The Science of Life After Death
Only The Body Dies...
Scientists love data! "Data" result from experiments repeated so often and eliciting the same outcome each time that it is possible to use the data to support a theory or establish the legitimacy of a point of view. The cornerstone of the scientific method is "Follow the data", in other words, always make sure your experimental results support your conclusions. For "nuts and bolts science" this approach works well. However, when it comes to the human mind observing itself, the data are not so clear cut.
In parapsychological research in particular, consistency of results is difficult to obtain. By its very nature intuition is spontaneous and, therefore, unpredictable. An intuition seems to come of out nowhere and presents us with a mental fait accompli, a strong 'sense' of the rightness of a 'hunch' or a sudden 'knowing' of information that has not been acquired through the usual channels of 'left-brain' analytical thought. I must admit to being utterly shocked the first time I received information from a dead relative of a client who had come for a Career reading. My usual method of getting in touch with my intuition was to close my eyes, take one or two deep breaths, let my mind go still and wait for the 'feeling' that I knew would connect me to the client. I could then sense their strengths and unexplored talents and the reading would proceed from there. However, the recently deceased father of my Career reading client insisted on being 'heard'. I want to make it clear that I do not hear actual voices in these readings. It is more a case of having information come into my awareness and knowing that the source is a particular deceased person who is known to the client. I often get the full first name of the deceased, nicknames, and other personal information that identifies this entity to the client. Personal information from the client's or the deceased's life identifies the person in a way that would not apply to anyone else.
Spirit Speaks
After that first encounter with the presence of a deceased person, it happened routinely in my readings, regardless of what the reading was 'about'. Obviously, the only way to test the validity of the information is by having the client confirm it or deny it. But there is no way - yet - for me to know in advance who will come through in a reading. The entire process is spontaneous from my perspective although frequently the deceased person will say that he or she had been preparing to come through from the time that the client set the appointment and then will proceed to recount events that occurred in the intervening period so the client is in no doubt about having been 'observed from the other side'! Depending on the religious and personal beliefs of the client, this process may be re-assuring or frightening but once the initial shock has passed most people find the evidence of the continued presence of a loved one a welcome discovery. Schwartz's unique contribution to the field of post-death survival of consciousness rests on two principles: that we require proof that the deceased is actually present in what we experience as the 'now' and that the deceased demonstrates that with information about events that transpired after her/his death and, where possible, to employ the "double-deceased protocol" in which a known entity such as the deceased psychic and researcher Susy Smith brings through a specific deceased's spirit making it possible to 'plan' a reading in which the expected or invited spirit can be depended upon to 'show up'! It is this experience that is at the heart of The Sacred Promise.
Spirits Keep Promises
The essence of the promise is that those who loved us in life have committed themselves to act as spiritual guardians for us after their deaths. One of the tantalising unanswered questions raised by Schwartz's findings is how long a time this commitment might last. According to Buddhist philosophy the goal of existence is to end the cycle of suffering resulting from Karmic debts so that we can be re-absorbed into the 'void' of pure consciousness which has no 'qualities' like personality. As long as we are in the cycle of re-birth and Karma we will continue to assume and shed numerous personalities designed to help us experience certain things that will ultimately - if we choose to accept the challenge - lead us to the state of enlightenment permanently. For a period of about seven weeks after death, we travel through the realm known as the Bardo in which we review the quality of our recent lifetime revealing where we still need to learn karmic lessons that will shape the next lifetime.
It is unclear from Schwartz's research how soon after death a loved one may try to establish contact with us. Since time has no meaning in 'eternity', the deceased may not experience the 'passage' of time at all. Quantum theory tells us there is no such thing as time in the sequential sense in any case. Everything that has ever 'happened' and everything that will 'happen in the future' exist simultaneously. From our perspective of living in three dimensional reality, such a concept seems impossible but it would go a long way toward explaining how psychics and mediums are able to 'grab information out of thin air'. That is, after all, where it resides.
It is unclear from Schwartz's research how soon after death a loved one may try to establish contact with us. Since time has no meaning in 'eternity', the deceased may not experience the 'passage' of time at all. Quantum theory tells us there is no such thing as time in the sequential sense in any case. Everything that has ever 'happened' and everything that will 'happen in the future' exist simultaneously. From our perspective of living in three dimensional reality, such a concept seems impossible but it would go a long way toward explaining how psychics and mediums are able to 'grab information out of thin air'. That is, after all, where it resides.
© Delia O' Riordan 2011 - 2014
