Howdy all, I've been reading the forum for some time and finally am introducing myself.  My story's a bit long, but I hope it expresses my gratitude to Bruce Moen for his sharing his experiences with the world, and the help they were to me.

A little background: My mother, whom I was very close to, passed away after a short illness in August of last year (2004).

When I was informed by the hospital personnel that she had begun what they call 'the dying process', I re-read Bruce's books in a hurry and then did a trial run to Focus 27, where I encountered a couple of old friends of hers who had passed on in the past few years. They said they would be standing by at the Reception Center to receive her.

They also said, that it would be 'tomorrow'.  They were both right and wrong.  When I went to the hospital the next day (Thursday), she was comatose and entirely unresponsive, but the following day (Friday), she rallied and we talked a bit.  She said that she had thought she was going to die the day before.  I let it go, one thing I wanted to do was ensure whatever days or hours were left to her were as peaceful and comfortable as possible.  That night, was the last time we spoke during her physical lifetime. 

The following night, due to medication given her to prevent the pre-death restlessness that was making her obviously distressed, my mother was sleeping peacefully, but not likely to waken again. 

I went to the focus level where the comatose can be found, and she was there, lying on her bed in her hospital room, and I knew she felt trapped in her body.   I walked over to the bed, and reached through the body, lifting out her non-physical self, and flew out the window with her in my arms, into the blackness beyond. 

I landed on the lawn in front of the Reception Center and her friends were waiting for us.  I set her on her feet, and they embraced her and I departed. 

Early Sunday evening, her body died, but she was already gone from it.

Fast forward to New Year's Day.  I was meditating, just sort of roaming about a place that I've always spent a lot of my time and now recognize as Focus 27, and I came to a field with a large tree on a small rise.  Under that tree were three young people, who I only recognized from old photographs-my mother and her two friends who she'd known since college.

My mother and I had a talk, and although months had passed here on Earth, to her it was as though I'd just dropped her off in Focus 27.  It was then that I finally grokked the phrase "time has no meaning here".  I'd stayed away from her all that time because I'd wanted her to have time to adjust to her new mode of existence (particularly the shock of someone believing that life was nothing beyond the death of the body) without having interference from the still living.  But it wasn't necessary.  I felt like such a bonehead. 

I've had a couple of quick visits since, it's been difficult for me to meditate lately-I really have to set aside uninterrupted time, because otherwise the phone rings, etc.

What finally gave me the impetus to share, was that something really surprising happened the day before yesterday.

I was on the bus after work, just sort of relaxing-listening to music on my headphones (okay, maybe not everyone finds bagpipe and snare drum music relaxing, but I do) and I looked out the window, and my mother drove by. 

I looked away and looked back, to make sure that it wasn't just that I'd seen someone similar that made me think of her.  It was not.  The car was a gold Ford escort, and the woman driving it was my mother-even to the special dark sunglasses she had to wear after having had cataract surgery.  Even the gesture of her hand resting on the arm rest and cupping her face as she looked directly at me-behind the opaque due to advertising windows of the bus-was her. 

And she was just as 'real' as you and me.

I'm still trying to figure that one out. 

Thanks for reading my post, and thanks again to Bruce for explaining things to me that I'd never realized.

Phoenix

very informative and touching Phoenix I like the part where mom gets scooped up and flown away. no reason to suffer and feel trapped beyond that purpose. actually I just found out I'm empathic, where the body displays a signal of intense emotion whenever it gets a higher vibrational message. this is what happened when I read your post, how u scooped her up. I knew somebody somewhere was celebrating you, your love for mom. I'm speechless right now! thanks. I can't talk anymore..lol!!