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By Manisha Sharma

This story is about my Aunt Rama (my mom’s elder sister), who lived close to our house in Delhi, India, and who left us forever in the first week of July 2016 after a brief hospitalization. She was very dear to us, a very loving and selfless soul to whom my mom and I were quite attached.

Aunt Rama had been hospitalized off and on for the last few years due to an ongoing illness, but we always expected her to get well and come back home. This time, however, she did not come back. Her death came as a terrible shock to me, my mom and her own family. This was compounded by the fact we had not been permitted to visit her in hospital, as she was in the ICU (intensive care unit).

Afterwards, thoughts of her never seemed to leave us, even for a moment. The very mention of her name or sight of her photograph brought tears to our eyes.

Afterwards, thoughts of her never seemed to leave us, even for a moment. The very mention of her name or sight of her photograph brought tears to our eyes. It was difficult to believe that she was no longer with us. But a few days after she passed away, I saw her in my dreams in a blue saree (the traditional dress of Indian women, which is made from a six-metre-long piece of fabric). Even though she had died of illness, she looked quite radiant and healthy in my dream and was sitting next to me. I recognized her and the dream ended.

The blue saree seemed familiar but I could not recollect where I had seen it. Again a few days later, while I was meditating and had almost fallen asleep, I saw her standing close in that same saree, smiling. I wanted to call to her and speak with her but I could not move. Just as in the dream, she looked radiant and happy. For some moments I felt as if I had really been with her, and it felt very peaceful. This vision lasted a few seconds until I was wide awake.

It would take some time for me to understand the meaning of this happening and of my dream before that.

A few days later, I was surfing through Facebook and found a photograph of my Aunt Rama in that same blue saree. In the photo she was with her son (my cousin) with whom I am very close. She was smiling with that same sweet radiance I had seen and felt in my dreams. Then I remembered taking that photograph myself a few years earlier during a visit to her home.

As years passed, I stopped missing her so much, and her memories remained as a beautiful thought of someone far but near.

As years passed, I stopped missing her so much, and her memories remained as a beautiful thought of someone far but near. I stopped seeing her in my dreams or thinking of her so often. I feel that the dream and later vision were a message that my Aunt Rama is well and happy, that we should not worry about her and only remember her smiling and happy face. These experiences have helped me recover from the shock of her passing away so suddenly and have helped me to accept the reality of her sudden death

Last week, however, after almost four years, I saw her once again in my dreams in that same blue saree. I got up wondering what message she was trying to give me this time. I immediately called her family and spoke to my cousin, who told me that my uncle (her dear husband), who feels unhappy without her presence, was not keeping well and had undergone a minor surgery the day before. A few years before her death, my aunt and uncle had celebrated their 50^th marriage anniversary. I feel her being in my dream was a message that she remembers her family and wants us to be there with them, especially with her husband.

Seeing Aunt Rama in my dream again after four years makes me believe that those whom we love never go away, though they may not be physically present.

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The Meaning of Forever Project continues to accept stories of comforting experiences with loved ones who have passed on, and of near-death experiences that have helped to show the continuation of life beyond the physical body. You can email your story to us atthemeaningofforever@gmail.com and you can find more about our project on our Facebook page, and our Meaning of Forever Website.

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By Marlene Chapelle

My mom and I were never really close.  We were always at odds with each other.  She was that way with my sister as well.  My two brothers had children and she would go to their houses for visits.  I had to trick her into finally coming to visit with my three children for a birthday.  I did not want her to die without resolving this difficult situation.

Many, many years passed.  She was seventy-one when, one day, she phoned to say she was losing weight and couldn’t keep any food down.  She said that her doctor suggested she go to the emergency ward of her local hospital.  I went that night to keep her company.  I did not know that she would live for only three more weeks.

The first week the doctors did testing.  She was fully conscious that first week.  My sister, two brothers and I visited each day.  By week two, she was in and out of consciousness.  The doctors finally told us she had pancreatic cancer and was dying.  My brothers stopped coming to visit because they wanted to remember her as she had been and not the gaunt woman she had become in the hospital. 

If she had not been so cold and distant with me, I would not have become the person I am so proud to be today.

From week two onwards my sister and I would visit our mom each day.  She was mostly unconscious now, but while attending to her that second week, I realized something: If she had not been so cold and distant with me, I would not have become the person I am so proud to be today.  I knew the adversity had made me strong.  And as I sat by her bed one afternoon, she woke up. This gave me the chance to tell her she was the best mom I could ever have had.  She said she did not know I felt that way. 

Days passed and by week three, my mom’s organs began shutting down.  She was now completely unconscious and on pain medication.  By the end of that week, both my sister and I sat at her bedside every evening.  One night a relative came to visit.  It was almost closing time for visitors when my sister said that he needed to say good night and let our mom sleep. 

The relative left quickly and my sister told me that our mom was about to pass on.  When I asked how she knew, she said Mom’s breathing had changed and was slowing down.  It was now time for us to begin preparing spiritually for our mother’s death. We sang the word HU, an ancient name for God, and I closed my eyes to see what was happening inwardly. 

I saw my mom and me standing beside a semi-transparent curtain.  In the distance through the curtain, I could see her relatives and friends.  My dad, who had died five years earlier, was also there.  I told my mom she could go through the curtain and be with him, but she did not move.  She was afraid. 

Her deep love had overpowered her fer and taken her through the curtain.

Then I saw her old dog, Perky.  I pointed to him on the other side of the curtain and, right then and there, she made a beeline for her beloved dog.  Her deep love had overpowered her fear and taken her through the curtain.  As she moved towards Perky, she became younger and younger.  Then the relatives, my dad, Perky and my mom turned, walked into the distance and disappeared.

I came out of that experience so excited.  There was life beyond death! I had proof now.  My mom did not die; only her physical body died. I now knew that her essence, Soul, lives on in the inner worlds, just like my dad, Perky and the relatives who were there to greet her.  I told my sister what I saw, and she told me what she heard at the moment of our mother’s death:  a whooshing sound that came out of Mom’s body, then zoomed upward and away. 

Now we both had our proof that there is life beyond death.

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The Meaning of Forever Project continues to accept stories of comforting experiences with loved ones who have passed on, and of near-death experiences that have helped to show the continuation of life beyond the physical body. You can email your story to us at themeaningofforever@gmail.com and you can find more about our project on our Facebook page, and our Meaning of Forever Website.

In this repeat of a post from February of 2017, Suzie derives much comfort from a dream of her deceased father and brother, and she concludes that Heaven is very much an individual experience.

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By Suzie Kurz

When my father died of a heart attack, even if I wanted to go home to the Philippines, I couldn’t.

I sorrowed painfully, remembering how my father worked all his life, striving so hard on our farm with a primitive single plow, pulled by a carabao (water buffalo) day in and day out, to ensure that all his eight children finished university in order for them to have a better life and make a difference in this world. I remembered how he taught us to respect resources and how he strove to save every penny for our education.

But Fred, my husband, and I had just started building our dream home in Toronto. It was to be a passive solar house, and we were the contractors for the first time. We were new to this venture and needed to be together to make all the decisions regarding the construction.

A few weeks after my father passed away, while asleep, I had an experience in another world. I found myself on a beautiful coconut plantation. Tied between two coconut tree trunks was a hammock where my father was lying comfortably and swinging gently with the breeze. Surprised and elated I ran to him with tears rolling down my cheeks.

He said, “Oh, you are here! I’m fine. Don’t cry.”

I said, “I am so sorry I couldn’t come home to be with the family at your funeral.”I hugged him.

He said, “Look around, see my beautiful coconut plantation.”

When my father was still living in this physical world, he started planting coconuts but he only managed to plant a few trees before he departed.

Suddenly, I heard a chugging sound of a tractor, I turned and there was my brother Carlos, who had passed away two years earlier. I ran to him. Seated high on his tractor wearing a wide brimmed straw hat and looking down at me with a winsome smile said, “See, I told you, I will join papa to do farming one day, and here we are!”

The scene slowly faded away and I woke up. But that experience was so real, I cried with joy. It remains vivid to this day, nearly 40 years later. I always knew that life continues after the physical body dies. This experience with my father and my brother proved that.

I believe a person brings his or her state of consciousness into the new world that they move into. Our aspirations are recorded in our transcendental selves and therefore are taken anywhere we go.

I am truly grateful for this experience.

© SUZY KURZ, 2017

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The Meaning of Forever Project continues to accept stories of comforting experiences with loved ones who have passed on, and of near-death experiences that have helped to show the continuation of life beyond the physical body. You can email your story to us at themeaningofforever@gmail.com and you can find more about our project on our Facebook page, and our Meaning of Forever Website.

In previous posts, we’ve featured stories about the loving connection between animals and humans that sometimes brings them together in more than one life. This one, from a blog called  Animals are Soul, spoke to our hearts and we’d like to share it with you. It’s re-printed here with permission.

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The Cat with a Heart

By Bob Lawton

My wife, Luanne, and I got our all-black cat Shadow when he was a kitten. After only eight short years, he started having problems that led to his passing. Luanne was devastated over the loss. What made it even more difficult was that Shadow’s death happened while I was out of town. We weren’t able to all be together when the time came for Shadow to leave us.

Soon after Shadow was gone, I lay in bed one night, when all of a sudden, I saw an image of him walking across the floor and heading toward the bed.

Yes, I saw the cat who had just died walk into the room and change from his cat body into a small sphere of light and then back into the form of a cat. I realized Shadow was still with us in spirit.

I said to Luanne, “I saw the cat in the bedroom.”

“Why can’t I see him?” she asked.

I wondered if my wife’s deep sadness might be a wall between her and Shadow that was too strong for him to break through.

Snuggling with Shadow

On the night after I saw Shadow’s light body, I suddenly felt two taps on the bed. Whenever Shadow wanted to sleep with us, he had this habit of tapping his paw twice on the side of our bed covers. I would lift up the comforter, and the cat would jump onto the bed and snuggle cozily on the blankets, covered by the comforter.

Half asleep, feeling the two taps, as usual, I automatically lifted up the comforter to make room for the cat. His spirit body followed through with our nightly ritual, and he walked over me to sink into his cozy place. I could actually feel the pressure of his form.

That night, I saw Shadow in my dream state. He said to me, “I’m coming back.”

How am I going to find you? I wondered.

A few days later, while I worked on my laptop, the photo of a little black kitten floated across the screen. The caption above the picture read, “Rescue Me.”

You’ve got to be kidding me, I thought. How is this possible?

I’d never had ads of any kind cross my computer screen. The photo and caption made me wonder if Shadow might be coming back to us as the kitten I’d seen in the ad.

That night, I did a spiritual exercise and contemplation. Inwardly I saw Shadow. “How will I know it’s you?” I asked him.

“You’ll know me by my heart,” he answered.

The next morning when I woke up, I could hear Shadow’s words like an echo: “You’ll know me by my heart.”

Another Message

The next day, I stopped at a grocery store and did some shopping. Afterward I was taking the grocery bags out of the cart and putting them into my car when inwardly I heard my spiritual guide, the Mahanta, say, “Pick up the grocery-store flyer in the bottom of the cart.”

I thought, I already have a flyer. I don’t need another one.

Again the inner voice said, “Pick up the flyer.”

Nope, I have one in my pocket and one at home. I don’t need another.

Loud and clear, the Inner Master said, “PICK UP THE FLYER.”

When I picked up the flyer, I saw a magazine under it. A full-size picture of a black cat’s face seemed to be looking up at me from the cover. Amazingly, this cat looked exactly like Shadow.

I threw the magazine onto my car seat and brought it home with the groceries. After putting the groceries away, I placed the magazine on my desk next to the laptop and turned on the computer. Again I saw the picture of a kitten across the screen with the caption “Rescue Me.”

I picked up the magazine and thought, How amazing. It’s as if someone took a picture of Shadow and put it on this magazine. Now looking at the kitten on my laptop, I wondered, Is this my message that Shadow is now back as the kitten on my screen? Then I randomly opened the magazine. On the page I turned to, there was a photo of a little black kitten next to the words “It’s me.”

“You have got to be kidding,” I said out loud.

I have to go see this kitten who keeps popping up on my laptop screen, I thought.

I contacted the woman who had placed the ad I saw on my computer and found out she lived in New Jersey. I live in Connecticut. Who would drive all the way to New Jersey to get a cat?

Well, with all the traffic it turned out to be a three-hour drive. But I finally arrived at the kitten’s home. I picked him up and turned him onto his back, holding him under the lamp so I could look into his eyes.

Wow! I felt an immediate connection. My heart was touched by the feeling of divine love that reached through the eyes of this little being—this beautiful little black kitten. I could feel the consciousness, the essence of that Soul we had called Shadow, now in this new little form. I had no doubt. I needed no further confirmation.

I said to the woman, “I’ll take him.”

She said, “How’d you like to take his sister too? They play so well together. She’s always right at his side. It’s like they’re joined at the hip.” Then she handed me a little black kitten who looked exactly like the one I’d come to meet.

So I drove back to Connecticut with two kittens.

When my wife came home from work, she was so excited to see these two adorable little fur-faces. I watched and felt her sadness melt away as her heart opened to our new kitties.

Of course, we named him Shadow. Luanne named his sister Jersey Girl.

Later that day, I was working in my home office when Luanne called to me and said, “You know, Shadow isn’t totally black. He has a birthmark. You gotta come see this.”

I went out to see what she was talking about and stood there, awestruck. In the middle of the kitten’s chest was a perfectly shaped white heart. I felt goosebumps as I remembered Shadow’s echo from my dream: “You’ll know me by my heart.”

When there’s that bond of divine love, our pets do sometimes come back to be with us again.

Proof Positive

Old Shadow had a favorite spot in our guest bedroom where he liked to curl up under the desk. One day Luanne was trying to find New Shadow, and I said, “Did you look under the desk?” Sure enough, that’s where she found him. He had returned not only to us but also to his best hiding place in our home.

Old Shadow had a favorite toy he would carry around the house. It was a four-inch-long, oblong piece of stiff-but-flexible black fur that looked like a tail. He’d walk with it in his mouth everywhere. It was easy to spot when he played with the black toy on our white carpet. After Shadow died, it was too painful to come across his special toy. So I gathered up all the cat toys, put them in a basket in the basement, and buried Shadow’s toy at the bottom of the basket.

When New Shadow was big enough to climb the stairs, he went down into the basement one day. After he came back up, Luanne said, “I don’t believe it.” I turned around to look. There sat Shadow at the top of the stairs with that favorite black fur toy in his mouth. He had dug through the entire basket to find it.

Now, every so often, while we’re getting ready for bed, we find a sweet present for us on one of our pillows. Just as he always used to do, Shadow has placed his favorite toy there. It’s as if once more he’s saying to us, “See, it’s really me.”

—Photos by Bob Lawton

A Contemplation Seed
By Harold Klemp, from Animals Are Soul Too!

Whether or not your philosophy or religion accepts Souls in forms other than the human is unimportant. If you can accept reincarnation and the fact that Soul takes on many different bodies—and some of these Souls are better vehicles for love than some people—you will find much joy and happiness in your own life. You’ll also find a greater understanding of God’s creation.

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The Meaning of Forever Project continues to accept stories of comforting experiences with loved ones who have passed on, and of near-death experiences that have helped to show the continuation of life beyond the physical body. You can email your story to us at themeaningofforever@gmail.com and you can find more about our project on our Facebook page, and our Meaning of Forever Website.

In previous posts, we’ve featured stories about the loving connection between animals and humans that sometimes brings us together in more than one life. This one, from a blog called  Animals are Soul, spoke to our hearts and we’d like to share it with you. It’s re-printed here with permission.

***

The Cat with A Heart

By Bob Lawton

My wife, Luanne, and I got our all-black cat Shadow when he was a kitten. After only eight short years, he started having problems that led to his passing. Luanne was devastated over the loss. What made it even more difficult was that Shadow’s death happened while I was out of town. We weren’t able to all be together when the time came for Shadow to leave us.

Soon after Shadow was gone, I lay in bed one night, when all of a sudden, I saw an image of him walking across the floor and heading toward the bed.

Yes, I saw the cat who had just died walk into the room and change from his cat body into a small sphere of light and then back into the form of a cat. I realized Shadow was still with us in spirit.

I said to Luanne, “I saw the cat in the bedroom.”

“Why can’t I see him?” she asked.

I wondered if my wife’s deep sadness might be a wall between her and Shadow that was too strong for him to break through.

Snuggling with Shadow

On the night after I saw Shadow’s light body, I suddenly felt two taps on the bed. Whenever Shadow wanted to sleep with us, he had this habit of tapping his paw twice on the side of our bed covers. I would lift up the comforter, and the cat would jump onto the bed and snuggle cozily on the blankets, covered by the comforter.

Half asleep, feeling the two taps, as usual, I automatically lifted up the comforter to make room for the cat. His spirit body followed through with our nightly ritual, and he walked over me to sink into his cozy place. I could actually feel the pressure of his form.

That night, I saw Shadow in my dream state. He said to me, “I’m coming back.”

How am I going to find you? I wondered.

A few days later, while I worked on my laptop, the photo of a little black kitten floated across the screen. The caption above the picture read, “Rescue Me.”

You’ve got to be kidding me, I thought. How is this possible?

I’d never had ads of any kind cross my computer screen. The photo and caption made me wonder if Shadow might be coming back to us as the kitten I’d seen in the ad.

That night, I did a spiritual exercise and contemplation. Inwardly I saw Shadow. “How will I know it’s you?” I asked him.

“You’ll know me by my heart,” he answered.

The next morning when I woke up, I could hear Shadow’s words like an echo: “You’ll know me by my heart.”

Another Message

The next day, I stopped at a grocery store and did some shopping. Afterward I was taking the grocery bags out of the cart and putting them into my car when inwardly I heard my spiritual guide, the Mahanta, say, “Pick up the grocery-store flyer in the bottom of the cart.”

I thought, I already have a flyer. I don’t need another one.

Again the inner voice said, “Pick up the flyer.”

Nope, I have one in my pocket and one at home. I don’t need another.

Loud and clear, the Inner Master said, “PICK UP THE FLYER.”

When I picked up the flyer, I saw a magazine under it. A full-size picture of a black cat’s face seemed to be looking up at me from the cover. Amazingly, this cat looked exactly like Shadow.

I threw the magazine onto my car seat and brought it home with the groceries. After putting the groceries away, I placed the magazine on my desk next to the laptop and turned on the computer. Again I saw the picture of a kitten across the screen with the caption “Rescue Me.”

I picked up the magazine and thought, How amazing. It’s as if someone took a picture of Shadow and put it on this magazine. Now looking at the kitten on my laptop, I wondered, Is this my message that Shadow is now back as the kitten on my screen? Then I randomly opened the magazine. On the page I turned to, there was a photo of a little black kitten next to the words “It’s me.”

“You have got to be kidding,” I said out loud.

I have to go see this kitten who keeps popping up on my laptop screen, I thought.

I contacted the woman who had placed the ad I saw on my computer and found out she lived in New Jersey. I live in Connecticut. Who would drive all the way to New Jersey to get a cat?

Well, with all the traffic it turned out to be a three-hour drive. But I finally arrived at the kitten’s home. I picked him up and turned him onto his back, holding him under the lamp so I could look into his eyes.

Wow! I felt an immediate connection. My heart was touched by the feeling of divine love that reached through the eyes of this little being—this beautiful little black kitten. I could feel the consciousness, the essence of that Soul we had called Shadow, now in this new little form. I had no doubt. I needed no further confirmation.

I said to the woman, “I’ll take him.”

She said, “How’d you like to take his sister too? They play so well together. She’s always right at his side. It’s like they’re joined at the hip.” Then she handed me a little black kitten who looked exactly like the one I’d come to meet. So I drove back to Connecticut with two kittens.

When my wife came home from work, she was so excited to see these two adorable little fur-faces. I watched and felt her sadness melt away as her heart opened to our new kitties.

Of course, we named him Shadow. Luanne named his sister Jersey Girl.

Later that day, I was working in my home office when Luanne called to me and said, “You know, Shadow isn’t totally black. He has a birthmark. You gotta come see this.”

I went out to see what she was talking about and stood there, awestruck. In the middle of the kitten’s chest was a perfectly shaped white heart. I felt goosebumps as I remembered Shadow’s echo from my dream: “You’ll know me by my heart.”

When there’s that bond of divine love, our pets do sometimes come back to be with us again.

Proof Positive

Old Shadow had a favorite spot in our guest bedroom where he liked to curl up under the desk. One day Luanne was trying to find New Shadow, and I said, “Did you look under the desk?” Sure enough, that’s where she found him. He had returned not only to us but also to his best hiding place in our home.

Old Shadow had a favorite toy he would carry around the house. It was a four-inch-long, oblong piece of stiff-but-flexible black fur that looked like a tail. He’d walk with it in his mouth everywhere. It was easy to spot when he played with the black toy on our white carpet. After Shadow died, it was too painful to come across his special toy. So I gathered up all the cat toys, put them in a basket in the basement, and buried Shadow’s toy at the bottom of the basket.

When New Shadow was big enough to climb the stairs, he went down into the basement one day. After he came back up, Luanne said, “I don’t believe it.” I turned around to look. There sat Shadow at the top of the stairs with that favorite black fur toy in his mouth. He had dug through the entire basket to find it.

Now, every so often, while we’re getting ready for bed, we find a sweet present for us on one of our pillows. Just as he always used to do, Shadow has placed his favorite toy there. It’s as if once more he’s saying to us, “See, it’s really me.”

—Photos by Bob Lawton

***

A Contemplation Seed

By Harold Klemp, from Animals Are Soul Too!

Whether or not your philosophy or religion accepts Souls in forms other than the human is unimportant. If you can accept reincarnation and the fact that Soul takes on many different bodies—and some of these Souls are better vehicles for love than some people—you will find much joy and happiness in your own life. You’ll also find a greater understanding of God’s creation.

***

“The Cat with a Heart” by Bob Lawton is republished with permission from Eckankar. All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2018 Eckankar, www.Eckankar.org. It was first published in “Animals Are Soul” blog, www.AnimalsAreSoul.blog.

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The Meaning of Forever Project continues to accept stories of comforting experiences with loved ones who have passed on, and of near-death experiences that have helped to show the continuation of life beyond the physical body. You can email your story to us at themeaningofforever@gmail.com and you can find more about our project on our Facebook page, and our Meaning of Forever Website.

Have you ever dreamed of a loved one who has died? Have you felt that, just maybe, he or she is still around in your waking life? Perhaps you’ve never mentioned it to anyone, because you don’t want to be told you’re not moving on from your loss the way you should.

Well, you might be interested to know that scientists and academics are proving that experiences like yours deserve attention and respect.

A version of this post was first published in February of 2017, in which we reported that researchers are finally beginning to catch up with what many of us already know: The love we share with those close to us doesn’t die when they do; it carries on, dare we say… forever.

When psychology student Joshua Black’s father died suddenly a number of years ago, Joshua began having dreams about him that later inspired his research into what he calls “Grief Dreams”. You can see our blog about Joshua’s personal story here. Later a PhD candidate at Brock University in St. Catharine’s, Ontario, Black established a Facebook page (see it here) that encourages others to share their Grief Dreams, and to use them as a way to help them through their loss.

Working toward his PhD, Black began studying the Grief Dreams of others and discovered that 75% of the 250 people who participated had dreams of departed loved ones. Further, 77% of them felt those dreams helped with their grief. But, said Black, he found that many people don’t talk about their Grief Dreams, even with friends or relatives.

“They don’t want people to tell them they aren’t grieving properly, that they aren’t over the loss,” he told the Hamilton Mountain News. “They don’t want them changing the meaning of the dream.”

Black’s Grief Dreams Facebook group is one way he provides a safe space for the bereaved to share their dreams and to feel assured that their experiences are valid. The group recognizes dreams of departed animals as well as humans.

Since our original post, Joshua Black has completed his PhD. with Grief Dreams as its main focus. He continues to publish research and spread awareness about Grief Dreams through workshops and presentations, a regular podcast, a web site, and his Facebook group. Black is now recognized as a leading researcher in this new field of study.

But he is not the only academic interested in dreams of the dead. At Hospice Buffalo in Cheektowaga, New York, the Palliative Care Institute has made a detailed study of the way dreams and visions of departed loved ones affect people who are dying. Led by Dr. Christopher Kerr, these researchers have identified several types of what they call ELDV’s (End-of-Life Dreams and Visions) and concluded these experiences comfort dying patients and help reduce their fear of death. You can click here to see Dr. Kerr’s TEDx Talk about his research and what inspired him to get started.

From interviews with 59 terminally-ill patients, researchers found that 88% had at least one dream or vision (as distinct from hallucinations, which would be characterized by confusion, fear and high anxiety). Ninety-nine per cent of the patients believed these experiences were real. As death approached, patients said comforting dreams of deceased loved ones—including pets—became more common.

But many of these people, too, were reluctant to share their experiences for fear of being thought mentally incompetent.

Nevertheless, say the researchers, these ELDV’s need to be accepted as a valid part of the dying process for terminally ill patients. An article on the Hospice Buffalo website quotes Pei C. Grant, PhD, Director of Research for the Palliative Care Institute:

“The study clearly indicates these dreams and visions are a profound source of potential meaning and comfort for the dying…” he says. “Participants in the study overwhelmingly indicated their dreams and visions lessened the fear of dying, gave them comfort and made the transition from life to death easier.”

Since our original post, Dr. Kerr and a group of colleagues have published results of another study that indicates ELDV’s help, not only dying patients, but their family care givers (FCG’s) as well. In an article published in The Journal of Palliative Medicine, the researchers concluded: “ELDVs’ impact extends beyond those experiencing them to bereaved loved ones. Bereaved FCG’s report that comforting ELDV’s experienced by their dying loved ones influenced their grief process…” (See an abstract of the article here.)

At The Meaning of Forever Project, we are pleased that the work of scientists and academics is moving toward something our contributors already know: That the bond of love between souls does not die with the physical body; that life continues after the human shell is finished—and that this continuation of life and love is what gives true meaning to the word “forever”.

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If you would like to share an experience you’ve had with a departed loved one—whether in a dream or in some other way—we would love to hear from you. Just email us at themeaningofforever@gmail.com 

If Near-Death Experiences (NDE’s) are characterized by overwhelming feelings that we are loved by some power greater than ourselves, is it possible that – besides helping us lose our fear of death – they can also help us heal from hurts and traumas?

In the story below, “Andrea” reveals how attempting suicide to escape an un-loving and abusive father resulted in an experience that set her on a path to the best love of all.

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By Andrea Garrett

My birth in the early 1950s was overshadowed by physical and mental health issues my father brought home from World War II. A grenade had exploded near him on a beach in France, and it was months before he could be shipped home to Canada. Despite several surgeries for his traumatic brain injuries, he remained plagued by chronic pain. Added to this was severe psychological injury.

When I was born in 1954 to his second wife, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) had no name nor treatment. His bouts of heavy drinking, unprovoked rage and physical abuse frightened all those around him. My mother finally left him after losing a stillborn boy when I was three. I was left with my grandparents in what became a merry-go-round of staying with them and then sleeping on a couch or camp cot at my dad’s.

Well before I reached my teens, I was developing symptoms of what is now known as Complex PTSD. C-PTSD is experienced by children who grow up in an unpredictable and unstable emotional and/or physical environment. When I was 11, my father’s common-law partner committed suicide after several years of physical and psychological abuse, which I had often witnessed and been a victim of myself.

At age 12, my father took me to a gynecologist to find out if I was still a virgin. He said I was “promiscuous”. He kept me on such a tight leash that I couldn’t have been, even if I had known what the word meant. Decades later, I realized my father made that appointment because he had physically molested me but couldn’t remember what happened. I had fled from that incident in the middle of the night to my grandparents but would not tell them what had happened. I believe my grandfather told his son he needed to have me checked by someone other than our family doctor. I was humiliated to have a total stranger explore ‘down there’.

When I was 13, my father could no longer hold a job or keep an apartment. We moved into my grandparents’ one-bedroom apartment. My dad slept on a day bed in the dining room. I slept on a canvas lounge chair in the same room, which I folded and put away each morning. By this time, my dad was out drinking every day until the last bus. He’d stagger in at midnight and want a cooked meal because he’d missed dinner. He also wanted me to get him up and feed him breakfast before I went to school. But, he could almost never wake up, so I would just go to school, only to be called home to get his breakfast and be raged at for not waking him up.

I couldn’t win. By the time I was 15, I was mentally and emotionally exhausted. My grades were slipping. My morning classes were Math and Physics – not my best subjects and not helped by missing classes. I couldn’t bring friends home and couldn’t join after-school team sports unless I got a note from the coach about the practice and game times so my father could set times for me to be home by “or else”. And then there was the unpredictable and frequent physical abuse. There were days at a time when I couldn’t go to school because of a black eye, swollen face, or cut lip. I lived like this 24/7 for well over two years.

His parents were terrified of his temper. Thankfully, he didn’t attack them, but there were a few shoving matches, with my grandfather threatening to call the police. The one time he did in the summer of 1969, it was to protect me. But the police stayed outside and wouldn’t come in. In my embattled mind, no one could protect me. My spirit was finally broken.

That fall of Grade 11, I took an overdose of my grandmother’s sleeping medication, which landed me in the emergency room and, subsequently, intensive care. While in the ER, I had an out of body experience. I was floating above the bed while nurses were working over me. I then saw out into the hall from the ceiling and watched my father walk out of the hospital, leaving no family to be with me that night. Next I felt myself being drawn to a wonderful, silvery light. It was a soft and caring place. There was an entity there who was ready to welcome me, but I had to make the choice to go there or go back. I wanted to go with that spirit, but I chose to go back after the entity told me there were things my soul needed to learn.

I spent a month on the psychiatric ward. I had few visitors because people weren’t supposed to know where I was. Social services made one home visit, and I came back to a bed with a mattress in my grandparents’ bedroom. There were also no more calls to leave school and no more midnight meals to make. My dad stepped up his drinking. Both he and my grandmother died less than a year later, just eight weeks apart.

I’m now 65 and learning more than I have in all the past years as a teen, adult, mother, and now grandmother. The one thing I have finally learned is to love myself, warts and all. I’m learning that to truly love others, I must first love myself. It’s taken me decades, plus cancer and heart disease, to understand this. I’ve also forgiven my father. My real father was a good, kind, smart, and funny person who became trapped without adequate treatment for his broken mind and body.

I’m now in a much better place and have opened my heart and soul to the spiritual universe that goes far beyond brick and mortar buildings and narrowly defined religiosity. As Susan Aglukark sang back in the 80s: “O Siem, we are all Family. O Siem, we’re all the same . . .”

—Andrea Garrett

November 2019

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The author has changed her name to protect her identity .

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The Meaning of Forever Project continues to accept stories of comforting experiences with loved ones who have passed on, and of near-death experiences that have helped to show the continuation of life beyond the physical body. You can email your story to us at themeaningofforever@gmail.com and you can find more about our project on our Facebook page, and our Meaning of Forever Website.

 

 

When we share stories by contributors to The Meaning of Forever book project, love shows up as one of the abiding qualities in the variety of experiences people have with their departed loved ones. This seems to be true of near-death experiences as well, and as Dr. Joan Olinger writes, that feeling of transcendent love and the knowledge that life continues after expiration of the physical body are two lasting benefits cited by those who have died and been brought back to life.

Because near death experiences are one more way to show that life continues, regardless of whether we have a physical container, The Meaning of Forever Project is also seeking stories about these experiences. Read Joan’s blog, first posted July 7, 2017, to see how NDE’s can be a source of great comfort in grief and a means for releasing fear.

By Dr. Joan Olinger

What would it be like if you knew for certain that you do not die when your physical body dies; that, Instead, you continue as yourself, with your individuality intact?

We are so fortunate to be living in an age when people can be brought back to life, even after they are clinically dead; that is, when their heart stops beating and they stop breathing. Many of these people have told of their experiences in the time between their physical deaths and their resuscitation.

When my Father passed on a few years ago, I was deeply distressed. My distress was relieved to a great extent, however, when my brother told me that Dad once had a near-death experience after a heart attack. From then on, he was not afraid to die. Knowing of this occurrence gave me great comfort. It was proof that the essential part of my father—some call this soul—continues independently of his physical existence. My brother said our dad’s story helped him lose some of his own fear of death.

Convincing Stories

In 1975, in his groundbreaking book called Life After Life, Dr. Raymond Moody wrote of accounts by people who had been brought back to life, and he coined the term “near-death experience” (NDE). I read Dr. Moody’s book as a young woman and became very interested in NDE’s (See my May 11, 2017, blog about why The Meaning of Forever Project is so important to me).

About 15 years after reading Dr. Moody’s first book, I met a patient in her forties who had been pronounced dead and been resuscitated. Her near-death experience transformed her life. Having not done anything artistic since Grade 8, she became an artist and a poet, and won contests for her creative work. When I asked what happened during her near-death experience, she said it was very hard to put into words. Then she said she had gone through a tunnel, met with a brilliant, loving light, and that she was “in love” the way she and I were sitting in that room. I took this to mean that she had felt totally surrounded by love.

Dr. Pim van Lommel, a Dutch cardiologist and one of today’s most prominent scientific researchers of near-death experiences, is a contributor to a book called Surviving Death by Leslie Kean. In that book, Dr. van Lommel writes: “The NDE (near-death experience) is almost always transformational, causing enhanced intuitive sensitivity, profound insights and re-evaluations of life, and a loss of a fear of death.”

“Transformational” Experiences

In his book God and the Afterlife, Dr. Jeffrey Long writes that near-death experiences often include the following: a) an awareness that the experiencer is no longer in their physical body, b) heightened senses, c) going through a tunnel, d) seeing a brilliant light,  e) intense and usually positive emotions, f) going to heaven or otherworldly realms, g) meeting with deceased relatives, friends or mystical beings, h) a review of the person’s life, i) learning special knowledge; and, j) returning to the physical body. He gathered this information scientifically through a questionnaire administered by the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (INSERT LINK), which he established.

In the process of working on The Meaning of Forever Project, I have had a chance to read many books, watch some incredible documentaries and talk with several friends who have had near-death experiences. Through this process, I too have lost my fear of death, and I take comfort in knowing that departed loved ones are just fine and enjoying their new existence.

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Here are some of those books:

John Burke, Imagine Heaven. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2015)

Jeffery Long and Paul Perry. Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (New York: Harper Collins, 2009)

Jeffery Long and Paul Perry. God and the Afterlife, (New York:  Harper Collins, 2016)

Leslie Kean. Surviving Death: A journalist investigates evidence for an afterlife, (New York: Crown Archetype, 2017)

Pim van Lommel. Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (New York: Harper Collins, 2010)

Disclaimer: These books, and these authors, do not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of The Meaning of Forever Project.

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The Meaning of Forever Project continues to accept stories of comforting experiences with loved ones who have passed on, and of near-death experiences that have helped to show the continuation of life beyond the physical body. You can email your story to us at themeaningofforever@gmail.com and you can find more about our project on our Facebook page, and our Meaning of Forever Website.

 

In previous posts, we’ve discussed Near-Death Experiences (NDE’s), End of Life Dreams and Visions (ELDV’s) and encountering deceased loved ones in both our dreaming and waking lives. In a tiny book called ECK Wisdom on Life After Death: What Happens When We Die? spiritual writer Harold Klemp accepts all these phenomena as real and goes a step further by offering readers a way to have similar experiences without having to die or endure a medical crisis.

 Heaven is accessible to everyone, says Klemp; all we need is the tools to get there. In this post, Dr. Joan Olinger reviews his pocket-sized book.

By Dr. Joan Olinger

“Love”. This is Harold Klemp’s answer to the question, “What is stronger than death?”

”Whenever there is a strong bond of love between two people, they can meet again in their dreams or by Soul Travel,” says Klemp in ECK Wisdom on Life After Death: What Happens When We Die? 

A prolific writer and leader of a religion called Eckankar, Klemp has penned more than 100 books, most of which include references to our fears about death and what happens afterwards. In Spiritual Wisdom he presents an overview of the meaning of life and the place of death in it. He writes: “Each person is a divine being who comes to earth with a spiritual purpose. Lifetime after lifetime, Soul grows in love and grace, ultimately to become a Co-Worker with God.”

He goes on to say every lifetime is precious, because it gives us the opportunity to grow spiritually: “Births and deaths mark the journey of Soul,” and, “Death is a doorway, a transition into the inner worlds,” he says.

These “inner worlds” can also be referred to as heaven; and, according to Klemp, each of us reaches the one that suits our individual spiritual unfoldment—whether after death, or by our own choice while physically whole.

Klemp, who counts divinity school among his many life experiences, writes that St. Paul of the Christian Bible spoke of leaving his physical body at will when he said, “I die daily”. Further, Klemp makes the connection between what he calls the “inner worlds” and St. Paul’s declaration that he knew a man who had been “caught up into the third heaven.”*

Klemp says we may be greeted by loved ones before the moment of death, and that they are there to welcome us into the heaven that is right for us. In that heaven—even though our physical bodies have ceased to operate—we continue very much alive, with similar appearance and personality, though we may be considerably younger and healthier, he says.

Klemp offers a simple exercise that he  says can take us to these heavens in our awareness while still alive in our physical bodies. He calls this “Soul Travel”, and we can use it to connect with the loved ones we’ve lost, or to let go of our own fear of death. The exercise goes like this:

“HU (pronounced like the word hue) is an ancient love song to God. Before sleep, close your eyes and place your attention very gently on the Spiritual Eye (a point between and behind the eyebrows). Sing HU, and fill yourself with love.

“This feeling of love is needed to give you the confidence to go forward into an unknown, unexplored area. One way to fill yourself with love is by calling up the warm memory of a past occasion that filled you with pure love.

“Then look inwardly for the individual who is your ideal at this time—whether it is Christ or one of the ECK Masters**. In a very gentle way, say, ‘I give you permission to take me to the place that I have earned for my greatest spiritual unfoldment.’ And then silently or out loud, continue to chant HU, God, or another holy word.

“Try to visualize yourself walking into the inner worlds and know that the individual who comes to meet you is a dear friend.”

Klemp says the purpose of this exercise is to open a conduit between ourselves and Holy Spirit; and, eventually—if we persist—we will be able to connect with our own individual heavens. In this way, he says, we can also visit with loved ones who have already passed on.

Klemp makes the connection between these types of experiences and what researchers call Near-Death Experiences (NDE’s). He tells stories of people who were clinically dead being delighted by the beauty, peacefulness, and love they found during these experiences. In these stories, each subject is met by a spiritual being with whom they felt guided, protected, and loved. Sometimes they had a chance to learn things of great importance to them, and they may have been told of their future or their mission in life.  Often, when these people returned to their physical lives, they yearned to return to that heaven but didn’t know how. Klemp offers the exercise above to help them do just that.

Small as it is at only 64 pages plus a glossary, this little book also gives advice on dealing with people who are grieving. Even if they believe their loved ones are alive and well in another type of existence, the pain of physical separation is real and often heartbreaking. Thus, talking philosophically about the nature of death does no good; likewise, it may even cause more pain if we talk about our own loses and how things eventually turned around.

Instead, Klemp suggests offering loving silence and lending a listening ear. And, he says, it helps to spiritualize ourselves when with the bereaved by allowing love to enter our own hearts unabated. We can express this love in simple words and deeds, like making meals or helping with funeral arrangements. In the end, though, only time can heal a broken heart, he says.

Two other small books authored by Klemp can serve as companions to ECK Wisdom on Life After Death. They are ECK Wisdom on Dreams, and ECK Wisdom on Soul Travel: What Is It, and How Do You Do It? 

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* 2 Corinthians, 12:2

** From the glossary in ECK Wisdom on Life After Death: “ECK Masters. Spiritual Masters who can assist and protect people in their spiritual studies and travels. The ECK Masters are from a long line of God-Realized Souls who know the responsibility that goes with spiritual freedom.”

 

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The Meaning of Forever Project continues to accept stories of comforting experiences with loved ones who have passed on, and of near-death experiences that have helped to show the continuation of life beyond the physical body. You can email your story to us at themeaningofforever@gmail.com and you can find more about our project on our Facebook page, and our Meaning of Forever Website.

Can grief and joy for the same soul exist side by side? Fran made the case for this in our previous post when she told of how she feels happy that her husband is free to pursue his next spiritual mission but that, twenty-seven years later, she continues to feel his loss in the physical world. In the poem below, she finds a way to express these simultaneous feelings, and her great love for her husband, whom she continues to feel with her despite the separation of death.

 

Good Mourning

(For Ed Blackwell)

By Fran Blackwell

 

Before you came: I ask

What is it that holds me, haunts me forever since

entrance into this body, into this life?

This world going round and round.

Why am I different, so different?

I know not why or where, from whence

I come. Into no mold do I fit. No clue have I found

that is not more surrendering of itself,

like a man in the moon eating cheese.

So looking I stopped,

trying to find clues to make sense

of why I am so different yet not.

Yes, sometimes I felt like a motherless child.

I lived with the pain of not knowing the whys, the wherefores,

just one foot in front of the other.

And then we met, and you held the key to my heart,

and unlocking my heart, I could unlock your heart to

all the wonders of the fulfillment of divine love.

And No; no one knew who I am,

except for you, beloved one who came and knew me.

And I recognized the sound of your heartbeat.

Yet you have now passed from this world,

leaving me to once again

find myself in the deep alone,

stewing in my own juices uncooked,

overlooked, and where I go only God knows.

As you said before you left,

God knows how much I love you.

And I know there are no others, save you and

God, who know my heart completely.

But you were up close and personal.

Here and always Now in the presence of our love.

In quiet repose each moment was right

with the worlds, being in perfect accord with all things

bright and beautiful; though, with your passing,

calling me to a strength I wish I did not have, yet am grateful I do.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to

fall apart at the seams, take a time-out

In the breakdown lane of mindless dysfunction.

But not really, not for me.

For even within the heart of my grief

I am what I am, and in this world of ordinary people

God gave me an extraordinary Soul to share life with.

And our love endures beyond the illusions of death.

For love never dies.

Yet silent tears leave this heart heavy with joy and sorrow,

to continue on and fulfill my golden contract

without you.

The emptiness of your leaving chokes me

with a thousand suns tasting like sawdust,

and I leave no shadows,

for you were my substance,

my blood and bones, my heartbeat, my breath.

But blessed I am to have traveled with you for awhile,

to have loved you forever, and never a missed moment

of love did we squander on drama, or the illusions of

life, for we knew, we knew, Love is all.

You were the only one ever on this planet

who always had my back.

What comfort contained

in this demonstration of Love!

You were the only one, as I was for you, so equal.

Not together because of need or dependency,

for we each were complete within ourselves.

Yet together just for the sacredness of Love,

in perfect balance, beyond time and space,

our love lives forever.

Yet the loneliness of my grief

is akin to drowning.

My God, this is a loneliness beyond compare, yet I bear

it all because you were here in the flesh

with me for a time.

It is not that I miss you, because you are here

in my heart; but

the tenderness in your eyes whenever you looked

and saw Me,

your touch of love and caring concern,

stay bright memories.

And yet this moment, may I say

I miss you.

© Fran Blackwell, 2019

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The Meaning of Forever Project continues to accept stories of comforting experiences with loved ones who have passed on, and of near-death experiences that have helped to show the continuation of life beyond the physical body. You can email your story to us at themeaningofforever@gmail.com and you can find more about our project on our Facebook page, and our Meaning of Forever Website.