| |
A few stories of my participation in the dying process of family members and friends ...
To be able to participate in the dying process of my friends and family members has been amongst the greatest experiences in my life, and has been one of the utmost privileges that they could have passed to me. This is also true of my professional work with clients. My Guru’s instruction in serving the death process is one of His profound Gifts to humankind, and I am deeply grateful that I had the opportunity to draw upon His wisdom at these important times, and was therefore able to assist my loved ones in easeful and celebratory passing.
The psychic training that I received from my Guru and my spirit Guides also prepared me for the role of serving the dying process. In some cases I was at the side of my loved one, and participated psychically each moment of their death transition, and was able to communicate fully with them for the hours after their passing. In other cases my friends came to me after their passing and called for my help. I've served clients in their preparation for the dying process, by helping them to find spiritual connection, easing both physical and emotional pain, and helping them surrender into the process of letting go in dying. I've had the honour of assisting family members through the grief of loss, and have helped clients to connect with their lost loved ones after they have passed on.
My Father's Passing
My first experience of assisting with a dying process was with my father’s passing. At this time I hadn’t gone through the psychic training, so was only able to read to him my Guru’s Instruction and be present with him via his body. It was a very limiting experience for me even though I was greatly comforted by having the Wisdom teaching available to pass on to my father. He died with a smile on his face after months of pain, and days of confusion and disorientation. His whole immediate family stood around his bed at his moment of passing, and the room was filled with love.
The Death of a Friend
My next experience of death was two years later, while I was in the midst of my psychic training. A friend was diagnosed with a form of leukaemia and died within months of the diagnosis. He was a devotee of Adi Da Samraj and received direct Blessing from our Guru, who every day asked for updates on my friend’s health and sent him personal instructions on his preparation for death.
I heard that my friend had passed away while I was on my way to work one morning. Other devotees went to his side to begin the detailed three day vigil of assisting his transition and dying process. I travelled to join them the next day for what was to be one of the most significant experiences of my life.
I entered the meditation room, where my friend’s body was laid out. A powerful ascending Spiritual Force filled the room. Silently and respectfully I made my way across the small room where devotees were meditating, wishing to pay my respects to my friend and to his process of leaving his body. Immediately I could see clearly that he was no longer associated with the body at all. The ascending Force was driving through my friend’s body, propelling his being beyond the physical to the realms above. It was deeply moving to feel this. I suddenly had greater understanding of the transition of death. I took my seat towards the back of the room, to join the meditation and was drawn quickly into communion with the ascending Force, which I now recognised to be My Guru’s Spiritual Force. My heart opened widely and from its depths came a spontaneous feeling reach and surrender to the Divine.
Months later I was contacted by this friend from his new and subtle dimension. He showed me that he was indeed now of a realm of Light and that his utter focus was in the Divine. He also asked me to pass on a message to his partner who he’d left behind in the physical domain. I felt honoured to assist in his dying process and to pass on this most happy communication of love and 'eternal' life.
Another Friends' Passing
Another passing that was important to me was of a friend who had suffered all of his life with the emotional struggles of bi-polar syndrome. I heard of his death several days after his passing, and felt that it was too late to be of any help in his dying process. However that evening as I closed my eyes to sleep I saw his face and knew he was with me. He called for my help, showing me that he was stuck in a kind of bardo or purgatory from which he couldn’t escape. I could feel his fear, and indeed within a moment I felt him to be falling suddenly and deeply into a kind of abyss. I allowed myself to follow deeply with him, and called to him with all of my heart, pulling him back to me. He was able to slow and stop his fall and remember the Light, but within an instant he was souring in Light-filled realms. This bliss-filled experience lasted only briefly, before he was again he falling helplessly. I could see the pattern of his lifetime, of highs and painful lows intensified greatly, and this time as I allowed myself to fall with him to help him, I was able to stop his fall, I spoke to him urgently before he could begin his ascent to the Light realms again.
Wordlessly I called to him with all of my heart, communicating the following message - “Stay with me here for a moment, my friend, so that I may help you.” He communicated that he knew I could help, which was why he’d called for my assistance.
I guided him with my Guru’s wisdom. “Feel from your heart, with your love for the Divine Light. Find the Divine in this place, find It here, and let It guide you in your process. Whenever your attention turns to fear, simply turn back to the Love.”
My communication was at a level prior to thought, yet he understood exactly what I was saying. His capacity for love and his sensitivity to the Light were his strengths, and his love for the Divine was his saving Grace. Rather than seeking desperately to be soaring in the Light realms, he was able to locate the Source of Love from exactly where he was, and be thus drawn into a depth of quietude and Communion. He turned to me and silently expressed his love and appreciation, showing me that he now knew what he must do. Within a moment he was gone – having moved on in his dying process, now freed from the patterns that had trapped him. I felt such gratitude for the gifts of being able to be there for him, and for the Spiritual wisdom of my Guru, through which I had known how to guide my friend. I was so happy for him!
Serving My Mother's Death Transition
The most personal dying process that I will share with you here was my mother’s passing. My mother had been sick for close on three years, following a massive stroke after my father’s death. She experienced a great deal of learning over those years, though I would not ever wish such lessons for any one. When her time of passing came, she was more serene than I’d ever known her. She developed fluid on her lungs and we knew that because of her physical weakness, she was unlikely to recover. I was sitting by her bed on the evening she slipped away.
I could see that she was going and was able to express my love and say goodbye. Suddenly I was seeing through her eyes, and feeling through her heart. I could hear her thoughts and found that she could hear mine. So I guided her for the next two hours of her passing, step by step, as she travelled through a long tunnel.
To the left and to the right, visionary experiences drew her attention and therefore her being, out of the experience of passing through the tunnel, and into their force. Once she was drawn into a fearsome realm that appeared to her left, of waving dark reeds and cold fear, and several times she was drawn by memories of family members, which appeared to her right.
Each time I went with her, in her diversions to the left or the right, and spoke to her out loud, reminding her to keep her focus on the path straight ahead, and to continue her journey down the tunnel. After a while she began to really understand the importance of doing just that, and she began to move more quickly and freely in her passage through the tunnel. As the end of the tunnel became visible in the distance she flew so swiftly that I could no longer stay with her, so I stopped and watched her final moments. I could see an open door at the end, through which Light streamed. Figures stood out in the Light, greeting her with love and outstretched hands.
My mother turned to me to say good-bye. I saw that she was wearing a dress that she wore when I was a young child, that I'd forgotten. She looked so radiant! And she gracefully waved her arm to me, her body full of life and energy, revealing to me how youthful she had become, and how happy she now was. It was a vision of beauty. I sent my love to her, and left her in the hands of the ones who so obviously loved her and knew best how to guide her. The door closed, and I returned to the reality of my mother’s bedside, and wept with the mixed emotions of happiness for her, and the pain of missing her.
My Friend's Mother Passed in December 09
Recently I was privileged to assist in the dying process of my friend Catherines' mother, and was very moved by the beauty of her transition.
My Guru, Adi Da Samraj recommends a 3 day period of vigil - sitting in meditation with the body of the passing loved one - which Catherine was able to provide for her mother in her personal healing room, in her home.
On the first day I was unable to be present, so offered assistance from a distance. Sitting in meditation I made contact with Catherines' mother and found her as a force of consciousness, still with focus in her body and prior life (especially Catherine), but no longer identified with her old personality. Her point of identification with the body was at the heart and brow. I stayed very simply with her, and subtly communicated my own communion with the Divine Light, Radiant and all-Pervading yet located above and beyond the body. She understood the wordless communication, and I felt her identification with the body shift to the brow and the crown. On the second day I was honoured to join my friend in her healing room, and we meditated together for an hour or so. In this period, I found Catherine's mother to be still associated with the body at the brow and the crown, as well as being focussed in the Divine above and beyond. As Catherine and I meditated, I deeply felt the wound of love and loss in her heart and helped her focus to lift to higher communion also. I could feel that this helped her mother to move on from her association with the brow chakra and more fully let go of her body.
On the third day I was again only able to participate in the dying process from a distance, and this time I found Catherines' mother in a very ascended state, still mildly associated with the crown chakra of her body. Again I helped Catherine to rise above the wound in her heart chakra, and her mother seemed to let go completely.
I was deeply moved by the experience of assisting my friend's mother in her dying process. Her transition was deeply auspicious as she was so utterly transported in the Divine. I gave thanks to my Beloved Guru, for the incredible gift of His Teachings on serving the important transition that we make in death.
Conclusion
Every time I have participated in the process of a being's transitioning from association with the physical body and release to the etheric body, the experience has been different and I have learned something new.
These experiences have taught me a great deal about the dying process, and I value them deeply. I also value the gift of being present and able to help others through this incredibly challenging and important transition.
Return to Holistic and spiritual counselling - Jennifer Cameron-Turner
Return to Dying Process
Return to Home Page
Return to the top of this page
|
