Me: What about celebrities? If somebody is, I don’t know, like Lady Gaga over here, are they treated with that same celebrity? Or even saints and the Pope. When they pass over, do they still enjoy that elevated status?
Jamie (giggling): He’s trying to say something in Latin. I don’t understand!
Me: Oh gosh.
Jamie: Like you do at church.
Me: No wonder he has a good vocabulary now. It’s all that Latin he knows now!
Jamie lets out a guffaw.
Erik: I get it. I get what you mean by celebrity and when you say celebrity, it’s also people in power and big gurus and teachers and loved ones and so forth. They’re totally recognizable, but again, they left the environment where they were holding the celebrity status, and they’re in a totally different environment. It’s a different experience. We don’t look at –you used Lady Gaga as an example. Way to be hip, Mom. —
Me: I chuckle. Boy he couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Erik: We don’t see Lady Gaga on the street and go, “Oh shit! Look who’s here! Lady Gaga!” We know it’s Lady Gaga, but it’s a completely different world, a completely different environment. We don’t have that—Oh fuck. I don’t even know what to call it.
Jamie (to Erik): Start simple.
Erik: Well, we don’t really have that separation from each other like you’re bigger and better than such and such. We all have the same confidence levels. We all have that same sense of grounding. There’s such a big scale on Earth. There’s a huge difference in those emotional stabilities on Earth. There are completely different status levels of emotional qualities. You know how you do those personality tests?
Me: Yes.
Erik: Yeah, you can still have that personality when you come here, but it doesn’t make you more noticeable or less noticeable or better or worse. You’re all as one. Godammit!
Jamie and I giggle at his frustration.
Erik: The more I talk about it, the more it sounds like it’s so fucking boring to be here, that everything’s the same. But it’s not like that at all. We’re just missing a lot of vocabulary, a lot of words to explain it, cuz there’s just not one for it on Earth.
Me: And of course us “regular” souls—I shouldn’t call it that, but Jamie, you might have been a rock star in another life. We could have been a Lady Gaga in one of our other lives, so… So that makes sense, right?
Erik: Yes.
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Be sure to sign up for Jamie’s Web Class this Wednesday at 5:00 PM CDT: Hand Designing Your Own Meditation Space. Register HERE.
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Dear Reader,
The journey on which you’re about to embark will take you through stories that are deeply personal and involves a relationship between a mother and her son.
As a physician raised by two atheists, I had no personal belief system about life after death. In a word, I was a confirmed skeptic. As my journey progressed, my mind opened. It is my sincerest hope that yours will open as well and that you will have a greater understanding of your own life and what’s to come ahead.
Although Erik sometimes paints a rosy picture of the afterlife, time and time again he stresses that suicide is not the answer to one’s problems. If you struggle, please understand that the information in my blog and my book is no substitute for professional help. Please click here for a list of resources for help when you find yourself considering taking your own life. Know that they are readily available when you feel that hopelessness and despair that many of us feel from time to time in our lives.
I refuse all donations and ad revenue on the blog. It is my dream to one day establish a nonprofit organization that delivers a variety of spiritual services for those who have lost loved ones to suicide and cannot afford that assistance on their own. It’s a mission of love, sacrifice, and dedication.
Love and light,
Elisa
