Dying and Coming Back

How would you feel about your life if you died without doing all those things that you kept thinking that you wanted to do, but just never got around to?

Is today the day that you make your bucket list?

Actually, rather than bucket list, what about those things that keep coming to mind that would be seriously life changing, rather than silly stunts or frivolous wishes?

Why am I even bringing this up today?

I am bringing this up because I have often felt that we live more than one life in this lifetime. In one way, those of us who have had more than one significant relationship, more than one career, lived in different states or countries,engaged in different hobbies or activities that have really changed our energies, survived serious health challenges and near death experiences all have had this experience.

In previous generations, our parents, grandparents and ancestors often lived their entire lives without venturing more than 20 miles from where they were born. Many had one job which they worked their entire life. Many never changed religions, staying in whatever church their parents took them to. Many never changed hobbies or habits. This was their life.

And then there are the advances in modern science and medicine.

There are many people alive today who died and were brought back. People who were clinically dead and then revived. I have met some of them. And I am about to meet more of them.

The first of them was Dannion Brinkley, author of the book "Saved by the Light" who has a great sense of humor. He was talking on his phone when lightning struck and he found himself floating up by the ceiling looking down at his body on the bed. He says he asked "Who is that down there?" and a voice told him that that was him. He said, "Oh no, that ain't me. I'm better looking than that!" Then he went up through that tunnel of light and saw those spirits waiting for him and they revived him and his spirit went back into his body. He now spends his life doing hospice work with veterans.

Another was a Brazilian man whose name I cannot recall. I went to visit the healing center of the famous healer John of God in a little town some distance from Brazilia. At one of the sessions, they had various people come to the stage and offer their testimony about John. In other sessions, we were present and participating when John was doing healing work. This man told the story of how he had died and was in the morgue when John came to him in spirit and brought him back.

I knew another young man in Georgia who told me about three times when hed died and came back. And there are others.

These stories have always amazed me and I have noticed how in all of their stories there were similarities about getting glimpses of the spirit world and then being called back because they had more work to do here in this life.

You see, there are now many who had heart attacks, cancer, auto accidents and other events which not so long ago would have ended their lives, but due to the skills of the EMTs, doctors, nurses, technicians and others, they were revived and repaired.

There are so many of these people now among us that there is a whole organization of them, called the International Association for Near Death Studies (IANDS) and they are having a conference here in Colorado. The details are below if you are interested. I will be there all 4 days.

I was contacted about being a volunteer at this conference and I immediately thought that this would be a good thing to do. They wanted volunteers to do healing work and readings for the attendees. I am open to doing what needs to be done and I am looking forward to meeting more of these people who are now essentially getting a do-over in life.

You see science and medicine have opened another gateway. We can see life in a different perspective than our elders and ancestors. The different religions have different theories about what happens after we die. These people who have died and came back got to see for themselves some of what is on the other side.

Why do I do what I do? How does any of this relate to my life?

My father died of a heart attack back before open heart surgery was a common procedure, and stents and new medicines were not even an idea yet. Before I moved here, I had a heart attack and I survived it. I have a stent and I take medicines.

My birthday is this month and I have already lived many more years than my father or either of my grandfathers. And to think that I used to think of them as old. Perspective changes with time, doesn't it?

Funny thing is that people commonly guess my age much younger than it is and they are usually surprised when I tell them what it is. I thought of my elders as old when they really were young in today's terms. And here I am older and perceived as younger.

My mother is now the oldest person in the family at 92, and I am certain that she is still going because she gets up every day and has things she wants to do, she takes care of her health and she has a profound relationship to spirit. And my experience shows me that people who have a good attitude age differently than people who have a bad attitude.

I believe that I have a lot more left to do and I am looking forward to it all and I intend to live a lot longer. And sometimes getting more out of life means taking another look at death.

All this has shown me that there is more work for me to do with those of you who are willing to take a deeper look at your life and want to move forward with your ideas and feelings.

We who are still here are the survivors, so what are we going to do with our time? What will you make of your do-overs?

So what is it that you will do next? What is it that you will move forward on your schedule? How alive can you feel today? What can you do to get more out of life?

This is quite a gift we have been given, isn't it?