[guthrio]

Originally Posted by Plaxx

Hi guys,

I was wondering whether one's soul retains any kind of "individuality" after death. I would like to get an answer from someone who actually had a near death experience.
All of those who come back to life say that they "felt one with god". Does this in any way mean that our individuality is just a temporary expression of the whole? i.e. it's not really part of the whole but rather the whole itself. And in that case, wouldn't that be a little depressing? To know that after all nothing really matters and you are just a vehicle for God to explore and express itself? Many who had a near death experience also say that they did retain individuality but as a drop of water in the ocean. I'm a little confused. If we don't retain individuality, does that mean that our soul vanishes into the whole?

If we have always existed as spiritual beings, as many near death experiencers say, have we always existed as God or have we always existed as spiritual beings who form a collective consciousness, which is God, individually?

Would be grateful to have some interesting insights and, again, to get an answer from someone who has actually experienced an NDE first-hand.

Thank you

Hi Plaxx,

As to the part of your narrative concerning the "after-life", please consider that there is no "after life"....exactly like there is no "after-you" when you have walked through one door into another room. You are yet YOU...being YOU in another room.

Here's a taste of the depth of knowledge you can expect to see within the 1st reference, entitled "An Ascension Handbook" (see page 112) that explains why:

"....because Spirit is not limited by time or space, it is not only around "you", as are the lower fields, this aspect of you is "everywhere". It empowers your other fields and expresses through them. You are not, therefore, just your personality, or outer ego-awareness. You are much, much more. Part Two looks at how you can claim this larger identity and wake up to who you really are".

In the 2nd reference, please also consider the testimony of one who describes EXACTLY the very experience of returning from the "other room" in this description of Paramahansa Yogananda's reunion with his resurrected guru, Sri Yukteswar, who had returned to Earth, for a brief interlude with his former disciple, from a higher vibratory sphere called Hiranyaloka. Here's an excerpt from the source below:

"O Master", Yogananda said, "I was grieving so deeply about your death!" "Ah, wherein did I die? Isn't there some contradiction?" said Sri Yukteswar, eyes twinkling with love and amusement. Sri Yukteswar goes on to say to his former disciple, "You were only dreaming on earth; on that earth you saw my dream-body. Later you buried that dream-image. Now my finer fleshly body--which you behold and are even now embracing rather closely!--is resurrected on another finer dream-planet of God. Someday that finer dream-body and finer dream-planet will pass away; they too are not forever. All dream-bubbles must eventually burst at a final wakeful touch. Differentiate, my son Yogananda, between dreams and Reality!"

How evocative of Jesus' resurrection, life, and message. Can you not hear echoes of a similar conversation with His disciples upon reuniting with them following His ascension? How evocative of everything others have recorded of our higher-seeing Brothers and Sisters. This excerpt ALONE should hint that you are, as an immortal, omnipresent Spiritual Being, certainly more than you have been taught, and infinitely more than you may have thought. "I and the Father are One"....is just as true of you as it is of all your Brothers and Sisters....HOWEVER they appear, WHEREVER their birthplace is on the Earth, or WHATEVER they call themselves or you. THAT is the part you won't hear from those who've sought to keep access to the Truth about ourselves limited to ONLY a self-approved “credo” of beliefs espoused in some religion's scripture, filled with sanctioned interpretations about it.

This is what is so important to me about this wonderful forum of seekers who share our journeys together. That we are learning to differentiate between the dreams we call our mortal earthly lives and the eternal Reality we thought we'd left behind.

Hope these help answer your questions: "have we always existed as God or have we always existed as spiritual beings who form a collective consciousness, which is God, individually?"

Reference: https://www.scribd.com/doc/92652386/...Serapis#scribd An Ascension Handbook

Reference: https://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/chap43.php The Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar