Authors: Michael Newton
Dr. N: I think I understand. Uncle Charlie’s job was to be the first person to meet you after your death and see you were okay. I’d like to know if you feel better now, and more at home.
S: Yes, I do. That’s why Uncle Charlie has left me with the others.
A curious phenomenon about the spirit world is that important people in our lives are always able to greet us, even though they may already be living another life in a new body. This will be explained in Chapter Six. In Chapter Ten, I will examine the ability of souls to divide their essence so they can be in more than one body at a time on Earth.
Usually at this juncture in a soul’s passage, the carry-on luggage of Earth’s physical and mental burdens are diminishing for two reasons. First, the evidence of a carefully directed order and harmony in the spirit world has brought back the remembrance of what we left behind before we chose life in physical form. Secondly, there is the overwhelming impact of seeing people we thought we would never meet again after they died on Earth. Here is another example.
Case 7
Dr. N: Now that you have had the chance to adjust to your surroundings in the spirit world, tell me what effect this place has on you.
S: It’s so … warm and comforting. I’m relieved to be away from Earth. I just want to stay here always. There is no tension, or worries, only a sense of well-being. I’m just floating … how beautiful…
Dr. N: As you continue to float along, what is your next major impression as you pass the spiritual gateway?
S: (pause) Familiarity.
Dr. N: What is familiar?
S: (after some hesitation) Uh mm… people … friends … are here, I think.
Dr. N: Do you see these people as familiar people on Earth?
S: I … have a sensation of their presence … people I knew
Dr. N: All right, keep moving along. What do you see next?
S: Lights… soft… kind of cloudy-like.
Dr. N: As you are moving, does this light continue to look the same?
S: No, they are growing … blobs of energy … and I know they are people!
Dr. N: Are you moving toward them, or are they coming toward you?
S: We are drifting toward each other, but I am going slower than they are because … I’m uncertain what to do
Dr. N: Just relax and continue floating while reporting back to me everything you see.
S: (pause) Now I’m seeing half-formed human shapes-from the waist up only. Their outlines are transparent, too … I can see through them.
Dr. N: Do you see any sort of features to these shapes?
S: (anxiously) Eyes!
Dr. N: You see just eyes?
S: … There is only a trace of a mouth-it’s nothing. (alarmed) The eyes are all around me now… coming closer …
Dr. N: Does each entity have two eyes?
S: That’s right.
Dr. N: Do these eyes have the appearance of human eyes with an iris and pupil?
S: No … different … they are … larger … black orbs … radiating light… towards me … thought … (then with a relieved sigh) oh!
Dr. N: Go on.
S: I’m starting to recognize them-they are sending images into my mind-thoughts about themselves and … the shapes are changing into people!
Dr. N: People with physical human features?
S: Yes. Oh … look! It’s him!
Dr. N: What do you see?
S: (begins to laugh and cry at the same time) I think it’s … yes it’s Larry-he is in front of everybody else-he is the first one I really see … Larry, Larry!
Dr. N: (after giving my subject a chance to recover a little) The soul entity of Larry is in front of an assortment of people you know?
S: Yes, now I know the ones I want most to see are in front… some of my other friends are in the back.
Dr. N: Can you see them all clearly?
S: No, the ones in back are … hazy … far off… but, I have the sensation of their presence. Larry is in front … coming up to me Larry!
Dr. N: Larry is the husband from your last life you told me about earlier?
S: (subject rushes on) Yes-we had such a wonderful life together—Gunther was so strong-everyone was against our marriage in his family-Jean deserted from the navy to save me from the bad life I was living in Marseilles - always wanting me
This subject is so excited her past lives are tumbling one on top of the other. Larry, Gunther, and Jean were all former husbands, but the same soulmate. I was glad we had a chance to review earlier who these people were in sessions before this interval of recall in the spirit world. Besides Larry, her recent American husband, Jean was a French sailor in the nineteenth century and Gunther was the son of German aristocrats living in the eighteenth century.
Dr. N: What are the two of you doing right now?
S: Embracing.
Dr. N: If a third party were to look at the two of you embracing at this moment, what would they see?
S: (no answer)
Dr. N: (the subject is so engrossed in the scene with her soulmate there are tears streaming down her face. I wait a moment and then try again.) What would you and Larry look like to someone watching you in the spirit world right now?
S: They would see… two masses of bright light whirling around each other, I guess … (subject begins to settle down and I help wipe the tears off her face with a tissue)
Dr. N: And what does this signify?
S: We are hugging … expressing love … connecting … it makes us happy …
Dr. N: After you meet your soulmate, what happens next?
S: (subject tightly grips the recliner arms) Oh-they are all here-I only sensed them before. Now more are coming closer to me.
Dr. N: And this happens after your husband comes near you?
S: Yes … Mother! She is coming over to me … I’ve missed her so much… oh, Mom… (subject begins to cry again)
Dr. N: All right …
S: Oh, please don’t ask me any questions now-I want to enjoy this (subject appears to be in silent conversation with her mother of the last life)
Dr. N: (I wait for a minute) Now, I know you are enjoying this meeting, but I need you to help me know what is going on.
S: (in a faraway voice) We … we are just holding each other … it’s so good to be with her again
Dr. N: How do you manage to hold each other with no bodies?
S: (with a sigh of exasperation at me) We envelop each other in light, of course.
Dr. N: Tell me what that is like for spirits?
S: Like being wrapped in a bright-light blanket of love.
Dr. N: I see, then ….
S: (subject interrupts with a high pitched laugh of recognition) Tim!… it’s my brother-he died so young (a drowning accident at age fourteen in her last life). It’s so wonderful to see him here. (subject waves her arm) And there is my best girl friend Wilma-from next door-we are laughing together over boys like we did while sitting up in her attic
Dr. N: (after subject mentions her aunt and a couple of other friends) What do you think determines the sequence of how all these people come here to greet you?
S: (pause) Why, how much we all mean to each other-what else?
Dr. N: And with some, you have lived many lives, while with others perhaps only one or two?
S: Yes … I have been with my husband the most.
Dr. N: Do you see your guide around anywhere?
S: He is here. I see him floating off to the side. He knows some of my friends, too …
Dr. N: Why do you call your guide a “him?”
S: We all show what we want of ourselves. He always relates to me with a masculine nature. It’s right and very natural.
Dr. N: And does he watch over you in all your lives?
S: Sure, and after death too … here, and he is always my protector.
Our reception committee is planned in advance for us as we enter the spirit world. This case demonstrates how uplifting familiar faces can be to the incoming younger soul. I find there are a different number of entities waiting in greeting parties after each life. Although the meeting format varies, depending on a soul’s special needs, I have learned there is nothing haphazard about our spiritual associates knowing exactly when we are due and where to meet us upon our arrival in the spirit world.
Frequently, an entity who is significant to us will be waiting a little in front of the others who want to be on hand as we come through the gateway. The size of welcoming parties not only changes for everyone after each life, but is drastically reduced to almost nothing for more advanced souls where spiritual comfort becomes less necessary. Case 9, at the end of this chapter, is an example of this type of spiritual passage.
Cases 6 and 7 both represent one of the three ways newly arrived souls are received back into the spirit world. These two souls were met shortly after death by a principal entity, followed by others of decreasing influence. Case 7 recognized people more quickly than Case 6. When we meet such spirits in a gathering right after our death, we find they have been spouses parents, grandparents, siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, and dear friends in our past lives. I have witnessed some gut-wrenching emotional scenes with my clients at this stage of their passage.
The emotional meetings which take place between souls at this interval in a spiritual passage are only a prelude to our eventual placement within a specific group of entities at our own maturity level. These meetings provide another emotional high for a subject in superconscious recall. Spiritual organizational arrangements, involving how groups form and are cross-matched with other entities, will be described in subsequent chapters.
For the present, it is important we understand welcoming entities may not be part of our own particular learning group in the spirit world. This is because all the people who are close to us in our lives are not on the same developmental level. Simply because they choose to meet us right after death out of love and kindness does not mean they will all be part of our spiritual learning group when we arrive at the final destination of this journey.
For instance, in Case 6, Uncle Charlie was clearly a more advanced soul than my subject and may even have been serving in the capacity of a spiritual guide. It was evident to me that one of the primary tasks of Uncle Charlie’s soul was to help Case 6 as a child in the life just ended, and his responsibility continued right after my subject’s death. With Case 7, the important first contact was Larry, a true soulmate on the same level as this subject. Notice also in Case 7, that my subject’s spiritual guide was not conspicuous among her former relatives and friends. However, as the scene unfolded, there were indications of a spiritual guide orchestrating the whole meeting process while remaining in the background. I see this in many cases.
The second manner in which we are met right after death involves a quiet, meaningful encounter with one’s spiritual guide where no one else is revealed in the immediate vicinity, as in Case 5. Case 8 further illustrates this sort of meeting. What type of after-death meeting we do experience appears to involve the particular style of our spiritual guide along with requisites of our individual character. I find the duration of this first meeting with our guides does vary after each life depending upon the circumstances of that life.
Case 8 shows the very close relationships people have with their spiritual guides. Many guides have strange sounding names, while others are rather conventional. I find it interesting that the old-fashioned religious term of having a “guardian angel” is now used metaphysically to denote an empathetic spirit. To be honest, this is a term I once denigrated as being foolishly loaded with wishful thinking and representing an out-dated mythology at odds with the modern world. I don’t have that belief anymore about guardian angels.
I am repeatedly told that the soul itself is androgynous, and yet, in the same breath, clients declare sex is not an unimportant factor. I have learned all souls can and do assume male and female mental impressions toward other entities as a form of identity preference. Cases 6 and 7 show the importance of the newly arrived soul in seeing familiar “faces” identified by gender. This is also true of the next case. Another reason why I selected Case 8 is to indicate how and why souls choose to visually appear in human form to others in the spirit world.
Case 8
Dr. N: You have just started to actually leave the Earth’s astral plane now, and are moving further and further into the spirit world. I want you to tell me what you feel.
S: The silence … so peaceful …
Dr. N: Is anyone coming to meet you?
S: Yes, it’s my friend Rachel. She is always here for me when I die.
Dr. N: Is Rachel a soulmate who has been with you in other lives, or is she someone who always remains here?
S: (with some indignation) She doesn’t always stay here. No, she is with me a lot-in my mind-when I need her. She is my own
guardian (said with possessive pride).
Note: The attributes of guides as differentiated from soulmates and other supportive entities will be examined in Chapter Eight.
Dr. N: Why do you call this entity a “she”? Aren’t spirits supposed to be sexless?
S: That’s right-in a literal way, because we are capable of both attributes. Rachel wants to show herself to me as a woman for the visual knowing and it is a mental thing as well with her.
Dr. N: Are you locked into male or female attributes during your spiritual existence?
S: No. As souls there are periods in our existence when we are more inclined toward one gender than another. Eventually, this
natural preference evens out.
Dr. N: Would you describe how Rachel’s soul actually looks to you at this moment?
S: (quietly) A youngish woman … as I remember her best … small, with delicate features … a determined expression on her face … so much knowledge and love.
Dr. N: Then you have known Rachel on Earth?
S: (responding with nostalgia) Once, long ago, she was close to me in life … now she is my guardian.
Dr. N: And what do you feel when you look at her?
S: A calmness … tranquility … love …
Dr. N: Do you and Rachel actually look at each other with eyes in a human way?
S: (hesitates) Sort of … but different. You see the mind behind what we take to be eyes, because that is what we relate to on Earth. Of course, we can do the same thing as humans on Earth, too …