What Is Death?
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Birth is not the beginning of life—only of an individual awareness.
Changing into another state is not death—only the ending of this awareness.
Death is only the dissolution of a worn-out body. (Hermes Trismegistus as quoted in Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy, The Hermetica: The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs, 1977.)
Dying is easy; staying dead is the challenge. (unknown)
35 years ago, my brother, Marc, had a sudden, severe asthma attack. Within hours of the attack, he left his body. He had been struggling with asthma for most of his life. At the time, he was married with two children and a third on the way. He was loved and respected by all who knew him. I didn’t know what to do or think and was in shock for many weeks. A well-known healer worked nearby and, although I knew very little about healers, I decided to make a visit. In addition to doing energy work, she channeled information, from where I know not, that was shockingly accurate. That channeling experience began a life changing journey that continues to this day.
Several months later, I wanted to connect more directly with my brother and a local medium was recommended. A medium is a person who has the training and skill to act as an intermediary between the physical and non-physical dimensions of life. Mediums can receive previously unknown information that, among other things, explains the cause of personality traits as well as phobias and relationship challenges, to name a few.
It takes years of dedicated training to clearly connect the two realms. It is, however, a skill anyone can learn. Again, I knew nothing about how this worked, if indeed it did, but I was curious. My interest had been piqued by my positive healing and channeling experiences. The medium, despite knowing nothing about me or my brother, easily connected with Marc. She gave me information, provided by Marc, that only two brothers, who had lived in the same household, would know. She also relayed Marc’s description of his traumatic passing. Since the session lasted over an hour, a great deal of information was shared. The whole experience was surreal but reassured me that Marc still existed in another form, and we would connect with each other sometime again. When life withdraws from your field of perception, it appears in another field of perception. Death is not the end. Life appears somewhere else in another realm or dimension of life.
The truth and precision of my communication with my brother encouraged me to learn and seek to experience more about the spirit world. I read and studied all I could about life after one withdraws from their body and the purpose of life in physical form. In fact, I have had over 25 years of monthly sessions with a healer (a different person than I started with) and my spirit guides. At these sessions, I have been encouraged to ask any question, and forthright answers are always promptly provided. I’ve learned much about my spirit guides and even more about myself in this life and those in the past. It has been especially informative to learn about connections I have had in past lives with people with whom I am now interacting. It has helped me understand why I feel close to some people and struggle with others. Why I may “owe” some people my love and gratitude and why others are so generous to me. In short, understanding more of the big picture, including the history of my previous connections, has been very enriching.
I have learned that information about reincarnations provides meaning and purpose. It demonstrates that every experience and every lifetime are part of the cyclical and ongoing experiences of the soul. It is not just a concept or theory. The fact that we have experienced human life in a physical body before, and are likely to do it again, has been validated by respected researchers. For example, Dr. Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia interviewed thousands of children who remember vivid details of past lives. These have all been verified. The children identified houses where they lived in previous lives and the names and relationships with relatives in previous lifetimes. (Suzanne Giesemann, The Awakened Way: Making the Shift to a Divinely Guided Life, 2024.) Another example comes from Brian L. Weiss, M.D.’s best-selling book titled: Many Lives, Many Masters. He describes using past life regression with patients to evoke detailed memories of prior lives. The information given by the patients was later corroborated. (Brian L. Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters: The true story of a prominent psychiatrist, his young patient and the past-life therapy that changed both their lives,1988.)
I had a related experience about 15 years ago when I experienced a reincarnation in the same lifetime (also referred to as a reincarnation in the same body or RSB). At one of my regular monthly sessions with my guides, I was told that my soul had decided to extend my life (I was 67 at the time) so I could finish work I had previously started in China. Rather than going into detail about this experience I refer the reader to the book I co-authored with Diana Muenz Chen titled: Know Your Soul: Bring Joy to Your Life, (2019) for more context and details. This RSB experience has shown me how malleable life is. I have also learned how our soul and guides are always aware of our state of being and lovingly helping us do what serves the greatest good. For example, a number of years ago, my soul determined that I should have the benefit of some traits that were part of my personality in prior incarnations but were not available to me in this one. A physical incarnation can only absorb a finite amount of energy so some must be left behind. Some of those traits were now needed, so they were “downloaded” so I would have access to them.
Some of the other things I’ve learned:
All life is given by the creator with love. Love doesn’t die. Neither does the being who is experiencing life. Said another way, the life force is everlasting and, therefore, life is eternal. The being that is birthed by a soul continues to grow toward the ultimate objective of attaining an enlightened understanding of all that one is, and all that one can be.
The thing that changes is the myriad forms used as vehicles for the soul and its human personality to experience and learn from life. As life continues, awareness expands. With the personality’s limited vision and the absence of a physical connection, death of the body appears to be an ending. In fact, dying is a transitory illusion. “Death” is a temporary pause that provides an opportunity to consolidate and integrate all that has been learned into a cohesive whole. Integration includes physical, emotional and mental aspects of previous life experience that are integrated into a well-aligned and efficient whole.
Eternal life is a concept beyond human understanding; this is the way creation was designed. It is a function of the creator’s love for the creation. Once a being is given life is it theirs to keep, an incredible gift that knows no bounds.
When one has completed their understandings at one level they simply expand to another one. The pervasive fear of death is caused by the belief that change leads into the unknown. The unknown is viewed as something negative that should be avoided at all costs. This belief is despite the fact that humans know so little about the totality of life. Yet physical death is not an extinction of consciousness. Consciousness is foundational and always is. The intent is to experience all that can be experienced so you can eventually be of greater help to others. It takes many incarnations to capture all that you can learn; so many that it is not possible to count or keep track of all the rounds.
Needless to say, my journey has been most memorable. I can summarize a lifetime of learning by the following:
You are the infinite, choosing to be finite.
You are the immortal choosing to experience mortality.
Enjoy your journey, wherever it may lead.
David A. Schwerin, Ph.D.