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.

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.

What Color Is Your Soul?

In 2004, during meditation, I began seeing colors associated with people I knew. I understood these to be their “soul colors,” not their auras. Auras envelop the body like a halo or cocoon of light, and their colors are influenced by conditions in our physical bodies and our emotions. As our bodies or feelings change, so do our auras in response. The soul colors I saw, however, had nothing to do with my friends’ physical selves, and I didn’t see the colors while in my ordinary beta state. Rather, the colors expressed these individuals’ core beings, the light-energy of their spirits or souls. I’d never heard of such things before, but I didn’t doubt what I’d experienced––I simply accepted it, though for some reason I didn’t investigate further at the time.

Glowing Orbs of Light

The core energies I witnessed looked like glowing orbs of light, some translucent, some denser. Some of the orbs were solid colors, others blends of two or more hues. I observed yellow, gold, green, and one pale blue soul within my circle of close companions––and a watery-blackish one that represented the spirit of someone I had not known in this lifetime and who does not currently reside on earth. I sensed my own soul image as well, a soft yellow-gold, and did a painting of my soul-self.

In addition to seeing colors, I sensed energetic qualities emanating from the orbs. Some felt powerful, others gentle; one seemed restless, another centered and calm. I could watch them move too. The blue orb zipped about, propelled by an extension rather like a pseudopodium. The green one’s motions were slower and steadier. The blackish soul washed over me with a frightening force that reminded me of a tidal wave.

After my beloved life partner, Ron Conroy, left his physical body in 2013, he began guiding me on sojourns to the spirit world. On my first journey to the “home” where now lives––the place where we all go when we leave our human bodies––I saw shining orbs of light just like those I’d witnessed in my earlier mediations! Souls! Multitudes of them. So many, all pulsing and undulating, that they looked like an endless sea of sparkling soap bubbles. Most were white, but I also saw reddish, yellow, gold, green, blue, and a few purple ones among them. In my earlier meditations, I’d observed Ron’s soul as a deep, rich, solid gold; now I noticed tiny flecks of green in it as well. Surrounding everything, like a giant net that held all the souls together, I saw a beautiful pinkish light––the energy of love.

Levels of Development

Some months later, I read Journey of Souls by Michael Newton, PhD. To my surprise, he wrote that souls appear as colors, and that these colors distinguish their levels of development. The many people he’d hypnotized described seeing the same thing I’d seen! For the first time, I’d found some validation or at least collaboration for what I’d experienced. According to Dr. Newton’s subjects, white souls are “beginners” (Ron called them “baby souls just learning to crawl”). They constitute the vast majority of entities in the spirit world and on earth. Yellow souls are intermediate beings (Ron likened them to “teenagers”), gold ones high-intermediates, light blue advanced souls, and indigo/purple are highly advanced masters. And as I’d witnessed, the hypnotized subjects explained that the more advanced souls projected stronger power and could move more rapidly. But Dr. Newton didn’t mention green or black souls, yet I’d seen both. Not until his book Destiny of Souls came out nine years later did he include those colors in the pantheon of souls.

As we evolve, perhaps over millennia, our soul colors shift to show our levels of knowledge and mastery. Ron described the color identifications as being like karate belts. High-level souls (blue and purple) serve as guides and teachers for the rest of us. What color is your soul? Can you sense or see it? You probably won’t observe it with your physical eyes (the way some sensitive people see auras), and it’s unlikely that Kirlian or aura photography will reveal it. But perhaps through meditation or trance states, shamanic journeying, or a dream you’ll discover your true color.

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.