Bohemian Cafe

On Death
and the Spirit World

In a recent conversation with a friend about death, I came upon a sort of revelation. I'm sure this particular revelation has occurred to many people in the past, and while I had thought similar things before, this time it just seemed to make more sense. I would classify it more as an epiphany than a revelation since it's of a spiritual nature and it seems to have clarified things a bit for me, but for the purpose of this essay, I will continue calling it a revelation. In order to explain it, I must first cover a few things I've learned that led me to this idea.
Like most people, I have always wondered what the hereafter might hold for me and the people I know. Will we see each other again? Do we just really cease to exist when our bodies die? Being that I am a spiritual, yet not religious, person, I am not inclined to believe we just die with our bodies. Conservation of energy is a primary idea in physics and the energies that make us up must go somewhere when we cease to exist in the physical world. While I don't believe in a heaven, per se, I do believe that something happens to us and that our spirit goes somewhere when we die.

Not too long ago, I read a book on String Theory and it had an interesting example of what it would be like to exist in different dimensions. It asked me to imagine people as two-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional world. Basically, this is flat space that could exist on the surface of a counter or desktop. It then asked me to imagine a being from a third dimensional world, our world, paying a visit to these two-dimensional people. How would the 2D people see the 3D visitors? Would they be able to perceive their three-dimensionality? The answer is no. The visitors would merely look like cross sections moving through a flat space. Imagine taking an apple and cutting it into infinitesimally thin slices. As the apple moves through 2D space, the cross sections change depending on its relationship to that space. It might, in fact, be moving through a three-dimensional space, but since the 2D people can only perceive flat objects, it appears as a multitude of cross sections. This led me to wonder how people in our 3D world would perceive someone from a 4D or higher space.

During the conversation with my friend, we discussed astral travel. Astral travel is where a person's spirit willingly leaves her body in order that she may travel without it. It involves lots of meditation and a lack of fear when you finally do exit your physical self. Since I have not done this knowingly, I can only speculate as to what it's like. I have, however, had many experiences with what is described as an OOBE (out of body experience) and so while I'm not sure that's what it was, I have a vague understanding of it. Anyhow, the idea is that when you leave your physical body, your spirit ventures into another dimension, the fourth dimension. People have long wondered where our "consciousness", or spirit, resides. My theory is that it resides in that same fourth dimension. This is where my leap in reasoning came.

My idea is that there is a fourth dimension in which our spirits, our "consciousness" lives. We can travel there one of two ways: By willingly doing so, astral travel, or by death. Death, to me, is the body's inability to provide a physical home for our spirits. Our spirit can survive without any physical manifestation. When we die, our physical self dies and our spirits exit and venture into the spirit world or the fourth dimension. Astral travel is just a method of getting there without death and thus, we are able to enter our bodies again at will. Astral travelers say there is a silver cord that attaches their spirits back to their bodies so they won't "get lost" in the spirit world and that if this cord is severed, they cannot return to the body. I believe that death is just a severing of that silver cord

Near death experiences can be explained in this way, as well. When someone's body begins to die, the spirit exits, but when someone is able to repair the body so that in functions again, the spirit is able to inhabit it once more. What people are really seeing is the fourth dimension, not "heaven". Astral travelers often describe their experience in much the same way as people who have had near death experiences. They see the typical "white light" and claim to be in the presence of their dead family and friends. This idea leads me to my next revelation.

As my friend and I discussed this topic, I brought up the idea of ghosts. I believe I have four of them in my house and on several occasions, their presence has been made apparent. I awoke one night to find a rapidly disappearing figure next to my bed. She was a milky whitish-blue and while I can't remember what she looked like, I could tell she had long hair and was dressed in a white 30s-40s style dress. She was long gone when it finally registered in my brain what I had seen and that it wasn't an actual person standing there. We often get a strong scent of roses or other flowers wafting through the house, especially during Spring and Autumn as well as flickers of light that cannot be explained by "scientific" means.

When I was younger, about four or 5, I remember seeing a dark silhouette standing in my doorway which would then come and tickle me yet I didn't feel anyone's hands on my body. It was more of a sensation of being tickled. My brother would call for my mother at night, claiming that his dresser was being moved around the room and when she walked in, it would indeed have been moved. This was right after we moved in; I was 2 and he was 6 and it would have been impossible for him to have moved his dresser himself. I have also considered telekinesis as a possibility.

Several other "scientifically" unexplainable phenomena, including many guests having heard music when no one else was here as well as mumbled voices and audible "shhhh's" being heard by a few people, have happened in this house, but the aforementioned being the most apparent. When discussing the topic of death with my friend, the presence of these house ghosts was brought up. It is my opinion that the reason these spirits stick around is because they won't move on to the fourth dimension. This is not a new idea. Most people are under the impression that ghosts who die a particularly gruesome or untimely death cannot "rest" as a result. My idea is a little different in that I feel they won't move on. Just as some human beings find it difficult to get over a relationship or death, I feel these spirits cannot cope with their own death and so they remain in our world because they can't let go.

Another part of this theory is the reason they appear as they do. From our earlier ideas about a three-dimensional object moving into a two-dimensional world, we can extend that into a theory of what it would be like for a four-dimensional object moving into our 3D world. If spirits are pure energy and our bodies are merely physical manifestations of that energy, they would return to being pure energy when released from their physical selves. Thus being the case, the fourth dimension is one of energy in combination with our three dimensions. If a being that exists on four planes moves into our three-dimensional world, how would it appear? We would only be able to view it in terms of three-dimensions instead of four. I believe this is why they appear transparent yet still maintain a human-like appearance. It is one of light energy and three-dimensional physicality and is the only way our three-dimensional minds can perceive them.

If you happen to encounter a spirit, remember that it was once physical like you and me. It has merely been freed from the constraints of a body. It is still a living, conscious being and as such, should be treated with the same respect you would give any of your friends. These are spirits that basically have emotional problems and for one reason or another, they cannot let go of their death and our world.