The Top Ten Things Dead People Want to Tell You (5 page)

But best of all, perhaps, at least for now, all of this means that your dearly beloveds who’ve already transitioned did not die. Rather, they’re resting, rehabilitating, and “dreaming” in a rather spectacular “place.” They’re now among friends and guides, and should you permit them, they’ll be at your big homecoming celebration, laughing, crying joyfully, teasing you, even as they sometimes do right now, in the unseen and just over your shoulder … nice bunny ears.

From a Dearly Departed

Dear Kirsten:

I know this may come as a shock, and you know I’m not fond of using stale one-liners, but “reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” I’m as “alive” now as I was on the day we met, except, maybe … even more so.

Not that this is heaven. I’m not sure if I didn’t qualify or what, but I’m not complaining. Here, it’s way better than I ever thought heaven might be like, except there’s been no Pearly Gate, no appointments with God, and no time to rest!

Yet as quickly as I’ve come to know my way around, I’ve become nostalgic for earth. Even though blues are bluer here, maple syrup tastes more maple-y, and we can all converse with the animals, earth has something … different. A fleeting quality made possible by the seeming absolute natures of time, space, and matter. A flower on earth seems much more delicate and precious than a flower here.

There’s no question that where I am is closer to “home” than anywhere I’ve ever been or imagined—mine, yours, and everyone’s home—but earth takes the lightness of being to an almost unbearable height. Here, love is palpable, comfort abounds, one’s identity is unquestionable, perfection is pervasive, and all seems as it should be. On earth, you can only sense these things in a scattered few moments during your entire life.

Still, this isn’t home. I can’t even say that I remember home or know “where” it is. This place is more like a vacation from the intensity of earth. We all zip around as fast as we can think; it’s super cool. I have friends, places to go, things to do, even a car I sometimes wash just for old time’s sake. Honestly, though, it’s a little boring. I have a soulful yearning to return to the razor’s edge of reality creation. I’m being shown that by returning to time and space, learning more, becoming wiser, we’ll eventually be ready for an even bigger move, even closer to home, beyond where I now find myself.

Of course, on earth there’s fear. No fear here! And on earth, there’s that never-ending sense of peril that comes from living by your physical senses: the insecurity, timidity, self-doubt, and bouts of self-loathing. The rampant psychosis of worrying about what others may be thinking of you. Earth is like an exotic school of adventure and learning filled with desire and heartbreak, abundance and lack, feast and famine; the list of extremes, as you well know, is infinite. But that’s just it! The dichotomies of time and space make every decision feel like you’ll either wind up with all or nothing! Have or have not! Here or there! Now or later! And this ever-present sense of “or” is what unleashes tidal waves of emotion that are so extremely compelling. Emotions that do
not
exist here!

To top it all off, one of the first things you realize here is how safe you always were on earth, how guided and protected you were, how in charge of your own experience you were, how you could truly make anything you dreamt of happen next—in spite of appearances to the contrary. No wonder everyone here wants to go back. Not that we’re unhappy, mind you—Oh! It’s 12-moon-30! I almost forgot … Solar gliding, my new hobby! Hon, will you excuse me? I have flares to catch, and then some studying for my next …

Yours until the end of time (which really isn’t so far away),

Johnny

D
ON’T
W
ORRY
, B
E
H
APPY

If you knew, really knew, that your past loved ones were just around the corner and you’d see them very soon, wouldn’t that change
everything?
Then let it. Rest assured that in the love of the Universe they are now alive, well, and—perhaps surprising to you—very busy. Their wish for you is to be the same on all three counts. They will prepare a seat for you at your homecoming banquet that will be quite unimaginably grand, yet for now there’s a much greater celebration at hand: your life. Until then, know there’s nothing to fear in death, least of all a devil in hell, which just so happens to be what the dead want to tell you about next.

There has perhaps been no lie greater than the one told of a devil awaiting sinners in hell. Any good it may have done in preventing people from sinning has surely been offset by the mass manipulation it makes possible, extracting subservience from what become confused, unhappy lives filled with regret, guilt, and fear.

Of course, for sinners discovering the lie while crossing the threshold between worlds, instead of having to meet their maker—or worse, a big red devil—it makes possible a delirium of joy that is quite unrivaled. They are elated to find that not only are they immortal, but they’re approved of, appreciated, forgiven, and adored, just exactly as they are.
If only,
they solemnly think to themselves,
I’d known this while living … how different things might have been.

Fortunately, they see clearly that eternity still beckons and happy opportunities abound and maybe, just maybe, they can take what they’ve discovered and share it with those who are still living.

T
HE
B
EGINNING OF
F
UN

First of all, it’s the dichotomy of the illusions, again, that seems to make
everyone
wrong. To you, if there’s an up, there must be a down; if there’s black, there’s white; if “before,” then “after.” And from where you are, within the illusions, you’re right: there are! It’s just that the illusions of time, space, and matter
are illusions
. You unknowingly live your life inside a “house of smoke and mirrors” while attempting to explain the world outside. Naturally, given such a handicap—exacerbated mightily by not knowing you’re handicapped—there’s a general belief that if there’s a God, there
must
be the opposite: a devil. Yet things are
so
not as they seem.

What most can’t see is that without the illusions, there’s no time, no space, and no matter, and therefore no dichotomies.

Which means no here or there. No before or after. No wanting what you have not or having what you don’t want. Essentially nowhere to go, no one to go with, nothing to do, and besides, you’ve nothing to wear. No adventure. No fun.
That’s what the illusions are for!

The price of fun and adventure, as made possible by the illusions, is believing in the li’l ol’ “lies” of here versus there, and so on. But once the game is on, it’s hard to know where to draw the line, and people take this whole concept to “places” it need not go. For example, it’s why some folks needlessly, even when it hurts and terrifies, believe in the devil and hell.

Y
IN AND
Y
ANG

Opposites exist within the illusions, which implies something really profound, something obvious that everyone’s been missing:
they’re theoretical!

While the dichotomies of time and space can make opposites possible, the truth is they don’t necessarily have to exist. They remain as potentials until or unless you create them. To most, however, it’s assumed that to have one, you must also have the other. For example, to be happy, you must know sadness; to have light, dark must exist somewhere; to feel cool, you must know hot. Every up means there’s a down, and vice versa. Hardly. While the dichotomies create objectivity, with theoretical extremes at either end, it’s naïve to think that by knowing, reaching, or otherwise experiencing one end, you must know, reach, or experience the other. Remember, they’re all illusions anyway.

There are actually ascetics who shun joy and happiness, thinking it will precipitate eventual depression and sadness. Yet this ignores the fact that love is the glue that holds creation together—not love and hate in equal measure. That life is good, not equal measures of good and bad. It neglects that you are of the Divine, by the Divine, and inclined to succeed, not inclined to succeed and fail equally.

Feeling cold does not mean that later you have to feel hot in equal measure. Nor does living in the northern hemisphere mean that you must one day, inevitably, live in the southern hemisphere. Nor does living a life of joyful service to others mean that the pendulum must swing, turning such good Samaritans into axe murderers. One need not suffer to know joy, nor be afraid that happiness will later require sadness. And neither does a belief in God mean there must be a devil, any more than a belief in heaven means there must be a hell.

I
T’S
A
LL
G
OOD

All of which kind of evidences the raw goodness of life. Yes, “good” is part of an illusionary dichotomy—nice catch. Still, it’s far more accurate to say that life is good than to say it’s good and bad.
Which is awesome: it creates hope, gives traction, instills optimism, and fosters cooperation.
It’s also far more accurate to say that God is good than to say God is good and bad. In fact, it’s as if all the good you have ever heard about life, God, and yourself is correct, but
none
of the bad is. Which leads us to, yes, there
is
a “heaven”—by which we simply mean your awareness continues beyond the grave—but no hell.

Sure, these may sound like airy-fairy, people-serving judgment calls, except there’s evidence of their absolute truth
everywhere.
That
you “are,”
that
I “am
”! That
life
, however the heck it “began,”
has somehow carried on!
That against all logic and probabilities, and in spite of humanity, it has not run out of gas, imploded, or self-destructed! To the contrary, it continues to expand, get better, and keep rolling!

The commonly believed alternative is that evil exists
on its own,
of its own volition, and that somehow we’ve just lucked out as “good” keeps gaining the upper hand. Yet if evil existed on its own, wouldn’t you think it would learn to be successful, at least in some quarters? That it would get better and better organized and become more and more evil? Has such evidenced itself anywhere in nature? Destruction for destruction’s sake?

If evil did exist as a force unto itself, and it became more and more evil, once it crushed and conquered all goodness, then what? Kill itself? Don’t you see that if evil existed
on its own
, in any way, small or large, it would eventually self-destruct? It couldn’t carry on unsupported; there’s nothing to support it. There is only life. It is all good. It’s all God. These words are synonymous, absolutes that continue to play themselves out in front of eyes that want to see things as they are:

Life = Good = Love = One = God

While people may long yet do evil and bad things, it is never because they are evil or bad themselves. And while this does
not
seem to be remotely the case in the world today, we’ve barely scratched the surface of all that the dead want to tell you, much of which will also help you understand the evil and bad things people do.

T
HE
O
LD
A
RGUMENT

“But what if God loved
so dearly
and was so wise, big, and courageous that He gave to His children the greatest gift conceivable: the
freedom
to make their own choices to learn right from wrong?”

Yes! Nice! And with such a gift, all could then live forever and ever and ever, growing and learning and becoming and improving … Right? No. Unfortunately, that’s not how the story goes. Instead, after some unimaginably brief period, assumed by most to be a single human lifetime, no matter who your parents were or were not, no matter where you were born, when you were born, and no matter how short your life was, upon its termination you could expect that the whole freedom thing was just a test and then would follow judgment and sentencing.

Wait, if God truly loved “
so dearly
” and was truly that magnanimous in handing out the greatest gift, freedom, wouldn’t the testing-judging thing mean that somewhere along the way the offer had terminated? How great is your freedom if, hypothetically, during a brutal life on earth—born during a famine, abandoned, sexually abused—you understandably spent the remainder of your life simmering in hatred and doing wicked things yourself, before your murder at age 32? You’d then be locked in hell for
eternity?
Or what if, after a delightful life on earth with loving parents in a modern society, you once cheated on your income taxes and lied to get your child into Harvard, costing an honest child with honest parents that spot? Red-hot pokers forever? Or what if you were the first person in the history of people to never make a mistake or do an unkind thing toward others, yet you accepted no prophet as your savior and rejected all religions? Ashes for lunch, again?