What is Death

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file: deathnew.doc
dk: 900


Death is the grand finale of the soul's existence in this physical
body but not the grand finale of existence of the soul. At death the
soul discards the body and assumes its spiritual non- material state.
When it discards the material body it becomes free from the
limitations of matter. It can travel at the speed of thought;
spiritual substances which were invisible before; become visible; and
communications with other spirits become possible. As a bodhisatva,
it retains the power to stay at the earthly level or join the creator
along with the billions who have already joined Him/Her.

Almost all human beings are afraid of death. Why? I presume it is the
fear of the unknown. We don't know what will happen, or where we are
going.

Therefore, to get rid of the fear, we have to find out the truth and
know that it is truth. How can we know that? One way is to
investigate. Search and find out" Where did I come from? Where am I
going? Who created me and what for?" Check to find out if the
answers we get are logical.
Find out if any one else investigated these and if they got the same
answer. Was their investigation logical?

Did any one get other answers and how were those answers obtained?
Where did they go wrong to get different answers? Were their
investigations logical, reasonable methodical? Were they trying to
find out the truth or did they go on their belief system without
logic.

The only way is to search again and again, hundreds of times. and
never getting any other answer.

How can we find out about death? We can examine the reports of those
who had near-death experiences.

Many people, who were revived after being declared dead, reported to
have seen the other world.

Raymond Moody Jr. wrote that several people have told him that,
during their encounters with death," they had brief glimpses of an
entire separate realm of existence in which all knowledge of past,
present and future seemed to co-exist in a timeless state.
Alternately, this has been described as a moment of enlightenment in
which the subject seemed to have complete knowledge because they were
in a place of knowledge. It was like they knew all things."

Evidence for survival of the soul is supported by incidents in which
a living person receives information obtainable only from the one who
has passed on. There are several examples of this on record.

Oscar, the brother of nineteen-year-old Miss Loganson, was murdered
in a farm 50 miles away from where she was in Chicago. There was no
explanation when or how Oscar disappeared. The police had no lead.
Then Logansen saw in a dream that her brother was murdered by a
neighbor and buried in his poultry pen. Oscar's spirit continued to
convey the story for one week to convince her. She went to the town
and influenced the police to break open the door of her brother's
house and then to the house of one Bedford. They found traces of
blood in Bedford's kitchen. Then she went to the hen house and
pointed out an old pavement insisting that her brother's body was
below that. It took a lot of persuasion to convince the police that a
body was under an old undisturbed pavement. But Logansen was sure for
she had seen it in the dream. She was able to persuade the police to
break the old pavement and dig and they found the body underneath.

Justinus Kerner, a doctor, poet and friend of Goethe, practicing in
Weinsberg in 1826, had a woman, Friederike Hauffe, as a patient. She
was haunted by the ghost of one Friederik with a squint. He had
embezzled some money and another person was accused of the crime. He
appeared to Hauffe in a dream and pointed out the files in the
archives where the proof of embezzlement was. No one knew where
these files existed. Nobody else could have given this proof except
the spirit of the dead.

After Dante's death, his sons Jacopo and Piero looked for all his
works but could not find thirteen cantos of Paradiso. Dante appeared
in a vision to Jacopo and took him to a house of Giardini with
matting fixed to the wall. Jacopo immediately was wide-awake and
went to Giardini and with him to the house, which Dante had pointed
out. They found a matting fixed to the wall. When they removed the
matting, they saw a little window with several manuscripts. They
were the thirteen cantos they were looking for.

James L. Chaffin, an eccentric farmer lived in Davie County in North
Carolina. He executed his will on November 16, 1905 according to
which he left everything to his favorite son, Marshall. He
disinherited his spouse and three other children, John, James, and
Abner. On Sept.7th, 1921, he died. Marshall obtained a probate of the
will and nobody contested.

Four years after his father's death in June 1925, James, the second
son, had so vivid a dream that he woke up in a sweat. He had been
dreaming about his father many times during the previous several
weeks. but this dream was almost frightening. His father appeared by
his bedside dressed, as he had been all his life in a long black
overcoat which had been his trademark for the previous ten winters.
In his dream James saw his father pull open the overcoat and point to
the inside pocket again and again and abruptly disappear.

At breakfast that morning, James went to his mother and asked her
what happened to Pa's coat. She told him she gave it to John, the
eldest son. The following Monday, James drove up to see John. The
coat was hanging upstairs in the closet since Mrs. Chaffin Sr. had
given it to him. He had worn it only once or twice. It was too big.
Together, John Chaffin's wife and James Chaffin took the coat from
its hanger and nervously James pulled it open and ran his fingers
along the inside pocket. It was sewn shut. He cut the stitches and
reached inside and found a tiny roll of yellow paper tied with
string. He untied the string and read in his father's
handwriting "read the 27th Chapter of Genesis in my Daddy's old
Bible."

James' grandfather was a clergyman and his bible was a fragile, worn
but treasured family heirloom kept in the Chaffin farmhouse in Davie
County. Thoroughly excited, James drove back home.

The Bible passage was the story of how Jacob supplanted Esau and won
his birthright and his father's blessing. James now decided not to go
any further without witness and got in touch with a neighbour, Mr.
Thomas Blackwelder and his daughter to accompany him to his mother's
house. There, these three along with his own daughter and his mother
went upstairs to where the Bible was kept. Mrs. Chaffin opened the
drawer and James lifted out the old book which fell into three
pieces. James picked up two pieces and Blackwelder picked up one. The
one that Blackwelder retrieved was the one containing Genesis. At the
27th chapter, two leaves had been folded over to form a pocket and in
the pocket was found a paper on which was written in the elder
Chaffin's handwriting.

"After reading the 27th Chapter of Genesis, I, James L. Chaffin do
make my last will and testament and here it is. I want, after giving
my body a decent burial, my little property to be equally divided
among my four children, if they are living at my death, both personal
and real estate, divided equal, and if not living, with share going
to their children. If she is living, you all must take care of your
mummy. Now this is my last will and testament, witnessed my hand and
seal, James L. Chaffin, this January 16, 1919".

Although the second will was unattested, it was legal in North
Carolina and could be proved that the handwriting was that of the
elder Chaffin. James submitted the second Will to the court for
probation. Marshall had since died and his son was made a defendant
in the suite to set aside the first will and prove the second. The
case was settled out of court.

The next example is about the financial concern of a father for his
daughter. The father appeared in a dream in white shirt and black
pants to tell his sick daughter in the hospital that there is money
in the pocket of the shirt he was wearing at the time of his death.
She was puzzled about the white shirt and black pants he was wearing.
The coroner had provided a white shirt and black pants in place of
the dirty clothes the man had been wearing when he died. He appeared
to his daughter in his changed clothes, not in the clothes in which
he died. (This shows the spirit has certain amount of freedom to
select how to appear to a percipient). She got his shirt and the
money.

The widow of the Dutch ambassador to Stockholm, the Countess de
Marteville, requested Swedenborg to contact her deceased husband who
had died the previous April. The Count had purchased a silver-service
from a silversmith who demanded payment from the Countess after one
year. She knew that the bill had been paid, but could not find the
receipt. A friend of her husband suggested that she should ask Mr.
Swedenborg for help and she did. A few days later, Swedenborg
reported that he had seen her husband and that her husband would tell
her where the receipt was hidden. Eight days later, the Countess
dreamed that her husband told her to look behind a particular drawer
in the desk. She did so and found not only the receipt but also a
diamond hairpin that had been missing.

Skeptics will denounce such examples. Even Scientists didn't believe
in some inventions when they were first discovered. They disbelieved
blood circulation, bacteria being the cause of diseases, and
heliocentricity. Copernicus did not believe that the moon influenced
the tide. It is only right that they didn't believe without
verification.

When the news of overseas telephone communication came to him, Sir
William Barrett FRS, Professor of Physics at the Royal College of
Science for Dublin from 1873-1910, was a guest of the famous
physicist, Professor Tait at Edinburgh. Barrett gave the news to
Professor Tait and asked if the news was believable. Professor Tait
said, "It is all humbug. Such a discovery is physically impossible."


Therefore, we should view these reports of "messages from beyond"
with an open mind, even suspicion. Death is not to be feared. It is
merely a change of state, the point of entry to another world.

When we know who created us and what for, we will not be afraid of
death anymore. We will know that death is only a change of state, a
state of limited freedom to infinite freedom. We will know it is a
promotion and will be happy for the promotion.
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Resource Box: The Purpose of Creation by Dr. P.C. Simon, Copyright
2003. Also by Dr. P.C. Simon, the informative, inspiring, and life-
changing book, The Missing Piece to Paradise. More articles by Dr.
Simon and a description of his book can be seen at
http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/psimon/book2.htm

About the Author
Dr. P.C. Simon is a retired research microbiologist, philosopher,
philanthropist and author.