If you believe in such things, that is.

Personally, I've seen too much to indicate that the soul/spirit does indeed go on after the physical body has expired. This has got me to thinking, how long exactly does this process take?

Is it something that happens instantaneously and that nothing can really be done to delay? Have you on some level predestined any illness/fatality that befalls your physical self?

Or, is it something that you can change your 'mind' about at any point? For example, people waking from comas or having miraculous recoveries from terminal illnesses.

Once officially 'dead', do 'you' still linger wherever your physical self is? Can you remain indefinitely within this realm, free to visit loved ones and so on? Can you hop in and out of dimensions or is it simply the case that once you've realised you have come from and are free to return to 'source', the 'you' that you've grown used to simply ceases to exist? If 'returning to source' is a possibility, do you take with you all your memories or does 'source' simply discard all that?

I doubt that tbh, as I actually believe that's the very reason that we're all here, pretending to be individual and different from each other. Be a bit boring and very much like where we're all originally from to be at all worthwhile, wouldn't it? And yet, here we are, over and over and over again., moaning, loving, hating, warring and whoring (some of us more than others, admittedly).

Your thoughts, if you please.

Ab Origine wrote:
WE are not bodies with a soul, we are souls just using a body. We will come back here often to learn.

My mother died in the room next to mine on a Saturday morning, my father came in and told me she passed early just as i was waking up, I felt a strange presence within myself right as he was telling me , sort of like some entity was passing through.

It was the reason I joined a paranormal forum to ponder thoughts, and for months I was seriously upset by this and wondered the very same question your asking now

Baron Mandrake wrote:
Cheers Baron...I hope your experiences subsequent to this have lead you to the same conclusions I have drawn thus far. I find it a great source of comfort to know that physical death is most certainly not the end.

I recently received yet another 'communication' from a dearly departed and although I know it could just be someone reading 'me', as it were, what they could most definitely not get from me was the warmth with which the message was delivered and the unmistakable familiarity I felt when receiving it. Let alone all the information that was given to validate that it was indeed who it was supposed to be.

Another reason for the op is that I was greatly disheartened for many months after this person died. In life, we had discussed such things and they had always promised to come back and 'visit' with me, if they could. I think the trap that so many freshly bereaved fall into is to take the word of shysters as gospel out of sheer desperation. I have a very good 'learning church' around the corner from me where there are always new people trying to develop their skills, as well as more established mediums and psychics. I can honestly say, I think I can tell the wheat from the chaff at this point.

Somebody mentioned to me in conversation recently that there would appear to be a 'cooling off' period after death, whereby there is little or no communication. I get the feeling that this is quite accurate, if there even are such things as rules or even time as we might recognise it in the after-life. I do think it can take some time (again, as we recognise it) for the deceased to familiarise themselves with how things work over there though.

A great person once said:

"Innit a shame you can't ring dead people"

Linda LaHughes.

I wonder if we're limited by our own beliefs at all. Whether maybe those who staunchly believe in physical death being the end, fail to progress to the next realm of existence because of their convictions.

I remember having a spate of fainting briefly when going through puberty. On one occasion, as I was coming round after passing out on my bedroom floor, and having the oddest feeling of resistance & disappointment, as recognition of my surroundings flooded back, and I felt sad to leave behind whatever level of consciousness I'd experienced while out for the count. I didn't remember what it was, but just knew it had been more 'real' & vibrant and stimulating than what I was waking up to.

It makes me wonder about time too - whether it's linear, or if it's possible to reincarnate maybe into a period that we think of now as history.

I'm certain I add no clarity to your musings, Abs, but I do share your interest.

Gilly wrote:
I agree with all you've pondered Gilly-bean, and thanks for sharing.

I certainly am of the thinking that time is by no means linear and for that matter, not fixed either. I believe there to be numerous alternate realities and timelines that we are all free to dip in and out of, for example. Quite why we've all chosen this one...I've yet to work out.

Re: your expectations being what you will experience - I definitely agree. I feel really bad for all those poor buggers who went over with some very strict ideas about heaven and hell, for example, and what a relief they must have felt when they realised that it was their own thoughts about the issue that had them trapped wherever they were. Mind...I think that is pretty true of 'life' as we know it, too.

Interesting stuff nonetheless.

I regret apparently blocking myself from astral travelling (described previously in another thread) because, even though there's reputedly some physical connection to the body during such excursions, I do believe we liberate ourselves from the constraints of our bodies sometimes while we're asleep, and I'd love to be doing that consciously with focused intention.

I fully intend to experiment with melatonin - just haven't been able to lash out on any with my husband & son's birthdays both being this month.

When I start, I'll keep a diary, and if anything interesting crops up, I'll let you know.

Not only do I want to master it and explore, but I then want to find a way to prove to myself and others that it's real. Not that if it was all inside your head it would necessarily make it not real. But I want to find things out and communicate with people.

Gilly wrote:

I believe in my heart and mind there is some continuation of us as beings after death