Life And Death

Reading Gordon Smith's book, Through My Eyes, recently made me reflect on life and death...

Is life the opposite of death? The way we talk about the two definitely makes it sound as though it is, but I would disagree. The opposite of death is birth.

Just as birth is not a state, neither is death. Life is continuous and birth and death are simply two events that mark a change from one state of life to another: non-physical to physical in the case of birth and vice versa for death.

I’ve had the privilege to be present as two people I love, my grandfather and uncle, passed into the spiritual world. That may sound like a strange thing to say about something that is usually perceived as a very sad occasion. And it was sad. But at the same time, it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever experienced. There’s a line in one of Dave Matthews’ songs (Loving Wings) that talks about how the “angels have all gathered round”, and this to me perfectly describes the atmosphere in the hospital rooms as transition from the physical world to the non-physical was taking place. Our family was not alone at either of these times and neither was the person making the transition. The love surrounding all of us was tangible and beautiful beyond words. Far from life being absent at a time of death, it was more present than ever.

Seeing Things? Part 2 – Flashes Of Light

In my previous blog post, I looked at the topic of floaters, a common eye condition which is sometimes misinterpreted by people as evidence for paranormal activity, such as the presence of a spirit or ability to see energy. In this post, I’ll be looking at a related eye condition experienced by many people, namely small flashes of light seen out the corner of the eye.

Seeing small flashes of twinkling light in one’s visual field is often discussed in spiritual circles as evidence of angelic presence with the person seeing them. This blog post is not meant to debunk this belief in any way – I fully believe in angels myself and have felt their presence on many an occasion. However, I do think that it’s important to practice discernment when it comes to spiritual and paranormal matters. In other words, seeing small flashes of light may very well signify angelic presence, but it may also be a sign of a serious physical eye problem that requires immediate medical attention. Rather than making the automatic assumption that the experience has a paranormal cause, it is best to have one’s eyes checked first to rule out any health issues.

Light flashes can occur when the vitreous gel in our eyes detaches from the retina at the back of the eye. As mentioned in the last post on floaters, this detachment is a normal and natural occurrence, which usually occurs fairly smoothly. However, on occasion, the vitreous will sometimes pull on the retina as it detaches instead of coming away cleanly. When this happens, the photoreceptors on the light-sensitive retina are stimulated and are experienced by us as small flashes of light, often described as sparkles, lightning, fireflies, fireworks, or sparks. Although there may be nothing to worry about, the possibility does exist that the retina could become torn or detached as the vitreous pulls away from it. As a result, if you see flashes of light, it is recommended that you visit an eye care professional to determine whether or not you are at risk of damage to your retina.

This is Part 2 of 5 in a series exploring common visual experiences often mistaken for paranormal occurrences. The other posts in the series are as follows:
* Part 1 - Floaters
* Part 3 - Pareidolia
* Part 4 - Retinal Fatigue & Afterimages
* Part 5 - Reflections & Conclusions

The Fifth Dimension Is Love

Years ago, long before I’d ever heard of the Law Of Attraction in any way, shape or form, I had a dream about the underlying energy structure of the universe. My dreams generally fall into three categories, each of which has a completely different feel to it – Processing dreams (just the brain tidying up, filing away all the many things it has seen and heard), Symbolic dreams (sleep-time therapy, using a mixture of standard dream symbols and personal imagery that I know how to interpret to find the meaning of the dream sequences), and lastly, Instructional dreams (teachings and messages from spiritual beings, usually one on one). My dream about the energy structure of the universe fell into this third category.

I found myself in a dark space. It felt like a classroom, in that I knew its purpose was a place for teaching and learning, but it didn’t look like an earthly classroom. No walls, no doors, no blackboards. Just a vast dark space. I couldn’t see anyone, least of all myself. I was an awareness without a body. At no point did I feel any fear.

Then I started seeing imagery of the world, but at an energy level, with each person’s current vibrational frequency represented by numbers. Probably the best way of describing what this looked like to me was something similar to the restaurant scene in The Matrix Reloaded, in which Neo, Trinity and Morpheus see everything in that greenish Matrix code. Seeing that made me wonder if the Wachowski brothers ever had a similar instructional dream to mine! As the imagery was presented to me, I came to understand that each person could change their vibrational frequency and that this would have an effect on their physical experiences.

While this understanding seemed to just “download” into my brain, without any words being spoken, there was a spiritual being with me who was speaking to me at the same time. I never saw the being, just heard its voice. The being was androgynous, in that the voice didn’t seem to be clearly male or female. It was, however, far from robotic, and was instead rich, powerful and loving. As the imagery flashed before me, the spiritual being kept on asking me, “Do you understand? Do you understand now?” I can still hear that voice clearly in my head!

As I watched the images, again the understanding was “downloaded” into my head that this energy level was the fourth dimension to the universe, underlying both space and time. As I started to pull away and wake up, I realised that I hadn’t yet asked the next logical question. It popped into my head: “If this is the fourth dimension, then what is the fifth?”

As I woke up, I heard the spiritual being’s voice echoing in my head: “The fifth dimension is love.”

Have Angels Ever Incarnated?

As with his descriptions of the Archangels, Emanuel Swedenborg’s reports on the issue of whether angels have ever incarnated differs substantially from most current literature, in which angels are presented as a separate category of being who have never incarnated into physical form.

In contrast, Swedenborg asserted that all angels have incarnated at some point in their existence. The reason why many people perceive angels as a different type of spiritual being with no physical experience lies in the fact that there are different layers, or planes, to the spiritual world. Those angels who dwell on a plane closer to the physical are what we would call spirit guides, and we are easily able to see that they have had prior physical incarnations. However, those angels who dwell on the highest planes are so far removed from the physical plane and their prior incarnations that they seem to us to be another race of beings entirely.

Archangels: Swedenborg’s View

Those of you familiar with the work of Abraham-Hicks will know that Abraham is described as a group of spiritual beings who present as a single consciousness when communicating through Esther Hicks. Interestingly, this is reminiscent of the way in which Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772) described Archangels.

Swedenborg was a Swedish scientist and mystic who reported extensively on his experiences with the spiritual world. In contrast to most current literature on angels, in which Archangels are described as single beings, Swedenborg reported that each Archangel is in fact a group of angels who all have one specific function. These angelic societies form a group consciousness and present as a single entity when communicating with us.

Archangels Raguel and Sariel

I had never communicated with Archangels before reading Sonia Choquette’s book Ask Your Guides. However, a little while ago, I had the perfect opportunity to communicate with a couple of them.

It was a Saturday night, and instead of being out on the town enjoying ourselves, my husband and I were at home, primarily because I had a Really Bad Cold. I was not a happy chappy to say the least – congested and feeling quite depleted energy-wise. As a result, despite sleeping most of the day, I was looking forward to an early night.

And then the party started. We currently live in a block of flats, and are fortunate to be blessed with friendly and considerate neighbours. The people living upstairs from us had moved in a couple of months earlier – with their two teenage sons! So far, any fears that we had had of continuous loud music had thankfully not materialised. But when I heard a loud bass rocking through my ceiling and the squeals and screams of teenage girls on the balcony above, I realised that my need for sweet dreams was rapidly becoming a nightmare.

As I sat on the couch feeling quite dejected, I remembered that Sonia had mentioned a couple of Archangels that she had called upon to keep her own children in check. Couldn’t hurt to try it with the teenagers in the flat above me, right?! I looked up the relevant passages in the book: “Raguel – the police officer on the Archangel force – who makes sure that others behave” and “Sariel – keeps things in order.”

I called upon the two Archangels, and asked them to please ensure that the teenagers upstairs remained considerate of others. As this was the first party they had had in the two months that they had been living upstairs, I stated that I was happy for it to continue for a little bit (it was now about 9pm, and the party had been going since about 8pm), but then I’d appreciate it coming to an end. As I felt a bit bad calling a complete halt to the teenagers’ fun, I asked if a compromise was possible – perhaps they could leave this party soon and all move on to another. Talking to the Archangels felt a bit like communicating with my spirit guides – I was “talking” in my head, and receiving replies back the same way. It’s not like hearing a voice external to me – the thought arrives fully formed in my head, and it’s more of an impression than hearing specific words. In this case, I “heard” the Archangels reply that the teenagers would all leave at 10:30pm.

I got into bed at about 10pm, and was reading a book when I heard a door slam upstairs. Then I heard lots of feet and the block’s external door open and close. The music upstairs had stopped, and the teenagers were all moving on to somewhere else. The time? 10:30pm exactly! I had a fleeting worry about whether they would all come back again in the wee hours of the morning. But then I heard in my head “No, they won’t be back. Sleep tight!”. I did indeed sleep tight that night – in the arms of the angels :).

Luckily, I’ve not had to call on Raguel and Sariel for a while. But yesterday I had a chance to renew my acquaintance. Outside our flat (we’re on the ground floor) is a piece of ground that is technically communal, but since it is at the end of the block and isn’t a through route to anywhere else, hardly anyone uses it. The developers of our block, in their wisdom, decided that pebbles would be a good way to fill in much of the space, and on the odd occasions that kiddies do wander down there, these are irresistible to them. They haven’t done any major damage yet, but they do like to throw the stones at each other as well as into the parking lot to see how far they’ll go. For the most part, kiddies run away when they see us coming to find out what is going on, but yesterday a group of teenagers (not the ones from upstairs!) decided to congregate there and throw stones. Rather than confronting them, I called on Raguel and Sariel!

It was 3:25 pm when I made my request that the teenagers move on from this piece of ground. I “heard” the response that I was not to worry, they would leave by 3:30. Five minutes?! That would be cool, I thought, but wondered how this was going to happen. But Raguel and Sariel did it – five minutes later, the teenagers just suddenly stopped what they were doing, and trooped off quietly! I, in the meantime, did a little Dance Of Joy :). Thank you Raguel and Sariel!

Sonia Choquette: Ask Your Guides

In this book, Sonia not only discusses the various angelic influences on our lives, but also goes into detail regarding the different roles that spirit guides can play in our lives, from “runners” who help us with practical details (yes, like finding a parking space!) to those who help us in a teaching capacity to transcend our egos and become more consciously aware.

I bought Sonia’s book about a year ago after a psychic reading in which I was introduced briefly to one of my guides, and it was extremely useful in helping me meet and interact with the various spirits who form my guide team. I would certainly recommend it as an excellent overview of this subject. However, I’d also recommend that you read a variety of sources in this regard. This is mainly because interacting with spirit guides can be like interacting with people on the physical plane – we all have different ways of communicating with others, and what works for one person may not work for another. I certainly found it helpful to read about the different approaches that others have used, and to integrate these into a system that works for me. Ultimately, what matters is developing a strong and clear connection with your guides, and this can be achieved in multiple ways. Apart from Sonia’s work in this regard, I’ve also benefited from the wisdom of Andrea Hess, Slade Roberson and Erin Pavlina. Currently, only Andrea has a book available, but I would encourage you to also visit her blog, as well as those of Slade and Erin.

When it comes to making the decision to buy a book like Sonia’s and invest the time and effort into making a connection with your guides, possibly the most important questions needing answering are: Does it “work”? And is it worth it? The answers are: yes. And yes. It may feel strange at first to attempt to connect to your guides, especially since many people worry when they start whether they are really connecting or just making it all up. It is important to remember here that, because our minds bridge the physical and spiritual worlds, our guides use our thoughts and imaginations to connect with us. We have also been used to our guides presence since they’ve been communicating with us all along – we’ve just called it “a feeling”, or “intuition”. At the start, it can then definitely feel like we are making it up because it seems so “normal” to us – there are no big booming voices from above! As you persevere, though, you will be able to tell the difference between communication from your guides and your own thoughts as they do have different energy signatures. As you learn more about guides from books like Sonia’s, you’ll have personal experience that convinces you that it “works”. And in terms of it being worth the effort… well, the proof is in the pudding! Your life will be enriched by having access to a group of spiritual beings who love you, support you and guide you towards your highest path and purpose.