My sister-in-law, Susan, passed away this week. She was the last surviving sibling of my late husband, David. It dawned on me that of all the people who attended my wedding rehearsal dinner way-back-when, only two survive ~ my life-long supernal friend, Sue, and me. My, how the decades have flown. Life is one decision after another. Consequences lead to more necessary decisions. The life partner you choose, the food you eat, the exercise you do (or don’t do), the philosophies you adopt, all steer a course for your life journey.
I’ve come to see that living well is an art. It’s learning to make conscious decisions and considering where various consequences may lead. Living well to the last breath requires good decisions. Making a beautiful transition to the Afterlife can be artfully done.
I am gratified to be participating in the Death Summit Webinar on All Souls Day, November 2nd, sponsored by Ripples of Light. This three-hour Facebook Live seminar offers wisdom and guidance for living your best life to the final moments.
Featured Speakers
Father Nathan Castle, Noon Eastern, 9 AM Pacific ~ Catholic priest, author of the Afterlife, Interrupted Series, popular speaker and host of The Joyful Friar Podcast, Father Nathan ministers to souls in the Afterlife. For thirty years he has been helping souls “graduate” in heavenly realms. He offers important insights for the living from his unique perspective about what happens after physical death.
Intuitive Helen Nibs interviewed by Dana Taylor1 PM Eastern, 10 AM Pacific ~ Medium, Healer, Intuitive Counselor from Ripples of Light, Helen will reveal what she’s learned from the departed that she thinks you should know. Expect the unexpected!
Bekah Jane, Death Doula2 PM Eastern, 11 AM Pacific~ Bekah Jane specializes in comfort care for both the dying and those grieving them, integrating herbalism, essential oils, and total healthcare management into her practice. She and her team works closely with families and doctors to ensure clear communication and coordination during sensitive times. She offers important information for navigating this little-talked about chapter of life.
Mark your calendar for this FREE Death Summit on Saturday, November 2, 2024, at the Ripples of Light Facebook page for a LIVE presentation, beginning at Noon Eastern, 11 AM Central, 9 AM Pacific.
For the last twenty-seven years Father Nathan Castle has helped over 600 souls “graduate” in heaven to higher realms. Each experience begins with a dream, usually of a violent or sudden death. Later, he meets with prayer partners and allows angels and souls to speak through him. He is part of the “heavenly discharge team.” In 2018 Father Nathan began publishing books from the notebooks he’s maintained through the years. In 2022, he started The Joyful Friar podcast to reach a wider audience. His first two books fascinated me and the third in the series is equally compelling.
Book three brings us people from around the world who have lived in many cultures before they transitioned to other dimensions. Each story is chosen with a lesson for the living. This book is different in that three of the stories involve people who did not die violently, but rather gave up on life long before their deaths. A doctor who sank into the half-existence of long illness; the wealthy woman who harbored a secret rape and cut off close relationships; a perpetually grieving young woman focused only on her loss until cancer ends her days. Father Nathan’s poignant conversations with those souls reveal people who missed out on the pleasures and opportunities that life has to offer. For those of us still on the planet, those cautionary tales show us the consequences of our actions and negative thought patterns. Fortunately, there is mercy and grace in heavenly realms to guide and heal souls. Father Nathan’s books are filled with hope and wonder.
Father Nathan Castle
I always have many questions after reading the Afterlife Interrupted books. And, how lucky was I to be asked to be the Guest Host for the 2nd anniversary of The Joyful Friar podcast! I was able to ask Father Nathan many of my questions. How do those dreams work? What have you learned about Guardian Angels? How do Helpers assist in “heavenly graduation?” Those questions and so many more.
I invite you to watch our 2nd Anniversary Show interview. It was an honor and joy to be a part of the celebration. Father Nathan’s work offers hope and assurance that we indeed are eternal souls, and life is what we make it, both on earth and in heaven. So, make good choices and embrace the joy of living.
Isn’t synchronicity fun? In 2018 I attended a casual church meeting and found myself chatting with a stranger named David. He said, “I’m reading the most fascinating book. It’s written by a Catholic priest who helps departed souls cross into heaven.” That was how I found my way to Father Nathan Castle’s book,Afterlife Interrupted: Helping Stuck Souls Cross Over, which I found fascinating and reviewed. (SeeConversations from the Afterlife.) Father Castle has spent most of his career in college campus ministry. But about once a week, he receives dreams, often of violent or sudden deaths of various people who are now “stuck” in a purgatory level of the afterlife. He later meets with prayer partners and opens himself up to lend his voice to the departed person who is ready to move onto another heavenly realm. The prayer team assists in that process. The book remained in my mind, and I often recommended it to friends.
Fast forward to 2024. I am now working as Assistant to the President, Dr. Yvonne Kason, at Spiritual Awakenings International (SAI) and we are getting ready for the big SAI Conference 2024. Father Castle is on the roster of scheduled speakers. Yvonne assigns me to host Father Castle’s session, which I find very exciting.
I immediately purchase Afterlife Interrupted, Book Two, which I find as thought-provoking as the first book. The plan is I am simply to introduce Father Castle and let him make a presentation. But it turns out, that isn’t really his style. A few minutes in, he asks if Yvonne or I would ask him some questions and turn it into more of conversation. Well, my excitement level skyrockets. This is like asking a 12-year-old girl if she would like to have a conversation with Taylor Swift. Father Nathan exudes a rare combination of joyful spirituality, humility, and wisdom. An impromptu interview ensues between Father Castle and me–which I think went well, but I’ll have to wait for the video to see.
We explored some of the material of Book Two. Through the years, Father Nathan has helped some 500 souls cross over, so curating the stories to include in a book, requires prayerful consideration. The criteria seems to be, what can the living learn from the dead? There’s certainly comfort in discovering that no one dies alone. Everyone has a guardian angel who helps them along, often quickly leaving a violent scene. There are teams of helpers providing aid and care as people adjust to the afterlife. Free will is respected. Everyone is at their own stage of soul development.
One of the stories we discussed concerned, Nadi, an Iraqi man, who died in a sectarian massacre of Muslim against Muslim. Nadi’s lesson seemed be that dogmatic beliefs are small-minded illusions of separation. He comes to see the Oneness of beliefs across the earth. When he is ready to move on, a beautiful flotilla celebration appears for him on a river. His father welcomes him aboard a boat, and they sail away.
All of the stories are moving and relay significant life lessons worth pondering. The final two are tales of suicide, one of a band singer, Bea, from the 1930’s who was sexually exploited by the men in power. Once she becomes pregnant, she “takes matters into her own hands” and ends her life. Rather than being condemned for her decision, she is met by the ineffable Margaret Hamilton, forever-famous as the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz. Hamilton is a sympathetic guide who knew the dark realities of male domination of the entertainment industry. Bea moves to a better reality than she left behind.
We get another glimpse of suicide through the experience of Bob, who leapt to his death during the Depression when life just seemed too difficult. However, Bob’s difficulties didn’t disappear. He brings foggy despair with him to the afterlife and must deal with that before he can move on. He receives patient spiritual and emotional counseling until he is ready for another level. Ultimately, his advice to the living is to not lose hope. It was hopelessness that drove him to suicide, the proverbial “permanent solution to a temporary problem.” He urges people to seek help and rediscover hope.
Afterlife Interrupted, Book Two is a compelling peek into the heavenly realms, offering valuable lessons to the living. Father Nathan Castle continues his work with college students and is often a guest at spiritual conferences and podcasts. He also hostsThe Joyful Friar podcast which “explores the soulful, the meaningful, and the mystical.”
I’m so grateful for that casual conversation in 2018 that led me to meeting Father Nathan Castle in 2024. Ah, sweet synchronicity.
Several weeks ago, Spirit nudged me to create a meditation for people dealing with grief. At the time, I wondered if it was a portent for things to come. Of course, grief is part of the human experience. Loving deeply delivers greatest joy, but also greatest loss when a loved one dies. At this point in life, I am no stranger to grief. I’ve walked the path of the “Valley of the Shadow of Death,” as described in Psalm 23, most memorably when my mother died, and later, my husband. Both greatly loved, both greatly missed.
For me, grief is something to acknowledge and experience. It’s a time to slow down and allow feeling to bubble up and flow out, sometimes in tears, sometimes in closet cleaning or long, long walks. The relationship mourned is not really over, but transformed. With my mother, I ultimately came to feel how much of her lives on in me–my style, my voice pattern, my love for music and family, my ready smile. Gratitude replaced grief.
Grief for my husband took a different route, as it seems we maintain a relationship of sorts as he has simply gone from physical to non-physical. We aren’t in a day-to-day marriage any longer. No more, “what do you want to eat? What should we do tonight?” But rather, he is still around when I really need him, but most of the time now, we’re leading our post-marriage lives. Me, still on planet earth, he in another dimension. But when I am in a crisis, he makes his presence known, usually through music or the sudden appearance of coins.
Two weeks ago, grief came calling to my family as my older daughter, Sara lost her father-in-law, Gary. He’d gone into sudden decline, entered the hospital to hopefully get stronger, but instead, passed away. I’d been following the unfolding drama through long-distance communications with Sara. The afternoon Gary was breathing his last breaths, I found a shiny penny sitting on top of my car. How strange, I thought. How did that get there?
A couple hours later, I received the message that Gary had passed. Though not surprised, I still felt the reverberating shock wave of emotion of the family gathered around his bed. Gary had been a strong, much beloved center of his family. Greatly loved, now to be greatly missed.
When I returned to my car, a bright shiny dime sat in the passenger’s seat. The penny, the dime. Now I got it. My husband makes his presence known when I need him….Truly, love never dies.
The Relief from Grief Meditation is my humble offering for those dealing with the pangs of loss. Hopefully, those who listen will feel their spirits lifted and find their way ever so steadily to joy and appreciation for the love they have known.
As he points out, the pandemic brought the reality of death into heightened awareness for a society that had learned to take longevity for granted and consigned dying to hospitals and nursing homes, far away from daily life. Mike has been exploring Out-of-Body Experiences (OBE) since 1987. He’s come to understand that consciousness goes on beyond human body habitation. One of his life purposes is to be work with Retrievals, which helps souls lost or “stuck” in lower dimensions, aka the bardo in Buddhism, purgatory in Catholicism, or simply “limbo” in secular terms.
A large section of the book relates many of Mike’s Out-of-Body Experiences as he might have written them in a personal journey. They reveal a much more complex Afterlife than simply heaven or hell. Some spirits stay earth bound, while others reside for a while in other lower frequency dimensions, often in “Consensus Realities,” not so different from earthly societies. Mike’s astral body travels these lower realms as an explorer and also as a helper for the lost souls needing assistance going to the Light.
Other sections of the book offer insights into the value of having a “good death” for a soul to go directly to higher realms. He also declares reincarnation is as real as gravity on Planet Earth. It’s the way life works.
How to Have a Good Life After You’re Dead is a very interesting addition to the growing lexicon of books on other dimensions beyond the human 3-D reality. The phrase we are spirits having a human experience seems to be gaining more credibility all the time. Mike Marable shows us that death is merely a transition into another existence and that life goes on and on and on.
A close friend of mine, Thom, lost his long-time partner, Wayne, three months ago. Wayne’s passing was not a really a shock. He was 79 years old and in frail health. As parting experiences go, Thom and Wayne were a more fortunate couple than many. They had spent months in seclusion avoiding Covid-19 in their lovely island home. Over the summer, Wayne had been strong enough to nurture his beloved vegetable garden. Thom posted pictures of Wayne’s impressive heirloom tomatoes for Facebook friends to see. One fateful fall morning, Thom got up early to head downstairs to make their coffee and let Jake, their dog, outside for a while. When he returned to their bedroom, he found Wayne collapsed and unconscious from a stroke.
Wayne, Thom & Jake
For Thom, the day tilted into a surreal jumble of ambulances, medivac helicopters, phone calls to Wayne’s children, doctor updates and a dash to the hospital. By seven o’clock that evening, Thom and the family circled the hospital bed and said goodbye as Wayne took his last breath. In many ways, it was a beautiful passing. A gentle passing. For Thom, it was the beginning of the unavoidable journey through grief.
Power of Prayer Beyond Death
We’re living in an era of death and grieving. As a spiritually aware person and energy healer, I consider praying for the departed and their families an extension of the healing work I do. I firmly believe death is not an end but a transformation from physical to non-physical. It’s a birth. And I’ve been in enough birthing rooms to know it’s not an easy process. Certainly life outside the womb is a big adjustment for a newborn. I suspect there’s a corresponding birthing process to other dimensions that is equally taxing and sometimes traumatic. (See my postConversations with the Afterlife.)
The classic books by Dr. Michael Newton, Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls, give us a glimpse of life-between-lives through hypnosis sessions with his patients. It appears the afterlife is far more complicated than a gentle reunion with loved ones or meeting an angel and dwelling forever in clouds and playing a harp. Our consciousness moves into other dimensions and often requires healing after traumatic passings or difficult lives. Even people who led fairly happy lives go through pangs of separation.
Healing prayers from those of us on the earthly plane aid in the transitional process. Prayers project power and frequency into other dimensions as surely as they do in our familiar three dimensional reality. My Supernal Friend, Sue, has a practice of praying for departed souls for a year after their transition. She asks for divine helpers to aid their adjustment and bring them peace for their grieving process of the life they left behind. Her efforts have been validated in messages from the other side through mediums. My husband, David, once came through unexpectedly to thank her for her prayers. His gratitude surprised us, because they’d shared an uneasy relationship on this side of the veil.
Healing for the Bereaved
Healing energy for people going through the very real wounds of grief is entirely appropriate. Humans truly bond at an energetic level. We create cords of attachment. Death severs those cords as surely as cutting off an arm. The term “broken heart” is literal. Deep grief can trigger a myriad of physical problems. (See articlePhysical Symptoms of Grief.)
Six months after my husband’s death, the grief hit me. A sadness I couldn’t ignore or simply talk away. I was fortunate to have a network of energy healers to help me through. Reiki treatments and massages from a gifted energy healer helped me rise out of the depths of my despair. David and I were granted one lucid dream encounter to say goodbye. (SeeGrace Through Grief: Six Months After My Husband’s Passing)
In this age of massive Covid deaths, helping people through grief is crucial. Reaching out to our friends and family with prayers, presents, cards and more is something we should all be doing.
The veil between this life and the next is becoming thinner all the time. Netflix has a new series entitled SURVIVING DEATH that explores the various avenues of afterlife communication. Interviews with mediums, ghost hunters,and reincarnation experts all raise tantalizing questions about life after death. For people suffering the worst throes of grief, it’s comforting to think their loved one still exists at some level. But there is no denying the loss of the physical presence. The departed are sorely missed. (WatchSURVIVING DEATH TRAILER)
Grief hit Thom hard. He lost thirty pounds the first six weeks. His normally ebullient personality couldn’t overcome the sadness. But, he is working through it with the help of a network of friends. The outpouring of flowers, gifts, phone calls and messages helped. Jake, their Australian shepherd, has been a comforting companion and faithful walking partner. Wayne’s grandsons visited to clean the garden and chop wood for the fireplace. Thom knows many people love him and wish him well. He will always miss Wayne, but in a million memories and otherworldly moments of awareness, he knows at some level, Wayne is always with him. He is now making plans for the future.
This era of sadness is also an opportunity for all of us to reach out and do something for someone else. Discover the power of your prayers to help others. By serving each other, we can rise out of our collective grief. Only then will we build a better future for ourselves and generations to come.
