Having been forced to confront my mortality on more than one occasion, I can say that one of the questions that becomes critical for those about to pass over is, “Will I survive death and if I do, will I still be “me”?” It is all very well for religions to tell you that you “have” a soul (like a possession) or that “part of you” survives death. But if it is not really “you” any more, then your fear is that you will dissolve into nothingness. If you believe that the word ‘mind’ is the same thing as ‘brain,’ or if you think ‘consciousness’ is merely an attribute of the brain, then of course you will be worried that the very essence of who you are will disappear - because when the body dies, the brain dies too.

Unlike the materialist Freud, the more transcendental Carl Jung perceived that there was a consciousness that existed beyond the human brain. I have written on previous weekly bulletin/blogs that consciousness comes before matter – that the material world is made manifest by the unseen realm of consciousness. The individual’s sense of self and awareness is a result if the Vital Life Force and Spiritual Energy combining inside the physical human – and is a tiny drop of consciousness within the higher Cosmic Consciousness.

One analogy is that of the image in the mirror. Look at yourself in a mirror, then contemplate what it would be like if that image of yourself came to form a conscious awareness of its own; then eventually it came to think that it was the real you. That is similar to what happened when you incarnated into this body, in this lifetime – your brain arrived at the conclusion it was the real self and drew a veil between itself and your Overself. Finding your true authentic self again is, as described by the poet Rumi, a greater experience than falling in love with another person in this world. Remember the ancient Greek maxim: “Man, Know Yourself.” (For that, also read “Woman.”)

Image Credit: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2017/12/31/examples-of-children-who-remember-their-past-lives-examined-by-scientists/