is a book by Raymond Moody. I met him at a reading years ago and he signed a copy for me.
On Monday, author Kim Roberts wrote the most interesting post on her experiences with the dead. Here’s an excerpt: “I will say, I never felt anything from a body. When a person dies, I firmly believe the soul leaves it. Like a butterfly leaving a cocoon, it soars around the room, a little disoriented, maybe a little frightened of its new form or tired from the transformation and needing to rest. It’s like there is a time period, when the soul isn’t quite ready to leave, that a presence can be felt by those who are in-tune with its feelings. If I was busy-I didn’t feel anything. If I was bored—I got the message, but it wasn’t loud or clear.” Pretty close, Kim.
I left a few comments on Kim’s post because I find the topic intriguing. In fact, life after death sort of colors everything I do, every decision I make. I guess I dropped hints - I wasn’t trying to be coy, but I’ve learned that some people are offended by and/or dismissive of my experience so I don’t often discuss it. I will say dying was the most real thing I’ve ever done, aside from having my kids.
When I was sixteen years old, I was killed in an awful horseback riding accident. As I tell people when they ask, I didn’t stay dead, I was forced to return. I did learn the following -
When you’re dead, everything makes sense, you have no more questions - we are no longer troubled by all the nagging existential questions we wrestle with every single day of our existence. But when you come back to life, all you remember is that when you were dead, everything made sense, everything became clear - you just can’t remember what.
Religion doesn’t matter, it’s what you do that matters. How do you treat your fellow man? As the ghost, Jacob Marley, says in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, I wear the chains I forged in life. The bad we do comes with us, along with the good. If you did something to hurt someone, you feel it as they felt it. You feel their hurt, their embarrassment, their pain - both physical and emotional. What you do to your fellows in life, you will experience for yourself in death.
Our only real possession is love. God is love, embodied.
We do have bodies, although I can’t describe what they’re made of. The essential you-ness remains after death.
Our human bodies are beautiful machines built to house the soul. Once we leave them behind, they no longer matter.
The colors of earth, even on the most beautiful day, are pale reflections of the colors in heaven.
Enlightenment is seeing heaven and coming back to earth to live your life. Don’t take any crap, but be a good person. Do the best you can.
I learned some other stuff, but I think the post is long enough. 
