Revised and reposted
This article a companion piece to a second article entitled “The Second Death: The Process of Ascension from 3D to 4D on the Spirit Planes” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2011/03/death-process-ascension-spirit-planes/
(For more on this subject, see New Maps of Heaven, at https://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/nmh/nmh-index1.html )
In his March 12, 2011 message, Matthew Ward described how the transition teams in the afterlife receive those who have transited. He wanted us to be reassured that the victims of the Japanese earthquake are being looked after.
So many of us fear death. We fear it so much that we will live as long as we can to avoid it, even if we are crippled and lose our mobility and most of our senses.
In my opinion, we are so afraid of death because we are fraudulently led to believe that we won’t survive death and that death is a terrible thing. In fact these assertions are not true and, to prevent ourselves being manipulated by this false knowledge, we might want to consider what I regard as the truth. So here that is: Another piece of the truth about death.
If one understands deeply what is being said in this article, we may become impervious to being manipulated by an unnecessary fear of death. At least that is my hope in publishing it.
* * * * *
What most people fear when they think of Earth changes, the Illuminati, or Ascension is either death or suffering.
Suffering I can’t say much about. People do suffer while they are alive. That suffering is for our education and has been agreed to prior to our entering this incarnation.
Everything I’ve said about clearing vasanas is very, very important if you’re suffering.
(See “Preparing for Ascension” in the righthand column for many papers about flattening our vasanas. “Vasana” is a Vedantic term for a persistent reaction pattern triggered by a current upset, which resembles a past upset.)
If you don’t resist suffering, and we resist it because of our vasanas, you may be able to reduce the pain of suffering a great deal.
But I can say much more about death.
In speaking of death, I need to say that many of the features of death are common to most people but some few features of death are individual. Just when I think I have a common feature down pat, I come across an experience that departs from the pattern. What this departure often reflects is a special intervention on our behalf by a guide or higher being. However, one common feature of death is that the vast preponderant number of deaths are painless.
Having said that, the first thing to be aware of in regard to our fear of death is that we probably fear not the death of our bodies as much as the extinction of our consciousness, our awareness of ourselves, life, the world, etc.
The second thing to be aware of is that, though we’ll depart from our bodies, that consciousness of ourselves will never, ever, ever be extinguished for 99.99999% of us – not even for an instant – with a few exceptions and even those will be of temporary duration (I’ll come to them in a second).
So there are two things to deal with right away here: (1) what do I mean by “99.99999% of us”? And (2) what do I mean by “even those will be of temporary duration”?
Almost everyone survives death …
So (1), “99.99999% of us.”
As it happens, .00001% of us may be so evil that our existence is taken away from us. Spirits refer to this as being liquidated, recycled, returned to Source.
How would we know we are one of those? Well, have you taken someone’s skin recently and turned it into a lampshade? No? Then you’re not among that 00001%. If you wish to read how evil one must be to be “liquidated,” go here.
So, except if you’re presently raping, torturing, and shooting large numbers of people, and none of you will be involved in those things I’m sure, your consciousness will never, ever, ever be extinguished – except in a few, temporary exceptions.
… without an interruption in consciousness
Now (2), “temporary exceptions.”
The temporary exceptions I’m referring to are short interruptions in consciousness, which include a period of rest after death if we’ve been subject to a long and debilitating illness before leaving or a time of fogginess and unconsciousness after departure if you took your own life (that is, suicided). (See footnote 1)
Even here, you’ll probably retain some degree of awareness of yourself and your surroundings. And you’ll feel only a very manageable amount of discomfort, similar to a head ache. This doesn’t constitute an “extinction” of consciousness. You’ve merely undergone a period of semi-consciousness because it’s needed for recuperation or is mandated for those who exited before their time (i.e., suicided).
Apart from these localized, temporary suspensions of awareness, we’ll never, ever, ever lose our awareness of ourselves, our world, life, etc.
The loss of the body is freeing
Yes, we’ll lose our bodies. But the new body we’ll immediately and seamlessly find ourselves in will be lighter, freer, more refined, not subject to weariness, fatigue, hunger, thirst or any other debilitating or tiring conditions. We’ll be so pleasantly surprised, we’ll probably want to dance around in it
It’s like taking off a heavy, rain-soaked overcoat and feeling immediately lighter and relieved. No different. I was aware of my spirit body during an out-of-body experience. It was so light that I might compare it to the finest down you see at the base of a feather. You know, that fluffy stuff that offers absolutely no resistance to the touch?
That only leaves the event of death as something to fear, right?
If the body suffers a violent death, most leave it before the suffering
Apparently the exact moment of death for each of us has been set and is known to people on the other side. In fact there are institutions on the other side that specialize in alerting your delighted friends and relatives over there that you’ll soon be coming home. (See footnote 2.) They’ll all be there waiting to welcome you, happy, cheerful, excited. Yayayayayay!!!
Spirits who do the work of assisting with transitions also know when it’s our time, as Matthew explains:
“We can determine by the auras who will be leaving Earth lifetime as the souls of the individuals know and their knowledge is a slight energy emanation that is apparent to those who know how to identify it.” (3)
Given that the moment of death is set and agreed to, when we actually do die, we usually leave our bodies just prior to the exact moment of death. In most cases, we do not experience the pain that the body goes through but are well on our way to the etheric planes (the Borderlands, where we rest). Even if our body is thrashing on the ground or walking around wailing, we’ll have left it, if it is our time to depart, and will know nothing of what it goes through.
Since many people’s biggest fear is the pain accompanying the moment of a violent death, let me give a few more examples than I might ordinarily do to assuage people’s fears. There is actually no pain attached to dying just as there is no pain attached to taking off your coat.
John Scott: “They do not suffer, these people, in their passing. I think sometimes their friends suffer more, when they see the body writhing in apparent agony, while in reality the spirit is already tasting the first freedom from pain, or lies in a blessed insensibility” [i.e., sleep or rest]. (4)
Julia Ames: “Some [whom I have spoken to] say that they left the body before it ceased to breathe.” (5)
Quant Tse: “He lost control of the car and went out of his body before the [fatal] accident.” (6)
Mike Swain: “I see a black car coming towards us. As it approaches us, I see this other car coming behind it. I can see this other car clearly, because it is in the middle of the road, trying to pass the black car.”
Nina [Merrington, the medium channeling Mike Swain] paused a moment, and then said: “The sun is glaring on the windscreen of the black car, and reflecting back into my eyes. I can see nothing but a bright silver radiance. It is blinding me.“
“All of a sudden, the radiance changes from silver to gold. I am being lifted up in the air, out through the top of the car. [Spirit attendants have removed Mike from the car before impact – a common occurrence if the individual has reached their time of departure.] I grab little Heather’s hand. She too is being lifted up out of the car.
“We have been lifted thirty feet above the Mini. And in one horrifying second, I see the little Mini and this large car collide head-on. There is a noise like the snapping of steel banjo strings. The little Mini bounces right off the highway, right over into the gravel verge. It is finally brought to a halt in a cloud of dust when it hits a giant anthill….”
Nina stopped, obviously too agitated to continue.
What impressed her listeners was the fact that [their son] Mike [who is speaking through Nina] had never seen the other vehicle until after the silver light had changed to gold. He and Heather had felt no sense of impact. They had suffered no pain. Just a gentle ascent into the air.
“We feel vaguely sorry that this thing should have happened to them. And we both fully understand that we are, now, so far as mortals are concerned, dead.
“We are also both aware that a lot of people have begun to gather round us. They are dressed in glorious colors. We recognize familiar faces, the faces of friends who passed beyond the earth before us. We are still hand in hand; now, guided by the one who first lifted us into the air, the two of us sweep towards the skies. We drift above the two round hills known as the Breasts of Sheba.”
Mike’s father, Jasper Swain: “In heartfelt joy, the [parents] listened, transported by the fact that the passing had involved neither fear … nor suffering.” (7)
Mike Swain: “My actual passing I have already described to you. Both Heather and I were lifted out of our bodies before the collision. There was no pain, no shock. This process is the same in all and every form of violent death. It appears violent from your end; believe me, it is only from your end; never from ours!” (8)
Mike Swain: “When [the transition guides] are given a case where two cars are about to collide, for example, we lower our vibrations until that soul can actually see us: thus his attention is diverted from the violence about to engulf him. Once we are sure that nothing more can be done to avert his death, we take him by his hands and lift him out of his earthly body.” (9)
Mike Swain: “Heather and I have specialized in this kind of ‘first aid’ for about four months of your earth time.” (10)
Mike Swain: “Do you recall the young high school boy who was killed in Durban in circumstances similar to mine? Dad, we were there; it was us who helped him over. He and I had known each other casually while we were both alive so he was relieved and, believe you me, delighted to see me! He knew that I had already passed over, but it still took him a little while to realize the significance of it, when I showed him the mess made by the two cars after they had collided!” (11)
For almost all the rest, death is painless
‘Here is what some spirits say who did not suffer violent deaths, looking back on the event of their departure. Notice the absence of any references to pain.
Julia Ames: “With me the change [i.e., death] was perfectly painless.” (12)
Gordon Burdick: “I feel sure if people were to know that the actual moment of passing is not even noticeable, the fear of death that haunts so many people would vanish.” (13)
Frederic Myers: “Death is … a mere episode which we regard with a certain tenderness and not with any pain. … There is contained in it a time of stillness, of sinking gloriously into rest.” (14)
Arthur Ford: “Death is no more than the passage through a beckoning door. It is so brief, so transitory as scarcely to be noted for it is what lies beyond the door that counts. The body, let us say, is tired and weakened. At a certain point the heart stops, not merely because the body mechanism will not function, but also because the soul has slipped off through the opening door. Some go gladly, some reluctantly, but all in answer to the universal urge for peace and tranquility.” (15)
Msgr Robert Hugh Benson: “The whole process of transition which is so much feared by the folk on earth is a natural, normal, and painless process. It is as natural and painless as removing your outer garment when you have no further use for it.” (16)
Some very few experience a short moment of pain, as SaLuSa indicates:
“The trauma of violent death is short lived. Soon after they reach the other side, where loving helpers attend them until their emotional reaction is healed.” (17)
Here is Sigwart, a German solider in WWI, on that subject:
“The last minute was terrible, but only for a moment and then it passed, which means the sleep of death relieved me of all pain.” (18)
Sigwart slept but many who depart do not sleep but are continuously aware and awake.
Now what’s this we hear about a “second death”? Well, lots of people talk about it. The first conversation about the subject concerns enlightenment. Jesus said we would not be hurt of the second death. Let me cut and paste from The Purpose of Life is Enlightenment on what I think Jesus meant by the second death:
“In fact, we shall find Jesus (and his disciple, Paul), referring to two types of ‘death’ and two types of ‘resurrection.’ The first is ego death and is followed by the resurrection of enlightenment. The second is physical death and is followed by the resurrection of the afterlife. They often do not tell us when they are referring to the first and when to the second, a practice which may sometimes prove confusing.
“For example, Jesus said to a would-be disciple: ‘Let the dead bury their dead.’ (Luke 9:60. ) Here he uses the word ‘dead’ to cover two situations. The first is the situation of the unenlightened; all of us who are not alive in the resurrection of enlightenment. The second is the situation of the deceased, those whose physical bodies are dead but who are alive in the resurrection of the afterlife. If we were to put his teaching another way, we might say, let the unenlightened, who believe in physical death, bury the bodies of those they think have died.” (19)
Adyashanti, a person who will not be hurt of the second death
So if we experience the first death, or the death of the ego or self in enlightenment, while we yet live, then the second death of the physical body will not hurt us in any way because we will consciously and intentionally drop the body prior to death. (See photo of Adyashanti for a look at one who is liberated from the need to reincarnate.)
There is a second meaning of the term “second death,” but I’ll save that for the next article because that meaning covers the same territory as what we today call “Ascension.”
Taken together, these are two meanings of the term “second death.” There are more but they needn’t concern us here.
The last matter to discuss concerns immortality. We are always, always, always already immortal. What Jesus meant when he said that we shall attain immortality was not that we will somehow cheat death. We always, always, always cheat death. He meant that we shall, through becoming enlightened in the experience of sahaja samadhi, (21) not need to descend any more into matter and material bodies again. We shall return to the temple of spirit and go no more out, as he said in Revelation. (22)
However, even if we need go more out (that is, reincarnate), that does not mean that we are not always, already immortal. We are. You will never die. There is no death. Death hath no sting. Death is not triumphant over us. We are triumphant over it, always, always already, forever.
So to summarize, death is not a painful event for most people. We seldom experience a cessation or even a temporary loss of consciousness, except perhaps a recuperative period for those who have been ill prior to departing. The new bodies we find ourselves in are infinitely more acceptable to us than our old. We need not fear death, period. That is the last word on death. Let there be no further fear of death.
Footnotes
(1) On “The Situation of Suicides, see https://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/nmh/border1.html#suicides
(2) On these institutions, see https://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/nmh/hierarchy1.html#hq.</a>
(3) Matthew’s Message, March 1, 2004, at https://www.matthewbooks.com/mattsmessage.htm
(4) John Scott in Paul Beard, Living On. How Consciousness Continues and Evolves After Death. New York: Continuum, 1981, 56. (Hereafter LO.)
(5) Julia [Julia T. Ames] through W.T. Stead, medium, After Death. A Personal Narrative. New York: George H. Doran, n.d.; c. 1914, 162. (Hereafter, AD.)
(6) Spirit control Quan Tse to medium Doris Heather Buckley, Spirit Communication. New York: Award Books, 1967, 38.
(7) Jasper Swain listening to his transitioned son, Mike, speak through a medium, in Jasper Swain, From My World to Yours: A Young Man’s Account of the Afterlife. New York: Walker, 1977. 21-2. (Hereafter FMW.)
(8) Mike Swain in FMW, ibid., 51-2.
(9) FMW, ibid., 57.
(10) FMW, ibid., 57.
(11) FMW, ibid., 58.
(12) Julia Ames, AD, ibid., 64.
(13) Gordon Burdick to Grace Rosher in Rosher, medium. The Travellers’ Return. London: Psychic Press, 1968, 60.
(14) F.W.H. Myers in LO, ibid., 57.
(15) Arthur Ford through Ruth Montgomery, medium. A World Beyond. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1971, 15.
(16) Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, through Anthony Borgia, medium, Here and Hereafter. San Francisco: H.G. White, 1968 (dictated in 1957), 127.
(17) SaLuSa, Oct. 29, 2008, at https://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com/First_Contact/Channeled_Messages_by_Mike_Quinsey.htm
(18) Sigwart in Jospeh Wetzl, trans., The Bridge Over the River. Communications from the Life After Death of a Young Artist Who Died in World War One. Spring Valley: Anthroposophic Press, 1974, 10.
(19) At https://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/reincarn.html
(20) On “The Second Death, see here https://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/nmh/second-death1.html
(21) On sahaja samadhi as liberation from the cycle of reincarnation, see Enlightenment – (4) Stages beyond God Realization (Brahmajnana) – Liberation occurs at sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi
(22) Rev. 3:12. “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out.” That is, him that attains enlightenment (sahaja samadhi) will God relieve of the necessity of any more leaving the kingdom of spirit and descending into matter.