reincarnation of Plants and Animals

Filed Under: Destiny/Higher Plan, Past Lives, Reincarnation by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on The Reincarnation of Plants and Animals


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I’ve read articles that suggest that where we end up in the afterlife is based on our thoughts and feelings. This led me to wonder if plants and animals in heaven are simply self-created thought forms or if they have independent existences. Is there a separate afterlife for plants and animals? I’m also aware of the idea that through reincarnation, plants can evolve into animals, and animals into humans, and that this is a natural process of spiritual development. Do other life forms like plants and animals immediately reincarnate after death, or is there another realm they stay in before they incarnate again? How does all of this work?

S.

Dear S.:

No one can answer these sorts of questions with any certainty. The best we can do is study what mystics have taught for ages and compare it to the information gathered by channelers and researchers who work with near-death experiencers and converse with souls via life between life regression. Of course, it also makes sense to study nature and ponder what resonates with us as true on a deep, soulful level.

First let’s address your question about the possibility that all the plants and animals perceived in other realms could be “self-created.” By this, I assume you are asking if it is possible that they only exist in our minds or if we create them in these realms via our imaginations. This is a strangely selective solipsism, for why would one believe that other people are real but all other creatures mere fantasies?

Since it’s impossible to prove that anyone or anything exists outside of ourselves, we have to rely on our gut feelings and intuition when deciding whether to believe that we are the creator of everything we experience or are part of an existence inhabited by other beings like ourselves. I have had some subjective experiences of being someone else that have led me to assume that other people exist, think and feel just like I do. For example, now and then I have dreams that I am someone else – someone who looks, lives, thinks and feels very differently than I do. I have also had very vivid dreams of an entirely different existence as a dolphin, which strengthen my view that we are living subjective lives in an objective world. Of course, according to quantum physicists, at some point it is impossible to distinguish between subjective and objective because the act of observation affects what is observed.

Besides these admittedly shaky reasons, it seems foolishly arrogant to assume that everything that exists was created by me and for me, and that none of the other individuals who appear to be doing the exact same thing are “real.” Nearly all esoteric teachings suggest that we are all part of something greater than ourselves and thus connected to All That Is – not that we are all there is. I would thus assume that the people, plants and animals encountered in the afterlife are not figments of one’s imagination.

Regarding what happens to plants and animals when they die, and if what happens is different from what happens to humans, I suppose the real question is if plants and animals have “souls” – some part of them that transcends their physical existence – and if they do, if those souls are fundamentally different somehow from human souls.

I believe both plants and animals have some aspect that transcends physical existence based on what I (and many others) have observed of their auras. Living plants and animals have auras like human beings do. When a plant is dying, its aura begins to fade, and when all the life force has drained from the plant, its aura disappears. The same is true of animals and human beings. While I don’t know of any research into the spirits of plants, it makes sense to me to assume that all living beings share the same cycles of life, death, and reincarnation.

There is a lot of evidence that animals have souls. If this wasn’t true, the spirits of animals would not be able to become earthbound like human spirits can. There have been stories about animal spirits and ghosts throughout the centuries and around the world. Most of these ghosts involve species that human beings tend to form personal relationships with such as cats, dogs, horses and birds. Just as a violent or sudden death can cause humans to become confused as to whether or not they are still incarnate in a particular body, the same can happen with animals. There is also a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest that animals that form strong emotional bonds to human beings may remain close to people who are grieving for them for some time after they have died, just as the spirits of human beings sometimes do.

I’ve also heard many stories of pet owners who believe their departed pets returned to them reincarnated as a new pet. Some of these stories are very striking in terms of how these animals are similar to the former pet and how the owners were led to find them in their new forms.

There seems to be a continuum of consciousness with perhaps rocks and minerals at the bottom, followed by plants, then animals, then humans. Further, within the animal kingdom, one sees a great range of development, with dogs, cats, horses, primates and dolphins being some of the animals at the higher end of the spectrum. (My feeling is that dolphins may be even more evolved than humans, but more on dolphins below.)  It seems the more evolved an animal species is, the more natural it is for that species to develop an emotional relationship with human beings. This could easily be explained by vibration, for as a species moves closer to the human spectrum, it would naturally be drawn toward other creatures of a similar vibration.

Much past life, life between life, and near-death research suggests that as we evolve spiritually, we gain more and more free will. With more freedom comes a greater chance of getting lost, going astray, or refusing the guidance sent to us, which could affect how, when and where we reincarnate. This would explain why human beings and the more evolved animals can become ghosts, while other less evolved creatures may unconsciously flow with natural spiritual law.

There are some people who say that human beings are special and could never incarnate as a plant or animal, but I had a personal experience that leads me to believe otherwise. It began with a trip to Sea World in which I had some amazing telepathic experiences with dolphins, after which I began to have the most amazing, vivid “dreams” of being a dolphin myself. These were not normal dreams, for they felt entirely real: I had a dolphin body that I felt totally at home in, and personal relationships with other dolphins. It felt more joyful and free to be a dolphin than I’ve ever felt as a human being.

Given all of the above, my general concept of “how it all works” is thus: all life is constantly coming into being, dying, and being reborn again. Through these experiences, souls naturally evolve into higher states of consciousness and vibration. This occurs in an unconscious manner until a soul starts to develop self-awareness and free will, at which point it may begin to choose to veer in a consciously chosen direction or refuse to move forward for a time (as with earthbound spirits). Since all life begins in the spirit world and returns to the spirit world, all varieties of life found in the physical can be found on higher planes.

Soul Arcanum

Tags: , , , ,
Permalink

Overcoming Fear of Death

Filed Under: Afterlife, Death and Dying by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Overcoming Fear of Death


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I am 18 years old, and I had a dream in which I realized I had died. I didn’t feel any physical pain, but when I got up, I was filled with the horror of death. What do I do to get over this horror? Since having this dream, I can’t concentrate on anything and life itself seems futile. Please help me.

Maggi

Dear Maggi:

Before I begin, I must point out that what you’re requesting is a very tall order. The fear of death is the most deep-seated and universal of all fears. I believe this is because we fear the unknown, and we can’t know what really happens when we die until we have that experience for ourselves. This doesn’t mean that fear of death must ruin your life; it means that to overcome your fear, you must become more familiar with what you’re afraid of.

It’s telling that you’re 18 years old, for it’s common for young people to give little or no thought to death’s inevitability unless or until something happens that forces them to wake up to the truth that none of us will live forever – at least, not in these bodies. When people first confront their mortality, it’s normal to be freaked out. Of course, ignoring or denying the reality of death doesn’t change anything. Further, the sooner we face and deal with death, the sooner we can get down to the business of living full, meaningful lives.

I feel that this dream can become a great gift to you if you work with it in a wise manner. Most of humanity is spiritually sleep-walking through life. They either actively avoid thinking about death or they simply don’t give it much thought until it’s somehow staring them in the face. While I was devastated to lose my first love at the tender age of 18, I now view this experience as having blessed me immeasurably on a spiritual level. It did far more than wake me up so that I now live in gratitude for each day; it also blessed me with some amazing experiences that made me question the nature of so-called reality and everything I’d assumed to be true up until that point.

In my experience, life-changing events like your dream tend to happen for a good reason and according to a divine schedule. When the idea of death rocks someone’s world, it’s usually a sign that it’s time for them to begin a conscious spiritual journey. Of course, some people never do the spiritual work necessary to make peace with death, and thus they live overly cautious lives in an attempt to stay “safe.” This is senseless and futile for a number of reasons. Even when it seems to prolong someone’s years here on Earth, it prevents them from living interesting, fulfilling, exciting lives. Living from fear also tends to lead to difficulty and disease, so the more anxious we are about our safety and well-being, the less likely we are to live a long, healthy life.

It’s also wise to realize that without death, life would hold little meaning. If we all lived forever, we’d have no motivation to hurry up and experience all we desire to experience and get busy growing into better people.

Of course, these truths don’t erase the fact that it’s natural to fear the unknown, so to heal your fear of death, the best thing is to make the unknown KNOWN – or as known as it can be. This may sound impossible in the case of death, but in fact, there are many ways to familiarize yourself with states of being beyond this physical life.

When I look back on my own journey toward peace with death, there are several factors that stand out. The first thing that convinced me that death is not the end was a number of encounters I had with people who had died. While that may sound like the sort of thing you are either lucky enough to have happen or not, in fact, such experiences can be manifested just like anything else.

You can also consciously work on developing your ability to communicate with spirits. It’s true that some people have a natural facility for this sort of thing, but I believe that a strong desire for any sort of experience is usually a sign from one’s own higher self that this is something that should be pursued. You can find resources for such development at a Spiritualist Church; in fact, attending such a church could also prove helpful and comforting for you for a number of reasons.

Another thing that tends to lead toward a dramatic shift in one’s perspective on death is having an out of body experience. When you find yourself disembodied, it’s hard to deny that your “existence” is independent of your physical body. It also gives you a sense of what it may be like to leave this world behind and move on to other realms. As it’s common for people who achieve or spontaneously experience astral projection to lose their fear of death, studying and working to have such an experience yourself may be the answer.

To begin exploring astral projection, you might read a few of the excellent books on the subject and then begin to apply yourself to exercises designed to get you out of your body. Please note that it can take months of daily effort to achieve this goal. It’s definitely worth it, however, since it will prove to you that you are more than your physical body and open up a whole new dimension of experience for you to explore. The astral projection authors I recommend are Robert Bruce, Robert Monroe and Robert Peterson. The website Astral Voyage is also a great resource.

The most powerful eraser of the fear of death can be found in actually dying. Millions of people have had near death experiences, and nearly all of them lost their fear of death as a result. This is true whether the near death experience was of a positive or negative nature, for experiencers say they now know that death is not the end but rather a transition into a new state of being. While it wouldn’t be prudent to actively court a near death experience, it can be very helpful to study the near death experiences of others. An excellent resource to start with can be found at near-death.com.

It’s also comforting and enlightening to study both esoteric teachings on reincarnation and the research that has been done on this subject such as the work of Dr. Ian Stevenson and the life between life research of Michael Newton, Ph.D. Taken together, the endless teachings and research available paint a coherent picture of life as a journey in which things happen for a good reason, including how and when we leave this world.

With this in mind, there are all sorts of wonderful books you can read to become more familiar with the nature of life and death. Some of the best authors include Michael Newton, Ph.D.; Dr. Bruce Goldberg; Brian Weiss, M.D.; Dr. Ian Stevenson; Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, P.M.H. Atwater, Dr. Raymond Moody, Dr. Melvin Morse, Carol Bowman, Carla Wills-Brandon and Gary Schwartz, Ph.D. If you’re itching to get started right away, check out victorzammit.com.

Please note that the above are just suggestions. I encourage you to pray for Spirit to guide you to the information and experiences you need to overcome your fear of death, and then act on the signs, impulses and intuitions that come to you. Remember that you can manifest the peace you’re longing for just like you would manifest anything else, so study and work with the law of attraction. By diving into a conscious spiritual journey, you can turn this experience into something positive and make the most of your time here on Earth.

– Soul Arcanum

Tags: , ,
Permalink

Overcoming Fear of Death

Filed Under: Afterlife, Death and Dying, Dreams by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Overcoming Fear of Death


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I am 18 years old, and I had a dream in which I realized I had died. I didn’t feel any physical pain, but when I got up, I was filled with the horror of death. What do I do to get over this horror? Since having this dream, I can’t concentrate on anything and life itself seems futile. Please help me.

Maggi

Dear Maggi:

Before I begin, I must point out that what you’re requesting is a very tall order. The fear of death is the most deep-seated and universal of all fears. I believe this is because we fear the unknown, and we can’t know what really happens when we die until we have that experience for ourselves. This doesn’t mean that fear of death must ruin your life; it means that to overcome your fear, you must become more familiar with what you’re afraid of.

It’s telling that you’re 18 years old, for it’s common for young people to give little or no thought to death’s inevitability unless or until something happens that forces them to wake up to the truth that none of us will live forever – at least, not in these bodies. When people first confront their mortality, it’s normal to be freaked out. Of course, ignoring or denying the reality of death doesn’t change anything. Further, the sooner we face and deal with death, the sooner we can get down to the business of living full, meaningful lives.

I feel that this dream can become a great gift to you if you work with it in a wise manner. Most of humanity is spiritually sleep-walking through life. They either actively avoid thinking about death or they simply don’t give it much thought until it’s somehow staring them in the face. While I was devastated to lose my first love at the tender age of 18, I now view this experience as having blessed me immeasurably on a spiritual level. It did far more than wake me up so that I now live in gratitude for each day; it also blessed me with some amazing experiences that made me question the nature of so-called reality and everything I’d assumed to be true up until that point.

In my experience, life-changing events like your dream tend to happen for a good reason and according to a divine schedule. When the idea of death rocks someone’s world, it’s usually a sign that it’s time for them to begin a conscious spiritual journey. Of course, some people never do the spiritual work necessary to make peace with death, and thus they live overly cautious lives in an attempt to stay “safe.” This is senseless and futile for a number of reasons. Even when it seems to prolong someone’s years here on Earth, it prevents them from living interesting, fulfilling, exciting lives. Living from fear also tends to lead to difficulty and disease, so the more anxious we are about our safety and well-being, the less likely we are to live a long, healthy life.

It’s also wise to realize that without death, life would hold little meaning. If we all lived forever, we’d have no motivation to hurry up and experience all we desire to experience and get busy growing into better people.

Of course, these truths don’t erase the fact that it’s natural to fear the unknown, so to heal your fear of death, the best thing is to make the unknown KNOWN – or as known as it can be. This may sound impossible in the case of death, but in fact, there are many ways to familiarize yourself with states of being beyond this physical life.

When I look back on my own journey toward peace with death, there are several factors that stand out. The first thing that convinced me that death is not the end was a number of encounters I had with people who had died. While that may sound like the sort of thing you are either lucky enough to have happen or not, in fact, such experiences can be manifested just like anything else.

You can also consciously work on developing your ability to communicate with spirits. It’s true that some people have a natural facility for this sort of thing, but I believe that a strong desire for any sort of experience is usually a sign from one’s own higher self that this is something that should be pursued. You can find resources for such development at a Spiritualist Church; in fact, attending such a church could also prove helpful and comforting for you for a number of reasons.

Another thing that tends to lead toward a dramatic shift in one’s perspective on death is having an out of body experience. When you find yourself disembodied, it’s hard to deny that your “existence” is independent of your physical body. It also gives you a sense of what it may be like to leave this world behind and move on to other realms. As it’s common for people who achieve or spontaneously experience astral projection to lose their fear of death, studying and working to have such an experience yourself may be the answer.

To begin exploring astral projection, you might read a few of the excellent books on the subject and then begin to apply yourself to exercises designed to get you out of your body. Please note that it can take months of daily effort to achieve this goal. It’s definitely worth it, however, since it will prove to you that you are more than your physical body and open up a whole new dimension of experience for you to explore. The astral projection authors I recommend are Robert Bruce, Robert Monroe and Robert Peterson. The website Astral Voyage is also a great resource.

The most powerful eraser of the fear of death can be found in actually dying. Millions of people have had near death experiences, and nearly all of them lost their fear of death as a result. This is true whether the near death experience was of a positive or negative nature, for experiencers say they now know that death is not the end but rather a transition into a new state of being. While it wouldn’t be prudent to actively court a near death experience, it can be very helpful to study the near death experiences of others. An excellent resource to start with can be found at near-death.com.

It’s also comforting and enlightening to study both esoteric teachings on reincarnation and the research that has been done on this subject such as the work of Dr. Ian Stevenson and the life between life research of Michael Newton, Ph.D. Taken together, the endless teachings and research available paint a coherent picture of life as a journey in which things happen for a good reason, including how and when we leave this world.

With this in mind, there are all sorts of wonderful books you can read to become more familiar with the nature of life and death. Some of the best authors include Michael Newton, Ph.D.; Dr. Bruce Goldberg; Brian Weiss, M.D.; Dr. Ian Stevenson; Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, P.M.H. Atwater, Dr. Raymond Moody, Dr. Melvin Morse, Carol Bowman, Carla Wills-Brandon and Gary Schwartz, Ph.D. If you’re itching to get started right away, check out victorzammit.com.

Please note that the above are just suggestions. I encourage you to pray for Spirit to guide you to the information and experiences you need to overcome your fear of death, and then act on the signs, impulses and intuitions that come to you. Remember that you can manifest the peace you’re longing for just like you would manifest anything else, so study and work with the law of attraction. By diving into a conscious spiritual journey, you can turn this experience into something positive and make the most of your time here on Earth.

– Soul Arcanum

Tags: , , , ,
Permalink

Near Death Dream

Filed Under: Afterlife, Dreams by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Near Death Dream

 

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I had a dream that I was in a grave with dirt being thrown on me, but I don’t think I was dead. It was very sunny out and I woke up and that was it. I wasn’t afraid. About one month before the dream, I had heart surgery. During the surgery, I felt like I went to the other side but did not die. I don’t remember what was said on the other side. I woke up feeling very different, and I still feel changed. I am wiser, more loving, calmer and vibrating higher. Other than that, everything is the same. Can you explain this to me? Thank you!

Elizabeth

Dear Elizabeth:

It sounds like you were wondering if you did indeed “die” during your surgery, and this dream came to answer the question burning in your heart while also confirming what you learned when you “died” that day: that death is nothing to be afraid of.

I am assuming that you have found your way to the term “near death experience” and read up on this phenomenon. If not, prepare to be amazed, for it’s commonly accepted that near death experiences (in which someone is clinically dead but then brought back to life) are known to induce the very personality changes you describe. A great resource for near death experience information is I am assuming that you have found your way to the term “near death experience” and read up on this phenomenon. If not, prepare to be amazed, for it’s commonly accepted that near death experiences (in which someone is clinically dead but then brought back to life) are known to induce the very personality changes you describe. A great resource for near death experience information is near-death.com.

Most people who have an NDE vividly remember the events that happened while they were supposedly dead. They may have perfect recall of every moment or they may have some parts that they can remember and some parts that seem vague or blocked. Often the parts that they can’t remember seem to involve deep conversations that they sense they are not “supposed” remember upon return to this world.

I have, however, heard of people who just knew that they had died but couldn’t remember much if anything about what happened while they were out. Further, it makes sense to me that you could have had a near death experience and not be able to consciously remember it. After all, we can’t remember most of the spiritual experiences we have when dreaming or astral traveling, especially those that transcend our current beliefs and expectations. If I were you, I would trust your feeling that you had been to the other side, especially since you exhibit many of the classic signs of someone who has had an NDE.

If you want to remember what happened while you were gone, you may be able to relive those events with the help of a skilled hypnotherapist. Since regression therapy can take us back to relive events from childhood, the womb, and even past lives and lives between lives, it should be possible to relive what happened while you were unconscious and possibly in another realm. At the same time, however, there is usually a good reason why we remember some metaphysical experiences and not others, so you would be wise to trust that when the time is right, you will gain awareness of whatever you need to know.

The fact that NDEs tend to induce profound spiritual awakenings and personality changes is well established, but why that would be is a mystery. This whole subject raises lots of fascinating questions for me. Why does dying and coming back change us in profound spiritual ways? Is it because we no longer fear death, and since fear of death is the ultimate fear behind every other fear we experience, when we lose it, our vibration shoots through the roof? Is dying like getting a glimpse behind the proverbial curtain, after which the world’s illusions fall away and we can see clearly for the first time? Is it because, when we experience a life review, we instantly realize how most of the things we focus on aren’t important, and how the only thing that really matters is how well we love?

I imagine there is no greater change in perspective than to be lifted right out of life, for only then can we see the immensity of the landscape below us and get a true sense of the lay of the land. However, there does seem to be something energetic happening, as you allude to when you write that you’ve been “vibrating higher.”

Indeed, the changes that people describe following a near death experience mirror many of those that are associated with kundalini awakening and conscious spiritual development. When we purposefully raise our vibration, we naturally begin to tap into psychic abilities and feel filled with love, compassion and other positive emotions. As many of the spontaneous results of an NDE mirror those of spiritual development, it makes sense that near death experiences cause a shift into a higher vibration.

As a result of this shift, you may spontaneously begin to have psychic experiences. For example, you may be able to sense what other people are thinking and feeling, have prophetic visions or feelings about the future, or begin to see spirits and subtle energies that other people can’t. You may begin to have profound spiritual dreams or spontaneous out of body experiences. You may suddenly develop healing ability or feel called to help people who are in physical or emotional pain. You may start to experience strange electrical phenomena; for example, watches may break when you wear them or lights may flicker when you touch the switch or pass by. You may begin to feel called to do something more meaningful with your life or devote yourself to helping others in some way.

The main message that people bring back from near death experiences is that love is the most important thing in the Universe, and our goal is to love others as ourselves. In various ways and terms, NDE’rs tell us that God is love and our whole goal in incarnating is to put ourselves in challenging situations and learn to choose love despite our ego-based, primal fears for our own well-being and personal interests.

Another main message is to live our lives fully. Many report that the only remorse they felt upon their life review was not for the things they had done wrong, but for all the good things they had failed to do. This does not mean that there are big “shoulds” we need to figure out somehow, but that life is all about finding happiness and embracing every opportunity to experience and create more joy. Indeed, instead of putting our dreams aside in the name of duty, we are wise to trust and honor the true desires of our hearts.

You don’t have to remember your near-death experience to benefit from it, for we are all being guided to fulfill our higher purpose via our hearts whether we’ve had a near death experience or not. The key, then, is to listen to and follow your bliss with trust that doing so will prove wise and good.

While we’re on the subject of near-death experiences, a model of the Universe comes to mind that resonates with me as true and fits with everything I’ve learned through spirit communication and metaphysical studies. It’s the idea that we are already dwelling in the afterlife – that the Earth is just one of many spiritual realms. Our ideas about hell reflect dimensions of a lower vibration, while our ideas about heaven reflect our awareness of higher dimensions. In this scenario, birth and death are simply transitions from one dimension to another. As we evolve, we naturally rise in vibration, eventually moving into the range of a higher dimension and beginning the cycle of birth and rebirth there. Thus it is true that the more we develop spiritually while living, the more likely we are to go to a “a better place” when we leave this life.

– Soul Arcanum

Tags: , , , ,
Permalink

Why Do We Dream of Acquaintances in Spirit?

Filed Under: Afterlife, Dreams, Spirits by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Why Do We Dream of Acquaintances in Spirit?

 

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I had a friend who was dear to me, but I moved out of state and didn’t see him often or even talk to him much. Strangely, every time I would go to visit, I would always run into him somewhere. A couple of years later, I found out that he had died in an accident. What was strange was I had thought about him for the first time in a while two days before I was told of his death. I then had a dream about him several weeks later. I saw him walking and smiling and I ran to him and said, “I thought you were dead!” He said no and just smiled. I have now had several dreams of him. In one he confirmed that he was in fact dead. In another he came to me and said to remember him. I have dreams every now and again of him, and I’m wondering why. My three-year-old son came to me one day and said “Mama, D.C is here.” (That was his name.) I had never talked about him to my son and am wondering what is going on with all of this.

M.

Dear M.:

When loved ones cross over, they tend to visit people with whom they have a strong loving bond like the two of you have. The amount of time you spent together doesn’t matter; the important thing is the quality of your connection. This psychic bond brought you together when you visited his city when he was alive, and it’s continuing to bring you together now that he’s in another dimension.

Spirits also reach out to people who are receptive and able to perceive them. They may also try to come through to other surviving loved ones, but if those people can’t perceive them, they’ll focus on someone who can. People who are open and sensitive to spirit contact glow with a certain light in the astral; they’re like beacons that attract spirits looking for contact with this world.

My first spirit dream is a great example. This was many years ago, when I was in my early twenties. A friend from high school named Jennifer had tragically died in a car accident just after graduation. Jennifer and I had known each other since kindergarten, and while we ran in the same circles, we weren’t especially close. After she died, her mother told me that it had meant a great deal to her that I had offered to loan her a dress for prom.

Jennifer had been a really good cross country runner in high school. At the time I dreamed about her, I had been running for less than a year and had developed an injury that had me really frustrated. The night I had the dream, I remember lying in bed, thinking about the injury and wondering if I would have to give up running forever. This had me really down, so I sent out a vague prayer to the Universe for help with this problem.

That night I had a striking dream. In the dream, I was walking down a crowded sidewalk when I twisted my ankle and fell off the curb. I was sitting in the gutter, holding my ankle and worrying about never being able to run again, when the crowd parted and through it came Jennifer. She looked absolutely radiant and was wearing an angelic white dress. She looked more grown up and beautiful than I’d ever seen her look before. She walked directly up to me, looked me in the eye, and said, “Don’t worry; you’ll run again.”

When I awoke, I was perplexed and amazed by this dream. Of all the people in Spirit to come to me in a dream, why her? I now believe she came to bring me comfort because she wanted to return the favor I’d done her years before, and also because her own passion for running made her empathetic to my plight. (For the record, I did run again, and have been running ever since.)

A couple of years after that, I dreamed that I met her in this vague, misty place. I was startled to see her there, and said, “Hey, aren’t you Jennifer?” She indicated that she was. I said, “But aren’t you…dead?” She indicated that she was dead in this world, but that didn’t mean she no longer existed. Soon after that the dream ended.

Let’s turn now to your dreams about your friend. I believe that whenever we dream about someone who has died, and in the dream we are aware that they are dead, we are visiting with their spirits on another plane. I’ve now had many such dreams, and they always have a special quality about them; they’re especially moving, vivid, real and memorable.

Sometimes I dream that I see my departed father in a crowded public place. In these dreams, I know he’s dead and I’m very excited to see him. I am hugging him and talking to him while the other people in the dream can’t see or perceive him at all. I’ll say, “He’s right here in front of you!” but they still can’t perceive him. Sometimes they look at me like I’m crazy because I seem to be talking to empty space, but I don’t care: I’m too excited to see him to worry about what other people think.

It sounds like you and D.C. had a very loving connection. Further, you are obviously open to spirit contact and sensitive enough to both perceive spirits while in an altered stae of consciousness and remember those events after the fact. I’m sure that with some development, you could learn to do the same thing from an altered but awake state of consciousness.

The fact that your friend popped into your head two days before you learned of his death further validates your psychic sensitivity. I’m assuming that he was already dead at that point and was trying to get your attention. Since he couldn’t fully dialogue with you when you were awake, he began to try to reach you via the dream state. This is when it is easiest for us to visit with loved ones in other dimensions.

Regarding why our friends in Spirit come to us this way, there are lots of possibilities.

First, this sort of thing just happens naturally. Just as you would run into him when visiting his city, you run into him while you’re both in the dream world. Imagine that the cords between us and those we love are like rubber bands. Wherever we go, whether in this world or other worlds, the tension of being apart will draw us toward each other. This is how we find each other via <q>destiny</q> when we reincarnate together, and how we are naturally draw together again when we leave this world. The same thing is happening all the time whether we’re on the same plane or not. When we dream and visit the astral/other planes, the walls between us are removed, and this force can pull us toward the people we love on that plane.

Spirits also visit us to deliver love, comfort and messages like my friend Jennifer did. If they resonate with what we are going through, they may feel called to try to help. This is the same motivation for visits from spirits when we are grieving for them.

Finally, spirits sometimes visit us because they need something from us. Since your son perceived your friend, he’s clearly visiting you both when you’re awake and asleep, but you haven’t yet developed the ability to perceive him when you’re awake. Most of us are born with psychic skills that we lose over time as we’re taught what is “real” and “imaginary” and as we shift from the high vibration of the spirit world to focus on physical reality. When spirits do want our help, it’s often because they need an intermediary who can perceive them to relay some message to another loved one in this world.

I don’t feel that this is the case here because your interactions with him have been so casual and he hasn’t mentioned anything like this. Instead, I feel that your love for each other simply draws you into orbit of each other, and when you’re in a certain state of mind, you are able to interact and later consciously remember that interaction.

– Soul Arcanum

Tags: , , ,
Permalink

Aligning Spirit Communication Before Death

Filed Under: Afterlife, Death and Dying, Spirit Communication by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Aligning Spirit Communication Before Death

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

My mother was diagnosed with dementia six years ago and seems to be approaching the end stage of her illness. She no longer wants to eat and is down to 75 pounds. I recently flew to the East Coast to visit her. For the first time, she mentioned God and a connection to the spirit world. (She had always been an atheist.) She tells me she is in an airport waiting for a flight; she’s actually in a nursing home. I assume she means she’ll be transitioning soon. I heard her voice in my head once last year. She asked how she would be able to talk to me. I told her to project her thoughts. She argued that I don’t hear them. I said I would be able to hear them, which pleased her. How can I develop the full power to hear all that she wants to communicate when she transitions? The one time that I heard her voice, it was so loud and clear in my head. I know that she talks to me a lot, but I don’t hear her. How can I tune in more fully to receive her communications from the other side?
Celeste

Dear Celeste:

You’ve already communicated telepathically with your mother just as you would if she was in Spirit. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the West Coast and she’s on the East, or you’re in the physical and she is in another dimension: If you’re communicating mentally, it’s all the same.

I loved your question because it illuminates something that is really common but doesn’t get much attention. Most people avoid thinking about death, and in modern life, we rarely encounter it. In the olden days, death generally occurred in or near home, but now people are usually in the hospital or a nursing home when they cross over. As a result, most of us don’t witness the changes that often precede death until we are about to leave this world ourselves.

People who work with the dying tend to notice certain trends. For example, it’s quite common for even the most skeptical atheists to grow more spiritual as death approaches. This is in part because instead of being distracted by earthly pursuits, they are keenly focused on what will happen when they leave this life.

The bedridden sick and elderly also spend a great deal of time essentially meditating. Since they’re in an alpha state for many hours each day, they can rapidly develop spiritual abilities such as telepathy. As they begin to have unusual experiences, their beliefs may change overnight. For example, the sick and elderly often have out of body experiences or report seeing dead loved ones, mysterious beings, angels and the like. As one might imagine, this sort of experience can have a profound effect on a person’s spiritual beliefs.

As your letter illustrated, often the so-called demented also demonstrate telepathic ability. They may be checked out from what we call reality, yet seem to be able to read our minds. For example, if we think about going to the grocery store later, they may suddenly request certain items, or if we worry about another member of the family, they may mention that person and tell us everything will be okay.

As for how you can align communication with your mother after she transitions, I think one of the greatest things you can do is recognize that you are already communicating telepathically, and assume that it will be even easier for you to do this once your mother is free and clear of her troubled physical body.

It would also be powerful to vividly remember what you were doing that time you heard her so clearly. Were you in a trancelike state? Remember how that communication felt and how you became aware that it was happening. When you want to connect again in the future, vividly recall that experience and imagine it happening again. Focus on your desire and your love for her, send out a clear request for contact, and open up to receiving telepathic impressions.

I also think it would be helpful to study what is happening with the elderly who spontaneously develop these abilities, for if we can simulate their experiences, we should be able to achieve similar results.

For example, if we turn our attention from mundane reality to contemplating what lies beyond this world, we will naturally begin to open up our awareness of other dimensions. If we put ourselves in a trancelike state on a regular basis (as through regular meditation) we will begin to awaken all sorts of spiritual insights and abilities.

There are lots of wonderful ways to break into heightened psychic awareness. If you’re not familiar with meditation, you might begin by learning self-hypnosis or working with the chakra clearing and charging meditation at Soul Arcanum. Both processes are free and always available to you. I recommend you put them on your iPod and then go out into nature, away from all the hustle and bustle of the mundane world. If you can find a spot near a body of water like a lake or river, all the better. You want to get away from the psychic pollution of noise, thought forms and other distracting energies in order to forge a clear channel.

Cultivating mindfulness in general will greatly help you with all sorts of spiritual aims. Sometimes communication from the spirit world is very subtle or difficult to discern because it is all around us, all the time. It’s sort of like the hum of the refrigerator, which we don’t notice until we listen for it. It can also be tricky to find a wavelength that both parties can reach in order to connect, so the greater your control over your own thoughts and vibration, the more adept you’ll be at spirit communication.

Intuition is of course a key tool. I encourage you to pray for the quality of experience you desire and allow your intuition to lead you to the best medium for you. There are tons of ways to connect with the other side. If you get an impulse to try automatic writing or EVP work, honor it. Also, pay attention to the ways signs and messages tend to come to you, and recognize these as your strengths. For example, if you have profound dreams of your mother, you might work with connecting with her via your dreams instead of pushing for a certain type of experience.

You can also learn to astral travel in order to visit loved ones on the other side. For more information on this idea, see the work of Bruce Moen. The more important contact is, the more likely it is to happen. This is why people are saved by miracles when they’re facing death even if they didn’t pray for help: the greater the need, the greater your chance of a miracle. Similarly, just wanting to check in every day with a loved one in Spirit often falls flat. If or when you really need to connect for help or emotional healing, that’s when it’s most likely to happen.

Finally, remember that the power of love is infinite, and it’s your love for each other that will keep you connected beyond space and time. The more you send love to your mother, the more love will come back to you, and the more powerful your spiritual bond will be.

– Soul Arcanum

Tags: , , ,
Permalink