I don’t know if it’s a western civilization thing, but it seems like many of us in the States see death as a very sad thing. In fact, I do still even though I know it’s just a return Home and that we never really end our existence. I guess for me, the sadness just comes from missing the hugs, the face-to-face conversations and all the other tangible, physical experiences with them in our 3-D world. In this Best of Erik, Erik discusses the celebration of death. But before you read on, here’s last nights awesome show on narcissism. 

Me: When will we humans accept death as really a celebration of the eternity of life? When will we redefine death?

Erik: I wish that was yesterday, but that’s going to take a while.

Me: Oh gosh. Yeah.

(Pause)

Me: Okay. You gotta be a little more, you know.

Jamie: I know. I was asking him how long? What do you mean? Da, da, da.

Erik: That’s the whole movement of this spirituality enlightenment thing that we’re trying to do, and that shit’s gonna take a while. We can look at another, I don’t know, four years before that really catches on. You know, the Asian cultures got it going on.

Jamie: He’s going back to the stripping. Have you heard about that?

Me: The what?

Jamie: Thailand or one of the Asian cultures. They hire strippers on “Dead Day” to dance and get naked, because it appeases the spirits so it’s kind of a celebration.

Me: Mm. Kinky spirits!

Jamie: Oh, yeah. Woo hoo!

We both giggle for a while.

Jamie: Yep.

Me: All right. So, we’ll celebrate death in four years or so, but when will we, in the western culture, look at death as not the end—as just a revolving door?

Jamie: A revolving door.

Me: Not just a celebration, but a revolving door that’s not the end.

Erik: Mom, that’s going to be a while. That’s going to be a while, Mom.

Me: Well, how long is “a while”?

Erik: Oh, shit.

Me: It’s going to be a while until I eat dinner tonight, okay?

Erik: Nah, I’m talking years.

Me: Decades? Hundreds of years?

Erik: No, not hundreds of years. I’ll sign up for decades.

Me: Okay, so maybe 4 decades, 5 decades?

Pushy, pushy.

Erik: No, I’d go more for 2 to 3.

Me: Two to three decades. What will it take?

Erik: For people to celebrate death?

Me: No. Well, they won’t be able to celebrate death until they know that it’s not the end of the road probably.

Erik: It’s going to take a lot more of these kids coming in with their stories of remembering other lifetimes and them being able to link them, and then having that being part of traditional therapy which it’s trying to do now, right? Past life regression and stuff like that. Brian Weiss—how long has he been at it, you know? And it just kind of went to a certain place and went “ehhh”.

Me: Yeah!

Erik: All right? So, culture’s not ready for it. So, that will grow first. It’ll be part of therapy. It’ll be a part of healing the life that you’re in. More children will come in and talk about it, and we’ll be able to track their history and know that it’s real and that shit will blow people’s minds. It’ll be more in story lines. It’ll be more in Oprah. It’ll be more in all that, and then by more we’re like ten year into it, right?

Me: Mm hm.

Erik: So then maybe a lot of people believe in it but not he masses, and then we have to break tradition on “this is how you grieve”, “this is what you wear when you grieve”. “This is what the funeral car looks like”, “this is what the…” Okay, you know how some people started dancing at their weddings when they came down the aisle? That was fucked up at first! It was kind of different at first, but know more people are doing it kind of frequently but not so much. They’re breaking the traditions on how weddings are. People are wearing different colors. So the whole celebration of love and getting married, well, that’s going to happen first, then it’s going to bleed over into how do you grieve. It’s just going to take a while.

Me: Yeah. And then this book coming out will hopefully help people understand that relationships don’t have to end at death. Will scientific evidence help lift us to that spot?

Erik: People aren’t’ going to like the idea that science will actually mingle with spirituality. That’s going to really fuck with people’s heads. Easily, almost half the people are going to be so ready for it when that happens that it won’t even upset people.

Me: What?

Erik: That science and spirituality are going to marry.

Me: I’m talking about when science starts to prove the survival of consciousness after death.

Erik: Yeah. That’s when they start to marry!

Me: Okay. They’ll say their vows.

Erik: When that starts to happen, the majority will be completely ready for it, but the other half won’t even know how to define it, and the ones who are ready for it are mostly kids. The younger generation is waiting for the older people to die so that they can reshape the culture.

Me: Okay, good. Not me, though.

Be sure you purchase copies of Erik and my books: My Son and the Afterlife and My Life After Death. They come in all formats, but you might have to widen your browser window to see them all. They’re very inexpensive, so keep your own copy and buy new copies for friends and family who you think would benefit by them. Thanks for supporting Erik and me in this!