Do We Really Understand Life?

God, Life, Death - What Do We Really Know— From the Mountain

Life, a subject I have contemplated since my conversations with my Grandfather in the early 60s. I have broached this subject a bit with “Conversations With My Grandfather” which I wrote over a year ago and am currently re-writing.

That subject discussed between him and myself was specifically geared toward understanding life after death. After he passed on January 23rd,1967 I began a deep, life-long dive into this subject. Of course, it led to other related subjects.

1. Is there life after death
2. Do we live past lives
3. Are there multiple dimensions?
4. Do we return in some form after death?
5. Is there a “God” and if so, what is “God”?

Personally, I am convinced of the logic of life after death. Briefly, this question is essentially answered for us by science when we understand that every living thing consists of pure raw energy. Everything.

Understanding this then, we also must understand that pure energy can NOT be destroyed. When any living organism ‘dies’ the energy within must go somewhere. It doesn’t just simply disappear and it does not just go away. It goes somewhere, but where?

Do we have past lives? Do we live on in the future in another life? It’s a possibility based on what I am going to present. Indeed, almost anything and everything is possible, including the existence of God.

The catch is (isn’t there always a ‘catch’?) one must first understand the one thing that ties everything together. Energy and soul. The definition of “soul” as defined in the Collins Dictionary:

“Your soul is the part of you that consists of your mind, character, thoughts, and feelings. Many people believe that your soul continues existing after your body is dead.”

Take this definition a step further. What if this pure energy in every living thing IS our soul? It makes sense that it would be as it is entirely logical for this to be simply because our soul and our energy are not in need of a physical vessel. Yet, it’s through the physical body that both become visible.

When one dies, that energy must go somewhere. And with it our souls, our complete life experiences from beginning to end. And this I believe is where they separate… after our physical death.

There are thousands of reports of near-death experiences from all over the world and from centuries back. There are two common experiences reported, an intensely bright, warm light at the end of a tunnel (energy) and a vision of family and friends who have passed as we approach that light (souls).

That’s as close to a description as we have. Following my logic, that bright light would be both our beginning and our end, and the return of our life energy to its source and the rejoining of our souls from a past life.

Our souls exist as always, just on a different plane. The same place where we find this light when we pass.

1. Is there life after death?— Yes
2. Do we live past lives? — Very possibly
3. Are there multiple dimensions? — Yes
4. Do we return in some form after death? — Very possibly
5. Is there a “God” and if so, what is “God”? — Yes

The question about God, to me, has a simple answer is I have defined here. Not discussed here, but another question would be about religion. Is one right and the others all wrong? No. They are all “right” and they are all “wrong”.

There can only be one God. No one religion has an answer to that. In part because all religion refers to a human form which God has never been and never will be. Most all religions are based upon a variety of writings and teachings. These written collections are a history book of sorts, of stories passed down through centuries.

So what makes me so sure in my own belief of all this? My own experiences with death and near death. When added to my conversations with my grandfather who had studied to be a priest at one time, I believe firmly in what I have written.

When my Grandfather died, I knew it immediately. I was babysitting in another home across the street and watching TV. Suddenly there was a cold breeze, the drapes moved… and I got up to make sure a window wasn’t open. And a voice in me told me he had died. I walked to pick up the phone, and it rang. My mom called to tell me he had passed.

My Dad had a stroke and I was at their home at the time. He didn’t answer when called for dinner. I went upstairs and he was there, not breathing. Paramedics arrived some 20 minutes later. He was clinically dead at that time. At the hospital, they told me they were able to get his heart beating, but all else was unknown.

The next day I visited and he was seemingly back as if nothing happened. He told me to close the door and never repeat what he was about to say. I never did. He knew he was dead. He saw the bright light. He saw relatives who spoke to him. He saw friends he grew up with and was in the army with. He was in tears. He didn’t want to come back.

That bright warm light drew him to a place of peace and joy. But, he heard a voice. The voice told him it wasn’t his time and he had to go back. He found himself floating above his body in the hospital. He then described who was there and what exactly was said. It was myself and a doctor having a conversation about him. Dad knew everything.

When he finally passed away a few years later, he had another stroke and doctors said he was brain dead. There was no brain activity that they could determine. But he was being kept ‘alive’ by machines because he never left directions otherwise. (Go figure huh? He was a lawyer.) My brother and I were at the hospital and had told our mom what was going to happen.

I asked the doctors to remove him from all the machinery keeping him alive. I was told no, they could be charged with murder under NYS laws and it would be unethical. I explained to them I would be doing this myself then and asked them to leave. Three doctors then conversed in the hall and told my brother and me to take a walk. We did.

When we returned 30 minutes later, the machinery was disconnected. They told us he may die in 30 minutes or 30 days. There was no way to know. We thanked them and promised we would never say a word. They left.

I left my younger brother there to be alone with him for a few minutes, and then I joined them and stood by his bed. I could hardly speak but I told him I loved him and that I had the doctors remove the equipment. I told him he could pass, that it was ok. And I cried. And then my Dad cried. Remembering was he told me when he had his near-death experience, I knew he was there and heard me. And he passed.

As we left the room to inform the hospital he had passed, I asked a doctor about his crying. He looked shocked and puzzled, and then said it’s a natural reaction. Years later I asked a couple of doctors, and they said they had never heard of that.

But the story isn’t quite over. There was one last thing. When I flew back home to Arizona after the service, it was late. I opened a beer and just sat there under a dim light in the living room. My wife and baby were sleeping. I heard a sound, or something, in the hallway that caught my attention.

Looking up, there was my Dad, arms outstretched and a huge smile on his face. Not walking but kind of gliding toward me. The next thing I knew, my wife was in the hallway to the living room yelling at me wanting to know what was wrong. So I told her. It never happened again either. Not to me, not to anyone in our family.

What do I make of that experience? Dad and I had been estranged for quite a few years. We never spoke, never did anything together, nothing. The last time I saw him before he passed he had hugged me and cried and whispered to me “I’ll never see you alive again.”

He was right. I do believe he wanted me to know that he was happy now, that he knew I knew and that I understood, and he wanted to say goodbye.

Celebrate life, but also celebrate life after death. Because it does exist.