Article 1: Exploring the After Death State, A Scientific Breakthrough
As a mental healthcare provider I specialize in deep-trance psychotherapy. This includes Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), a neurological technique which transformed whole areas of treatment throughout almost every country of the world.
During comprehensive research into EMDR it was discovered that a certain percentage of entranced test subjects was able to discern, or communicate with, deceased individuals.
Shocked though the conservative psychologists were, especially as some of the subjects were healthcare professionals, further research established that something like 60 to 70 percent of ordinary members of the public could be induced to experience this phenomenon.
The initial programs were carried out by Dr Allan Botkin, a psychologist employed at the Chicago Veterans Administration Hospital. His 2005 book, Induced After Death Communication: A New Therapy for Healing Grief and Trauma (Hampton Roads Publishing Company) contains details. Dr Botkin discusses the fact that he and several dozen colleagues he trained in the specialist technique helped thousands of clients make contact with deceased people. The process is known simply as IADC®.
I found myself using this as a logical extension to my clinical practice because of my experience in the field, even as I switched focus to self-IADC® in order to pursue further empirical research. Many clients benefitted. Shortly afterwards my wife died.
Val had been in a high-dependency hospital unit for three years as a tetraplegic, able to squeeze words out only in a painful whisper and able to move nothing but her eyes. I visited her every second day from our home 45 minutes drive to the north on New Zealand’s Kapiti Coast. For three years I fed her the evening meal as once we had taken turns to spoon feed our two babies. But eventually Val took her leave. There were no more tears left, only a defeated deadness.
Three days later I sat by myself at home and initiated an IADC® trance, as I had so often in the past. Without trouble I came across Val. She gave me a hug. I experienced little else. There was no warning of the conflict which was to overtake our interface within two days.
Throughout his protracted research into IADC® Allan Botkin encountered little evidence of such conflict. Only one case reported acrimony between a communicator and a deceased person. This involved an immature and self-centred individual who wanted help to cope with the recent death of his wife. At the time he was experiencing a profound grief reaction producing anger.
During the IADC® session he met his wife, peaceful in an aura of white light. However she was more focused on their children than on comforting him or answering his questions. Further, she told him that his anger was not productive. It was only the intervention of the psychotherapist that drained his indignation and prompted him to complete the session.
During this process the deceased wife provided pointed advice about a business venture he was contemplating. To compound Client’s distress, his deceased father-in-law appeared to discuss family concerns. This caused jealousy and more indignation.
As an aside it can be seen that the IADC® experience was not influenced by Client’s narcissistic expectations, which would surely have led to his own selfish needs being met. By extension it seems unlikely that expectation on the part of any client plays a role in the IADC® process. Many other IADC® case histories support this contention.
Although there seem to be few researchers with my broad background in trance psychotherapy, including Dr Botkin who specialized in scientific research, nevertheless he provides an insightful understanding of one intricately-detailed and complex case history in particular.
During Client A’s childhood, his father sexually and physically assaulted him and his two sisters. One of Client A’s sisters killed herself as a teenager, and the other did the same just before Client A presented for therapy. Now Client A was contemplating suicide.
While engaged in the first IADC® session Client A came face-to-face with his recently-deceased sister, and afterwards commented, “It’s the first time I’ve seen her happy, although she is sorry for the distress her suicide caused.” Brother and sister then discussed other family members who had died. The sister concluded by providing encouragement and advice, and counseled him strongly against taking his own life.
During the next session Client A confronted his father, and found himself pushing the other away. Father’s presence was offensive. But the spirit personality looked so distraught. For the first time Client A found an awareness that his father carried the suffering he caused. He lived it!
Client A to Botkin later on: “He seemed so pitiful. So sorry. He kept repeating it. He said there was no excuse, and that he resorted to such appalling behavior because that’s how his father treated him.” Client A paused reflectively. “I really feel that forgiveness is possible. Our suffering makes some sort of sense now, because I know why he did these things.” Afterwards Client A felt much more reconciled and comfortable. Suicide was no longer on his mind.
Another client, a psychologist, was a skeptic at the personal level who nevertheless included IADC® in her clinical practice. So intrigued did she become that in consultation with Dr Botkin she decided to try it on herself.
Client B sought contact with her father who died several years before. Habitually he was anxious and unpredictable, and by no means the perfect father. Apparently without effort she encountered him “as much younger and more relaxed – quite unlike the father figure I remembered.” A conversation ensued about the family, but then shifted to Father’s continued sadness that he had not been a satisfactory role model.
Despite a newfound sense of peace, Client B felt some conflict at her father’s dilemma. After a further session of self-induced trance her conflict was resolved, and reportedly the discomfort suffered by her father as well. A year later Client B commented to Dr Botkin that she found an unaccustomed serenity, adding, “Almost certainly IADC® is a natural ability that can be tapped by most people.” No longer was the skeptic skeptical. [No direct or close quotations or references have been sourced from Dr Botkin’s book.]
It must be admitted that most people encountering IADC® have a much more fleeting experience, usually without detailed conversations. Everyone is different. It is rare, however, for someone in an IADC® trance to undergo what they expect to undergo. They experience what is offered. So it was with me when I encountered my wife in the after-death state.
Article 2: The Death of my Wife
It had to happen some day. It had to happen to someone. The time had arrived to test this scientifically-validated method of venturing into the after-death state in a manner that had never been attempted before.
When my wife died I decided to see if it were possible to visit her on her new journey, as often as necessary to determine just what happens in the post-mortem world. Would it be possible to obtain details from her or those in her environment, question them, explore secrets of the human condition that have been veiled for so long? Again, I might just keep her company.
Three days after her death I sat by myself at home and initiated an IADC® trance. Without trouble I came across Val. She gave me a hug. I experienced little else.
Two days later during an IADC® session the mood changed! She said that our marriage was a wreckage, that I had not given her the support necessary because of my work commitments. I was not there much of the time, she said, especially when I was most needed. In response to my questions she mentioned that she seemed to be back in the hospital unit, feeling even more isolated and alone than before. The ceiling looked the same. Nobody came near or even looked into the room. The awful boredom was no longer broken by a meal or even the appearance of another human being, and I got the impression I was being blamed for it all, everything, including her illness and death.
It was a fortnight before I felt inclined to communicate again, being aware of the toll the previous three years had taken on me. Using the neurotherapeutic modality as before, we discussed a daughter we had lost prior to her birth a year after our marriage in 1967. Val had not encountered Tanya. After accusing me of never having loved her, we parted ways for another two weeks. If this was what inspired philosophical discourse felt like, I preferred to dig in the dirt for a living!
But I did know what was going on. Further conversations over the following few weeks confirmed it, as did my background in transpersonal psychology. If a person dies in emotionally distraught circumstances, she holds to the same emotions for some time after death has taken place.
Why? She has lost only her physical vehicle. Both her emotions and her thinking faculties remain intact. Nothing has changed. That is, the minutes before death are identical to the minutes after, and the person is not likely to notice any difference.
Some time later Val related her death experience to me with the following words: “There were people there, a doctor and two nurses. They were talking quietly together and the doctor was writing. I continued to feel wrecked and ‘gutted’. I was not capable of being interested in anything.”
“Then I was on a gurney moving through the corridors, and it was only at that point I noticed something strange. I seemed to be moving sideways, until I was positioned slightly above it and to one side. I had died! Even that didn’t interest me.”
Much later, drifting within a neurological trance as always when communicating with Val, we discussed her death from a different perspective. The words formed in my mind clearly and unambiguously, although I saw nothing. The sensation was the same as listening to ordinary conversation.
Val: “The death experience extends from the time the physical vehicle wears out, at least in my case, to the time in the new environment when every emotion and thought has been extracted from the years spent in physical, that one chooses to extract –“
Des: “So you’re still dying even now?”
Val: “Yes I am.”
On another occasion we discussed in detail what Val went through at her funeral. What did she see, what did she feel, what was she doing?
At one point I caught up with Tanya, our baby who had miscarried a year after we were married. The mature Tanya helped me understand the complex processes associated with the growth of a baby (and child) in the post-mortem environment, and the reasons why a miscarriage or termination is invariably both constructive and planned: “In nature everything is planned. A tree doesn’t grow upside down, with the roots in the air and the leaves under the ground.”
But two issues intrigued me most: One, although I have acquainted myself with various streams of transpersonal psychology (that which transcends the personal or the physical), I have never encountered concepts even remotely similar to those that accosted me while in a neurological trance. Two, many of these concepts were totally different from my personal expectations and views, and on one occasion I was respectfully taken to task because of my “prejudiced” outlook.
Article 3: Many Questions, Many Answers
Six months after Val’s death I moved to a series of questions that could possibly open onto whole areas of understanding. We discussed positive and negative energy and the manner in which they influenced emotions and therefore behavior on the physical plane. Various other subjects were canvassed.
With some exceptions they were remote from my wife’s personal knowledge, and I was helped to understand how they were channeled to me through her mind from an amorphous presence I referred to as “A”. After some time I found myself communicating directly with this mysterious person or group or agency, whose identity was never revealed.
They helped me understand that the answers were to be considered analogous constructs, put together into a framework to make known their carefully sculpted agenda.
As the project progressed, the purpose behind this agenda became clear – sometimes chillingly so. On occasion I wondered whether I had opened a Pandora’s Box.
The Departure
We started off discussing Val’s circumstances: the moment before death and the moment after; her experiences at her own funeral; the bleak time when she drifted between one plane of existence and the next; the meeting with family members, including our daughter who died 40 years before due to miscarriage; and the strange phenomenon of timelessness. Almost every question I could think of received an answer – occasionally to my dismay.
Animals
The details of Val’s reunion with her cats, at least those she owned during our 40 years together, were interesting and warming. She loved her animals. Her account will uplift any reader who has lost a treasured animal.
She went on to give me insights about the one-second IADC® meeting I previously had with a deceased animal, an experience which taught me something completely removed from animals. The dialogue then moved to an amazing discussion about the nature of the animal kingdom. Almost abruptly my view of myself and human condition changed. It has never been the same since.
The Famous Kennedy Family
Due to the spontaneous question-answer process, the subjects we talked about tended to vary widely, even on the same day. As an example I found we were discussing the deceased members of an American First Family. What had become of this modern Court of Camelot?
Euthanasia and Abortion
It is certain the Kennedys’ Catholic faith provided strict “pro-life” guidance on euthanasia and abortion. My analytical discussion with “A” extended from time to time over a number of months, and produced a much more complex tapestry. Some of these twisted threads I had never encountered.
The “Betrayal” of Mother Teresa by God
Time magazine, September 3, 2007, contained a comprehensive article on the “Saint of the Gutters”. Drawing on private letters written by her between the 1950s and shortly before her death, it was revealed that the devout nun wrestled with demons for most of her life, and felt abandoned by God.
“A” provided a detailed explanation of Mother Teresa’s despairing and well-documented battle, provided reasons for her torment, and answered all my questions.
Heaven and Hell: What Are They?
Likewise I was helped to understand what is meant by the terms heaven and hell, which underpin Christianity and many other major religions. I was unsettled by what I was told.
Why Does Illness Occur?
The insights flowing from this question-answer sequence turn the aspirations of our medical and psychological communities on their heads. I was told “we don’t cure an illness, the illness cures us”, and the meaning of these words was made clear. Until we can accept this premise in a practical way, new diseases will develop even as existing ones are defeated.
The Infinite Destiny of Every Human Being
Perhaps more than any other section, this one provides an epiphanic comment on the nature of the human condition, its place in the universe, and the destiny that awaits every individual human being.
The Late Great Human Race
The foregoing section notwithstanding, this somber judgment is one we have handed to ourselves because of our own behavior. I was told, “The time has arrived when the communities of the developed world have the maturity and the ability to respond to the challenges they face on a global scale. In these pages you have been informed of your responsibilities as well as the consequences of continuing as before. With natural law there is no punishment, there is merely the implacable influence of cause and effect. Learning will proceed as always. How it does so is up to you. No longer is it possible to say you don’t know.”
Article 4: Journey of A Dead Baby
As I drifted in a neurological trance, daughter Tanya came across as slightly strange and understandably unfamiliar, but Val remained very much the person I had known for so long. The two of us discussed our daughter and then moved on to other subjects. She answered my questions, volunteering perspectives I had never heard of or even imagined. She disagreed with some of my observations. As an example she explained that while many couples are likely to lose embryos over the years, the embryos do not necessarily end up as personalities in a post-mortem environment.
She was quite adamant, “Much more is involved than merely a physical act that creates a baby. At least one parent must be aware of its presence, invariably the mother. At that point a source of sentient energy, a spirit, is attracted to the embryo. Without that there is nothing to develop and so nothing exists in the after-death state.
“Take Tanya. We both knew I was carrying her. Therefore she was a creation of our minds as well as our bodies. Our minds invited a spirit personality, a human being with a particular agenda. We met her agenda even as she met ours. We fleshed out her aspirations and she fleshed out ours, a process which continues and will continue.”
Always the male I asked for more details.
“The three of us together created a mental-emotional mould or matrix that was able to shape, within natural boundaries, both the spirit personality presenting itself and its unfoldment. Of course we were not consciously aware of this. But always we were creating. Everyone is creating. It is not possible to stop creating, because consciousness is about creating.”
I asked why Tanya died before being born.
Val: “She chose a developmental journey in spirit rather than physical because it suited her purposes. Different growth opportunities exist on each plane. Her primary focus and responsibilities are her own life, just as yours is your life and mine is my life.”
The dialogue continued from time to time as the days went by. Sitting by myself, always deeply entranced while communicating, I was aware of a process similar to taking dictation. I raised questions and the voice responded, sometimes making points I failed to understand or which I simply disagreed with. On occasion Val irritated me and I irritated her. Our physical relationship remained pretty much intact.
At one point we started talking about the strange process through which our spirit child had been educated about life on the physical plane. It became obvious that the physical was as important to her as it was to Val and me, the fact notwithstanding that she died before seeing the light of day. The physical was described as being the bedrock on which the human species fashioned its evolvement.
Then what was the significance of the non-material, post-mortem environment in which Val and Tanya found themselves?
It was Tanya herself who provided a first-hand account of one of its important aspects. Tanya – the profoundly sensitive, wise, yet childlike family member who identified so closely with Val and me – described how she communicated with those around her, and how she thereby forged an identity and in the process embraced the unique learning experiences she sought out. She pictured in intimate detail the two large groups of people she lived with, sections of Val’s extended family and mine, and the manner in which the groups owed their identity to positive emotional affinity: love. Tanya was happy in a way that was not possible in the physical.
Coming into this environment as a baby she was nurtured and treasured as she continued developing. She “grew” a personality and an awareness of both her immediate circumstances and the physical plane, by immersing herself in the mental-emotional experiences of those she lived with. Yet this was always done within the matrix the three of us put together. She was ours and we were hers.
From time to time during my entranced excursions into this dimension, I revisited her. I was fascinated. During many years of involvement in transpersonal psychology I had never encountered concepts similar to those described by the ageless youngster who engaged me.
Tanya: “This is how we communicate, Dad. It’s the same with everyone. Our minds fuse together, so we can almost live what the other person has lived. Briefly we are a single mind. That’s one way I learn, although those with direct physical experience do it differently from people like me.”
Des: “How’s that, Honey?”
Tanya: “Well, whereas Mum shares information about the physical, I just take it, absorb it and process it.”
With my entranced mind more attuned to Tanya’s reality than my own, I continued writing as she continued talking. I found I was able to move “closer” to her proximity and more comfortably pick up her dialogue, or move further away and better access my command of the English language. A balance was involved. I had to be able to do both. I was aware that Tanya’s thoughts were clothed in my words, but this understanding was academic. It made no difference to what happened.
Daughter’s account went on to describe how the same communicating process enabled her to accompany a host back into his life in physical as he recollected the experience in vivid detail, and share selected experiences. This had been the case since early childhood, but always in an age-appropriate manner. In piggy-back terms she lived parts of many physical journeys. She was helped to create within her what had not existed before, and as a result became a composite being, following a developmental path that was not available in physical. Her objectives were being met.
Contributing to this was the unfailing, spontaneous capacity for love that was an inherent part of the environment and therefore the two families. These dynamics, along with many others, were explained by both Val and Tanya.
Perhaps their efforts can come together to comfort any parent who has lost a child, or a baby to either miscarriage or termination.
Article 5: The Truth About Aliens
The time arrived when I brought up the subject of so-called aliens. Are they fact or fantasy? If such a life form does exist, why are they so coy? “Come out of the shadows and show yourself!”
A: “You ask about extraterrestrial life. This is an energy field which may impinge on the total human Organism – humanity – for various reasons. In physical the individual encountering it will undergo a process in which her mind attempts to identify and interpret what she is experiencing. Her mind, quite beyond the level of conscious awareness, continues to reinterpret the energy field until it presents her with an ‘object’ she can recognize and relate to and make sense of. In other words her mind presents her with a ‘signature’ of the energy field, a signature furthermore which she herself created. In interpreting the energy field she created an ET.”
Some weeks before we discussed a subject which must be touched on if our dialogue is to be progressed: the common subconscious mind. This is part of the mind of every person in physical which is joined to every other, a repertoire or reservoir we all share. Every individual draws on this area of sentience according to their unique needs, without being aware of it, and in the process obtains critically pertinent insights and emotions. It contains everything in the mind of every person in physical. It is also a steering mechanism available to the total human Organism. It completes the individual and indirectly the total Organism.
A: “As more ETs are encountered the process of identifying them changes. With every alien encounter a message relating to them is fed from the person into the common subconscious mind. A predisposition becomes established. Every interface with an ET energy field subsequently comes to produce the same interpretation or signature in the mind of the person encountering the energy field. A template, a mental-emotional pattern, has been created.
“While the individual herself has created the signature by drawing on the template, any resulting communication would be driven by the extraterrestrial energy field. An ET is a valid being in its own right as is the human being.”
Des: “Can you tell me anything about the collective energy field of the ETs? What sort of civilization do they belong to?”
A: “Of course an alien civilization has its own history and aspirations, its own eternal journey, probably none of it in physical form. The further we become removed from our own backyard, the less we know.”
Des: “Can communication with the ET energy field take place from where you are, from spirit? Another question: The accounts I’ve read about people encountering ETs. Do they have any reality?”
A: “Beyond what we have told you, a new infrastructure of analogies would be needed to introduce additional details.”
From time to time over nine months we discussed a spectrum of subjects in ever greater detail, including the nature and pertinence of the analogies we share, the significance of the common subconscious mind, and the makeup and meaning of the so-called total human Organism.
