by Pam Uher

Created on: April 10, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

This has been the human dilemma since the human mind began asking. Where do we go when we die? What happens when we die?

The human body is only a temporary vessel. Science has told us the human body decays. Dust to dust, becomes a reality for the vessel. The energy of the soul leaves the body once it is dead. Some say 21 grams (the weight of the soul is the size of a nickle) flees the corpse and moves on. But where does it go?

When I was a Chaplin in a V.A. Hospital death became a constant part of my life. I learned about death from the suffering of those who were ill and from some who would die on my watch. The lessons I learned taught me not to fear what we will all encounter one day.

When death arrives the body becomes still and the eyes fixed. Many times, I have seen the shadow of light that brings life to a persons eye disappear. The skin stops breathing and the energy of living vanishes. Nothing moves and stillness is pervasive for a moment. You can not hear the sound of air being pumped in and out of the lungs. A sense of vacancy can be felt in the room, as the soul flees moving on to its next destination.

I have watched many die...and some return to tell me they were not finished with this life, quite yet. Each person I watched die, and who later lived again, expressed the same experience. Their expressions and words were varied, but all expressed similar experiences with death.

Each said they were drawn to a light which beckoned them out of their bodies and drew them toward a peaceful place. Many saw themselves floating above their bodies, others only remember returning to their bodies by following the sound of a human voice calling to them. None of the after-life experiences they expressed were fearful or barren. All those people I have known, who experienced such a moment, never realized they were "pronounced dead"; some where dead for more than 30 minutes, before breathing life again. When each of them returned they told of similar experiences and they all expressed death was no longer fearful to them. They knew the afterlife was full of peace and joy. It was amazing to talk with these people, after they returned to life, for they had a renewed sense of living...a new purpose...a mission of unfinished business consumed them.

Death seems to be a transition from this life to another type of existence. I believe our soul moves on and we shed this physical body. The soul is a form of energy that never dissipates into nothing. It carries with it the lessons learned, from the journey we call life, on a planet we call earth.

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