As another one with a legally trained mind I have found answers to these questions will not be found through that constricted critical methodology.  Especially when you try to match up feelings with hard facts, or spiritually manifested illusion with third dimensional structure...apples and oranges...in short, you can't get there from here.

My greatest aha moments have occurred when I was least worried or concerned or even conscious of where my soul was headed.  The revelation hits and I am suddenly viewing things from a different vantage point.  I evaluate these things through meditation and concentrated effort to reach my guidance.  The responses I get range from feelings (gut reactions, warmth emanating from the heart, an internal sense of elation, relief or love (PUL)) to visions and verbal comment...all geared to assist me in understanding the truth of what I have found.  I have found that an effort to make quantifiable sense of the impressions I have gotten would be difficult at best and impossible at worst...beat my head against the wall to question the accuracy or truth of those impressions, or accept the benefit and understanding received, know that is the way it works while the how will come later, and simply live with the benefits derived therefrom.

I do not say these things in an effort to induce you to forego your critical methodology...I simply discuss this to illustrate another way of examining the available information.  It works for me, and if it sounds flaky or new ageish, so be it...who are we trying to impress?  Nobody...we all simply seek answers; no judgment, no criticism...just people, each on our own path to enlightenment.  I wish you joy and happiness on your venture. 

Hi Christiane,

For me personally, my proof of an "afterlife" came not so much from verified conversations with spirits, but from discovering that thought or consciousness was primary, and that physical reality was secondary. 

That realization, confirmed by many findings in the physical world led me to the inescapable conclusion that we are more than our physical bodies.  Taken from that standing, it made no sense whatsoever that the basic assumptions of Western science - that the brain creates conscious thought (and without it consciousness does not exist) - were in fact true.

If you are interested in proving that thought can change reality, independent of the physical world, there are easy ways to do so. One way is to access your subconscious mind as you are drifting off to sleep and give yourself autosuggestions; anything may suffice.  As a test experiment, when completely relaxed and drowsy, give yourself a suggestion about what time you want to wake up without an alarm clock.  Do this on the weekend at first.  You may see this as a "hypnotic suggestion," but what is it really?  What mechanism sets it into motion?  Others will give themselves the instruction that they will remember their dreams upon awakening (and they will, more often than not).  As you get more comfortable with this, you can use your subconscious access to effect changes in your life.  Usually, this is done in conjunction of what is for the highest good - but there is no way around it, if done in the right frame of mind, your subconscious accepts the order, and begins to work about bringing it into circumstance in this world.  How?  By changing probabilities in the physcial world - that is as close to describing what happens in the week or two following an autosuggeston given to the subconscious as I can get. 

What we are talking about here is the basis behind "magic" that has been around for eons, and used by those who have discovered the workings - of mind and spirit.  The only difference between the method I mentioned, and occult magic, is that the sorcerer of days gone by accessed his/her subconscious mind more powerfully by binding thought to things in the physical world (incantations and potions), which gave more conviction to the message.  But it is not just for personal gain.  Proper investigation of this mind to subconscious interaction will show anyone who persists at it long enough, that thought can change reality by impressing itself onto subconscious belief. 

As you experience this, at first, it is thrilling, in a sense empowering.  It also, brings about with it a sense of responsiblity.  When I think back over the past few years, I have not tried to use this meditation for selfish ends.

If you don't feel like experimenting with this subconscious system (and I can give you e-book references about it), then you can read objective evidence about conscious thought changing reality done at Princeton University. 

Princeton had a center operating for over a decade called the P.E.A.R. center.  Its mission was to design random number generating machines, completely shielded from any known influence (electrical, chemical, magnetic) and then show that volunteers who sat near the machines and who were told to "change the outcome of the coin toss," would either have an effect on the outcome or not.

The results of thousands experiments were published in the peer reviewed scientific literature.  There was a small but significant difference in the outcome of these random machines when human conscious thought was directed at them. 

The skeptic will say that perhaps there was some hidden bias (etc.) but Princeton went to great pains to shield the experiment from any interference.  Its fascinating if you go to Princeton's site.

So if we are more than our physcial bodies, and if "mind" exists independent of physical reality and can actually change probabilities in the physical world, then consciousness may be primary, and the physical world may be secondary.

For me, this was very strong verification that we, in our truest form are pure thought/mind/perception.  Knowing this, it is is only a tiny step toward seeing how we can exist when our body falls away in death.

Matthew

These venues all look very interesting. Ustawutz, yes I had this too, verification through feelings of "rightness, relief and happiness". I am not believing my heart for some reason...maybe I can again one day?



DocMs suggestions also look very interesting. However, I would be interested to see if you can also shape physical reality outside yourself. I can already wake up when I want .



David, thank you again . Your post was really nice and I appreciate you sharing your insights.

DocM, I have my troubles with NDEs. While I am 100% convinced people experience these and that they are real for them, I have read about 15 books and lots of accounts. The result is that it is an unexplained phenomenon which may well point to an afterlife, but there are many NDEs which have contents that are strange and could well be hallucinatory (seeing Elvis or spaceships or similar silly stuff, see Peter Fenwicks book) and many people see living relatives (about 30%), especially children, and many don`t remember a thing (the majority in fact). There are few and isolated stories with verified events and I think the AWARE study by Sam Parnia has started out trying to prove (by putting pictures on the top of operating tables) that people really leave their bodies, but this has not worked out and now Sam Parnia very much speaks against an afterlife in his 2010 talks. I never had such an experience myself. I do believe the accounts, but I am all confused as to whether this really points to an afterlife or not - this is the problem in modern times, one is exposed to such a lot of information with no way of really finding out what is true and what is not.

While reincarnation is not proven in my eyes - though I believe fully it may be possible and it makes sense, but it is not proven from what I read - there are other interesting stories. Have any of you ever heard of Marc Liblin? He was a Frenchman who died 1998 who learned a strange language in his dreams when he was six. Only when he was about 30, he found out what this language was, a polynesian dialect spoken on the island of rapa iti. He found a woman who also spoke the language, married her and livecd the rest of his relatively short life in Rapa Iti. I read this story in a book about remote islands, looked across the internet for verification and found only a few french textx referring to the story (and ofc the book reviews). It is strange that such an extraordinary story is not published more widely. Is it not true? Possibly. Is it true, but no one was interested? That would be strange indeed.


Anyway, I hope I get through this day better than yesterday. Living in total awareness of death - and fearing it may be the absolute end - is hell, I have often thought it is better not to be born than experiencing this. And you say I have chosen it? In this case - and I hope a lot that it is true - I have a word to say to myself in the afterlife! I can tell you one thing, I will not come back to this earth, if I have the option, I will take this experience and help other souls and/or support them and stay in the "spirit" or "energy" world, however you call it. If it exists, which I really hope (though just cant believe). I`ll try all your suggestions and read your encouraging texts again and again.

Hi again Christiane,
I sense a different energy in your replies now.
There doesn't seem to be quite the fear and desperation of a few days ago -keep going and you will break through!

Many thanks for all the reactions from others: Doc M, Usetawuz and the rest. It's folks like you that make this forum what it is.
However, Doc M, I'm now slightly confused by one part of your post(s):
you believe that reincarnation does occur, but not as often as people suppose. What exactly does that imply?
Surely either reincarnation exists or it doesn't? You can have it both ways and have some folks reincarnating and others not, and doesn't this imply an 'elite' who've mastered it while the rest of us mere mortals are just 'one time' existers? I hope you see where I'm going with this.

Likewise, I'm sceptical of your scepticism! (English spelling by the way) 
It seems to me that some supposed sceptics -the infamous James Randi may be the most high profile- have goen to the most presposterous lengths to validate their scepticism in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Reportedly his $1m offer to anyone who can prove psychic abilities is a sham and various folks have called his bluf on this one.
Another example is Dr. Susan Blakemore (who I met on the same TV programme as Jenny Cockell), eminent university lecturer and arch debunker of the spiritual, who actually had an OBE but later dismissed and disowned it. Some people may do anything to hold on to their belief system. In Susan Blakemore's books she in essence states that life has no spiritual meaning, there's only one moment after another, and this is all there is.
Personally, I find this reductionist approach quite untenable and absurd.

I find this particular view irredeemingly arid and sparse, claiming that the only meaning that there is to be derived in existence is intellectual investigation. There seems to be no room for joy, love, wonder, that magical state of possibilities, many of which might be dismissed by the sceptic as merely the overexcited use of brain chemicals.
But then that's my belief system and I'm hanging onto it! 
Your quotes on the article debunking Jenny Cockell read like familiar fare. Here in the U.K. we occasionally have potentially fascinating TV documentaries presenting ideas on reincarnation and spirit, only to be stamped on by the same familiar talking heads who then proceed to demolish any arguments or explain away things 'logically'; some explanations they come up with seem even more far fetched than the ideas they are supposedly 'debunking'.
What gets me is the patronising tone of most of these folks, who appear to have the hot line to objective truth:
not doubt sincere...fails to withstand critical analysis.... circular reasoning...after the fact analysis....
Isn't the 'sceptic' here taking advantage of the fact that they're fully experienced in deductive logic and analysis and putting themselves up and above an 'ordinary' person? More than a hint of arrogance creeps in at times -we are the professionals after all.........

We do what we can in life, and that includes making sense of seemingly disparate and at times nebulous information, and there's an important point to consider here: interpretation of what has been stored in the soul between lives of memories filtered through physical means.
These ideas are mine and mine alone (I think), as I've not read them elsewhere. Mind you, it could be Christiane's guides getting to me again! 
Here goes:
Human perception and memory can be faulty. I know only too well that my memory of a movie can be faulty. I watched again a Kirk Douglas Western a few years ago for the first time since seeing it in childhood -boy was I in for a surprise when a couple of scenes that I remembered turned out to be MIRROR IMAGE to what was actually on screen.
So I'm postulating that the errors and omissions in any memory of a past life may go something like this:
memories stored in the brain are subject to the laws of the ELS, but when past life reviewed comprise those events viewed by the soul, which may be much more than the physical body was aware of. Names of people in one life may not be relevant in the afterlife as you then know hem by their real names (Bill in this life may really be Fred in the afterlife, and you remember that he was  Jim or Hans or Abdul just a few lifetimes ago; to you, he'll always be Fred).
Now when retrieving information in another lifetime, your physical brain is bombarded by new and unanalysable information, so the brain may either ignore it, dismiss it as irrelevant or chaotic, or translate it 'incorrectly'. (As an aside, has Bruce finally found out what's behind the 'Flying Fuzzy Zone' mentioned in his explorations? see what I mean?)
This does not invalidate the experience or the intention behind it, and I would guess that when you're viewing all this from 'home' between lives, proof in the physical world is totally irrelevant anyway to someone in spirit form.
Now the preceding ideas may seem like I'm being just as dogmatic and desperate to hold on to my beliefs as the professional sceptics, and maybe I am 
All I'm saying is that these are ideas for consideration, and unlike the sceptics, I'm not claiming anything I expound here as definitive.
But inside I know that I've been here before, and my past life regressions TO ME are totally valid and a part of who I am. Some things that came up cannot be explained away as 'oh, you must have read about that years ago' because one lifetime in Moorish Spain really surprised me: I know more than nothing about the subject, I've never been there, I have no interest in the place, but there was the experience.
Mind you, how do you explain the Dogon tribe in Mali, who celebrate the rotation of Sirius B and knew that a supposedly undiscovered star in Sirius is a white dwarf?
The UFO sceptic would say that they were told about it by a Christian missionary? Yeah, and so they developed a whole system of religion based on that evidence?
You see what I mean about the rationale for debunking ideas? Some of them are far more absurd and far fetched than the original ideas being investigated......

So if Jenny Cockell's story is not true, where did it come from?
I would suggest that it's not 'an invitation to fantasise'. Why and how would you fantasise about a bunch of people you've never met and don't recognise (not in this life anyway, hem hem  ) and a place you've never visited. Surely there are far more interesting things to fantasise about than a rather 'ordinary' (not in any disparaging sense of the word) family?
In addition, let's just suppose this was a soul matter; Jenny Cockell being the 'mother' of that family in here previous life would damn well want to look after them in another life and would use any and all means at her disposal AT A SOUL LEVEL to make sure that this meeting happened again. It could be a soul or pre life contract, and one of the ways here soul would prompt her physical mind might be through 'imagination', surely?
Anyone who investigates lifetimes comes across the fact that soul groups incarnate as family members amongst others, and I believe that that's exactly what's going on here! (Yay! I finally got to the point in this rather scattergun posting  )

Now any pro sceptic will probably be able to shoot holes in all of the arguments above. When we all cross over (as we must inevitably do) then a lot of us here will have a lot of work to do retrieving the skeptics from their black hole BSTs. For them, there'll be nothing, so boy are they going to be surprised!
See you all there in a few years time?

Lots of love as always,

David.

chrwe, not to minimize your concerns, and from another point of view..."Doc, my head hurts when I hit it against the wall", in reply, "Then stop hitting your head against the wall!"  Death will be what it is and will come to us all, some more quickly than others.  Ideally you will live this life to the best of your ability in love and joy and when greeted by loved ones on the other side, will have nothing but wonderful stories to tell...not of worry and fear, but the amazing experiences enabled by love and happiness.

David, Matthew and Jean, what a wonderful thread...thank you each for sharing your perspectives so clearly...

In love and light...

Ustawutz, you are right of course, but especially at night I feel I dont get a choice, my head is being hit against the well

David...I've gotten the same impression...we don't have to incarnate, but if we do we get a tremendous amount of credit for having done so.  Almost like "Holy cow...you did that?"  And all the events we live through are like merit badges and accolades for which we take credit for but have the sense of "for what?" 

I am beginning to feel like one of those action movie heroes...I live lives here on earth in rapid succession...live long or die seems to be my modus opporandi.  Right now I am living long, but my prior three lives over the last century have all gone fairly quickly.  I look forward to finding the rationale, but until it happens I'll enjoy the ride.  After all, what is the alternative...living for nothing?