There must be a bigger picture

Excerpt from

Email Questions to a Near Death Experiencer (ebook)

by Diane Goble

 

Hello Diane,

My name is Tony and I'm a musician. My father went through a very horrid death. He had liver cancer and he was an alcoholic. He was given a month prognosis and died 2-1/2 weeks later. I was fifteen at the time and actually seeing him die was something that's never left me. Death is a subject that has fueled my art and music. The mysterious/unknown part of it scares the life out of me. I feel so bad that I doubt so much. I've heard so many stories of going thru a painless death and waking up in glory and I just can't quite believe all of it. I guess my main fear is that once you're dead you're dead and that is it. I also mourn for all of the people I see in old gray photos and i wonder if they are all alright or if they are just decomposing corpses never to be heard from again. I mean, they all had families just like we do. I just can't bear the thought of humanity being a mistake and there not being a bigger picture. I just can't deal with the thought of my own extinction. I can deal with a painless death, even a young death as long as I know once and for all that there really is a God and an afterlife. Are you sure that you experienced the other side? I do believe in God but I have a hard time dealing with life and death.

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Dear Tony,

How do you know that what you are experiencing right at this moment is not a dream? If you are dreaming, are you the dreamer or are you in the dream? How can you tell a dream from reality? When you're lucid dreaming, you're dreaming while awake so how do you know which state is reality? What if we live in a multi-dimensional universe with many different realities... how do we determine which is the real reality? Or can we exist in multiple realities at the same time? Are we more than just this physical body or is this skin just a coat we wear while on earth?

I'm as sure as I can be that I experienced another side... what side I'm not sure, but definitely a different reality than this one. One that is extremely similar to this one, yet not. Perhaps not the same place other NDErs have experienced, and not like the place described in the Bible or other so-called sacred texts, but definitely another place.

I was like you, thought the same kinds of thoughts, can't say I believed in God, Heaven, Hell, Angels, life after death, none of it... nice thought, but it just didn't make sense to me. I'd likely still see it that way if God hadn't whacked me upside the head and said, here I am! A near death experience is certainly a good way to wake someone up but it's only necessary for the most stubborn among us. Then I'm given the job of waking others up without giving them an NDE. Gee thanks, God!

Now you have to make a choice here, Tony, before I say any more. You say your fear of the unknown has fueled your art and music because it scares the life out of you... powerful motivation! What if something I said turned on the light and the darkness went away? What if you found inner peace and joy in living as a spiritual being having human being experiences? Would you be able to raise your art and music to a new level to reflect your new found bliss in knowing that life goes on and we are all part of a greater plan that goes on in many dimensions for all eternity? Or are you too comfortable in your cave and don't really want to change? Let me know.

Peace & Joy!

Diane

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Dear Diane,

Wow! I never thought that you would actually respond to me. I do sincerely believe in an afterlife and have dreamed about it ever since I understood mortality. I guess all of the negative, horrific, and terrible scenarios I've seen of death has fueled my fear over the years. If all one saw from death was the agony and pain of the end of someone's physical existance and not the transformation from physical to spiritual their idea of death (and life) would be very narrow, wouldn't it? I think I have seen so much pain and misery associated with death that I fear the same will be for me.

I must say then that you are very lucky to have died. And I mean that seriously. You got to "preview" where we are going and understand why we are here. You must be able to feel very content in your own skin. I think if all humanity knew for sure that there was an afterlife there wouldn't be so much negativity in this world. If we all knew of our immortality (as spirits) we would try to love more than hate. These are just ideas I think of when I think of an afterlife.

What did it feel like when you left your body? What did it look like when you first saw outside your body? Did you know you were dead as soon as you looked out of your body? What senses did you have?

I don't mean to come across as a hostile skeptic, because I'm not. I just have had a hard time trusting people's words in my life and death is the biggest subject I've had to deal with and I don't want to be unprepared for what may await me. I guess since every religion has told me different stories I chose to believe that you blackout after indescribable pain, torture and misery. Kind of the "wrath of nature" scenario. And I don't want to just take somone's word for it. But NDErs experiences are the only one's that make any sense out of the lot. I suppose it comes down to this...you have experienced the other side, I have not, at least not to any great degree, experienced it. I believe in humans that have seen it more than those who preach about it.

I very much enjoy your words and outlook, i think you really are here to calm humanities fear of death. What an awesome life mission to have. I think it is definitely something needed.

Thanx, Tony

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Dear Tony,

Even though we may face a horrible death, the moment we cross over, all that is behind us. We immediately forget any pain and suffering we might have gone through prior to that moment. Even if we are murdered or tortured or have a terrible disease or come face to face with a tsunami as many did the other day... the reason is that we are not our bodies. We are spiritual beings having human being experiences. When that experience is over we go on with the rest of our lives, of which our human being experience was just a part, a phase we went through, like childhood.

When I left my body, I had a momentary blackout because I don't remember leaving my body , just reawakening above the river looking down. At first I was so in awe of my vantage point, I didn't realize I was dead. Everything looked just like it does when in body and I had all my senses, even more so. I wasn't any more aware of having a body than I am normally (but I'm not very body conscious normally), it didn't occur to me at any time to look to see if I had a body, but I can't say that I felt body-less. I was still me.

If you meditate (after a good deal of practice), you get this feeling of floating out and away from your body. You are still who you are, you're just lighter (free of gravity, free of physical limitations). It's a glimpse into crossing over and can bring you peace of mind that there is nothing to fear. What I teach in Transition Guide training is how to practice dying so that when you do, you'll know exactly where you are and what to do when the time comes for an even more peaceful transition. I'm not saying that it's all bliss... one's experience will be based on how one lived their life and the thoughts they dwelled on most often. We all will have to face what we denied in life as part of the process... and it is a mental process, a learning experience, not one of torment and punishment. But with practice, one doesn't experience helplessness and lack of control. Knowing that puts a new perspective on this life and how one lives this life because it is the one we need to be paying attention to at this moment.

Peace & Joy!

Diane

~ ~ ~

Diane,

Thank you so much for your response. I think that when all is said and done I am going to be sad when I die because of leaving my friends. I guess if I didn't have anyone or anything in this world death wouldn't mess with me so much. I guess I just love a lot of people and want to have that security of knowing they'll be with me. I don't mean to sound weird but I truly love this world and can see all the good that comes out of it. I see so much good and then see something horrific and my world perception changes, ya know. I've kept optomistic all my life. Sometimes I'll just sit and try to remember before I was born, but I guess it doesn't work that way. In your first letter you asked me if I could still make powerful music/art with a different perspective on life and death. I say yes. I would be able to make very good music. So my question is-how can you help me get piece of mind?

Thank You Diane… Tony

~ ~ ~

Dear Tony,

I can assure you that you won't be sad when you die because you won't be leaving your friends. I realize it's difficult to comprehend how that can be but as much as you think you love people now, you will feel greater love for them when you cross over and you'll realize that we are never really separated from each other or God, it is only that when we are human, we think we are separate. From our perspective on the other side, our lifetime on earth, however long, was like stepping out for a cup of coffee and coming back to work. Time is relative. We come and go from our spiritual home for an adventure on earth and return having learned something important to our spiritual development. We travel with familiar others in and out of lifetimes on earth but our true home is in the spiritual dimensions.

I can only assure you that peace of mind is possible with freedom from fear of death... as long as you know it's a possibility you can take steps to achieve it. Wherever your thoughts dwell, life will take you so mind your thoughts. Meditation is a helpful tool for learning to listen to the Silence. When you find the Silence, you'll find God (or whatever you want to call it). Stopping one's thoughts as well as stopping negative thoughts is a process of reconditioning and there are many techniques available. Once learned, the desired altered state can be achieved automatically and a feeling of peace washes over the body. If you can get lost in your music, you know the feeling I'm talking about... when nothing else exists but this moment. When you realize this is the truth of existence, that you are both a drop of water and the ocean. Everything is in a continuous state of change... there are no beginnings and no endings... we have always been and, no matter what else happens, will always be.

Peace & Joy!

Diane

© 2008 Diane Goble