Mary T. Browne - Life After Death: A Renowned Psychic Reveals What Happens to Us When We Die

The earth is a schoolroom for the souls development. Our bodies are like the blue Tiffany box that holds a gift. Once the gift is removed, the box is discarded. The treasure remains.

M ARY T. B ROWNE

An Ivy Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright 1994 by Mary T. Browne

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ivy Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published by Ballantine Books in 1994 under the title Mary T. Reflects on the Other Side.

Ivy Books and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

www.ballantinebooks.com

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-151

eISBN: 978-0-307-80739-7

v3.1

I was born with a psychic gift. I had my first psychic experience when I was seven years old. At that age I saw the spirit of a woman who was so-called dead. This experience seemed perfectly normal and not at all frightening to me. I told my grandma Grace what I had witnessed. I was a bit surprised when she warned me not to talk about this event. She explained that people can be frightened of things they cant see. She went on to explain that I had a very special gift and that Id been blessed.

Twelve years ago I began my professional psychic work. For years I had been giving informal readings for friends. Word of mouth brought me people who were seeking insights into their own lives. I had been pursuing a career as an actress and singer, but as the demand for my psychic gift grew, I left the theater.

Since then over five thousand individuals have come for private sessions. Whether it is a Wall Street broker, a typist, an Oscar-winning actor, a telephone operator, a student, or a psychiatrist, they have one thing in common: Theyre interested in a metaphysical point of view. And one of the most frequent topics of discussion among my clients is deathnot in the morbid sense but from my metaphysical perspective.

Weve heard different accounts of life after death from a variety of sources. Some people have had near-death experiences. Trance mediums, those gifted with the ability to channel messages from the departed, also relay information on the afterlife.

Ive not had a personal near-death experience, nor do I consider myself a channel. My insights come from the sacred gifts of clairvoyance and clairaudience, which have enabled me to see departed souls and receive messages from them. Ive seen clear pictures of the other side (the place we reside in once physical life ends) since early childhood. Messages from the other side have been given to me in different ways. Often Im able to focus on an astral screen, using a form of psychic concentration that allows me to break through the barrier between earth and spirit. When I am looking at this screen, precise pictures of the spirit world and its inhabitants are shown to me. I am aided in this process by my spirit guide, White Feather. Ive been visited by many of the spirits of the departed. I dont try to call anyone back to the earth. Those in spirit choose to visit me. Ive also received messages from a number of people whove had near-death experiences. They have returned to physical life with communications for me from friends and teachers in spirit. These have been a great help and comfort to me.

Ive done extensive work with the dying but more extensive work with the living. My life isnt spent in daily conversation with spirits, nor am I in a trance state, gazing for hours into the realms of the spirit world. The ability to see the other side is an important part of my work. But most of my time is spent concentrating on this life and the issues people have in the here and now.

We find the key to our happiness by understanding the continuity of life. We do not die, we pass over. We cast aside our physical bodies as we would cast aside an old garment. The spirit moves into the astral plane, the spirit world. The soul rests until the time it is ready to gather more experience. We are then reborn onto the earth, which is the schoolroom for the souls development. We return to the earth until we have mastered ourselves. Each action that we perform affects not only this life but all lives to come. Everyone lives in the world, in the place he has earned by his own actions. This is true on earth and in the spirit world.

I choose to relate my experience with the afterlife in order to help you overcome the fear of death. And so that you may rejoice in the sacredness of this life.

The skeptic will have trouble understanding something that isnt physical or logical. He or she will wonder how I can be so certain theres an afterlife.

I can say only, I know what Ive seen.

Do we question the doctor who diagnoses the patient as having poison ivy?

He knows what hes seen. Experience has taught him to recognize the look and feel of poison ivy. Experience has taught me to recognize the other side.

Theres only a thin veil between the physical world and the spirit world, and the majority of mankind does not possess the psychic sense to see beyond the veil. Im not the only person on earth with this ability. Throughout history there have been many gifted psychics and seers and there are many living today.

I can tell you only what Ive seen and heard from the other world. Ive pieced together this view of the afterlife from dozens of visions of the astral screen over the last thirty years, from accounts given me by my spirit guides and friends, from messages brought to me by people who survived near-death experiences. Based on what Ive seen and learned, I hope to be able to paint a full picture of the other side for you. As you examine this picture, it will be apparent that this is a not a book about dying, but one about living, living on both sides of life.

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Transition

The one inevitable fact in our lives is that we will dieor, as I prefer to say, pass over from the physical world to the spirit world, or astral plane. The transition from the physical realm to the spirit is not an ending; it is a transformation to another state of consciousness. Rather than limiting ourselves to thinking on a material physical level, we expand to fill an emotional, spiritual realm without bounds. Once we are freed from the physical body and are no longer consumed with the needs of the physical world, we can soar to new heights of learning.

Think about it! How many hours a day do we spend taking care of our bodies? We must feed them, wash them, make money to house them, clothe them, and so on. Sleep alone takes up a quarter of our earthly time. If we do not take proper care of our bodies, they start to break down. Illness then invades them and it can take a great deal of time and energy to repair the damage. The body is a divine machine, a machine so complex that mankind is still learning ways to keep it functioning properly.

Physical life can be described by the Sanskrit word maya, which means illusion. Hindu philosophy teaches that reality is all that is indestructible and eternal. Everything that is changeable and subject to decay and has a beginning and ending is perceived as