In the course of our Ascension, we’re invited to eliminate really deeply-seated fears.

I can’t think of one fear that’s more deeply-seated than the fear of death.

That fear evaporates immediately when one has an out-of-body experience.

I had one in 1977 and the minute I saw that my body was over there and I was quite happily existing over here, the fear of death evaporated. “I” was not my body!

Barring such an experience, we have to work up from the intellectual level (we have to “get the idea”) and from there to the experiential and realizational levels.

Descriptions of people’s experiences of death at least anchor the idea in us so let’s begin by looking at some of those accounts.

They communicate through mediums, from the afterlife. They tell us of a variety of ways they transition and, if I have time, I’ll describe a few.

The one I want to start with is people who are removed from their bodies before an imminent disaster, such as a car crash.

My purpose in starting there is to demonstrate that, as far as I know, in the majority of cases, we’re not required to pass through catastrophes and fatal accidents; we’re removed early so we don’t suffer. And I think most people fear suffering so let’s start there.

I state as a blanket hypothesis of all these articles that the transitioned – though they might be in pain before their transition – have no experience of trauma associated with their actual passing, sometimes even watching the physical body writhe in agony while they stand apart from it and feel nothing.

Few express any caring for the physical body once they’ve stepped outside it. They go on to their new life.

Typical is the case Quan Tse describes to medium Doris Heather Buckley: “[The subject] lost control of the car and went out of his body before the [fatal] accident.” (1) He was pulled from his body before the accident.

We’ll see below that the folks on the other side who helped him are called transition guides. Matthew Ward served as one for a time.

Mike Swain provides a detailed description of being caught in what became a fatal accident with his young passenger, Heather.

“‘I see a black car coming towards us. As it approaches us, I see this other car coming behind it. I can see this other car clearly, because it is in the middle of the road, trying to pass the black car.’

“Nina [Merrington, the medium channeling Mike Swain] paused a moment, and then said: ‘The sun is glaring on the windscreen of the black car, and reflecting back into my eyes. I can see nothing but a bright silver radiance. It is blinding me.

“‘All of a sudden, the radiance changes from silver to gold. I am being lifted up in the air, out through the top of the car. I grab little Heather’s hand. She too is being lifted up out of the car.

“‘We have been lifted thirty feet above the Mini. And in one horrifying second, I see the little Mini and this large car collide head-on. There is a noise like the snapping of steel banjo strings. The little Mini bounces right off the highway, right over into the gravel verge. It is finally brought to a halt in a cloud of dust when it hits a giant anthill….’

“Nina stopped, obviously too agitated to continue.” (2)

Neither Mike nor Heather suffered any pain from the accident,.

“What impressed her listeners was the fact that [their son] Mike [who is speaking through Nina] had never seen the other vehicle until after the silver light had changed to gold. He and Heather had felt no sense of impact. They had suffered no pain. Just a gentle ascent into the air. ‘We feel vaguely sorry that this thing should have happened to them. And we both fully understand that we are, now, so far as mortals are concerned, dead.’” (3)

So no pain, no suffering. Even though their bodies went through fatal injuries, “they” did not. Persons who pass through a similar event immediately realize that the body is a “suit of clothes” we wear for a time.

They get it not at an intellectual knowledge; not at an experiential level; but as realized knowledge. The question is settled for all time: I am eternal. Death does not touch me.

Back to the rescued Mike and Heather.  The were now surrounded by folks from the other side eager to greet them.

“We are also both aware that a lot of people have begun to gather round us. They are dressed in glorious colors. We recognize familiar faces, the faces of friends who passed beyond the Earth before us. We are still hand in hand; now, guided by the one who first lifted us into the air, the two of us sweep towards the skies. We drift above the two round hills known as the Breasts of Sheba.”

“In heartfelt joy, the [parents] listened, transported by the fact that the passing had involved neither fear … nor suffering.” (4)

This type of homecoming is typical of the accounts of the afterlife that I read to write New Maps of Heaven.

Mike emphasizes that “both Heather and I were lifted out of our bodies before the collision.”

“There was no pain, no shock. This process is the same in all and every form of violent death. It appears violent from your end; believe me, it is only from your end; never from ours!” (5)

And if we add to this knowledge the fact that they go on to a blessed life in what is generally called the Summerlands, we need have no concern for those who leave this physical Third Dimension for the astral Fourth.

Mike Swain, like Matthew Ward, went on to be a transition guide.

“When [the transition guides] are given a case where two cars are about to collide, for example, we lower our vibrations until that soul can actually see us: thus his attention is diverted from the violence about to engulf him. Once we are sure that nothing more can be done to avert his death, we take him by his hands and lift him out of his earthly body.” (6)

They’re an entire spirit cadre serving to pull people out of potentially-painful transition circumstances.

John Scott acted as a guide to folks transitioning and tells his father of one case:

“Do you recall the young high school boy who was killed in Durban in circumstances similar to mine? Dad, we were there; it was us who helped him over. He and I had known each other casually while we were both alive so he was relieved and, believe you me, delighted to see me!

“He knew that I had already passed over, but it still took him a little while to realize the significance of it, when I showed him the mess made by the two cars after they had collided!

“They do not suffer, these people, in their passing. I think sometimes their friends suffer more, when they see the body writhing in apparent agony, while in reality the spirit is already tasting the first freedom from pain, or lies in a blessed insensibility.” (7)

These “transition guides” know our time of passing for a certainty. An entire organization exists on the other side that takes care of “new arrivals,” just as John, Mike, and Matthew did.

It substantiates what the well-known psychic Arthur Ford said, from the afterlife: “Death is no more than the passage through a beckoning door…. Some go gladly, some reluctantly, but all in answer to the universal urge for peace and tranquility.” (8)

The afterlife is a peaceful and tranquil place. It’s a world that works for everyone. Love and bliss flow freely. No one would have a thought to harm anyone else; only to help. (9)

But getting back to “death,” the conclusion most of the transitioned reach is voiced by “Hilda” to medium Geraldine Cummings: “When I [died], I found that the most foolish mistake in my life was my long, long terror of death.”

“My message to the world is that, for me, one of the happiest moments of my earth-life was the moment of death. …

“Other people may die differently – I don’t know. I can only tell you that the word ‘death,’ judging from my experience, should have its definition altered in the dictionary to ‘the first human experience of a peace that passes understanding.’” (10)

At an intellectual level, we’ve heard evidence that our transitions are closely watched and, if circumstances arise that might cause us pain and suffering, we’re lifted out of our bodies prior to our actual “death.” As Q, says, nothing to see here.

Next post we’ll look at those who actually do die a violent death. Do they experience pain? For how long? We’ll take a look.

Footnotes

(1) Spirit control Quan Tse to medium Doris Heather Buckley, Spirit Communication. New York: Award Books, 1967, 38. All quotes are from New Maps of Heaven at http://goldengaiadb.com/index.php?title=New_Maps_of_Heaven

(2) Jasper Swain listening to his transitioned son, Mike, speak through a medium, in Jasper Swain, From My World to Yours: A Young Man’s Account of the Afterlife. New York: Walker, 1977, 21.

(3) Ibid., 22.

(4) Loc. cit.

(5) Ibid., 51-2.

(6) Ibid., 57.

(7) John Scott in Paul Beard, Living On. How Consciousness Continues and Evolves After Death. New York: Continuum, 1981, 56.

(8) Arthur Ford through Ruth Montgomery, medium. A World Beyond. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1971. , 15.

(9) The astral plane is organized such that people go to a level consistent with their spiritual evolution. Those who have achieved a certain level of peace and harmony live in the Summerlands; those who are committed to violence and disharmony reside at lower levels. Thus the world can be said to work for everyone who resides in the Summerlands.

(10) Hilda to Geraldine Cummins, They Survive. Evidence of Life Beyond the Grave from Scripts of Geraldine Cummins. Comp. E.B. Gibbes. London, etc.: Ride and Co., n.d. , 139.