Posted by Roberta Grimes • January 29, 2022 • 27 Comments
Afterlife Research, Death, Human Nature
Now I’ve been crying lately, Thinkin’ about the world as it is.
Why must we go on hating? Why can’t we live in bliss?
Oh, Peace Train take this country, Come take me home again.
– Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), from “Peace Train” (1971)
I still can vividly recall how it felt to be afraid to die. I was fourteen when my grandmother died. I saw her body at her funeral, and I can never forget the smell, that chemical spent-flowers funeral home smell. She had been impaired by a stroke for her final six months, but still there was a world of difference between my sweet Grandma and that ugly lump of nothing in the casket. My sister and I were so appalled that we opted for closed-casket funerals when our parents died.
So I had seen death and been horrified by it at a rather impressionable age, but it was only when I was in college that the fear of dying first really hit me. It became a kind of awful fascination. I always had in the back of my mind the certainty that each next instant could be my last, and I wouldn’t even know that I had ceased to be. So, I really owned nothing. I could count on nothing. What even was the point of having lived in the first place? I was terrified of darkness, of heights, of being anywhere that I couldn’t easily escape; and I thought at the time that nobody else seemed to feel as hopeless as I did. But of course, they all were hopeless! All the beer and partying and finding things to laugh about were their coping mechanism against the howling void.
I really did feel this way at twenty! From the viewpoint of my present certainty, I can tell myself that my experiences of light at eight and at twenty had made me always sure about the realities that I have spent my life discovering, but of course that isn’t true at all. At best, those two memories seemed when I was twenty to be the dimmest bits of candle-flame. I was so terrified of dying that I had to do something to alleviate the fear and make my living bearable, and trying to figure out where that light had come from seemed to be my only way of coping.
I’m very glad that I can still remember how it felt to be afraid to die! Because it helps me to identify with the people that I can help today. I hear almost every day from folks who at fifty or sixty or older are still in that awful place where I was at twenty, having coped for their whole lives as I would have coped if I hadn’t followed those bits of flame: they have made their lives bearable by grasping at beliefs. Using Christian promises, NDEs, family stories, and the comfort of being young, they have built what felt like a place of safety and simply tried never to peek outside it. But now, inevitably, the years have passed. And someone close to them has died – a spouse, a child – and the horror of that loss has blown away their twigs of faith. They don’t understand why, but they are terrified of death for what feels like the first time in their lives! Their emails usually begin by saying that they just have found some YouTube of mine, and they generally will mention a recent loss, and then they ask some vague question. Often it’s nothing more than, “Will we still be married when I go to heaven?” When I respond, they are amazed and relieved, and they often will ask more specific questions. Their confusion about suddenly being so afraid is obvious to me! And beyond answering their written questions, I try to give them help with what I can see is really their central problem. Fortunately, I know how they feel!
I promised to tell you today why the world “Immortality” is our magic bullet to end all the problems that are now in the process of destroying the Western world. But first, we ought to mention why talking about “immortality” makes no sense!
In what other field do we talk about a beautiful and perfectly miraculous truth just by reference to its negative opposite? “Not-mortal” is a pathetic term. Among other problems, it implies that death might actually exist! When in fact, we know now that nothing dies. Even matter can be neither created nor destroyed, but it only changes form. And the gigantic astral plane teems with herds of every kind of transitioned animal that ever has lived anywhere. We are told by some transitioned communicators that the only exception to the no-death rule is insects, but I am skeptical about that. No one who has gone ahead of us knows everything! And knowing how tender and perfectly loving our reality is at the highest levels, I would not be at all surprised to discover that every insect that ever has lived anywhere is in fact still alive. Somewhere, there may be clouds of post-death mosquitoes, now forever free of the need to suck blood and the curse of flyswatters.
We’ll be talking here in terms of immortality, since that is the term we use in this benighted place. But please, if you can, try to replace it in your mind with the more accurate word that is the title of this post. And now, let me make to you just two points:
So, that is why I am confident that “Immortality” is the magic bullet that has the power to solve all the world’s current problems. How else can we both vanquish the fears that have us always at one another’s throats, while at the same time we lift humankind’s aspirations so at last we are looking beyond the stars? Western mainstream culture leads the world, but at the moment it is severely burdened by a dogma-based science that insists that our minds must blink out when our bodies die, and by a fear-based Christianity that makes us see ourselves as venal and unworthy. We have no choice now but to override both of our most trusted institutions so we can remove from every mind the fears that are behind the evils that men do, while at the same time we give to all of humankind these powerful and glorious new certainties about who and what they truly are!
The fact that there is only one way to halt the Western world’s desperate slide is the reason why Craig Hogan and I are starting Seek Reality Online now, and never mind the fact that we are geriatric! If there were another way, or if someone else could lead it, then we might be tempted to pass the baton. But there is no other way and no one else. Although we know that we have a long climb ahead!
At the moment, death and the afterlife are not taken seriously as legitimate investigative pursuits on any level. But we’ll get there! As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” And we will, with his perfect example to follow! Mahatma Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
We hope to raise a sufficient fuss to at last move from the “ignore” to the “laugh-at-us” phase. And with the help of the internet, that phase shouldn’t last long. Then finally, the fight for the truth will begin! And we are starting to like our odds….
Oh Peace Train sounding louder, Glide on the Peace Train!
Come on now, Peace Train.
Yes, Peace Train holy roller, Everyone jump upon the Peace Train!
Come on, come on, come on, Yes, come on, peace train.
Yes, it’s the peace train!
– Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), from “Peace Train” (1971)
Quote from above: “… they happily transform their lives to embrace their glorious certainty…”
Hi Roberta, hi everybody! This is a powerful prospect—the idea that when we come to understand everything as eternal, the way we live is not just changed, but transformed. As has been said before, the butterfly (yes, they are eternal too—all that is created of Consciousness IS) the buterfly does not live as a caterpillar.
My dear Mike, the difference in people that comes with losing the fear of death altogether really does seem almost too good to be true! But I have seen it happen often enough now that I take it as a given. Even the variations in the process from person to person are beginning to feel at least somewhat predictable! So I think we can all simply be grateful that this path forward is being shown to us now, and we can gladly take it!
And just to add as part of my usual campaign to enlist help, our spirit guides are ready, willing and more than able to help. We should ask, “what is it that I am here to accomplish with your support?”
Hi Roberta
As usual great Job breaking into a difficult subject so completely lied about in all churches; after all they, the churches have to pick your pockets through FEAR.. Unfortunately, these last two years have suggested to me the following.
It appears to me Those that live in fear are newbies to this incarnation notion or this game of life and will spend this lifetime unsure about everything. Then as we start to repeat this cycle of life, those on the other side will show us, through life experiences, perhaps we need to consider this reality is not anything like Religion presents and Science hasn’t figured out yet..
I would suggest those individuals who have a few lifetimes experiences and especially those old Souls, will profit greatly from time spent on this subject. As one progresses through these incarnations the individual Soul has learned more about Earth life and are more adept at recognizing Truth and less easily fooled by Religion and Science… Common Sense is a great help and being aware of one’s intuition is another advantage..
Again, Roberta, great presentation for those living in fear of everything..
Skip
Dear Skip, thank you! I struggled a bit with this one. I knew what seemed to need to be said, but in truth the task before us seems so gigantic! How is it even possible that our most trusted institutions can have been so altogether wrong for so long? And the responsibility attached to pointing out their shortcomings, and then offering the genuine truth in their place, simply staggers me. But when we are offering an evidence-based grounding of genuine love for all eternity to replace the misery of having to cower in baseless fears, that has to be better! And, knowing what we know, we cannot turn away from at least offering the help that people so desperately need, any more than we can turn away from offering food and drink to someone starving. All we can do is our best!
Dear Roberta, There is a bit more to ad to the recognition that we live life here temporarily in mortal form and when the body dies our soul is liberated to return to its unfettered eternal existence in what is generally termed Heaven. That extra bit is what I discovered in reading thousands of the Out of Body reports, many associated with the NDE, but others developing from meditation or just spontaneously.
Our soul may also be termed as an eternal consciousness. But the body itself has a consciousness derived from its construction of living cells. The body itself owns motivation for survival or avoiding injury and death, and also seeks pleasure (e.g., food, sex, power…). Thus, the body creates a source of motivation that may conflict with the loving, even noble, motivations of the soul, as preserved in its conscience, even though the memory of its eternal nature has been blocked to highten the experience of mortal life. My evidence and theory were published last year as, ” Evidence of the Body Possessing a Form of Consciousness Beyond Its Soul, ” ( https://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/780 ).
I suggest that it is helpful to recognize that we experience motivations from fears and lusts driven by our body that conflict with our eternal soul.
This rings true, as the body inhabited by our soul is so significant in its challenging the soul and spirit in this life. My beloved husband passed nearly two years ago. I’ve immersed myself in study of afterlife through many sources… and still I feel this love for his body, the matter which animated his soul and filtered his being. I find that I still kiss his “ imaginary “ form with great love and reverence in my own imagination…. Roberta, I am so grateful for finding you, and the links to others that you have shared. “ losing” my husband has been a profound experience and the answers that I find are wonder- full. And I wonder, still I wonder, and find this knots in my understanding…. I would love to hear more about the course you are planning. Thank you.
Oh my dear Jack, you make some good points! Our bodies are made by and composed of consciousness, just as all aspects of reality are made by and composed of consciousness. Indeed, what we think of as the ego seems to be attached to the body itself, and it dies when the body dies.
But I would just point out that a body whose mind is traveling in the astral, whether OBE or having an NDE, can’t be studied as a separate entity, since it is organically still a part of its body. It is kept fully alive and animated by the energy connection that was first referred to in the Old Testament as the silver cord; so when we study that body whose mind is traveling, we really can’t be certain what is integral to that body and what might be an aspect of its resident but traveling mind. When that cord breaks at death, then the body is bereft of its connection to what had been its mind, and it clearly has no ability to express ego or any sort of individual motivation. It is a mere collection of cells that are cut off and in the process of dying.
We might mention, too, that in striving to serve the body, the ego does directly interfere with the mind’s more loving aspirations; but each of us can subdue our egos, as A Course in Miracles makes plain.
I don’t like or agree with such statements as “There is no death” or “Death doesn’t exist” or “Death is not real.” Death is real. But the only thing that actually dies is our physical body. The “I” who I am, and the “I” who you are, are eternal, immortal. Each of us is a soul or spirit here and now. We are wearing a physical body. That (our body) is the part of us that dies.
Bill, yes, it’s only the body we are wearing that dies, but the end to that body may yet be tragically hurtful to the survivors. Losing family members, friends, and our pets hurts, so death yet needs to be dealt with even though our own soul/spirit is itself eternal and moves back to its eternal home when its body dies.
Hi Jack , i agree with what you are saying . Completely denying the existence of death feels cold and unsympathetic to the surviving family members who have lost their loved ones. Grief feels real regardless of one’s interpretation of the loss.
My wife and I recently suffered the early death of a Sun Conur we had with us for the past eleven years. Even believing that she went on to bird heaven, it still hurts bad.
My dear Jack, our pets are our babies! Dogs, especially, have such short lives that a friend who says that a puppy is pain in a fur wrapper really is not wrong. So, yes, it eases our minds very much to know that every animal (including birds!) that we ever have loved will be waiting for us there!!
Yes, my dear Ernest, if people are comfortable talking about death so bluntly, then it is better simply to follow their lead! And one thing that really is awful is when people who are grieving are told that it’s time to “move on.” Grieving is a process, and it takes time! Grieving a spouse, especially, generally entails at least a year of deep grief that lessens only gradually, and for many people – especially those over 60 – the healing is never more than partial. So I tell them that is normal, it begins to feel more comfortable, and it won’t be long anyway before there will be a big reunion!
Dear Jack, I agree. I have been hearing from so many grieving people over so many years that I have learned to soft-pedal my use of the “D” word when talking or writing to them. To some who have suffered a loss, each repetition of the word seem to be a clout to the head! So I just say “transitioned” instead of “dead,” unless they seem to find the “D” word comfortable. It really amounts to the same thing.
Oh my dear Bill, welcome! It’s delightful to see you here! Dear friends, Bill Guggenheim is co-author of the 25-year-old classic Hello From Heaven!, about post death communications.
And yes, my dear, the body does indeed die! So to talk about death in that respect is certainly reasonable. I often do it myself. But I have been working a lot of late with our mutual friend Craig Hogan as he and I build Seek Reality as an educational website, and Craig is so emphatic about calling death just a transition – and a minor one at that! – that I guess his attitude has kind of rubbed off on me.
Skip, I discovered Roberta 3 years ago and I’m most grateful for for her blogs, podcasts and books ( especially her book ” Liberating Jesus”). After discovering Roberta, I stayed away from my church but gradually returned more often by listening to the zoom services due to the Covid. I amazing found out that without our paster knowing anything about Roberta’s book, Liberating Jesus”, she was teaching the exact same principles that were in the Roberta’s book. You mentioned ” The churches have to pick your pockets through fear”. My point is that I am happy to have a church that has not done that!!
Oh my dear David, it’s lovely to hear that your church is teaching the Lord’s truth, and I have heard others say something similar about their churches. In my own case, the Pastor of my childhood Congregational church, Rev. Stephen Turrell, was astonishingly love-based for his time, and I feel blessed to have been spared so many of the pointless fears that dominated American Christian churches sixty years ago. But that was then. The tide certainly is turning now!
Here’s a thought on ‘Eternal’ my dear:
Being Sydney born and bred, I remember my mum telling me of ‘the Eternity man’ when I was young. This guy, Arthur Malcolm Stace, would write the word ‘Eternity’ in chalk, on walls and pavements all over Sydney. He did this for 35 years from 1932 – 1967.
Arthur started at dawn and wrote his chosen word fifty times a day. Before long, people noticed this chalk word adorning many pavements in many suburbs around Sydney. The whole city wondered at the identity of this mysterious writer, which remained hidden for many years. All the while the basically illiterate Arthur Stace wrote ‘Eternity’ in stylish, copperplate calligraphy far and wide in stealthy anonymity. When the unknown writer was finally discovered (in 1956), he revealed that the Lord had given him the mission of reminding people of their true nature. Particularly concerning the question, ‘Where would you like to spend eternity?’
You see Roberta, Arthur Stace (1885 – 1967) came from a poor family, became involved in criminal activities and developed alcoholism in his teen years. After World War One was declared he enlisted in the army and soon embarked for Europe. Arthur then served on the Western Front for some years. After returning home to Sydney Australia, he fell heavily into alcoholism again. In utter desperation Arthur sought help from his local church. After a difficult struggle to reform his life he achieved sobriety and became a Christian in the early 1930s.
One day in 1932, Arthur heard an evangelist preacher say that he wished he could shout ‘eternity’ down the streets of Sydney. It was at that moment that Arthur was overwhelmed with emotion and wept; God had suddenly bestowed him with His Presence and given Arthur the mission of writing ‘Eternity’ throughout the streets of the city. Right then, Arthur realized he had a piece of chalk in his pocket. He took the chalk in his hand, kneeled down and wrote ‘Eternity’ on the pavement.
And so Arthur Stace went on to write this word half a million times before his death in1967.
Is it not interesting Roberta, that the words ‘eternal’ and ‘eternity’ are free of any reference to the death state? Whereas ‘immortal’ uses the Latin root word for death (mortem) and the prefix for not (‘im’) to say we live on. The word ‘eternal’ makes no mention of the death state. It just ignores this passing phase and expounds our true timeless, enduring nature. Much better, eh?
Eternity then, is the true human nature and to start to see things from a much bigger, timeless perspective is to awaken, even incrementally, to the soul view. This non material perspective reflects the truth of who we are.
So my dear, I tend to focus on simply eternity itself. And do you know what is funny? When I close my eyes and meditate on this word – I see Arthur Stace’s calligraphy in my mind’s eye. 🙏🏼❣️🌅
Also: Nowadays we don’t need to hand write ‘Eternity’ half a million times on the footpath. We have the internet which can reach billions… What a time to be alive. 😉
Oh my dear Efrem, thank you for sharing such a lovely story! Yes, to define us in terms of death is the opposite of what really makes sense, as Craig Hogan keeps insisting to me. I’m rather more lenient than he is – I use a word that those we are trying to reach and educate will often use. But Craig wants to reinvent the whole lexicon!!
Hi Roberta,
Your past posts have been on a lot of topics, but I love that this one talks about Eternity. I do believe people are afraid to even think of eternal things, because in our earth minds, it is quite incomprehensible. I think that’s is why religion attempted to scare us to do the right thing to reach that eternal home which Jesus spoke of. I have just started to dig into some of Craig Hogan’s books and it is great reading. I still wonder about our connections to people from this earthly life and from past earthly lives. It will be fascinating to find out how this is all woven together. I recognize, this may be just my imagination, but I feel like I have always been connected to the arts, through piano, ballet and painting at different times in history. If any of it is true on the other side, that will be fascinating for sure.
Tim, this of course doesn’t prove anything but it us food for thought: my beloved spirit guide first presented herself to me as a potter!
Oh my dear Tim, I will tell Craig that you are enjoying his books. I loved them, too! He has a way of making complex topics feel accessible but still nuanced, while my whole instinct is just to cut to the chase. So it’s clear that I am meant to teach the basics, while he can handle college-level subjects!
And where eternity is concerned, I hear from many people who see eternity as having an arrow of time running, and a surprising number don’t want to have to “live forever” with time involved. But when I tell them what is true – that in fact, there is no time there! – then the notion of eternity becomes a much happier prospect. 🙂
Mike J-R,
Dang, My spirit guide(s) has always stayed in hiding. I wonder why some of us have guides that make themselves known, and the rest of us are kept ignorant of them. As I think back, I recall making choices virtually against what I intended (almost as if schizophrenic), and now believe those choices were prophetic to taking an intended journey.
Jack, I don’t know for sure, but we are all here to learn something unique, so I am guessing we have guide teams with unique styles. None of us is alone, though—ever.
That’s a wonderful point, my dear Mike. Even if we can’t feel their presence, our primary spirit guides are right with us for our entire lives. And knowing that – LIVING that – feels wonderful!
My dear Jack, our spirit guides are all their own people so they have their own preferences, and some of them would much prefer to work internally. My Thomas is one who feels that way. The fact that we had arranged to change our relationship when I hit sixty-five, and thereafter I would function as his avatar to help with what he considers to be his own unfinished work, meant that I got balky about that time – I refused to channel Liberating Jesus – so he had to break into my daytime life, and for awhile he was willing to work through a medium. But he found that so uncomfortable that in less than two years he was refusing the medium’s help, and he insisted that I learn to communicate with him while he remains internal. And I was able to do that. It feels easy now. This is one of the many things that we will be teaching on SRO, and it might work for you as well. But for certain, you do have a wonderful primary job who has been helping you a great deal to live a very successful life!