Death is not the most popular subject! Many people prefer not to think about it at all and presume that the only people who need to know more about it are doctors, priests and philosophers. After all that is their job.

Yet time and time again, each and everyone of us is confronted with the inevitability of death. We are all touched by it at one time or another, especially when someone we love suddenly passes on. The realisation that life is so transient can be very painful and overwhelming.

These thoughts finally force us into thinking about death – is it the end of everything for that person? Is there life beyond it? One day we all must die! Why should death be a complete mystery to us?

People’s ideas about life after death often come from a variety of different belief systems offered by teachings of spiritual leaders, religious creeds or sects. For many, life after death is a matter of complete faith in whatever explanations have been given to them. Others believe in nothing at all and refuse to accept anything beyond that, which can be physically seen or heard. They argue that no- one has ever returned from the dead to prove otherwise. There are thus two distinct groups of people. One group believes in life after death and the other group does not, but is life after death a matter of faith or a fact of life? For many years now, death has been researched not only by churches and individuals interested in spiritual matters but also by doctors and scientists, people who are interested in facts that provide evidence of life after death. This branch of science goes by the name of Thanatology (from the Greek ‘thanatos’ meaning ‘death’).



Near-death experiences

Near death experiences form a particularly important part of this research. Hundreds of reports of such experiences have been collected worldwide. They detail experiences of people returning to life having already been presumed dead and what happened to them during those moments on the verge of life in the beyond. In the nineteen-seventies, the American physician and philosopher, Dr. Raymond Moody, published a book in which he gathered together the stories of dozens of patients from a great variety of backgrounds, telling of their own near-death experiences.

What is fascinating is that accounts given by interviewees corresponded closely with each other and showed astonishing similarities. One would have expected that the cultural and social background, beliefs and personal experiences, so unique to people’s lives, would also have made a difference in their experiences close to death. However, they often tell exactly the same story. Dr. Moody describes certain typical experiences that occur while suspended at the threshold of death. “ A person is dying. Just as his physical pain gets really bad, a doctor says he is dead. All of a sudden he hears strange sounds, like a piercing ringing and buzzing and is propelled through a long dark tunnel. He is still in the same environment as before but realises that he is no longer inside his own body. He views his body from a distance, just as if he were a spectator himself. Full of emotional turmoil, he can only look on helplessly while attempts are made to resuscitate him. After a while he pulls himself together and realises he still has the use of a body but it is very different from the physical body he has just left behind. He gradually gets used to this new way of being” until, suddenly, the attempts at resuscitation take effect and he is drawn back into his physical body”.

It is well known that victims of serious accidents have often been able to observe everything that goes on around them while in this out-of-body state. Another common experience is the flashback. Images of the past flash through the person’s mind. It is just like seeing a film of one’s whole life. All the major phases and turning points and even events from childhood are revealed to the mind’s eye. The person is made aware of all that he has experienced in his life.

What are we to make of all this? The reports of the thanataologists don’t really provide us with proof for life after death as they only describe the dying moments rather than the life that might continue afterwards. We need to look further. However, before we go on, we should remember that the common experiences of death are too vivid and impressive to be dismissed as mere imagination. The things that have been described to us give us a clue to the fact that it is possible to have further experiences after the moment of physical death.



What is life?

In order to understand death and have
the right concept of what it actually means, we need to understand life. What is life? Does life exist in what is material only, does it relate to the existence of our physical bodies? Where does it come from? Scientifically speaking the answer to this is straightforward and simple: we just don’t know! There are plenty of definitions and assumptions concerning the concept of “life”, but ultimately all the attempts to explain and describe this phenomenon remain unsatisfactory. We have not yet established scientifically what life really is.

However, it is an established fact that it was impossible for the world we live in, to come into existence out of itself. Why is everything in and around us moving and alive? Where does the pulsating energy, the life force, which streams through Creation come from? Many people, in wondering about the answers to these questions, acknowledge a higher power as the driving force behind everything that has life, behind everything which has taken on form. Even Nobel-prize recipient, Albert Einstein (1879-1955), whose work fundamentally changed the world-view of modern physics, openly acknowledged God and coined the phrase which has remained so important to this day: “Natural science without religion is lame!” But he also said: “Religion without Natural science is blind!”, because a faith without being both logical and objective can never be convincing, but only remain blind faith!



Is there a beyond?


The first important question regarding life
after death, is whether there could be a sphere or plane ‘beyond’ death, in which a human soul could continue to exist? It is clear to all religious or spiritual people who have already come to acknowledge and recognise the existence of a higher power, that there are many things which are invisible to us. In fact scientists can show us, with appropriate instruments, that there are many things which just cannot be perceived by our five senses. Many pragmatic scientists have come closer to a concept of the ‘beyond’ in the course of their investigations into the ‘microcosm’. For example, Franz Moser, Professor at the University of Graz in Austria has written a book called “Consciousness in Space and Time”. In this book, he explains why there has to be another reality which does not conform to our current ideas of time and space and that the theories we have to date are no longer relevant. He points out the parallels between science and religion in their interpretations about how things come into existence. The following simple definition can be used; the beyond is that which lies beyond our five senses. It encompasses everything which cannot be directly measured or observed with the aid of technology. This shows the real crossover between the worldviews of both religion and science.

The ‘beyond’ within us

Now there is of course the question; what has this ‘ethereal’ world, so incomprehensible to science, got to do with us? If it is assumed that the human being comprises only the sum of its parts (skin and bones), which are easily perceptible and measurable in a material way, then the existence of the non- physical (the ‘beyond’) would be meaningless for us. Yet our existence as human beings does not lie only in what is material or physical. What characterises us most as human beings is our humanity. This humanity consists of qualities that make us human. Some of these are: our perceptiveness, our sense of love and justice, our free will and the associated responsibility as well as the appreciation of beauty and a need for expression in art and culture. But all of the above have nothing to do with the physical world –they actually originate in spheres within us that are beyond physical functioning – the ‘beyond’ within us, so to speak.

The inner life so familiar to us, our thoughts, intuitive perceptions and emotions – our ability to experience life and make sense of it, increasing awareness – this is the true portrait of human spirituality. All of this, like life itself, can neither be weighed nor verified, yet none would question that love, beauty, grace and loyalty exist. We can consciously perceive moments that are full of life but cannot physically hold onto them nor reproduce them using some form of technology. What is more, the most progressive, responsive, fastest and most adaptable “artificial intelligence” can never contain the consciousness that is capable of experiencing life with human awareness. It is exactly those abilities which are non-material and ‘other-worldly’ that make us human. From this we can only conclude that our ‘inner core’, the ‘ego’ that is conscious of itself, must in fact be completely independent of the physical body. It is not for no reason that one often says ‘my body’ – the word ‘my’ implying actual ownership and possession of the body. The owner who is the real ‘I’ or the living consciousness within the mechanical body, is independent and transcends the physical. It matures through life experiences but remains untouched by bodily changes and in that sense does not ever grow old. Our knowledge of near-death experiences helps us to understand that there is something within us that lives on even after death and, therefore, that life after death is possible.



The Soul of Man

People often make fun of believers who are convinced of the soul’s immortality and accuse them of wishful thinking. But we have already seen that the origins of the conscious ‘inner world’ can only exist in non-physical and other worldly spheres. So we can in fact define the soul as being our living ego – the seat of our spiritual consciousness. At the same time it is also the animating force at the core of our physical body. Picture this simply to yourself: the spiritual ‘ego’ of the soul attaches itself only temporarily to the earthly body. The soul is what makes us human and is immortal but the body is subject to decay. Physical death for the conscious ego is just like taking off one’s coat – laying aside something which covers you like a cloak or leaving behind an instrument which has been useful to you. Death does not mean that we ourselves die because ‘we’ are not our ‘bodies’. Yet, our physical body will die if it is abandoned by the soul that animates and enlivens it.

The soul contains a small spirit-spark which bears life-force within. It shapes the body and gives life to it so long as they are linked together. Physical death only occurs when this invisible connection between body and soul finally dissolves. The process of dying is nothing more than the separation of the physical and ethereal bodies as the link is broken. This crucial knowledge of the separateness of body and soul is still alive within people today and clues to the great mystery of death are often found in the language of proverbial expression. A good example of such a popular saying is: “Eating and drinking keep body and soul together”.

So there is a uniting force, a type of radiation-connection that exists between the body and soul. The blood plays an important and decisive role in this radiation-connection. It builds the foundation for the physical health of every individual. Often during a time of sickness, when the radiation-connection between the body and soul seems to weaken, it is said that the person is ‘not quite together’. In this we also have the key to the whole of our life on earth.



Sleep and dreaming

For a long time people haven’t really given much thought to what actually happens during sleep and what human beings actually experience. And just like death, sleep itself has never been regarded as a very interesting subject….

It is not only illness that can cause a weakening of the link between body and soul. Every time we go to sleep the connection between body and soul naturally loosens. It is not for no reason that sleep is often termed the “little brother of death”. Each night we find that we are in fact able to have experiences without using our physical body. It has long been established that everyone dreams vividly at night. Assuming that the purpose of sleep is bodily repair and regeneration and that the loss of consciousness takes place in order to provide the brain with rest and relaxation, one would expect there could be no other type of activity at these times of rest! On the contrary, sleep researchers have observed people in very animated dream states while they are still asleep.

The fact that the person is dreaming at different stages throughout the night can be monitored physiologically in phases by fast and erratic movement of the eyes behind closed lids. This type of sleep phase, which occurs every 90 minutes, approximately, and lasts on average at least 45 minutes is now termed REM- sleep (REM = Rapid Eye Movements).

When a person wakes up after one of these phases, he sometimes becomes aware of what he has been dreaming because this intense dreaming has now passed into his day consciousness. The dreams are vivid experiences even though they occurred during sleep when all the muscles of the body were at rest. It doesn’t make sense that the human being is able to have experiences while the body is unable to move. However, it does lead us to the assumption that the body does not bring about experiences by itself. It can only act out things that have already taken place on another level i.e. in the beyond, or as it is often described, the ethereal world. Observations that have been made during REM sleep support this conclusion further. The sequences of a person’s eye movements seem to correlate to certain dream phases. And most importantly of all, the speed of experiences during a dream points to the fact that the soul is wandering through planes or spheres which are beyond the usual earthly conceptions of space and time. Within just a few seconds we live through a long period of time, in which this experiencing seems just as ‘real’ as that of time spent awake.

Our dreams provide us with yet another clue to the fact that our ego is able to have experiences without the physical body. Sometimes when the connection between body and soul actually loosens and the soul ‘lifts off’ into other regions, the body gives a physical jerk. This sudden jerk marks the time when the energetic frequency or radiation of the physical body diminishes into a resting –mode and the soul is free to wander. On waking this connection fastens tightly again. Thus the main difference between sleep and death is that with physical death, the connection between body and soul is permanently cut off rather than temporarily loosened.



When is a human being actually dead?

Now when does this separation of the soul from the body actually occur? From the medical point of view, brain death is currently what determines the death of a person. This means that a person is regarded as officially dead when signs of brain activity can no longer be detected. However if we consider that death is also a type of ‘birth’ into the beyond when an ‘ethereal’ part of the human being separates itself to move into a different sphere – we form an entirely different picture. In fact the physical body is a type of earthly cloak worn by the spirit, which is discarded on death. Depending on the individual circumstances, the radiation -connection proverbially known as the “silver cord” can remain in place for a shorter or longer period of time, even after brain-death. The physical body ages or dies but never the internal living spirit or ego of the human being which is capable of experiencing in a non-physical way.

This life-giving connecting cord between body and soul has been known since biblical times. It was called the silver cord by Solomon in the Old Testament (Ecclesiastes 12.6) and has frequently been seen by clairvoyants. The time of separation is not just determined by the physical body becoming cold but by the dissolution of the silver cord, Another important factor is the psychic state of the dying person who wishes to pass over. Death is always an incisive turning point – a dramatic experience for the one who is passing on as well as for those people, personally connected to him, who must remain behind without him.

A relative who really loves this person must be able to put aside his own pain in saying his farewells and make it easier for their beloved to take this step into the beyond. Otherwise the dying person will be held back by the pain of separation from the people he loves and become preoccupied with their obvious grief instead of with his own steps forward. The actual moment of separation from his body may be quite a joyful one especially when he is leaving behind a physical covering that has been marred by the pain of disease and old age.

In the Grail Message the following explanation is given:

Those, however, who are present at a death bed should take warning not to break out into loud lamentations! When grief at parting is to strongly expressed, the person in the process of detaching himself, or who is perhaps already standing beside his body in ethereal form, may hear or feel it and be emotionally disturbed by it. If then pity awakens in him, together with the wish to say a few words of consolation, this again binds him more strongly to his physical body through the desire to make himself understood by the grief-stricken mourners. He can only make himself understood on earth by the use of his brain. This effort, however, makes for a closer connection with the physical body, and indeed this is a necessary condition. The result is that not only does an ethereal body still in the process of detaching itself re- unite itself mores closely to the physical body but, if it is already standing detached beside the physical body, it will be drawn back into it once more. The final result is that he will once again feel all the pains from which he had already been delivered. When the process of detachment is renewed it is much more difficult, and may even last for some days. This brings about the so-called prolonged death struggle, which becomes really painful and difficult for the soul wanting to depart. The blame lies with those who, through their selfish grief, have called it back from its natural course of development. (…) Therefore absolute quiet should reign in the chamber of death, a dignity and seriousness corresponding to the importance of the hour! People who cannot control themselves should be forcibly removed, even if they be the nearest relatives.



Awakening of the dead

The “silver cord” also explains how a human being can actually return to life despite established brain-death. It is possible as long as the connecting “silver cord” between the soul and the physical body is still alive. Exactly how Jesus miraculously brought the dead back to life can be explained in the context of a type of reawakening. The disciples Luke and John reported three such incidents of reawakening in the New Testament i.e. the daughter of Jairus (Luke 8,54), the youth of Nain (Luke 7,14) and perhaps the best known story that of Lazarus (John 11,41).

Whoever has been able to experience the passing on of a human being without being overwhelmed by grief and pain may be able to look back on this experience as the most natural thing in the world, as an event which can sometimes even be a happy time. It would never occur to him to associate this lifeless, decaying piece of matter (i.e. the physical body that has been left behind) with the human spirit who used to occupy it. Instead he could try to make contact with the departed soul telepathically. To view things in this way really helps the departing soul. When people are finally able to understand death, they will see that it is not the end of everything. Death is closely connected with life beyond the physical world. The knowledge of this becomes a growing conviction that leads them to understand their responsibilities in terms of their own behaviour in Creation and its impact on other people. Suddenly it becomes obvious that there is no escape from the inevitable consequences of wrong actions and harmful deeds. This awareness of the consequence may lead one to change one’s attitude!

Certainly it is convenient to believe that everything comes to an end in death and that we have no obligations in life and therefore no implications for bad behaviour. Why struggle to ennoble oneself spiritually if everything comes to an abrupt end anyway and it does not matter whether one was ‘good’ or ‘bad’? Why concern oneself with spiritual principles, matters of conscience, moral dictates or even just the simple love of one’s neighbour? To believe that everything comes to an end in death is simply wrong because it goes against the very meaning of life!

How does Nature manage to develop and ripen what was originally just a seed? The seed becomes rooted in the earth and Nature nurtures it with the elements by alternating day and night, sunshine and rain, heat and cold. Basically we are just the same as germinating seeds: our ego is rooted in the physical body. It matures by undergoing a variety of different and shifting experiences from the world around us – both pleasant and unpleasant. What rests like a seed within us is meant to blossom and flower – our ability to feel, perceive and to experience, our very humanity is meant to grow and develop. The longing that we bear deep within us is always meant to strive towards the spiritual light just as any plant depends on light for its growth and development. But what would be the purpose of developing consciousness in such a way, if the human ego were to be suddenly destroyed by death and all experiences wiped out as if they had never taken place at all? What would be the point? Why should the development of human spiritual consciousness be devoid of purpose and meaning? Particularly when all else in Creation is so full of purpose!

There is just no basis for such an assumption! Death, just like life, is a totally natural event and takes place within the framework of a great design – the design of Creation! It is difficult to perceive this greatness and naturalness with just our intellect, which is after all only a small part of us. Nothing sinister or unnatural happens to us when we die. It does not lead us into the unknown but neither does it lead us straight into heaven to be welcomed with open arms. But it does open the gate to our inner life – real life. Whatever waits for us beyond death is really only what we already have inside us e.g. all our inner thoughts and perceptions. These are the results of our inner life and they follow us into the territory beyond death. We prepare heaven or hell for ourselves through the things we have already formed inside. We will never experience separation or a feeling of being adrift and will never feel homeless because the reality of this world and the next are one and the same – one inseparable unity. So, our existence will not come to an end. Death just brings us the experience of transformation.

In some denominations it is thought that the resurrection of the dead begins on a set day in the future, awakening all of us from the dead at the same time – this is unimaginable! In reality we continue to live immediately after laying aside our physical cloak. Passing beyond death changes neither our strengths nor our weaknesses. It does not have a bearing on the knowledge we carry inside. The only thing that we will all immediately experience when we die – is that life does go on!

Depending on the nature of the inner life of each individual, this fact will make us joyful or sad. The crucial question is: has one used one’s life for the God-willed purpose of developing human consciousness or has one chosen to miss out on the actual purpose of existence? The results of one’s life become immediately clear on passing over. It can be a deeply unsettling experience to discover that one has failed and that this failure is a grave transgression. This is often reported in near-death experiences.

In his book “Life beyond Death”, Arthur Ford describes what it is like to gain such awareness: “Filled with guilt I took stock of my life. It wasn’t a pleasant picture. The usual mundane sins, which I had been warned about as a child, went unnoticed. But there was deep concern about offences such as selfishness, egotism, or ignorance. The word ‘waste’ came up again and again – not in the sense of excesses or negligence, but the wasting of energies, talents and opportunities…”

If we were able to recognize that the truth is always simple then our ideas about life in the beyond would encompass the idea that death is something completely natural. The fear of death should fall away from us naturally as soon as we understand what really happens when we die. As soon as we know that life after death is an absolute certainty, we would finally be able to make room for a new sense of responsibility. We could endeavour to live a scrupulous life - serving our fellow human beings and the further development of Creation and uplifting our surroundings. If true humanity were the basis of our actions, we wouldn’t need to worry about self-development – growth would be guaranteed! Therewith we fulfill the true purpose of our lives as no opportunity for learning could pass by unnoticed![/b][b][/b][b][/b][b]

culled from grail-uk.net