Conversations with a Soul (39 page)

Do I push the imagery too far when I imagine that the union that binds the living and the dead is ultimately a symphony which only occasionally my ears hear and my being understands? If indeed there be any significance to this universal symphony of strings, then the place where I might apprehend it is in moments of transcendence when I release my being to journey to the stars.

Quantum physics strongly suggests that a characteristic trait of the Universe is that everything is purposefully interconnected. Particles do not merely behave in a random chaotic manner, but cooperate with each other, sometimes over vast distances.

A practical example of this cooperation is that of hearing the telephone ring and even before we’ve answered the call, we
know
who is on the other end. Frequently the recipient of the call will declare, 'I was just thinking about you!' The frequency of this experience rules out the argument that it is all a matter of coincidence.

We are alive in a Universe of immense wonder that demands we not only rewrite many of Newton’s laws but that we rethink the experience of death.

Wigners’s
¹¹²
interpretation put the question of consciousness at the very centre of the foundation of physics. He echoes the words of the great astronomer James Jeans who once wrote, ‘Fifty years ago the universe was generally looked on as a machine . . . When we pass to extremes of size in either direction-whether to the cosmos as a whole, or to the inner recesses of the atom - the mechanical interpretation of nature fails. We come to entities and phenomena which are in no sense mechanical. To me they seem less suggestive of mechanical than of mental processes; the universe seems to be nearer to a great thought than to a great machine’
¹¹³

As physicists continue to explore the universe, both within us an around us, we may hear echoes of journeys embarked upon by seers, priests, dreamers and shaman to make contact with the dead, who long ago understood their universe
to be a great thought
. Told and retold in ancient stories or read and reread in ancient books humankind has sought to make contact with the dead for as far back as we can reach.

Carl Jung placed a lot of emphasis on the unique relationship between the unconscious, the soul and death; much of it arising from his own experience.

The Pygmy peoples of Southern Africa thought the stars they could see in the night sky were actually the reflection of campfires lit by their dead ancestors gathered in communities. Hundreds of miles from any artificial illumination, the Kalahari night sky is ablaze with stars that sometimes seem to flicker just like their own fires. Thus, being present to the wonder of the heavens brought an assurance that their loved ones, although lost to sight in the day, were nevertheless still alive and present to them in the night sky. Furthermore, the dreams that sometimes came to them in their sleep were additional evidence of the caring of their deceased relatives and understood to be a gift intended to offer encouragement, guidance and wisdom to the dreamer.

Whatever a conversation with our dead relatives and friends may mean to us, Fenwick and others have patiently recorded numerous 
Near Death Experiences
. Universally these experiences have resulted in the participants experiencing a deep peace and confidence in their future. For most of them the fear of death was removed, but, perhaps more importantly, they found renewed faith in their daily engagement with life.

A friend shared her experience of just such an encounter. After graduating from University and heading for a career in teaching . . .

. . . just a week later, tragedy struck! I was involved in a horrendous car accident, a head-on collision, in which 4 people died including my parents and my sister-in-law. Whilst unconscious I had a sort of vision; people often refer to this as a ‘Near Death Experience’ … It is very hard to put this into words, but I seemed to be in a cave and there was a very bright light at the end which I felt I was drifting towards. In the light beyond the cave there seemed to be something really amazing, almost like a garden. I felt sure that my parents had gone through to that light. All the time I was also powerfully aware of the presence of Jesus with me – I just knew it was HIM. I had an overwhelming sense of Peace and reassurance all around me. And then gradually, my consciousness returned and I came round to find myself lying in the road and was taken to hospital. Throughout the long night that followed, the awareness of the presence of Jesus remained with me and I had the words of the 23
^rd
Psalm, going through my mind constantly …

In a mist of light

falling with the rain

I walk this ground

of which dead men

and women I have loved

are part, as they

are part of me. In earth,

in blood, in mind,

the dead and the living

into each other pass,

as the living pass

in and out of loves

as stepping to a song.

The way I go is

marriage to this place,

grace beyond chance,

loves braided dance

covering the world.
¹¹⁴