Near-death-experiences are experiences people have when their physical body is dead.  While their body is dead, their consciousness detaches from their body and has vivid experiences of other worlds.  These worlds are usually heavenly in nature, and all of the people who have NDEs come back completely transformed by what they have experienced.

Some may say these experiences are DMT flooding into the brain, or are just hallucinations.  We know they are not hallucinations because some people are able to accurately report specific details about what the doctors were doing in the room at the time they detached from their body.  And we know this is not DMT, because Dr. Eben Alexander, a Harvard trained brain neurosurgeon of 25 years, had a vivid NDE while the neocortex of his brain was completely disabled.

His NDE remains the most scientifically credible experience of the afterlife that has ever been recorded.  To read more about his experience, click here.  But the point of this post is not to convince you that they have real experiences.  It is to talk about the implications their experiences have on how we relate to our life on earth.

Here are 3 things NDEs have taught us about life:

1) Life is a test

Life is a schoolhouse where your soul develops and evolves.  It is a test of personal growth.  Just like tests in school, you can pass, or you can fail.  To pass is to act out of love, compassion, and understanding.  When you “fail” in life, you will feel dirty inside yourself as if you have done something wrong.  This sense of conscience and moral apprehension is your soul attempting to guide you through this life.  When you fail in school, you get an “F”.  When you fail in life, you learn a new lesson.

As weird as this may sound, an important part of life is making mistakes, because it is only through direct experience that we can be permanently transformed.  Life is not a random accident, and your job is not to pay bills until you die.  Your primary job is to evolve and mature your consciousness, and this is done by embracing all of life’s experiences.

2) God is real

God is not some man or woman in the sky.  God is an all-pervasive, eternal, timeless, formless, loving consciousness.  Every single NDE account I have read or researched contains people reporting they feel an incredible sense of communion of something bigger than themselves.  They feel the presence of the Creator.

Which God? The Source of all creation, being, intelligence, and moral perfection.  Different religions try to interpret the Creator.  Some religions come close, and some not so close.  To understand God in intellectual terms is impossible for our brains, but simply put, God is Love with creative potential.  Dr. Eben Alexander said this about love:

“Love is, without a doubt, the basis of everything. Not some abstract, hard-to-fathom kind of love but the day-to-day kind that everyone knows-the kind of love we feel when we look at our spouse and our children, or even our animals. In its purest and most powerful form, this love is not jealous or selfish, but unconditional. This is the reality of realities, the incomprehensibly glorious truth of truths that lives and breathes at the core of everything that exists or will ever exist, and no remotely accurate understanding of who and what we are can be achieved by anyone who does not know it, and embody it in all of their actions.”

The experience of God comes not from liturgy and dogma, but from personal depth and the expression of love.

3) You are eternal

You don’t die.  Whoever told you that you were born was mistaken.  YOU were never born.  Your body was born, but you existed eternally in the past in one form or another, and you will continue to after your physical body dies.  Everyone who survives a NDE comes back with absolutely no fear of death, because they understand that there is no end to identity.  There is only transition.

Your life here is just a flicker in the eye of eternity, and you will soon wake up from this dream and remember that you were only pretending to be a human being.  “Human being” is just a mask you soul is wearing right now.

NDEs can teach us a lot about the nature of consciousness and the brain, but they can teach us even more about the nature of life as a whole.  When we include the experiences of others as part of our personal databank of information, we can evolve into high understandings much faster.  Trust that one day, you too will leave this physical world behind.

Embrace your spiritual nature.  You are just a visitor passing through.

Everyone is gathered around a nice conservative table for a family dinner.  Uncle Joe is talking about the news, your aunt can’t stop talking about how good the food is, and the vibes seem to be very uplifting.  Everything seems quite “normal”, until someone finds out you meditate, believe you are a soul, believe in conspiracy theories, or don’t eat meat.  Then, sh*t gets real.

You may find yourself being put on the spot, made fun or, or criticized for your beliefs and way of thinking quite often.  They may call what you do or believe “satanic”, or say that you are “lost” or will “grow out of it”.  One of the most difficult things about the awakening process is learning how to adjust to a world that seems indifferent.

We come across all of this cool new information, we have amazing experiences in nature or in meditation, we have completely expanded our minds, and then we step back into a society that is asleep for the most part.  Some of the people that claim to love us will start becoming resistant to accepting us and supporting us during our awakening process.

So how do we deal with family members in our lives who judge you and don’t support us?  How do we deal with feeling alienated by the people who we grew up with, and how do we cope with trying to discover ourselves when our own family thinks we are looney?

Here are 3 tips to deal with family members who don’t understand your spirituality:

1) Know your stuff. Know it well.

This is super important.   We need to hold ourselves responsible for doing a good job sharing our knowledge with the world.  It’s crucial that we have something to offer to skeptics who would love nothing more than to strengthen their own belief that this progressive counter-culture movement is just a bunch of hogwash.  If you have any older family members, you know exactly the kind of resistance I am talking about.

Hit them with some facts you have memorized and prepared incase you are asked to share your beliefs about something. You don’t need to be an encyclopedia, just have a few super clutch facts ready. Find the strongest 3 or 4 points for your position, and have them on file in your head.

If you are a vegan, memorize some of the most important environmental impacts of animal agriculture.  If you believe in a spirit world and afterlife, have some strong NDE cases ready to present in case somebody asks. I have a personal library in my head consisting of the evidence for the existence of the soul, tied in with philosophical arguments for us being soul/body composites.

They want knowledge, and quite frankly they deserve it. If we claim to know the truth, but are unable to justify our own position or show others WHY it is the truth, then what good does claiming to know it do?

WE are the ones charged with the responsibility to share the truth with others, and to do it well. We should at least have a solid knowledge-base prepared for when family members or other people try to bring us down and make us feel like we are on the wrong path. But knowing your stuff is not enough:

2) Stay levelheaded, and be sincere

Keep your kinship and friendship as the ground of your conversation. If your uncle is an atheist, don’t get angry at him when he takes a jab at your belief in God. Talk with him about it from your heart in a calm manner. Don’t speak from anxiety or tension.  Anxiety or tension may arise, but don’t let that be the source of your thought.

I find that people start being more open-minded to alternative things when they can sense an authenticity to us and what we are saying. Sometimes, people will be easier to convince and more open-minded when they are in a good mood.  It’s just how human psychology works. So keep them in a good mood as you discuss with them, and you will see a change in their response when lightheartedness is the source.

Your goal should be to share information with them, not prove to them that you are right and they are wrong.  If you know what you are talking about and have sincere intentions, it just makes other people look silly when they try to bring you down.

3) Don’t take things personally

Honestly. Some people only know things they read about in the local morning paper, and don’t want to know anything outside of the old way of thinking. They get a rush off of challenging someone with a more alternative point of view, because it allows their ego to feel more validated and affirmed in its own correctness. Einstein once said intelligent people ignore foolishness, so don’t let them get under your skin.

Some people will stay stubborn in their old beliefs because its more comfortable and convenient for them. If someone thinks you’re crazy because of your beliefs and interests, who cares?

Honestly. Why does it matter what people think of you? Even if it is your own family member, you goal shouldn’t be to seek their approval. Seek the truth. If you are grounded in the truth, and you know that, then what other people say or think about you really doesn’t matter.

So either help them by sharing knowledge with them, or let it go in one ear and out the other.

Know your stuff, come from a place of sincerity, and don’t take anything they say personally. It’s a pretty simple formula.