DEATH #2

DEATH RITUALS

These are important. The dead want to feel cared for, to know they mattered. Hence obituaries, accolades, flowers, incense or anything they would have like or asked for should be honored.

This includes whether they wanted cremation or burial. The death stone should be appropriate to their wishes. The ashes should be attended to according to what they wanted or would have wanted. Prolonged grief and mourning as well as not having their requests fulfilled can delay the transition of the soul and keep it earth bound.

VISITATIONS

 

The soul may linger on the earth plane after burial for up to a month or more before crossing the veil between the worlds for a period of transition before rebirth. If the soul is perfected it enters the Causal Realm or the Pure Land of Buddhism or Garden of Eden of Kabbalah.

 

 During the earth bound period there may be visitations. 

Spirits can visit to announce their death to someone who may be far away and unable to hear the news. 

They also visit for closure and to ask for or give forgiveness. 

They may come to complain if there are disputes amongst the living re the will or other issues. 

Sometimes they need to inform someone about a vital matter that they had neglected while alive. 

It is not unusual for someone to pass a message from the spirit onto a loved one that the latter has been unable to receive. This may even be a stranger who is receptive to receiving messages from the dead.

 

Tibetan Buddhists look at the dream time as preparation for the Astral Imaginal realm after death. They say, as do other mystics, that the dream state is no different to the stages of death. 

Death goes through three basic stages, death, transition through the intermediate stage in the Astral and then rebirth. 

Sleep also has three stages, deep dreamless sleep, travel into the Astral Imaginal realms during R.E.M. sleep where we may encounter our guides or ancestors (usually reconciling with their karma) and then rebirth into a new day. 

Death > Intermediate Stage > Rebirth

Dreamless Sleep > Dream/REM Sleep > Awakening

By knowing one is dreaming one can better prepare for the Astral realm when dead and not getting lost across the veil. Lucid dreamers are more likely to be adept in this. 

Mystics seek to pierce the veil of Maya (illusion) to glimpse transcendent truth and awaken out of the illusion of life’s dream which is no different to the dream of sleep. They recognize sleep as preparation for the Bardot, the intermediate stage of death before rebirth.

Mahayana Buddhists and tantric Tibetan practitioners can practice entering the initial stages of the death experience short cutting the cord.

 

PROOF

Many scientists and doctors disagree that there is life after death or that consciousness resides outside of the brain. Research on Near Death Experiences helps to dispute this dogma and give us an idea of what to expect when we pass on. Although some have negative experiences most will describe it as life changing. Usually after traveling out of body they described it as going through a tunnel and then breaking into the light. This light feels like unconditional love and creates a sense of total bliss. The person then comes across a sort of barrier; a gate, a river or a lake or just the presence of a guide who tells them to go back, that it's not their time yet. When they come back, often reluctantly, they usually are never the same and are induced to go on a spiritual path. Children may have similar experiences. 

Although conventional medicine will interpret this as being due to hallucinations due to chemical changes in the brain from a lack of oxygen this does not seem to be the case. N.D.E. researchers have discovered some unusual facts relating to the person traveling out of body. They can recall  details of everything that happened during the resuscitation and conversations of loved ones even in the waiting room. One patient described seeing a sneaker on the ledge of the hospital as she ascended outside of it. The sneakers presence was confirmed by the researcher.

 Eben Alexander, a Harvard  trained neurosurgeon who never believed in N.D.E.'s changed his mind after he had his own and wrote a book on it called Proof of Heaven. 

Tibetan Budddists have documented similar experiences from folks who appeared to have died and came back. They are call Delogs, the most famous being Darma Drolma who described her experiences beyond the veil which lasted five days. 

More recently researchers have reported the Shared Crossing Experience where someone who is receptive can travel part of the way with the dying one.

The San Kalahari Bushmen are able to travel out of body in their out of body, spirit flight, trance dance. They call it the Little Death during which they can converse with the spirit world and attain information, not localized in space and time to help the clan. They ascend on what has been described as "Ropes to God." They return through this same connection of soul to body. Unexperienced initiates can sometimes  lose touch with these 'Ropes' and have a real death. 

Solomon in Ecclesiastes describe a silver cord that connects the soul to the body and allows the soul to find its way back. When we travel into the Astral realm in our dreams we are always connected to this cord. It has been said that when we have a startling awakening this can be due the soul coming back into the body after dream travel.