On the path to awakening universal consciousness, there appears to be signposts that are unique to each individual according to their chosen spiritual path.  Every day is a new chapter in a person's life especially when they reflect on the signs of the day.  Some days may include 'tweaking' an issue so that we incorporate the lesson into our personality behaviors.  Other days, to use Kimberly Clark-Sharp's terminology, turn into 'woo-woo' experiences that may change the course of one's life.[1]  Therefore, I would like to share some introductory remarks using NDE truths - for those left-brainers that need an underlying theme for a writing.  Then I will weave the story for the right-brainers.  Integrating both sides of the brain provides a roadmap by which we can all process the awakening consciousness.

One of the NDE truths is that each person integrates their NDE experience into their own pre-existing belief system.  Almost uniformly, those who see Jesus sense enormous love and compassion.  But the way this information is processed is different for everyone.  For instance, those that see Jesus will process the unconditional love in a variety of ways according to their outlook on life.  Fundamentalists will take the vision as a wake-up call from God and integrate the lesson in terms of the Bible.  Others will process the vision as a message to give unconditional love through service to others.  Gay and Lesbian persons understand the NDE message of unconditional love shown to them to mean that God is so far above sexual orientation that there is love and acceptance for all people. 

There are a variety of phenomena very common among experiencers.  For one, there is a high percentage of people who come back with psychic abilities. Most people prefer the higher degree of reality of existence on the other side, while they liken the earth experience as a dream. 

Dr. Barbara Rommer, has documented that while there are around 18% of the NDEs that are frightening experiences, they are really blessings in disguise.[3]  In her book, she describes four types of experiences with elements of:  1) fear of seeing God/spirit; 2) aloneness described as a void; 3) 'graphic and hellish landscapes and entities' and; 4) a horrific life review.[4]  This information is suggestive that a person needs to confront their fears, to overcome the barriers to spiritual growth.  Confronting our personal fears allow us to stand unencumbered in the presence of a higher spiritual power. 

I would postulate that psychic experiences represent a greater awareness of our surroundings and that it is a quickening of the spirit.  I think the more spiritually in tuned one becomes, there may be questions as to what constitutes reality.   Further, there are many ways to facilitate this quickening.  Experiencing an NDE is one way, but there are many other ways such as NDE-like experiences, out of body experiences, emotional upheavals, and mystical experiences such as out of body experiences and after death communications.  Once we face our fears, there seems to be a shift in our personal evolution.  Fear is one of many barriers to expressing love.  We are able to use unconditional love as a focal point on earth, allowing us to interact unimpeded with the universal creative force commonly referred to as God.  The concentration on developing ourselves, in conjunction with helping others is a manifestation of evolving human consciousness.  We become more interconnected with each other and the universe.  This is a continually evolving process of learning to practice unconditional love and learning to exercise wisdom in an effort to gain knowledge of absolute truth.

There is a pattern of awakening consciousness that can explain these phenomena.  The following will represent the way that I have integrated this knowledge with my spiritual growth in a way that makes sense to me.  There may be others with similar experiences, who internalize all or a portion of this information differently.  There are many different paths towards the same goal.  I would encourage people to submit their experience, how they integrate it into their life, and the results of their behavior modification.  It is a fascinating experience to share that may ultimately help others.

The Journey

My life has been a spiritual path since as early as I can remember, around age 5. 

I was predisposed to respiratory problems from being born prematurely.  At age 5, I got very sick with chicken pox followed by pneumonia.  That developed into chronic bronchial asthma.  I don't recall much of my earlier life, except I do remember snippets of being in the hospital.  I also remember there wasn't much to do, so I would amuse myself by reading the dictionary or looking at an encyclopedia.  The health problems set the stage for mental, emotional and spiritual growth. 

Although it was easy to see the mental and emotional effects, I didn't realize the spiritual effects until earlier this year.  My new motive is love.  Everything comes much easier to me.  However, in the before times, I had a lot of anger at not being able to do what other children could do.  It was frustrating not to be able to run and breath at the same time.  I turned to developing mentally.  I used anger as the energy to accomplish goals in life.  I mainly focused on top scholastic achievements.  During this time period, I was extremely sensitive to my physical environment and developed psychic abilities along with being allergic to almost everything. 

I was raised Catholic and was very devoted spiritually to Christian concepts.  For those that are aware of the stages of spiritual development,[5] I was in the second stage where I needed the structure of organized religion.  As I was thriving in this environment, it was the right place at the right time.  I used to have continual nightmares where I was tormented by the devil.  I spent a lot of time praying for protection.  As I got stronger and the devil no longer frightened me, I started to have dreams of being in a void.  I felt extremely disconnected and lonely.  The dreams stopped as I grew more comfortable with being on earth.  Next, I had dreams of always being in school, but I could never remember what was talked about.

It was a bit difficult to have an interest in the occult and reconcile the resonance in my heart with the prohibitions taught by the church.  The Catholic Church reinforced a secure place to interact with God.  I love Jesus, Mary, the Saints, and especially enjoy ritual.  I learned a lot about passages in the Bible and was an avid student in scripture class.  Alas, college brought about the change of churches, and I was never to feel as comfortable and secure in the environment of my childhood.  Moving out of a comfort zone can be a catalyst for growth and grow I did.  I learned to critically think, and started questioning teachings of the Church, and ultimately ' the Bible itself. This is the third stage of spiritual evolution, whereby one becomes a seeker of ultimate truth.[6]

My first marriage served the purpose of enlarging my horizons and as a vehicle for bringing two other souls onto the earth plane.  I was able to live in Chicago, New York City, and Southern California.  Coming from a small logging town of 5,000 and exposing ones self to gigantic cities is a bit of a culture shock.  I adapted rather well and learned different strategies of relating to people with different backgrounds than how I was raised.  There were no karmic ties to my ex, as we were good friends before marriage and we remain good friends after the divorce. 

Southern California was the beginning of stage four spiritual evolution[7] because the seeker was beginning to transform to the mystic stage.  I learned how to control the psychic abilities, hands on healing, meditation, and became familiar with mediums and channelers.  I read veraciously about all religions and adopted the parts that resonated with me.  My relationship to God changed as I was better able to grasp what God was really about.  No longer was God a 'he' who sent a person to hell if they didn't go to church.  God became a genderless (or all gender), loving, all-powerful creative force. 

I didn't voluntarily leave Southern California.  I refused to listen to my intuition, so a series of bizarre, unexplainable nasty events happened.  The net effect was to force me to move back to my home in Washington.  On hindsight, it was the best move I ever made.  I met a fellow I stayed with for 8 years, went to law school, and started my own law firm.  

When I had reached a material pinnacle in my life, the universe gave me a wake-up call to follow the path of spirit.  Sadly, this relationship ended, but a void is always replaced with something better if you trust the universe. 

The emotional jolt caused me to realize that there was more to relationships than friendship.  I had to face the specter of intimacy.  I started reading about relationships.  A life-turning event was attending a Tony Robbins seminar.  For those interested in the process, I have enclosed a link to the writing I did shortly after attending the Tony Robbins motivational seminar.

I realized that my goals were incompatible with my dreams.  I was focused on the law firm, but this was not what brought me the most happiness in 20 years.  I saw myself surrounded by my family, with the man I love, my children, and my grandchildren.  This was what gave me the most pleasure.  I promptly started to align my goals with happiness.  I put less focus on the firm and more into my children. 

I also launched a massive study to change myself for allowing the perfect partner to come into my life.  It was such a novel concept for me to understand that you choose your partners on the basis of compatibility and to learn what that meant.[8]  It was also a novel idea to put relationships first, instead of work.  I decided I wanted a relationship that was more like a dynamic co-creation of life, rather than living comfortably and turning stagnant after awhile.  Exploring love and forgiveness is perhaps the greatest step one can make towards union with God.  Ergo, my definition of 'soulmate(s)' is a co-creation process of life with another person or other persons that leads both of you closer to God. 

Fortuitously, Jeff was destined to come into my life.  It turns out that Jeff was studying NDEs.  The combination of studying the NDE truths and running into my soulmate, has made spirit grow at a phenomenal rate.  The earth time is but a fleeting blink of the eye compared to the evolution of the soul.  Earth is but one dimension of reality.  Recently, I discovered that the asthma serves as a vehicle allowing my soul to detach easier from my body.  I have been living in this world in the day, and going to school in the other world by night.  Understanding this revelation brings a radical shift in the way I process information on the earth plane. 

While some people may need NDEs as a way to remove fears and experience unconditional love, my experiences in the dream state and walking between the worlds accomplished the same results.  Although I did not die during the numerous hospital bouts with pneumonia, I would not be surprised if there were NDE-like events that occurred and I simply did not consciously remember the events.  To this day, I exhibit most of the post NDE signs that people talk about in their NDE accounts.  I also notice that at an IANDS meeting or IANDS conference, the people are generally at a higher consciousness than the general public.  I resonate with these people, just as they resonate with other experiencers.  The energy in the room is much different than anywhere else.  My psychic abilities are wide-open at these meetings.  I don't fit into societal norms.  Most NDErs are also on their own spirit quest.  So am I.  I continually strive to remove the barriers of my childhood, so that I can access my higher self and understand universal truths.  The more I change myself on the inside, the more in tune with spirit I become. 

And so the story goes. . .  I have tried to give each of you a flavor of how to integrate the happenings of your life to use the negatives as a stepping stone instead of a stumbling block.  My conclusions, and whatever your conclusions of your own life review, are not open to debate.  They simply are a way to process information so it makes sense to you in a framework that is most useful to your spiritual progress.  The key is love and tolerance of others, not condemnation or judgment.  Nobody is right or wrong because we are continually evolving.  Furthermore, as each of us develops along our journey, we learn more.  In the process of evolving, if we are wrong, we are only wrong temporarily.  As we learn more, our interpretation of events will change.  I am always reminded that truth is absolute.  Truth never changes, only our perspectives will change according to what we can accept at any given time.