What Do You Do When You’re “Dead”?

When I was a kid, Sunday school teachers told us that when people die they go to heaven where they spend eternity floating around on clouds, wearing haloes and playing harps. Unless they were bad, in which case they burned in hell forever. As I now see it, neither of these scenarios is true. Rather, we have jobs to perform in the Afterlife, just as we do here on earth.

What’s Your Job in the Afterlife?

In my earlier post “What’s Your Life Purpose?” I wrote about soul groups. I identified several classifications or types of souls––leaders, protectors, teachers, healers, warriors, artists, inventors, explorers, and caretakers––who incarnate again and again as people who perform these roles. When we leave earth and return to the spirit realm, we continue performing our roles there. What we do when we’re “dead” often bears similarities to what we did during our earthly lives.

My friend, Jocelyn Edelston, who left her physical body in 2002, was a talented artist and loved flowers. On the Other Side, this artist soul creates new species of flowers and other plants. My life partner, Ron Conroy, worked as an air traffic controller in his most recent incarnation. Since leaving his physical body, he’s continued guiding travelers and keeping the skies safe by communicating through flesh-and-blood air traffic controllers. Protector souls take care of us here on earth––they’re our “guardian angels, so to speak; green souls protect plants and animals (see my earlier post “What Color Is Your Soul?”)

Getting Information from the Other Side

Ever wonder where epiphanies and brainstorms come from? Those bright ideas that pop into your head or come to you in dreams? Often a spirit passes the information along to you. Writers admit they don’t know where some of their ideas originate––they feel as if someone is feeding them material, and when they read back over what they’ve written the words may not even sound like their own.

Healer souls convey information to medical practitioners on this side. Edgar Cayce, known as the Sleeping Prophet, had little formal education yet he could tap into the vast wisdom of the world beyond to find cures for thousands of ailing people. Scientists, inventors, and researchers also receive insights that discarnate entities have passed to them. You’ve probably had the experience yourself of “knowing” something you couldn’t have known––did a spirit slip that info to you?

Lately I’ve been reading about crop circles. Researchers have studied extensively these mysterious and beautiful patterns that appear in fields around the world, and determined the real ones are caused by something other than humans. I wonder if nonphysical beings are creating these designs to send messages to us earthlings. The patterns almost always contain circles––circles symbolize unity, harmony, and wholeness. Many also feature complex mathematical details––do these hold information for us too?

Creation Is Our Real Work

From what I’ve read in books by many Afterlife and past-life researchers, and from what Ron has told me, our real work is to create––both on earth and in other realms of existence. When we’re not limited by the constraints of the material world, creation is instantaneous. All we have to do is imagine something and voila, there is it. According to the Law of Attraction, we do the same thing in our earthly lives––consciously and unconsciously––it just takes longer.

As the Buddha said, “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” We’re constantly creating our realities. By listening to entities who seek to communicate with us, by paying attention to dreams, “coincidences,” and ah-ha moments, we can gain valuable insights that will help us navigate the often choppy waters of earthly existence.

You Don’t Need What You Don’t Have

At first this sentence seems nonsensical, even ludicrous. What if you’re starving and you don’t have any food? What if you’re sick and can’t get the medicine that would heal you? Most of us would probably agree we don’t need a mansion, a yacht, or a sports car––even a TV or cell phone. We may want those things, but can get along without them. But we do need housing, right? Transportation? Money? Friends?

If we consider this idea from the perspective of the physical body, living in a material world, we do need food and water and rudimentary shelter to survive. We may need medicine to cure an illness. But when we consider the idea from the soul’s perspective, another possibility arises. What we think we lack may be exactly what our souls have chosen to do without in order to achieve a purpose. What the body needs for physical well-being may be secondary to what the soul needs for growth. That purpose may be to gain compassion, to help others, to develop skills, to increase our awareness, etc. And, we may not know why we’ve chosen to deprive ourselves of something until we leave our physical bodies.

Choosing Your Lifetimes––and Your Challenges

Many people believe we choose to be born on earth for certain purposes. Earth is often likened to a school where we learn lessons to enhance our souls’ growth. If you’ve undergone past-life regression, had a near-death experience, consulted a psychic, or examined this subject in other ways, you may have some idea why you came here and what you hope to accomplish during this lifetime.

If you accept that you’ve chosen this particular path this time around, then you realize you’ve elected to take on some challenges in order to achieve your objectives. For example, Helen Keller, who lacked sight and hearing, became an inspiration for millions. A man I know who lost his leg has gone on to assist other amputees. One of my soul’s goals, I believe, is to help people who’ve “lost” loved ones to understand their loved ones aren’t dead––they’re alive and well in the spirit world. To learn this, however, I had to suffer the devastating “loss” of the person I loved most so I could empathize with other bereaved people.

Your objective may be more personal. In one of his wonderful books (I can’t remember which one), Dr. Michael Newton writes about someone he regressed who described past lifetimes of indulgence and decadence. This person chose to incarnate as a destitute, homeless woman in order to regain an appreciation for the little things in life, such as having food for a day. People who’ve lived many cloistered lifetimes may choose to be reborn into a secular environment where they must make their own way in a dog-eat-dog world. Those who’ve always been surrounded by family, friends, and community may decide to try out solitary lives. What you perceive as deprivation may be exactly what you need.

Rethinking “Lack”

People often report that what seemed to be the worst thing that could happen to them turned out to be the best thing––and their souls probably planned it that way before they came to earth. Those who’ve undergone near-death experiences frequently say their NDEs transformed their thinking. Even people who’ve suffered physical damage as a result sometimes emerge with unexpected “gifts,” as happened to bestselling author Dannion Brinkley whose NDE revealed psychic powers he never knew he had before.

If you feel you are experiencing some sort of lack in your life––you don’t have something you believe you need––you may want to look at this “absence” in a different way. What have you learned (or could you learn) from being without that thing, whether it’s money, a romantic partner, good health, freedom, appreciation, or something else? If you’ve lost something you cared about, did you gain something as well? Even if you can’t ascertain any obvious benefits, you may be surprised when you transition to the Other Side and discover you really didn’t need what you didn’t have––and in fact, having “it” might actually have prevented you from accomplishing what you set out to do in this incarnation.

Spirit Guides and Angels

In my book Angels Among Us, I mention a poll done by the Washington Post in 2008, in which 36,000 people of various faiths (or none) were asked if they believed angels actively participate in our lives. The majority answered yes. That same year, in a poll by Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion of 1,700 Americans, 55 percent reported that their angels had protected them from harm.

What Are Angels?

Many people think that when we die we become angels. But according to Billy Graham’s website that’s incorrect––we become something greater. The Compelling Truth’s website says, “Humans are physical beings with a spiritual soul” whereas “Angels are spiritual beings . . . who can only become physical if God ordains that their work requires it.” Others say angels don't have free will, as humans do, and therefore humans face greater challenges during their journey on earth and in the spirit realm. Much has been written about angels throughout history, and these ethereal beings show up in the literature of many religions. Yet we’re still not certain what they are, how they came to be, or exactly what our relationship with them is.

The Christian mystic Dionysius the Areopagite, 1500 years ago, and later the Dominican priest and philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas proposed that nine types of angels exist. These ranged from the lowest level––our personal guardian angels––to the highest––the Seraphim, who occupy the top rung of the celestial ladder, closest to God, where their singing aids the process of creation.

 Our Progress as Spiritual Beings

As I understand it, we may evolve into spirit guides at some time after leaving physical earth. During my visits to the spirit realm, I observed souls as colored orbs of brilliant light. Their colors indicated their level of wisdom and experience (see my post “What Color Is Your Soul?” for more). Blue and purple souls were the masters, who guided beings on earth. These masters once existed as humans, but have now reached an advanced level and no longer need incarnate––though they may, if they choose. Other souls––especially those from our own soul groups––may also assist us throughout our earthly lives. (See my post “Soul Groups” for more.) I suspect that these entities are the ones who watch out for us, though I don’t know if they’re actually angels.

After my long-time companion, Ron Conroy, left his physical form in 2013, I asked him about this conundrum. He replied, “When people ‘die’ they don’t become gods or angels, they’re still themselves, they’re just not physical.” He also explained that our core natures remain the same after we leave our bodies––we’re still playful, quiet, serious, adventurous, artistic, etc. Our fundamental purposes and interests stay with us too. (See my post “What’s Your Life Purpose?” for more.) Our egos fall away, however, leaving us “kinder and gentler” than we were as humans.

Meeting Angels and Other Spirits

Psychic and medium Francine Clausen, “The Angel Lady” of Gloucester, Massachusetts, told me each of us has at least seven angels around us all the time––and we can call upon more for assistance when we need them. I think it’s possible that both spirit guides and guardian angels offer us protection and aid. Furthermore, I think it’s likely that we knew some of these spirits on earth––as I knew Ron for many years––but we may never have encountered some of them in physical life. (Nature spirits, fairies, and other ethereal entities also exist among us, but that’s a topic for another post. You can also read more in my book Fairies: The Myths, Legends, and Lore.)

In his book Journey of Souls, Michael Newton, PhD writes, “Most of my subjects report the first person they see in the spirit world is their personal guide.” Even if other entities that the newly deceased person knew on earth are present, the individual’s main spirit guide stands nearby, ready to escort the soul into the spirit realm. This guide, it seems, remains with us throughout all our earthly incarnations as well as during our time out of the body––teaching, protecting, and steering us through life with great love and compassion.

Children often speak of seeing their spirit guides, although adults usually discount these claims, labeling the spirits “imaginary friends” or “alter egos.” You may meet your spirit guides through meditation, trance states, dreams, hypnosis, moments of illness or trauma––they may even appear to you during your everyday, waking life. People sometimes describe them as light forms in the shape of a human being, as angels with wings, or as faint ghostly images. Others see them as glowing orbs, as I did in my journeys to the spirit realm. 

Even if you don’t actually see them, you may sense their presence, perhaps as warmth or coolness, a slight breeze or movement, a tingling sensation on your skin, or something else entirely. Once, while I was giving Reiki to a woman, I felt her guide standing behind me, laying its hands over mine to provide healing energy through me to the woman.

Trust your experiences, whether you see, hear, sense, smell, or otherwise become aware of your spirit’s presence. If you keep an open your mind, you have a good chance of making contact with your spirit guide and benefiting from what it has to share with you.

Why Did You Choose This Life?

Past-life researchers and people who believe in reincarnation propose that we choose our lifetimes on earth for specific purposes. We select our parents and families, the physical bodies we’ll inhabit, the cultures in which we will live, the timeframe during which we’ll exist, and the challenges we’ll face. Astrologers say that we also look at celestial configurations to determine what combination of energies will offer us the best potential for achieving our goals. I’ve read that although the individual soul gets to make the final decision, our guides and teachers offer suggestions and assist us in making these important choices.

Why Pick a Hard Life?

If that’s so, you may ask, why would anyone choose a lifetime of hardship, pain, illness, poverty, or suffering? The usual answer is: to learn, and some things must be learned the hard way. Another theory states that we take on onerous conditions in a particular incarnation in order to atone for past misdeeds. In his book Miracles Happen, Brian Weiss, MD writes that a soul may enter a body that has more than the usual limitations in order to learn to receive from others, to be cared for––especially if that soul has served as a caregiver in many lifetimes. 

It seems to me that as evolving souls who will eventually become spirit guides ourselves, overseeing the human race, we may need to experience everything that morals undergo, so we can understand and assist them in their earthly journey. If you’ve never suffered the loss of a loved one, for instance, you might not know how to ease another’s grief.

Reasons for Incarnating

In my earlier posts, I’ve suggested that we incarnate for other reasons too: to be with members of our soul group who’ve already entered human forms; to work on relationships that we began in previous lifetimes; to create in the manifest world; to inspire or implement changes on Planet Earth. Most importantly, we come here to bring love from our divine “home” into the physical realm.

As I wrote in my previous post “What’s Your Life Purpose?” your lifetimes are based on certain themes. Soul roles fall into various categories, such as teacher, healer, warrior, leader, etc. Therefore, you’ll integrate your soul’s primary purpose into each incarnation, even though the details will differ. If you’re a warrior soul, for example, you might have been a gladiator in Ancient Rome, a soldier during the French Revolution, and a football player today.

My post “What Color Is Your Soul” discusses soul colors as indicators of spiritual knowledge and development. During visits to the spirit world, I saw multitudes of white souls (beginners), but very few purple ones (masters). This idea is reiterated in the books of Michael Newton, PhD, Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls. As my partner, Ron Conroy, who left the physical world in 2013, explained it to me, the younger white souls often enter lifetimes where they can learn basic survival skills and practice adapting to the requirements of earthly embodiment. These souls may not have spent much time on this planet and must develop their “earth legs” before they can help others. People who live relatively primitive or very simple existences, in which they have few responsibilities other than sustaining themselves, may fall into this group.

Souls who’ve graduated to higher levels (yellow, gold, green), perhaps through many lifetimes on earth, face a different set of challenges and opportunities. They may choose incarnations in which they must consider and/or take care of others as well as themselves. Perhaps they’ll share what they’ve learned with other beings. Or, they may assume responsibility for other humans, animals, plants, etc., protecting or guiding these entities in their own growth. More developed souls may bring knowledge to earth’s inhabitants, provide support or employment to others, create products that make physical existence easier, defend communities in times of crisis, etc.

Eventually, we accomplish our earth “lessons” and reach a high enough level of spiritual development where we no longer need to incarnate. As blue or purple souls, we may choose to operate from a nonphysical realm instead of taking on human bodies. I suspect levels far beyond this exist, but I can’t speak to that––yet.

Soul Groups

After my long-time partner, Ron Conroy, left his physical form in April 2013, he began communicating with me about the place where he now resides, a place he calls “home,” and showing me what it’s like in the spirit world. What he described, and what I witnessed, closely matched what I later read in books by Michael Newton, PhD. Even the use of Ron's word “home” to describe the spirit realm we return to after physical death is echoed in the accounts of people who’ve undergone near death experiences, shown in a video module of Dr. Piero Calvi-Parisetti’s course Love Knows No Death.

Primary and Secondary Soul Groups

In the realm of spirits, entities cluster together in groups in which some affinity exists––just as people on earth do. Not all souls associate with all others––though they could if they wanted to because ultimately none of us is an island separate from the rest. But souls in the spirit world, as we earthlings do, tend to hang out with beings who have similar interests or purposes.

In his book Destiny of Souls, Dr. Newton writes that “primary groups”––somewhat like families––consist of three to twenty-five souls who have close ties to each other. “Secondary groups” may contain 1,000 souls or more and resemble communities. The souls in these larger clusters may interact for various reasons, such as joining forces to assist in a particular project or to achieve a common goal.

Souls in primary clusters are bonded forever. They work, learn, and play together in the spirit world, and often reincarnate together on earth or in other places. They do this partly because their paths and purposes are aligned, but also because they just want to be together. According to Dr. Newton, soul mates and beings from the same primary soul group don’t usually incarnate as humans within the same biological family, however, which I found interesting.

Ron explained that primary soul groups may be self-contained circles, or they can overlap, like the intersecting rings of the Olympics logo. He said this means that although he and I are in the same primary soul cluster, some beings in other clusters overlap ours. As a result, some souls who are in my primary group aren’t in his, and vice versa.  

As well as sharing related interests and purposes, beings within a primary group usually possess similar levels of knowledge. Beginner souls and master souls don’t cluster together in the same intimate group––although souls with varying degrees of knowledge may interact at times for certain reasons. I also got the impression that as one soul in the group advances, the soul’s increased knowledge and experience aid the advancement of the entire group.

While looking at pictures of crop circles, I noticed a similarity to the soul clusters I’d seen in the spirit world and began to wonder. Are these mysterious designs, which appear without explanation in fields across the earth, actually images created to help us understand something about our existence as spirits?

Meeting Our Soul-Group Mates

Often we recognize people we know now as people we’ve known before. Individuals who undergo past-life regression frequently describe meeting the same souls in lifetime after lifetime. A son in this incarnation may have been a husband or a brother in a previous one. Many writers and researchers in the field of reincarnation have talked about this, and I’ll discuss it more in future posts.

Think about the people you know and have known during this incarnation. These may be friends, relatives, business colleagues, powerful influences in your life, teachers, helpers, or adversaries. Which ones do you consider the most important? What roles have they played for you? Did you feel a powerful connection to these people when you first met, as if you’d known each other forever? Does a person push your buttons? Did you meet under synchronistic circumstances? For example, I met Ron fifteen minutes after saying goodbye to a former boyfriend at the local train station. Driving home, I said “Okay, Goddess, what do you have for me now?” As I pulled into my driveway Ron rode by on his bicycle. He turned around, pedaled up to me, and introduced himself. We were together for the rest of his physical life––and still are.

Are you aware of people in your current life whom you feel you’ve known before? What insights or experiences have led you to think this way? How do you interpret your present-life interactions with these people? Can you see links between “then” and “now”? What are you learning from each other? Are you carrying on work from another lifetime? How can you help one another this time around?

What’s Your Life Purpose?

No doubt you’ve wondered about your purpose in life: Why are you here? What are you supposed to accomplish during your time on earth? How can you fulfill your mission?

In my first post, “Welcome to My New Blog about the Afterlife,” I wrote that we come to earth to bring love to this troubled planet from our true “home” (the place we go to between physical incarnations). We all have the same, universal goal of dispelling fear and suffering through the power of love. However, our souls may seek embodiment for individual reasons too.

Life on a Hard Planet

Sometimes we take human forms in order to be with people we love who are living on earth. Other times, we may incarnate to rectify or complete a situation rooted in another lifetime. Many spiritual teachers refer to earth as a “school” where we come to learn. In his book Many Lives, Many Masters, Brian L. Weiss, MD, reports that there are “different levels of learning, and we must learn some of them in the flesh. We must feel the pain. When you’re a spirit you feel no pain.” In Conversations with God, however, Neal Donald Walsh proposes that we choose earth lives, not to learn, but “To remember, and re-create, Who You Are.” He writes “life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation.”

Many sources describe earth as a “hard” planet, a difficult place to live. The dense energy of earth and the limitations of the physical body pose challenges for the incarnating soul. When we enter human forms, we lose some awareness of the immense love and light we knew in the spirit world and become immersed in the fear that prevails on earth. Apparently, this amnesia is necessary, so we can meet the challenges facing us and grow through struggle. No pain, no gain.

Soul Roles

After my beloved life partner, Ron Conroy, left his physical body in 2013, I began studying the spirit realm, life between lives, and reincarnation in depth. I read lots of books, talked to mediums and psychics, did past-life regressions, and visited other worlds through shamanic journeying. During the course of my explorations, I noticed that souls seemed to fall into certain categories, according to their natures, their purposes, and the roles they play on earth (and elsewhere). I identified several classifications or types of souls: leaders, protectors, teachers, healers, warriors, artists, inventors, explorers, and caretakers, though I’m sure I’ve missed some. If you trace your “lineage” through a series of lifetimes, you’ll probably see a thread of continuity running through most of your lives. The details of the lives themselves will be different, but an underlying theme remains consistent.

For example, in one of my lifetimes about 3,000 years ago, I worked as a slave in the library at Alexandria, Egypt, where I was exposed to knowledge and written words. In a later incarnation as a nun in a convent, I served as a scribe copying manuscripts. This time around, I’ve devoted myself to writing and sharing information. It seems that my soul’s role is that of the teacher and that I’m carrying on today with what I began long ago. However, I’ve also had healer lifetimes: as a wise woman/midwife in a small Scottish village about 1,000 years ago and as a nurse’s aide in a veterans’ hospital after WWI. In this incarnation, I practice Reiki and other forms of energetic healing, and often write about holistic healing. As you revisit your own past lives, you may find that you, too, integrate more than one path in fulfilling your destiny.

Your role may not fit under a narrowly defined heading, or your soul may interpret its purpose more broadly than we humans do. Athletes, for instance, are often warrior souls. Environmentalists may be caretakers, protectors, or healer souls who focus on aiding the earth. My former husband is a healer soul, but he doesn’t work as a health professional. Instead he renovates––“heals”––antique houses.

How can you determine your soul’s purpose? Meditation, hypnotherapy, and past-life regression may help you gain insights. A simple way to discover your path is to pay attention to what gives you joy. When are you the happiest? When do you lose track of time and immerse yourself totally in what you’re doing? Follow that thread and you could find it leads to your true purpose, in this life and beyond.

Will You See Your Loved Ones Again?

The idea that some part of us survives physical death exists in many religions and in the belief systems of many people around the world. Christians, for instance, propose that after the body dies the soul goes to “heaven,” where it meets up again with the souls of loved ones and enjoys everlasting life with God. Lots of spiritual traditions embrace the concept of reincarnation, although they don’t all agree on exactly what’s involved. Prior to the year 325, the Old and New Testaments of the Bible contained references to reincarnation––until the Emperor Constantine decided to remove them; in 553, the Second Council of Constantinople made it heretical for Christians to believe in reincarnation. Reincarnation is also part of the teachings of the Hebrew Qabalah, though contemporary Jews may not be familiar with these ideas. We find the tenets of reincarnation in Hinduism and Buddhism too.

Reincarnation Research

Researchers, including Ian Stevenson, MD, Brian L. Weiss, MD, Michael Newton, PhD, Raymond Moody, MD, and many more, have studied reincarnation by guiding thousands of people back through previous lifetimes and by working with men and women who’ve had near-death experiences. Their case studies reveal remarkable information about other time periods and people the subjects could not have known about through ordinary channels. The case of Bridey Murphy, a Virginia housewife (1923–1995), is one of the best known. Director Bernardo Bertolucci’s film Little Buddha tells the story of a young boy whom Buddhist monks believed to be the reincarnated teacher Lama Dorje. You’ll find scores of compelling stories in the books of serious researchers, stories that cannot be explained by conventional science––so many, in fact, that after a while it becomes more ridiculous to deny the possibility of reincarnation than to accept it.

Children often speak of their past lives. Sometimes they recognize people they’ve never met this time around and know intimate details about those people. In the summer of 2013, I met a three-year-old boy who took an instant liking to me and showed me around the house where he was staying. He told me his name was Will. After we finished the tour, I met the boy’s parents and commented on what a nice boy Will seemed. They told me his name was Sami. Later, I asked the boy why he’d said his name was Will. He answered simply, “In my old body I was Will.”

Past, Present, and Future Relationships

Theories about reincarnation generally agree that we reconnect with some of the same souls again and again in our various earth lives. We don’t always assume the same types of relationships with them, however. In prior lifetimes, your current spouse may have been your mother, your brother, or your best friend. (In future posts, I’ll discuss this subject in more detail.) In his book Many Lives, Many Masters, Dr. Brian Weiss explains that one reason for becoming human is to experience relationships with other people. He writes, “ ‘You develop through relationships.’ ” Often, we choose to live many times with the same entities in order to learn certain things or to perform certain tasks. Other times, we may return to earth at the same time because we like being together. If you find yourself in a particularly close, intense, or meaningful relationship with someone now, chances are you’ve known each other before––and will be together again.