THE AFTERLIFE NEWSLETTER

 THE AFTERLIFE NEWSLETTER

(image of Eben book)

Resources to add to your own.  

You are the one who knows.  

Past remembrance and future memory navigate these regions with sagas of great strength and beauty.  We all know the journey - at some level - yet there is a programmed wall of socialized resistance to even consider the subject.  That's why it can be so difficult and inappropriate to use detail when comforting the bereaved.  Situations of communication are unique so this requiers intutition and patience.  

A difficult subject for me to write about in the past because I can still remember how grateful and overjoyed I was to meet the day with my parents and my brother still alive and vital. Then I lost grandparents, parents, a brother, cousin, and close friends.  The inevitable arrival of this side of living caused me to make extensive studies which I could only endure because there is no separation between the metaphysics of successful living in Midgard and other regions of Spirit.  

I'm  72, so I began preparing a long time ago.  Edgar Cayce was the first to make sense of it all in my teen years.  Still, that seemed like hopeful speculation  but hope that was confirmed with some resources I will mention here.  

(allan botkin book image)
ALLAN BOTKIN
Allan Botkin treated Viet Nam vets for PTSD with a technique called "Rapid Eye Movement Repaterning" which is vaguely similar to hypnosis.  But the altered state of the patient arrives directly to the individual while he patterns his eye movements in a set form.  What Botkin did not expect is that most patients encountered meetings with the dead that seemed more real than ordinary realitiy.  Genuine communication, love, and forgiveness was the common element.  Even Viet Cong, whose death moments had haunted the soldiers, came through with healing messages.  

Botkin found this so consistant that he specialized in Afterlife Communication.  He uses a method called "induced after-death communication" which is based upon the  Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) protocol.  There is no need to preach or act as a medium for the client because the individual is in charge and is the one having the contact experience.  

This was helpful when my father passed away.  More about that later.   

Botkin's method is called "induced after-death communication."  It is one of the most interesting and least dogmatic approaches that I know about. 

 

 EBEN ALEXANDER

(eben alexander book image)

Dr. Alexander learned brain surgery while I studied a variety of cosmic stuff.  He had no interest in the powers of Consciousness other than feeling guided by an unseen power to survive a sky diving incident when he was younger.  Still, the mechanics of science occupied his full time until he had one of the most verified brain death incidents in the stories of NDE.     

 "Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife" is a book I found to be compelling. The documentation of his complete flat-line and permantly disabled brain is considered the rarest in the annals of anyone who made a complete recovery.  The unique aspect is that Eben is a brain surgeon who could read the CT scans etc. upon his revoery.  He could make a timeline of his experience 'out of body' in relation to what his experience was.    

"In this astonishing book, Dr Alexander shares his experience, pieced together from the notes he made as soon as he was able to write again. Unlike other accounts of near-death experiences, he is able to explain in depth why his brain was incapable of fabricating the journey he experienced. His story is one of profound beauty and inspiration."  Quotes is from the Amazon book description.

As a minor leaguer in the NDE phenomenon, I in no way encountered the full rich tapestry that Alexander brought back for us.  I did, however, recognize similar details of the non-ordinary reality that occur in Germanic stories of shamanic arts.   

 THE WAY OF WYRD by Brian Bates

(way of wyrd book image)

Bringing lore in literature into a modern retelling has a couple of successful examples.  One is the book and screenplay by Michael Crichten responsible for the movie, "The Thirteenth Warrior,"  Another much less known example is a work by a trained shaman of Anglo Saxon England, "The Way of Wyrd" by Brian Bates.  This telling of imaginative narrative around the 10th century Lacnunga manuscript and associated shamanism is worth a study of its own but I'm going to mostly concentrate here on similarities to the experience of Eben Alexander who I'm sure is not familiar with or the least bit interested in Germanic Myth whether its Norse or Angle-Seax.  I found some significant similiarities.     
 

Based on the Lacnunga manuscript of 10th century Britain ( British Library Harley MS 585) an adventure of shamanic meaning.  Shown here is my copy cover of 1988 and a more recent version.  Holds up well as a classic. The link is to the still in print Amazon edition pictured here.

Some aspects and language that appear both "Proof of Heaven" and "The Way of Wyrd" are the shield-skin, Life-Force, the cave smithy, and the beautiful female guide.  Runes are featured in The Way of Wyrd but not specifically described.  Only what their function is.  When meeting great Mystery the language of mystery must be used.  It is sufficient to say that the Mystery has representations and there are those who can identify and translate those mystery images.

The imaginative text is pure Anglo Saxon shamanic arts in content and characterization.  I'm sure Eben Alexander had no previous knowledge in the Other World journey he would be making. Seems to me he has become a man of knowledge who would nod approval at my comparison, but continue with his own frame of reference more familiar to most people.  

Which leads me to a short intermission and acknowledgement of the value of other beliefs:

 

Today, I attended a memorial service for my inspirational uncle who died at 93 during the lockdown frenzy.  So extended family and community could attend a well-constructed memorial.  He was still making 1,000 mile bike rides in his eighties and still camping in the deep woods back country.  His health regiman was due largely to his love of nature, and God, and the Seventh Day Adventist church.  

Adventists teach that death is only a going to sleep and waiting for the Second Coming.  There is no afterlife until the last judgement.  But the place was prepared with wonderful homages to Melvin including campfire scenes and images of his loving life.  Family were all there, and he lived for them and the Seventh Day Adventist church.  I could feel his presence there and his approval.  Didn't matter that his very continued existence is a denial of the Adventist doctrine.  There are more important realities than doctrine. My purpose is not to deny anyone their connection to the Essence in whatever way Destiny has brought that to us.

 

 

Before I launch into personal experience and Mythography I want to link what seems to be a good resource on a page that features my favorite Cosmic person.

https://afterlifelibrary.com/category-search-afterlife-topics/fsub284/Ingo-Swann.html

Another good resource is "The Last Frontier" by Julia Assante PhD

Your Destiny in time and space will show you your own best resources.  Faith and the Other World are comprehensive with Faith and living in this world.

 GETTING PERSONAL

 Surviving the death of my father, my mother and I found comfort in certain indications of his presence.  The lore of other people in this respect we also found comforting.  I was still the 24/7 caregiver for Mom when we were readying for Dad's funeral.  I had to make some repairs on the car to make sure we could be there.  My car broke down on the way to a parts store.  So I started walking to a shop hoping I would make it in time to make a repair appointment.  A rainbow appeared in the distance where my father would soon be placed in his grave.  Suddenly, my brother appeared driving his pickup.  He had just been inspired by something to drive that direction.  My brother towed my car to the shop and gave me a ride home to where mom had been alone in her recliner for far too long.   The hand of  "A signature of intent can create help from another dimension" ( a paraphrase from the book by Julia Assante)

The signature of my father's presence was always family-oriented from the time when he left school in the sixth grade help his family survive the death of his own father during the Great Depression.  "We stick together" was something he always said and his signature always included not giving up in trying circumstances but finding a way.   

Dad was not only there for us with hints of his continued existence, but with continued living of his life's purpose.  

As a cautionary note about allowing others to influence your own observations, I was involved in a supposedly shamanic community that entered social politics into the narrative.  I was told by an adamant Feminist that I must send my father away because he represented the Patriarchy.  That was the last I saw of that trendy social group.  They are now in the "Bite me!" category of irrelevant society.  

I mentioned early in this newsletter that intuition, good judgement, and patience are required when sharing this information with the bereaved.

I failed to impress family members of this paradigm of work when I thought it mattered.  My brother had just died and in trying to console his sons I linked Eben Alexander and , more importantly, gave an actual experience of how my brother and I both had guidance from my father when he had died and there had not yet been a funeral.   

My nephews had quit speaking to me months before my brother had died of cancer.  The Ebn Alexander link was followed by outrage.  The long story of how my brother had quit speaking to me and family squabble is not important here.  What is important is that whatever is in the Big Picture matters more than my actions and attempts at communication.

A comforting aspect of broken relationships is a timeless dimension of Divine Mind that is the solution and divine patience is required.

Won't end this newsletter on a downer like the family squabble of that time.  Cosmic legacy means that we in continuity and there is a time of atonement and understanding that gains power as we move between the worlds.