Crossing Over – How the Afterlife Dawns

1. The physical body stops functioning. The dying person may not be aware of this but eventually knows that it has occurred. 

 

2. The physical world vanishes. This can happen by degrees; there can be a sense of floating upward or of looking down on familiar places as they recede.

 

3. The dying person feels lighter, suddenly freed of limitation. 

 

4. The mind and sometimes the senses continue to operate. Gradually, however, what is perceived becomes nonphysical. 

 

5. A presence grows that is felt to be divine. This presence can be clothed in a light or in the body of angels or gods. It can communicate to the dying person.

 

6. Personality and memory begin to fade, but the sense of “I” remains.

 

7. This “I” has an overwhelming sense of moving on to another phase of existence.

 

This sevenfold awakening isn’t the same as going to heaven. Researchers often call this the “inter-life” phase, a transition between the mental state of being alive and the mental state of realizing that one has passed on.

 

Westerners argue over whether the afterlife could be as real as the physical world; Easterners declare that both are mental projections. Westerners limit the human life cycle to a short span between birth and death; Easterners see an eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

 

Chopra, Deepak. Life After Death (p. 40-41). Harmony/Rodale, 2006. Kindle Edition.