If it is time for the murdered 'to go,' what then is murder?

QUESTION: "I tell everyone about your books and everything you say makes me very happy. What I like the most about you is that you never push people towards religion, and this is why I can listen to you. Nothing you say is manipulative and this is SO rare in the world.

"I have something that I would like your opinion on - well, in fact, two things.

"One is that people seem to return from their near-death experience because it is not their time to go. I was thinking, if someone was murdered - and it WAS their time to go - then would the murderer have been a helping factor in the situation? This question really gets me.

"The other is that we leave our bodies upon death and we seem to go upwards. So, I was imagining that we go into space and therefore we are aliens - this makes me laugh, but I think it is a valid point. I hope to hear from you."....Kristy from Australia


ANSWER: Your question about timing and death is a big one, one that philosophers and psychics and mediums and researchers have been trying to answer, but really can't. One of the best views about this subject comes from the late Edgar Cayce. He was a humble man, a photographer, who became one of the greatest and most documented psychics our world has ever known. Any of the many books written about him and his "readings" are good to muse over. The introductory books might be best: "The Sleeping Prophet" or "Many Mansions." You get the sense in his work, and in the work of all the great mystics from throughout history, that there is clearly two levels to things: two major flows of energy, intention, volition, and involvement. Level 1 has to do with our personality, who we are in the earthplane at this time - The Limited View. Level 2 has to do with our soul and higher states of wisdom and knowledge - The Bigger Picture.

Near-death experiencers comment on this - that because of their episode, they now realize that they are not confined to their body, that what or who they really are is a soul still very much connected to God. That in fact, they are a divine being having a human experience, not the other way around. This switch in perspective changes everything and especially how you regard what seems to be real. Jesus said, "Judge not lest ye be judged also." That's basically what experiencers say - they lose much of their penchant to judge, to insist that things happen certain ways. In the Life Review, or in the Revelatory Part of Their Experience, they are shown, see, or come to know the answers to all their questions - the puzzle pieces to life are revealed: things like why Uncle George lost an arm, why Aunt Tilly had to work so hard while Aunt Gertrude had it easy, why one child is born into poverty and another is born into wealth, why there is good and evil. Unfortunately, the vast majority of near-death experiencers return to life knowing the whys and wherefores - knowing they know - but are unable to remember specifics. Details evade them. They just know there's a reason for everything, and eventually they accept that, and it's okay.

If you have my book "We Live Forever," turn to pages 13 and 14 and read about those two high school girls who were about to graduate when they were killed in a head-on automobile accident. The guy was drunk. A year later, each girl came back to her mother in a vivid, absolutely real manifestation (dream/vision) and explained why they had died. Both mothers told a local astrologer about their vivid manifestation, each one separately; the local astrologer got ahold of me, and I suggested that a psychiatrist be called in who might be open to having both families come to his office and then have both mothers (who did not know each other, nor had they spoken to each other), tell their story. This happened, and an incredible healing occurred. You see, BOTH girls said that dying in a violent accident was the only reason for their birth. The one at the wheel of the car (her soul) had undergone violent deaths before, but the other one (soul) had not, and wanted to. So, the one agreed to help the other. Read the whole story. It is profound, and stunning in what it implies. Now, about the guy in the car who got drunk and ran his car into theirs. Was that his job? Was that something he too had agreed to do before he was born? We have no way to know, as nothing more was heard of him after his sentencing and imprisonment. How do we judge this case? Certainly, such careless, wanton behavior deserves punishment, but, in truth, was he also part of an even greater plan? And if he was, how do we handle that? Where do we draw the line, or do we?

I truly believe that the laws of the earthplane should be obeyed. If they are not, there needs to be some type of action in the sense of restoring balance and making right a terrible wrong. Yet in saying this, I recognize that in some cultures they use a more karmic law, a more just one. Example: if a man kills a child's parents, even accidentally, he must then step in, raise and educate and protect the child until grown, and do it well, whether he wants to or not. He must step in and fill the shoes of the one he eliminated. There are many ways of dispensing judgments and punishments that are much fairer that what is metted out in our American courts. We are shown that in near-death life reviews. Many are the experiencers who must relive anything they did to hurt another, even to the point of becoming that person and feeling and living through the hurt and pain that person suffered. We become the person we aggrieved. This is why so many mobsters/criminals, after their near-death episode, can no longer function the way they did before and seek out avenues where they can pay back the people they hurt or cheated or betrayed.

Level 1 and Level 2 modes of living are valid, true, and parallel each other. We are a personality and we are a soul. We are human and we are divine. Learning how to handle this, the two levels of our existence, is what spirituality and religion and esoteric tradition and mysticism are for. Through prayer and meditation, through the silence of our being, through the peace within, we connect with Higher Truths, that enable us to live our lives with joy and faith and love.

Your second question concerns moving upwards after death. Yes, it is true, most near-death experiencers and those who are about to die, speak of "upward" as if that is where they are going, or where they went. But it is not always upward. Some travel downward or sideways. Don't think that the majority means everyone, because it doesn't. Nor should we assume that upward means toward the heaven-worlds and downward means toward the worlds of hell. Not so. This assumption does not hold up in broad-based studies. What is holding up in research findings, though, is the puzzle of. . .why left? We now have percentages from hospice and hospital nurses who say that most of the visitors from "the other side" and most of the dead who come back and visit the dying or appear as a guide, guardian, or aid, come in from the left - stats are between 85 to 88% That is a huge figure and one we cannot account for. I've had some nurses say, "Oh well, the reason is - nurses are instructed to always go to the right of a patient and sit to the right." Yet, reports of left are more expanded than that and from larger reporting areas. It's what I've consistently found, as well. So, the question remains: why left? My thought is that our heart is on the left, our right brain hemisphere (that affects our left side) is the one more open to otherworldy adventures, and that healing energy of itself seems to move in that direction. No one really knows why, still, I am very grateful we are at last asking the question.

Blessings, PMH

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

**** There is still a few spaces left for the 2009 Spiritual Retreat for Near-Death Experiencers, being held at the Mercy Center in St. Louis, MO. The dates are May 8 - 11; final dealine for registering is April 7. If you are interested, go directly to www.neardeathexperiencers.org for more information. I've attended one of these before, and they are outstanding!

**** Diane Goble is now training people to become "Transition Guides" so they can teach the "Art of Conscious Dying" to caregivers. This is an extremely important work anyone can do. Access the following websites for what you need to know and how you can get involved:

www.BeyondtheVeil.net
www.TransitionGuideTraining.org
www.ArtOfConsciousDying.com

**** I hope by now you have all read "Tidbits for Tough Times." If you haven't, access my website at www.pmhatwater.com, and go to the Articles Section. The energetics of life are now difficult to understand much less deal with. The article contains tidbits on what is going on and how to handle it. It is short. Won't take too much time to read. The article, by the way, was sent out to everyone on my mass mailing list. There is no cost to be listed and no one else has access. If you want on the list, contact my webmaster Steff, at webmaster at cinemind.com, and sign up. There will be a Part II - out in about a week or so.

Blessings, PMH