Every one of us has to face that unthinkable moment eventually. Most of us choose to ignore it until it claims one of our loved ones, or we find ourselves plunging head first into our own terminal situation, unaware and-above all else-unprepared. I was introduced to death at an early age. My grandfather was the first one to visit me in my dreams after he died. What he showed me during that very real experience suggested a whole new way of viewing life and death. In the dream, I found myself on a river bank. The dream then underwent a succession of transformations until it became a real-time visitation. As I stood there, I noticed someone beside me. When I turned to see who it was, I was awestruck. It was my deceased grandfather, smiling at me. I almost didn’t recognize him, because he was so much younger. I never knew him when he was so young. This was not the man I’d seen wither away from cancer. He was young and vibrant beyond description. Then he turned to look at something beyond the river, on The Other Shore, and as he did, I noticed him change. He was glowing now from what he saw. On the other side of the river was something so beautiful, so unexplainably brilliant that he was speechless. When he turned back to me, his face was glowing. He had tears of joy running down his cheeks that spoke volumes. No words can describe the love and excitement I saw in his face. My grandfather then gestured for me to look into the light, but I could not. I could tell from the indirect glow on his face and the ground around him that this light was brighter than any sun. I said, “I’m sorry grandpap, I can’t. It’s too bright.” I then knelt down in front of him with my back to the light, which I knew beyond a doubt was where we all came from and where we will all one day return. I knew this was our true home, and one day I would be able to look upon it as my grandfather had. I woke up abruptly from the dream, with tears on my face. I lay there, numb and motionless, wondering how that could have possibly been a dream. What I witnessed, in that brief time, felt more real than anything I had ever encountered in my life. I felt as though I had been to the gates of heaven with my grandfather, and no one could make me believe anything different. This dream was my first hint of an afterlife. Many more such journey’s followed, taking me to that place of new beginnings; that place of eternal memories. Over the years, I experienced many more dream-realm visitations. I learned that there is a definite difference between dreams that remind us of past interactions with our departed loved ones and dreams of a very real time-visitation. My visitation encounter with my grandfather was the first time I viewed death differently. I no longer saw death of the flesh as the end, because we are much more than our bodies. We are eternal beings of thought and emotion! Granted, our physical bodies eventually die and return to the carbon elements from which they were formed. But our consciousness, our personality, our emotions, and our interactions with other living creatures cannot die. From that moment forward, I saw death as a transition, a change from one form of life to another. I began to see death as a new birth into something greater, and I was determined to prove it. Years later, after attending many more transitions with family, friends and hospice patients, I began to talk to those left behind. People shared many stories of their deceased loved ones contacting them. The stories were all different, but the message was the same. We do live on after we die. Everything that matters most in our lives continues¬-our love shared, lessons learned, and memories will never die. Everything that makes up our personality lives on forever. We are all blessed with a spark of creation, and that spark grants us life anew, even after a horrible physical death. As my own personal experiences continued, and I heard similar stories from others, I knew it was no coincidence. There were just too many accounts to dismiss. Family, friends, and hospice staff and patients have all shared their stories with me of how loved ones contacted them after they died. Of course, no scientific basis supports this, and there will always be skeptics when science cannot prove something through physical experimentation. Yet one of the most amazing things I have discovered over the years is that sometimes the people we think are the least spiritual or religious and the most factual (in other words, logical) are often the ones who come through the strongest after they leave their physical body. It is like they feel the need to let us know that there is something after we die. The Other Shore is a testament to this ongoing dialog that keeps us connected to our loved ones forever even beyond the grave. Is it possible that the same levels of mind that take us on journeys during the night in our dreams or lifts us outside the physical body in deep meditation can also survive death? Can these alternative states of consciousness take us on a continuing journey of spirit even after the physical body has expired? If our levels of mind and perception change throughout our lives is it not possible conscious awareness transcends the dying process?
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