At one point the Course In Miracles says: At no single instant does the body exist at all. (T:362; T-18. VIII. 3:1.) On the surface of things, this sentence does not seem to make sense, for if there is one thing that seems obvious it is our bodies. Let me suggest an analogy that may be helpful...

Souls don't represent all that is pure and good about a body or they wouldn't be incarnating for personal development. Souls come to Earth to work on their own shortcomings.. In terms of self-discovery, a soul may choose to act in conjunction with, or in opposition to, its own character in the selection of a human body. As an example...

People all over the world are having angel experiences. No matter where an angel message is received, or the culture or religion of the one who receives it, the messages are similar. Angels love, teach, comfort, encourage, support, and help you feel safe.

We have not done well with dying. We have denied its reality and considered it an end to life that should be avoided at all costs. We tell our children that Grandma died and went to a beautiful place called Heaven, and then we quit saying her name. Instead of seeing death as the next stage of life and exploring the possibilities of such a belief, we choose to let fear keep us ignorant.

"The times they are a changing", so wrote Bob Dylan in the early '60s. The title had its meaning to the young people of the period, but it has always had a universal meaning. The times have always changed and will continue to do so.

"Looks like this tree could use some water." I looked over at my neighbor, standing 30 feet away, beside the cypress tree my former boyfriend, Denver, had planted the previous spring. His words echoed and rolled slowly across the lawn that divided us. My hands tingled, and I clasped them together to keep them from shaking...

"Is she going to make it?" I asked, throwing my arms around my grandfather's stooped shoulders, enfolding him in a tight embrace. My grandmother was dying of cancer. What does one ask in such a dismal situation? Oma and I had often talked about spiritual ideas. She firmly believed we all have souls...

A testimonial of undying love and the presence of life after death... Curiously, my study of metaphysics did not really begin in earnest until the day of my Grandmother's death, when I became convinced that life did, in fact, continue after "death".

At the time, I was totally unprepared for the dramatic and extraordinary events that would unfold over the next 21 days. I would see and learn of a few more of the mysteries of the universe. I would get a glimpse of the phenomenal wonders and magic of life, physical death, life after death, and the transition that takes place during this period.

One day, I asked my dad if he would be there when God called me home, and he promised he would. He told me he would be watching over me. One evening, many years later, Mom called and said that Dad had just died. It was the first time I had lost anyone close to me. I was devastated! I don't believe anyone is ever prepared for...

After living sixty or sixty-five years people tend to move around a lot. Many buy and use house trailers and motor homes, enduring cramped conditions to seek new horizons. Still others devise various forms of travel to see the world or the country 'while still young enough to enjoy it.' Many, if not most, hike, walk, swim, jog, cycle, climb, swing golf clubs or tennis racquets or fly rods. The shared desire seems to be to achieve a state of almost perpetual motion. Action symbolizes life. Death is such a very long stillness. There seems to be a grim universal blind hope that it will be harder for the death dart to hit a moving target.

Many times we'll feel that we have 'received' something -- a prompting, a nudge, an idea. However, we're not sure if it's inspired by God's wisdom, or if it's coming from our own personal thoughts. How do we tell the difference? From the discussions I've had with people, there seem to be a vast number of discernment techniques. Some people, for example, feel a "happy glow" around one choice, and...

God has managed the amazing feat of being worshiped and invisible at the same time. Millions of people would describe him as a white-bearded father figure sitting on a throne in the sky, but none could claim to be an eyewitness...

Scriptures common to Christian, Muslim, and Jew specify that both the male and female are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). We have not really absorbed that truth until we become able to name the Holy One in ways that can also appropriately name ourselves: God-She, Mother, Great Woman, as well as God-He, Father, and Lord.

Do you feel different from other people, as if you were dropped off on this planet and wonder when someone's coming to take you home? If you have a passion and talent for healing, teaching, or helping others, yet you yourself have substance-abuse problems, weight issues, relationship challenges, and the like, then you may be an Earth Angel. If you're highly sensitive...

by Margaret Coberly. One important and obvious realization that can come to light when thinking about death is that death is inevitable. Through the process of further reflection, a greater awareness of death occurs and eventually a calm presence in the face of death can be developed.

by Eric Harrison. Don't be surprised if your doctor says to you, "Have you considered meditation?" He's not some alternative quack. The doctors are on firm ground when they recommend meditation. They are backed up by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of scientific studies going back decades.

Sometimes God comes along and gives us a real jolt.  And once in a while those "jolts" come in the form of experiences that could only be explained as . . . well, as inexplicable. When this occurs we are left to ponder, what has happened here? What's going on? ...

by Matthew Fox. Compassion is the way we treat all there is in life -- ourselves, our bodies, our imaginations and dreams, our neighbors, our enemies, our air, our water, our earth, our animals, our death, our space, and our time. Compassion is treating all creation as holy and as divine... which is...

Someone asked me in a recent lecture, his face hard set with doubt, 'Are you really enlightened?' He pressed on, again with an expression of someone reluctantly mining for the truth: 'What was it that you were enlightened to?' Laughing, I answered him, 'I was enlightened to the fact that there is nothing to be enlightened about.'

All religion, whether Western or Eastern, forms a bridge between the absolute and the relative, between the apparently real, and the truly real, between what we perceive as secular and what we know as holy. Most Western traditions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, see the absolute as transcendent, beyond, and other. Most Eastern traditions, on the other hand, envision it as immanent, within, and...

We all know from experience that we cannot be a better person, a more loving individual, let alone a fully realized being, simply by intention alone. Spiritual seeking is a commendable activity in and of itself but spiritual seeking that is undisciplined and aimless will not...

Modern society spends considerable effort on disinfecting the experience of dying. This inclination to hide and exclude death from everyday social activity is supported by the transfer of the place of death from home to the hospital.