Greetings M Jay,

Welcome to this site. And thanks for posting your questions. You'll find more answers to them as you work through past posts and/or read Bruce Moen's books, but here's a starter---

People go to an area of the afterlife where their thoughts take them. But one who's citified can visit one who's out in nature just by thinking of him, and then they'll come together for a visit. Travel is instantaneous so it's not a problem.   

Babies quit being babies when they get tired of being unable to do much for themselves; then they assume a more favored age/shape. I know babies can have such full consciousness because when I was a baby, I was awoken from my infancy prematurely and still remember the thoughts I had when just a pre-toddler. Children are not the 'blank slates' that somebody once said they were and then everyone agreed with, without examining their own memories.

We are here to overcome any fear of the afterlife. Also all the near-death experiences are being revealed to help us do so too. There is no longer reason to fear the heavens.
Keep reading this and NDEs and you'll find the truth from people who have been there.
Thank goodness, eh?

Bets

Hi M Jay,

My own personal experiences have lead me to research the afterlife on websites, psychic medium books, etc, and whatever else. There are some honest mediums out there who do communicate with the dead. Also, my own out of body experiences have been proof to me that our spirits live on. I've read very reliable books on the subject describing my experiences first-hand, and the author's sound opinion of what happens after death. It all makes sense based on my own experiences, and the true mediums out there who communicate with the dead are proof to me our spirits live on.

Do not worry about your mother, because she is in a positive place. Perhaps one of your lessons in this life was going through the physical loss of a loved one, but than again we will all face that lesson sometime. It's also been said that the concept of time is ours - not theirs, so if you suspect your mom has not communicated with you, rather through dreams or by other means, do not worry about it. None of us are there yet, we do not know what it's like over there, etc, even though I have seen spiritual planes during my own astral projections.

It's possible that we create our own surroundings in the afterlife, but we all go to the same place when we die. Take, for instance, when we are dreaming, and how our subconscious mind is tuned into the astral plane during dreams, the astral plane being a spiritual plane, a timeless plane. I hope that helps you understand a little about the afterlife.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

- Elite

Hello M Jay:

Regarding near death experiences, some near death experiences represent the truth better than others. I believe the key in discerning them is whether or not a person experiences something that is far beyond what his or her mind, based on memories collected up to the time of the experience, could create. Certainly it is possible that for whatever reason, some near death subjects aren't able to get to the point where they can have an experience that really shows what the afterlife is about.

I haven't had a near death experience, but years ago I had what I refer to as a night in heaven experience. At the time I was an atheist. If somebody tried to convince me that God and the afterlife exist, he or she would've had a hard time doing so. During my experience I was absolutely certain that God, Christ and the afterlife exist. Not only was I certain, but I completely understood how it was possible for them to exist, without even having to think about it. There is no way that my mind could create the understanding I had. My understanding was beyond what linear thought could create. I also had the feeling that in the end everything works out wonderfully for everybody. I experienced a level of happiness that was way beyond the level of happiness that is experienced in this World. I also experienced a great sense of relief during this experience. It was like, thank goodness I was wrong about my atheistic viewpoints.

Hi M Jay-
I do clinical hypnotic regression for deeply repressed traumas, such as childhood molest and abuse that was too severe to be recalled through normal psychotherapy. In this I ocasionally get two interesting things, an atheistic attitude, such as from a professional engineer or physicist (Bruce is definitely not typical with his mediumship talent) and a past life trauma that is trying to be resolved. It's the same thing that people try to figure out while alive, but encountered in a clinical setting. Solving this dilemma is much like what you are asking.

My basic line of approach is that we all believe in either a perpetually existing universe, in which case, we have to ask "When did it start to perpetually exist?" or we beieve in a universe with a beginning, which is the only answer to that question, and thus we arrive at the Friedman-Lamaitre Big Bang theory, or an equivalent. That means that the universe in some manner created itself out of nothing, and in doing so, stayed within the laws governing normal science and physics etc.  We call the underlying reason for this self-creation by the term "God" because we don't have a better word. However, everyone has an idea about what is meant when used in this context.

So we have the natural order of the universe arising according to its own nature, which means that whatever it is that we do, we do the same thing according to our own natures as part of it all.  That includes having experiences that involve cycles within a process dimension called "time". 

Death is simply the place that a cycle ends and starts over, using the same dynamics. In essence the dynamics of life resemble multily dimensioned vortices of energy feeding back onto itself, and like the eddies and whirlpools that we watch in a gurgling stream, these eddies and whirlpools persist because they support their own nature by the manner in which they relate to the surrounding universe. So our prior existence provides the most probable place to start the next cycle, and that cycle carries its predecessor forward as its vorticity continues.

In general we carry very little of our previous ego-identity through the recycling phase between lives, but we carry virtually all of our motivational identity - meaning who we are expressed in terms of what we do and tend to do and already have done. Karma (a Sanskrit word meaning "action") is involved with our motivational identity, carrying us forward in some cases, and not in others. No matter what ultimately happens, we definitely seem to be moving forward, as might be expressed in things looking and working out perpetually better and more pleasantly. Thus, we develop our own motivational dynamics just as reality develops universes etc.

As Don mentioned, in his "night in heaven" experience (an example of a meditative state called sarvastarka samadhi) this is not a logicaly reasoned conclusion from an analytic logical process, but it is known on some more primary level (which I sometimes call Primary Process because I was first trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst). On that same level, we "recognize truth", as opposed to analytically "knowing about it". This is the manner in which we experience the afterlife. Since we don't have a body with its convenient meat-computer-brain in which to store and manipulate data, we are more or less stuck with primary awareness. That means that if you evaluate yourself and feel that you have done no wrong - at least none that has not been repaired by work-arounds, confession and penance, forgiveness of others,  or some other means - then you'll have no negative stuff in your afterlife either. Or, if you have done nasty things, you'll get some degree of awareness that part of your existence has incorporated things that are not real. As an example, if your personal opinion of yourself is "I am a Peacemaker" while the fact is that you invaded and conquored many small weak nations, so that peace was created only at the point of a bayonet, then it is likely that you will recognize that there is a built-in contradiction here. The contradiction will resolve itself by self-destructing, and will take with it whatever the error was, in this case a flawed self-image. We often sense such losses as pain if they occur without our desire. However, if, once we recognize the error, we choose to select a future life in which we do our job better, and in which we will receive experiences that will prevent repeating the same error, then it can also be sensed as joyful and liberating.

Occasionally someone really wants to not make the same mistake twice and chooses a terribly severe life with great hardships and limitations. These are always self-inflicted hardships. They were not put there by a malicious God who is wandering around with a Cosmic Fly Swatter muttering - "Hah! There you go Sinner." SWAT!  "Gotcha."  Instead, when we realize that e are in direct confrontation with the essence of the Creative Cause of the Universe, all we discover is infinite love, infinite unity with everything, infinite understanding of how things work. Most of us have pretty good resistance to anger, but we are totally defenseless against infinite love, and tend to do almost anything in order not to violate that love. So it is possible that you could set yourself up for a new lifetime with some bumps and hassles.  If so, you did it because you wanted it, because you are essentially good.

Very primitive cultures (by technological standards) often suggests that the dead simply return to be part of the earth. I've had people tell me that at death they became a field of flowers, part of the earth, the sky, part of all animals, or just a favorite few, empty space extending beyond our solar system etc. Most of us can regress far enough to recall being some kind of animal, and a few can go farther back to where they recall the initial instant of Creation.  You can learn to do this stuff too. Bruce has a nice Soul Retrieval  Home Study Course which puts you in touch with the "Spirit World" and those who dwell therein. Or maybe you will learn to meditate in other ways, and abruptly will have your own transcendental experiences.

So without going into the minor details, what seems to occur is that we recycle ourselves, and we can talk to others who can tell us about their experiences doing this. OBE and NDE and so on are all part of the same thing, hence also offer information. Your nature is not different from the initial creative impulse from which everything started, so in a sense you are part of everything that exists, and to that degree you are also God. So you can create whatever you feel is needed. Or you can just enjoy what you are already doing.

My personal opinion is that it is useful to remember that those who start by meditation and then go into science etc after reaching nirvastarka samadhi (Swami Sivananda used to tell meditation pupils that a dedicated student could accomplish everything inside of si months) learn of a world in which they understand the "why", and can filter out and discard the unreal. Whereas those who start in science and never go anywhere, do very well to learn a little about the "how" of things, and because they have no way of understanding what is and is not valid, they never get to "why". I think it was Jesus who said, "Seek ye first the kingdon of God and all these things shall be added unto you."

hope this is useful
dave