Death is NOT Final
The event I’m about to tell you is real. No smoking mirrors, just the truth.
It’s my belief Death is NOT the final word. There’s life after life, we like to refer to as the Spiritual world. Unfortunately we have a hard time convincing ourselves of that, unless we had the experience of being brought back to life after a tragic accident. It’s like anything else in life, if you haven’t experienced it your brain can’t conceive it’s true.
We are hardwired for scientific facts. If we can’t explain it, see or hear it, it doesn’t exist.
Your brain can do inconceivable things in our physical world. The only thing we can relate with our spiritual world is dreaming. Dreams seem to take us on a wild ride, trying to relate our consciousness experiences from the day or week before, and sometimes, even recurring dreams from a year ago.
But one thing is clear to us all —
Without our brain, the body ceases to function. To most of us that means certain death. However, death isn’t final. It may be to our physical body, but there’s still the question, “ Do we have a soul ?”
Our Soul and Beyond
Beyond our physical world, human beings have used religion, to explain the spiritual world. Ironically, it’s our physical brain trying to process what we see and hear. To me, there’s more to the spiritual world then using religious undertones. For example, Japanese people don’t separate the dead from the living. To the Japanese, it’s a transition into another spiritual dimension. As said by a monk, “…death is like shoji on a sliding door “. ( a Shoji is a thin piece of paper on the door). In other words, the once living transitions to the other side.
Religious followers call it our soul, but I to refer it to the entity of who we are, as a person. You most likely heard this before, “I think therefore I am.” Father of Modern Philosopher Rene Descartes (during the 17th century) is responsible for this quote. Our consciousness can also be related to our soul. The soul can be used in context to an “energy source” leaving our bodies when we die in this physical world.
In the religious world, it’s believe we have either good or evil souls. As a matter of fact, each religion warns us we better listen to God or you’ll surely be punished. To me, religion is just another form of control.
Without relating to the religious theories , my mind believes we make a conscious decision to be good or bad. It’s our choice in this physical world we live in.
With that said, let me tell you the true events, preceiving the notion, there’s Life after Life —
Life After Life
In the 1970’s I was in my late teens, living in Vernon, British Columbia. A time where you’re still trying to find yourself. During this adolescence period, my girlfriend, Patricia (now wife) and I had a trio of friends. There’s Scott and his girlfriend, Lori, along with Alfred, nickname Alf. Alf and Scott became inseparable friends, having similar interests. They both enjoyed tinkering with early model sports cars and had deep conversations dealing with math and science. Of course they loved Star Trek.
All of us would hang out together, be it a campfire bush party, the local clubs or spending at one another’s place. Our last time together as a group, was the last summer before heading to College. If I remember correctly, Scott was going to become an engineer. Alf was thinking about going to UBC, while I started to prepare for my second year at Okanagan College, taking the Fine Arts Program.
For me, this summer was a time of turmoil, as I fought a different path my father wanted me on. To make a long story short, he kicked me out of his house, ending up staying with Patricia’s family until the end of the summer.
One day Alf came over to see Us. He asked me if I would be interested in seeing a fortuneteller with him. Alf was sort of crazy like that. Out-of-the-blue ideas just came to his head, and without hesitation, he acted on them. Didn’t really see any harm in it, so I thought it would be fun to see what kind of future was in store for me.
We drove over to the BX area of Vernon, where Alf instructed me to pull into this trailer park. Looking at this rundown trailer, I question his sanity, saying,” You sure you want to do this?”
Alf laughed it off, he waved me on, saying,” Come on! Are you scared ?”
Of course I said no, but had my doubts about this fortune-telling venture. Paying out $40 for the two of us, was a big deal to me back then. Siding with scepticism, we walked up the rotting stairs of the trailer. Knocking on the screen door, we were met with this older man who seem to haven’t shaved in days. He introduced us to his wife with curlers in her hair, puffing on the short end of a cigarette butt. Now I was siding with caution, thinking these two were going to murder us. Without hesitation, the old man took me to one room, while Elf went to another (with his wife) to have our fortunes told.
The old man motioned me to sit down at this small table with two rickety old chairs, Immediately, my fortune teller pulled out a deck of Tarot Cards to begin reading my fortune. Laying out the cards one at a time, he carefully studied each one. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, he spoke in a calm voice, telling me my future is all over the place. Apparently my life will encounter 3 or 4 different careers. My last career would become so successful I would end up with a lot of money. Inside my head I screamed, “ What a bunch of crap ! You want me to believe what everyone wishes for ? Sure, sure, a lot of money…eh ?” I just smirked and left.
Heading back to my car, I impatiently waited for Elf to show up. Eventually, Elf came running out of the trailer with an expression of fear. He yelled at me, slamming the car door, “ Go ! Go! Go! “
As fast as lightening, my little Austin Mini smoked out of that trailer park, like we were being chased by Zombies. Zipping down the curved road, it wasn’t hard to notice, Elf was about to have a cardiac arrest. Without a word, I slammed on the breaks, swerving to the side of the road.
Elf gets out, agitated has hell, pacing back and forth like a madman. You could see the deep fear in his eyes.
Deeply concerned,I said,” What the hell Elf ?! What the @$#+@ wrong ? What happened in there ?!”
Still pacing back and forth, he stopped. Grabbing my shoulders, totally freaking out, he said,” Bari. Oh my god Bari… You’re NOT going to believe what she said to me!
He then screamed at the top of his lungs, “ @&$#@ !”
“Elf ! What the hell ! Get a hold of yourself. It can’t be that bad…can it? “ I said.
He grabbed me again, “ Oh god Bari…it’s bad…it’s really bad!”
“What the hell did she tell you ?”
Eye to eye, Elf proceeded to tell me, his fortune didn’t have a future, what-so-ever ! In fact, he wouldn’t even see the end of this summer.
I said,” You mean to tell me she told you, you were going to die ?”
Alf shook his head.
Shaking my head in disbelief, I assured him, his fortune was a bunch of crock, just like mine was. We were simply taken by a couple of con-artist, is all.
It was hard to see Elf like this. He was indeed distraught. Reassuring him, I made it clear, he had a long long life ahead of him. He most likely will end up as a professor at some university, one day. Told him to think about it for a minute. I mean really. Me ? Ending up rich ?
Give me a break, that will never happen!
He stopped and looked intently at me. After a few minutes of silence, he took a deep breath and smiled, shaking his head in agreement, “ You’re right !” He started to was laugh with a nervous hysterical tone.
The summer was coming to an end. Elf fell in love with a girl ( an exchange student from Venezuela). Have no idea how he met her. Just one day he introduced me to her. He also spent hours working on that foreign sports car with Scott. Believe it was a Triumph Spitfire.
It wouldn’t be long now, our small group would be going their different ways. In lieu of this, we decided to have a small party at Scott and Elf’s rental house by the Rec centre. Patricia and I showed up late that evening, eight..ish or so ? Noticed Elf was in his room with his girlfriend at his side.
Once again, he seemed completely distraught. Knocking on his open door, I asked if everything was ok ? He was rude and told me to go away. Flabbergasted, I wasn’t going away without an explanation. It wasn’t like Elf to distant himself from me. His actions weren’t logical. If there was one thing I knew about Elf, he was certain to use logical in everything he did.
His girlfriend was trying to comfort him, telling me to just leave.
Standing my ground, waiting for an answer, Elf finally said,” Haven’t slept very well this past week. Last night and before that, I saw a little girl come up to my bedside. She told me not to worry, everything will be alright. Then she would just disappeared…” He paused in grief and raising his voice, continued,” The nights before that I saw hand prints on the wall. Do you see what I’m telling you ? Do you ! “
“Yes,”I said,” I believe I do.
I’ve heard of supernatural stories before but never really believed in them. Maybe because it was from people who weren’t rational or trustworthy. But Elf, that was another thing all together. He reminded me as Mr. Spock on Star Trek. That’s how logical he was.
My only response to his supernatural visions ; it was just a bad dream. As soon as I mentioned it, his actions turned hostile, as if he was trying to blame me for his illogical patterns. Shrugging my shoulders, not sure what to say or do, I left, hurt from his response.
Few days latter, he came over to Patricia’s place to talk to her not realizing I was there. He was pleading for her not to go out with me at all. Completely dumbfounded I was going to go outside to tell him off, but Patricia stopped me.
After that, I didn’t want to see Elf again.
A week later, we heard that Scott and Elf were in a car accident, driving their Spitfire too fast around a corner. The convertible flipped over into the field, throwing the two aimlessly into chaos. Scott wasn’t harmed, but Elf unfortunately hit the only bolder in that field killing him instantly.
We were all stunned by what happened ; me especially.
For crying-out-loud, that fortuneteller was correct. Alf didn’t have a future after all. During the funeral I talked to Alf’s parents. Didn’t have the heart to tell them what I knew. They were from a strong Catholic background, so I thought it wouldn’t be appropriate during their time of grief. I gave my condolences and left.
Never did understand the resentment Alf had towards me at the end of his life. As for me, I’m still poor. My fortune wasn’t completely correct, however I have had three different careers in my lifetime. Still buying lottery tickets to see if the last part of the fortune will pan out. Won’t be holding my breathe.
Alf’s supernatural visions did make me think if there truly is life after death. My wife and I have been married for 42 years now, so I’m still not sure why Alf was so content in the beginning, trying to cause havoc in our relationship.
This incident proves to me there must be something after we leave our physical bodies here on earth. It’s my understanding, for those who experienced death and came back, noticed time and space travels quickly, to and from one space to another. Some souls are lost due to their tragic deaths, while others find peace, reaching for the light, to begin their journey into the unknown cosmos, where time and space are not defined. It’s also believed, some souls are reincarnated back on earth, to begin a new life. It could be all of our souls take on different journeys that suit us. Maybe that’s why some of us never see our lost loved ones again.
We know now there’s more then one universe, there are multi-universes. Time and Space are not finite. So it’s plausible to say, our souls will choose it’s own journey. That’s the reason we don’t see all the souls after their physical death. We only hear of the ones who are lost and need to find their way. I believe there’s Life and Life. Death is NOT the final word. It’s imperative I believe in this, because when death is looming at my bedside, I will see my daughter Jenni again.
By Bari Demers
Thank you for reading…
[Sometimes in life you’re at Crossroads; not sure where you’ll take your life or where life will take you. There’s at least one drastic event in our life, changing everything.] BMD
Dreams and Reality 