in honor of Dia de Muertos it seems pertinent to talk about death after all death is a part of life this is true no matter how much we may not want to accept it in times past we had an easier time accepting death because it was a

part of everyday life in today's age death has become sequestered away it has become taboo and so has talking about it this is a tragedy because death is something that each and every one of us will face one day as people we're going to have to

accept that you do not have to dread death in order to value life we have to take talking about death out of the box of taboo the taboo around talking about death which is especially prevalent in the Western cultures in the world harms people Society has created all kinds of

cultural adaptations that are designed to keep people from being conscious of their mortality the discourse around death reflects the attitude that death is bad and wrong and serves to perpetuate the idea that it is the worst thing that can happen and is therefore something to dread as a result many

people are in a state of let's call it death denial and this death denial contributes to a greater sense of wrongness shock and pain when death suddenly does inevitably enter one's life experience in some way in the modern era due to our attitudes towards

death we have a very dysfunctional and to be honest with you an ever-worsening relationship with death which is a natural part of life part of this taboo surrounding death puts spiritual teachers such as myself in a rather difficult position the taboo surrounding death suggests that the collective

The belief is that death is in and of itself bad and wrong, and so is talking about it. If death is bad and wrong, it seems that we are all inevitably headed towards a bad and wrong fate in the future. This increases our fear of death as well as

our fear of the future. It creates resistance. This extreme resistance to death, it can make the transition that is the process of death one of deep suffering. It can also make the pain that we experience when we lose someone to death much, much more

painful. It is rather ironic that the taboo around death is thought to benefit people, but it actually serves to make the experience of death more painful for people. You'll notice that our judgment of badness and wrongness is often less about death in and of itself than it is

about the circumstances of a death. For example, if a very old person dies, we tend to think that death's okay. We say things like, "It was time." But if a person who is not old dies, we think that it's not supposed to happen and is therefore

wrong. If a person dies saving another person's life or serving their country in a war, that death is seen as something honorable and therefore not wrong necessarily. If someone is murdered, that death is seen as bad and wrong. But if a soldier kills an enemy, that murder is

seen as good. If someone murders other people, that person's death is often seen as a good thing. After all, many people still celebrate the death penalty. And let's be honest, many more of us still celebrate when the bad guy dies in a movie. The samurai practiced seppuku in this

practice it was considered honorable to commit suicide as opposed to falling into the hands of the enemy but let's fast forward most of the Western world today views suicide as morally bad and wrong but wait wait wait nonetheless there's a debate currently that rages on

regarding physician-assisted suicide which is legal in many countries even the debate around abortion is a debate around death what all this means is that even today given the right circumstance many people believe that death is in fact good you understand the confusion what

I'm doing by showcasing this confusion and mass mixed messaging that we keep giving and getting about death is trying to help you become conscious of humanity's complicated attitude towards death especially based on circumstances it's important to notice your own relationship to the circumstances of

death and how they influence your perspective of rightness goodness wrongness and badness relative to death itself the taboo around death also means that those of us who see the danger and death remaining taboo and who are thus brave enough to talk about death end up

being demonized and expected to send some pretty mixed messages to the public for example we're told that it's okay to help someone who is dying of a terminal illness for example by explaining to them that they will experience death as a relief that it's okay to let go and

that there's nothing to be afraid of we're told that it's okay to tell someone who has lost a loved one that their loved one is at peace and is not suffering and their loved one is not quote gone in the spiritual sense thus

making death okay. However, when we talk publicly about death, if we talk in any other way than to give the impression that we see death in and of itself as bad and as wrong, period, the end, we're at risk of being accused of being pro-

death, and thus, even worse, pro-suicide. This could not be further from the truth. So take me for an example. I do not glorify death. Instead, like every spiritual teacher who has come before me, I see the universal value inherent in life. I also see the universal value

inherent in death, but this truth doesn't matter because people have decided that death has no value and is bad and wrong, and that anyone who says otherwise is a threat. I find this heartbreaking. Why? Because this way of thinking will harm people immensely when the time comes that death enters their

own life experience, and it will. For this reason, I think it's important to ask yourself, what do you think about death? Is death bad and wrong? Should talking about death be taboo? What is the benefit and what is the harm inherent in death being taboo? On top of

this, you have the difficulty of talking to people about the reality of why death happens in the grand scheme of the universe when it does and trying to convey that reality in a way that does not make people feel guilty or at fault for a death happening. So now that I've

said all that, let's have a real conversation about death. The first thing that's important to know is that death is experienced so differently from one dimension to the next. For example, for many of the higher dimensional spaces, there is no such thing as death. There is no endedness.

there is only recycling of Consciousness and energy, there is also a much different perception of time. One lifetime occurs like the blink of an eye. One lifetime is only a very small snapshot of existence, like walking into and out of a theater. Of course, we all know that the

experience of death in the physical, facing death ourselves and having someone we love die, is quite different than that. Most people, people absolutely do experience life as all there is and as lasting a long period of time. We experience death as an end and is a deep

loss. Death is very similar to slipping into a dream, so is coming into life. You will close your perceptual awareness to one reality and open it to the next. I want you to recall that in a dream you're so attached to what is occurring as if it's the only reality, but then you

wake up and suddenly it isn't all of who you are and it isn't as important because the truth of you is much different, much bigger, much more. Death, first and foremost, is a transitioning. It's a drastic change in perspective. When you die, the stream of Consciousness

that is feeding and continually creating your thought form, which is really the idea of you that exists separate from your physical embodiment, as well as is feeding your physical body, will withdraw first from the physical form. When it does this, the body is no longer fed by a

stream of Consciousness and will begin to dissipate. It will de-manifest. We experience this on the physical plane as decomposition. It will also withdraw from the thought form, which is your identity, and that too will dissipate. It will withdraw all the way back to Collective

Consciousness, it essentially goes through a process of disidentification. You become part of Oneness again; you lose a sense of separateness. This is experienced in terms of felt perception as returning back to love. This process of dissipation of a thought form, just like the

dissipation of the body, is not immediate, which is why the ghost of someone sometimes still has enough energy in it to influence things in the physical dimension. We call this a haunting. This is especially true if the thought form is charged with energy due to a sudden

death or unfinished business with someone in the physical plane. Most of the entities that we call ghosts are these dissipating thought forms. They're not being fed by a stream of consciousness, so they they must draw energy to maintain themselves from somewhere else, such as another person's

energy field or other people focusing on them, or electric currents or energy-generating minerals, etc. The first form of manifestation into the physical form is light. For this reason, when beings de-manifest from the physical dimension and reverse this process of manifestation, they will experience this light in death.

When a being goes towards and into the light, they're reversing the process of manifestation. The process of reincarnation for most beings is a mix of determinism and free will. It's not very different than your choices are in your waking life. You're in essence

choosing things in life, but there are so many unconscious factors that determine the choices you make, and so we can't really call them conscious choices. On top of this, the law of mirroring, which as you know is often called the Law of Attraction, applies to the process of

reincarnation, for example, you may subconsciously be acting with only yourself in mind, and this may cause you to choose a certain life that you believe will benefit you on a conscious level while also deterministically lining up with a life where, say, the

environment is every man for himself. This is one reason why the process of Awakening awareness and becoming conscious in your life is so incredibly important as it applies to your successive incarnations. People looking to master Enlightenment step out of determinism and into a position of

free will and conscious choice relative to their incarnations. Soon, even incarnating at all into a separate identity within the collective Consciousness that we call God or Source or the universe is in and of itself a choice. For death to happen, it must actually be a choice. In fact, no matter

how badly the body is damaged, the Consciousness, which we would call the non-physical perspective, must still choose to withdraw from the physical, and it often does, especially when the body's damaged to a certain degree. But sometimes this is why Miracles relative

to near-death experiences happen, and it is also often the spiritual reason why people slip into comas instead of just die. Essentially, their temporal and non-temporal aspects do not yet agree upon death or coming back into life. My message for you is, do not worry for

those who have died. Don't worry for someone who has died; they are not suffering. They experience themselves as being closer to you than they ever were in their separate physical forms. All the concern should be for those left behind, those who are still in their separate

physical forms who are feeling separate from the one they love, those who are experiencing grief and loss, to understand death, you must above all understand that death is the ultimate change. Death is not an endedness. Death is drastic change. It occurs when no

further expansion can take place without changing perspectives and forms. There are many variables that add up to making it so that the only way that further expansion can happen is through death. But the sad reality is that people have a huge power relative to making that be

the case or not, as it applies to humans, both individuals and social systems such as family, culture, and society create stuckness that can lead to death. For example, so many people tend to cope with what is and encourage others to cope with what is instead of to change what

is the problem. Is that one of the main purposes of life is expansion? It is an exercise in collective consciousness, what many call Source or God knowing itself. If this expansion does not occur within an individual and within a system because the pressure to change is met

with adaptive coping mechanisms, the people's thoughts, words, and actions will continue to keep things that are not supposed to be as is, as is, and that stuckness invites death. The person who dies then expands through shifting perspectives and through shifting forms, and that person's death serves as a

pressure put on the other people in the social system to start expanding again by making changes to their life. So that you can understand this better, I've got just one example. I want you to imagine a family that is dysfunctional. That dysfunction prevents all members from

lining up with what is truly highest and best for them. For example, say that a mother continues to be codependent to a dictatorial father. He is enabled in his dysfunction, which is preventing his expansion. She also thwarts her own progression by virtue of being too

afraid to lose the marriage. They both distract themselves from this pain by hyper-identifying with their son and by forcing him to live the life they want him to live. By doing so, they train him to prevent his own life purpose and cope with the pain of doing so. If this state

of being, which quite frankly goes against the progression of all members of this family, is maintained, this son, for example, could be a match to death. The universe is not against him or the family when this death occurs. Instead, death became the only open door for him to experience the expansion that the

variables of his life were opposing, and his parents no longer have him to focus on so as to avoid their own dysfunction. His tragic death essentially calls them to question everything about their lives. The universal hope is that this questioning will lead to them getting back on track with their own personal

expansion. Death of any perspective is not beneficial to the universe when expansion is still being served through that perspective. And the sad truth, especially when it comes to suicide, is that so many people believe themselves to be stuck and believe that no improvement or progression or expansion

can take place in their life. When the reality is quite the opposite, they are simply suffering from the severe limitations of their individual perspective. To generalize, the universe itself does not want being to die. There is too much value in them being alive. If

there wasn't no being would come into existence with their instincts and biology wired for survival. It is in the best interest of the Universe At Large for a being to stay in their current form as long as expansion and enhancement is actually occurring through that perspective. As long as the

reason for life to exist in the first place is being actualized through that perspective, the value in death is really all about the value of drastic change, especially in terms of drastic change of perspective. And the truth, whether we're aware of it or not, is that it is in your

hands to continue to create that expansion forward. You're actually the one in the power seat there. Having said all of this, when death happens around you, it is absolutely a calling to reexamine your life. It is a calling of your life and of life itself into

question, and you would be very wise to let it be that and to get on board with the powerful objective process of re-evaluating everything. One of the most, most life-enriching things that you can do is to live with your mortality in mind. What

so many people who have had near-death experiences or who have overcome suicidality or who have grappled with a terminal illness will tell you is that the facing of death brings an invaluable gift for life. What they will tell you is that people should face death. This

essential feature of life in order to live a more rich, meaningful, and authentic life. It's all too easy to get sucked into the drama of temporal day-to-day life. It's all too easy to behave as if life will last forever, and it is all

too easy to lose track of what really matters in the grand scheme of things. Facing death and living with the awareness that you will die one day can in fact break you free from the way that you have been, let's say, sucked into the

small picture of your temporal life. It has the power to reconnect you with the bigger picture of your life here on Earth within the grand scheme of the universe itself. Facing death will cause you to question, it will cause you to ask questions like, how will I feel about

this thing that I'm doing after I'm dead? How will I feel about having spent my time on Earth in this way after I'm dead? When I am dead, will this thing matter? Am I really living? What does it mean to really truly live? Will I choose from

today on to really truly live? Will I choose to live like every moment of my life matters? What does it mean to make the most of my time here on Earth? Am I making the most of my time here on Earth? Uh, how about what would I do differently

so as to make the most of my time here if I accepted that I'm going to die one day? And so the goal of life can't simply be to stay safe so as to survive. What might I be brave enough to do differently? Contrary to popular opinion,

thinking about life within the context of death will cause you to make drastically different decisions and to live both fully and bravely. You must know that even if at a more objective level of frugality, death is just a change in perspective. It is quite a

different experience here in our temporal forms we should not be invalidating our physical life experience and perceptions with higher dimensional awareness like so many people seem to do One does not negate the other This means we need to hold both the reality of loss and of no loss

of death and of No Death Don't expect or allow your awareness of the bigger picture of death to negate the physical life experience of death Let that awareness caretake your pain not invalidate it and see death for what it is the ultimate change It is my deepest hope that this

awareness will help you to live the fullest the most meaningful and the most joyful life possible Have a good [Music] week

What Happens When You Die

Teal Swan

Cultural Taboo Surrounding Death and its Negative Impacts

Historically, death was more readily accepted as a natural part of life.

Modern society has sequestered death, making it taboo to discuss.

Western cultures particularly avoid conversations about death.

This taboo perpetuates the idea that death is inherently bad and wrong, leading to death denial.

Death denial worsens the experience of grief and loss when death occurs.

Societal Attitudes and Contradictions Regarding Death

The taboo creates difficulties for spiritual teachers discussing death.

The belief that death is bad increases fear of death and the future.

Judgment of death is often based on circumstances, not death itself.

Contradictory views on suicide and physician-assisted suicide highlight the complexity of societal attitudes.

The speaker aims to raise awareness of humanity's complicated relationship with death.

Consequences of the Death Taboo and the Speaker's Perspective

Openly discussing death can lead to demonization and accusations of being pro-death or pro-suicide.

The speaker clarifies that they don't glorify death but acknowledge its inherent value.

The speaker emphasizes the harm caused by the negative perception of death.

The speaker prompts self-reflection on personal beliefs about death and the taboo surrounding it.

The Nature of Death Across Dimensions and the Process of Dying

Death is experienced differently across dimensions; in higher dimensions, there's no concept of death as an ending.

In the physical realm, death is perceived as an end and a significant loss.

Death is compared to transitioning between dreams and waking life.

Death is a transition involving the withdrawal of consciousness from the physical form and thought form.

The process of disidentification leads to a return to oneness and is experienced as returning to love.

Reincarnation, Free Will, and the Role of Consciousness

De-manifestation from the physical dimension is experienced as light.

Reincarnation involves a mix of determinism and free will, similar to choices in waking life.

The law of mirroring influences reincarnation choices.

Awakening and conscious awareness are crucial for making free will choices regarding incarnations.

Death requires a conscious choice to withdraw from the physical form.

Understanding Death and its Purpose in Expansion

Concern should focus on the living experiencing grief, not the deceased.

Death is the ultimate change, not an ending.

Stuckness in individuals and social systems can lead to death.

Death can serve as a catalyst for expansion and change in the remaining social system.

Example of a dysfunctional family where a son's death prompts necessary change.

Death is a call to re-examine life and its purpose.

Living with mortality in mind enriches life.

Facing death brings invaluable gifts for life.

Awareness of mortality can break free from the drama of daily life.

Contemplating death leads to important questions about life's purpose and meaning.

Thinking about death encourages different decisions and a more fulfilling life.