O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God,
which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

 This is looking at death from the Christian perspective and applies to an individual human soul but we could equally well look from the secular point of view at the death of a relationship or death of a plant or even the death of a species

A plant dies because it does not have the ingredients to survive which of course are light, for photosynthesis, water, air, nutrition. A relationship dies because the necessary vital connections between two or more people does not exist. Elements include criticism, questioning up partners character content, acting in a way that is seen as superior, defensiveness or avoiding responsibility and stonewalling meaning refusing to engage with issues. It is very difficult for a person who has been hurt especially in childhood to face up to the situation as it really is and this particularly occurs in cases of mental cruelty and psychological or spiritual abuse.

If the individual has experienced abuse in their own early life, or seen it with their siblings, in some way they think it is normal. Perhaps through the act of marriage or getting together, a  catalytic effect precipitates a maturity and a realisation that could not otherwise have occurred. As in the case with the human condition in general it is very difficult to stand back and see what is going on.

It does complicate things when everyone is disorientated and everyone is fearful. In my own life I was in a relationship for 12 years that was getting nowhere but I distracted my mind by engaging in other activities and pretending that the problem did not exist but eventually, events precipitated me into another orbit and I disengaged in a messy way.

This diary entry today focuses on the physical deaths of a person and the effect it has or might have on their soul progress as well as on those they leave behind.

I would like to share a little bit about my own psychic work. By ‘psychic work’ I mean the use of my intuition to determine what is going on at other levels than the information provided by the five senses. I use pendulum dowsing as a catalyst.

I have been doing this type of work on an off since the age of 25, the catalyst being the Polish priest Andrew Glazewski who recognised an innate talent in me and encouraged me to try dowsing and healing.

At the end of this article you will see a summary of someone else’s experience in their professional work
which hopefully will take away some of the fear of death that my readers might have.

It is now routine for me to attempt to communicate with those who have passed over and for the record as well as the interest I have written some conclusions from my many escapades or adventures in this direction.

*  when a person dies it just means they have cast off or moved out of their physical body. Consciousness continues to exist  and function as it did when they were so called ‘alive’.
*  the terms heaven and hell a particularly the latter can be somewhat over dramatized and for this I blame the Roman Catholic church in particular.
*  the vectors of your will and consciousness continue so if you are good and open in this life you will continue to manifest in various ways at the many other levels of consciousness.
* I notice that people who have had unhappy and frustrated lives continue in this way when I tune into them. If they were stubborn in this life then when I tune into them they are still stubborn.  In other words, death does not change anything
* sometimes I can only get through to departed people by talking to their guides who in turn talk to them if indeed they are open at all which in many cases is not  applicable.
* the principle of free will applies and if a person does not wish to communicate then they make their views known when they become aware of my attempts and there is nothing I can do. That block in itself is significant
* why is physical life important? Because you can do things, repair relationships, work out your karma in ways that you cannot do so if you are so-called dead. Life gives you a leverage to make changes that is not possible when you are in the state of death which is primarily and observatory thing.
* I believe that prayers for the dead can enlighten the consciousness and who knows they may be more open to prayer in that condition and when they are living
* there are definitely bonds between the living and the dead and these can be affected or even healed in their manifestations by the act of prayer.
* the person who prays or intercedes does not need to have any conscious knowledge of the subject apart from the fact that they exist.
* The main disturbance is often amongst those who are left behind. They are almost forced to face their own attitude and possible presence of fear. I think you have to be a free soul to truly celebrate the departure of somebody.
* For more difficult cases where a person has died by suicide or in an accident often leaving a partner and four children. That is where you discover who your true friends are, those who will drop everything and come to help if needed.
* I find that when a person is newly passed, there is a period of confusion and reorientation which can last some time. I have noticed many cases stabilize after an official funeral which is why the state of mind  of mourners should be positive and thankful. A ‘celebration of life’ announcement has a healthy ring about it.

This is a summary of a volume entitled The Supreme Adventure, Analyses of Psychic Communications, Robert Crookall, 1961

The following statements are described in the book, with numerous sources defined. They provide a basis for comparison with other descriptions of the afterlife contained in references identified on this website:

Statement No. 1a: Experiences in the immediate hereafter may be affected by dominant or habitual thoughts and feelings, and by strong expectations or fixed ideas developed during earth-life.

Statement No. 1b: Man possesses a ‘body’ that cannot be seen by the physical eye or touched by the physical hand. It consists of a ‘vehicle of vitality’ and a Soul Body, both of which interpenetrate the physical body. The Spiritual Body interpenetrates the Soul Body.

Statement No. 2: A person, having knowledge of their imminent crossing over, will issue a ‘Call’ to friends and relatives who have gone before. This is not true for those who pass suddenly without prior awareness.

Statement No. 3: Excessively self-centered individuals, who do not issue a ‘Call’, will be met by certain discarnate helpers who voluntarily undertake such services and are specially trained in such duties.

Statement No. 4: A fixed idea that there is no after-life acts like a post-hypnotic suggestion and no ‘Call’ is sent to departed friends.

Statement No. 5: In the early stages of transition from earth life, individuals will experience a panoramic review of their past earth-lives.

Statement No. 6: About an hour before the cessation of breathing and heart-beat, a dying man has often almost completely vacated his Physical Body and stands nearby, perfectly conscious and happy, although he may appear to others to be in a pre-death coma.

Statement No. 7: Natural death involves neither physical pain nor fear.

Statement No. 8: Being brought back to the body from the verge of death, by stimulants, etc., does involve pain and fear. Those who thus ‘return’ from the brink of death to earth-life do so with reluctance.

Statement No. 9: Some of those who were conscious of vacating the body had a sensation of ‘falling’ or of ‘rising’; others described a momentary ‘coma’, ‘darkness’, ‘blackout’ or ‘passing through a dark tunnel’.

Statement No. 10: Many of the newly-dead do not, for a time, realise that they have shed their Physical Bodies.

Statement No. 11: Death was “not what was expected”: the process seemed ‘natural’, there was ‘no abrupt change’ in the self; the new environment was ‘familiar’, ‘earth-like’, ‘substantial’ and ‘real’; the new body, superficially at least, resembled the physical body.

Statement No. 12: Although several who died thought, at first, that they might be dreaming, most knew that they were not.

Statement No. 13: The double that leaves the Physical Body at death consists of the whole of the vehicle of vitality plus that portion of the Soul Body that was immersed in it.

Statement No. 14: A cloud-like mass first collects above the dying man. It usually floats horizontally over the recumbent body and is variously described as ‘luminous’, ‘grey’, ‘smoke-like’, ‘steam-like’, ‘vaporous’, ‘cloudy’, ‘shadowy’, ‘misty’ and ‘hazy’.

Statement No. 15: This exteriorised mist gradually assumes definite shape and finally resembles the vacated Physical Body (though it looks younger and brighter).

Statement No. 16: In the majority of cases the distance of the exteriorised double above the vacated Physical Body varies from directly above to about four feet.

Statement No. 17: Many communicators describe how, immediately after death, they saw both their own Physical Bodies and the self-luminous ‘double’ in which they stood.

Statement No. 18: Many of the newly-dead also saw and heard friends who had ‘gone before’.

Statement No. 19: Many say that the newly-discarded Physical Body at first remained attached to the vehicle of vitality (and the latter to the Soul Body) by something resembling a ‘cord’ (as well as by numerous ‘threads’, such as intertwine to form the ‘cord’).

Statement No. 20: Until the ‘silver cord’ snaps, decomposition does not commence in the Physical Body.

Statement No. 21: In the natural death of average men the ‘cord’ may break immediately after, or within a few minutes or hours of, ‘visible death’.

Statement No. 22: After the ‘cord’ is ‘loosed’, the average man who dies naturally enjoys a recuperative sleep (often with dreams) lasting for three or four days (of our time).

Statement No. 23: The post-mortem sleep of the aged is due to mental fatigue and to a vehicle of vitality which is depleted of vital force. Once the vehicle of vitality has been shed from the total double, the former gravitates to the Physical Body. The two decompose simultaneously.

Statement No. 24: The after-death ‘sleep’ may be lengthened and deepened by certain features: (1) a prolonged and severe last illness, (b) an exceptionally difficult and strenuous earth-life, (c) excessive grief on the part of ‘living’ friends, (d) the fixed idea that there is no after-life, and (e) exceptional unteachability.

Statement No. 25: Those who had a post-mortem sleep may have a brief partial awakening.

Statement No. 26: Many do not describe a ‘partial awakening’: their awareness of a stable environment emerged simultaneously with their assurance of personal identity, and of having survived the death of the body.

Statement No. 27: Many communicators complained that the excessive grief of still-embodied friends depressed and hurt the newly-dead. It hindered their progress into happier conditions.

Statement No. 28: The first wish of many of the newly-dead was to assure their still-embodied friends of their survival and well-being.

Statement No. 29: The newly-dead greatly benefit by the prayers of ‘living’ friends.

Statement No. 30: Suitable mortals, and especially potential psychics, cooperate with certain discarnate souls in helping other mortals, the dying, the newly-dead and those long-dead who are delayed in “Hades” conditions.

Statement No. 31: Where a man’s transition was natural, certain experiences may aid him to realise the fact: (a) the sight of his own vacated body, (b) the sight of those whom he knows pre-deceased him; (c) the loss of his ability to make himself seen or heard by mortal friends, and (d) the acquirement of new abilities, i.e. to defy gravity, pass through walls, etc.

Statement No. 32: The ‘next’ world of average men is ‘semi-physical’ in nature; it is intermediate between our earth and the ‘Heaven’ of the Scriptures.

Statement No. 33: The immediate ‘next’ world of average men is ‘earth-like’ and ‘familiar’.

Statement No. 34: The newly-dead man experiences a second review of the past earth-life, one that is of an emotional, selective and responsible nature.

Statement No. 35: After an initial period of adjustment each person ‘goes to his own place’ in the ‘Spiritual’ (‘super-physical’) ‘Heavens’. Although, we are told, these ‘Heaven’ conditions are beyond time, space and form and are indescribable except in poetic and symbolical language, they are far from being ‘unreal’: on the contrary, they are more ‘real’ than the physical world.