“I’m sorry, Martha,” the doctor said sadly, “there is nothing more medical science can offer you. It’s time to go home and call hospice, get your affairs in order and prepare to die.” What goes through someone’s mind when they hear something like that and how does one prepare to die?
If it’s someone who has been a client of yours and they tell you about it, you may begin to include grief work and letting go exercises in their current therapy. If you are finding you have more and more clients with life-threatening diseases and moving into end of life care, you might consider teaching the art of conscious dying to help them and their families prepare for their last days and the moment of death. If you have clients taking care of their elderly parents, you may decide to offer classes to teach them how to be transition guides for their parents. Alternative practitioners and therapists, who have had a near death or other spiritual experience or who are highly intuitive and use to working with energy, make particularly good guides because they can sense where the departing soul is during its transformational process. Those who work with energy, who teach meditation or guided imagery, who do spiritual work, are able to help the dying person relax and reach acceptance. Counselors are able to help those having a hard time with gratitude and forgiveness work. Many modalities complement this work.
Everyone has to make the choice whether to remain in denial about death or to begin to prepare for graduation from the University of Life on Earth. A lot has to do with how one looks at death and the afterlife. The sooner a person reaches acceptance, the sooner he or she might be interested in working with a transition guide.
Martha confides in her yoga teacher Shanti that she has been given her death sentence due to her cancer and she is afraid of what lies ahead. Shanti sits down with her and begins to develop a program to work with her based on how she answers certain questions. She asks about her beliefs about dying and the afterlife, the prognosis of her illness including potential physical and mental side-effects, the dynamics of her family situation and support system, whether she has filled out all the related paperwork (last will, living will, DNR, advanced healthcare directive, funeral and burial arrangements) and if she has thought about how she wants to die (at home, in a hospice setting, with or without friends and family around, the décor of her deathing room, etc.). Some people may want to plan a going away party, an after death ceremony, a remembrance ceremony. It’s important to listen to the client’s last wishes and not get involved in family dysfunctions.
Assuming Martha is somewhat open-minded or spiritual, Shanti suggests a meditation/relaxation exercise to help Martha find peace of mind and begin to let go of her attachments to the physical world during their regular sessions. Shanti transcends her previous yogic work with Martha as she adds other modalities and expands her own consciousness into the spiritual dimension. When Shanti intuits that Martha is ready, she introduces guided imagery sessions to work on releasing addictions, anger, resentment, sorrow, old wounds, family issues and on to gratitude and forgiveness work. There may be sessions involving family members or friends to resolve and release old issues. A life review may be facilitated and a written, oral or video history may be arranged to leave to future generations.
As Martha becomes more in touch with her authentic self and her consciousness evolves, she frees herself from negative karma so she is prepared to recognize her true nature when the Clear Light dawns. The earlier work prepares Martha to write her own transition guidebook to keep her from being distracted by any remaining negative energy in her field and stay focused on moving into the Light (God, Jesus, Allah, Holy Spirit, Totality, Universe, All That Is, I AM). Shanti is there for Martha during her transition reading her guidebook, traveling with her soul to meet her spiritual guides, angels and loved ones on the other side, and returning to tell her family that Martha is happy with her spiritual family once again. If the family has been involved in the process, they will have resolved much of their grief, and reached acceptance and closure themselves. While there is always sadness when someone we love dies, knowing they are just moving forward on their spiritual journey and that we will soon join them and continue ours, makes continuing with our human lives more meaningful.
This is teaching the Art of Conscious Dying into the Clear Light. The concept has roots in ancient religious traditions, which have been re-interpreted and re-invented multiple times over thousands of years, beginning before written history. This is the modern day near death experience perspective based on reports by people all over the world who say that we leave our bodies in full consciousness, transcend our human brain and body and move on to another dimension where our real lives continue. With our new evolving consciousness that we are spiritual beings having human being experiences, death becomes a flash in which our human being self transforms into our spiritual being self, and our eternal life continues on its journey. When you awaken to that reality, it makes perfect sense to make one’s dying process a beautiful spiritual experience of awakening into full consciousness.
But wait! Hold on! What happens if I get hit by a bus (car, flood, tornado, earthquake, bomb, bullet, heart attack, aneurysm)? What about sudden death? This is where primary prevention programs come in and alternative healers are ideal teachers because the transition guide modality blends with so many others. We are all going to die sooner or later, one way or another so why not be prepared for the experience whenever it comes? People approach death with fear, anxiety, regrets, sadness, sorrow, anger, resentment; all the things they kept inside and denied, perhaps just to survive. Lesson to learn is that we need to get rid of all our baggage before we can benefit from the opportunity transformation offers to our soul and it is easier to do it on this side of the veil than have a “hellish” experience, as some near death experiencers have reported, to contend with on the other side. It may be that alternative healers will become some of the teachers who lead humanity on the path to consciousness evolution where we can look forward to our graduation with all lessons learned. This leads us to a leap into higher consciousness (frequency) that propels our soul to new spiritual heights and further progress along our eternal spiritual path leading us to God-Consciousness.
Diane Goble has been a spiritual seeker since her near death experience in 1971 and a spiritual teacher for over 20 years. She has a master’s degree in Community Psychology and is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist. She has written several books and had an Internet presence since 1996 with her well-known site BeyondtheVeil.net, offering spiritual lessons, resources, books, and psycho-spiritual counseling for seekers. On her newest website, TransitionGuideTraining.org, she offers a training course for educators and alternative practitioners who wish to integrate the Art of Conscious Dying into the Clear Light from a near death experience perspective into their current healing modality.