What is beyond life and death?

A Soul Midwife: Death and Dying

The more I explore and experience the non-physical existence, the more answers I seek from ‘what is beyond life and death’.

It could be said that this how I began an exciting lifetime journey of awakening.

We are conditioned by society and taught to believe that we are just a physical body which reaches the end of the road when we die. Beyond the dense physical world and into the unseen realm, my belief is that our soul essence (our consciousness) is immortal and our physical body plays the part of the vehicle for our soul to live out it's physical experience.

I reached this conclusion from my own individual experiences however, it is important for you to make up your own mind based upon your own beliefs. I tell my reiki students that what I believe today may change tomorrow.

As a spirit release practitioner, I work a lot with souls who have passed. This presented me with unanswered questions about the process which occurs from 'life to death' and then from 'death to life'. So, I had an understanding in what happens after we leave our physical bodies BUT then this posed other questions of ‘How do we get there? How does the transition period happen?  What process do we go through on this side of life when we have started our journey back home?

A few years later, my curiosity found me on a soul midwifery course. A soul midwife is someone who provides holistic and spiritual support for ‘our friend’ who is has entered the dying stage.

 As a midwife births new life, a soul midwife rebirths our soul back to spirit and fast forward three years, I completed the accredited Soul Midwifery diploma training to gain a better understanding in how to support those who are on their last journey.

I wanted to know more about the spiritual transition from life to death and if this impacts upon why some souls choose not to cross the threshold straight away. Again this is ‘my’ own understanding through working in this way and it added another jigsaw piece to one of my questions. We come into this world with nothing and we leave with nothing. The dying process includes letting go of our emotional baggage which can be buried deep within us and sometimes, the dying person just needs someone to bear witness to this.

I will give an example.

A couple of years ago I recall an elderly lady who had made her transition back to spirit. She was causing a little bit of disruption in a house although she did not intend to harm or frighten the occupants. She was reluctant to cross the threshold as she had unfinished business which was worrying about who was going to do the cleaning after she had gone. In a spirit release session, she was helped to reach her place of eternal peace in a compassionate and gentle way after reassurance that 'the cleaning' was being taken care of. Maybe she had asked about who would do the cleaning when she was close to the end of life and it was possibly innocently dismissed by her loved ones who were unaware that letting go is part of the process of dying.

This is just one small support role which a soul midwife can support with and how this beautiful compassionate role overlaps with the modalities in how I currently work.

Each transition in death is different so it’s not a case of ‘one size that fits all’. During the process of dying there is a profound shift as the physical world fades and by understanding this process, it has given me a better knowing of how I can support that separation in a dying person with physical and spiritual support on their journey towards a peaceful and dignified death.