Me: In the afterlife, tell me some of the things you have. Are there malls? Are there restaurants? Are there theaters? Tell about some of the structures and establishments you have there besides the ones you talked about like that glass building.

Erik: Wow, you’re really into this, huh?

Me: I’m telling ya, man!

(Pause)

Jamie: It’s wild. He’s just running through pictures with me. I don’t even know if he’s purposely giving the images to me. Maybe he’s just running through pictures himself trying to figure out what he’s going to talk about. So far he’s shown a big body of water and, uh, it’s not just flat water. Even though I feel like it’s a lake, it has a shimmer or shine to it and there are waves. Maybe what the Great Lakes look like.

(Pause)

Jamie: Oh, now he’s talking to me. (To Erik) Okay, okay. Got it.

Erik: No need for malls. We don’t need to shop. This is not a market-driven society. We don’t have billboards. There’s no need for to have money, right? So we don’t have these storefronts or exchanges for products and money. We don’t really need to eat like we did when we were living, so we don’t really have the restaurants and the food and all these kinds of things. There’s definitely a lot that you do leave behind when you leave Earth, but there’s a lot that you gain and pick up like music.

(Pause)

Jamie (laughing and shaking her head): I don’t know what he’s doing. I don’t know what he’s doing right now.

Me: What are you doing, Erik?

Jamie: It’s like he went off into his own world all of a sudden.

Erik: The music is soooo fucking great.

Me: Is it different from the music on Earth?

Erik: Big time.

Me: In what way?

Erik: You know how you hear some of those instructors saying, “Music can tune the body; music can heal the soul.” You know, I used to think that was total bullshit, but I knew that music would change your mood. You know it can make you get up and dance; it can make you smile, but the real—Come on, Jamie. Get with it! Go, go, go!

Jamie (to Erik, blushing and giggling): I know! I’m just not in the cussing mood, Erik!

Erik: The real fucking shit about music is that it DOES tune the energetic body.  It does tune the soul. Man, it touches the soul right to the center core of it, if you could imagine it to have a center core. It changes the vibrational quality, which changes the entire structure of yourself. So when we have concerts, music here, it’s—

Jamie (throwing herself back into the chair, laughing.): I’m not going to, don’t. Oh, Erik. He says that it’s like one great big fucking orgy.

Erik: No sex involved, but you can imagine everybody’s energy being attuned to what’s playing. Now remember, it’s not so much about conversations where we are. We don’t say, “Hey, Jane. How’re you doing? Nice to meet you,” and reach out and shake hands. It’s not this kind of interaction. It’s more in depth. There’s more strength and vulnerability where Heaven is, where I am, where Home is rather than on Earth. Earth is very different. You have a lot of privacy. It’s very attractive in the same sense, but it’s not needed where we are. You can imagine that when you meet someone, you don’t just hear the words that are coming out of their mouth. You feel the emotions that they’re feeling. Like, take being empathic to the tenth degree. And you feel what the person next to you is going through. Now imagine being at a concert and you’re tapped in to what the music is doing. It’s changing your vibrational quality, which is totally affecting your health, your emotional status, and you have two other people next to you who are having a damn good time with it, too and you’re picking up on that shit. And the people in front of you and behind you and then the other thousand people that are in the arena, and then the thousands of people who are down with the music. It’s just amazing that it all comes together. It all comes in. And there’s not way that you’re going to just zip yourself up and say, “Oh, I’m just going to listen to the music.” It’s not that kind of experience here. That’s why the music is so fucking great. Now, you can either go listen to it, or we also have gatherings where you come and you participate in the music. You play your music.

Jamie (chuckling): He looks like a puppy when he does his head like that. He’ll just tilt his head.

Me: Aw.

Erik (tiling his head to the side): I’m still a little baffled –

Jamie: Baffled? Confused?

Erik: Yeah, yeah. But in a good way. Let’s say I never played the trombone, but I want to play the trombone. Or I want to play this instrument, and I pick it up but I’ve never played it before, and I don’t know the steps of it, the technical side of the instrument. What’s crazy is, because I’m so attracted to it and because I want to learn it—or you can say remember it where all of the information is available—it just happens. It’s like—

Jamie (laughing): He’s being so cute. He’s so amazed. He says, “You know, it just kind of fucking happens for you right then. You just kind of sit with it. You be with it, and then you just fiddle around with it for a little bit, and all of a sudden you understand the instrument and the instrument understands you. And you’ve got this relationship with it, and you can jam. It’s just really cool.

Still, I can’t imagine him playing the trombone.

*************************

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