William J. Peters - At Heavens Door: What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach About Dying Well and Living Better

Brilliant and fascinating Peters shows us how love binds us beyond the material realm. Highly recommended!

Eben Alexander, MD,

New York Times bestselling author of Proof of Heaven

What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach About Dying Well and Living Better

At Heavens Door

William J. Peters

with Michael Kinsella, PhD

Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2022 by The Shared Crossing Project, LLC

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition January 2022

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Interior design by Ruth Lee-Mui

Jacket design by Kathleen Lynch

Jacket art by Elena Kichigina/Shutterstock

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Peters, William J., author. | Kinsella, Michael, 1973 author.

Title: At heavens door : what shared journeys to the afterlife teach about dying well and living better / William J Peters with Michael Kinsella, PhD.

Description: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. | New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021024148 | ISBN 9781982150426 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982150464 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Future life. | Death--Religious life.

Classification: LCC BL535 .P48 2022 | DDC 202/.3dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021024148

ISBN 978-1-9821-5042-6

ISBN 978-1-9821-5046-4 (ebook)

To my mother, Carolyn Peters, for her unyielding support through the many peaks and valleys of my life. She modeled an uncommon ease with death and a commitment to show up when others shied away.

To my father, Robert Peters, for his example of discipline and grit. His entrepreneurial spirit empowered me to trust myself and pursue what matters most.

WHAT BRINGS you here?

I ask this question of every person who steps through the door because they have come to talk about deaththe most universal of all human experiences yet the most difficult to discuss.

In modern culture, we have an uneasy relationship with death. Our language is populated with phrases such as fear of death and dying. Promoters of fitness regimens, grooming and beauty tricks, and cosmetic procedures tout their ability to help us turn back the clock, the implicit message being that we can hold off lifes inevitable end. Modern medical science is even more explicit: medicine frequently makes our best efforts to resist death the main reason for having hope. Aggressive medical procedures that prolong human life are often seen as a testament to our love for another personwe talk about miracle cures and one-in-a-million chances. Many of us, including a significant number in the medical profession, feel guilt at the thought of someone dying. Our most common condolence phrase when someone has died is Im sorry for your loss.

And make no mistake, it is a profound loss. Leaving life, leaving loved ones and friends, is both sad and scary. No matter how many of us believe in a benevolent afterlifeand survey after survey suggests that the vast majority of us, about 80 percent, doit is completely understandable to be highly apprehensive. Even worse, it is death that chooses us, frequently without warning. And for the last couple of years, death has been everywhere. The devastating losses from the Covid-19 pandemic have suddenly visited grief upon many of us, including those who had previously thought that they had ample time remaining to spend with those whom they love.

But as much as we may struggle with death, many of us struggle even more with grief. For years, as a culture, it has been routine for many of us, including medical professionals, to place a clock on grief. After a set amount of time has passed, we encourage the bereaved to move on with their lives, or, somewhat less politely, we suggest that the moment has come for them simply to get over it.

For the people who come to me, those are deeply unsatisfying answers. And they are to me as well. I would like to humbly suggest that the time has come to rethink our approach to death. To do that, Im going to ask you to suspend everything you know or think you know about the end of life.

For more than twenty years, Ive been talking to people about death and the end of life, from the loss of newborn babies to young adults in their prime to elderly parents. There have been natural deaths and traumatic deathsaccidents, overdoses, suicidesdeaths from disease, deaths from old age. Yet all of these conversations have had one theme in common: a connection felt by the living person to the deceased at or around the moment of death. These are all healthy, vital people who continue to live active lives. But for a moment, they were linked to another human being during a time of ultimate passage.

I started identifying these moments as shared crossings, and what they tell us is that none of us is leaving this earth alone. Each of us can and will be guided on our journey. How can I be certain of that? Because more and more, those who remain among the living have seen it, have felt it, and a few have even joined their loved ones for part of their journey to the afterlife.

These shared crossing links take many forms: Some people may visualize the departing person in some way; others frequently experience a variety of sensations or sense the presence of other energy forces or even loved ones who have previously departed. They may glimpse bright light and even tunnels; they may feel they are part of the journey or remain rooted to the earth. What they share in common are the power of the experience and the unusual strength of the memory, and frequently an overwhelming sense that time as they know it has stopped. Many also report a deep sense of simply knowing, without having any idea where that knowledge came from. In a significant number of cases, the living person had no idea that the death was imminent and did not learn of their loved ones or friends passing until later.

The more I spoke with individuals who had experienced a shared crossing event, the more I also noticed repeating patterns. A woman in West Virginia and a woman in Australia with deeply similar experiences around the loss of a baby. A grown daughter in California and a grown daughter in Pennsylvania; a woman in Alabama and a man in Spain. None had met, yet each spoke a common language. Again and again, I found that this moment of shared connection that they had experienced also changed their lives and how they chose to live them in unexpected ways. It provided insight. It provided closure. It made end-of-life decisions easier. It eased grief.