Sandy Lemke states: “I was just reading Betty Bethards‘ comment on ‘soul merge’ and I had experienced this when I was in my 30’s. My boyfriend died of a brain tumor and I had so many things I did not get to tell him because it happened so quickly and I never knew what was wrong with him until one day when the doctors said it was a tumor and they were doing surgery right away. Well, he died in surgery and I was devastated! I could not eat and just cried all the time saying over and over out loud that if only he knew the truth about a personal matter with us.
“Well, after about couple months of this one night, I had just laid down in bed and I was on my back and crying as usual and repeating to my self in a prayer that he would hear my last words. All of a sudden my body lifted up to the ceiling and my real body was lying in bed yet I was up above and he met me there. Took my hands and merged with me. It was the most wonderful experience I have ever had. It is indescribable.
“I just know after we separated again he knew everything about me that would have took years to tell someone and this took like a minute. I also knew everything he ever wanted to tell me in seconds. It was so peaceful and relaxing, so wonderful.
“Next I remember going back into my body and I rolled over and slept till morning. I don’t know why I slept right afterwards, but I know I was awake and it was not a dream. It really happened to me and from that day on, I woke up feeling like the world was lifted off my shoulders. I was happy again and I knew he knew everything I needed to tell him. He filled me with this unbelievable joy and it is a memory I will never forget.
“I am not sure, but I think he was my twin soul or something, and we had to be separate to grow. I never see anything on this subject and was so surprised to see an article on this in Betty’s site on the internet. Do you know anymore on this happening that you could fill me in. I would appreciate anything on the subject as I can’t find books on this or anything. Thanks for your time and Bless you.”
From Webmaster Kevin Williams
Sandy, it sounds like you definitely had an after-death communication (ADC) of your boyfriend in the form of an out-of-body experience. I have read a lot about these kind of experiences and how unusual things often happen before and after a loved one passes away. But it wasn’t until I experienced profound after-death communications from my mother after she passed away that I was forever convinced that contact with the Other Side is possible.
Concerning the topic of soul merge, it is a phenomenon that appears often in NDEs. Usually, it happens when the experiencer merges fully into the light of God and the experience feels as though they have “become God”, that is, knowing all things and being aware of all things and feeling all the love that exists with God.
Here is more information from my website on the topic of soul merge:
From Betty Bethards: On Marriage and Unions on the Other Side
There are unions of souls on the other side, and marriage as such is optional. If couples prefer to remain together they may do so, as long as their interests and growth are taking them in the same direction. If they choose to go in different directions, there are no hurt feelings. There is no possessiveness or demands. You are free to go your own way, in your own time, at your own choosing.
Married couples will be reunited after death, and may choose to stay together if they want to, provided they are on the same level of vibration. This is free will. If you have been married three or four times, you will find that you will want to be with the one whom you truly love. It could even be someone from another incarnation. You will be with those you love, and there is a total merger which is a much higher experience and a deeper love bond than anything you can know on the Earth plane.
This total merger is like stepping inside one another’s auras, a total blending of energies. It’s a way of expressing love and sharing. What you know on Earth as a sexual relationship takes the form of a higher merger of souls. There is no need for sexual organs on the other side unless you choose to have them. For this merger of energies is far superior to the physical mechanics of the sexual experience. This merger is not limited to husbands and wives, but may be experienced by any two souls who are loving and caring.
From America’s “Sleeping Prophet” Edgar Cayce
God’s plan for the soul is a cycle of experience that is unlimited in scope and duration. Through this evolutionary cycle, the soul will come to know the creation in all its aspects at the discretion of the will. The cycle would be completed when the desire of the will was no longer different from the thought of God. The consciousness of the soul would then merge with its spiritual consciousness of its identity with God. Then the soul will return to its source as the companion it was intended to be.
As a companion, the soul would remain conscious of its separate individuality and would be aware of its own free will as it now acted as a part of God, but not diverting its mind because it was in agreement with God’s influence on the mind of the soul. Until this state of at-onement was reached, the soul would not be a companion in the true sense of the word.
The idea that returning to God means a loss of individuality is paradoxical, since God is aware of everything that happens and must therefore be aware of the consciousness of each individual. The return of the soul is the return of the image to that which imagined it. The consciousness of the individual – its soul record – could not be destroyed without destroying a part of God. When a soul returns to God it becomes aware of itself not only as a part of God, but as a part of every other soul, and everything.
What is lost is the ego – the desire to do other than the desire of God. When the soul returns to God, the ego is voluntarily relinquished. This is the symbology behind the crucifixion of Christ.
The plan for the Earth cycle of souls was a limited series of incarnations with periods in between of dwelling in other heavenly dimensions of consciousness. Reincarnation would continue until a soul’s every thought and action of the physical body was in accord with the plan originally laid out for the soul (i.e., a human-divine unity, Christ consciousness). When the body was no longer a hindrance to the free expression of the soul – when the conscious mind had merged with the subconscious, the Earth cycle was finished and the soul liberated to move on to new adventures.
When the individual has attained complete human-divine unity, its cycle of reincarnations is finished, the soul is liberated, and the soul then merges with its spirit and, therefore, with God. The soul record (memory) is forever retained. This record is, at all times, is the sum total of what the soul personality has been: all it has thought, all it has experienced; all it has eaten, drunk, and felt through the ages.
Thus, as the soul is subjected to reincarnation, both the atheist and the religionist are correct. The atheist believes the personality does not survive after death. The religionist believes the soul is judged after death by its Creator. Substituting “personality” for “soul”, both are expressing the truth. The personality is evaluated after death and then returns to the soul which created it, thereby giving up its own independent existence and becoming once again a facet of the soul. This process is different from the process where the soul merges with the spirit after it completes its cycles of reincarnation.
From Near-Death Experiencer Thomas Sawyer
Once you enter into the light and blend with God, you become God. God is light and light is love. You can’t take a knife and cut out a part of love and take it away. If you theoretically cut love in half and take it, there’s not half love here and half love there. Each part is wholly God.
The incomprehensible part is at that point at which you no longer exist and you become only light when you fully merge with the light. This is because the character and the characteristics that you are, the uniqueness that is you and nobody else, still exists when you cease to exist as a personality. But every bit of your personality is available for reincarnation. That’s the paradox part.
I just kind of became little photons of light and there is only the slightest of memories of anything after that. Even though I was in my soul body, not my physical body, that which I was before the light blended in and ceased to exist. In other words, if you have pure light you have all of the masses of photons in the universe in a purified state only white light. One of the last things I can recall is that I was blending into and becoming homogeneous with that light. I had the feeling of the light just engulfing me. About the only accurate word that I can use to describe what I felt then is the word “power.” But it wasn’t an earthly type of power, it wasn’t greedy power, or an I’m-better-than-you-power.
One of the purposes of the life review is to make an informed choice between remaining in spirit and returning to flesh. Should we choose to merge completely with the light of God, we will never again be able to choose, on our own decision, to return to physical life. The decision to merge in the light is the best decision.
If a person dies and merges completely into the light, another reincarnation is improbable. However, it is more usual for people to have earthly attachments and not merge completely with the light. Such souls may have characteristics of their personality, which they do not want merged with the light.
From NDE Expert and NDEr P.M.H. Atwater
I teach a shamanic-style guided visualization that enables an individual to find and to recognize their Holy of Holies, their Center where the True Self resides. This goes for everyone; we all have that conduit, that channel, that “launch-pad,” that place from which we touch the “Hand of God” in the sense of how we are affected once we align and/or merge with our soul.
I truly believe that soul discovery is the over-riding reason or purpose behind spiritual development … so we, in this lifetime, can be more mindful of who we really are and can align our will with God’s Will. When this occurs, we can merge more and more with the power of our own soul. You see this in cases of near-death experiences and deathbed visions, NOT that there is a split-off at death (the personality self sloughing off with the body or as an egoic being having some sort of existence by itself – as some researchers claim); but, rather, that at death the soul and the ego (personality) merge into each other and become one again. It’s like at birth, a “finger” of the soul drops down into the body, to properly animate it so the ego personality can develop and grow. It’s the ego that seems to “feed” the soul, in the sense of what can be learned, experienced, given, and received during a lifetime. It is the soul that seems to be the major “player” in the outworking of God’s Greater Plan. To use an analogy, we humans are like worker bees, the soul that guiding intelligence which keeps us on track, and God that which provides the environment and the power source in which we can not only learn and grow – but transcend that which seems to limit us, so we can “awaken” to a higher reality and a grander view. We can then realize there really is no separation, no distinction of three in one, but One – All in One. You could look at this situation yet another way: One Mind, many thinkers.
What impresses me, however, is the extent to which the dying of any age can and oft times do merge into their own soul as they cast aside the physical body in death. This merging, this becoming more of what we really are, a soul, is one of the higher goals of any spiritual calling or religious ritual. It’s what undergirds the practice of prayer and meditation. It’s a large part of what makes the sacred, sacred. Our goal, as near as I can tell, is to link more with that perfect part of us, that Higher Self, True Self, that is still connected to God in the sense that it never separated from The Godhead, and to do this while alive and actively engaged with our fellows. As we become more spiritual in our lives, make better choices, are more responsible and caring and loving, we open ourselves to the energy of the soul – its reality and its power – and its goal of carrying out God’s Greater Plan. The soul, our soul, encourages us to become more of what we really are in the truer sense, divine beings here to learn, grow, discover, experience, and transform – so what we project (who we think we are) matches more closely with our true identity (what we really are). Again and again, near-death experiencers, when describing their scenario, actually depict that mergence, and they certainly talk long and lovingly about their true self, their true identity, their soul. At the deathbed, merging into our soul, joining with the divine, becomes primary.
From Near-Death Experiencer Christian Andreason
I saw that we were indeed made in the image of God, which is an essence taken from the Creator’s own LIGHT. It is because of this Light that we can never die. Every single child of God carries this Light within their Soul, and we call this Light, Spirit. As we learn how to LOVE, we build the Light of Spirit within. A day will come (in a time not so far away) when all of our Light(s) will have become so large that we will merge and go back to the Creator and be as ONE — just as we were in the beginning. Once we are ONE again, there will be a great celebration. And after a certain amount of time has passed, yet again, there will be another great explosion, only this time it will be much bigger and the process of Creation will be far more advanced.
From Near-Death Experiencer Margaret Birkin
Every couple of nights I took a journey. I don’t know whether Peter felt left out, but each time we had sex, I left my body and went further and further into space.
As each night I traveled further and further from my body and the Earth realm, and the energy got closer, I became aware of the co-relation with the whole of life itself. I became in awe of the creative work of God.
Then one night, I came closer to the energy and as I did, I felt it for the first time. It was pure love, pure unconditional love. At this point in my life, I had never seen myself as a decent person, but this energy spoke to me in thought and told me that I was a beautiful person. It told me to let go of the conditioning that I had of myself as a person with no worth.
The love from this energy was amazing. It was so profound I sobbed uncontrollably.
My next visit, I got closer and the same with the next visit. Finally, I was able to merge with this energy and the bliss, happiness, incredible peace that I felt inside. This being’s energy was so incredible. I did not want to leave.
It spoke to me in thought and told me that one day when I had finished my spiritual development, this energy and I would work together. However, I had a hard path in front of me with my development and I was not to give up for in the long term. It would be worth it. It also told me that I needed to move toward it slowly, because, had I not done so, I would have burnt up within the spirit.
They call the orgasm in some circles the little death. For me it was a death and a rebirth. I was never the same after that. I don’t think I will ever change either. It was the most amazing experience and one I know I will never forget.
From Near-Death Experiencer Lynnclaire Dennis
Suddenly, the stage was gone and I was once again out of time. I was a witness, observing myself as a child … I watched as my innocent child-self … began to dance across the meadows.
Then, as I contemplated this celebration of life, I saw that in a single turn in my-her waltz, I-she was no longer a child, but a thirty-five year old woman dancing alone in the Hofburg Palace … I was once more in my magical gown, moving alone in harmony with the MUSIC. In that moment I chose to merge with that self and began to dance. Each step drew me closer to the light.
Then, in a sacred place somewhere before the light, I found myself being held, gently rocked, nurtured, and embraced in the arms of the one I believed to be the presence. Whether this was a guide, a guardian, a human man who has the ability to walk between the worlds, or even an angel, it does not matter. For still today this memory is alive. The presence vibrates within my senses and daily infuses my sentient memory archives with love. I knew then, and remember now, the warmth, serenity, and comfort I felt as I was embraced in the arms of a long and still-remembered love. As I was cradled in this serene embrace, I was bathed in light. My spirit was imbued with a sense of peace, and my soul was engraved with the remembrance of a timeless love…
The light was getting brighter and warmer as I moved through the tunnel. The MUSIC, the celestial symphony, continued to fill the air with a psalm of Oneness, played on unseen instruments of peace.
I arrived at the pinnacle and, standing at the entrance to the light, took a single step, leaving my right footprint imbedded in Eternity. I entered a sacred space a place where I knew I had returned to my most essential nature, where I felt wholly and consciously united with all things and Source, where a soothing balm of peace was poured on my spirit by an unseen hand, an emollient so rich in love that to this day I cannot fully absorb or comprehend it.
And then, in one ephemeral glimpse, I saw the Pattern, the single strand of the tapestry I knew was the essence woven through matter in every reality. Its design was so complexly simple that I knew it could only have been fashioned in the exalted intricacy of infinity.
Seeing the Pattern, I knew I was looking at life itself. It was light; it was time and space. It was the energy of all matter, the heart of all that mattered. It was the very essence of all being. It emanated from Source, illuminated to my mind by “the Source behind the sun” as it moved in perfect harmony with all the universe. As I prepared to meld into the Source of light and absolute love, I knew with all my being that the Pattern was the core of all substance. I knew that the MUSIC emanating from the Pattern was the song of my heart, a testament of unconditional love. The single step I had taken was the first in a dance that would take me into the single point of Infinite light, which contained the power of love that would forever illuminate my mind and heart. I inhaled and prepared to take the next step as the exhalation of love, the Life Force of the Universe, carried me home.
From Near-Death Experiencer Josiane Antonette
Merging with the light, I am so overcome with gratitude and overwhelmed by the love that fills me that I cry. Suddenly, time and space are different again, and I am momentarily aware of my body. I am aware that the window to the left of my bed is filled with vibrant, powerful light. It seems to be calling me and pulling me toward it like a magnet. I hear the buzzing again, and … Whoosh! I’m zooming through the window! I merge with the light! I am the light, and the light is me. “From the light we have come, and to the light we shall all return,” repeats the voice.
From Hindu Afterlife Beliefs
“Moksha” is the traditional Sanskrit term for release or liberation from the endless chain of deaths and rebirths. In the southern Asian religious tradition, it represents the supreme goal of human strivings. Reflecting the diversity of Hinduism, liberation can be attained in a variety of ways, from the proper performance of certain rituals to highly disciplined forms of yoga. In the Upanishads, it is proper knowledge, in the sense of insight into the nature of reality, that enables the aspiring seeker to achieve liberation from the wheel of rebirth.
What happens to the individual after reaching moksha? In Upanishadic Hinduism, the individual Atman is believed to merge into the cosmic Brahma. A traditional image is that of a drop of water that, when dropped into the ocean, loses its individuality and becomes one with the sea. Although widespread, this metaphor does not quite capture the significance of this merger. Rather than losing one’s individuality, the Upanishadic understanding is that the Atman is never separate from Brahma; hence, individuality is illusory, and moksha is simply waking up from the dream of separateness.
The most that the classical texts of Hinduism say about the state of one who has merged with the godhead is that the person has become one with pure “beingness,” consciousness, and bliss. From the perspective of world-affirming Western society, such a static afterlife appears distinctly undesirable.
