“Dying is easy. Living is hard.”

In his book Ghosts Among Us, well-known medium James Van Praagh writes, “The spirits with whom I communicate are usually thrilled that they are in the light and would want it no other way. Their biggest regrets have to do with not realizing the truth about life when they were alive on earth. They often comment that, had they known, their lives would have been very different.”

Earthly Limitations

Earth is often described as a school where we come to learn. For spirits, incarnation on the earth plane––taking on the limitations of a physical body––is a huge “demotion” and often a burden. Time (which doesn’t exist in the spirit realm) is one of the challenges we face. On earth, our thoughts and intentions must go through many channels, often over a period of time, before they can manifest, and spirits may chafe at the ordeal. (Consider, for example, the years it often takes architects or authors to bring their ideas to material fruition.)

This limitation has been placed on us so we can learn to manage our thoughts constructively, for as the Law of Attraction teaches, we attract what we think about––our thoughts (eventually) create our reality. In the spirit world, however, this occurs immediately; all you need do is think about something and it happens.

Even having a physical body presents limitations and hardships. We must feed, clothe, shelter, and otherwise care for our physical forms––and that usually means working long hours to earn the money to provide those things. We’re also subject to many ailments and physical challenges that make human existence even more difficult. Much of the fear we experience comes from knowing our bodies can be hurt. But our spirits are eternal and indestructible. If we can reconnect with that truth, our fear will lessen.

Remembering Love and Peace

Earth life may seem harsh, fraught with unkindness, suffering, anger, and violence. However, people who come back from near-death experiences almost always describe visiting a place of profound love, peace, and joy. In one of the video modules in Dr. Piero Calvi-Parisetti’s course Love Knows No Death, individuals who’ve had NDEs describe the bliss of the world beyond. None of them wanted to return to earth, where, as one woman put it, “People are mean.” Often, NDEers say the experience changed their lives. They no longer see the world in the same way and they no longer fear death.

Differences may arise in the Afterlife, but the spirits there resolve problems without violence. That’s because spirits don’t have egos. They understand the interconnectedness of everything––no one is separate from the rest. We need to realize this is true here on earth too. As English poet John Donne put it, “No man is an island.”

I asked my partner, Ron Conroy, who left his physical body in 2013, what’s the most important thing we come to earth to do. He told me our main purpose is to bring some of the light, love, peace, and joy that abound in our true home down to earth and to express them here. Many spiritual teachers have said the same thing, in various ways. That’s our real work. That’s the biggest challenge we face as we go through the struggles of material existence. That’s what we need to remember during good times and bad.

“You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.” –– C.S. Lewis

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.