I’m sure you’ve probably heard the quote, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Many don’t realize that because this reality seems so real that we believe our whole existence begins and ends with our physical bodies.

This is a world of duality. There’s day/night, hot/cold, positive/negative, right/wrong, male/female, left/right, etc., etc., etc. Why should we be any different? For us, the duality lies in the fact that we are in a physical body but we continue to exist after the demise of that physical body in our spiritual essence.

This lesson presented itself to me in a quite unique way when I was about 13 years old. I used to have 8th grade Science class with Mr. Zimmerman. I don’t know if I found the subject matter uninteresting or the teacher boring, but one day something led me to start thinking about what it would be like to die. All of a sudden, I was out in space. No, really…I was out in the darkness and vastness of space, traveling amazingly fast among the stars! Being over fifty years ago, I’m not sure if I snapped out of it by myself or if I was brought back to this reality by the teacher. What I can tell you is that whenever I would think about dying after that, the same thing would happen. Shazam! Out into space I would go. As I look back on it, I believe some part of me or some angel, guide, or other spiritual being was trying to tell me that my existence extended beyond this body and this planet.

In later years, this was brought to my attention again when I became interested in astral projection. Theory has it that we are not just one body but seven, with the physical body being the seventh and densest. Why seven? Well, there are seven planes of existence. As we come, as a spark, from Source, we clothe ourselves in the material of each of the planes we descend through on our journey to the seventh plane for our current incarnation. When I began to read all this, in its context to astral projection, my little excursions triggered by thoughts of death started to make some sense. Hmmm…I must have been astrally projecting.

The only difference between death and astral projection is the “silver cord” that remains intact between the astral body and the physical body. That led me to another thought. Why, then, are we so afraid of death and dying?

It’s taken me a while to figure out the answer to that one. There’s a couple of components to the answer. First, there’s the fact that any memory of our existence prior to life in the Here and Now at this time is kept from registering in our daily consciousness. Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, the fact that you had to come from somewhere before you arrived here begs the question, “Where?” Most of us have been taught to either just ignore that question or take on faith that we just popped into existence from out of nowhere. The second part is that this reality appears so real, so solid and draws our conscious awareness into it for about 14 to 16 hours a day that we become so accustomed to it that, even if we are less than happy, we don’t want to see things come to an end. We’ve forgotten where we came from and have been thrust into a “reality” that predominates this existence. Facing death with apprehension or fear is normal when you consider we have no idea what exists on the other side and know only that it will change things, as we know them, radically. (Many of us don’t deal well with change.)

Even if you’ve experienced astral projection and purposely practiced it, there is that difference – having that silver cord attached to the physical body that allows you to come back to this life, literally a “life” line – that provides a sense of security that we believe will not exist in death. The conception of this particular “unknown” leaves us sweaty-palmed, trying to figure out how to create immortality.

The truth is – we are already immortal! It’s just that the physical body, and the life here that comes with it, has become so real, we think immortality means living in this body, in this life, forever. So, we fight against aging by investing lots of money and time to slow the aging process while praying someone will discover or invent the “cure-all” to long life and regeneration of our bodies. Fear of change, fear of ending this existence in exchange for something unknown (or at least unremembered) becomes the driving force.

Silly humans! Just as none of us would wear the same clothing for decades, not only because it goes out of style but because it wears out, a single human body wasn’t meant to be “worn” for eternity. Think about this – we change clothes or we buy new clothes to wear to different events in our lives so why wouldn’t we changes physical bodies, at some point, for a new experience that will further our spiritual experience on Planet Earth by taking us into another place and time? And, if we look forward to wearing a new pair of jeans or buying a new shirt, why wouldn’t we, or shouldn’t we, look forward to that next life and all the new experiences, learning and adventure it could bring?

There are people who actually spend time imagining what it would be like to be another person – a celebrity, a rich person or just someone they admire. Truth be told, if you believe in the immortality of your spirit/soul and believe that reincarnation is more than a theory, then you have been and will continue to be another person as many times as it takes for you to learn all you were meant to learn and return to the Source that is your natural home.

So, if you have a fear of death, realize that you are already immortal. Only your physical body has a “freshness” date on it. You truly do live forever because you are a spiritual being having one of many physical experience.

I leave you with one last thought, brought to my attention by a Native shaman friend – That tunnel we see when we die…and the light at the end? What if that’s merely us in the birth canal of our next incarnation and the light is leading us to the moment of that birth? Yeah, it blew my mind too!!!

Love & Blessed Be