No one knows what happens when we die. Most people don’t want to think about it. But what if it’s something wonderful, something to look forward to rather than something to dread? Has the fear of death been given too much license? Peter Pan’s Neverland might already be a dream come true. Tinker Bell may not be there, but neither will the crocodile, ticking clocks and captains with hooks. 

Over time, I’ve learned to sink into a deep meditation space that I call “Presence.” It’s warm, supportive and energetic. I can feel it in and around my body when I tune in. And it’s always there, always available. Maybe that Presence will be all that’s left of me when I die. 

  Some say the soul is the nondifferentiated essence of who we are. So what happens to my soul when I die? A dear friend recently passed away at age twenty-eight after a long illness. I wonder, where is he now? What happened to his soul when his body was no longer available? Three years later, I can still feel his energy as I go about my day. 

Astronomers tell us that the universe has no limits, that there is no end to its vastness and that it’s continually expanding. They say most of the universe is a kind of infinite spaciousness, an infinite nothingness that’s difficult to comprehend. On the other hand, microbiologists tell us that, on a micro scale, the physical environment we experience, including our bodies, is also mostly spaciousness. The space among the atoms and molecules that make up things, as well as the space within the atoms and molecules themselves, is mostly emptiness, spaciousness. Again, it’s difficult to get our minds around it. 

The important thing to realize is that, from both macro and micro perspectives, who we are personally as well as the physical universe in which we live, is mostly spaciousness. When we die, then, wouldn’t it make sense that we simply continue on as spaciousness, released from our bodies into the infinite nothingness? And we don’t need to worry about, it’s already here.

Without a physical body and mental thoughts to distract us, our psyches are free to roam, free to connect with the whole of which we are a part. Our ego-selves, however, don’t like the nothingness space. Our egos want to keep us in their realm. Without a body or a mind to play with, there’s nothing for our egos to do, nothing for them to obsess about. I think my death will be like that, my soul existing in some way without thoughts, actions or a physical space; a dynamic existence full of love, not boring at all—like Nederland. 

Surely, things will be different, however. And I have no idea how things will look or how they will work in the afterlife. I can only speculate. But think of it, with roughly eight billion people on the planet now and billions more from the past, who manages all these souls? I doubt there’s someone (God for example) operating a gimongous filing system, electronic or not (even with AI), to keep track of things. Certainly, it will be something very different.       

I believe that love and expanding consciousness are built into the system. They’re part of evolution. There have been millions (billions) of years of physical change leading to the creation of our solar system and the onset of life. Then, with animals and to the present day with humans, there has been a natural flow from unconscious to conscious that’s built into the process. So, when we transition to the next phase, to whatever the afterlife is, why wouldn’t evolution continue. And in the process, the essence of who we are, our souls, will simply dance into the infinite nothingness.  

We all have problems in our lives, some of them seemingly insurmountable, but at the core the Universe is benevolent. Love is everywhere. We just need to tune into it. Virtually every day, little (or big) things show up which make me smile. They may be as simple as watching young children on a playground or sharing a kind word with a passerby. Or maybe it’s an unexpected gift from a friend. 

I can’t explain the craziness of the world, including the pain people are enduring in war-torn parts of the planet or how the human race seems hell-bent on extinction, but little things tell me that love is in the air. And if that’s true, why wouldn’t that love follow us into whatever’s next? And the more conscious we become now, here on earth, the smoother the transition. 

In summary, increasing consciousness is about moving beyond our ego-centric points of view to become more fully who we already are. Increasing consciousness is at the core of the evolutionary thrust and that process won’t end when we die. What’s left of us when our bodies fall away is our non-physical essence which dissipates into the loving nothingness. 

And there are no prerequisites, no specific levels of consciousness needed to qualify. The infinite spaciousness is available to us all. Nederland is surely just around the corner.