A Case For Life After Death - Essay Example

A Case For Life After Death Reported evidence in support of life after death is similar in nature in cases of near death experiences, and past lifememories. An examination of the past life cases found in Brian L. Weiss’ books Many Lives, Many Masters and Same Soul, Many Bodies; Betty J. Eadie’s book on her near death experience1, Embraced by the Light, give very similar details and experiences in describing near death experiences and past life memories. Those two concepts and what appear to be similar experiences in the cases, are further supported by evidence presented in William Buhler’s Adventures Beyond the Body. Equally important to this discussion in terms of similar experiences that support the concept of life after death, is the frame of mind of the case studies prior to their own experiences, and the “epiphanies” experienced by the cases that resulted in altered post-experience mind sets. Prior to her “death” (30), Betty Eadie describes her life leading up to her death. Betty was separated from her parents at an early age, and when she and her five siblings were sent to a Catholic boarding school, there was further separation when the sisters were separated from the brothers (7). During her boarding school experience, Betty became confused in her perceptions of God, though she never doubted the existence of God (10). In order to emphasize the omnipotence of God, the staff at the boarding school emphasized the vengeful God (8). Later, during her experience in a Methodist board institution, the concept of a loving God prevailed (10). Betty also had a pre-experience fear of the dark (8), which is significant in terms of her death experience (8). The traumas of separation and loss of parental support and love during her early years stayed with Betty, and she married at a young age and very quickly had a family of own (12). Although Betty’s first marriage failed, she and her children entered a second marriage that was successful and loving (2). It was well into her second marriage, and after a sixth child, that Betty entered the hospital for a hysterectomy and experienced death (28). Betty’s recollections of that experience are vivid and detailed (28-133), and solidified Betty’s perception of God as warm and loving (43). It is, however, in the details of Betty’s recollections where we establish the similarities between death experiences and past life recollections. Betty’s death experience begins with the realization that she is dead, floating above her body (28). Betty was not alarmed by seeing herself as a dead body, and, in fact, had a sense of “[…] sympathy for it. It appeared younger and prettier than I remembered, and now it was dead (27).” Hovering above her lifeless body, Betty’s sadness for it was followed by a sense of freedom (28). “My sense of freedom was limitless and it seemed as if I had done this forever,” she reports (28). Betty’s death experience seemed endless (28-58), and, years later, when Betty met with her attending physician, she discovered that in fact no one could say for just how long Betty had been clinically dead (133). But during the experience, Betty gained knowledge and insight as to her life and family (34), and God and creation (43-52). Betty’s realization that the “souls” in her life were “[…] individual souls, there to achieve their own experiences (34).” She gained a deep sense of the concept of free will (35), and felt a sense of “[…] enormous energy (37).” Her death experience in itself was a sense of “healing” (39). Betty vividly describes a sense of incredible speed in moving toward a light (40). Betty claims to have achieved knowledge during her death experience that life did not originate on earth, but that life on earth was but one lesson in a soul’s evolution, and that souls are in fact universal, a part of the physical universe itself (49). Betty’s experiences, like Weiss’ case study of Catherine, his first case of past life regression and memory (Many Lives 5), is filled with religious and moral symbolisms that yield insight as to the relationship between God, man, and the universe (54). It was during Weiss’ work with Catherine, that he, too, gained a greater sense of God and after life when, during a session and under hypnosis, Catherine advised Weiss that his “[…] father is here, and your son, who is a small child. Your father says you will know him because his name is Avrom, and your daughter is named after him (54).” If ever Weiss was skeptical in his own belief as to regression therapy and past life memory, he at that moment became a believer since there was no way Catherine had of knowing that Weiss had lost his son, or his son’s name (54). Like Betty, Catherine describes floating above her body as she moved from death of the physical body, into a state of between physical bodies where “they” (54) met her, filling her with a sense of love and comfort between lives (54). Betty, too, references what she referred to as the “monks,” who met her, filling her with a sense of comfort and warmth, assuring her that, “They had been with me for eternities (31).” Like Catherine’s recollection of her past lives (Many Lives), Betty had glimpses of her life “before,” and the sense of knowing the monks. As reported in Weiss’ study of Catherine’s past lives, Betty’s death experience gave her the knowledge that “death is a rebirth into a greater understanding of life that stretched forward and backward through time (31-32).” In Weiss’ subsequent work and case studies, a compilations of studies found in Same Souls, Many Bodies, Weiss not only finds incidents of past lives, but future lives too (5). The added dimension of “future” is but yet another similarity found in an examination of past life memories and death experiences. In support of survival beyond life, we have yet another dimension that links the concepts already presented here, in Buhlman’s work, Adventures Beyond the Body. Buhlman’s book is a journal of self-induced out of body experiences, where, as found in Eadie’s death experience and in Weiss’ past life case studies, Buhlman experienced the sensation of hovering above his body, which was in a sleep or unconscious state of existence (4). Buhlman perfected his own individual ability to move beyond the body, and in so doing, like Eadie and the studies in Weiss’ work, found his own agnostic beliefs altered to a c4). Buhlman perfected his own individual ability to move beyond the body, and in so doing, like Eadie and the studies in Weiss’ work, found his own agnostic beliefs altered to a certainty of God, collective love and a confirmation of existence beyond death (6). Buhlman’s experiences, in yet another similarity, changed his perception of his relationship not just with the world around him, but with the universe itself as Buhlman freely traveled beyond the bounds of earth, to “[…} parallel worlds (6).” As described in Eadie’s recollection and in Weiss’ studies, Bulhman, too, experienced a robed soul, although Buhlman’s first encounter with the soul scared him back into his physical body (6). Yet, later, Buhlman became comfortable with his encounters, and at one point during his out of body experiences, he encountered his grandmother, then, his father (247). Buhlman did not engage in verbal conversation with his loved ones, but had a sense of great love and resolution of what had been conflict between himself and his father (247). Buhlman’s journaling of his out of body experiences, support the similarities between death experiences as recalled by Eadie, and the past and future life experiences as documented by Weiss. There is a universal theme in all instances of existence beyond the physical, and an increased awareness of creation and creator, and of being a part of both. In each of the four works cited here, there is strong underlying theme of universal love and the importance of that in the soul’s evolution (Buhlman. “Beyond” 237) (Eadie. “Embraced” 55) (Weiss. “Same” 125) (Weiss. “Many” 54). Each of these support the similarities between experiences, and the fact that there is survival beyond the physical. Works Cited Buhlman, William. Adventures Beyond the Body. Harper Collins. 1996. Eadie, Betty J. Embraced by the Light. Bantam Books. 1994. Weiss, Brian L. M. D. Many Lives, Many Masters. Simon and Schuster, Inc. 1988. Weiss, Brian L. M.D. Same Soul, Many Bodies. Simon and Schuster, Inc. 2004. Read More