Santa Fe, New Mexico. The year is 2007. Galen Stoller is 16 years old, and a junior in high school. He’s the average American teenager. He loves to read fantasy novels, hangs out with his friends, involved with theatre in both high school and in community groups, and volunteers training assistance and rescue dogs with Assistance Dogs of the West. In the last few weeks, he’s been rehearsing for his double-role of Fagan and Bill Sikes in Oliver! Galen had hoped to attend Boston Conservatory after graduation, and one day – he hoped to be acting on Broadway.
December 1st was a Saturday. Galen is driving through Santa Fe on his way home after visiting with his grandmother. There is something strange about the day though, Galen feels out of sync; disjointed.
“The hum of the engine, the whistle of the wind, and the rumble of tires all seemed disconnected as well, appearing to come from somewhere other than where such sounds originate.”
Galen approaches the railroad tracks which are obscured by vegetation and located around a blind curve. He rolls to a stop at the tracks and reaches for his iPod to adjust the music. He never sees the train that slams into his car, pushing it 1,700 feet. [read the news report]
“..Suddenly I heard the sound of metal, followed by a tremendous silence and utter darkness.”
Galen is killed instantly. He wakes up in the afterlife, and that is where his story begins.
“Eventually the lights and sounds returned, yet none seemed real. I could hear my name spoken every so often, but what was being said and by whom didn’t seem to matter.”
–Galen Stoller, from ‘Life After Life: A Posthumous Memoir’
On the very night Galen died his father contacted a medium, desperate to know that his son was okay. Their conversation is short, but Galen assures his father that he will be able to communicate with him directly in the future. Before the connection can be made, however, his father will need to work through the emotional wall that his grief has built around him. Galen, for his part, needs to learn more about this new world and about his own ability to shape energy using thought and intention before he can begin the process of communication with Earth.
Galen’s father is Dr. Kenneth Stoller, a physician and somewhat of a maverick in his field. Dr. Stoller espouses the use of unconventional therapies to treat patients and unlike most men of science, Dr. Stoller already has a well-developed spirituality and belief in the afterlife.
It would be two years before Dr. Stoller could begin to capture his son’s words through both a personal mental connection and a medium he employed for that purpose. The book that resulted was My Life after Life: A Posthumous Memoir, published in 2011. Galen himself is credited as the author. According to the Dr. Stoller’s page, www.grief-sos.com, the book is the winner or finalist of several awards:
- Winner, Nautilus Silver Award 2012
- Pinnacle Book Achievement Award 2011
- Winner, Indie Excellence Award 2011
- Finalist, International Book Awards 2011
- Finalist, USA Book Awards 2011
- Finalist ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award 2012
Although Dr. Stoller knows he is putting his own reputation as a physician and scientist on the line by publishing this book, he says:
“While the pages that follow contain information that will change both my credibility and reputation as a physician, I have always stood in my truth when it came to what I saw as the ethos of my profession, and I will not waver from that in helping Galen bring forth this book.”
Dr. Stoller admits his ‘pathological grief’ after his son’s death, therefore skeptics would certainly accuse Dr. Stoller of inventing this entire story based on such grief. Dr. Stoller admits as much in his introduction, but invites the reader to decide for themselves.
Dr. Stoller explains that after a lot of practice, he could hear Galen’s thoughts in his head distinct from his own. Before you roll your eyes, you should know that this is exactly how mental mediumship works for those who are clairaudient. Dr. Stoller claims that he has made “every effort to keep the language as true as possible to the intention behind Galen’s works as [he] perceived them.” After each chapter, he worked with a medium to discuss chapters with Galen in order to make suggestions and modifications to the text.
If the book that followed those claims was a sappy, sentimental and overtly cliché tome, I would have dismissed it out of hand as the heartbreaking fantasy of a father lost to grief. But after reading this book (twice), I am inclined to believe that Dr. Kenneth Stoller was possibly in contact with his deceased son. Galen describes an afterlife familiar in other spirit communications, even those arcane communications from two centuries ago. When I read something that rings true to me, it is because I can cross reference it with details in spirit communications from other various and sometimes extremely obscure sources. At the end of the day, however, everyone has to use their own intuition to decide for themselves if something feels genuine to them. Even if you take this book as a work of fiction I believe it can be of some value. It is entertaining and enlightening yet definitely not as predictable as you might think for a book of this type.
There are some things that Galen describes about his afterlife that I’ve never heard of before; for example, that incarnational spirits (not souls) can be destroyed if entering an antimatter dimension. I’ve never read that in any other spirit communication, out-of-body experience, regression, or channeling that I have come across yet. But these are the pieces of information that I tuck away in the back of my mind. If I do come across it somewhere else, it becomes something of a validation for this work. I don’t file it into my belief system though until I see it repeated from multiple different sources and I feel reasonably sure it wasn’t simply copied.
Other pieces of information, such as the “hall of cups” where Galen is able to find the history of his father’s other lives, square nicely with what I’ve read in Dr. Michael Newton’s regression therapy where spirits reference a type of library or hall where they can review “past” lives. In Galen’s experience, each soul has a cup that contains the summation of their lives whereas in Dr. Newton’s cases, spirits have access to a library of books for the same purpose. Although skeptics might point to this and say, “It’s wrong – it’s not the same”, they are forgetting the flexible and subjective nature of the afterlife where our expectations, experiences and beliefs color our perceptions. These sources, and many others agree that souls have a place where ‘past’ lives are able to be reviewed, provided you are in a dimension where your soul evolution allows access to this information. Certainly in the “beginner’ afterlife dimensions, souls have enough to worry about reviewing the lifetime they just left.
Galen discusses the multidimensional afterlife which is based on soul evolution, something echoed by dozens of individual communications that I have come across, even as old as the mid 1800’s. Galen puts an arbitrary number on his level, “21”, though most souls don’t know how many dimensions or levels there really are. He meets a relative on what he terms ‘level 12’, a more basic and earth-like dimension where souls cannot change their surroundings at will or review their past lives. They are yet in training simply to understand the basic nature of non-physical consciousness. We may leave behind the earth and its woes when we die, but we never stop learning and advancing as souls.
Galen’s afterlife is more or less typical of the intermediate dimensions that souls may find themselves in after death. He quickly realizes that his environment reflects his mood, thoughts and state of mind. Although initially Galen’s environment reflects the ecologic environment of his Earth home in New Mexico – vast scrub-land and semiarid desert, he eventually does what I think any 16-year-old kid would do in that situation – he creates fun and amusing environments for himself.
“It didn’t take me long to recognize that there was much more to this dimension than I had realized, and with that understanding I actually started to see more – and then create more. For instance, I was able to create a rather cool-looking apartment for myself, which I redecorated a multitude of times. First it was a Manhattan flat, and then I turned it into a splendid baroque villa. I worked with crystalline material to the point where the apartment started to look like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude then suddenly morphed into the bridge of the USS Enterprise (of Star Trek). I had a lot of fun with this, and was able to sustain a structure without having to stand in front of it. I had a place to go instead of just going someplace. I could leave my home and when I returned it would be just where I had left it. this was the result of setting an intention and leaving it in place, and maintaining it without getting distracted. On earth this would be analogous to setting an intention to manifest something you wanted to do in your life, knowing it would be possible at the right time but without having to remind yourself about it every day.”
Eventually Galen creates a somewhat more modest home for himself with a bed that he can lay in so he can ‘feel more human’. He doesn’t sleep, but does lay down and rests his consciousness in a way.
Galen has several teachers and guides that he frequently confers with. After his death, the first teacher he meets looks like a larger version of himself; his ‘twin’ as he called it. Galen’s teacher explains this phenomenon as related to the way he perceived his environment directly after death. Without another frame of reference, Galen simply perceived his teacher as a larger version of himself. Later, when Galen has adjusted to his dimension, he perceives his teacher as an ordinary man with nondescript features.
Galen also has a guide who appears to him in the form of a dog named Andy. Galen was extremely fond of dogs on earth, and so this form of guidance is comforting for Galen. Naturally, Galen and Andy become very close, even participating in multi-dimensional travel together. Galen can also attend classes on his dimensional level that teach the inhabitants how to develop their skills with energy and how to lead a life of service when they return to earth.
Although the concept of attending classes in the afterlife and changing one’s environment at will is not new in my research, there were some other surprises in the book. For example, Galen meets two non-human beings from different dimensions that I have never heard of in any other type of spirit description of the afterlife. Then again, with an infinite number of possible afterlife dimensions, why would I? Galen’s experience, like any afterlife experience, is likely to be unique to Galen. It can be difficult for some people raised in religion to view the afterlife as a vast inter-dimensional space, since many of us have been taught that ‘Heaven is Heaven’ and ‘Hell is Hell’. As a child, Heaven was described to me as a place of clouds where everyone floats around spending all of their time singing hymns and worshiping God for eternity. I was privately horrified. My 10-year-old mind reeled at the prospect of an eternity of Church, but with angels and harps. Of course, it sounds ridiculous to me now as an adult, but my simplistic, one-sided view of the afterlife persisted well into adulthood. Although my conception of the afterlife now is still tentative and based on descriptions delivered through various paranormal and supernatural means, I am grateful that it isn’t a place that is designed and maintained by a jealous overload who demands constant praise, but a rather an infinite multi-layered space that evolves as the human spirits who live there add to it with their ingenuity and creativity.
Many people who read such descriptions of the afterlife wonder why in many cases it looks so much like Earth. Galen lives in a house, for example, attends classes in a classroom with desks, and his landscape looks identical to where he lived on Earth. It’s really a consequence of human spirits having multiple incarnations on earth, and bringing back their expectations with them to the afterlife. Certainly, the afterlife of stone-age men a millennia ago didn’t look like it does now, and in the future the afterlife will continue to change as the collective of human-incarnating spirits evolve. Similarly, I’ve heard it said that many of the technologies and advances in social construction don’t start on Earth, but rather they are worked out first in the spirit dimensions, then parroted on earth through some distant subconscious memory.
The idea that our technologies reflect our mass spiritual consciousness is something I will expand on in another post. But for now, know that Galen’s very earth-like experience is not at all unusual, nor unexpected. At least while we continue to incarnate on earth, we will form our experiences in the spiritual dimensions based on what we understand and expect. After our incarnational lessons are done, we will begin to move past the desire to replicate three-dimensional matter and form. Although information from the highest levels of consciousness and non-physical reality is scant, I’ve read that there is little physicality at all. Instead, consciousness exists in pure thought form shaping itself via intensities. It’s a hard concept for us to really wrap our heads around, and that’s okay. I don’t think I’m ready for it anyway. ‘My Life After Life’ is a book that reminds us that the afterlife is not a dreamlike, holy place – it’s a physical dimension just like ours, just with a completely different energy paradigm. One day, I believe science will even be able to detect and measure it (maybe it’s one of the 11 dimensions of string theory?).
Dr. Stoller has said his son is interested in writing a whole series of books about his afterlife experiences, called ‘The Death Walker Series’. Sounds very much like something a 16-year old boy who loved Harry Potter would come up with, doesn’t it? It’s nice to know we don’t lose our personality in death. As a fellow Harry Potter fan, I’m in. So far, Galen and Dr. Stoller have written a second book in the series, ‘Life Chapters: The Extraordinary Afterlives of people you’ve never heard of‘, detailing the afterlives of other people Galen has met on his dimension. Both books are interesting and entertaining though if you intend to read either, certainly you should begin with ‘Life After Life’.
At the end of the day, you’ll have to decide for yourself if you believe the communication is real between Galen and his father or if distortion and grief have gotten in the way. This is how we build an evidence-based belief system: through discovery, intuition, scrutiny and a little faith. I submit ‘Life After Life’ as one more piece of evidence for your consideration.
This is a video put together by Galen’s friends and family in memory of Galen’s life.
He was a talented youth actor with a bright future before the train accident that took his life in 2007.
A quick note to the reader:
Although I critique books about spirit communication with an analytical, maybe even cool detachment, I don’t ever forget that there are real lives behind the words. The video above is a poignant reminder that Galen Stoller was loved by friends and family who miss him terribly. Beyond the fascinating description of Galen’s afterlife -regardless of our opinion on its veracity- is the very real devastation of losing a child. Let’s never forget that the desired end result of ‘The Search for Life After Death’ is hope.
~Jenn
The Search For Life After Death 
Good stuff Jenn.
Jason
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Thank you! 🙂
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I am Galen’s father and just came across this blog. I was searching for photos of Galen to send to Gloria Horsley of http://www.opentohope.com.
She wants to tape a show with Matthew McKay Ph.D., author of “Seeking Jordan” and I together and it will be taped on Dec 11th (2016).
Galen ended up writing the Intro of Rich Martini’s book “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife (vol 2)” and anyone can read the Intro online using the “look inside” feature on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Its-Wonderful-Afterlife-Vol-Adventures/dp/0970449976/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478641070&sr=1-3&keywords=its+a+wonderful+afterlife
There ended up being four books in the Death Walker series. The third book, Walkabout (unpublished) filled in the details from the first book. Book 3 & 4 remain unpublished for several reasons. I became very distracted when my mother got in a near fatal car accident, and frankly I became burned out on self-publishing – not that it is expensive, but it is a lot of work and marketing is very expensive.
Rich Martini wrote the Foreword to the 3rd book. The cover art can be viewed on this webpage: http://www.dreamtreaderpress.com/books
For the last two years, any creative juices I had after work went into my new book Incurable Me, that was just published by Skyhorse.
Galen also wrote a book of Universal Laws and Truths explained using Tarot symbols. One say I hope to find the right artist to illustrate it and get it out there.
Jenn – I appreciate your blog
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Dr. Stoller, thank you so much for writing. I am always interested in what Galen’s been up to and I’m glad that the both of you are still collaborating. I’m looking forward to Universal Laws and Truths, sound fascinating. Thank you for letting us know what projects you are currently involved with. I do hope that book 3 and 4 in the deathwalker series does see the light of day, I know Galen has many fans who would love to find out more about his experiences. I hope your mother is recovering, understandably family comes first always. Take care, and best of luck to you!
Jennifer
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Nice article, Jenn. I was wondering if there was any mention in Galen’s book(s) about his soul plan. Have you read Robert Schwartz’s “Your Soul’s Plan” and/or “Your Soul’s Gift?” He brings forth the concept that he learned from various mediums he worked with the idea that some events are planned and this sometimes includes early death among other traumas. Some people really gravitate to this idea and others are abhorred by the suggestion that some of our tragedies are pre-planned learning experiences. So, I was curious if Galen approaches his death as an accident with a train or an appointment with a planned destiny. .
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Hi Joshua!
I haven’t read that particular book, but I am familiar with it and the concept of pre-birth life planning and soul contracts. I do subscribe to the idea because I’ve heard it over and over again in my own research and it just feels like it makes sense. It is very uncomfortable for people, especially for those who have lost someone because it feels very unfair and cruel to the human mind. From a detached soul perspective, however, it does make sense that there are some lessons that can only be learned through loss, which is why we all have to experience it at some point in our lives. I honestly would have a hard time telling anyone who has lost someone that “it was probably planned ahead of time that your sister was killed because it will aid in your soul growth”. It sounds awful, presumptuous, cruel and just plain wrong, but privately I believe the idea has merit. I’m actually terrified of losing someone because my soul or my higher self thinks it would be ‘good for me’. Geez, talk about tough love. As a human, we think of it as punishment. We may not feel the same way when we get to the spirit world.
To answer your question about Galen’s story, yes. he does talk about his train accident as part of his life path, though it wasn’t the only one he could have chosen. Galen goes into his somewhat difficult relationship with his mother and how if he had stayed on Earth, he and his family wouldn’t have faired quite as well. The train accident, from Galen’s perspective, was the better option. His father, who writes notes after every chapter has a very difficult time agreeing with his son, which illustrates perfectly how difficult it is to understand loss from our human perspective.
I may check out the book you mentioned, thanks for the recommend! Joshua, do you suscribe to the soul contract idea?
Jenn
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Hi, Jenn.
Rob Schwartz was a guest twice on Bob Olson’s Afterlife TV show. Check YouTube. Personally, I am still undecided on the premise of soul contracts. On one hand it makes a lot of sense, as you say, and yet there is that issue that it seems pompous and cruel to tell someone in the midst of grief, “Well, it was planned for your growth.” Sometimes it is hard to know where soul contract ends and free will begins. For example, if soul contracts are so pervasive in life planning, it would stand to reason, therefore, that wars are planned ahead of time to allow for certain souls to experience (and perhaps die in) combat. If wars are contractual, planned for us in another dimension, then is war protesting a waste of time? I asked Rob about this in an email and he did not have much to say about it, like he was not yet prepared to commit to an answer.
From an “average guy” perspective, I do note that some mediums (like those Rob originally used to write his books) and past-life hypnotherapists (the work that Rob now does) charge a fairly steep rate for clients to learn about their own soul contracts. It is a business. I think there is also some show business involved, too. So, like, I would love to believe that people doing this work are genuine, sincere, caring people who want the best for humanity, but we get back to that issue we were discussing around Jamie Butler. Marketing, marketing, marketing. Expensive, expensive, expensive. What’s real and what’s pandering?
Yet I am still fascinated by the concept that we are living in Earth School and a lot of the course work is set up for our spiritual growth.
Joshua
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Joshua,
Excellent comment. I struggle with soul contracts too, for many of the same reasons you have listed. I would never tell someone in the midst of grief that it was probably ‘planned’ or that they deserved it for their soul growth. It does sound horribly cruel. And, like you said – where does free-will come in? From what I understand, our soul contracts are just guidelines. In the spirit world, we pick out certain things we can control, such as our parents and place and time of birth but we also know that once we get down here, anything is possible. I’ve read that free-will trumps all – including soul contracts. And, there are plenty of times that people on earth take a completely different direction than they intended. As for planning things like the manner of our death, I’ve read that it happens ‘in real time’. We are constantly communicating with our higher selves, and if a different direction is better for us than another, we are free to abandon the original ‘contract’ and strike out anew. That’s also where guides come in. They subtly make suggestions to us that will offer up the option to take a certain path over another, though we are always free to say ‘no’.
I think the best regression therapy that I’ve read about is Dr. Newton’s LBL therapy. It might be costly, but then again the session can take 3-6 hours. Dr. Newton wrote three books, then the ‘Flipside’ books were an independent study of Dr. Newton’s techniques. It was quite convincing, though I haven’t checked the prices for a session. I will check out Rob Schwartz. I am totally turned off by people who use spirituality for greed. I have no problem paying a fair price for something, but greed is definitely a problem and the ‘new-age’ crowd is rife with it.
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I agree that free will can and does always play a part, and yes, that it can trump what you call “soul contracts” and I would refer to as “destiny” or “karma”. Negative karma can be minimized by right action. I am quite sure of that. I do know of 3 past lifetimes of mine which, for me, personally, are certain. One as a soldier in the crusades by the name Ezequiel, killed at the Battle of Rhodes in 1480. This one came to me in a hypnotic regression. Another was as Prince Charles Edward Stuart, aka “Bonnie Prince Charlie”. My full birth name is Charles Edward Stuart Boden. I was born in Saint Andrews in Scotland. I had childhood “memories”, other “memories” came in dreams, and I was told mediumnically about this lifetime on two different occasions in two entirely different circumstances and with entirely different people 15 years apart. The 2nd time was now 25 years ago. Another, which came to me in a sequence of ten dreams over a period of about two months, was as a pilot in the Luftwaffe in WWII by the name Karl-Heinz Weber. I actually managed to locate information about him on the internet. He is given as missing, but in the last of my sequence of dreams what I “saw” was that he was killed by his own fellow German soldiers as he was planning to dessert. Died in that lifetime in 1944, reincarnated in this lifetime in 1960. Why so many wars? Who can say…?
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Charles, very interesting history. I am curious about your attitudes about war in this lifetime. When you were a kid, did you play war games? Would you consider yourself a hawk or a dove? Has your attitude about war changed in this lifetime or stayed pretty much the same? Did you serve in the military this life? Did your parents give any explanation for the name they chose for you this life?
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Hi, Joshua.
Oh, yes. “Action Man” was my favorite toy… Used to absolutely love war games and dress up as a soldier and play with my friends. Totally against any wars this time round. Totally against killing anyone. Would rather be killed than take someone’s life. Definitely a dove, but still a hawk if need be. This week I read a phrase that hit the nail on the head: “Do not tell a warrior to fear a storm. We are the storm.” But I am just a teacher now…
As Ezequiel and Charles Stuart, I was always defending Catholicism. Now you know a bit about my current beliefs… Living in Brazil since the age of three, but being foreign born, I was not forced to serve the military, which is obligatory here. My father chose my name because he was working in Scotland at the time and there were some coincidences: my mother’s youngest brother’s name was Charles, my father’s youngest brother’s name is Edward, and the Stuart surname runs in my mother’s paternal family. He put everything together and chose my name after Prince Charles Edward Stuart. This had a strong impact on me since early childhood, including a song my father used to sing to me, which was composed for Prince Charlie, and which whenever he sang it I used to have “mental visions” which I can still remember..
I was always curious as to its origin of my Stuart surname, and was able to research and find that it comes from Sir John of Bonkyl Stewart, a younger son of Alexander 4th High Steward and brother to Walter 5th High Steward, who married King Robert The Bruce’s elder daughter Marjorie. I also found among my various ancestors that I am descended from Queen Mary Stuart’s father, King James V, via his 1st but “illegitimmate son, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray. I actually have a whole collection of Stewart princes and princesses from the various Stewart kings of Scotland as my ancestors.
Thanks for your interest.
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Just to add that Sir John of Bonkyl was head of the Scottish archers at the Battle of Falkirk under William Wallace in 1298, and was killed in that battle.
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Hi Charles,
I am curious if anything happened to you in this life that would have turned you against war or killing people. It sounds as if you may have had a change of heart about war as a Nazi, but I am curious if something happened this life to solidify that position in your mind? Perhaps you chose between lives not to pursue combat in this life. Been there, done that. In a broader sense, this question is really about the different between an incarnated ego personality and the higher self/soul personality. The soul may pick certain lifetimes for us to be in combat or to be warriors, and in other times it may want us to explore other facets of human life.
You have a very interesting story!
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Hi, Joshua.
In one of the sequences of dreams about my possible life as Karl-Heinz, I was in the back seat of a car driving past a ghetto where there was a low concrete wall and barbed wire. There was a young girl inside these walls, of I imagine 6 to 8 years of age, holding a very ragged doll in her left arm. She was extremely thin, grey looking, with very deep and dark eyes, and looked extremely sick. As I looked at her, she kept following me with her eyes and in my dream I was thinking: “This is not right.”
I also have a very strong impression of a small town, I believe in France. I had received orders to attack this small tima (I was a Messerschmitt pilot) because I was told there were members of the French resistance in the town. I can “remember” that as I came down with the plane to do what I was ordered, some of the town’s citizens were running away from the town buildings and taking to the fields. Machine gur fire. A woam carrying a baby in her arms while running to the fields got hit. I drop the first batch of bombs upon the town, and then I take a left turn and a circular right turn in sequence and come down upon the town again. I see the woman and baby lying dead on the ground, decide to no longer fire with the machine gun and instead I just drop the 2nd load of bombs upon the town and fly away. Very strong impression that the presence of members of the resistance in the town was false and that it was misinformation.
War is sheer horror, pain and suffering, Joshue. In all honesty, I pray that I may have already learned enough never to have tp be involved in another war again. I also know where I ended up after such lifetimes. Not a pretty place. I have no doubt that it was a very consciouss in between lives choice. “Though shalt not kill”. Take Jesus’s example.
Personally I very strongly disagree with the concept of a “higher self” if this implies detachment or separation from who we are as individual consciousnesses. It is we who are our “higher selves”, though hampered by the consciousness cap we receive in each incarnation which prevents us from the memories of our past existences, except when our subconsciousnesses enables such memories to emerge, whether in dreams or by hypnosis or whatever means. There is a very good reason why we should not remember our past lives. In each lifetime we are given the opportunity of a new life, without all the pains, resentments and regrets we carry with us from each existence. My knowledge of my lifetime as Charlies Stuart, of which I had my own personal proof at the age of 30 (I am now 55), was for many years a tremendous burden to me. It is not a lifetime I hold any pride of. Immense suffering was caused. I honestly believe that my aversion to wars and killing and the infliction of pain is due to the spiritual evolutionary process I was subjected to. It is a lesson learned. And once we reach a certain degree of consciousness, we do not regress to lower levels of awareness.
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PS – I apologize for the spelling mistakes. “Spell check” here keeps insisting in correcting what I write into Portuguese. 🙂
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Jenn, we are very much on the same page about people who use their spiritual gifts (and/or spiritual deception) for greed. I am turned off by rock star mediums and even have little interest in cruises and vacations led by celebrities in the medium business. I have only been to one afterlife conference (last year) and all I wanted to do was absorb knowledge and insights. There was no time left to play or sight-see. As for mediums in general, I am currently wanting to find one or two good ones so that I can get some evidence of my own to bolster my own experience since I am pretty weak on my own signs from heaven. I want to find good evidential mediums who are very much into afterlife research as well. As with you, I am very willing to pay fair prices if I know that the medium is sincere in providing evidence and is not just doing show business, cold reading, or woo-woo that cannot be validated.
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You shouldn’t give driving license to people under 18…..
sorry for your loss.
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Hi, Jenn.
I believe there is a 50/50 ratio between what can be and is determined by each individual soul and that which comes determined as “destiny” or “karma”. Yes, we can minimize negative karma by right actions and right doing, but there are certain events that either by choice or determination are given as necessary trials and growth lessons for each one. Yes, you are right, it is awfully hard for those who remain behind, in particular if one does not hold the knowledge that life does go on regardless, but it is also part of their spiritual learning process and growth as well, and such trials are always lessons in love.
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Dear Charles,
Very well said. Humans do have free-will, but it’s said we agree to certain lessons that need to be learned due to short-comings in other lives, or what is known as ‘karma’. The classic case I’ve heard is a person who has abused someone in one life, will agree to become the abused in the next so they can really fully understand the pain their actions have caused. Because the human ego has a punishment/reward system we can only really see the negative things that happen to us as punishment, though if we look back on our life sometimes we can see how all of the bad stuff that has happened has taught us to be stronger, better people (hopefully). Learning through pain is a hard system, but I guess that’s what we sign up for when we agree to come to the school of Earth.
~Jenn
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I believe it is more a question of undergoing the same pain that was once inflicted, and learning from the experience so that certain lessons and knowledge become so intrinsical to a person that they reach a point in which it is a part of them even if they might not know where it has come from.
I know a true case of a man who was convicted of a crime he had not committed, and who spent three years in prison cursing God daily for the “injustice” he believed he had suffered, only to later learn that in a past life he himself had committed a crime for which an Innocent had been convicted. “He who lives by the sword will by the sword be slain”. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. There are references to this process even in the bible.
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Yes – that is a good point, Charles, and unfortunately we have to trust that our higher selves know that our hardships are going to aid us in someway, even if they seem unfair at the time. It’s tough to be a human, isn’t it? 🙂
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Found this rather interesting:
There IS life after DEATH: Scientists reveal shock findings from groundbreaking study
LIFE after death has been “confirmed” by scientists who have discovered consciousness continues even once a person has died.
Scientists say that there is life after death
In a large scale study of more than 2,000 people, British boffins confirmed that thoughts DO carry on after the heart stops.
The shock research has also uncovered the most convincing evidence of an out of body experience for a patient declared dead.
It had been believed the brain stopped all activity 30 seconds after the heart had stopped pumping blood around the body, and that with that, awareness ceases too.
However, the study from the University of Southampton shows people still experience awareness for up to three minutes after they had been pronounced dead.
What is it like to be dead? Patient who ‘died’ says there is NOTHING
Scientists make strong progress in bringing brains back from the DEAD
Lead researcher Dr Sam Parnia said: “Contrary to perception, death is not a specific moment but a potentially reversible process that occurs after any severe illness or accident causes the heart, lungs and brain to cease functioning.
“If attempts are made to reverse this process, it is referred to as ‘cardiac arrest’; however, if these attempts do not succeed it is called ‘death’.”
Of the 2,060 patients from Austria, the US and the UK interviewed for the study who had survived cardiac arrest, almost 40 per cent said that they recall some form of awareness after being pronounced clinically dead.
Dr Parnia continued: “This suggests more people may have mental activity initially but then lose their memories after recovery, either due to the effects of brain injury or sedative drugs on memory recall.”
Many patients reported an outer body experience
Of those who said they had experienced some awareness, just two per cent said their experience was consistent with the feeling of an outer body experience – where one feels completely aware and can hear and see what’s going on around them after death.
Almost half of the respondents said the experience was not of awareness, but rather of fear.
However, the most significant finding of the study is that of a 57-year old man who is perhaps the first confirmed outer body experience in a patient.
The man was able to recall with eerie accuracy what was going on around him after he had ‘died’ temporarily.
Dr Parnia continued: “This is significant, since it has often been assumed that experiences in relation to death are likely hallucinations or illusions occurring either before the heart stops or after the heart has been successfully restarted, but not an experience corresponding with ‘real’ events when the heart isn’t beating.
“In this case, consciousness and awareness appeared to occur during a three-minute period when there was no heartbeat.
“This is paradoxical, since the brain typically ceases functioning within 20-30 seconds of the heart stopping and doesn’t resume again until the heart has been restarted.
“Furthermore, the detailed recollections of visual awareness in this case were consistent with verified events.”
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It is also a question of “Divine Justice”. No crime goes unaccounted for. No pain inflicted goes without its just return. “We reap what we sow”. Quite literally.
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