If this life/this universe is our mirror...

Say my mirror is in an adjacent room separated by a curtain which is sometimes tied back and sometimes hanging down loosely. When I look into the mirror I might see a person who is just waking up. I might see a person who is dressed up for a party. I might see a person with tears on her face, or a big grin, etc. You get the picture.

If we can see the world around us as a reflection of who we are, and come to an acceptance of that, what then?

Instead of feeling the self as being a victim of circumstances, we can choose how to respond. It is all one being, no matter how limited the aspect of our vision that we experience. There are many personalities, many descriptions, but one great being.

What is "before" us in this moment, as realized by looking in this mirror, is what is "behind" us, in actuality. And it is a viewpoint which is only experienced by living this way, with this mirror. If I turn around, the mirror is no longer in front of me, but the "other" world.

When I think of it this way, I can understand, just a little bit, why people describe their near death experiences as "more real" than what they experience here, and their meetings with loved ones in dreams or visions as absolutely "real" as well.

I'm glad my comment made sense to you. It does seem like people report enhanced senses in NDEs and OOBEs quite often, and experience sights, sounds, voices, etc. in a way which is hard for them to describe, as those experiences are limited here.

It is easier for me to accept that those in the "other world" -- which is so near to us - can "reach" into our lives, and we can "reach" into theirs, by thinking of things in the way in which I described.

I find that I am conditioned by past thoughts that the "afterlife" or "heaven" or "God" or any of these concepts are very far away, or somehow beyond my comprehension. I am limited by my human comprehension, but they are not so far as they might seem. I find that I am constantly asking for my companion guides to show me that they are there, and they do, on a regular basis.

Instead of doing it in a huge, "biblical" way, something that I might dismiss as a hallucination, I find that the messages are subtle. They are something I can "feel" and just "know" and I can see clearly that they are deliberate.

It is encouraging to me that my experiences, learning and understanding over the years I have visited this site have led me to a place of greater peace. I find that I can more often encourage others in my life who are faced with their difficult realities here because of overcoming some of my conditioned fear of death. It has not been an easy thing to overcome these barriers in my own mind, but I feel that I will be better equipped to enter an afterlife because of it.

Short of someone handing me a telephone to talk to a loved one, or a video screen, I am fairly convinced, and I know that those are not far away. People seem to be having more success with capturing sound and video content as they continue exploring those kinds of methods.