© AKA SPEAKING UP (WITH SOULCAST) October, 2009

I was asked the question, “What is the new age perspective on the afterlife.”  Wow.  This would be akin to trying to define the perspective of every single religion in time - in one fell swoop!  It just can’t be done, grasshopper.  But I’d like to offer some of my own thoughts (as a New Age Christian) on the likelihood (or not) of an afterlife.

I’ll explain by first defining the New Age Movement: 

Okay, after spending several hours trying to do that I’m now going to move on.

The new age (also known as new thought) is an indefinable collection of belief systems.  Unlike most formal religions, it has no holy text, central organization, membership, formal clergy, geographic center, dogma, creed, etc. They often use mutually exclusive definitions for some of their terms. The New Age is in fact a free-flowing spiritual movement; a network of believers and practitioners who share somewhat similar beliefs and practices, which they add on to whichever formal religion that they follow.  So we have a never-ending spectrum of new age thinkers who come from all walks of life and whom could be Christian, Islam, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhists… just to name some of the main religions of the east and west.

My new beliefs are simply add-ons to the existing Christian faith.  I believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God in human form, and I also believe He was a New Age Prophet promoting new thought.  I have studied the Sermon on the Mount and related reference material at some length and I have learned that much of his message was lost through omissions and misinterpretations over the last 2000 years or so (at the pleasure of whomever had biblical publishing powers of any given time; and at the will of Country or Christian leaders).  The Dead Sea Scrolls found in 1947 prove just how little of Christ’s message did get published; but I regress.

I never really thought about an afterlife before the death of my son.  The seed of new thought was planted in me by my own dead son’s spirit.  My experiences with the “afterlife” have changed my mind, body, and soul, – forever.   I cannot go back to my old ways of thinking and believing, no matter how many people try to persuade me that my spiritual encounters are devil inspired.  So, unless you have experienced similar encounters to what I am about to share, I politely ask that you save the hate mail and leave all objections in your own mind.  Simply stated, I am sharing a very real and alive story that may help to open the minds of too many of us who have chosen to believe that God, the Angels, Spiritual Guides, and Eternity – died with the men who wrote the bible.  Since the New Testament was published we have seen no more news to convince us that life may have continued to evolve. 

We prefer the bible to stay the same, because God wrote it and to add anything new would be a sin and an insult to new or newer God Inspired poets and writers.  Wait!  God wrote it?  I was always confused about this claim.  God is a spirit…how can he “write?”  Since my own encounters with God I now understand this concept of God’s Word much clearer.  God speaks through people.  Certainly God did speak through the authors of the bible; but what we may have failed to consider is that God is still talking.  The sad Truth is too few of us are listening.  We prefer to learn our life’s lessons by going to church and having a trained leader tell us what the some 2000 year old bible stories could mean to us today. 

I am thrilled to be able to say I no longer need anyone to “tell me” what God is like, or whether or not there is an afterlife.  I am ecstatic that for some bizarre reason, in 2003, I was able to experience God first hand.  Even better, I was able to LISTEN!  No, I am not extraordinary, nor am I “chosen” by God to enjoy the fruits of His message and others are not.  I was introduced to the “heavens” by my own sons’ eternal spirit.

I was awakened in the early hours of the morning by the distinct sensation that someone had just sat down on the bottom of my bed.  Alarmed, I jumped up and looked to see who was in my bedroom.  No one.  Shaking my head at the strangeness of the moment, I allowed myself to believe I was imagining things and went back to sleep and didn’t give the experience another thought.

Until the next morning when it happened again.  Only this time when I felt the mattress go down I was also filled with an ‘awareness’ that my dead Trevor was with me.  My son, who had died months before in a tragic car accident, was sitting on the bottom of my bed (albeit invisible to my eye).  I can’t tell you how I know it was Trevor causing the bed sensation.   I can’t tell you how I leapt from believing in nothing about an afterlife - to instantly knowing that my son’s spirit was around me.

The signs and messages didn’t stop there.  Suddenly I found myself on a whirlwind spiritual journey that would boggle the mind of the highest of priests.  For three years (and the experiences continue) feelings of one or more spirits being around me continued.  Then lamps inexplicitly began turning on and off in rapid succession as if someone were trying to get my attention.  The word ‘message’ showed up on my cell phone (a cell with no message service attached to it); chimes in a yard full of trees holding charms would begin banging – but only from on tree; white feathers would follow my grand-daughter around - the last one streaming down and landing on the top of her five year old head for all of us to witness.  I also experienced occasional hallucinatory type visions (while awake and in dreams), and auditory voices (male and female) that don’t belong to me speaking inside my ears.  Suddenly when I looked at the clock I would constantly see 1:11 or 11:11 (am and pm every single day, as if someone was trying to tell me something).  When I looked at photo’s I could see strange balls, colorful ones or just white ones, in the background.  These are just a few of the hundreds of encounters I have had with the afterlife since that first time in 2003.  I could have ignored it all.  No I couldn’t.  Trevor would not let me.

As I investigated my own experiences I realized how dead I’ve been about the universe and God.  Remember when they told us we only use up about 10 percent of our brain?  I am convinced now we use up only a fraction of that in our absolute ability to experience the afterlife before we are dead.  If I had not been the one experiencing this ‘Para-normal’ activity I would have judged the beholder of such a story as a tad loony.  Perhaps just a little bit grief-stricken?  Certainly I would not have been able to comprehend the experience if it didn’t happen to me.  But it did happen to me.

Another example (out of thousands reported throughout the world) of a soul who come to let loved ones know we are eternal, is the soul of Erika Brindl:  Eight days after Ericka Brindl died she began communicating with her mother and stepfather, Elissa Bishop-Becker and the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker. These communications continue to this day. Along with much joy and laughter and love, Elissa communicates the wisdom of a highly evolved being on the verge of moving on to the next level of spiritual complexity. She gives us a glimpse of what is possible for us all, and she shines a light to guide us in that direction. 

In my subsequent research of similar events, I learned there are thousands, if not millions, of experiences people have from the afterlife, or during Near Death Experiences (commonly called NDE).  Sadly, we have chosen to put down, ridicule, or shame these blessed people into thinking they are devil worshippers.  How sad for us!

My mission became a compulsion to find out why my Trevor survived when, according to everything I have been taught by good Christian folk, he did not do as the Christian message purports that we do to get our ticket into heaven -- formally ask Jesus Christ to be his savior.  It’s right there in the bible, ”For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and whosoever believes in him (Jesus Christ) shall not perish, but have ever lasting life” John 3:16.  Trevor did not believe in Jesus in the traditional sense so how come he seems to have ever-lasting life?  This was my new conundrum. 

I continued in my search for answers about this internal conflict I was faced with, and sought out religious counsel.  According to a Pastor with a large and flourishing Seventh Day Adventist Church my son is most certainly in hell because he never came right out and “asked Jesus to come into his heart and save him from sin.”  Moreover, two of my Catholic friends e-mailed me with the thinly veiled threat that I myself am fooling with the devil and heading directly to hell by exploring what I am exploring (the afterlife).

The medical community seemed interested in my experiences:  psychiatrists were willing and ready to medicate and lock me up – not for new thought but for delusional thought.    And thus I realized to count on traditional Christian teachings or our medical scientists for answers - I was coming to a dead end (pun intended).  

During my drive to understand what I was experiencing (which included a succession of messages from angels, spiritual guides, and other dead relatives) the new age movement was the only forum willing to listen to me about my new spiritual Truth. 

My son’s spirit came to tell me that we are eternal; that he died but his spirit did not die, and that he was not only okay, he was more than okay.  Once I got that message, and I really felt it in my soul that he was alive in some ‘afterlife,’ my spiritual growth blossomed.  I read every single book I could on the subject (including the Bible, which, interestingly, concurs with every single one of my claims when read with an alive mind).  I sought out people, credible people who have no reason to lie about their own strange visits and encounters, and exchanged stories.  The more I learned, the more I grew closer toward God, and the Christ within me.

In his short lifetime Trevor was resistant to anything I tried to teach him as a child when it comes to Church, Jesus Christ, salvation, and all that.  But I had to be reasonable in my thinking, and as a parent wonder what God would do with such a bad boy.  I am comforted with the same thought that fills my mind: God would prefer TREVOR to sit at the right side of His throne in heaven over any asshole whose intent is to inhibit a grieving mother who is simply trying to understand her own spiritual experiences!

Trevor was the type of soul who loved freely, gave freely, judged no one, and simply wanted to live his life his way.  If some poor bum had no jacket, Trevor would be the first one to take off his coat to make the man warm.  I remember throughout Trevor’s life thinking, many, many times, “What a beautiful soul you are, Trevor.”

My personal knowledge of spirits, and subsequent investigations, give me an excellent (new age) perspective toward our afterlife.  And I am applying the new thought to my Christian beliefs because Jesus Christ, in addition to being undeniably resurrected Himself, told the multitude that what miracles He could do, we could also do.  Now when questioned about my “new age” beliefs I simply tell listeners that Christ’s message is either Truth, or it is not.

I prefer to move away from the religious ostrich that buries its head in the sands of tradition because it fears anything new that will bring change.  For me, pseudo-religions of any kind breeds churches full of spiritual pygmies.  Too many of our churches create fear and hopelessness and they outright lie about the teaching of Jesus Christ, and the afterlife.  All of this restraint is a perfect prescription for escape into insanity, drug and alcohol abuse, and it takes away the joy and the true spirit of what Jesus taught.  

My Trevor had his difficulties in his short 25 years, but as his mother I knew he had a heart of gold and would give his last $20.00 to anyone in need.  He was a strong spirit in this life, and he proved himself to be a strong spirit in the afterlife.  He came back to help me evolve in my spiritual journey on earth, loud and clear.

“But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

I imagine my Trevor sticking his tongue out at me in love, joy and laughter (this was and is the essence of my son) and basking in the glory of knowing he was right, he didn’t have to answer to any man or church to find the Spirit of God.  I feel him now, waving his rightness at me, “I told you so Mom!”

I can understand why leaders of traditional or fundamental religions angrily call new age thinking blasphemous, and why they are resistant to the idea of eternity for all and not just the chosen few such as themselves.   Imagine the horror of learning that it really doesn’t matter to anyone except himself or herself that they went to church every day, or that they said millions of Hail Mary’s in their lifetimes, or that they were diligent in following pious self-inflicted sacrifices.  New thought finds that we can pray once a day or five times a day – performed merely as a ritual these practices cant and don’t alter our shift into eternity at all. 

But before we start condemning our old-thought friends for their lack of spiritual awareness, or patting our own new age backs for this new found wisdom; we need to remember the Christ within all of us, and know that we are all here for the same reason, to learn, to grow, to evolve spiritually.  If we are walking around with any soul at all, the Spirit of Christ is inherently already within us (whether we know it or not).  And this brings us full circle to God’s promise in John 3:16 – the promise of ever-lasting life.