Dear Eric,
Do you believe we are eternal soul energy, and that when our physical bodies stop moving through this earth life, we are still intact?
My grandmother passed away a few weeks ago, very peacefully, at 90. She wrote letters to each of her seven children a few months before she died, and wrote one more communal note to them the morning she left to go into the hospital.
She walked to the hospital, her heart was beating irregularly, went to sleep, and died a few days later. (I can only hope I take after her!) Anyway, my 70-year old mother is having a crisis. She is convinced that my grandmother is “gone” and this has really shaken her.
I believe we exist “before/now/after” all at once and that my “grandmother” still is. I received copies of the letters she wrote in today’s mail. Reading them, I have been filled with a sense of peace, deep appreciation for kindnesses I’ve experienced, love; I wish my mom didn’t feel so afraid. So…my question is: after staring off into the stars for so long, do you feel more or less inclined to profess that we exist within and without the physical limitations of our bodies living on top of this planet?
Enjoy your day!
Victoria
Dear Victoria,
In sum the answer is yes — though I am uncertain how it manifests. I think that part of why we see things about other levels of existence so differently owes to the ego distortions we live with here; everyone with their own model and mythology. We are looking out the cracks in the barn from different points of view. A few of us go out for a walk every now and then, and what we come back with seems incredible.
I work closely with certain key past lives. I’m doing this not so much out of curiosity but of necessity, as part of a healing process. Those lives are real, I feel them, and I need to be aware how they impact me now. However, through my work with Book of Blue, I have encountered a teacher of Tibetan tantra, who has proposed something which at first was very strange. She suggested that my job is to be the most effective, clear Eric Francis I can be so that when I leave this particular form, the next person to inhabit it and be Eric Francis will show up and find the lights on, the laundry done and the kitchen in good order.
In other words, there is a model of reincarnation where our current form is not unique but rather something that gets reused. At first this seemed like a stretch, but once I got past the various paradoxes, I could see the wisdom in a whole other way of conceiving of the “linear” notion of reincarnation. Apparently there is reincarnation but most of the existing models for how we think of it have enormous flaws. Still, we feel the effect and any astrologer will tell you they watch it go by every day.
This is in accord with various theories of physics. I’ll give you an example. In quantum law, everything is a probability. When you drop a pen, it’s not assured that it’s going to hit the desk or the floor — it’s just very likely to behave normally and land nearby. There is also a chance that the pen could fly through the roof. I.e., the Newtonian laws of gravity only describe part of the result of dropping a pen. Dependably enough for most purposes, but not when you apply high-resolution physics to the situation.
The bigger the universe, the more likely that some rare effect will happen somewhere. I have read that based on the known size of the universe and the probability factors involved, there is (absolutely, unquestionably) another you on another planet, living a life you’re not aware of. There may be many of “us” in different parts of the universe, because the universe is so big that every possibility in a sense has to be real. Once someone told me that there was the spitting image of me living in Amsterdam, writing poetry in coffee houses all day long. Imagine if that were actually a different “me.”
I won’t call the ego/body/mind trip we’re living an illusion; but it’s a very flexible hologram that tends to be bound up by the laws that we accept as clad in iron. In my version of that hologram there is a lot of room for my Aunt Josie to keep an eye on me and for Patric Walker to hand me bits of astrological information on a regular basis, particularly when I’m writing a horoscope column that many people seek guidance from. And there is lots of room for your grandmother’s energy to embrace you.
Your mom’s fear does not change reality, it only denies it temporarily for her. If you’re conversing with her, I suggest you let the fear speak first.
Imagine my surprise and joy to log in here and discover that Eric had answered my email! Many times I’ve “thrown a query into the universe” and am always amazed at how I receive an answer or insight. This time I literally submitted a question not really expecting a direct answer, and received all of your insights, which I’m grateful for! Thank you, Eric, for taking time to reply. I’m happy to have found this website!
jude, thanks for the reminder.
The movie, “What the ‘Bleep’ Do We Know?” is a good reference for understanding life from the perspective of quantum reality.
For some reason the first post reminded me of the film, Being John Malkovich. An excellent adventure!
I find reincarnation, eternal soul to be an extremely helpful concept, very INCLUSIVE, when confronted with traits and experiences that defy my biological background.
If everything is energy, as scientists have discovered, energy cannot be destroyed only transformed into other states. Hence no one ever dying or ever born, really, just passing through phases.
It’s scary though to have experiences which one feels no one will take them seriously about, or tip over into competitive talk about which is more meaningful, correct, etc. Gawd. This is what can make dying so messy, and so scary for the dying. Holding their hand, looking into their eyes with compassion, and telling them its okay to go or chanting a sutra or calling in an angel or having a priest give last rights or whatever their framework IS, is what ought to be done for them – a gift – we give birthday gifts, why not death gifts???
Being sensitive to all the feelings, other as well as self, seems best way forward for mutual embrace of unknown.
as far as multiple selves living in other places, i dont feel there are actual clones of our bodies/minds, except perhaps in alternate timelines/parallel universes. rather, we, as spirits, often choose to have simultaneous lives in different bodies that are usually totally unrelated to each other. so on this planet our spirits may also be incarnated into other bodies living totally different lives.
gardener, you have a video on this that makes sense of this, even to the master of the physical universe? I cannot wait to see it.
ArnieH, there were government sponsored acid tests. I did not know that. i do know that my curiosity was peaked by the experiences related to me by the drug doers who fried their brains so ours could open up to more possibilities. Ain’t it great that our minds have altered enough that we can get there without the drugs?
However, I so like the linear, too. The pictures and places and experiences of past places I could relate to as generational carry overs. And that when this body drops, I am dead and gone.
However, again. One night in July 2007, I laid down to sleep. And I heard Berry’s voice. He said, I am dead now. You will be getting a phone call soon. There will be some business you need to attend to. I asked the voice (don’t ask me why, I don’t know) you mean with your friends in Portland. He said, no with my family. And then I heard a big beautiful chord (he knew I liked the raging pipe organ echoing through stone walls) and the room filled with golden light (he used gold energy in his healing work) and the yard light across the road flickered on and off and on and off (it never did work right after that, and finally had to be replaced). Well, damn if the phone didn’t ring a few minutes later. And damn if I didn’t have to contact his relatives nearby here. And damn if that wasn’t the greatest service I ever attended (what a wacky wonderful bio family he has). And damn, how can I question these communications after a direct hit like that.
I once followed a dog through a house I lived in before I realized that there was no dog living there. When I told my housemates about the dog and what he looked like, they said he used to live there.
It can be as simple as turning my head and doing a second take because I think I saw something. And I wish they would stay out of my electrical system and walls, it freaks me out.
I’m not up on my quantum physics and I don’t really get how this stuff works. But uh, it’s something.
Victoria, condolences.
I just thought I should write something here. You see I just got a call earlier today from a very good friend saying that his father, Jack, had just died. He was 92 and it wasn’t really unexpected but it does focus the thoughts a bit.
My father died 10 years ago and I remember it was a lot more traumatic than I would admit to.
So what is this life/death thing which we so rarely think about. Well, most of the time I do feel connected to the planet, I feel the breeze on my face and I know that is a special little gift meant just for me, like a friend calling my name. Other times, I’m living in a cinema in my head and I can’t concentrate because the voices behind me are twittering on about the stupidest garbage.
I’m not a religious person, in fact I detest religion as I see it as nothing more than emotional blackmail or at best a moral guideline, but I do feel a connection to the Great It. A lifelong conversation with the Great It. In me is a drop of water that will one day join with the ocean and again one day will fall as a drop of water. I feel as a drop and I’m sure I will feel as an ocean and again as a drop. And the purpose? If there is one, to experience, to feel, to love! Everything is for love. Even the bad times are there just to highlight love. To recognise love in another being, whether that is a babies smile or a pigeon looking for scraps in the park or the checkout girl saying good morning. I remember, long ago I was walking through a park in Amsterdam and I could really feel the trees and the flowers, the nature! And I felt very small. We are all connected to the great it and the adventure can be incredible.
Back in the 70’s I spent a while in the US, I remember a conversation I had with a guy in Santa Cruz which I’d like to relate to you. He had done the government sponsored acid tests in the 60’s, what he experienced was a singular presence, in the whole universe just one presence, one entity, so incredible but so lonely! Alone in all that nothingness, how could there be love there with nothing to love or be loved by! And that oneness split into two like an amoeba and kept multiplying until it reached infinity and couldn’t go any further! Experienced everything! Every form of existence and feeling, every form of love! and again it felt lonely lost in a detached crowd, and the beauty was the coming together again, the joining together until there was only one again. I see this as the universal breath, breathing out then breathing in, then out then in, spanning millennium, millennium? What is millennium? What is time? Time? There is only this moment. In my brighter days I can feel this, I can’t really explain it, I’ve tried but I don’t think I quite got it across here, and other days I get distracted by the mundane, anyway, thanks for indulging me on this and I hope this is useful to someone.
Victoria:
I know for certain life energy which we call soul is continuous, and the most powerful energy signatures are I believe, filled with emotion.
So the people around you, living and passed are with you. Some choose not to be, and you end up figuring out the reason why. Some folks do, and their presence and effect are obvious and clear.
To feel that energy I couldn’t look for it. It came to me when a variety of factors – earthly and non coalesced to make the visit purposeful.
I come from a culture where we leave candles lit, a small shot of spirits and a plate of food available during the holidays and whenever we need to feel the presence of those passed. Even if they don’t want to share, we know we’re ready for them if they need to touch base. So my connection to your question is informed by literal circumstances based on tradition and actual experience because I’ve been visited quite amazingly so.
I hope this information helps.
I love that this question made it through the filter as ‘clear and simple’!!
I was with my Dad when he passed on in 2003. It was easily one of the most profound moments of my life (in there with the birth of my daughter in 2004 – ends of same spectrum).
I felt the essence of my Dad expand out of his body and shoot up toward the sky. That experience left me with no doubt that we live on after bodily death. I believe in reincarnation as well. When I started to look for evidence, I found plenty to support the idea. As Eric says, there is uncertainty about how this process manifests. But that we are eternal beings, I have no doubt.
Spirit speaks in metaphor and synchronicity.
My Mom was visiting right after my daughter was born, so she was here on my Dad’s birthday. There were rainbows everywhere, all day long. This happens occasionally here, but the synchronicity of it was wonderful and infused with spirit.
Blessings to you and your Mom Victoria. Maybe you could ask your Grandma for help!
Ditto. I sw a video today that helps explain it. I’ll see if I can find a u-tube version.
“In sum the answer is yes — though I am uncertain how it manifests. I think that part of why we see things about other levels of existence so differently owes to the ego distortions we live with here; everyone with their own model and mythology. We are looking out the cracks in the barn from different points of view. A few of us go out for a walk every now and then, and what we come back with seems incredible.”
Perfect. :). Thanks Eric, that’s why I hang around here.
~j
I ………….love this stuff…………….!!
If there is an elevator………..from the basement……..to the 88th floor……..as the energy flows through the chakras……….and the buddhist chants electrify the earthly hologram………………….it is pretty clear that the only connections we have with our past and our future are the Spirit… and Soul…..and the occasional crosstalk from “memory” !!
When cognitive psychology has finished creating the all dancing….all singing….traffic cop……who is robotic by design and robotic by nature…..one of the few things that I cannot code….is the love of…..and responsive dancing…to……Soul Music!!!
Imagine…if you would…all of the welding arms at Chrysler…lip synching to Smokey Robinson’s “Tracks of my Tears”…and now perhaps the Finance Director would like to join in with “Tears of a Clown”….!!
We can create all sorts of technological wonders….but as the Russian daddy…. Alexander Solzhenytzin… pointed out so beautifully….even with all of the bones….the feathers….the squawking….and the pond….we could never…ever… produce something so quintessentially perfect…as a duckling!!
So the Laws of Physics are true for planet earth……Neil Armstrong did a great beat box Lunar jive in 1969….but as for our communications with electric…eclectic…and elastic phenomenological transmissions from the outer edges of infinity…where all of our ancestors..( and probably some of our great grand children ) are currently exchanging atomic particle numbers in their i-u-me-pods…its all a bit too far away……! Light years…..and yet right up close….the paradox!! Neptune…beam me in an intuition…!!
My dear dad…who died in 1994…is all around me….and there are small touching evidences…each week/month. The smile…the patience….the gentleness…gentility even. Lights on…washing done….welcoming….! I feel that we are moving slowly closer…as indeed ..we are…!!
I love that…..
We are hear to take up the opportunity to “rear up” as Sartre put it….make our choices….and define ourselves…. so that we can…. in truth…leave our selves behind!!
Rearing up….as Sartre intends…is a physiological response to situations like…”backs to the wall…..” ” all cried out..” …” the only way is up”……in fact any of the situations that Alice Bailey talks of when the searing pain administered to our lower selves at last puts us in touch with the higher truth.
Perhaps it is time…to consider the little death…the function of the orgasm…the communion of souls that a union of synchronous orgasms produces….the oneness that two egos suddenly transcend…( if you are alone…it kind of misses the point…..and if there are 3 or more….you are going to download an awfrul lot of data…that can actually prevent the transcendance…) but that is another good question for you eric…n’est pas..!!
Philosophy wanting to mother Science……and Science wanting to paternally police the Philosophers……is just a game…that is a displacement activity that actually prevents us from “moving on up”…..
but that…..is Curtis Mayfield!!
PH