Early in 2020 three other women and I formed a group— “Women Who Know—Death is NOT Final.” Grand plans were made, but when Covid-19 hit, like nearly all of us, we hunkered down to wait out what we thought would be a couple of strange months on pause. Now, of course, we all know we had no clue what we were getting into. We also know that the topic of death has never been more prominent. With the able help of the Doyenne of Death, Gail Rubin, we’ve found a way to share with you again in a panel discussion on Zoom. Please join this conversation and bring your questions and concerns, because there’ll be a Q & A.
Saturday August 29th, 11 am mountain time (1 pm East coast, 10 am Pacific)
“What the Dead Want Us to Know”
(Gail Rubin, Before I Die founder, will moderate)
Annie Mattingley, author of The After Death Chronicles
Judith Fein, journalist and author of How to Communicate with The Dead
Bethany Paix, spirit release specialist and internationally known Master Energy Channel with www.AngelsHelpingHumans.com
Each of the three of us (our fourth member can’t be with us that day) comes to the subject of life after death from a unique perspective. We have one vital thing in common: direct experience with contact through the illusory veil that separates life from death. Please join us to hear what comfort, guidance, and wisdom the dead can bring us during the endless strain and pain of this pandemic, when a rumble of fear runs just below the surface of our consciousness and the specter of sickness and death may continually threaten our emotional well-being.
Sign up at the link below in advance or on the 29th.
https://letsreimagine.org/3780/what-the-dead-want-us-to-know
Thirty people attend the session I facilitate—“Honoring, Healing and Connecting with Deceased Beloveds”—including clergy from three faiths. After we each write a letter to someone we love who has died, one participant is moved to share that she was adopted and her birth mother had died before they could meet. She has written to her and is clearly thrilled to discover a new way to make this connection.
I had already meant to attend this ceremony, so I decided I would show up early to ask about the letters. It’s a challenge to find anyone in this crowded event; when the Guatemalan Maya shaman and her US escort, walked right by me that afternoon I was astonished. Nana Maria not only agreed to burn the letters, she explained that part of the ceremony’s purpose is to honor the dead. I should have known, for now is the time when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest and contact is most readily made. That’s why there are holidays like Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), the Zuni and Hopi Ancestors Days, All Saint’s Day, the Celtic Samhein, in the US, Veteran’s Day, and in Canada, Remembrance Day.
In the ceremony, I volunteer to hold the red candle for the East, spreading my umbrella to protect it. Besides honoring our dead, Nana Maria tells us we are here to honor the places we come from, which I think means where I live. The moment I realize she means our birthplaces, I am transported into a sweet and deep connection with Bloomington, Indiana, where I only lived for the first four months of my life. The cold rain transforms into a blessing and mingles with my tears as we pray and toss copal into the flames.
After my recent move from a home with delicious well water, I discovered that my new town fluoridates its water and my nice under-sink water filter didn’t remove fluoride. I added replacing the filter to my to-do list, but my mother, dead since 1984, wasn’t satisfied. She showed up the next morning, not with her usual tingle up my right side but with jackhammer force, to urge me to deal with this quickly—for both my health’s sake and my husband’s. That day we began buying water. If I have learned nothing else from after-death communication, it is that our beloved dead look out for our well-being and it’s best to heed their advice.
What happened to Calvin two years after his stepson’s death was not quite so clear-cut. Coming from the gym late one night he chose the long way home, one he wouldn’t choose “ninety-nine times out of a hundred.” Then he heard his stepson’s voice say, “Good choice, Dad.” Was it he who nudged Calvin to take this route and did this prevent catastrophe? He may never know, but his wife’s experience had taught him to trust this as a possibility. To encourage such support this is a good point at which to acknowledge it with an audible thank you.
Calvin added a story of synchronicity, telling me that twenty-five years ago, he dreamed of one of his children—he couldn’t tell which one—in a casket; in the dream it was 4:44 am. Much later, and eighteen years apart, the calls to inform him of his daughter’s and stepson’s deaths both came at exactly 4:44 am. Where do we file such events? Do they occur just to jolt us out of the narrowness of our blinkered everyday view into the great mystery of larger possibilities?
To access my podcast conversation on after-death communication with Connie Whitman, Architect of Change, click on: 
Annie Mattingley 