An Extract from the book “Exploring the Eternal Soul”
(with kind permission of the publisher - O Books)

By Andy Tomlinson

What happens after death? Until recently humanity has relied on the various religious and esoteric traditions to provide the answers. However, these traditions have unfortunately provided all sorts of contradictions and confusion.

There are descriptions of heavens, hells, bardos, gods, angels, demons and the trials and tribulations to be overcome. The problem with many of these traditional views of death is that they contain widespread distortions however pure and wise their original sources might have been.

Many people believe that interlife regression provides the most detailed description of what happens after death. Sometimes called life between lives regression it has been progressively developed over the last 20 years, but particularly so over the last decade. Some of the pioneers include; Joel Whitton, Helen Wambach, Dolores Cannon, Peter Ramsden and Michael Newton.

They usually express a sudden sense of lightness and freedom, and sometimes the death scene is observed for a while with an air of detachment.

Many of them stumbled upon the interlife by issuing imprecise commands to a client during a past life, and amazingly found them talking about soul memories between lives. Thousands of people have now had their own interlife experience guided by the pioneers or other interlife therapists trained by them. The interlife reports show a remarkable consistency but what is particularly important is that many of the people in these interlife regressions had no prior knowledge. They also had beliefs from atheism through all the world’s major religions. This is an important point to note, that the client’s previous belief seems to make no difference to the nature of their interlife experience.

All of the interlife pioneers report that the experience begins with the subject moving or floating out of their physical body after the point of death in a past life. They usually express a sudden sense of lightness and freedom, and sometimes the death scene is observed for a while with an air of detachment. Some even attempt with limited success to contact grieving friends and relatives, to give them comfort before they move on into the light.

Nicola Barnard, who had minimal prior knowledge of the interlife before her session, provides one of the most lucid accounts of departure. She has initially regressed to a scene in a past life in which she is a seated figure in a marble temple, when an earthquake suddenly brings it crashing down around her:

Go to the point where your heart stops beating and then tell me what happens?
There’s a sense that it’s me that’s on the floor, and then there’s me that’s not on the floor anymore.
Have you left the body or are you still in the body?
I can see my body. I’m face down, but I’m dead. I can see my blood.
Are you able to describe the scene below you?
It’s chaos, but the strange thing is it’s not moving anymore. Everything’s stopped. There’s no more screaming or running around. So my body’s lying face down on the stone floor, and rocks have hit me in the head. I feel very unconcerned. I’m not feeling distressed at all.
What happens to you next?

Our human words and limiting perspective do not allow us to fully understand the spiritual realm which we return to after death. Generally, it is described that death is a liberating experience. In Aaron's words: