Questions on Spirituality & Death and Dying
Answers from Charlie and Barbara Whitfield.
Below are questions about spirituality from people who are in recovery and from those dealing with important questions about spirituality. You may find yourself identifying with some or all of the questions. They represent many common questions about spirituality and the struggle many of us have with ideas surrounding the matter.
"Our journey through life is..."
Barbara: An adventure! We're doing our "Hero's Journey" to quote Joseph Campbell. For those of us who are in middle to advanced recovery, we can begin to look back on our life and give it meaning. The wounding, the abuse, or neglect that we endured as a child becomes the strength that we need to heal beyond it. We lost our selves in the pain of our childhood and as we work our recovery plans we meet our selves again. If our abuse started early, we may be meeting ourselves for the first time. This authentic self that emerges has great wisdom in taking care of us and reaching out to safe others. It truly becomes the Hero's Journey filled with gratitude and peace. I don't know about those who weren't wounded as children. I'd love to hear from them.
Charlie: This question asks the perennial questions: Who am I? What am I doing here? Where am I going? And, how can I get any peace? The answer is in part, like God, a "Divine Mystery." Countless thinkers and explorers have answered this question in their own way, in their own time. It is up to each of us to do the same. Recovery offers us an opportunity, structure, and way to answer it experientially, and not just cognitively. The return is not just from the head to the heart to the spirit, but a discovery and integration of all three.
"Our journey beyond life is..."
B: I believe that the "bigger picture" of life is about learning to forgive ourselves and others, including our Higher Power. When we forgive, we don't let the other person off the hook – we take the hook out of our self. With every "act of forgiveness", we become more peaceful. We also learn in this process that forgiveness is a process. It's not a head-trip! My "grudges" against others is like a heavy metal chain. Each time I try to forgive, one link is taken out. Finally, my heart opens to me and the hook is taken out of me. Eventually, through this process, we learn compassion for ourselves and others. The compassion turns into unconditional love for all of creation and our trance is broken. Unconditional love is the only state where we are not projecting our unhealed traumas into our reality. Unconditional love stands clear, untouched by our past wounds. Unconditional love is the emotional component of Higher Power/Spirit's energy. It's the most powerful energy in the Universe.
C: Our journey is our own personal exploration of life and into it, not beyond it. Perhaps what you may mean is beyond an ordinary life, which is a false life run by our false self. The modern holy book A Course in Miracles talks about it as "…a journey without distance, to a goal that has never changed." My sense is that that means our journey (and goal) is to find self, others and God, which end up being all the same. To get there (which is already here and now, always) takes humility, which is being open to learning more cognitively and experientially about self, others and God. The healing process strengthens our chance at realizing this journey with out distance.
"To gain and maintain peace in our life now that will last through the entire journey we must..."
B: Give ourselves Unconditional Love. We start by practicing empathy – maybe toward others if we can't give it to ourselves. We listen to their story. We open to feel their story. Eventually the empathy turns into compassion. Compassion has to have an open heart. Then as we are telling our story, it hits us that we deserve the empathy and compassion too.
C: The interesting thing about your statement is the last word, must. What is so neat about the journey that God/Goddess/All-That-Is has given us is that there is no "must," unless we get locked in to believing so. Conventional organized religions tend to try to lock us in to believing only one way – their way. They try to intervene as an intermediary between us and God. That intrusion into our psycho-spiritual lives has not worked for a large number, perhaps a majority of us. Part of the Great Way that God has given us is through a freedom to find the answers for ourselves, in our own way and time. This has been traditionally called "Free will."
There is no way to gain and maintain peace in our lives. This is because it is our natural state that we don't need to attain or maintain because we already and always have it. But to realize It, we do generally have to learn some things about painful feelings that can overshadow our peace and distract us from it. This is part of the "learning to tolerate emotional pain" of recovery and life that we have talked about as being helpful in the healing process.
"I've heard of Elizabeth Kubler Ross' work on the stages of going through the dying process with someone. Are you suggesting something different? A different approach perhaps?"
B: I have met and studied with Elizabeth. Her stages were and are a good beginning foundation for learning about our relationship with grieving and our relationship with someone who is dying, including ourselves. My experience in helping people die has led me to believe that it takes us a step further. I have learned that the best way to help, is to stand back and be a witness—validate the feelings, problems, pain, needs and wants of the dying person. Negotiate what they need with the other grieving people nearby. In my suggestion I am also removing the order of the stages Elizabeth talked and wrote about. In the grieving process, It does us. We don't do it. If we can let go of always needing to control our inner life and let things come up naturally on their own, half the battle will be over. Grieving teaches us how to be natural and let go into the flow of life in a new way, including our inner life.
The most overwhelming lesson that I learned in doing my own grieving process is – there are feelings within me that are stronger than my will to control them. I had to give in and let them move and do at their own pace.
I am working on a new book with Steve Rother about what we are calling "Transition Teams." (People helping Souls in and people helping Souls out.) The reader can check back on this web site to order it when it is ready. And, I will be doing trainings with Steve that will be posted on this web site soon.
C: Elizabeth's original "stages" of grieving have been explored by many. It turns out that her original structure was somewhat stereotyped and rigid. While she described the basic nuts and bolts of grieving, it turns out that grieving is a much more diverse and fluid process regarding experience and especially time. There is no specific time limit that grieving takes. Key in the process is having safe others around us as we grieve. People who try to intervene with their own agendas on our personal process can actually slow or even block our ability to grieve. These may often be the original perpetrators and co-abusers of our traumas. They not only traumatized us, but they then blocked us from our natural ability to heal from the traumas.
"What exactly is a Near Death Experience (NDE)? What does it come from?"
B: About a third to 40% of the people who come close to death report leaving their bodies and even traveling to other realms. These reports come from people of all ages, religions, countries, and colors. The NDE is a universal experience that has been reported from the beginning of written history. Many debunkers would like us to believe that the NDE is no more than the brains last attempt to keep us alive by dumping chemicals that keep us euphoric to conserve energy – I have heard many explanations like this. As an experiencer myself, and as a researcher interviewing hundreds of near-death experiencers, I can say with my heart and my intellect that the NDE is real. We are moving from this reality into another realm. Near-death researcher, Kenneth Ring calls it "the imaginal realm." It appears that some of us are sensitive enough to be open to another realm or all of us go to this realm but only a third to 40% remember it.
C: I believe NDEs, whether we have one ourselves or hear about others' experiences, are another useful way to learn more about self, others and God.
"I think that I may have had a Near Death Experience, but I'm afraid to ask questions because of what people might think. What can I do to get some peace in this matter?"
B: There is an organization called The International Association for Near-Death Studies. (www.iands.org) They have brochures that might help. They also have support groups and can tell you if there is one in your town. If not, they can tell you how to start one.
My NDE happened in 1975. It wasn't until I meet Researcher Kenneth Ring in 1980 that I realized mine was an NDE. It is still very vivid in my memory, as vivid as it was 29 years ago. NDEs tend to stay clear and enduring over time. After the NDE, an experience usually develops in us over time as integrity and love for our fellow human. There is also an increased sensitivity to others pain that we learn to work with.
In the beginning, NDEs can fade quickly if we are shocked by the possibilities they represent. We don't want to believe it because it would overtake us. We may repress the memory only to have it come up later when we are ready to work with all the possibilities it can bring.
Ken Ring's (and Evelyn Elsaesser Valarino) latest book Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience has the most in depth analysis of the NDE
C: I didn't realize I had had an NDE in 1970, after having had a severe allergic reaction, until I saw Ken Ring talk about it and read some of his material. I may have repressed until the late 1970s when combined with daily meditation that I had been practicing since 1973 I began to awaken spiritually. We can address your question about peace in the next answer.
"I have heard that there are methods of reaching a 'spiritual awakening' or, 'enlightenment' through certain forms of meditation or Yoga. What does it mean to reach this form of 'spiritual awakening,' and how can I reach it safely?"
B: The journey is the point. The destination happens eventually but I've not focused on enlightenment only because it has too many ego inflating energies around it. Meditation and yoga are great gifts that I give myself daily. I meditate daily sometimes twice a day. I work in yoga and Tai Chi several times a week at my local wellness center where I also work out strenuously because I have realized over time that my body is my temple in this lifetime. My soul/spirit is hanging out in this body for as long as this lifetime continues. And, I don't like stress in my temple!
I also eat as much natural food as I can, nothing processed. I realized a while back that caffeine, nicotine, sugar, and alcohol destroy my peace and ability to feel connected to spirit (which really is the same.) I also find prayer helpful. Prayer sets my intention.
I pray every day to remember and stay connected to my spirit and that in turn stays connected to Spirit. When my inner life turns dark, I realize (quicker each time) that my PTSD is raising its ugly head. Something has triggered me and I have lost my connection to my spirit and Spirit. It is most apparent in the sense that I have lost myself. Prayer and meditation brings me back. It feels as though my real self that had disappeared – moves back in.
C: What we said above about our "journey" can apply here. I also found that daily meditation and prayer have been helpful, and I was an atheist until my mid-30s. Even though we each have to find are spirituality in our own way in our own time, I believe that spiritual practices of all sorts can help us during our journey back to self and God (from which we never left anyway, we just forgot, it seems.) These spiritual practices can include any of the above already mentioned such as meditation, prayer, and yoga. These other spiritual practices include reading spiritual literature, doing psychotherapy, and anything that will help us stay in the eternal now, which A Course in Miracles calls the "Holy Instant."
"I was brought up in a Christian household but have always been warned of any kind of 'enlightenment' from Eastern traditions. I am interested, however, and would like to enquire about it in a safe manner. How can I do that?"
B: After my NDE I went searching to find a teacher who would understand. I found many along my way that had pieces of the puzzle for me. I also found some that made me feel uncomfortable and I learned quickly to stay away from anyone that didn't feel safe. Those encounters had merit too because I was learning to listen to my true self by honoring my "gut" feelings. Today, I still follow that gut feeling with everyone I meet. I try to keep myself with healthy self-actualized people. I have studied many world religions, taken many classes and workshops on different kinds of deep mysticism. Every time, what I learned brought me back to my true self. We become enlightened when we come home to our true self, which is naturally connected to Spirit. Many of the world religions teach through the intellect and that doesn't take us home. The intellect takes us to more intellect. It is a head-trip.
The "way" home is through our heart and so the workshops and classes on how to get into our heart were the most helpful for me. The best help for me was psychotherapy, especially group psychotherapy. I learned compassion there, for others first and then myself. Once I had compassion I realized that is the way. The best discourses I have heard on compassion are by the Dali Lama. I love when people try to corner him about enlightenment and he laughs and says "I don't know." "Don't Know" is a high place spiritually. All I do know is that I have come from a place of deep wounding from my childhood and now I have pretty much healed. So when I am having a peaceful life, nothing is rocking my boat so to speak, I am my true self and I can more easily feel my connection to Spirit. I really "don't know" about enlightenment but I know I have come home to myself.
C: Why would any religious folk warn about other ways to God if they felt secure that their preferred way worked well? My sense is that a big part of organized religions' problems come from their own overactive collective and individual egos combined with their not having enough spiritual information. The way to get out of our ego is to heal our wounds and practice being our true self over time. The way to get more spiritual information is through daily spiritual practice and reading selected spiritual literature.
Spiritual literature that I have found helpful include the Tao Te Ching, A Course in Miracles, and The Urantia Book, to name a few. Exploring the Internet could be another interesting way to get more spiritual information. For example, I found some useful material on one of the great Indian sages Ramana Maharshi. Another is at Lightworker.com where Steve and Barbara Rother maintain a state of the art website about spirituality and enlightenment from yet another kind of teaching process, which is listening to the wisdom of discarnate entities. These are kinds of angels or beneficent souls who have experienced various lifetimes and are here giving us their spiritual experience and coaching from their perspective as they now live on the "other side" of "the veil."
"I have heard some people talk about using bio-feedback to reach a meditative state, but masters like Kriyananda say that biofeedback is only putting the mind in a restful state, not a true state of meditation. What are your thoughts on that matter?"
B: Meditation is about sitting in a relaxed state and over time, deeper levels will be revealed. We sit every day, usually at the same time with the intention of being relaxed; the relaxation takes us to the meditation.
I have found it better to follow the collective wisdom than to take the advice of one master. If I follow one master, I am again giving my personal power and authority away. Now, I listen to everyone and then I follow my own truth. I practice humility. I am open to learning about self, others and God by hearing what self, others and the God of my Understanding are telling me and then filtering my truth out. The experience of this feels like standing in the light of my own soul. Each one of us has our own truth and the paradox becomes: Standing in the light of my own soul takes me to my own personal truth which eventually shows me that we are all One Soul.
C: There are many kinds of meditation. The kind I learned was transcendental meditation, which also taught that the immediate benefit of meditation was feeling more peace and/or peaceful energy. Most any method of meditation that provides these will likely work, including using biofeedback.
"My mother is dying. She has been dying for a long time, but seems to be hanging on, waiting for something. She seems so sad. What could that mean and what can I do?"
B: I've learned much from my patients, relatives, and friends who I have been with during the dying process. As their physical energy weakens and transforms into stronger spiritual energy, I have been privileged to witness and experience that process. I have always prayed before each meeting to set the intention to be open and clear so that spirit could come through.
With my own mother, it wasn't that easy. I wrote my experience in my book Final Passage. I couldn't be the clear conduit I had experienced before. I thought I needed to protect myself from her pathology and I did. Over time, after she died, I learned many things about her and myself by being open to the grieving process.
When ever we "sit" with someone who is dying, of course our own past relationship comes in to play. If we can pray and set our intention, miracles can happen. I have seen it over time in many of the final passages of people I have known.
One more thing, if someone is hanging on, sometimes we may be the one that can help him or her to release by telling them, "It's all right to go now." We give them permission to let go. I have heard from spiritual teachers that each soul waits for another to give them permission to leave.
C: A dear friend and colleague, Sister Girard, who worked with a hospice in Springfield, Illinois in the mid-1970s, had a great saying. She prefaced it by reviewing the old admonition that we have all heard "Don't just stand there. Do something!" She said that when working with people who are dying we can constructively reverse that saying, as: "Don't just do something. Stand there!" We may feel compelled to do something in the sense that we want to fix their problems or pain. But this can be a great opportunity for us as well to learn more about our selves right now. Perhaps in prayer, we can surrender to the God of our Understanding as we ask for assistance in the presence of someone who is about to die. The Third Chinese Patriarch of Zen said: "The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences." See: HsinHsinMing
"My father died a few years ago. He was a very special person in my life, someone I was very close to. I just can't let him go and have been depressed and sad about that for a long time. How can I get past his death? How can I find some peace?"
B: There's a big difference between being depressed and being sad. When we grieve, sadness overtakes us and rules our life for quite a while. But there is movement. Eventually we move through sadness and make meaning out of our loss. When I am depressed, I am numb and there is no movement. Our societies use to make room for the grieving process. We had periods of time where we were supported on many levels by our group. Now, grieving has been reduced to a few days off work and than back to business as usual. Rather than honor healthy grieving, our society, as exemplified by drug companies, has convinced us that we are depressed and that drugs will relieve our pain.
Getting through the sadness of losing a loved one takes time, years. When I lost my dad, I had waves of sadness that would flow over me and take me, and then numbness set in between waves of sadness. The numbing served to help me take care of necessary chores. Then another wave of sadness washed over me and I sat with it. In the beginning, (after the initial several days of numbness during the period of the memorial service and burial) the cycles of sadness and numbness happened some four or more times a day. After a few months, the cycles continued 3 times a day. And so on until after a year, it happened about once a day.
Over the years, I have come to feel my father in my heart. All that he was to me in a positive way is carried in my memories and actually creates a warm feeling in my heart. All that he was to me in a negative way I continued to work on during the grieving period. Our relationship continued during that process and the negative memories have dropped away now leaving me with a warm relationship that I carry in my heart.
If we get stuck during the grieving process ("depressed") it may be helpful to find a therapist who specializes in "Grief Counseling." There are also self-help groups for grieving. If for some reason, you can't get out, they even have grieving self- help groups on the Net.
"Since my grandmother died a few years ago, I sometimes feel a presence near me that feels like the warmth I used to experience whenever I was around her. What should I make of that?"
B: The wonderful part about having a relationship with someone who has died is – there are no "shoulds" anymore. This is your call. This is your process of becoming comfortable with your own spiritual beliefs.
I have this experience often and it helps me to celebrate the Mystery (with a capital M.) Our reality is much bigger than our brain can take in. Our beliefs limit our reality. This is an opportunity for you to expand your beliefs and take in more of Reality (with a capital R.)
The brain is like a "reducing valve." When I was a respiratory therapist, we brought oxygen to our patient's bedside using a large green tank. At the top of the tank was a valve that took the 2200 pounds per square inch of gas pressure down to a gentle stream of 2 or 3 liters a minute. It reduced the tremendous pressure to a gentle breeze. The Mystery, or Reality, with a capital R, is analogous to the 2200 pounds of pressure. Reality in this specific circumstance is so huge and powerful that it would overwhelm us if we took it all in at once. Our brain is a reducing valve that allows as much reality in as we can tolerate. Sometimes, that works against us when our brain reduces Reality too much. That happens when our brain holds on to beliefs that are limiting.
Honoring the spiritual presence of our loved ones who are no longer in the physical realm may help to open the reducing valve to some extent.
. "The word "Spirituality" has a bad ring to it for me since I was brought up in a very conservative religious home. I don't feel comfortable with it. But, I feel like there is something that I'm missing and it seems to be in that very area. How can I overcome my problems surrounding spirituality?"
B: If you were brought up in a home where you were not comfortable with the religion/spirituality you were taught, this is a possible indication that your needs were not being met on other levels too. If religion turned us off to our natural ability to connect spiritually, we probably need to address those wounds before trying to embrace our natural birthright to connect on an experiential level. When we heal our True Self, we are naturally connected to the God of Our Understanding. Our childhood wounding is what gets in the way.
I have always considered each religion as a sort of "Brand name." Spirituality is the "generic" umbrella that covers All That Is. Some specific religions, especially the ones that teach that we are born in sin, are wounding us in a way that keeps us from experientially feeling our connection. Some religions teach that they, their priests, ministers, or rabbis are the bridge and we need them to connect. They take us away from our own ability to connect. They use shame and guilt to control.
Natural spirituality is within each of us. It is who we are. When we strip away the guilt and shame that we really didn't deserve as innocent children of God, we meet our true self and then if we choose we can experientially connect to a Higher Power.
"I am an atheist and have difficulty with the effusive notions that normally surround spirituality. I believe that approaching life and caring from the standpoint of human compassion is the highest good. How can I integrate your views of NDE, death, and dying into that context?"
B: The NDE teaches us compassion for our self and for others. And, we can continue being an atheist if we want to. However, over the years of practicing it, we may come to realize that compassion or Unconditional Love is the verb for a Higher Power.
When we experientially help someone die, we practice compassion.
"My daughter is afraid of death. What can I do to help her to overcome that fear?"
C: You don't mention how old she is. Assuming she is a young adult or adult, you can offer her some good books to read on this subject and then let her be. You can't take her fear away. Each of us needs to work on our own fears in our own time.
B: There is a web site www.emofree.com that offers a list of therapists by location, that have studied a process that works with fear. It is worth looking in to if fear has becoming an overwhelming force in your daughter's life. But then again, you can offer this to her and it is then up to her to make her own decision about what to do with all this.
"I've heard you talk about "Kundalini" energy. As I understand it, Kundalini is a source of a kind of cosmic energy that inhabits each one of us. How is Kundalini energy related to the NDE and death and dying?"
B: Kenneth Ring PhD has written extensively on this in his now classic book Heading Toward Omega. I was a subject in that book. We believe that the NDE may be a trigger for a Kundalini arousal.
According to the Eastern scriptures, Kundalini is the energy coiled around the base of the spine. It is brought up through spiritual practice over many lifetimes. The person then becomes "enlightened." All of their charkas (centers or levels of consciousness) are activated and if the aspirant is prepared -- balanced. Problems set in if the person was not ready for such a big opening or awakening. The scriptures teach that each aspirant needs to be prepared by being true of heart and ready to give his personal life to God in service to the divine.
The way I believe Kundalini works in a case where the person dies and doesn't return to this lifetime is: this energy ascends. When we die, the energy leaves through the top of the head and continues its journey. Our body dies, the energy continues.
In a deep near-death experience (what Ring refers to as a "core" experience – we meet the core of who we truly are – or possibly what we call the true self or Child Within) this energy begins to ascend, it detaches and moves -- activating chakras.1 Due to our modern life saving techniques or for other reasons, the person does not die. They return to life, only now they have activated a mechanism in themselves for which they were not prepared. Confusion sets in for the experiencer. His or her close others are just as confused. They want their "loved one" to go back to the way they were before their NDE. But the NDEr can't and doesn't want to go back. Their true self and a Higher Power have been revealed to them.
Of course, I believe this completely because I have not only interviewed hundreds of NDErs who have this same story, but also I had this experience and then had the same aftereffects. We were connected and now we are back here. The way that I found to experience this connection every day is through healing my wounds so that I could be my True Self. I peeled off the layers of my ego or false self so I could experientially live as my core or True Self. Besides psychotherapy, I practiced (and still do) meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, and assorted types of physical exercise to help this energy free itself from "energy blocks." (See my book Spiritual Awakenings, specifically the chapter on Kundalini energy and how it works, and Freeing blocked energy.)
As a body worker, I realized that these so called "blocks" happened when we were hurt either physically, emotionally or psychologically and not able to "discharge" the energy around our pain. This inability to "metabolize" our pain forms a block in our energy that was meant to flow naturally through our body. If our parents, or whoever was there during our wounding, don't allow us to name what happened, if we don't get validated for our wound, we are re-traumatized within moments of the first wounding.
The Eastern scriptures warn us over and over again not to try to raise this energy before we are spiritually ready. It appears to me that if this energy is raised while there are still numerous blocks in the energy body, the physical and mental bodies will not be able to tolerate the "rising." My book Spiritual Awakenings: Insights of the Near-death experience and Other Doorways to Our Soul goes into more depth on this entire subject.
"Kundalini is related to God's Universal Energy, also called The Holy Spirit. Although controversial some believe that while it is not identical to it, Kundalini may be related to prana which is ordinary biological energy that anyone focusing on their body can experience."
C: One night as I was about to fall asleep, I felt some vibrations moving from the base of my spine up toward my head over a perhaps 30 second time period. I felt several of these definite physical sensations. I knew these were some kind of physical energy, but didn't know exactly what to call them. I had a lot of stress in my life during that time, and had begun weekly acupuncture treatments. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Erica Lazaro, my acupuncture therapist, congratulate me as she named my experience as Kundalini.
B: The debate between which energy is which goes on and on. What is needed is more research by Western Science into this Eastern model. I am on a non-profit board of a research organization called the "Kundalini Research Network" where we are attempting to begin to research these questions.
"What is karma and how does it affect our lives?"
B: Your question addresses another part of the Divine Mystery. My NDE taught me the difference between humankinds' intellect working overtime to complicate everything as apposed to patiently experiencing life so that the answers will appear without becoming distracted by all our never ending intellectual questions. The ego loves to chatter to keep us in our head. Real wisdom comes from patience and living in our hearts. I can only equate karma to my continuous experience of whatever I give out coming back to me. Our actions are like a boomerang and the boomerang is almost instantaneous now.
C: Karma is reflected in the Golden Rule that says, "do onto others as you would have them do on to you." Of course, for karma, the others would include the Universe. So another way of saying it is what we give, we get.
"Is there a Christian analogue to karma?"
C: What you sow you will reap.
"What's the most important thing to do to care for the living once someone dies?"
B: "Do" is the key word here. We don't want to do anything. Just be there for them. Honor their pain. Validate their feelings. Give them the time that they need to just be with their pain.
C. Don't try to take away their pain or tell them they shouldn't feel that way. Don't tell them they should not be hurting, which only invalidates their pain and healthy grieving.
"Do you offer talks on subjects like NDE, Death and Dying?"
Barbara and Charlie: Absolutely. You can reach us through our home web site, www.barbarawhitfield.com.
"Where can I get more information on living free spiritually?"
B & C: Some of our favorite spiritual books are: The Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition, most any of the writings of White Eagle: Spiritual Unfoldment 1: How to Discover the Invisible Worlds and Find the Source of Healing, A Course in Miracles, Emmanuel's Book : A Manual for Living Comfortably in the Cosmos, Lightworker.com, (books by Steve Rother). Additional sources include the poetry of St. John de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross: Songs in the Night), Meister Eckhart and other great mystics, Itzhak BentovStalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness, and if you choose, some of our books (Spiritual Awakenings, Final Passage, Alcoholism and Spirituality, My Recovery.)
"Where can I get more information on living with and accepting death and dying?"
B: That's a life long journey. My book Final Passage: Sharing the Journey as this Life Ends illustrates the spiritual nature of death and dying. And, there are many other good books written on this subject. For practical knowledge, I would recommend volunteering at a local hospice or checking out Steve Rother's web site lightworker.com. There is a section on what he calls "Transition Teams" (people helping souls coming in and going out) that is worth a read and then go to one of their trainings. Also, check out their related web site www.virtuallightproject.com They have a whole section on transition teams.
I'm working on a project with Steve Rother now that is going to produce a book on Transition Teams. I also will be teaching a workshop with Steve and Barbara Rother on this subject. We'll post the details soon on this web site.
Endnotes1 Another theory posed by Itzhak Bentov in his book Stalking the Wild Pendulum on the Mechanics of Consciousness concludes that the energy rising from the base of the spine is the way the brain interprets these somatic bodily feelings. He believed that all the energy is activated in the brain in a closed circuit that activates certain centers that have been dormant. |