Recently my dad passed away and I was able to spend the last two days of his life with him. In the hours before he died I could feel him leaving his body and when he died I remember feeling that dad’s body was not Him.
We took dad home for 3 days before the funeral and he lay in his coffin in the lounge of our family home. Many visitors and family came to see him and shared stories about his life. Often I would go and stand by his coffin and I knew that it was not Him.
When we were in the church and his coffin was centre stage and family shared memories about dad I remember looking at the coffin and I knew that what it contained was not Him.
At the graveside as we all stood around and talked about dad, the coffin was lowered into the ground and I definitely knew that it was not Him.
And now a few weeks later, as I visually try and hold onto my dad, I can feel the very strong attachment we have to the physical body and what it looks like and how this imprint is often what we hold onto in our heads and in the photos we keep and look at.
Yet dad’s body was the vessel which housed his soul (life force or his essence), and this body after death has no purpose anymore.
What I was feeling after he died was the departure of his soul from his body and I knew that without his soul, the body was not Him and was no longer needed.
When I connect with the soul of my dad I remember his hugs whenever I was leaving and that special kiss on the cheek. Dad was not an overly physically affectionate man, but when he hugged, I knew it was from Him.
When I connect to the soul of my dad I can feel the love he had for his family, not always shown in traditional ways, but it was felt by us all and we knew it was from Him.
When I connect to the soul of my dad I shed a tear as my mum reads some quotations from the heart, which she found in a drawer in his writing desk, and we know they are from Him.
For most of my life I have been told about the finality of death and that we go to heaven or hell. It has never felt true to me and I have never believed this explanation.
Serge Benhayon has presented death as a ‘passing over’, where our soul eventually comes back again into another physical body to live another lifetime. Our spirit is on a journey through many lives learning the lessons we need to learn on our journey back to be united with God. This makes so much sense to me, as I cannot believe that our life here has no purpose except a beginning and an end.
In my observations of my dad’s death I could feel the absence of “Him” in his body and know that this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God.
Published with permission of my Mum.
By Anne Hishon, Registered Nurse, Tauranga, New Zealand
Further Reading:
The Kingly Body – Building a Connection With Your Soul
Reincarnation: Does Everything Start and End?
My Mum’s Funeral: Celebration of a Life Completed
“this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God.” This understanding is the answer to ‘Why are we here?’
Too me Anne you have raised the biggest trap we as human- beings have made for ourselves and to be honest I’m just discovering for myself that we are energy first before we are a physical body. This is hard for me and I guess for most people to really get their head around.
We have not been educated to see energy first we have been positively encouraged to only see the physicality.
I met a child recently that sees energy first, I didn’t speak to this child but I could sense they were reading me energetically. Then I had a sad feeling sweep over my body as I realised that as a child I could read energy too, it was as natural to me as breathing. When we are babies we sense our surroundings, we cannot do very much but we do sense everything. We know exactly what is going on within the family unit we are born into. As we grow up we put aside this most amazing innate ability to sense as it is actively discouraged within the family and definitely at school. This is all done with a deliberate intention so that we do not access our 6th sense because if we do have access we will discover that there is so much more to us than we could ever imagine. Now I understand why we eat and drink and behave in such ways that we do, it is all to avoid feeling just how sensitive we all are we cannot stop feeling so we dull ourselves so much it enables us to lessen what we can feel.
Thank you Anne, as we let go of our old beliefs about death and the dying process and start to get an understanding of how we pass-over. So we start to live life in a different way, and we understand to undertake responsibility for staying connected to that soul-full essence until our last breath, as this is super important to how we reincarnate.
I felt that at my grandmother’s funeral that she wasn’t her body. To make this realisation at her death and reading your blog brings to my attention how much we relate to others because of their physical appearance and their body; not what innately lies inside the body. I think if we let go of our attachment to all outward appearances, letting go of our loved ones would be a celebratory affair, not the griefstricken time we make it to be.
When we connect with another it is our souls connecting which is why we can sometimes go long periods of time without physically seeing someone without it making a difference to the relationship. The attachment we have to another’s physicality and the loss we feel when they pass over exposes how we can still be caught in the myths around what makes us who we are despite so many having had the experience of clearly sensing when the soul leaves the body and how it is then just an empty vessel.
A beautiful sharing re your dad passing thank you Anne.
The way that Serge Benhayon presents about passing over, and the journey of the spirit is something which I have always found very inspiring because of how it gives purpose to life.
Yes, bringing purpose to life is key, and I too love how Serge Benhayon presents about the whole area of passing over.
Understanding reincarnation makes sense of why we are here in that our body is just here to enhouse our spirit life after life as we learn from our experiences in life to evolve back to the glory of Heaven where we came from.
I feel the same Mary and that we are here back on Earth may times over to allow our personality and spirit the healing that is needed – the making whole of the spirit to soul
So we are actually not our body but a Soul and spirit that live beyond the life of the physical body.
It is a sad experience, when our parents pass over. But how you have written about it here is very positive and encouraging that there can be another way that is actually quite lovely.
It is one of the biggest lies in history that we either go to heaven or hell, no wonder we have so many people who say they don’t believe in anything.
If the truth be known as you so express here we would all be more in wonder of life rather then trying to dull the pain.
Being unaware of the fact that we are immortal is a heavy burden to carry.
I had a similar experience when a close friend passed over, even before the last breath was taken I felt that the spirit had left already, to continue its journey, the body that I was looking at was like and old coat, no longer needed, being able to be discarded.
When we have had completion with another and they pass-over then we will not have any regrets for everything has already been said.
Many years ago, when my granddad died, I was asked if I wanted to see him in the funeral palor. I’d never seen a dead body and was unsure. Some people were nervous I would be upset with seeing him and they themselves had decided to not see him because they preferred to remember him being alive. I did opt for seeing him and I was very glad I did because I could feel this was just a physical body and he was no longer around which helped me let him go. I wasn’t particularly understanding of what happens when we die but I felt that it wasn’t until a few days later that I felt he was really no longer with us. It’s wonderful to be able to talk about these things.
Thank you Anne, for expressing what you have experienced and how it felt. For us to learn from this by every word and action. For it shows us that there is a deeper part of us that knows about this return and passing over. There is no such thing as non-existing. As we are. And we will continue to life by lives until we fully live love again, together, not separative.
A beautiful sharing and inner knowing that we are always connected
I was with my Dad 18 months ago when he passed. I watched and sensed him leave his body and his body became a shell, it was not him, he had moved on. Great blog thank you Anne.
Death is definitely not the end and birth is not the beginning. We are much bigger than a mere lifetime in a physical body.
The tragedy of only living a human life is that we miss the depth of connection our Soul offers of the eternal oneness that we are from, and will continue to be in a cycle within this life, the next and so on, until we all return to knowing that it is all about the quality space that we are here for and not time.
It is so important that humanity learns the truth of reincarnation, that people know with a surety what is actually happening in life, death, and rebirth. This is the game changer.
Death has a way of showing us that we are more than human, I remember feeling the same when my nan died. It wasn’t her anymore. Likewise this otherworldly part of us can be seen changing when using substances or reactions. Even having phrases like “your not yourself” or “whats gotten into you” shows that we know we are more than the body that enhouses another aspect of us.
I love the observed science of this blog Anne, and I remember seeing a dead body for the first time when my grandfather passed away and feeling the same thing. It was like I was looking at someone’s jacket they left in a coffin- the way his body was just a shell to hold his soul during his life, and could almost feel how he just slipped it off when he died. I felt the same after seeing my grandmother’s dead body as well. Great blog Anne!
Being able to feel the difference of things by the felt sense, can allow us to feel the truth of life.
“know that this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God.” When we truly understand this we are able to let those we love go, knowing that we are all on a similar journey.
When we re-connect to our Soul we can simply feel that all else that has gone before “that it was not” me. Then when someone passes over we can feel the deep appreciation that they have given to us all, and we appreciate we will never miss the person especially if we know that we have left nothing unsaid so we feel complete with them. So could it be possible that if we complete every time we express with another there we will never by any grieving or feel regrets at some-ones passing as there is always completion.
A very beautiful article Anne of a very precious time with your Dad. But the beauty is not in what we consider the final moments, but in the knowing that your knowing of him and his essence continues and will never leave.
Anne – this is a beautiful sharing with the awareness of the cycle of dying from your observations. It is a great learning to feel the withdrawal of the life force and know the body as only a vehicle of expression that it has been for one small part of our journey in life and the continual return as we re-cycle through many other lifetimes, refining expression back to our divine essence on our return home to God.
” which has In my observations of my dad’s death I could feel the absence of “Him” in his body and know that this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God”.
Thank you, Anne, it is beautiful healing to be able to understand the process of dying, and that this is a time to celebrate us for the life lived and to embrace it with open arms instead of denying the fact that will eventually pass and tainting it with emotional debris.
Beautifully expressed thank you Anne. I attended a workshop this weekend on getting my affairs in order before I get taken sick or die and was surprised at the resistance it brought up to the practicalities of what was presented thus exposing the denial that I have been in and not being willing to make decisions to the best of my ability now knowing I can simply amend my paperwork at a later date if required. If I stick my head in the sand and do nothing then someone else will be left with the task of clearing up my mess once I have passed over at a challenging time and without knowing if they are following my wishes.
A great reminder to us all we are so much more then just a physical being, we are multidimensional eternal divine beings, we just lose sight of this in our everyday.
This is a beautiful and heart felt blog Anne. I was with my mother as she left her body and it is an exquisite experience to bear witness to as we could feel her leaving and then her body was no longer ‘her’ just as you have described here. I also visited my father after they had laid him out in the funeral palour and he not only didn’t visually resemble himself ‘he’ wasn’t there. A dead body is just that a body with no living spark, no essence.
There is so much we do not understand when it comes to dying, we are all so caught up in it being an extremly emotional event yet the person has moved on and we need to learn to celebrate that life lived and their new beginnings.
When we, as a race, truly know about the cycle of life, we will then be able to truly celebrate life
The passing over of ourselves and our loved ones is a science that we really need to discuss far more openly to move past our fears and phobias of it and our associated unresolved emotions that shadow it.
We all do witness and have observed the extreme change in our body when we have passed over as there clearly is a quality or a pulse that animates us. We notice it in death but are we aware of this connection through our lives. The more we connect to this quality which is in fact our Soul, the more vibrantly we live our lives. For yes, we may be living but if we forgo our connection to this inner-quality, to our inner-pulse or essence what quality of life are we living? Thank you Anne, for shedding light on our current views of the finality of us through death. Yes there is more to us and it is deeply beautiful to embrace the eternal quality of our Soul, and to realise that this life has great purpose as we are laying our foundation for our one next to follow on from.
The body enhouses the soul and is an impression that leaves a mark on us (I need a heart emoji here!) It is the part of another that we want to connect to the most and I have found to miss when so much attention is given to the body or material distractions.
When we approach death in this way we are also taking more responsibility with how we are with it. It is no longer about seeing the person as purely ‘the person’ and hence they are more than what they did and what they looked like. It shows that there is a much greater aspect to us we often do not appreciate when we see a person purely by the outer characteristics.
You are so right, Josh. We often associate and remember a person by how they look and not by their innermost being. It makes no sense really and shows how we are attached to identification in a very physical way.
I remember in my late 20’s when my father died and feeling the same thing that the body I saw was no longer him, yet it did not disturb me, it didn’t feel final, it felt like he was on the next phase of his journey. i felt the release from his body that was no longer serving him. This was long before I came to Universal Medicine, so I feel we do have a real understanding of passing over it is only when we let our emotions rule us that we lose sight of what we know to be true. I feel the same way Anne “In my observations of my dad’s death I could feel the absence of “Him” in his body and know that this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God.
As we start to know about the cycle of life and death, truly know with that deep inner wisdom, we experience a liberation on many levels.
“In my observations of my dad’s death I could feel the absence of “Him” in his body and know that this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God.” Beautiful Anne. I felt similarly when my mum died some years ago now. The essence of her was gone and her 90 year old body no longer needed this time around.
I love this description of the soul and the body. It is clear, it is unchallengeable, and it is real. It is an opportunity to see that if we understand this fully in life, it would change how we live day to day.
Beautifully shared Anne, thank you, Without the life force, soul, essence in the body is like a old well worn coat, an instrument that is no longer needed.
The life we live is within a body, but it is a soul within the body. The soul will continue after the body has passed.
There is such a difference between a body that has life and a body that does not. You can tell it is not the person you knew any more, so I have realised, since being around this, there is more to life than the physical body. That what I choose to call our soul, enhouses that body but is in fact an energy, it is more than the physical body. I wonder if our dread of death is the possibility that we know we are not living the life we are here to live, we are not living the love we know we are from and will return to. I wonder.
There is the body and there is the being. Without the being the body does not come to life. And then there is the deeper connection with the Soul – the one that brings true warmth and love and light into the body and for all to feel.
There is a beauty of feeling the warmth and love of a person who has passed away. Recently a good friend of mine died and although I hadn’t seen her for a while I still felt touched by the warmth and love we had shared…it hasn’t gone anywhere and still lives inside. We can often get attached to the physicality of a person, but love imprints left behind are equally stronger if not more so.
So beautifully said Monica – and so it is, our precious physical body is precious purely because it offers us an opportunity to express the qualities of the essence, the Soul. Hence we can have immense appreciation for the body, without an attachment to it as you have shared.
Anne, this is an absolutely gorgeous blog – I cannot believe I have not come across it earlier! It is lovely how you talk about your dad as being so much more than just his body. That you knew that the body alone did not represent the warmth and love that he was and brought to all around him. After all it is the warmth and love that brings life to the body and so it is that the body is a vehicle of the true life that lives within. And for each of us, each life is an opportunity to learn to let more and more of this warmth and love out for all to see.
Seeing bodies that had passed over – when I was in hospital working as a nurse – and then seeing my own parents after their passing – it was so obvious they were no longer there. The essence of them had gone, The body is a vehicle we use for each life we come to live upon the earth. I have somehow always known we return to earth – enhoused in a different body – for what we need to learn each time. Listening to the presentations by Serge Benhayon about reincarnation resounded deeply with what i had always known and to have the opportunity to evolve with each new life is such a great gift.
Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon present a profound and deeply insightful understanding of dying or passing over, that, even if this was the only thing that was presented, would absolutely validate the of crucial importance of their amazing presentations.
There is a view that I have come across from people who suggest that those who believe in something more to this life do so for comfort, a sort of not wanting to accept the finality of life. Yet, when you truly consider what it means to come around again and again, then you see the purpose in life and the huge responsibility we have in every moment. It certainly is not a cop out!
What an amazing experience showing that life is far more than physicality, we have a soul, which is our essence and it is this when expressed in full in life that makes everything joy fun, and connected like the universe. If we look at human life than it is quite a mess, but it’s obvious we all know something deep inside that is loving and divine, otherwise we wouldn’t know what is hurtful and abusive.
Thank you for this simply beautiful sharing about how the body is the vessel for the soul in this lifetime and how it is possible to feel the soul leaving the body prior to death. I know I clearly felt this with my father and through Serge’s teachings on ‘passing over’ was able to let go of my attachments to his physical presence in my life and deeply appreciate the truth he reflected to all which continues to live on in his family and others despite his physical passing.
So true Anne, when we let go of the physical presence of someone we love then we are free to hold the known essence of them in our heart.
It’s a great point you’ve made Anne about our attachment to the physical vessel that enhouses the being within that we love so much. We can really miss their physical presence after they have passed away, however the being simply moves on to the next cycle of life.
This is my understanding too, that it is our physical body that dies, ‘death as a ‘passing over’, where our soul eventually comes back again into another physical body to live another lifetime. Our spirit is on a journey through many lives learning the lessons we need to learn on our journey back to be united with God.’
When we understand that death is not the end, it can be, and is from my own experience a beautiful experience. To allow ourselves to pass from this plane in love and gentle acceptance without struggle or fear we open the door to a truly lovely homecoming. The more natural we see death as being, the more accepting we will be.
For me this is an ongoing process, something I felt I understood, until that is someone I know is passing over – there is so much stuff that comes up for that person, the family, friends, lots of things that may have been buried for years or gone unsaid, it can be quite a process for everybody. This has made me realise many things, one big one being we need to talk about death and dying and passing over and how it affects us all, not just immediate family. Sometimes it is like sitting in a room with everyone trying to squeeze past the big pink elephant pretending it’s not there.
Thank you Anne, this is a beautiful sharing about death and dying, it makes this often heavy topic light and simple. There is no end, life is just a chapter of many, and in each chapter we have many opportunities to learn and grow.
Having had my fair share of funerals and observing bodies when laid out in the hospital or funeral parlour, it is true the bodies feel empty and it is not like they are sleeping because we can feel that they have moved on.
A beautiful post Anne, when someone passes over, for me there is a knowingness that this is the end of a cycle and the beginning of the next.
In the recent passing over of a close relative, I too have come to filter out the differences between times when he was living and responding from the essence of who he is and the times when he was living in reaction to life based on the hurts he was carrying. And this exploration has brought me closer to a deeper awareness of the fact that what we leave behind when we depart from this world is the livingness of our lives which is the sum of all our choices. And there in lays a great responsibility, because imagine if what you leave behind is a life based on truth, love, integrity, humbleness, support for others and yourself. What if the life that you leave behind is so phenomenal and inspiring that those who are left feel compelled to write about it, so that the choices you have made can live on and inspire others to choose the same level of love, integrity, truth and humbleness and support.
I too know what it is to stand next to a body and know it isn’t the person we knew.
The body is not who we are. We are something so much grander than that, the body limits us, and imposes restrictions that we are free of when we passover. The key is to learn to live with our body, in a way that reflects the glory and the truth of who we are.
We are more than our physical bodies, we are all Souls in many different stages of returning.
For as long as I can remember I have always felt deeply that there is more to this life than we can see and that it just did not make any sense at all that we had this one life and that was it….it felt very limiting and most of all a huge reduction of the laws of the universe and the cycles of birth, death and reincarnation. Love this blog Anne in how simply you show us the bigger picture and I can feel how supportive it will be for many facing the ‘ passing over’ of their loved ones.
Re-reading your blog again Anne – so beautiful and we all need to have these experiences shared so that we can view and be around these times in a way that is supportive of all.
I had the same experience when I visited my grandfather’s funeral.
Sounds like in the end, your relationship with your father transcended beyond seeing him a flesh and blood but as a family member passing over.
Beautifully and tenderly expressed Anne, your blog is such a great support for anyone who has struggled with the passing over of a loved one. This is such an important conversation to be having so openly as we do not speak freely about death and dying and so there can be many fears and false beliefs built up around it.
I just love these words – ‘this life was only a small part of his journey’. I know there is so much more to life and the world than what we see. The way I see it, is if you look at the earth it’s all you see, but if you look at the universe and zoom out it just gets bigger and more beautiful – and it’s the same with our lives. If you look at this one life it’s all you see, but if you zoom out there are thousands of other lives and so so so much more than we consider when we just look at this life.
Thank you for sharing this. This is a beautifull truth, especially this: ‘Yet dad’s body was the vessel which housed his soul (life force or his essence), and this body after death has no purpose anymore.’ The teachings from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine are invaluable especially for everyone to have a true knowing and understanding of Soul and spirit.
I have always found it strange how, particularly in western culture, people fear and will not talk about death. I have always felt that it is a natural part of life, as birth is, I have wanted to understand it and speak of it and I have often found walls have been put up to not discuss this subject. Great that there is a blog here about death and how it feels to observe it and be part of it. Death is as much a part of life as life is, it is part of the cycle of life.
I have had this experience with older people I have worked with and also family members. The body is not what makes us, it is our vessel, our vehicle for this life. I did not feel that what makes someone who they are stays in their body, when we die, our soul leaves. I have no doubt about that.
Thank you Anne for sharing your experience of the passing over of your father in a beautiful, respectful and honouring way, with a deeper understanding of what happens when we die, with another cycle ended.
Death and dying in our society is so misunderstood, in large part because we’re so conditioned to be frightened to talk about it that it’s shrouded in taboo rather than confronted and embraced as a a totally natural process that requires our full responsibility and commitment. But increasingly, particularly as we age, the question and urgency about what our true purpose is in being here grows ever louder.
I have experienced the same, a dead body is just that. Life, purpose has gone or better say the divine has gone and will come back in the beautiful cycle life is until we all are united in divinity, in God.
When I was a child I saw the dead body of some relatives. Although the adults expressed their sadness, I remember the clear feeling of calm into myself. I felt that everything was perfectly ok and I knew that there were no need to be sad. Of course, it was a bit shocking to me to look at my granddad’s body and confirm that it was completely void of him. But at that moment I had the immediate realisation of what death truly means. Now I’m grateful of having had that experience,when I was a child, because at that moment I still didn’t have any ideas and emotions associated to death, and this experience was a confirmation about my tranquility regarding to death, which has accompanied to me during all my life.
Anne, your experience with your dad and my experience with those who are dying shows that we are so much more than our body as you have shared. There is within an essence that we feel and know in addition to the physicality and personality of our lives. It is important to never forget this as we watch or support our elders pass on from this temporal life.
I have little experience of death, other than the recent passing away of my Mum… and like you, there was a point where the body was no longer the vessel for the soul within, and I found myself addressing her in a space around the body as it slowly gave up its long battle with Cancer. The fascinating thing was that while the body degraded, the other aspect remained exactly the same essence as I had always felt in her, perhaps a bit lighter and more accessible, but definitely the same feel.
Thank you for sharing your special memories of your Dad’s passing Anne. Having experienced both my parents passing , I absolutely know we are not that body but rather a spirit and Soul on our journey back to God, through many lives here on Earth.
Thank you Anne for sharing this deep and intimate experience of your father’s passing. Reading about your experience I can confirm of similar situations with my mother in law and other family members that I went to view before they where buried. Yes it was their physical body, but it felt like an object as opposed to a human being.
Death is often seen as there either being nothing on the other side, we go somewhere else or come back as something or someone else. But what if rather than just the end of a cycle there was so much more to death than we’ve currently adopted? From the presentations of Serge Benhayon this has certainly been the question posed that what if death was actually a blessing and that we are far more than the body we live in. That is what this blog clearly shows – that we are far more than the human frame because when we depart from it our beingness, our presence is absent. If we are far more than the human body then what more is there about us that can/could be discovered when the focus is removed from what we do in life as a way of identification? because we don’t do anything per say on death but who we are is noticeably missing after that event.
It makes so much sense to me that we come back again and again learning lessons we need to learn in order to return to the love we are all from, I feel blessed to know this to be true as when we know we come back we are seeing the bigger picture and feeling truth rather then getting lost in the smallness and illusion of finality.
True, when we are open to the possibility, or feel it to be true for us, that we return to live another life to learn what there is to learn, we open up the potential of feeling the big picture. This alters how we relate to life in all ways. Responsibility for how we live in this life has a whole new flavour if we are aware that we will be returning to the choices we have made.
I agree, Emma it would make no sense at all and yet so many people believe this is the case. If we were taught about true evolution from the start I am sure the world would be a different place to live in and we would all be living with a lot more self responsibility.
It makes so much sense that we will pass over and begin again, on an endless cycle of rebirth until we choose to evolve and re-unite with our soul and God. It would be a desolate feeling to think that this is it and that our life has no purpose.
Reading your piece, I felt the soul of my Dad and his love, through the gestures he displays in so many ways to his family. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Anne, your writing is a beautiful reminder to look beyond the physical body and feel the person who is there, whether alive or passed over. We get very deceived by our eyes. The clairsentience of our inner heart feels and knows everything.
“..this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God.” Deeply touching blog Anne. How healing it is when we see the bigger picture like you have Anne, thank you for sharing.
Losing a loved one can bring up much sadness and grief as we become so attached to the physical body. When my auntie died of cancer I found it very sad but it brought about much healing for the family. I am coming to realise that when we hold on to another it comes from self and that is not love and does not serve. Feeling what the body presents and letting them go is so freeing, knowing that it is one life of many, another opportunity to learn and grow on the path of return back to God. Thank you Anne for sharing a beautiful blog on the death of your father.
Yes, Caroline, to love without attachment is huge but very freeing. However this type of love is not valued or recognised by society- we need to be seen to be emotional and grieving in a very visible way or we are perceived as being cold and hard. . In understanding the true cycle of life this does not make sense!
Anne this is the most beautiful blog I have read about ‘passing over’ it so clearly explains everything I felt when my mother passed and it all makes so much sense. Thank you
Yes Jenny, why delay? I know I will be reincarnating so I may as well make the most of this life in dealing with and healing the opportunities that come my way.
“I remember feeling that dad’s body was not Him.” Anne that was very clear to me too when I saw my mum’s dead body. It was just a dead body – she had passed over. It was great to see her body as it helped me face the reality that she had died but it was so obvious that it was just the body that was left behind rather like a cicada shell attached to a branch. At the same time I could feel her all around me and in me as if her love had died into me and there was no sense of missing her.
Yes, Samantha most of us live in the present, enjoying all life’s pleasures, without too much thought about the consequences of our irresponsibility. I feel that living in the present and actually being present in the present are two different things, for when we are present in the present we are fully aware of our actions and the responsibility we have and the repercussions for our return. As you have said it may take some of us several lifetimes to truly feel and understand this.
Great point Anne Hishon – I haven’t thought about presence in the present before and how different it is to just being present. It feels like being present in the present actually holds everything with it, like the future and the past, it’s all relative to what is happening now and if we are truly present we are aware of and feel everything about ourselves and others in each moment – we are with God.
Yes, Rachael, being present in the present brings us such great awareness but I find this difficult to hold this in my life. However it is a marker for me and I know and feel what is possible.
“Our spirit is on a journey through many lives learning the lessons we need to learn on our journey back to be united with God” Anne this is beauty-full when reading this truth I feel a pang of sadness for the fact we do not as a society claim what we all know to be true in our hearts, that we are coming back again and again and we are here to learn. The illusion that we have only one life so we can live it irresponsible is quite thick and will take a few lives for us all to get it!!
“Serge Benhayon has presented death as a ‘passing over’, where our soul eventually comes back again into another physical body to live another lifetime. Our spirit is on a journey through many lives learning the lessons we need to learn on our journey back to be united with God”. I love what you have shared here about Serge’s presentations. When I also heard this it made great sense to me and gave me such a deeper understanding of life.
Yes how amazing is it Sarah that when we look at someone what stands before us is accumulation of choices and lives lived. When we know this we naturally open ourselves up to a greater understanding of that person.
Anne, what an amazing experience for you and your family to have. l have difficulties contemplating my father’s passing as we are very close. This subject is a sensitive one for me. However, reading these blogs is a very gently, loving way for me to ponder on this and yours and other people’s experiences feel divinely blessed and supported in every way. lt’s very beautiful. Thank you to all contributing.
I appreciate what you are sharing here, Irene, and the sensitivity you feel around this subject. Prior to my dad’s death I could never imagine my parents not being here as they had been in my life here for so long. Knowing that this is only a part of Dad’s journey has helped me to understand his death in a different way and I can feel the divine support in this understanding.
It has been such a blessing to read your blog Anne and all the comments. A few years ago I attended the funeral of a young man, he had been placed in an open coffin at the funeral. It was such a great opportunity to see the husk that remained, and to know that the soul life had left. What everyone has shared really brings home our responsibility to be living our lives in preparation for the next one. We are each a part of the grand whole, we each make a difference to the amount of love on our shared planet.
This is the challenge really- to know that this life is not “it” and all the attachments we feel in this life just hold us back from our preparation for the next life. It is not about us as we are part of a whole and delay affects us all.
I have always felt there was more to life than just this one so when I was reminded of reincarnation it was no big deal as I knew without a shadow of a doubt, it was true. I am now 45 years and I think very often about my next life as I know that the more responsible I am for my being in this life means the more soulful I am next time round. It always touches me deeply when ever I hear of another taking responsibility in the preparing of themselves for their next life.
Yes Caroline if you think of everything we hold as important in life unless it is evolving us it really is useless! Learning to take responsibility for our lives is probably the most important lesson we can learn.
Beautiful Anne, this again shows me so clearly that we are not our bodies, they are a great tool to work here on earth but it is not us. And when we die it shows clearly, that there is nothing truly left of us in the dead body.
Hi Benkt- This is such a difficult truth for most to accept as we have become so attached to our bodies. We spend millions on our bodies – dressing them, modifying them, fixing them but not truly loving them. We are so attached to the external representation of our body that we forget that it is what the body is housing that is the glorious part. Truly self loving is the key to understanding.
This feels so true to me Benkt, through our bodies we have great opportunity to learn and each life we are given what we need, through our bodies we have massive opportunity to learn. We have all been many different shapes, sizes and genders before – when we feel the purpose of this it gives a whole new meaning to truly appreciating our physical body!
Thanks for sharing Anne, passing over is rarely spoken about and the way you have described your experience is much appreciated
A very beautiful reminder that we are so much more than our physical bodies. On realising this fact life and death take on a whole new meaning.
Thank you for sharing and expressing so powerfully your experiences Anne.
I really relate to this blog Anne as I can remember I felt the same when my Dad died, his body was brought back to the house and it was just an empty shell, it could have been a wax dummy for all I knew as it felt nothing like him. Knowing that this was just another step on his path made it much easier for me although it is always sad and I’ll always miss not seeing him around as the man he was. Like many people, he believed strongly in one life and heaven and hell but I feel strongly that he is back by now continuing on his path back to God.
Yes, Kevin, we miss the beautiful essence of the person and it is great to know that they are coming back in human form again. It makes me aware of the magnificence of the universe when I ponder on how our souls journey through so many lives and that I am on that journey too. My thoughts about death have changed so much in that last few years!
This is awesome Kevin that you were able to see and feel the truth to what was really going on.
So many years of human existence have passed yet, in our approach to death and life, it’s like we keep lying. We obsess on the way our body looks, and fear death like the mortal enemy of all that’s fair. Yet what you show here Anne, is the beauty of life’s cycles and a grand connection we all share, thats beyond time, physicality and the age of you and me.
Well said, Joseph. It has been only through sharing and being present with those who are dying that I have been able to feel confirmation of the truth about death and the limits of our physicality which I have already known in my body but had not been able to articulate. It is thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine that I have come to a full understanding about the cycles of life and the soul’s journey back to God in completion.
Anne I love what you’ve written here. Your blog begs the question as to who we really are if we are not our body and exposes our investments and attachments to it. This is huge for us all and something I’ve been becoming aware of recently. If we focus on how we look does this mean we don’t have to focus on what we feel within? For when we treasure our body from the essence of who we really are, our outer becomes a reflection of this grandness, not a love-less body that looks good but feels empty.
“And now a few weeks later, as I visually try and hold onto my dad, I can feel the very strong attachment we have to the physical body and what it looks like and how this imprint is often what we hold onto in our heads and in the photos we keep and look at.” I love what you have said here Anne, its so true how we try to hold onto a visual image of deceased loved ones, I remember feeling guilty as a child when I could no longer picture my grandmother – thank-you for blowing this visual attachment out of the water, and sharing how we can connect and celebrate the deceased through the quality of their essence.
Since I saw my father struggling with dying I could feel that the passing over had to do with how much someone can let go of life. To know that I will come back made it easier for me to get a deeper understanding of my life and also my death – it is never too late to take the responsibility for every step I do.
Anne thank you so much for sharing your experience with the death of your father. I love it what your wrote about the passing over and that “Our spirit is on a journey through many lives learning the lessons we need to learn on our journey back to be united with God.” That really makes so much more sense to me as well than all the heaven and hell stories about death.
“…. I cannot believe that our life here has no purpose except a beginning and an end.” This is something I come back to often. I used to feel overwhelmed knowing that each of us had a divine purpose here on earth yet unable to work out what it was or how to go about it. I felt as though I spent my life biding time and numbing myself to the pain of not living aligned to the purpose I had. When I discovered Universal Medicine I knew I had found the way home and I know the true purpose of my lives once more. This is a gift beyond compare.
So beautifully expressed Anne, I too can relate to your sharing as I watched my sister passing over and I felt no fear, as I knew she was on her way back to God. I only visited her tombstone once as I felt strongly to connect with her in someway, it felt very emotional and I remember making a clear choice never to re-visit her grave because it felt too final when I knew the love and connection I feel with her is eternal – it never dies.
Thank you Anne for sharing your feelings on death. I too have experienced death esoterically and the understanding that was gained was immensely supportive. From two experiences with both my parents in two different states of mind was a profound change. The first I blamed God and took on a lot of emotion by being extremely guilty. I was 9 years old. The second was unexpected traumatic tragedy. I was 31. I had a full understanding and healed almost instantly by completing letting go and connected to mum’s essence where I felt the truth and love of the event. No emotion succumbed me. I and my mum were able to truly rest in peace.
I completely understand what you have described here Anne from my own experience of the passing of a dear one. The body is then lifeless but we can remember our loved ones with the imprints of love they left behind.
Anne this was great to read. Thank you. We put so much emphasis on the physical body that we forget we are so much more. I think when we realize this death is seen in a very different way.
Thank you Anne for your sharing, when my father died and I was asked if I would like to see his body at rest, I decided not to go, as all that would be there would be an empty body that he had already left.
Lovely blog Anne to really ‘get’ that your Dad’s body was not Him and that his Soul was really passing over into the next body for his next life on this planet. Beautiful.
“This life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God”. This understanding was so helpful when my mother passed away, and when prior to that I could see her body becoming more and more frail. Whilst I had my attachments and emotions to resolve, it was hugely reassuring and liberating to have an absolute knowing that there is a rhythm and order to the Universe, that we are constantly held in immense love, and that death is by no means an ‘end’.
Beautiful Golnaz, It is humbling indeed to know that this is just a microcosmic part of our journey , for in this knowing there is no need for the entanglements of emotions only a pure and divine release from this life.
“it was hugely reassuring and liberating to have an absolute knowing that there is a rhythm and order to the Universe, that we are constantly held in immense love, and that death is by no means an ‘end’.” Golnaz your words touch me deeply, most of our suffering is in the denial of that immense love and denial of the grand plan. When we surrender to what is true we can feel how we are all so lovingly held in God’s love and never ever will that leave.
Through several direct and personal experiences, I agree with all that you have written here, Anne. When close family relatives have passed on, even when pet dogs have passed on, the shell that remains is so very obviously without them – they are gone. That which animated the body, the sparkle in their eyes, the smile on the face, the loving vibe, have all departed and we are left with a shell which accurately reflects the truth of the emotions that were running through that body during the lifetime of the incarnating being. I see this as incontrovertible evidence that we, and all creatures, are more than our physicality, although our physicality serves us so beautifully and faithfully in each incarnation
This blog and many of the comments refer to the body housing the soul. Very few live fully soulful with their body actually housing their Soul – more often than not what is running us is our spirit. Unimedpedia spirit http://www.unimedliving.com/unimedpedia/word-index/unimedpedia-spirit.html provides a free audio called “The difference between spirit and Soul” and well as other audio and quotes. Our Soul is always with us but we are often not with it. It is our evolution to return to our Soul.
A great point, Nicola. We are definitely on a journey to be fully reunited with our soul but it is our spirit which takes us off the path on this journey with its’ many distractions, enticements and illusions. Fortunately our soul or essence is the light within even if at times we dull it with the choices we make in order to have a “good” life.
What a great audio Nicola, so full of truth. Thank you for posting this link.
“Yet dad’s body was the vessel which housed his soul (life force or his essence), and this body after death has no purpose anymore.”, if everyone truly understands that the body was just a vessel for the soul and it returns back to the divine source and there is no purpose of the body anymore, there would be less emotional attachments on the body.
if everyone truly understands that the body was just a vessel for the soul and it returns back to the divine source and there is no purpose of the body anymore, there would be less emotional attachments on the body. This is true Amita as we would not identify with the body as being the person, but rather feel their essence is actually their true selves, and then see death as the next stage in that journey for the body.
Well said Amita, if you look at current trends in society we have lost the plot when it comes to the attachment of what our physical body looks like, when in truth it is the quality we choose in each moment that will ultimately be ugly and stagnant or beautiful and evolving.
Through reading this I was reminded of how I felt when our children where born, they felt so rich in experiences and in who they where, no blank slates at all. When you talked about this life being a small part of the what is experienced “this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God.” I can relate to this, in observing a persons body being left near their death and feeling the quality of a child when they are born.
I felt this too, Samantha when my children were born. In fact I had a strong feeling that they were not mine to own but were given to us so we could love and guide them through life but their journey was their own and not ours to manipulate. They bought with them all their previous life experiences and it has been gorgeous to watch their lives unfold.
That is so beautiful Anne, to recognize that your role was to: “guide them through life but their journey was their own and not ours to manipulate.”
Absolutely ladies I can totally concur, we simply cannot deny reincarnation when faced with the light & wisdom of our children’s souls.
I felt that too Zofia. And to confirm that lightness of being that is the soul, I have read of studies that measure a change in the weight of bodies as people pass over. There is a slight reduction in the weight of the body: something leaves, the rest remains and it is this part, the dense part, we tend to in the funeral process. In some respects the funeral feels a little meaningless, though it does mark a transition. I have however been present at a celebration for someone before they passed. This was a wonderful acknowledgement with little sadness.
‘…I cannot believe that our life here has no purpose except a beginning and an end.’ I have never been able to believe this either Anne – it just doesn’t make sense that we would live so purposelessly. Considering life to be the sum of 70+ years and a mere blip in time just doesn’t cut it. Life is too grand for that, our souls way too large to be so reduced.
Yes I agree Richard, there is really no such thing as death (other than of the body) but simply a change of form.
Anne there was a totally different way or energy about the description of your father’s ‘body’, versus the descriptions of your fond remembrance of him as a Soul – the latter having a vitality, the former a denseness. Your post confirms that death of a body, is just that – a body or vehicle, it is the light within the vehicle and its expression that is to be remembered and marked as celebration for that particular time on earth.
Yes Susan, I have found that the accepting and letting go has come from fully expressing all I felt with the passing person so there was nothing left unsaid.
Thanks to Serge Benhayon i was able to understand that we not just living once and never again. This brings a different perspective to live and with that responsibility of our choice. As how we live and die set the foundation for our next life. How we raise our children will be the world we will be born in again….
This is so revealing and relevant to how we live now, Janina, and goes against the very common view that we may as well have as much fun as we can in this life as we only live once! The latter fosters total irresponsibility while reincarnation offers us an opportunity through our choices to live in a more joyful and harmonious way in the next life.
Thank you Anne for this beautiful and inspirational blog. It felt so true when you described the situation after your farther passed away that his body wasn’t him anymore.”In my observations of my dad’s death I could feel the absence of “Him” in his body and know that this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God.”
I was confronted with death 11 years ago when my mum unexpectedly died in a very short period of time. I share the same experience, when she left, I didn´t want to stay with that body because I could feel she wasn´t there anymore. She looked young like on pictures I saw from here when she was younger- there was just a shell without breath. It was great for me to read, what you wrote about, holding onto a physical make up or pictures. How we use these things to hold onto something…very interesting for me to ponder about.
I could definitely feel the same thing that you described Anne, when I saw my dead grandmother in the coffin at her funeral years ago. I distinctly remember how I felt the whole funeral thing was actually quite silly as her soul had left her and you could tell that the body was merely a shell for the soul to work through when she was alive. What a great claiming you made by showing that we put so much emphasis on the physical body. Also, if this was the only life we ever lived, (and that is what is taught in many religions) then no wonder people end up harming others and themselves in indulgent ways without regard for any personal responsibility to themselves and the people they are affecting. It’s like telling someone they have one week to live and they just go out and party and do all kinds of things they would not normally do. But if things like reincarnation and karma exist (which I feel strongly they do), then all of a sudden that would change how people perceive their lives and perhaps they would live in a way to build more love and brotherhood in this life, which would positively impact the next life and that of those around them.
I agree Michael on both counts. In relation to funerals we would be better to celebrate the life of the person whilst they are alive because once they are gone they are gone. Also, denying reincarnation which happens regardless of our belief is irresponsible and encourages irresponsibility.
Than you Anne for your blog. This was very touching to read and confirming of the gloriousness that is our true selves, the soul that transcends life and death. Our relationship and love for someone doesn’t need to end with their body going into the ground. The soul remains untouched and forever connected to us all.
I agree Fiona, beautifully put. Following my grandmother’s passing last year I felt very deeply that she had merely passed on but was still very much with us. Her qualities and warmth, her essence I can feel whenever I want to as they are part of me too, clearly showing me we are all forever connected as one.
When my granddad died my family voiced their concerns when I said I would like to see his body. Though apprehensive I did see his body. I was very glad I didn’t listen to their concerns as seeing his body showed me we are not our physical bodies (he was clearly no-longer there which was very reassuring).
We are given the privilege of being loaned millions of particles for the duration of our life and how we order them is our free will. But we don’t own these particles and we cannot take them with us.
That is truly beautiful Karin, we are made up of particles of the universe and we have the privilege of the loan of these for the purpose of learning, we must make the most of the opportunity to live in respect of our divine origins.
Karin, thank you for adding this because it feels so beautiful and makes so much sense. We are made up of particles but we do not own them and cannot take them with us. What a challenge in thinking this is for the majority, in an age where we “own” everything. The fact that the particles are returned to the universe makes so much sense!
Beautifully said Karin
Beautifully said Karin ,we are so much more than the human body, ‘We are given the privilege of being loaned millions of particles for the duration of our life and how we order them is our free will. But we don’t own these particles and we cannot take them with us.’2
Wow that’s an expanding comment Jenny! My particles stood up and listened when they heard this!
Karin very well explained. “We are given the privilege of being loaned millions of particles for the duration of our life and how we order them is our free will. But we don’t own these particles and we cannot take them with us.” I love what you have shared here.
“We are given the privilege of being loaned millions of particles for the duration of our life and how we order them is our free will. But we don’t own these particles and we cannot take them with us.”
Awesome Karin, forever humbled to be the custodian of these particles.
It is great to read this blog again and so many comments acknowledging the same thing. How can there only be this one life as it is clear there is so much more to us than our physical being?
This brings a beautiful understanding to life, death and our bodies on this earth. It also allows us the honesty of what we know, and that is that this life is just part of our journey and not the only thing and comes to an end. Through the presentations of Serge Benhayon I too have been able to feel the truth of what is really going on and that of reincarnation and life’s true journey and purpose and our responsibility with this.
If we can embrace death and see it as a passing over, we can live life as something far more bigger than just living it once and that’s it. It asks for a deeper level of commitment and responsibility when we realize that we all live many lives, and that we keep on coming back, until every single on of us is ready to return home.
It was a very surprising and enriching experience when I felt my mum leaving her body; I was not even on hospital when it happened but could feel her (the leaving spirit) anyway. Later then seeing the body was meaningless as it was not her.
I am loving reading so many other people confirming what Anne found with the passing of her dad. I too have felt the body as a shell, no longer housing the essence of the person. I feel if more people knew this for themselves, that there would be less grieving and loss at the time of passing, as they could connect to the soul and know our eternal connection to one another.
At times, it can make us feel to give up on changing anything in life but on the other hand, seeing the misery all around us is the very reason to not add to it but offer a presence and quality that inspires and encourages others as well to live in a loving way.
Thank you Alex, such simple wisdom when put this way. We each have a responsibility to not add to the ‘misery all around’.
Kate, you have expressed this so beautifully -“I grieved not for his passing but for what was left unexpressed”. This is what I am feeling with my Dad as well but I know that he felt my love in my expression but it was not always verbal.
My mum passed away before I had ever met Serge Benhayon and truly understood about the soul yet in the half hour or so before she died (she was in a coma at this point) I knew that my mother was no longer there. I knew that the body that was lying on the hospital bed was now somehow empty and that my mum as I knew her had already passed over. It was something that my husband and I spoke of often afterwards as he too had felt the same. From that moment onward I was in no doubt that we were a soul that inhabited a body and that one day that soul left the body and what was left behind was nothing but an empty vessel. My mother had truly believed that she would reincarnate and that day I knew this to be true also as she (her soul) had not died but moved on as the body she was living in could no longer continue on.
This is very confirming Penelope that you knew this without needing to be told by Serge Benhayon or any one else. It shows me how naturally we understand that the body is a vehicle for the soul, not the be all and end that we make it out to be. The existence of our soul never ends, we just keep going round and round in cycles.
What an awesome experience Penelope. It would help to realize that we never really loose anyone and help to ease the sadness i think. Also that the body is not just who we are… Enabling us to be with each other and recognize each other for so much more.
In the period after losing a dear friend I came to realise that we can always connect to the essence of a loved one who has passed over but I also understood that in the cycle of reincarnation, when we pass we drop not only the body but also the limitations of being in a body. When we are no longer incarnated we get a much larger view of life, our lived lives and the people we met. This means that the person we once knew is no longer that person but much more and it made me realise that it woud be limiting to them to try and hold on to them and that the most loving thing we can do is hold them dear in our hearts but at the same time truly let them go.
That is beautifully said Carolien. When I feel a persons soul, they are so much more than the role we can sometimes peg them into in life. Seeing them just as a friend or family member is quite reductionist. Whereas feeling the soul you get to feel all the magic they are.
That´s a great point Carolien. Holding onto them as the person we knew is not only harming/limiting for us, but can be for the person passing over too. After reading this blog and your comment and having the experience of losing my mum 11 years ago it widens my perception and gives a greater understanding than I had before.
Our connection is not physical. I can feel connected to people in my life even if they are on the other side of the world. Many people have experienced a feeling of knowing when to call a loved one, or when to drop by just when it turned out to be needed. This shows how we feel each other on a far greater level then physically and this is what we can feel and honour when someone is passing over.
Anne, this is an incredibly gorgeous and powerful sharing. When I went to visit my Dad after he had passed away I too knew it wasn’t him, in fact that struck me so profoundly that I grieved not for his passing but for what was left unexpressed.
So true Kate. The grief of what is left unexpressed is often so much more painful and difficult to deal with than the actual loss. This is certainly how I felt after my mother’s death and the experience of which has lead me to aspire to not to leave anything unfinished with another, particularly someone dear to me.
One of the things I have observed when people die is the sadness this triggers in people. Of course there is a sadness in knowing you will never see someone you love enjoy being with again, however from my personal experience of death and observing the responses and reactions in others I have come to understand there is much much more to this sadness which includes:
– Feeling sad that you didn’t express all that was there to express to this person. Perhaps you felt to phone or visit them more often and you didn’t. Or perhaps there was something you always wanted to tell them but just never made time to.
– Feeling sad about the fact that we will die one day, perhaps we have regrets about the way we have lived.
– Death delivers ultimate perspective to life being about love. There is a sadness in people missing the fact that they don’t live from this perspective day in day out and instead get caught up in the rat race of life.
There is much more but as a general observation I find there are many different flavours and aspects to the sadness we feel when someone dies.
This is gorgeous, Abby. Sadness does have many flavours and often comes from our need and our attachment to the person. Even when someone is very sick and we know that they are going to die, there is nothing that prepares us for the finality of death and because of the attachment the loss feels huge and the sadness immense. I love what you have shared -“Death delivers ultimate perspective to life being about love”” . To realise that we have not lived that love is the greatest sadness of all.
What both of you have shared is poignant and true. The experience of death brings a massive dose of truth with it, and certainly makes it absolutely clear that life is about love and that is all that matters in the end, not all the other stuff we get caught in. Experiencing the loss of someone when their body dies is an extraordinary thing really, one minute they are here and then next gone although the love we share goes beyond the appearance of life and death. It’s the physical presence of the person we miss, I still find occasionally I would love to talk to a dear friend of mine who died a few years ago.
Completely true Josephine, not having experienced death of someone close myself, i’d imagine the physicality of someone being missed as they pass over as something that’d would be quite natural to feel… though as you say when we understand that death is not the end, (or the beginning) we so too understand the greater meaning, wisdom and celebration of passing over …there to support that person (and ourselves too) in evolving from life’s lessons – the biggest as you say, that being of love (lived).
It is super confronting when you loose someone close to you. For me when my mum passed away 11 years ago, it was a major chance for me to evolve in life. Of course, I wasn’t perfect at it but looking back it was the greatest opportunity for me to grow up into the woman I am. It gave me the little kick in my a…, although it felt horrible loosing my mum so early. In every loss is an opportunity to grow. And to be honest, like you shared, what really goes on is very important. To look at what we missed and didn´t do, what we could have done…But with no regret, only with observing and love for ourselves.
This is a beautiful reflection Abby and very true.
Abby this is so true and i can recognize this also. There is a lot that comes up when someone dies. Not just missing having them around.
I too remember my Grandmother in her last months. The change in her was obvious to me, even at a young age. Suddenly she was more grumpy and her language was short and sharp. This was nothing like the Grandmother I knew. While I didn’t understand at the time, I do remember thinking every time I was with her “what has gotten into Grandma?”
Yes, the ‘change’ can happen even many years before we pass away. I too witnessed this shift in my own grandmother as she lived much longer than was true for her.
Anne, ‘I knew it was not him’, this is such a profound experience, knowing someone so well and seeing that when they pass over that they the being is no longer there present in the body. Wow, it confirms reincarnation for me and that our bodies are vehicles of expression.
The greatest tribute we can give to someone is to acknowledge how much more there is to them than what we see or what they may show us.
Thank you for your beautiful sharing, Anne.
The images of who we think we are, are a bit like a mirage. They flicker to deceive and distract us with what we see instead of allowing us to understand all we feel, our bigger part in the universe. Thank you Anne for what you share and this reminder of the real and eternal beauty of our Soul.
Very beautiful Joseph. “the real and eternal beauty of our Soul.”
Lovely to read this again Anne. We are so much more than our physical bodies – it makes me wonder why we still get caught up in thinking our physicality is our only experience of how life is.
Thank you Alexis for this sharing. I feel if we used the term “passing over” rather than the word death we would have a better acceptance and understanding from an early age of what actually happens after a person dies. There is a finality in the word death which erroneously feeds into our current beliefs and consciousness around the dying process.
Agree Anne, ‘passing’ feels a wonderful evolving process to ‘death’ though at the same time ‘death’ is wonderfully final and clear in its feeling too i.e. putting a total stop to what once was, to lay the fresh foundation of new and expanded growth that is to come…to continue with life’s one huge eternal learning process.
And if we understood and appreciated re-incarnation, then the beliefs and ideals so many of us have around ‘dying’ or its word, would disappear, understanding the responsibility that is there in one life/incarnation, to lead onto the next. Dying then becomes an opportunity, or a space for potentiality.
What you share here Anne makes the process of death meaningful and therefore allows a greater degree of acceptance and understanding when faced with the death of a loved one. It’s a super important sharing, thank you.
Anne your sharing has caused me to recall exactly the same experience that I had whilst sitting beside my beloved mother in law when she died. Within moments of her death her body felt empty. It was quite incredible to feel that even though just prior to her death she had been very unwell she had still felt very much herself but as soon as she died ‘she’ was gone and her body felt like an empty sack. For me, it is an absolute truth that we are eternal energy that resides momentarily in the physical form, no doubt about it.
It’s true we are just an empty vessel when we passover, but we are also a vessel when we are alive, containing the Soul and the Spirit… Our body is a vehicle for our expression and we are constrained by its limits physically but we can connect to an infinitely greater source when we connect to our inner heart …God which goes way beyond the limits of the body.
Great point Merrilee. Our bodies are a vehicle through which we can express either love or not love. Those are the two choices so that after we have died we are left with the consequences of the choices we have made in life. The body may be dead but our essence lives on and carries with it the consequences of our actions whilst alive. If we have lives in a way that has not been loving then it makes sense that we get another opportunity to come back and learn to express more and more love.
I love the simplicity with which you have expressed the truth of reincarnation Elizabeth – ‘the opportunity to express more and more love’.
If this was known then people would see responsibility a whole lot different.
Yes, if we lived with the awareness that we carry the consequences of all our choices, and we don’t conveniently leave them behind when passing over this does call us to live with loving responsibility. Our world would be very different also.
‘Our body is a vehicle for our expression and we are constrained by its limits physically but we can connect to an infinitely greater source when we connect to our inner heart …God which goes way beyond the limits of the body.’ Beautiful Merrilee, reading this I can feel how I’ve allowed myself for so long to be so constrained by the limitations of my body but there is such an expansive grace in what you write here about the love of God and what we hold within that goes way beyond this and busts any misconceptions right open.
My mother was in hospital for the last 10 days of her life, I spent a lot of time observing her body preparing to passover. She was in the process of seeing beyond the physical boundaries of the room. I could see the engagement in her eyes as they were very bright and definitely connected and engaged on another level, beyond what I could see, I could feel no fear but a childlike wonderment…. It was a blessing to observe and acknowledge this phase of her life was over and the next had already begun.
Cool – thanks for the sharing Merrilee.
Hi Merrilee, this is a blessing that you were able to witness. The ending of another’s life can bring up much, but what you experienced and what you could read from this is quite beautiful.
I agree Matthew this is beautiful to read Marrilee, thank you for sharing at this wonderment of passing.
Wow – imagine if more people approached death this way. The world would dramatically change from one that feared death and loosing people and the total grief that follows, to a world that embraced what was next for someone and the magnificence possible.
Merrilee, what you have shared here is beautiful and has helped confirm that passing over is a new beginning and not and end that is to be feared.
I too have witnessed this Merrilee, the engagement with another level of reality in the dying beyond what we are often able to perceive here. I feel it has to do with the release from the physical reality which so engages us. When I was with a friend who was terminally ill, even when we went to a shopping centre it was almost transparent around us, having lost its apparent substance – I was obviously picking up on her state at the time.
Wow dear Anne this is so beautifully and lovingly expressed and such great support for all of us. To share about these ecperiences is truly needed in the world. To understand that there is another way. Thank You for sharing this.
Such a simple and gorgeous way of understanding life – as a small part of our journey back to God.
This is very beautiful to read Anne of your feelings of your Dad more on a soul basis than the physical body. Thank you for sharing.
Anne, I felt exactly as you did when my father passed away. Even though I could feel he was leaving as he neared his last breath the difference after he took his last breath was palpable, his body that was before me was no longer ‘him’, at the funeral home, funeral and as the coffin was lowered to the ground I too felt this was not ‘him’. I also felt palpably he had not ceased to exist, he had simply released himself from this physical body.
Hi Anne, I love reading your blog. It connects me with the experience I have had with people passing over and especially the time before this it was like the body of them was showing how much the body is the vessel for the soul, I observe how often those people standing before their passover are trying with their head to not feel it but their body is telling the truth. The body is carrying the truth of their soul, when the head and their spirit is trying to hold on to life, which is not possible as life is the soul and not the body. The body is dependant from the soul. The beauty of this is to feel this so clearly and from this to learn how truthful the body is and to truly take care of the body in a loving way.
“Yet dad’s body was the vessel which housed his soul (life force or his essence), and this body after death has no purpose anymore.” It’s great what you share as our bodies are temporary loans used by our soul in this lifetime, when it’s time for us to leave we leave this vessel behind and join the source we separated from. When we are able to detach from the physical body, we can see the blessing of the soul returning.
Well said Doug.
We have always seemed to know it – and yet still some try and deny it. One day science will prove it. But why wait until then to live it?
Ah Yes, Simon – Once science proves there is more to life, only then will it then be taken on board and ‘believed’ by many more people. Needing proof for that which is naturally part of our being is a wonderful tactic to keep us away from who we are in truth.
Not so long ago I helped take care of a friend with Terminal Cancer.
Before she died her eyes were as bright and sparkling as I had ever seen them. Every word she spoke as she got weaker and closer to passing was deeper, and more considered and meaningful. Like every word counted. I feel she lived more in the days leading up to her passing than she ever did.
When she did pass I helped put the body into the coffin.
Any one who has ever doubted that we are more than fresh and blood, that we do not have a soul and have energy passing through us and we are divine – having the experience of lifting the empty lifeless body of someone you know into a coffin for me is more than enough confirmation that we go somewhere else. The body is just temporary and we leave it like a hotel.
Wow, that’s such a touching comment Simon – what an amazing way to die and an amazing commitment to life until the end to make sure every word you say is deeper and more meaningful.
Thank you, Simon. I felt this so strongly with Dad’s death. Our attachment to our bodies is huge for many of us so to think that after death it is but a shell is such a foreign concept. However once you have experienced the death of a close friend or family member and felt their bodies there is no question that the essence of that person has left them.
Wow Simon what an incredibly profound experience, which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt we are so much more than our physical bodies and that we also register this truth when hug someone deeply from the heart.
Thank you for sharing Simon, I took my cat when she was seriously ill at the end of her life to the vets who gave her an injection so she could pass with out the final struggle. I could very clearly see the moment her essence left, the moment the life left her, and the sparkle in her eyes went out.
What a totally beautiful blog this is. Thank you.
It has been my observation in life and work that those who are ‘passing over’ or near to death do not remain in the body. I can feel it with my Grandmother, who she was, was no longer present. For me this is a truth which expresses that the soul is what lives on in all of us.
Anne this is a beautifully tender and sweet blog on what most would consider a difficult subject – the passing of a loved one. But you have shown that the light or energy that gives life to every body is one that is ever lasting and for ever felt. That we come from and are returning to the one eternal source.
I had the same feeling at my grandfather’s funeral. I knew beyond doubt that the body in the coffin was not him anymore. It was just a body.
Over twenty years ago my grandmother died when I was about 21years old. She was the first and only person that I have known well who has passed over. I remember the hearse coming to the house where we were to get in our own cars and follow it down to the crematorium… my very 1st thought after feeling the initial surprise at seeing the coffin was… that’s not my grandmother… she definitely somewhere else.
This is a really cool blog. I’ve not been in your situation where I have watched someone leave their body, but I whole heartedly know we are more than just bodies, and the body is just the physical encasement, but not what makes us who we are. So it makes perfect sense that when you just saw your Dad’s body you knew it wasn’t him any longer.
Anne, you and your expression here are so beautiful, thank you for sharing. I could literally feel your Dad’s Soul when you spoke about what is him and this is an amazingly tangible and distinct feeling considering I did not know or had met him before. When we speak about someone, their Soul and their essence, fragility and strength we are in a far more deeper relationship with ourselves and each other and this is profoundly exquisite to connect to.
I like contemplating and feeling this aspect of the situation Cherise. That when we speak of another’s soul and their essence, fragility and strength, we are in a far more deeper relationship with ourselves and each other. There is much to ponder on here. It is another example of the simple truth, that by virtue of expressing from what we know deep within us, that we, and those around us, are magnetically pulled towards truth and love. Wether we choose to accept it or not is another question, but we are constantly being given opportunities to reevaluate our relationships and take them to another level.
I agree Jenny. This is one of the awareness I have felt with my relationship with my Father, that is constant opportunities of love, appreciation, acceptance, and understanding. When I do hold us both with these qualities our relationship deepens.
Thank you, Cherise. It is beautiful to be able to feel and appreciate the essence of a person especially when they hide this behind an exterior persona which is not always who they truly are. What my Dad presented to the world was not always “him” but I could feel him.
I lately had a talk about death and past lifes with some persons and even they did not concsiously remember their past lifes I could see in their eyes that they know about it. There I was able to see that the soul, the energy of truth is in them but also another one who does not want to see the truth, the energy of the spirit. who is overriding and numbing down the truth..
The word death often conjures up finality for many which then leaves them in fear of dying. When we understand that death is a passing over where the soul leaves the body and prepares to come back into another body death can be seen as a point of evolution, not the end.
When my father and later my mother died, I was struck with the discrepancy of how I felt about them – all the qualities I had experienced and cherished – and how commonplace it was to grasp at photos, objects and want a burial place to visit etc. I have indeed found it empowering in my own life to know that death is by no means the end of the story, that we continue our evolution and will have many more incarnations. With this has come a welcome support in letting go when those I am close to have passed away, as well as a deeper sense of the love we are held within and the responsibility we have in every moment of our expression, day after day and life after life.
Thank you, Golnaz for sharing. I have found that my Dad now is in my heart and I can feel him so intimately there. The photos and grave site have less significance now but I can still feel him.
To see death as a journey rather than an end is very freeing – the next step in our life
This line is worth repeating ” dad’s body was the vessel which housed his soul (life force or his essence), and this body after death has no purpose anymore”. It is simple facts like this that we need to know about death.
Spectacular Elizabeth. Such a nugget of gold! There is so much beauty and evolution in those words.
Simple truths. I agree Elizabeth.
You expose a great myth here, Anne. One that people allow to cripple them for years. This is the myth that the people we love die. In truth it is only the body that dies, the vessel no longer needed shuts down but the imortal being within continues on its journey of healing and evolution. After a period of healing it will be reborn into a new body to continue to, evolve, express and serve. By believing that death is the end we put ourselves into a state of grief and stagnation that caps us and keeps us from moving forward with our own journey of evolution.
This could be said the same for the end of a relationship or physical connection with family, we can be anywhere in the world (not together) and in our knowing and valuing of each other are in a deep connection that has no limitations and knows only the true sense of togetherness that God’s love reminds us of.
So true Kathryn. Even since I can remember I always felt that I had a much deeper understanding of death as I was strangely not affected by it like the people around me. I felt guilty because I didn’t feel sad or that I wasn’t crying. I now know this is because I had known and lived the truth of what death truly meant before, in other lives.
Thank you Anne for sharing this intimate time of your dad passing over. To know the truth of the body being nothing without the energy animating it gives rest to a fearful lack of understanding about a spirits many incarnations – making responsibility key in determining what we come back in with.
I have often observed that people do know that their family member/friend is not longer there after death but there is a great reluctance in people to really take up the responsibility of knowing that fact.
I have seen this as well, Elizabeth. We are missing out on so much that the passing over process has to offer us because the mainstream view of death is about its’ finality and not the continuum of the life cycle.
How much more loving is it to consider death as a passing over rather than a final destination.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog and the comments too. There is nothing quite so freeing as the realisation that we are far far more than the physicality we are walking around in, and not in the abdicating of responsibility sense but in the understanding that we are in fact part of something far grander than this plane of existence and that the life we live and will leave and then return to is the way back to living that grandness again.
Witnessing a body after the being is gone really brings home the understanding of who we truly are.
When my grandmother died more than 40 years ago now, I was forced to come and see her body in the coffin. I didn’t want to however it was insisted upon that this is what was done, and when I saw the body lying in the coffin, I knew immediately it had no resemblance whatsoever to my grandmother at all. Later I would feel her often around me – and even though I missed her so much, I knew that she was never far from me.
Thank you Anne for sharing your beautiful memories when you connect to your father’s soul and how this is so different from being with the physical body once someone has passed which clearly shows that it is only a vessel for this particular lifetime. Sitting with my father as he passed earlier this year felt like a privilege and my daughter and I clearly felt his soul leave his body before he actually passed and later when I visited him in the funeral home with my sister we talked about how it was no longer him. As my father’s house is about to be sold I have been connecting to his essence recently and feeling his support with the many decisions that have had to be made.
Death is a marker of another new beginning. The end of one cycle so that another new cycle can get under way, as the soul moves from one physical body to the next. It is such a beautiful science.
I agree – it is not the finality we often see it as, it can be seen as so much more than the loss of someone and the ending of a life, but the next chapter in a story, one we all know but can’t physically see
Anne it’s so true what you share as this was my experience with the passing of my father, mother and sister. Their bodies had done their job and I could feel their inner beings had moved on to another plane of life.
With re-incarnation understood as the love of God, death becomes a new beginning, an opportunity to celebrate the beauty of life under the will of God who loves us so much, that we are given the chance to do it all again and again and again.
I have observed this in others more so than in myself and it is a very good point. I have only experienced deaths of either the elderly or those who have been ill for a long time and so for me death has always been a bit of a relief. It was very challenging to be around someone who resists death and wouldn’t let go themselves. I also witnessed others who would not let go and yes, they struggled with the death a lot.
Beautiful Anne. When my father passed away I was in my early 20s and what you share was also very clear to me. I was in the room when my Dad passed over and it was quite remarkable. Quite suddenly, after he took his final breath, his appearance changed dramatically and it was no longer him. It was just the physical body. It was very clear that we are so much more than our physical body. At the time I was amazed at how different the body looked when it no longer housed the soul, so much so that I had no attachment to the body or seeing him in the coffin as it was obvious it really wasn’t him.
I completely agree Nikki and had the same experience with my father and countless other people on their death. Sadly I have even experienced something similar with people who are still “living”. Sometimes people give up on life and become so empty that they check out of their bodies before their body dies.
Thank you Anne for this very insightful blog. It is a beautiful thing to KNOW that we never really “die” as such but in fact we “pass over from one state of being to another. This approach asks us to be responsible for our selves and everyone around us.
Very good point Elizabeth. When we know that not only are we coming back, but also that we are coming back to everything and every imprint we have left, it calls us to be responsible. There is no way to say that life isn’t fair as we all have to come back to what we have left. It is a beautiful thing and takes responsibility to a deeper level than what we may have considered.
True Elizabeth. We never really die. And knowing this brings a greater responsibility as we can’t just leave it all behind!
Right on the mark here Elizabeth – “This approach asks us to be responsible for our selves and everyone around us.”
Yes, and perhaps this is what we are avoiding by buying into the whole belief system of how death is portrayed today..
“In my observations of my dad’s death I could feel the absence of “Him” in his body and know that this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God”- Anne I too experienced this with my own parent’s passing over.
With such clarity and understanding that we will reincarnate back into another body next lifetime I feel a deeper commitment to live a truer and fuller life.
Loretta, I also feel a deeper commitment to life in the understanding of reincarnation. Each choice is significant in the built momentum of what we come back to and how we are with others.
How beautiful Anne that you were able to truly know the essence of your father and that is what you hold within you now; the man he was and the love that he had for you and the family. I too was with my father when he passed away and it was the most beautiful experience seeing his life force slowly leaving his body until the physical form was all that was left; and as you said about your father, I knew that it wasn’t him.
One of my favourite parts of this blog is the foot-note “shared with permission of my Mum”. I just find that so beautiful. That this kind of conversation is being had with mother and daughter after the death of the husband and father.
Super sweet and super inspiring – yes.
I agree Otto. There is something very beautiful about a family sitting down and talking about death and dying and all that this entails.
Totally gorgeous Otto. I like the details you pick up on. It shows how connected to people you are.
How simply and beautifully you made sense of our time on earth Anne as you share how the body is only an enhousing vehicle for our soul. When we connect with the soul of another we are bringing so much more depth to the relationship as our soul is the essence of who we are – everything else feels superficial. When I allowed myself to accept reincarnation as a possibility everything about life fell into place – all the feelings of the past and the uncertainties fell away as I began to let go of my attachment to the body.
Anne the depth of the experience you have shared is healing for everyone. The fact that you felt and have so eloquently expressed that what your felt your Dad to be was his Soul, that when this withdrew and there was the physical body left it was not him. Given so much of society is focused on the physical body, the image and all that it brings you cut through and share the real truth – that it is about Soul first and foremost. Everything after is just the vessel for that expression, a body that needs to be nurtured and deeply loved, cared for but not held onto or attached with. Thank you.
This is amazing David and has brought me a great sense of clarity “that it is about Soul first and foremost. Everything after is just the vessel for that expression, a body that needs to be nurtured and deeply loved, cared for but not held onto or attached with”
This is a beautiful piece of writing – super sweet, super accessible and communicated from heart to heart. I thought of my Dad who passed over 6 years ago and how my relationship with him has developed since – not as the man he was but as the soul we all are, re-incarnating to learn what we need to learn as we return to God. Dad was a beautiful man who lived most of the time from behind his hurts but through his eyes God smiled.
Matilda its interesting you have found your relationships still developing with your father, I feel the same depth of connection, appreciation ever building as the more I connect within myself the deeper relationship I develop with both my parents and the learnings continue. Which for me confirms we are more than the limits of the physical constraints, there is an infinite mind and manifestation if we choose to feel it.
There is so much love in your words, Anne. To me there has also always been an absolute knowing that life is more than just a birth and death start and end in-between. That love is the expression coming through the soul. That there is something living far longer and has been there ways before. Are we really only born to be functioning bodies born to live and die? There is something very uniting about us humans: we all know what love is: even we might have not been experiencing it during our lives through others. But the fact that we all respond to it when it is given to us: is the proving that we know it. Moments of saying to a stranger “I know you from somewhere” is something that can’t come only from cells genetically dividing into as many as it takes to let a human body grow – does it?!
Great blog – The understanding that our body is a vessel or a vehicle which carries us through life is so important. The attachment we hold close to the physical body as being all there is prevents us from being aware of so much more including the cycle of reincarnation.
Yes and when we really get it that the body is there to hold our Soul for us to learn and grow and step into the all that we are, with that understanding we can start to treat the body with utmost respect and love, so that the Soul has a lovely home this time round and we can be much more in touch with all within, when it is a beautiful place for the Soul from which to communicate with us.
The physical flesh dies, but the soul is eternal.
Love this Marika, it is simple and true.
I absolutely agree Anne, that we reincarnate again and again as part of our journey back to love, god and who we truly are. It makes absolute sense and brings understanding to the many experiences I have had of knowing I have been here many times before.
Hi Anne, it is lovely to hear about the relationship and bond you had with your dad. He sounds like a very beautifull man. It shows just how important relationships are in our life, especially expressing in full and not holding back with our love for others at any one time. What Serge Benhayon presents and knows about death and the Soul leaving the body is not new, but it seems like we have decided to ignore or override this and have chosen to not be fully aware regarding this. What Serge does present about passing over is something that if feel we should all know and talk about as this is very important. Everything matters including when we die.
I loved the simplicity of this blog in the knowing of what happens at death. Your clarity in knowing that the physical body is not what connects you to your dad but knowing his essence does is very profound.
This is such a beautiful blog, Anne. We will always miss our loved ones when they pass over but the understanding you have shared takes away the drama and devastation experienced around death.
I can remember that when I saw my friend’s body after she had passed I did not feel to cry and had wondered why. But now I realise and can feel it was because I knew that this was not her. That who I had connected to was still with me as I still felt a warm glow in my heart from the love we shared and this feeling remains today whenever I think of her.
Yes. When my grandfather died when I was a child I was shocked by how quickly my memory of his physical appearance diminished – I was a bit embarrassed at the time, but I understand now that that was actually a natural release of attachment to the temporary vehicle (his body), allowing the fullness of a forever relationship with Soul to develop. I also remember feeling and knowing that he was with me always. This was not a longing or a wish but a lived sense that nothing divides us – distance, death, conflict – since we are all from the one source…God.
Beautiful sharing thank you Anne. It does become very evident when one has witnessed death that when the soul leaves the body there is only a heavy mass of flesh left. The essence of us though never dies, nor does the love go anywhere,
and we can connect to this quality at any time. Of course it is normal to miss the physical bodies of our loved ones because we cannot play with them anymore but we can always connect to them in the heart, as in truth we are all one in Soul.
This is such a lovely reminder Victoria, thank you. We can always connect to the essence of the person through our inner heart and souls.
For this reason I have always found the remembrance of the person on the anniversary of their death strange. Connecting to the essence of the person or the love we have for that person is there any time.
Yes Nikki I agree totally. If it was true love, then there can be no sadness and regret when that person dies, because we will understand and feel there love in our heart as you described.
This is so true and so sweet Victoria. We do not get to physically play with the person anymore but the delight of them can still be felt in our hearts, often with more purity and clarity, as there is no attachment of them being our partner, parent, child etc.
The confirmation I got was about something I have known since I was a child, that there is such a thing as reincarnation and that the enhousing of a body and personality is only a temporary state for the spirit and eventually the soul to express in the physical realm of this world. There is a purpose to us being here and it is to remind us of the fact that we are from and with God and that it is time for us all to return to where we originate from.
When my father passed over, I was called to his house by the person who had found him. The ambulance and police were there. I was the first and only family member there. Everyone very respectfully left the house and left me alone with my father – they were all very sombre and reverential. So there I was, alone in his house, with him. But I wasn’t with him, because he wasn’t there. So I spent a while thinking about him…but then it all started feeling fairly pointless, Because he wasn’t there! It was crystal clear to me. He wasn’t there. And looking at an empty body very quickly felt exactly that – empty.
Thank you Anne, I was present at the death of a life long friend of mine, and like you I could feel her leave the body. When I lay my hand on her forehead after it was clearly felt that it was not her anymore. I could feel how the body had now just become matter, there was no life in it and yet the light or energy that had given life to this body could still be felt and connected to. Even though I already knew this, it was a very strong confirmation of how the physical body is only a vessel for something far greater, something that does not stop or cease to exist but continues to exist in an etherical form.
We are not our body – to witness death in another holds the truth of who we truly are. In saying this, everyday I appreciate and show love towards this amazing vehicle that holds me in this physical existence, that communicates through it’s symptoms the truth of the choices I make everyday. My body holds and allows a quality of being that I choose to work through me and this can be truly felt, Thank you Anne for this tender, sensitive and honest blog, a sharing of what living and dying in life is.
Thank you Anne for sharing your experience of your father’s passing, it is wonderful to know that we are not our body, but that we are soul and spirit coming back into a new body each time around to learn and live more of who we truly are, divine sons of God returning .
Thank you Anne. What you have written confirms that our body is indeed a vessel, enhousing the essence of who we are, our soul. Which in turn just confirms our grandness and that where we are from is far beyond the limitations of this physical realm. When we truly understand this, the way we our with our body (the vehicle that enhouses our soul) is quite different…
Yes, Sara, we are so much more than our body that when we are in our essence – we just let it emanate out.
Wow Anne what a profound piece of writing – thank you. What you have shared is so powerful as it dispels the fear, uncertainty and mystery associated with of this natural part of our time here on earth, even though it is one that we all will be met with. I find it interesting that we often don’t talk about death and dying until someone close to us is at this part of their cycle. That it is only then we often consider that we are Soul in-housed in a physical body, that without Soul our bodies are lifeless. Yet it is empowering to come to discuss, understand and know that we are more than our physicality and that because of this death is not a finality, or an end as we are so much more as you say here – ‘that this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God.’
So true, Carola. It feels sometimes that we just ignore the passing over part of the life cycle and yet there is nothing more certain in that we are all heading there! If passing over was part of our living there would be less fear and more acceptance and preparation for this very important event!
Amazing observation Richard.
We have a soul – but are we really living if we are not connected and living with it?
The essence of a person is always there to be felt when we connect to them, its the same when a friend might mention the name of someone you know (still living) you immediately feel the essence of them.
This is so true Jeanette. In fact you can feel the essence of a person when you read something written from them, are listening to them talking on the phone or stop to think of someone.
Jaenette and Sally,
Yes when we stop and consider that if another person comes to mind, it is always the essence of the person that is felt, and the connection to how they look is formed from the essence that was felt first.
It occurs to me that our obsession with thinking the human body is somehow still tied to and belongs to the being that has passed on, is akin to the historical view that the possessions with which the Pharaohs were buried was in any shape or form connected to the dead Pharaoh. This is part of our stubborn insistence that this realm, the physical world, is All There Is. A continuation of the mentality that insisted on the geocentric view of the Universe, stating that everything rotates around the Earth, simply because that is what it looked like!
Your sharing Anne, is very beautiful and touching to read. Your conclusion is opening up the room of relationships and our journey on earth: “In my observations of my dad’s death I could feel the absence of “Him” in his body and know that this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God.” And it would be beautiful to have this view all the time during life, not only in the face of death. While reading, I deeply felt the “strong attachment to the physical body” we have and that this is also, because we are receiving (nearly) everything from other persons expressed through their body – if it is love or harm. So the attachment is very human, but also, as your blog beautifully shows, it seems to be possible to get more over it by being with the soul of one person. This feels liberating and true.
I so love how you share that we are not our bodies. How you expose that without our essence in and impulsing our body, that it is just an empty vessel. We all, on some level know this. Yet many allow the loss of a loved one to affect their whole lives. Your article Anne could support many to begin to let go of the heavy grief that many live every day with. Thank you dearly for sharing.
I agree Leigh that Anne’s blog would be very supportive for anyone struggling to let go of grief in allowing an appreciation of the ability to connect with the soul and essence of a person whether they are still with us or not.
As a nurse you get to see people die occasionally and also relatives reactions. So many state that they felt there loved one leave and then just a lifeless body left there. It is clear that witnessing someone’s death can be a great blessing and learning all at once.
Super true, Simon. I remember feeling when I first witnessed someone die that it is something we would all benefit from seeing. Like birth actually. That these are just cycles of evolution as we return to learn, pass over and return. There is the opportunity for huge acceptance here and the liberation from attachment and hurt when someone does die.
When I witnessed a death it had a huge impact on how I viewed life and my life was quite different after that. It was deeply confirmed that there is more to life than just our physical body and one life.
Amazing Simon. Something else I get the picture of from those that work in an place where you see it all the time – is just how totally normal it is. For I feel the only real sadness would be if I had not expressed how much I felt for the person leaving. If I had not taken those opportunities.
Beautiful Ann. I have had the exact same experience at funerals. The body that you see has no relationship whatsoever to the person that has moved on.
Completely. So much so it feels a bit odd having some strange waxy body that actually looks nothing like the person. You can’t really pinpoint why it doesn’t look like the person because it does look like the person, but it is clear that really it isn’t the person.
Anne, this is a stunning sharing. I feel deeply moved by the simplicity of your connection to your father’s soul and the body that carried the soul in this lifetime. It is clear as day from your experience how our body is here to simply express the love and truth we are in union with our soul. Anything less than this is not who we are.
I like that Marcia, expressing the love and truth of our soul, the equal essence we all share is who we truly are.
Beautiful Anne! I love how you have described that it is usually peoples physical body or face that we remember them for, but there is always something deeper and that is their quality. If we knew people by their quality, then life would be a lot more loving and we wouldn’t be attached to outer appearances or behaviours.
I agree Harrison, we to often assess life by what we can see, rather than what we feel. If we remember and love the people around us for the way they laugh, the sparkle in their eyes, the warmth of their hug, their wisdom and quick wit. These things are who they are rather than just the body they live in.
The teachings that Serge Benhayon presents about death and dying are truly important, supportive and give purpose to life and living.
They really are Jonathan. Without the benefit of developing awareness around the whole truth about reincarnation that I have gained from presentations by Serge Benhayon I would have nowhere near the sense of responsibility for the way I live my life that I do today … and everything else that comes along with that.
I can remember when my Grandfather died, the whole family was gathered in the room. When he drew his final breath his body was empty, his face sunken in and there was nothing more there.
I can remember my brother and I looking at each other as the rest of the family consoled each other. As a child, it was a very still experience, in some ways it felt like nothing had changed and in other ways it felt very still in the room.
No-one quite knew what to do after this but you could feel that sadness of not having lived the full potential of family and connection and of not having expressed love but all the family tensions felt and the pointlessness of these.
Anne having lost both parents and grandparents, 3 of whom I saw very shortly before and after passing, I knew their souls had left their bodies. There was peace in the room after my mothers passing where I held her hand, I too felt joy and knew that she was fine. I still miss her and my dad but know that things are just as they should be.
Thank you Anne for an insight into your life and the passing of your dad. What you have shared has certainly brought awareness to this as it will happen to all of us. What you reveal is that there is much more to us than just being physical.
My step dad died a slow but peaceful death in a hospice bed. We were with him and watched him go. We watched as he left his body. He left his lower body first. His legs became lifeless and mottled. His breathing was heavy and regular as he waited to go. Eventually his breathing changed and he left. He had a smile on his face as he left which stayed there after he was gone. His presence stayed in the room for hours afterwards before he moved on. It was so amazing to witness it all so clearly. No we are not our bodies. We just use them for a short while.
‘No we are not our bodies. We just use them for a short while.’ What a beautiful liberation and invitation to see the bigger picture and our real responsibilities. When free of this notion of one life we are free to feel humanity as one body evolving together in cycles back to God.
We are so much more than what the eye can see and yes we are nothing but energy. Passing over doesn’t scare me as I know it is only a new beginning. It is amazing to see how we, human beings, got distracted to only think their was heaven and hell after death.
Beautiful sharing Anne ad i can so relate to all you share . When both my parents died i could feel so much of them leaving and not in the body any longer also. . The whole understanding and purpose of our lives makes so much sense with all you share and with the inspiration of Serge Benhayon a real beauty and knowing is very empowering of what is really going on and the cycles we live in to return to who we truly are.
Someone close to me is close to end of life. He’s ready to go now, communication has almost ceased, but his body solid and strong and for now refuses to let go. He is left trapped and perhaps for most of his life was always a prisoner of his body. He lives in a transitory space neither in this world, nor out of it, very distressing for him and some family members. I have come to accept this stage of his passing over and when with him, sit, touch and speak gently to him. A time will come when his body will shed itself and he will be finally released to pass over.
Thank you Anne, this has been my experience too. What I saw in every case was not the person that I knew. It was a shell compared to what the body felt like when it enhoused the soul, the essence of the person I knew. It really helped me to understand on a very physical level about the soul and the essence of us. I have been able to share this recently with a dear friend of mine who has a terrible fear of dying. Together we have been able to take time to feel the people we knew and talk about what they felt like when we went to see them after they had passed. We are once again walking that same path and I can feel the fear of our friend dying being less intense as we both connect to them being so much more than the body they are leaving. There is no question we will physically miss them but we have the opportunity to connect with them as more than simply their physical body, appreciating the relationship and the learnings we all brought to each other in this life and how that does not leave as the soul and essence of our friend leaves this body that can no longer support them.
This is very beautiful Lucy.
I like what you share about your understanding of body-soul connection and talking about it with people, Lucy. It is very important that people stop being afraid of death and look at it as the end of life. Instead of being paralyzed with fear they may choose to make positive changes in their behaviors, look at some patterns and maybe even start looking forward for a new life.
Lucy, I love what you have shared here. We are so much more than our physical body and death teaches us this.
Anne, I was touched by your blog. When I saw my mum’s dead body I also knew it was not her and I felt a sense of completion, nothing left unsaid. I felt a deep connection with my love of her which had not died and when I connect to this love there is no sense of missing her. Once we feel that there is no need to hold on to the person by dwelling on memories or photos and we can more easily let them go. Having said that, there is a natural grieving process that releases any sadness, anger or regret from the body making space for more love. It seems to ebb and flow and if it is not blocked it is a wonderful chance to heal any old pain.
It is lovely what you have written here Sandra.
To be honest I’ve never had any close to me die and have wondered how I would handle it, for me I know there is still that physical attachment to a parent, but it does make it a hell of a lot easier knowing the truth of our passing and our return
This is so beautiful Anne. To realise that this life is only a small part of our journey back to God. How precious it is that we can joyfully honour this and know that we are our soul first, the amazing sparks of God and that we are all connected. We use our body and then we go. The body is not us, we are so much more.
Adding to my previous comment, the fact that we can no longer feel the person in the body after they have passed over proves to me that we are not the body without a doubt.
Just the overcoat we have chosen to wear for this life 🙂
Thank you Ann for sharing yourself so generously. My siblings and I were in attendance when my mother left her body and just before she passed my brother cried out ‘she going now’ and then she was gone and we were left sitting around her body. As with your father Ann, she was not there, the body was no longer her.
You’re so right about the way we hang onto the physical body in death well after the soul has left it, referring back to memories and photos in fear that we’ll lose the visual recall. The proposition that the soul passes over and doesn’t die is more than a comforting one – it brings an alternative way of viewing the cycle of birth, life and death, taking the sting well and truly out of our prevailing consciousness about death and dying.
Absolutely Cathy, ‘The proposition that the soul passes over and doesn’t die is more than a comforting one – it brings an alternative way of viewing the cycle of birth, life and death, taking the sting well and truly out of our prevailing consciousness about death and dying.’ This is very much needed, there is so much sadness and grief when someone passes and yet it is only the physical body that has died, the soul lives on; if this were common knowledge then there would be no need for years of grieving and sadness when we loose a loved one, there would be instead more of an acceptance and understanding.
A beautiful sharing Anne – I can reflect on the attachment we have to the physical body and that perhaps we hold onto the memory of this because we fail to understand the bigger picture, as you have clearly pointed out. That these bodies are a vessel in which to express the love of God and we have many many chances to come back and live it. So when a loved one passes the knowing that it’s not the end but the beginning supports the grieving process immensely.
Amazing Rachel! It would really help us to think of the bigger picture, that we are here to express the love of God and that not one single life or breath should be wasted.
Birth and death are two sides of the same coin, but people only feel joy in birth and have totally dismissed what death brings. We live in cycles always and every day. When you are born, one day you also will die. But it is only our physical body that if in regular order gets old and dies – our essence never dies, the energy which makes the body alive. So yes Ann, your Dad is always there.
Sonja – it’s so true that ”birth and death are two sides of the same coin”- as we live in cycles , but why is it that we only rejoice at births and feel deep grief at death? Is it that we have an attachment or need from the person that died?
Does it bring up our own feeling of emptiness if we are not connected to our soul?
Do we feel the deep grief of having first separated from our soul?
We do indeed live in cycles and even if we do not realise it, we cannot escape that this is how life on Earth is lived. We once thought the world was flat and feared falling over the edge, but now we ‘know better’ we can laugh at such a backwards thought. But we only ‘know’ this because modern technology has proved what ancient civilisations have always known – that we live on a giant sphere and hence the life existing within it is subject to spherical laws, that is, all is governed by cycles. So why, if we know that the world in which we live is not flat, do we insist on looking at our life as a linear line that suddenly ends with an abrupt stop? Why do we fear death in the same way we fear falling off the edge of the world into the ‘unknown’?
Great analogy Liane that death these days is the equivalent of the ‘earth is flat’ theory and that we are terrified of going to the end of a life for fear of dropping off into the unknown. But the truth is it is not unknown and we do know that life is spherical and cyclical and that we do come back to repeat it again and again until we learn to live love on earth.
I love that analogy Liane and Andrew, great way to express it. Cyclical and spherical, going round and around, feels wonderful, there is no way we can ‘fall off the edge’.
It simply doesn’t make sense that life is a line with a definite start and end, The Universe is eternal and works unicycles as you say Liane. The life of a star does not end when it ceases its physical form, for the light of that star is still reflecting in the universe far and wide. The life of that star simply takes on another form.
Love this…the “world is flat” theory applied to life and death. Super stuff! We fear falling off the edge of lives into the void of death, much the same as the void we thought the oceans flowed into.
There is no void.
There never was.
How different the world would be if our passing from it was felt as a joy Sonja. There would be an acceptance of ourselves within and as part of the whole expanding universe; that we live within the natural cycles, not just on this earth, but of the planets and galaxies. To approach my dying with joy reminds of the great eternal movement I am part of.
In considering the body we have as a vehicle for the Soul brings a greater awareness to honour the body as such. Thank you again Anne for sharpening my attention to this most fundamental truth.
Absolutely Giselle and what an eye opening comment! Considering that we have to live within a body, we should have a body that can express the qualities of the Soul!
When I first saw a dead body I was amazed. I thought it would make me cry for the person, but I could see that they were not there. This body that we live in is just a temporary home. I used to think that we died with our bodies, but my experience tells me that no longer makes sense. Reincarnation does make a lot of sense.
It’s like that saying a new lease on life and literally it is maybe we’ve just twisted it a little
This might be a little creepy but I want to see a dead body, knock out some of the attachment and belief that’s there about death and dying
Yes Debra I also believed that death was the end of us. And when I first began having these thoughts as a young girl I was flooded with fear and I lived with an undercurrent of fear from this day, as there was no explanation offered that felt true. However through the Ageless Wisdom Teachings I have come to understand that we are much more than this, that we are Soul, and as such eternal. That it is though our bodies that we can be here on earth together to heal and grow so we can all return to live in the harmony of the Oneness we are from. That this is who we are, a divine sparks of God here to express our light though the bodies we have chosen for this purpose.
It does make a lot of sense and it does put a whole different perspective on death if we see it as a re-birth and beginning of the next cycle and not the ‘dead end’ that we are led to believe.
Lovely Anne. It is not the norm to experience the death of a loved one in this way and be able to let go the physical body. It is freeing what you have presented.
Thank you Anne for expressing what you felt with your dad’s passing. It certainly helps when we have an understanding that the soul continues to live on.
Having worked in hospitals for years including intensive care units I have also witnessed the moment when someone’s soul leaves the physical body which sometimes is not the same as the moment of physical death. This convinced me that we are energetic beings living in a physical body.
This is such an interesting point. It is in a way a shame that we do not all get to see this for ourselves, to see that when our soul leaves, and when our physical body dies, are not one and the same. For sometimes, in a world where our ideals and beliefs run our thought processes, seeing is believing.
Great confirmation Andrew. I have never seen this but every cell in my body knows it to be true.
It would be great if what you’ve experienced Andrew were more widely known for it to then be spoken about much more openly.
In witnessing death we witness this great truth that cannot be denied Andrew.
Reading this blog it reminds me that what connects us most to each other is the love that we express from our souls.
Yes Andrew, I felt the truth of this when my father died and I felt his love in me and around me and I was more connected to him than ever before.
Thank you Anne for this lovely sharing. I too had the same experience when I viewed my Dad’s body after his passing. I appreciated seeing the familiar physical form as I had not been present in the days before, but it left absolutely no doubt that without the animating presence of his essence it was simply the outer shell, or form that he had used whilst on this earth this time. I too felt great joy. I feel the essence of him more strongly now.
“In my observations of my dad’s death I could feel the absence of “Him” in his body and know that this life was only a small part of his journey on his way back to God.”
Reading this Anne helps me understand and come to terms with my mothers death, feeling that we have many lifetimes, each one an opportunity to live and express the love and light that we all are, with much to let go off which is not an expression of this. It feels very empowering to understand what life and death really are, and not subscribe to what we are told to believe, Serge Benhayon has demystified this for me in his talks about life and death.
This is an important and not so often talked about topic Anne, thank you for raising it/ When my mother died it was really important for me to see and touch her dead body, as it was definitely not her, it didn’t even look like her whilst she was alive. After she died I could still feel her, but in a much bigger sense and more expanded not restricted by being in a physical body, I also felt her very joyful, which is something I didn’t expect to feel.
That moment of looking at the body of a dead person has been filled with fear and made ridiculous by horror movies. Yet the moment we do look it is incredible. They are not there. They no longer look like themselves as the light that lit them from within is no longer there. How strange is that fear that denies us seeing not just the truth of death, but it goes further and denies us seeing the truth of life lived without our soul. we are not truly alive when we do not embrace the light of our essence and live its way.
That is the greatest travesty in this scenario we call human life.
Thank you Anne. Reading your words made me understand that actually many if not all of us feel what you felt when your dad past over, that your dad was not longer there and that his body was simply an empty shell. But as you say we are so used to experiencing the people we know from our five senses so it is a bit of a challenge for probably most of us to let that go and stay with our sixth sense, our ability to feel, where we then exactly know the essence of each person.
Yes, Esther, I think it’s true that we all feel the truth of death but we are fed an idea that we will miss someone and then we go to old memories and photos to keep them alive rather than accepting they have died and feeling the joy in that. Of course we miss the habitual comforts of having them around but if you have expressed everything you needed to say there is a sense of completion with the person, and then it is easier to let them go without regret.
Beautifully said Esther. Our sixth sense confirms that we are in this world, but we are not of this world…we are beyond the physical limitations…hence feeling beyond the 5 senses.
This is beauty-full Sara- there is so so much more to us then what currently meets the eye,thanks for the reminder!
Thank you for sharing Anne. Your blog takes away the fear around passing over and an opportunity to appreciate the true meaning of life. Why are we here and what is our purpose in life? It is to come back life after life to take a step closer to God and to return to Him through living our loving light.
Thank you Anne for sharing your observations around the passing over of your father Your blog touched me deeply because there is not an ounce emotions in how you describe death and the days after his death. When we connect to the essence we can feel one life is like you say only a small part of the journey on our way back to God.
Beautiful sharing Anne, reading this has brought a calmness over me as I feel the absoluteness of life and death when we accept it’s cycle and don’t hold onto the form.
I love your blog Anne. It just highlights how someone may no longer be physically present, but we know them forever for who they are and what they brought to others. We may miss their physical presence but we can still connect to them.
True Jennifer. The essence of a person never leaves when we hold them dear.
Oh that is such a beautiful expression Sara – and so true : “The essence of a person never leaves when we hold them dear.’ It is a very soothing realisation and a confirmation that we are always connected and when we choose to accept that.
Beautifully said Jennifer – as the love each of us are (and have lived) is timeless, boundless and always present whenever we choose to connect.
Thank you Ann for your very tender and loving sharing and honoring of who your dad truly was from his soul. There is so much emphasis on the external bodies and actions of who people are, but as you share none of this adds up to the love of who the truly are from their soul.
I do not have any personal experience with death but have heard people speak similarly of the body no longer containing the essence of who they are. Thank you for sharing such an honest and heartfelt glimpse into your experience of your dad’s death. It is deeply beautiful to feel your appreciation in knowing that his life and passing is part of a greater purpose.
Thank you Anne for this beautiful sharing.
The moment we see the vessel of our loved one no longer inhabited we get the most amazing sense of the light of the person that once lived there. The body no longer has a fluidity like it had before and this is evident.
The warmth, vitality and light of a person is them, not the body encasing them.
It’s in this moment we can often realise how much more we truly are and that we do indeed pass over.
Dear Anne, a beautiful blog, and a great reminder, when somebody dies, the essence within the body lives on, without the vehicle. And we do know that. For me too, as a child it never made any sense that we would live this one life, be born and die, each having a different set of ‘luck’ and talents. This cannot be it. We are so much more than our bodies.
Anne, I know exactly what you are talking about. When I looked at my Dad’s body lying in the coffin at his funeral I knew it wasn’t him. He just wasn’t there. It has never been so obvious to me that we are not the physical body, we are the essence that resides within. I felt his essence around me on the day he died. That was him, not the body in the coffin.
It is super clear what you share here Rebecca as has Anne in that our body is simply a vessel. The essence and soul that you both talk about makes so much sense that it does not make sense as a humanity that we are not embracing and honouring our essence and greater purpose.
So true, Marcia. The dying and passing over process has so much to teach us about life if we choose to truly feel what is there but we get so caught up in the emotion and the ceremony of it all that the great opportunity for truth is often lost.
It was very touching reading your beautiful article Anne, a lovely honouring of your dad and of life and death itself.
Thank you Anne I had a similar experience over 15 years ago when my mother died. I observed an energy leave through the top of her head just before she died. After this her body was like a dead piece of meat that was not her. It all made perfect sense when I attended presentations by Serge Benhayon years later, he shared that our body dies but our soul lives on lifetime after lifetime until we learn all there is to learn on this plane of life so we can get out of here and return back to God.
Your words Anne are an eloquent insight not just to your Dad’s death but to all of life. What if we bring this understanding that we are not our physical body, but souls to our day to day and all that we meet? Our quality of living seems like it would be so much deeper.
Thanks for your sharing Anne on the passing of your Dad. I am reminded of the first time I saw a dead body and remember feeling the cold emptiness of the vessel without its lifeforce (soul).You have captured beautifully your connection with the essence of your Dad, and reminded us that we are much more than a physical body.
It feels really important for us to start talking about what happens before and after death, and the difference we can witness when someone’s soul is with them and has left them. The way you share your story about your father and how you knew in the moment of his death that it was no longer him is a huge healing for us to see and accept that the body is simply a vessel, and it is our souls that are the true us, never dying, just re-embodying themselves.
Beautiful writing Anne, it is a strong attachment we crate to the physical yet as you describe it I can really feel what it is we are connecting to much more deeply, perhaps often without realising it is the soul, the essence of the beings we know is the soul. The physical body is the vessel but on a much deeper level the soul is what we know and love.
As a student of Universal Medicine I have observed my evolving relationship with death: from being very attached to the physical body and consumed with grief when someone died, to a deeper understanding and acceptance that there is no death only a passing over of the soul to return again.
Great Ann your sharing. I can very much relate to it. Last year my dad died and we were all at his side when he passed over. It was actually a beautiful and connected moment. And then afterwards sitting next to his body, I saw and felt it with my own eyes, This is not my dad. This was his vehicle. Literally there was no life and no HIM in this body anymore. When a few days later we went with all the grand children to say our final goodbye’s (which actually felt for me that I had allready done that), my son said when he saw him lying in the coffin, “that is not granddad”. Yep very true.
What a beautiful, meaningful and uplifting blog Anne. There’s an absolute knowing and understanding you convey in words here, that life is a cycle repeating just like nature’s seasons.
Lovely analogy Johanne – “… life is a cycle repeating just like nature’s seasons.” So we can lovingly let go of one ‘season’ and welcome the next ‘season’ and enjoy while it’s there to bless us, awesome.
This is so beautiful and confirming to read. When I saw my brother’s dead body, I instantly knew it wasn’t him, he was no longer there in any shape or form. The absolute clarity felt seeing and feeling this only compounds the knowing that everything is energy, and without it there is nothing. Energy breathes life into everything and we are very naive and arrogant to not talk about and recognise energy in this way.
In life, our bodies are here just waiting to be the gateway back to God and as such, our every cell is programmed to respond to the call back home, to the light of the Soul. Our bodies can be discarded, but not so the love that was lived within them. In death, the measure of what was lived becomes the path on which we continue to walk. Thus, the quality with which we walk now will be the quality of that which we will continue to walk when next our feet meet earth.
Very beautifully said Liane.
Yes beautifully said and takes the threat out of the process of dying. We are not away but continue our journey back to God.
Indeed beautifully expressed Liane, I can just feel the imprints of love that have been walked.
And with the understanding of the cycle of lives it does bring awareness and purpose to ever step we take in this life and how significant our choices are, as they pave the way for what we will meet in our next.
This is very powerful Liane and Victoria…it brings us to great responsibility for everything we do, say and think – a responsibility not only for ourselves but for humanity as a whole.
Liane – Yes knowing that the love we lived in this life is where we pick up in the next life highlghts the responsibility that we have to ourselves and to humanity as a whole. The path of knowing and living love is the inspiration and there is nothing more glorious than that – such a celebration.
You share a powerful message for us all here Anne. We are so much more than the body we are gifted with each lifetime. When somebody close to us passes away it provides us with an opportunity to feel the truth of this and this is a great blessing if we choose to receive it.
That’s the key isn’t it Leonne – “…if we choose to receive it.” It puts the responsibility directly back into our shoes so to speak and with that, we have the freedom of choice how to respond.
This is a gorgeous sharing Anne and very healing to read. I had a similar experience when a very good friend of mine passed over last year. He was very sick and shortly after he passed over, although I was not in his presence, I felt this incredible feeling like this enormous ball of light left his body, much like a butterfly sheds its cocoon – it was all around me and within me and such was the joy I could feel, I actually giggled. Later that night, I saw him in a dream; he was sat at the end of my bed and just grinning because he was free of the pain he had left with his body and thus was free to move unencumbered onto his next expression. We hugged in the dream and all I could feel was this enormous love and light that I knew was him, it was so much bigger than his body.
In this I was able to truly feel how the Soul never dies. It is an eternal spark of divine fire that is always there and able to be felt the moment we reconnect to love. It can express through flesh, but it is not owned by flesh. I often feel that the reason so many of us find it hard to say ‘goodbye’ to our loved ones is because we think we have to say goodbye to them. But love by its very nature cannot nor will not die. As we are made of love, there can be no death on the energetic level, just an endless loop of life in various forms of expression. Therefore, there is no need to mourn for a love ‘lost’ when it is truly lived.
This is truly beautiful Liane! Loved your sharing. I had a similar experience when I was with someone who was dying, and could feel the ‘healing’ process taking place, it was so beautiful, it reminded me that life is more than physical and that we are part of something much bigger than we can imagine. All I could do was cry in enormous joy at the beauty I felt.
Beautiful Liane and Harrison, those moments in life, and death, that remind us that there is so much more than physicality are very precious, wether it be a walk in the beauty of nature or someone passing over.
So true Liane, love never dies and when we live that with another we are forever united beyond passing life forms.
Anne, this is super inspiring and claimed, absolutely beautiful. Wow — what a stranglehold death and dying holds over society and so many of us — the it is the end, that it is embroiled in grief and heaviness, that there is loss and devastation. But all of that is a complete walk-away from the grace that happens with us all when we reach that time, to pass over from one life into the next, to continue on one cycle after another. If humanity accepted this life would be so much easier, so much more open and also…. much more responsible, for the choices from one life carry on into the next. Which is why perhaps humanity doesn’t really want to know and instead prefers to keep itself misled in the idea and dread of death as the end — whereas it is simply another beginning, another point in the cycle we are all in.
This is an invaluable sharing Anne thank you so much. Near to 20 years ago I too had the opportunity of spending my dads last 3 weeks with him before he passed, and although back then I didn’t see it as clearly as I know now of what you have beautifully put into words, to be reminded of this truth as you have in sharing your experience, allows opportunity for deep appreciation for the divinity we each hold equally.
Thank you Ann for sharing this as it is a very healing blog. You offer an alternative healing and meaningful way to relate to this traditionally painful and confusing experience of human life.
I agree Jonathan, this is a deeply healing blog. I have recently pondered on why traditionally we experience such grief and pain when our loved ones pass over? I have wondered if it’s because we are attached to our loved ones, not wanting to let them go but to hold on to what we had. Could it also be that when we are in times of grief we are choosing to focus on ourselves and our pain, when there is in truth a greater purpose to this process and that it is a blessing and healing process? Could it be that traditionally, how we perceive death and dying is completely opposite to what is truly happening? Could this process be of a celebration instead of mourning? Anne’s blog pretty much answers my questions, every life is a small part of our return to God. When we embrace this, every aspect of life is a celebration.
I so agree Jonathan – it is very healing what Anne has shared with all of us, and offers a very different view and way of being around these times.
Thank you for sharing this deeply personal story it is such a powerful concept understanding that we are on a much greater journey.
Utterly beautiful, I could feel how much love you have for you father, and how deep that love goes to be able to see past the attachment to his physicality, and feel instead the essence of what made you father. It feels like a very deep appreciation of who he was, and your description that we are on a journey back to God takes all fear from death.
My father passed over 26 years ago when I was 20 and for me the hardest part was letting go of him, even though I knew his essence had not died. Missing the person is understandable, but the understanding I now have of reincarnation, being able to see the bigger picture and purpose of our cycles of birth, life, death and rebirth, has supported me to really let him go and heal the long-held grief of his passing. Chances are his Soul is back in my life in a different body so we can continue to heal our relationship and inspire others to do the same.
I like that, Jenny, ‘get on with it then’! Absolutely agree, let’s not waste our time in this life. Let’s just get on with it.
Absolutely it makes no sense to hold back any longer when we understand that we are only ever going around in circles given the opportunity to return to who we truly are and unite with the Divine essence that we are.
So onto it – lets get on with it then, no time or space for holding back …
getting on with it
Anne, it is lovely that you know your fathers soul so well and could feel it very much in his body when alive, and absent in his body upon passing over. And that he will return in another body for another chapter on his way back to god.
This is powerful Anne. When family members pass over or are in the process it is very easy to become attached to them – we cling to their physicality even though it may be the right time for them to pass. What you’ve shared is gorgeous and touching.. imagine if we all approached death not as ‘The End’, but as a beginning for a different path?
Anne this is a beautiful blog you share and is very similar to the experience of the death of my father many years ago at home.
The usual practice in the south of England was to have the dead removed to a Funeral Parlour, but my mother decided on following the northern tradition she was familiar with and his body was kept at home in an open coffin until the funeral. I can remember feeling a little weird and spooked about this (as were several of the family friends), yet it was actually the most amazing blessing. I was able to just keep visiting my father at any moment I felt to do so (my need to come to terms with the situation and loss of his physical presence). Far from bringing the comfort and solace I was seeking, I began to witness the most profound lesson in energy, a fact which could not be denied.
It was incredible to see the visible withdrawal of energy from what had been an animated body of expression during his lifetime. Even the facial features began to change rapidly hour by hour and after two days bore no resemblance to the person I had known and loved. It was just like looking at a figure made of wax. This was not my father.
Every time I went in to see him, it became crystal clear that this body was not my father, the physical body was simply a ‘housing for energy’ during his time on earth and he was simply not there in-habiting this physical structure any longer.
I had always felt that there had to be ‘more to life’ than one timeline of the old saying about life ending at ‘three score years and ten’ and this experience made more sense of this awareness.
Since attending presentations by Serge Benhayon this has fully confirmed that this is true. There is a bigger and far more important energetic part to us than the physical body, which continues throughout cycles of many lifetimes here on ‘Earth School’ as we learn lessons to facilitate our return to union with our Divine Essence.
Only through having many physical housing units (different bodies) to learn in and evolve from, can the separated spirit begin its return path to realign with our Soul and True Union with God.
Thank you for sharing this Anne. Such a liberating way to connect with the passing of a loved one.
What a beautiful sharing. This gives such a depth, love and truth to what death and dying actually means. You bring it back to the simplicity without all the stories, emotions and drama that we have created around it. Thank you Anne.
Thank you, Anne, for sharing this, it brings a dimension to death that enables us to celebrate the joy of someone’s life instead of grieving for the loss, that the passing over is the next step in their journey and we were blessed to share it with them.
Distinguishing the difference between soul and body frees us to be with the person in an unemotional way. As Anne shares ‘the body is not it.’ Recently someone nursed her husband for a year through illness and to pass over. She shared how at one point she forgot herself, told him she would be fine without him and let go of all attachment to the phsycial form. He passed over soon after.
When we have a deeper understanding of death there is no attachment, sadness, only acceptance, joy and love. This is the most precious gifts we can give to others as they approach the end of life in the physical form.
What you share here Anne is deeply profound, so simply put and extremely lovely to feel that we are indeed more that flesh and bone and it is the qualities we hold within that remain as our light which is far beyond the limitations of physicality. I too have always felt this but for most of my life have not claimed it with all of the reflections of life that seem to point to physicality just being ‘it’
For me there is something around the concept of “losing” someone here. Are we actually losing them? For we know exactly where they physically are a lot of the time in these situations. I feel like we are aware more of the loss of the reflections that the person brings for us during these times and in that we are able to realise a new level of appreciation for someone. For whatever happened during the life you shared together this time it was all there to support you to learn more about yourself, and your lessons. Remarkable to remember this, and solid sharing Anne, thank you.
Anne, thank you for sharing your experience of your Dad’s passing over. It’s helped me greatly with the passing of my own Mum and Dad to realise that we are in a cycle of birth and death in order to learn the lessons we each need to on our path of return to who we innately are. Knowing also that we flow in and out of each others’ lives in order to offer reflections to each other on way back to God.
Deb this is beautiful…”Knowing also that we flow in and out of each others’ lives in order to offer reflections to each other on way back to God.” And if we offer a soulful reflection to another then the knowing of that soulful connection is something they can choose to seek in their next life. We each have so much to offer one another by way of reflection in every moment. So how powerful is the way we live – what we think, say and do?!
‘Knowing also that we flow in and out of each others’ lives in order to offer reflections to each other on our way back to God’ Deborah I absolutely adore the poetry of that sentence.
It’s beautiful to understand that the soul leaves the body and that it is just a vessel. It’s eerier to detach and know the soul has returned to the divine source it came from. I have had a few experience when a soul has left the body, and that is left is this empty vessel we call the body, which starts to perish away.
“Serge Benhayon has presented death as a ‘passing over’, where our soul eventually comes back again into another physical body to live another lifetime. Our spirit is on a journey through many lives learning the lessons we need to learn on our journey back to be united with God. This makes so much sense to me, as I cannot believe that our life here has no purpose except a beginning and an end.” When I first heard Serge talk about passing over it made so much sense to me too. Having seen a few dead bodies ( as a nurse) and also my parents – it seems obvious that the person I knew is no longer there. Thankyou for your beautiful sharing Anne.
Ann, I love the simplicity of the way you have written this blog. In life we are so bombarded with visual images that we can stuck in them, so that in the end we think people are their outer exteriors. You share that we hold something much deeper, something tangible on the inside that we can’t see, but can feel that is the true essence of us. It is this part that we take with us on passing over. It is from this part that we express love to others in life. It is this part we love to love in all our relationships.
Anne, it brings tears to my eyes reading your article, I remember many years ago when my dad passed away, we were abroad and there was a discussion in my family about whether to fly his body home or have him cremated where he was, I felt strongly that my dad was gone and it was his body that was left that was not him and so to cremate him where we were rather than fly his body home, which is what we did and this felt very true at the time, reading your article now brings an understanding of why this was such a strong feeling for me at the time.
When I was a teenager I used to think that I would not be able to cope with seeing one of my parents lying there lifeless, but in actual fact after seeing four of my relatives in the funeral parlour it’s actually no big deal. Yes, the people around me were emotional and upset naturally, but there was this knowing that this is just part of the process and is natural for the body to do this when it wears out. It makes perfect sense to me when Serge Benhayon explained how we pass over and then reincarnate into a new body.
“I cannot believe that our life here has no purpose except a beginning and an end”. It is simply not true, there is a wider purpose whether you believe in reincarnation or not. We leave such a strong imprint behind us of everything that we have done – ripples of how we have lived that leave a lasting impression on people all around us. There are many people who have affected my life, but there are two in particular that spring to mind – my Mum for the simplicity she lives with, and a certain quality of equalness that is an inspiration in a world full of judgement. And Serge Benhayon, for showing me what a life filled with love looks like when it is lived. When these qualities are lived, they endure affecting all they touch.
That is so true Simon, whether you believe in reincarnation or not, nobody can deny the imprint of how we lived is what is left behind, these ripples leave a lasting impression. When what we have done is long forgotten the memory of how we are with people will be what they remember about us.
Your right Jenny, why are we still messing around? How many times have we done this. It is time to get off the merry-go-round and deal with it!
I can relate to this Anne, when my dad died and his body was brought back to the house, it may have been a wax dummy of him. There was nothing about my dad lying there. Two of my brothers took turns in sleeping in the room with his body but I didn’t really see the point as I knew dad was long gone.
Thank you Anne for sharing a time that for many is a time filled with sadness. However this is not felt in this blog and it is refreshing to read a different way of connecting to ‘death’ and I can feel the clarity and ‘no nonsense’ way this is written. I have always seen death in the same way as trading in an old car in that the car is representative of the body and we are needing a new model so have to pass over to come back again in a new body! I love how you have shared the love and connection you felt with your dad when you connect to his soul, as we so often focus on the outer stuff and not whats true inside.
My Mum has recently become very ill and while we don’t know how long, we all know this is now a matter of time. I’ve been thinking alot about what is purpose of life, what happens at death and passing over so your blog Anne is very welcome. I can totally relate to the observation that the body is a shell that houses something more – this vehicle carries us through life and is simply the most amazing thing on earth…. but not as amazing as what it enhouses in the soul, in our divinity that is at the centre of each and every one of us. That is the true magic.
What a beautifully poignant blog Anne, thank you for sharing the realisation of what was, and what was not your dad, your words feel so tender and sweet and I can so relate to them, bringing back memories of my own father’s passing three years ago and how I can now honour him in the essence of who he truly is.
Anne I had a very similar experience a year ago and it was the most extraordinary moment in my life where things all clicked into place. I got to see on a tangible and physically level exactly what you said, the Soul leaving the body. Just before this Dad had returned to the most sweet, humble, divine being that was not fighting life anymore. The ease and surrendering was very plausible. For me this was a huge confirmation that we are indeed a Soul inhoused in a body. A body that only has one purpose and that is to be a vessel for the Soul on our return back to God. When the Soul leaves the body is empty. In this moment many many things started to really make sense and I am super thankful that I got to experience this with my father.
When I felt my dad’s body after he passed over, I felt the same, it was not Dad anymore. In the meantime I could feel Dad’s love in my inner heart as I had always felt him and I knew, he was not dead.
I personally haven’t experienced being in the presence of someone dying, but it makes so much sense what you share Anne. I have heard Serge Benhayon present about the soul leaving the body upon death. For me, knowing that I am so much more than this physical body leaves me feeling OK with death and dying. I have pondered my own death a lot when I was diagnosed with a serious illness several years ago and know that this body is a vehicle but ultimately it is my soul in which my essence lies.
Very beautiful to read Anne. I love how you shared the difference between having an attachment to the body and a connection to someones essence or soul. I found I can always connect to someones essence whether they are near or far from me or whether they are alive or death. This is really beautiful to feel and shows we are so much more than our physical bodies.
Knowing the purpose of our life is returning back to God, makes every experience in our life, every reflection we get from others, very interesting and very worthwhile. I am grateful like you Anne that the teachings by Serge Benhayon have made me understand more clearly what I have always felt about life and death.
I agree Katinka it is a blessing to bring understanding to what we feel about life and death and the knowing that there is a greater purpose.
Yes Katinka and Marcia, and the feeling that we are part of something so much grander then the life we lead is very supportive. I used to think life was about trying to get it right but I now know it is about connecting to God within myself first and foremost.
Our body is a vehicle for our spirit to have a physical presence on Earth while we repeatedly learn to become soulful and live in brotherhood and love with each other and reconnect to the Ageless Wisdom as we return to who we truly are where our spirit and soul reunite as one.
When loosing my grandparents and parents I had a similar experience as you Anne. The body did not hold the essence of the person I had known all my life anymore. At the same time I could still feel them with me on a tangible though non physical level. This has always comforted me, feeling they did not leave, that I was forever connected to them.
It is such a beautiful to realise, that our body is just a vessel for our soul to express on earth. And we are only on the path to return to that what we truly are a part of, God.
I agree Benkt this is a beautiful and empowering realization to come to. As when we accept this we then accept the responsibility we have in the choices we make to be the love we are or not.
Beautiful to read Anne, of your absolute knowing that your Dad had left his body and was on his way to continue learning and growing in his next life. This is something that can make many uncomfortable because it highlights the responsibility we have, that what we leave we not only come back to but its there for everyone else to feel also.
My grandfather passed over about 3 years ago and recently I remember thinking about him and feeling troubled because I couldn’t picture his face.
I felt bad thinking i must have forgotten him already.. But then i stopped trying to see him in my mind and just connected to him and felt him as he was and who he was (his essence) and i felt HIM again.
Your blog Anne has helped me realise this is what i was feeling, while we may no longer see them in their body it is the connection we felt with them that remains and so while we mourn the loss of them physically in truth their quality remains with us.
That’s something to cherish and it makes me more aware of the true effect we have on others.
What a beautiful reminder that it our essence which we connect with another and that can be felt whether they are physically with us or not.
This is such a beautiful sharing Ann. I too had the same experience when my Mum passed over. I always felt like we were the ones struggling with letting her go and continue her journey back to God.
That is so true Anne, that our body is just a vessel for our spirit and our soul to live our lives here on earth as result of the choice of our spirit in its desire to experiment creation. At passing over the body is left without any ‘spirit’ as life has withdrawn from it. Connecting to this empty body does not make sense to me either as I can remember from when my mother passed over, but the connection with her essence is still alive and heartily felt.
Anne, I can really relate to your Dad’s passing over. I too experienced this with my parents as what I saw was a shell, a body that had no life/essence/love left in it. It could be said that just like a butterfly comes out of it’s cocoon and flies free, this too is like the spirit freed from another body to continue its journey to return to its soul and its true home. However, our soul and all other souls are always with us whether we are in physical form or not and can be contacted through our inner-heart – our physical home for this life, because we are all from ONE soul.
Thank you Anne, I had a similar experience with an animal many years ago, long before I heard Serge Benhayon present on what the process and cycle of life and death was, and recall very clearly feeling the ‘being’ leave the body, moments before the body died. It was so clear, that when I heard Serge present, it was perfectly in line with what I’d felt, and knew what he shared was true. It is the only way that makes complete sense to me now, and know now that l’ve always known it is this way… that in life there is no death, only a passing over in preparation for the next life.
As a nurse and a farmer I have also had this experience many times, with people as well as animals Jenny. There is clearly a point where the ‘being’ leaving the body can be felt. The being simply slipping away to what is next. When I heard Serge present on the process and cycle of life and death I too knew with every fibre of my own being it was true.
Well said Jenny, there is no death, only passing over in preparation for the next life. This is a good reminder too that our children’s future is also our future, literally. We do eventually leave our bodies behind, no matter what we do to it, but we never truly leave this planet behind, as we will always come back to whatever we have ‘left behind’. Reincarnation brings a deeper understanding to responsibility for our every action. Could it be that this is the reason why Reincarnation is not so easy to accept by some?
Indeed Esther it is daunting to realise that every action, thought and behaviour can either heal or harm and that we have a responsibility for the quality of energy that we live by.
Yes that made so much sense to me too Jenny. Ignoring that have we had many lives and will have many more is the way we ignore the responsibility that each life brings in that each life offers us the opportunity to come to know and live the love that we are, and this is how we evolve. So death is something that is a purely physical thing, but the truth is that our essence, our soul, who we truly are, never dies, but temporarily leaves our physical existence readying itself for the next. It just makes so much sense to me.
Jenny I totally agree. I too attended 2 funerals many years ago, one was the mother of a friend, the other a friend, and it was very clear to me that the body was not who we are, and that death is just a passing, but I couldn’t quite grasp how it worked except for the fact that we are energy and that energy never ‘dies’, it simply transforms. The presentations by Serge Benhayon have given me the understanding of the how and why of the process which has deepened my appreciation of life and confirmed what I have already felt.
Very beautifully put Jenny..”in life there is no death, only a passing over in preparation for the next life.”
I agree Jenny – until I heard Serge Benhayon present this life didn’t make sense to me. How can we all be here just once, live the way we want and leave, like a party with no cleaning up! In the name of responsibility I now understand life more and that death marks the beginning of another cycle.
Simply and beautifully written Jenny, ‘in life there is no death, only a passing over in preparation for the next life.’ I can feel how true this is and yet in society there is so much grief and sadness around death as if that it is the person is gone forever, i can feel what a waste of time and energy years of grieving are, I had this emotional experience when my father passed away, it felt like the end of my world, but i now know that our souls live on and that it is only the body that dies.
When I see the ravaged bodies of those I work with sometimes; people who have used alcohol and drugs most of their lives to numb the pain of their hurts, it easy to see that their bodies are not them. When we live a so called healthy and ‘normal life’ I can feel how I can view my body from a false belief that affords the way I look more credence than the way I feel or the responsibility I have to bring a loving quality to all that I am. The body is definitely not who we are Anne!
Bernadette this is interesting. So the way our bodies look regardless of our life choices still do not represent how we feel or the quality of living we are responsible for.
We are not our bodies.
Yet our body lovingly houses us and this we must respect and honour.
I have not yet experienced a dead body in front of my eyes however this blog does give reassurance and explanation of the cycle of life. Thank you for sharing Anne.
How powerful it is for a human being to be able to look at a physical body and not get identified with a personality – especially during what could potentially and probably be one of the most emotionally triggering event. So many people hold onto their dear life and no matter how sick their body has become find it really hard to let go. I salute you, Anne. I am really appreciating how huge it is that you were able to observe it, and now shared it with us. Thank you.
Thanks Anne, this is a great blog. Having experienced the death of my father I can attest to what you have said but have never reflected that last view in the emergency room was not him, he had already ‘passed over’ A very healing blog – thank you (through smiling tears)
Beautiful. I am so touched by your heartfelt words, Anne. Thanks so much for sharing this.
Thank you Anne for this beautifully simple blog which allows one to feel the truth for oneself about how much more we are than our physical body and especially how you drew attention to the loving gestures you felt were truly your father.
A beautiful point Simon, the loving gestures clearly remembered, because that is the true expression of Anne’s father.
It’s amazing how when we can appreciate the bigger picture of what life is about, it removes our fear for the mortality and its finality of it.
I agree Fumiyo, it completely changes how we view life and death. It also brings a deeper level of responsibility because we are care takers of our bodies not owners and so should treat our bodies with love and care. Also we cannot simply live a life of disregard and indulgence doing whatever we want thinking there will be no consequences, everything matters and is important and ultimately comes back to us whether or not we like it or want to admit it!
It is amazing how we have cultivated and nurtured the fear for the mortality over lifetimes. Could it be that we simply are not prepared to accept the extent of responsibility we have and therefore deny that we will be reborn? Could it be that the finality of life behind which we hide is the perfect excuse for irresponsibility?
Ha Michael – there’s that word again: Responsibility! Spot on I’d say, that we have “cultivated and nurtured the fear for the mortality over lifetimes….[because] we simply are not prepared to accept the extent of responsibility we have….”
Well said and asked Michael, and questions we all know the answer to.
It is so true Fumiyo, that when we take to understand the bigger picture of what is going on we are able to let go of our fears and reactions to many events in life.
That is so true Fumiyo and I am wondering why we did not learn to see the bigger picture from day one because it makes life and love so much understandable and easier.
How beautiful to have this awareness and know it when you father passed away. A great reminder of the spirits journey we are on over lifetimes of learning and it simply all makes sense. We are blessed to have Serge Benhayon here with us sharing and presenting to us what is really going on and passing over is one of those exceptional awarenesses presented to support us all on our journey back home.
Thank you Anne deeply for this, what a beautiful sharing I am touched and I am sure it will touch many others. To me it is a known fact we come back again and again and shows the immensity of Gods love. Every life we have is a gift to learn from our mistakes and previous momentums, every life we are given the opportunity to evolve.
Love is the name of the game and eventually life time over lifetime we all will win.
I love your beautiful words Samantha England, indeed, what we have and how life truly works, shows the enormity of God’s love. We come back time and time again, being offered every opportunity to learn, to experience the momentums we chose to go into, so we can make a truer, more loving choice next time, if not this time.
Very beautiful blog, Anne, thank you for its writing. I love the way you express all this truth from the knowing and feeling of these events. When my dad died 10 years ago I found it very important to view his body before the funeral and, once I did see it, like you, I sensed very clearly that he was not there. Surprisingly, it was quite a relief to know this and I actually felt joyful.
Thank you Anne for this great reminder that we are not our body. I had a very similar experience with my own father’s passing and was able to share with my family my feeling of joy that my father had left behind a body that had been ravaged by illness and disease over a prolonged period. Such moments are great reminders for us all that we are so much more than what we see physically and our body is simply a vehicle through which our soul can express.
It is in these special moments that the fact that we are much more than “what we see physically” becomes very obvious. If we accept this as a permanent fact, we will realise that this being more is far grander than we could ever have imagined and yet incredibly simple.
One of the benefits of seeing things coming *through* people is that we can sometimes see a person speaking when the person itself is quite absent. This is obvious when they are drunk or on drugs but it can also happen when they are quite sober but emotional.
I have been to a funeral of a relative and looked at the body which is lifeless and cold, but what I feel was joy from this relative, or from her Soul. Life is more than just the physical, with a beginning and end marked by one death and one birth. When there is more to life than just death and birth, heaven and hell simply do not make sense. When we hold onto what is not true as truth our whole lives, is not death then what we begin our lives with? I can imagine why joy is felt when there is the ending of our physicality for this time around.
Yes, interesting topic, Heaven and Hell; I could always feel this concept did not sit so well with me. I could see that life on earth can be hell for many, depending on the choices they make, so I didn’t see the need for more ‘hell’. This planet offers us all the learning we need for now, learning to honour our planet, but not more than how we honour our body, the vessel for our essence. My body is and has been the biggest teacher in my life, but it’s strength or so perceived short-comings are not who I am.
When I heard Serge benhayon present about passing over, for me it just felt so true, it all made so much sense. It is not the end when we pass over, as we will come back again and again, learning our lessons we need to learn, until we come back to who we truly are. Thank you for sharing your lovely blog Anne.
This is a lovely sharing Anne, it brings me back to when my mum passed a few years back and how she was going in and out of consciousness near the end in the hospital and then eventually heavily sedated and eyes closed. My father said to my mum, everyone is here mum. With that my mum opened her eyes and actually spoke to each and every one of us before we left saying how much she loved us and how blessed she was to have had us all, and then she closed her eyes and a few hours later she passed away. It was like her soul took that moment to really connect with us all and when she closed her eyes her soul left her body.
What a blessing Julie to reconnect with your mum in that way and understand the communication from her soul.
Anne, I have always felt the same thing as you have expressed above, that the finality of death doesn’t ring true. From my early days at a local church to the present day I have struggled to see what purpose there could be in that. My mum passed away about 5 years ago, and while I felt a sadness at the time, my sadness was eased knowing that we were only burying her physical body and that her soul or essence had moved on to another place, another life.
Anne, I have not experienced being with another person hours before their passing and appreciate your Livingness shared for my reflection, but it is absolutely true that the physical body is a house for our Soul, and without our Soul, the body is not us. Even when we are still alive, when we are not with our Soul, it does not feel like we are here or are truly us either.
I feel this is true Adele, when we are not with our soul we are only half alive, it is in this soul-less state we engage in self-destructive behavior.
Beauty-full observation Adele, “even when we are alive, without our soul our body is not us”, I experience this when I’m not connected and present in my body, for example when doing a task sometimes my body does not feel like mine, it feels like I’m a robot automatically doing something, but with no quality or presence of me in what I’m doing.
So true Adele, you can feel when a person is not there even when they are alive. I can recall asking ‘where was I?’ when I catch myself after a period of being disconnected from my body.
Beautifully said Adele – that it is clear through death that our bodies reflect that Soul has left and the body is not us and that when we are still alive if we are not with our Soul our bodies are also reflects that this is not us. Very profound reminder.
Death is a powerful reminder of this Adele. When our soul departs our body has no life…even when it is still seemingly alive.
We are offered such graceful lessons every step of our way in this life.
Thank you Anne. When we take away the beliefs about life and death, there is no doubt for me too that our passing is simply that – a passing over only to return again. The path of return will be so until we as humanity learn that we come from love and our purpose is to return to it.
I love what you share here Bernadette… I was raised in the belief that we only have one life and for many decades this belief governed how I felt about death, dying and our purpose in life. Coming to the truth that death is just one part of the cycle of passing over in preparation for coming back again has brought with it not only an understanding of the responsibility we have in the way we live, but also an understanding of the process and purpose of this cycle which is to return to the divinity we are from.
I too was raised in the belief that we only have one life, Angela, and back then I had some fear regarding death, which I felt through family members and friends. But there came a time when I began reading more widely, and I began to realise that knowing that we reincarnate and have many lives made so much sense to me. There was also a great sense of relief to know that. Why on earth would we only be here for one life, it never felt as if there was any purpose for us to be here otherwise, it just did not make sense. Since I met Serge Benhayon and listened to his presentations I have come to feel the enormous responsibility I have to live my life as far as possible connected to my innermost, where I can feel that I too come from divinity. We are here on this earth for a very important purpose, to learn how to live to eventually return to the divinity we are from.I no longer have any fear of my death, or anyone close to me, I know that this life is just a part of our long journey back to divinity, and I quite look forward to the great opportunities that will be there also in my next life. The key is to live this one to the best of my ability.
Yes Beverley I agree “the key is to live this one (life) to the best of my ability” and then the next life there will be a stronger foundation to keep building on my journey of returning to the love that I/we all come from and to be of true loving service to humanity.
Thank you, Angela, your comment has provided insight into why some people seem to want to hold onto the belief that this life is it – I’ve never felt that and find it difficult to understand how others can be so adamant that it’s only the one life we have. As you say, “the responsibility in the way we live”, is why some don’t want to know about reincarnation and thus don’t want to (consciously) bear the consequences of their actions and beliefs and level of love they choose in their lives.
I love what you share here Angela, believing that we only live one life makes it possible for us to live very irresponsible lives. The new generation YOLO – you only live once, is testimony to this irresponsibility. Believing that your actions don’t matter because you are not coming back with very little if any consideration for what you are leaving behind.
I know of people who believe that we only have one life and that this increases their responsibility to behave with integrity and honour and leave the world a better place and not take up any more space.. But interestingly they cannot explain why they hold certain hurts and fears when they have not been hurt in this life time in that way.
When I was young I had a similar outlook on life, but we didn’t call it YOLO. I thought I was making the most of every minute by exploring and being involved in many things. When I look back now it was all about partying and thrills with reckless regard for myself, or others. I thought I was not wasting a minute but as there was no love in my life, I wasted my youth. Each moment is precious, and an opportunity to bring more love to the world. May my irresponsibility rest in peace forever.
Very true Bernadette and Angela. Reincarnation not only brings us understanding of the responsibility we have in how we live our life/lives but also that the one life we are living momentarily is just one little speck of life we have lived and will live on this planet and that it is never about achieving and gaining as much as possible and making the best of our current life but to return to the love we are from.
I love what you wrote in your comment Esther, that can help to not only be more responsible but also to get a deeper and more joyful purpose to stand up each morning – to know that I will return to love is so much better than only “achieving and gaining as much as possible.”
Same here, Angela and Bernadette. After being raised with the belief that there is one life with a beginning, birth and an end, death, came the truth that death is just one part of the cycle of passing over in preparation to come back again. This brought a whole new understanding of responsibility, for I come back in the choices I have made and I keep coming back until we all return to the divinity we are from.
That belief of there being only one life is at the root of our individualism and hence, our separation from each other. If we believe we have just this life then the ultimate goal is so often to make it all about what we can achieve for ‘me and mine’ with little concern for those outside our immediate circle of friends and family. However when we open to the understanding that we do indeed keep on coming back, life after life after life after life….. the investment in ‘ME’ lessens the more we realise that the quality of the choices we make now will directly affect the quality of our next life, and not just in an individual way, but in the quality of humanity as a whole. Every choice we make determines whether we are contributing to the rot in the world or it’s healing. Brings responsibility into sharp focus when we look at the world in this way.
Although I heard there was such a thing as reincarnation as a teenager, I had no understanding of what that truly meant. It was simply knowing that we keep coming back, and so with this there became an edge of arrogance in that it didnt really matter what I did in this life because I would be coming back again! It has only been through the teachings of Serge Benhayon that I have come to understand the truth and responsibility of reincarnation and the true purpose of why we are here living in a constant cycle of death and rebirth…as Bernadette so beautifully expresses “The path of return will be so until we as humanity learn that we come from love and our purpose is to return to it.”
I recognise that Paula – I too heard about reincarnation very young but the responsibility we have to evolve as much as possible in each incarnation was not presented to me until I met Serge Benhayon. Responsibility and our understanding of the true meaning, depth and breadth of this word is only now just starting to be felt and lived by some for the benefit of all in this life and all those to come.
When I came to that understanding Bernadette, I knew I had found the answer to that question so many often ask, ‘what is life about?’. Answered as you say: “we come from love and our purpose is to return to it.” It was so natural and made absolute sense then, that reincarnation of the spirit is the way our return to love becomes possible.
I love how you so simply share the purpose of our existence here on earth Bernadette “The path of return will be so until we as humanity learn that we come from love and our purpose is to return to it.” This gives purpose to life and death. When I was young I was told that you live, you die and then you will more likely go to hell because you have been naughty. I lived in absolute fear of dying. Now with the understanding I have there is no fear of dying as I know that we pass over only to return again to continue our schooling here on earth to learn what we need to learn so as to be able to return to God..
I was told once growing up that there are two guarantees in life. One being we are born, and two being no one gets out alive. Then I was told an analogy of a curtain of death, I could keep the curtain closed and live my life in fear of death and the unknown or I could open the curtain and choose not to live in fear. This all sounded great but similar to what you were told growing up Mary-Louise it didn’t offer me any further understanding about death itself. Reincarnation has always felt true to me, and I have always had an awareness of the fact I have lived lives before, hence I have deeply appreciated the Reincarnation workshop presented by Universal Medicine as it offered me a much deeper practical understanding of death.
I agree with what you share here about passing over to continue our schooling Mary-Louise. As I sat with my father holding his wrist as he was in the process of dying, there was a moment (about 30 seconds!) when he opened his eyes, turned and looked at me, and we looked each other in the eye with absolutely nothing between us – there was presence, grace and connection with each other – for the first time in my life and most likely his too. Having had that soulful connection in this life, the knowing of this is something that he will look for, search for, in his next life. How beautiful is this – the grace we are offered in a moment.
It is interesting about the belief ‘you live and then you die’, because we may as well give up then and there as there is no reason to be responsible, no purpose to live for.
It’s the opposite of why we are really here, which is to love, and to evolve more each lifetime. We keep on coming back so we may as well learn in each lifetime so that we don’t have to keep repeating the same things that we have been irresponsible for in the past.
I love that sentence too Mary-Louise, I have always know there was such a thing as reincarnation and when I got older I used to say that it felt as if life was like being trapped on the “holodeck” (a virtual computer world from the tv series start trek) and having come to believe that it was reality while all the while there was an entire real world around the Holodeck. So I always knew there was more but only now do I fully understand the purpose of us being in physical form on earth and the fact that this is only a temporary state for our energetic being to be in.
I love the simplicity of what you shared Bernadette, it brings great purpose and direction to our lives, when it becomes about returning to the love that we all are, and we live and die, and go around and around in this cycle, there is not really death but a opportunity to have another go at being loving in all that we bring, with each ‘new’ life, which is not really new but a constant cycle of re-birth and death.
Yes, Bernadette I totally agree. When you explain it like this, it takes the fear out of death and dying and everything makes so much sense. Our true purpose in life is to return to Love. Life and death is a cycle that takes us closer and closer to where we are pulled towards, our return to God.
This is so true Bernadette…we as a humanity are in a constant cycle of death and rebirth until we ALL learn and understand “that we come from love and our purpose is to return to it.”
So much delay Bernadette to ignore that we are returning to love.
The simplicity and grace of this comment is a mirror to human life and its conclusion. The soul is eternal, undeniably so. It calls us to live its simple grace and in doing so rekindle our understanding that we come from something far grander than our bodies have reflected to date.
That is poetry Rachel thank you.
As I deepen my own relationship with death, I am finding there is not much to be afraid of. I also feel the distinct difference between a person’s body and a person’s soul and it makes it much easier for me to handle death without getting swept along in the emotion of it, the relief, the grief, the guilt, whatever it may be. I will go on from reading this blog with a new found awareness in each moment I have with people, feeling more their essence behind or inside the physical.
Yes I agree Suzanne, it is so unusual to have a relationship with death that is open, easy and unafraid and yet that’s what l’m seeing around me amongst students of The Way of the Livingness, and certainly how I now feel about it. There’s not quite a ‘bring it on’ as I don’t in any way wish to hurry along the current one, but the potential of a fresh start, a whole life ahead in which to be purposeful, rather than wasting so much of the first 40+ years as I did this one, is very appealing 🙂
I agree Jenny, I have far less fear of death than I had in the past and a mild feeling of curiosity as there are so many indicators that there is so much more to dying and death than we currently know.
I’m with you on that, Jenny, it’s a very appealing approach to start my next life and all subsequent ones with being purposeful … the apparent wasting of the first 40 or so years is not something I wish to repeat, nor do I feel humanity wants that either!
Yes Jenny well said. This article has stirred up feelings for me about how I feel about death and the ‘afterlife’ that will be good to sit with and explore.
Wow what you shared Jenny, has opened me up to thinking about my death in a very different way, “to get a whole new life, which to be purposeful in”.
It also exposes the areas of my life currently where I’m wasting the opportunity to be purposeful and express all that I bring to others.
Does certainly highlight for me how important it is to be aware of what I’m aligning to in any or every moment, as when that moment does come for my Soul to pass, may my purpose be clear it is Love I choose to return to.
Yes I agree Jenny. Since becoming a Student of The Way of the Livingness and knowing that this life is not the end but there is many more to come as I learn the lessons that are there to help me unfold back to the love that I am, I am not afraid of death but see it as a transition from one life to the next.
Thank you for reminding me Suzanne. It is important to connect to the essence inside the bodies of the people we meet and that the body is just the vehicle that is used by that person in this life, that the body will die but the essence will live through and return in another body in its perpetual journey until we have returned fully to where we have come from and our existence on earth will come to an end.
It feels to me that the fear of death is the direct result of all the many lies that have been spread far and wide by religions that did not follow in the footsteps of, for example, Jesus, Mohammed and Gautama Buddha, but adopted their reinterpreted versions to be able to hold sway over their flock.
This is something that has made me stop and consider also Suzanne, “I will go on from reading this blog with a new found awareness in each moment I have with people, feeling more their essence behind or inside the physical.” I often get caught in what my children are presenting on the outside, instead of feeling past that to their essence and connecting from there. Such a powerful blog.
Death offers so much healing even in its wake.. I have healed so much from my relationship with my mother since she passed away. Esoteric Healing was particularly supportive for me during this time and it held me in the depths of love and allowed so much sadness and grief to arise and clear from my body. I was always left with a bit more understanding about myself or my mother and why we had trouble expressing our love for one another while she was alive.
That is such a wonderful sharing Abby, to help us understand that just because someone has left their physical body it does not mean we cannot bring understanding to the relationship and heal hurts that, at times, can seem insurmountable.
This is lovely Abby, and shows how healing can continue even after our loved ones pass over.
Indeed Lorraine, what Abby shares is true as it was only after my mother passed that I felt how I had held her choice to not commit to life, against her growing up and so then shut the door to a truly loving and sharing relationship.
Suzanne I am inspired by your comment to bring this awareness to feeling the ‘essence behind the physical’ of each person I meet – very obvious really, but it is not always something I do in every moment.
I feel the same thing Suzanne, “As I deepen my own relationship with death, I am finding there is not much to be afraid of.” Connecting to reincarnation turned my fear on its head. Knowing we are so much more than the physical body and having greater understanding of life’s cycles and rhythms has allowed me far more acceptance of the death process. Each death ends a cycle and each birth is a new beginning.
It is lovely to read how you are deepening your relationship with Death Suzanne and with that the fear drops away. This allows for us to deal with our emotions and not have to take them on to deal with again.
In years past I had thought of death as the scariest thing in life. Now with the support of Serge Benhayon I can see the cycles of life, and have no fear of passing over other than if I were to not be in connection with myself when that time comes. It is kind of crazy when you think about it, every single person on the planet will die, but as a race we really understand so little about it, and many live in fear of it, or certainly treat it with immense sadness. This blog and all the comments are great for bringing a different perspective.
Thank you for your heart-felt blog about your true connection with your Dad Anne. How well do I know exactly what you have described so beautifully here. May I share my closely related experience? My dad passed over when I was 26. I flew up to Lismore from Sydney immediately as I knew that he was going to pass over even though the doctor had said he wouldn’t. We had the most beautiful 7 days together and he loved having healing every day. I was holding his hand while he slept one day and I became aware that he was in the process of passing over. It was awesome and filled with immense love and grace. When he had gone I saw his body lying there like an old chrysalis shell.I knew it was not him. And there were his glasses and his shoes by the bed looking so strange and weird with me knowing he would never wear them again. I knew these things were not him! I did not cry at the funeral and I felt so joyful with what i had experienced. The people at the funeral couldn’t understand why i was not weeping in grief and I had to keep suppressing the joy I had felt at knowing eternal life face to face. It was a great privilege to be with my dad as he passed over.
That is a beautiful sharing Lyndy, what grace you must have held his hand with. I love how it supported you after his passing, I can’t help thinking this was because what you felt was from your body not your head. We can have all the theories on the world but when you have felt what you felt it is such a strong knowing, it is unshakeable. This offers us an opportunity to feel joy for the person who is free of their body. I have felt sad many times for the physical loss of a persons company, touch and conversation but the moment I reconnect to their essence I don’t have that longing any more, I find I appreciate what they taught me and that I have an opportunity to bring that to myself now.
That’s beautiful Lyndy and Lucy, I agree, once felt from the body that knowing IS unshakable, and can be held onto long after we let go of the physicality’s.
What a gorgeous experience Lyndy, and imagine if we didn’t suppress our joy at funerals but let it beam out for everyone to feel the love that emanates from the understanding that comes with reincarnation. This is merely one life complete for now with many many to go!
Absolutely Jo, what if we didn’t suppress our joy at funerals and allowed others to feel the love and joyful acceptance that comes with the understanding of reincarnation, and the setting free of the loved one to continue their journey back to God, perhaps they would start to question their own beliefs!
Thank you for sharing yourself so generously Lyndy.. I love this . . . ‘It was a great privilege to be with my dad as he passed over.’ I have to agree as I have always felt this whenever I have being with a person going through the dying process as it really is, as you say, a great privilege and a joy.
I agree Kathleen, I have felt exactly the same when I have been closely connected to someone going through the dying process. It is a great privilege and joy and allows us to feel into many things that are often more hidden whilst caught up in the activities of living.
Thank you Lyndy for this sharing as to me it is the truth that you were connected within that moment that made you feel joyful. To feel the connection with eternity and to feel that we are part of that cannot else than being enjoyed with all that we are.
Lyndy, that is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Lyndy I love what you have share here…the ‘knowing of eternal life’ is a game changer and how can you not be joyful knowing that they and all of us will be back again and again. And I love how you trusted what you felt in the timing of where you needed to be so that you could be there with your father in his last days – what a beautiful constellation for all concerned.
Suppressing the joy. Oh boy Lyndy, how immense is that. We think it is weird and abnormal to fail to grieve at a loved one’s death. That can only be so when we do not truly live life.
A wise man once said (and I paraphrase here) “we are more more dead when we are alive than alive when we are dead”.
Life and death are of but one cycle and the incomprehension of one shows our incomprehension of the other . If we do not understand death then we do not understand life and its true purpose.
And so we grieve rather than celebrate and look askance at the person who knows that this is not an ending but a beginning, the shedding of old ways like a summer cicada shedding its skin so that it may fly and sing the pulse of life warmed in the sun’s rays.
A truly beautiful sharing Lyndy of the joy you felt at the knowing you held that your dad had passed over in this life but not forever. This may be seen as unusual to some, but with that knowing that the soul is eternal, there is no grief as it is a natural part of the birth and death cycle of life.
Lovely sharing Lnydy and Anne, the connection for all of us and between us lives beyond the human form. As well as passing over, I have heard Serge Benhaon talk about death being ‘re-birth’, where we awaken back to the form we are.
Linda what you have shared is so deeply beautiful and touching, thank you.
This is very beautiful Lyndy. What a wonderful experience for both you and your dad, to have the understanding that you did about passing over. There is so much for us to learn about death and dying, and I have a totally different understanding of it now thanks to the Ageless Wisdom teachings from Serge Benhayon. If we learnt and talked about this when we were young children, it would be possible to be truly joyful when someone dies, rather than be grief stricken as are most people in society today when we loose someone close to us.
This is really beautiful Anne. Connecting with someone’s Soul, and the essence of who they are is a beautiful experience that allows us to know we are so much more than our physical bodies. When we know we are so much more than our physical body, we can see the ridiculousness of the emphasis we place on our physical appearance, when it is our inner light or quality that always shines through, and is what is truly felt and remembered. Thank you Anne, for this important reflection.
Yes, when we know we are more than our body our appearance changes. Just the understanding and the livingness coming from that understanding is enough.
I love that Christoph – “..when we know we are more than our body our appearance changes.” When we know this, we can totally step into the all that is us and bring all of this to our livingness.
Thank you Amelia.
In death we are shown and can feel the truth about reincarnation but it is our choice whether we choose to feel this truth or not.
We think we are nothing without our physical bodies, but actually our physical bodies are nothing without our soul. This is proven by death, when a body that was vibrating with the presence of the person is now merely bones and tissue.
It’s crazy how much emphasis we put on the appearance of our physical bodies and how much money we spend trying to achieve a desired look when it is our connection that is seen and felt.
I remember the first time I saw a dead body – it was actually my mothers. That moment amazed me, because I got to see how we are NOTHING without energy. How deluded or lost we can be to even consider that speaking of energy is something “airy fairy” or “alternative” when it is the leading force behind all we do.
Yes Abby, that is so true. How did it get to that, where we can speak about energy and it be seen as being ‘airy fairy’ when it is the most basic part of everything.
So true Nicole. There is nothing airy fairy about energy. Without an awareness of energy we are like puppets on a string, without even knowing there are strings being pulled.
Totally – without energy our body is just the physical matter that it demonstrably is, flesh and bones, organs and all the other bits.
It sure is Gabriele, not a way most of us would want to think of it as, but a reality!
And it’s tragic to consider that for many, this is what the body’s purpose is, and death is the horrific inevitable end to dread. I would always find it almost surreal at funerals that there would be such a heaviness. I would feel how there was something much bigger going on, even though it was never talked about. It never made sense to me that we are just in this body made of flesh and bone and cartilage etc to experience some time on earth and then quite literally rot away….. it never made any sense. Within every body there is a being and a Soul expressing through the physical eyes, our joy, and our hugs when we express love. So how could we be just our physical body and the physical matter it is made of? It is crazy that this has been something we’ve sold out to and come to believe, because it is a massive lie.
Totally agree Gabriele, I remember trying to get a friends dead body into her coffin, she was quite small but we struggled because it was a dead weight. We all were aware that it was not her once the soul had left, so we eventually got her in the coffin put the lid on and popped her in the boot of the car waiting for the funeral pallor to open so she could be cremated. One may think this was disrespectful but to me it made sense as the body was simply physical matter that now needed to be disposed of in an appropriate way.
I agree Mary-Louise and can I please have you and a few close friends do the same for me? Once we understand that the physical body houses the Soul, and once the Soul has departed the body has no further purpose – there is just the need to cremate and move on.
Yep – that is the understanding to gain -the body is the house for the soul. So lets keep the house lovely and when the soul has left the house, the house can leave too.
I agree Jo, there is no further purpose for the body once the Soul has departed, no emotion needed, no holding on, just cremate and move on.
Love it Mary Louise, this is the way how we should relate to dead bodies as simply physical matter that need to be disposed of in an appropriate way. The attachment we hold to the body is our downfall and the battlefield of the spirit to make us belief that the body matters, once it is dead. It is so crazy, most people don’t care about their body when they live and abuse and use the body however it suits them, but once someone dies the body is everything and people want to hold on to it. It really should be the other way around, taking absolute care of our bodies during lifetime, honoring them for the amazing vessels they are and once having reached their end dispose them in an appropriate way, knowing that it is just an empty vessel with no use anymore.
Absolutely Rachel, we have it completely backward, why would we not honour the body that houses the Soul in a lifetime now, rather than wait until its left, and get lost in the emotion over an empty shell.
Very sharp observation Rachel. It is confronting to realize how we treat our bodies, believing it will endlessly regenerate after the abuse of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, unhealthy foods and such. When somebody has passed over we start to treat the body with the utmost respect because it is all we have left from the deceased and we then project all our emotions onto the body. In truth we can all feel that when the soul is gone, the body is empty and that there is nothing left to connect to. All the more reason to truly connect to people when they are still alive.
Rachel, that is brilliant, so true, we have it all back to front, the body should be cherished and cared for with pristine care and exceptional love while we live in it, not when we are dead and it no longer has any relevance. Here’s to making the nurturing of our bodies the no.1 living priority, not the worshipping of dead physical matter. Its a topsy turvy world we live in, crazy for sure.
This conversation is pretty awesome!.
When we do not choose to know and feel the truth about the soul’s journey, all we have is the body and our huge attachment to the body. This attachment generates so much emotion . With understanding of the soul’s journey, I found my attachment to my Dad was less -I was able to feel what was happening but it was a less emotional response and felt very freeing for him and myself.
In some ways it makes sense – we want to hang on to people after they are gone. The body is a strong reminder but it can simply be clothing and their smell or a photo or a handwritten letter, anything can serve as a reminder.
This puts the passing over in a very different light to what we are accustomed to. Knowing that the soul IS the person and not the body gives death a very different meaning. Although the body is our vessel during our terrestrial life and we need to care for it once we have departed it is like the crab shedding its carapace, useless.
Funny how we spend so much time disregarding our bodies while we live in them and then overly identify with them once we have passed on and left our bodies behind!
It is utterly ridiculous that we do this Helen Simkins. There is something to be said for focusing on what is needed in each cycle or moment we are in. When we don’t honour this life can become complicated and ratty no different to a 3 year old who fights going to sleep when its bedtime.
ha ha I never thought of it that way Helen but now you point it out it is completely ridiculous!
That is very observant and philosophical Helen; it shows how the human spirit defends its irresponsibility.
A great observation Helen, crazy indeed.
This is true,Mary-Louise Myers, I know many people would find it disrespectful but it makes so much sense to dispose of a dead body that way as there is nothing there and there is no need to make such a fuss and rituals as we do today.
agreed, amina. It is refreshing to read this without the emotion and just the facts. It even sounds quite humerous whilst holding the love of your friend.
Sometimes I wonder whether there is more love (or emotion) shown towards or for the person when they’ve gone than when they were alive. And so, with love expressed when a person is alive, there is no need for emotion once they’ve passed, and so, what you’ve shared Mary-Louise doesn’t feel disrespectful at all. It is the next practical step to dispose of the dead body…nothing more to be said.
With no disrespect to your friend Mary-Louise I love the frankness of your comment, so real and down to earth, and very funny, has the makings of a good comedy sketch.
I love this sharing Mary-Louise,… no fuss, no attachment, no emotions; a life that has ended and to simply move on.
Yes, a body without the energy is empty. When we die our bodies are discarded as the vessel that has served us, housed us, for this incarnation, that is all. The body is not who we are, but it is extremely important to consider while we are housed by it, BECAUSE we are housed by it.
I love that Esther. When we die our body is an empty vessel that just needs to be cremated however when it enhouses us, our essence, our Soul, it is the most precious thing in the world, deserving of the deepest love, care, nurturing and honouring we can give to ourselves.
Very true, when we consider that the body enhouses pure divinity, how can we not honour ourselves as such.
Absolutely Lucy, our body is certainly ‘…deserving of the deepest love, care, nurturing and honouring we can give to ourselves.’
Absolutely Lucy, our body is divine, a place for our essence and soul to reside, and it is up to us to treat it in a way that honours this, until we pass over when it becomes simply an empty vessel to be disposed of.
Beautifully said Lucy and a great reminder for me to take more responsibility in the nurturing and honouring myself.
And it is absolutely ‘dead’, nothing is happening there, not even an emanation – it is absolutely obvious that we are not the body when seeing a corpse.
Yes Alex, we are so much more than the human body. And we can feel this when we are alive.
This is so true Alex, when my friend passed and I was a part of finding her on her couch, there was the initial shock and coming of emotion, but then I could feel there was absolutely nothing there of my friend, her essence had long gone.
This is absolutely my experience with the dead bodies I have seen – the first was my Grandad and it left such an impression… he was so not there, and all that was left was a parody of the soul which had been present. It was quite shocking at the time as I was not prepared, and had no understanding of death… but at the same time it was quite clear that something important (his soul) was missing and that changed everything.
When they just dug up my father from the water where he had been lying for a few days we went to see him. I was 18 at the time and there was nothing indicating that my father was still there. When the soul leaves the body, all there is left is a body.
Also proves how much we know each other actually by feeling and not just by seeing or touching a body.
Very true, Abby … recently I had the honour of being present with the body of my elderly friend who had just passed over and seeing it for the shell that it was but also feeling expansive grace and love for the service it/she had provided.
This is a huge question Abby – the answer really gets to the nub of issue. By denying that who we are is the energy, essence or Soul of us and identifying ourselves firmly and stubbornly with our physical identity in one life, we are able to ignore that the way in which we live is but a mere sliver of a shadow of the magnificence we all are within. And also ignore the responsibility we have to bring that to this world, to humanity so we all wake up and claim back our true and Soul-full being.
Beautiful Lucy. We are so much more then meets they eye but the illusion is thick and appealing. I love the gentle breath meditations and esoteric yoga which allows us to begin to feel who we truly are and to become aware of our true potential. We are absolutely amazing, each and everyone of us.
“We are so much more then meets they eye but the illusion is thick and appealing.” So well said Ilja.
I like what you are sharing here Abby. I haven’t seen a dead body yet but it makes a lot of sense.
Many may be attached to the physical body when someone dies. And from the southern culture I come from, a lot of rituals are practiced before, during and after the funeral. The dead body is treated like still alive. But it is as Anne shared, the person and their essence are not in there anymore. As hard as it may sound, the body is at that point an empty vessel.
Great point Abby – to deny the fact of energy is deny everything that makes us who we are and everything around us what it is.
Well said Rachael, that is exactly how it is.
It does seem very bizarre Abby that when we consider energy is the leading force behind all we do, we completely ignore and dismiss its existence. Yet, if we do acknowledge it, even in part, we say that it is airy fairy and not relevant. It seems that we live asleep and numb to what is really working behind the scene, in front of the scene, above the scene and below the scene! We seem to live asleep and numb to the whole scene!
I agree – the body is only animated because there is something else working behind the physicality – a human is not the body, it really is just like a car we drive round in.
That was a big shocker for me to see a dead body, I was twelve and my mothers friend died and they put her for three days in this church room having people sit and read to her from the bible all the time. I was asked if I wanted to see her and I said yes, just to find myself with this horrible empty thing that was so scary that I never slept without the lights on anymore for the rest of my adolescence and half of my adult life.
I remember that too Rachel, a dead body is very scary. It is not a good idea to bring your children to see one and when they want to we can explain that there is nothing left to say goodbye to.
Specifically not if the person had been dead for a couple of days and nothing from the person is left. Today I would let my children be present (if they decide to) during the dying process to feel how the person really leaves the body and that what is left is an empty shell, but I would not expose anyone to a dead body that is nothing more than an empty vessel that needs to be disposed immediately.
I agree Rachel, there is a different feeling when someone has just passed away to seeing them several days later in the funeral parlour. In the case of my father the hospital put him on a block of ice because he had donated his body to medical science, and there was just nothing there, no resemblance of the man I knew. I stayed long enough to pay my respects and to support my mother but I didn’t want to hang around in there.
Yes Rachel, it is definitely worth considering. I have been through both experiences and hadn’t appreciated the difference till recently when our dog died and we took our children to see her body if they wanted to. Her passing was not expected and so they wanted to see her to see it had actually happened but they were clearly confronted by the body without ‘her’ in it. She smelt the same, her fur felt the same but she was not in there. It really confirmed that our body is what it is because of the soul being in it. Without it, it is left as a shell. It was, however, really confronting and I would agree that the dying process is a better space for young people to understand that the soul is leaving the body. To see the shell afterwards needs some explaining in preparation, it needs a foundation well away from the potentially traumatic event of the death itself.
I recently saw the body of a close family relative after they passed earlier that day. I can image that it would be scary for a child, because everything about the person that was warm is gone. I only took a peek from the doorway, but I could feel a coldness, that the sparkle was gone and it was just a physical thing left behind, I did not need to go further.
True Michelle, surely it is high time for responsibility to be the ‘new black’, rather than black being only the colour we wear to funerals!
Love it Giselle! Certainly is high time for responsibility to be “the new black!
Absolutely Abby, well said. I recall the very same thing as I was there as my mother passed over. You could literally feel her going, going, gone. It was quite beautiful to witness; it was as if the struggle was over and she surrendered in the end after being in a great deal of pain. After she had left her body, the room was very different, the tension was gone and we all relaxed. We stayed with her body for a while talking and being with each other but it was clear that mum was not the body on the bed.
This is something I have not yet experienced Kathleen, but I can feel the beauty of your experience through your words. I have heard many similar accounts and it seems that rather than being the strain and pain death can be, it can also be something eloquent, graceful and peaceful.
I had my first experience with a dead body when I was 19 and worked in a nursing home. My patient was a tiny woman crippled with arthritis and her body was so stiff and rigid to care for and bath — quite difficult actually. I was there by her bed when she died, I felt her depart her body. Then a few minutes afterwards we had to prepare her for the undertakers and I was amazed that this body I had nursed for weeks was suddenly so fluid and pliable, all the arthritic stiffness and angularity had completely gone and her tissues were as soft as a puppy’s. It made quite an impression.
Yes it is so obvious when you view a dead body that it is just a shell without the energy that animates it in life – the spirit and soul of the one we knew and loved has most definitely left. If death was less hidden from us and more a part of the everyday occurrence it is, then these truths would not be so hidden from us.
And how deluded are we that we imagine just a flesh and bones and a brain and that there is not a spiritual being inhabiting that body.
Indeed Jenny – seeing a body after death and the being has passed over really does bring home the truth about reincarnation, the spirit and the soul. But perhaps its a bit too much responsibility to take on board and easier to stick to the limits of physicality and function rather than look towards what life is really all about.
So very well said Abby. We have made energy a fringe dwellers concept. Watered down spirit and soul into New-Agey babble.
Yet without them we are naught – just physical husks.
An extraordinary era we live in that glorifies the body and its performance and completely ignores the stage manager and crew behind the scenes that makes the performance what it is.
A smiley Rachel, makes you wonder who’s the director? Or are there many? If we are capable of not living with deep regard for ourselves then who is actually directing the performance, us or someone else…
Or perhaps we are letting someone else direct when it should be us?
My personal experience is that the best director is myself caring for myself, then the rest of the cast and crew that appears in my life is more enjoyable to be around.
Abby, you’ve reminded me of the first and only time I’ve seen a dead human body which was of a young man I’d known. When I saw his body, I remember feeling shocked at how it looked – it wasn’t him. It was merely the shell, the body he had enhoused for his short life here.
WOW Abby I have never seen a dead body but I can really feel this through what you have shared. It also brings to question how arrogant are we in our lives to think we are it or know everything! When in truth this is the complete opposite we are part of something much greater and can either live in line with this and allow this to flow through us or live against it. Either way we cannot escape that we are all part of the whole. That our Soul is part of the whole.
I’ve never seen a dead body, which at 54 years of age is surprising, yet I know without any doubt, once we pass over, the body is no longer the place of the soul or the spirit.
I am 61 Heather and I too have never seen a dead body, and even though I know without a doubt that after death the body no longer en-houses the spirit or soul, the essence of the person we loved, I have wondered how it would be to actually see a loved one dead. I now feel more prepared after reading and pondering much of what has been discussed in this blog and the all the great comments that have followed.
Dead bodies are always shrouded in mystery and most people I know have described seeing a dead body as something very confronting or traumatic. This always made me afraid of being confronted by a dead body and I have never seen one. Now I can see that the reaction to a dead body is actually a reaction to the truth that we are so much more than this.
I too can remember going to see my Grandad’s body. At the time I knew a little about energy because I could feel it but I didn’t understand the difference between spirit and soul. As I reflect, when I saw him, it definitely was not him… he was simply an empty vessel. I have come to realise that to deny energy is to deny responsibility.
I was also very aware Anne, of my late husband’s journey of return to his soul. He knew it himself, and the part of him that knew his connection with the One Soul was ready and willing to go, even though he was only sixty years old. His spirit, on the other hand, fought to remain in life with a fierce passion to cling onto all he had loved. Slowly deteriorating in body as a terminal brain tumour took over, I could feel his soul preparing to leave, gradually moving towards his crown and leaving his body like a shell. In the end he was so clear, and the temporal part of him no longer fought, but told us, the family, truths we had tried to ignore, and also retained his wonderful sense of humour. When he passed away there was a smile on his lips and he looked like a buddha. The thing that was holding him back in the end was my attachment to his physical being, and only when I let go did he breath his last breath of this life on earth. Shortly afterwards we felt a powerful energy filling the room that did not leave till dawn, when it released into the universe. This experience showed me just what you have expressed. The soul is eternal, and is with us always, and the spirit will continue to return till it eventually chooses to become one within the body of God once more.
I experienced something very similar in the passing of my mother Joan. In her surrender to death there was an enormous grace. It is as though she, my father and I were held in the arms of something very grand indeed, so that the suffering was not as raw as may be expected.
There was a point when I felt her go, and it was very tangible even though my awareness was not as honed as it is today. Her body took a little longer to complete its journey. In feeling her go it was clear that her essence is eternal, so in fact it was not “gone” but merely removed from her physicality. She left nothing other than a body that had completed a certain and necessary cycle.
In that moment I ceased to fear death.
I wonder, do we fear death because of the belief that we die and there is naught after?
I have known people committed to their atheism and gosh it was hard for them to pass, and boy do I understand that when you are convinced you are falling from life into a void.
We have lost more than we can imagine in losing our understanding of spirit and soul. These words have been rendered silly and superstitious by some scientific pundits – yet without them we are reduced to fearful creatures who have an incomplete understanding of life.
Hence the importance of blogs like this and the conversations they inspire.
Well said Rachel, love the clarity you bring here about humanity reducing itself to “fearful creatures who have an incomplete understanding of life.” We lost our most important understanding of life and are now at the mercy of a physical existence that is nothing more than a repeating cycle in time until we can all return back to our divine origins. To focus on one life out of more than 2000 lived and probably the same number to come is so utterly absurd and the biggest reductionism ever. And each life we do it over and over again, glorifying the physical body as the root of our existence, although abusing and trashing it as we like too and then moaning its loss when faced with the physical death.
The irony is we all know there is something more to our life than our physical body, but we stay locked in the idea there is nothing but our body.
My mum explained reincarnation to me when i was a small child, so frightened of dying that i could not sleep, so it has always made sense to me. The problem was finding a belief system that supported it. i could never go along with the buddhist idea that if I lived a ‘bad’ life I might come back as a fly, so I muddled along as best I could. When mum passed, I felt that she was now free from all the pain her arthritic body had held, and there was joy in the sadness, because she was no longer confined by that pain, but free to dance once more. And now I know, through Serge Benhayon, that what she said was true, and I have found that truth in The Way of The Livingness
Beautifully expressed Rachel. “I wonder, do we fear death because of the belief that we die and there is naught after?” I know that once I had felt the truth of reincarnation, and understood the difference between spirit and Soul, death simply became a part of a cycle in which birth fared equally, and as such, could not be feared.
Hear hear Rachel this is such a great point and I totally agree it is a necessary conversation that we need to be having than one the we push to one side as we don’t want to deal with it. Putting it in the to hard basket. We all have a deep eternal Love for each other and when you are under the belief that this is only one life then it scares us deeply that we will never see our beloved again. What you share is spot on Rachel, as I too experienced the same when my father passed and the essence of my father moved on and it totally exposed that the physical body is as you say there for a cycle that we are living in. I didn’t doubt for a second that my fathers essences was over when he passed over from the body.
Rachel to be in the presence of someone without divine connection and fearful of death is not easy, they struggle, suffer so much, hang on with grim rigidity, fearful of letting go. We have in many western societies lost our understanding of passing over, that it is not descending into a void, the physical body dies, but the soul lives on to return again.
So true kehinde2012, many people fight to stay alive when it’s their time to go. There is so much fear about dying.
I completely agree, Kehinde: we seriously need to re introduce True Grace into passing on, fully acknowledging and surrendering to the support which is there on so many levels. This, to me, is way preferable to stubbornly refusing to let go and hanging on, insisting that it is not fair, not the right time and similar mindsets I have witnessed around the time
I have not experienced anything like this before in the sense of actually being with someone when they die but I have always felt that it never made any sense at all that life is just 100 years if we are lucky and then that is it and somehow we are in Heaven or something else like Hell or purgatory. It made no sense at all that God would create us to live like that and somehow we end up in Hell for eternity!
Experiencing something like this and being able to feel it through another’s experience is a true blessing as it exposes the fact that this rubbish is just that. It is simply not true and there is a far greater purpose and responsibility to this plane of life than we realise.
Falling from life into a void, this is such a vivid depiction of not only one perception of death but it is also how many approach life. It becomes a freefall to be survived as you go, rather than the school of deep learning and wisdom that this can be, until we leave and keep the learning going after we leave and the come back, and then leave and then come back….until graduation and we no longer need to return
Yes – it’s true that that survival mentality permeates and blankets so much of our activity in life, Joel. If we live like that, we will surely die like that, too – perfect set up to avoid the truth.
Thank you so much Joan and Rachel for sharing your experiences here. You both share how it can be for the person who goes and those who remain. It is a love that knows no boundaries. Working in palliative care is what brought me back to knowing there is life beyond. It brought me back to God, back to everything I knew as a child and I am grateful to you, the many others who comment on these blogs and of course this blog for reminding me of that.
Well said Rachel. I absolutely agree “We have lost more than we can imagine in losing our understanding of spirit and soul.” It took me a while at first to understand the concept of the spirit and soul yet once I did understand the knowledge it was then down to me to live this understanding. It is now my foundation for life as I journey on my path rendering the spirit, to connect more deeply to my soul so that I can be a vehicle of love.
This is beautifull Joan and shows if we have attachments how this can affect another, letting go is the way to go.
This is very beautiful Joan – thank you.
It is great to hear of the experience of people who have actually been with people who have passed over, have felt the difference and can share their understanding of the process. I appreciate knowing that as Joan says when someone is fighting on to live, their Soul can still be in the background, in stillness, without fuss preparing for the passing over. And very important point that our attachments and clinging to the person passing over complicates the issue for them, since they now have to deal with what we are wanting of them, as well as everything they are going through themselves.
This is a beautiful sharing Joan thank you and a really significant one too. There is so much mystery shrouding the process of passing over, especially if I compare it to all that I know about the other end of the cycle- child birth. Your story demonstrates how interconnected we are, without speaking your husband was holding on until he felt you let go, there is so much more we could understand about the psychology of the spirit and just how all knowing we all are.
This is very touching to read Joan, thank you for sharing this with us. So lovely to feel your connection to the passing of your husband.
As someone who has never experienced the passing over of a loved one I thank you for sharing so beautifully your experience of the passing of your husband. That your husband was aware of your need to hold on a little longer, and was able to wait until he could feel you let go and the time was right for you both, before passing on, shows the deep loving connection between you both, and supports the fact that we are all connected.
Dear Joan, thank you for sharing that with us. It was very beauty-full to read. Sarah
Very beautiful Joan. Thank you for sharing. I have not experienced someone close to me die, so Joan’s account of her late husband I deeply appreciate. It deepens my understanding of attachment in all areas of my life and how harming it is when self gets in the way… there is much to ponder on here.
A beautiful blog Anne, as I could so feel the truth of what you expressed, our body is indeed a vessel for our soul in life and it is not until death that we feel this in full. In life we connect to our physical body as being us, yet it is so evident in what you express and from my own experiences of death that it is the soul that truly is the essence of our being. “Serge Benhayon has presented death as a ‘passing over’, where our soul eventually comes back again into another physical body to live another lifetime. Our spirit is on a journey through many lives learning the lessons we need to learn on our journey back to be united with God.” what you share here makes so much sense to me as I too could never relate to the idea of our life having a start and end and that being it. What you share brings greater clarity to the true purpose we have in life. Thank you Anne for sharing your experience.
Yes I agree Jade, this way of looking at life and death makes so much sense. It also offers us lifetimes of responsibility which is an absolute joy. To know our soul is as steady as ever each and every life and that our spirit learns many lessons as it unpeeles the layers that keep it from knowing it is at one with God, gives our lives a great sense of meaning. I feel there is less of a battle between spirit and soul and more of a partnership, a willingness to see what the lessons are and why they are coming round again, and sometimes yet again!!
Lovely what you have written Lucy and Amina. This offers a strength in surrendering and allowing the natural flow of life just to be. Death is only for the spirit however, it is because of the direct relationship to Love and the Soul. The Soul is never affected by any trauma. There is a partnership that is always there. This understanding is key in letting go and understanding why life is life on this planet. It’s beautiful !
Love this Lucy. As much as we may try to avoid it…yes, responsibility is an absolute joy!
I had the same question mark as a kid Jade, that there had to be what was ‘before that, and before that…’ I found no one that could answer my questions so eventually stopped asking, but they always remained. It was not until so so many years later when listening to Serge Benhayon that the missing pieces began coming together. We have a Soul and we have a Spirit and there is a great difference between the two.
The same with me , Giselle. As a kid we know the truth and because we are always told differenty we start to doubt ourselves and our truth. Then we start to ask questions, because it does not make sense what the adult world is telling us, so to speak the lies they are telling us. How weird it is to come to this world knowing the truth and often living it and ending it being caught up in the lies we get told and leaving ourselves and our truth.
This is weird Kerstin, I agree. Thank goodness we now know and understand the workings of the spirit and can choose not get caught up in the lies.
Yes Giselle, I had the same questions when I was growing up, and into my adult years. Then I discovered some alternative therapies that talked about the spirit and the soul, but no one ever made a clear differenetiation between them and I stayed confused. It wasn’t until I met Serge Benahyon that I understood the very clear difference between the two and then it all fell into place. Imagine if we were taught this as little children, how different our perspective on life would be, and also on death. It would potentially take away so much of the fear of dying, and no doubt our little ones could tell us a thing or two that we would actually listen to and accept as the truth with this bigger understanding.
Yes totally Sandra. It changed my life instantly once I knew the difference between the Soul and the spirit as presented by Serge Benhayon aka Universal Medicine. It explains why there is no love in our world and where this comes from. The human spirit is responsible for the separation to love and wants its own existence. Unfortunately there is no truth to it without the Soul.
I also had those questions as a child people would give answers, but I knew they weren’t right,
I have also worked with children who were terminally ill and there was always a great sense of peace as they were passing over. In our grief and loss training we were taught to not use terms like passing over as it was not final enough and implied that things would continue and therefore not help the family to deal with the finality of the death of a child.
I too have always carried a sense of previous lives. I remember feeling alot of discomfort of the fact that I was born female in this life. This is not something I ever expressed to anyone else, but always had a strong sense of it within myself. I was more familiar with how to be in the world as a man. I always understood that me being born as a women in this life is a great opportunity for me to learn in detail what it is to live as a woman without allowing the outer influences of stereotypes and ideals to dominate my choices.
This is so true Jade, ‘our body is indeed a vessel for our soul in life and it is not until death that we feel this in full. In life we connect to our physical body as being us’, reading this article and these comments makes me aware of how much we do associate the body as being us and it is common thinking that when the body dies that is it, end of our life, our current way of teaching misses out the huge part of life, the fact that our soul does not die, only our body and then we reincarnate and have many lives, if this were taught it would bring a lot more understanding to life and a lot more responsibility for how we live our lives.
Yes Rebecca, there comes with that an arrogance from the spirit that we will have other bodies though, so it is going to enjoy the thrill and experiences in this body. I find that my spirit can justify whereas if I get my spirit and soul working together then it brings in the responsibility that none of the decisions I make with this body are isolated to this body but can affect me on a much deeper level. The dying process brings an honesty of the relationship between spirit and soul. There starts to be a knowing of the deeper level and the ongoingness of something, sometimes there is not an understanding of what that might be, there is just something. I have seen this time and time again. Sadly there is also the choice to ignore this feeling and I have seen the tormented nature of the thoughts as the person nears the end of their life, as come it will without fail.
I agree there is an arrogance from the spirit, and a complete disregarding of our body as it knows it will have many more bodies. I like the idea of the spirit working together in partnership with our soul, with harmony, and the much needed bringing in of responsibility.
What would be the point in living, dying and then that’s it! There is no learning, no cycle, no true evolution of course there is reincarnation. At the moment how we live seems very lineal in ‘it is just this life’ or focus on just this day, or week or ‘look forward’ to the weekend! but I have noticed it isn’t until we start to get older or sick that only then many of us may start to ponder on life and the bigger picture. There is way more in this Universe and us to what we are living at the moment which we are not allowing ourselves to feel or truly comprehend. Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine’s teachings shine a light on the truth so that we all may see.
I completely agree Vicky – it never made sense though I was told many times growing up that once you die that’s it. I was always that can’t be true-.
These beliefs insight a erroneous oscillation between, might as well give up here – what’s the point- or puts a tremendous pressure on getting life right with no mistakes – the bucket list of life! Instead we are given the grace to learn from the cyclical nature of life and death where if we don’t learn what’s being presented the 1st time around the opportunity will be repeated – usually becoming less and less miss-able!
So true Vicky, what would be the point, no learning. My life is more full for taking responsibility, for willingly embracing the relationship between my spirit, my soul, and all that has been developed through engaging with the teachings of Universal Medicine and bringing those into my way of living. It is not a philosophy that stays in a book or in a workshop or hall, it is a living and breathing potential to bring into a way of living.
Absolutely Lucy, there would be no point to life, and like you my life is more full for taking responsibility and embracing and living the teachings of Universal Medicine, and with this, my life now has purpose.
That mentality feels like it brings a dullness to life, it’s like ‘why bother committing to life if you’re going to die and that’s it’. This way of thinking feels very unhealthy because if a person has this perception of life then what is their outlook and motivation towards life in whole?
I see the false construct of ‘one life and that’s it’ as one of the most gross bastardisations on this planet. It holds so many in a gripping fear of death and engenders a complete disregard for life and mentality of ‘What’s the point? We’re going to die anyway…’ A loving God would never impose such a travesty of Truth on His Sons…..so who would and why??
Yes true Vicky, I have seen time and time again people I know totally change when the possibility of dying is an outcome for them. People’s hearts open up. It’s a huge stop. They surrender and start to listen to what is happening inside them and all around them. What I love about the esoteric this is already known.
Yes Jade, Anne’s article makes complete sense to me too. Before I met Serge Benhayon I believed that the soul and the spirit were the same thing, But through Serge’s presentatios I understood how they are so different and both have a different purpose and for me the penny dropped. Now I have a true clarity about the spirit and soul that no one else could answer, and it is from here that I am able to understand life and death in a completely different way – one that is supportive, compassionate and truly understanding and wise, and gives reason to why we live and why we die.