The Greatest Mystery: How Souls Get Lost, by Ken Page

Poets and writers throughout time have referred to death as the greatest mystery of all. We live in a society largely uncomfortable with the idea of death and without a consensus on what happens afterward, if anything. A few movies, like Ghost, Powder, and What Dreams May Come, have begun to address this issue — but for the most part there is great fear of our last transition into the unknown.

We as human beings have been searching for these answers our entire history. The issue of death is especially brought before us each time someone we know dies. I have done over 30,000 past life regressions, and my clients have said that the moment of death is where most souls get lost or confused.

One of the reasons we are here on Earth is to experience everything. Isn't it true that we have the most compassion for people when we have experienced what they are going through, and the most judgment for the things we have not done?

From what I have heard most often from my clients, it appears that the only way we can understand is to experience lifetime after lifetime of doing everything, until we find peace, compassion, and unconditional love for ourselves and others.

Yet my clients tell me that death is a moment where all things come together for the Spirit. It is a time to feel and be aware of the highest Light and Love available on this plane of existence.

If this is true — if we come to Earth over and over again and experience profound awakenings as we transition through death — then why aren't we all perfect? What happens to cause us to get confused or lost, if the moment of death is such a special and sacred time? We have free will here on Earth, and we have free will as we die. The question is, ''Does free will affect us at the time of our death? And if so, why would it cause us confusion?''

Factors in Soul Confusion

While we are physically present here on Earth, we have our bodies to help us with Time, to give us a reference in Space. What we know from all of our senses — what we see, hear, feel, taste, and smell — is based on education and experience. When we leave our bodies to transcend into the Light, those reference points no longer are with us.

Problems begin with what we are feeling and thinking at the moment of death. As we pass over, perhaps we do not know we can leave these feelings with our bodies as we die, so we bring them with us. What would happen if we were drinking something alcoholic at the time we died? Could something like this confuse us? How about drug use? How about being terrified?

If we look at our history of war, disease, chaos, and accidents, there are many possibilities that might cause confusion. For death may come at any moment, and those moments are not always peaceful. We are not always in the best possible spiritual space.

Consciousness Around Us

In my work, Heart & Soul Healing, I have found it very important to know the kind of energy around a person who is ready to move on. Is it fear, anger, hate, pain, suffering, war, torture, or sickness? The specific consciousness around each of us at the time we die can become the catalyst for entangling us energetically so that we get lost and don't go into the Light. A highly-charged consciousness around us, such as that of cancer, could also add another layer of ideas to the moment of free will.

There are many Souls, or pieces of Spirit, caught up in the different collective consciousnesses that we, as humans, have created — collective ideas of war, disease, and hate. I believe each of us is here to help set these pieces of Spirit free. And we also are here to free ourselves from all of the beliefs and ideas that have built up over time. Each of us has the ability to free these Souls and pieces of Spirit by loving the different consciousnesses they represent.

Life Force Moves Into All

The second factor that may lead to our getting lost is that when we die and make our transition into the Light, our life-force energy goes into everything. If this seems strange, ask yourself, ''Is God in everything?'' I believe we are all One, so we, too, are a part of everything. What would this mean, and how could it affect us?

If a person had died, for example, and their energy went into me, it would be synonymous to only one cell in the 100 trillion cells that make me up. Most likely I would not feel any difference in my normal cycle of daily living, a cycle of five million cells that either die or are created every day I am alive. But it's different when close family members die and a part of them goes into us. Their cell, which is now within us, affects us to the degree that we are emotionally holding on to the person who died.

Energetic Presence

The third factor that might contribute to our confusion at the time of death is our ideas — the beliefs we have about the afterlife. Do we believe in heaven or hell or purgatory? Do we believe in reincarnation? Are we afraid of being judged after we die? Are there people in our family holding on to us? Do we have ideas like, ''I can't leave'' until I complete something?

Helping a Loved One

The final factor that I feel influences our death experience is how much of us is energetically present at the moment we die. What I hear over and over from my clients is that each of us says, many times during this life, ''I do not want to be here'' -- whether ''here'' is on Earth or in our bodies. A typical time for these feelings to start is around the age of three, when a part of us separates energetically and we begin to watch ourselves from outside of our bodies. This part watching from the outside can get caught up in the feelings or emotions around us.

Many of my clients ask how best to help a loved one who is about to pass on, to ensure that he or she goes into the Light. The best way to help is to support them by being open to talking with them, or finding someone who can talk with them, about what they are going through — their feelings and fears about dying, and what they think will happen to them when they pass over. It is important not to judge what is shared or to put people in a place where they think their ideas are wrong or bad. Find out what specific fears they might have about dying — such as what will happen to the family, what will happen to their Spirit, and where will they go.

The most comforting and healing thing you can do for someone in this place is just to let them talk. Most of all, enjoy the time you have left with them. If possible, go out and play together, listen to music, play cards — do what they love to do and are still capable of doing. You need to be open, as well, and share your own feelings with them. Ask them about the types of dreams they are having. Give them an opportunity to talk about their experience and anything they have been hiding, or thought was bad or unpleasant.

The Time Following Physical Death

The days immediately following a loved one's death are also very important. Be sure the funeral plans have been taken care of. Do just what the person has asked for and what you have promised you will do. If you feel you must do more, do that after you have given that person respect and completed all requests.

Should you feel any heaviness around or with you after someone you have been close to passes on, it is very likely you are holding on to a part of them or you have taken on some of their emotions or worries. If you feel spacey after being in the presence of someone who has died, make sure a part of you did not follow them. If you feel this has happened to you, that a part of your energy has followed them, get grounded and into your body and ask for that part of you to come back in. Do not be frightened or worried about this. It is very easy to take care of.

Releasing the Energy of Your Loved One

The following technique is a very simple and effective way to release the energies of someone who has died:

Put your right hand over your left, and place both hands over your heart.

With your eyes closed, look up with your spiritual eyes. There will be a Light or a Presence that comes from Source that feels good.

In addition, do not take drugs or drink too much after someone you care for has passed away, as you are much more vulnerable energetically at that time.

Freeing Pieces of Spirit or Soul

Freeing a piece of a Spirit or Soul trapped in the past is one of the greatest gifts we can ever give to others or ourselves. This is not something just a chosen few can do. Anyone with a spiritual focus can do this. In doing so, you are starting to become a walking gate, a light, an interdimensional doorway into all Space and Time. Any lost Spirit or Soul could then see or feel your Light or vibration and become attracted to you. This is not something you have to be afraid of. Just allow yourself to be open.

At the moment of death, a gate, door, or space is created that will allow not only the person you have loved, but also any other souls that might need to be released, to go back home to God. In some cases, thousands of lost souls can be released in a split second. I first experienced this years ago. Here is ''Dorothy's Story'':

I was just starting on my spiritual path, when someone who worked for me and knew of my unorthodox spiritual sideline asked if I could come out to Kaiser Hospital. Her mother was dying there.

I met Dorothy, my employee's mother, in intensive care. Most of her immediate family had gathered there, as incarnated souls have always gathered, to see one of their number off or to greet a new arrival. In this case the vigil was not held by candlelight or in a temple, but under cool white fluorescent lights against a background of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of glowing and blinking electronic medical equipment, all of it completely impotent.

Dorothy's frail, 80-year-old body had been laid waste by a galloping cancer that had metastasized beyond the reach of any conventional cure. The medication that dripped constantly into her veins had rendered her virtually comatose. I could sense an awareness in her, however, and a deep and overriding concern over the needs of her family. It was November, and they were about to face their first Christmas without Dorothy's being there to unify them. Dorothy's worries about her family had kept her alive — and subjected her to excruciating pain in the process.

I set up ideomotor responses with her. I explained to her that when I touched her head lightly I wanted her nervous impulses to move her feet. This sometimes took several minutes, but soon some communication was showing in her feet.

At this time in my life, my technique for working with disease had evolved to a point where I could simply take the energy of the disease into my own body and release it back to Source myself. It was a strategy that had developed out of my work with children and animals. I soon found that it was often much simpler to work this way, sparing my clients the trouble of understanding a different reality and myself the trouble of dealing with recalcitrant energies on a level that might cause unnecessary pain.

So that is what I did with Dorothy. The family thanked me profusely, all of them noticing that Dorothy seemed to be much more at peace.

That evening, when I went home, there was a message waiting for me from Dorothy's family. She had been calling out for me. I turned around and drove straight back to the hospital. This time, there was standing room only at Dorothy's bedside. Her family somehow knew that she would be leaving very soon. They were all there, just as they'd gathered at her behest so many other times in their lives. I could see all their stories written in Dorothy's old, lined face. They stood watching her carefully, like Moses' mother might have stood watching his little boat of reeds before the current caught it and took it away down the Nile.

I cleared a small space at her bedside and sat down to do what I had been called for.

After I asked if anyone had anything to say to Dorothy before she passed, I leaned close to Dorothy's ear and led her through a meditation. In the meditation, she became an eagle, soaring on powerful wings in a clear blue sky, rising higher and higher. The higher she soared, the quieter the room became. I told Dorothy to feel the warm light of the sun in the air and on her wings, to breathe it in and feel it touching her inside, to feel the sun in every one of her cells.

It was time.

''Dorothy,'' I whispered, ''you don't need air anymore. All is Light. You have become Light. Breathe in the Light.''

Like a newborn baby blinking in the artificial light of a hospital, I felt Dorothy breathe in the clear Light of God for the first time. The heart monitor overhead began frantically bleating like a lost sheep. I heard gasps. No one in the room had ever seen someone given permission to die before. I stared at Dorothy. Something else was happening, something that I had never experienced in all of my life before either.

At the moment Dorothy took her Light breath, the entire room began to vibrate with an energy more powerful than any I had ever known. There was a loud roaring, rushing sound as well. It felt like God was reaching right through me to gather up Dorothy in a great vortex of Light and take her home. Then the entire room seemed to explode and suddenly I could feel the energy expanding outward, reaching all over the earth, until it had touched the entire planet. Then, just as suddenly, the energy drew inward upon itself and completely disappeared.

I blinked and looked around the room. The heart monitor still beeped incessantly, insisting that we all look at the flat line that was Dorothy's last signature. A nurse stepped forward and turned it off. All of the expensive equipment stood by without purpose, like disarmed sentries in an empty prison. A Soul had gone into the Light.

No one said anything. No one needed to. We had all felt it. I took a deep breath and excused myself, leaving the family to marvel at the empty vessel that lay as lightly as dew on the starched white sheets. Dorothy was gone. Long live Dorothy.

I carefully closed the door behind me and made my way to the nearest chair. The vibration in the corridor had completely changed. It was as if the whole hospital and everything and everyone in it had been instantaneously bleached and steam-cleaned by the clear Light of Source. The people passing me in the corridor all had the same stunned beatific look on their faces as the people who had been in the room with me. As I no doubt did. We had all been touched together.

Somehow, in holding a space for Dorothy to die in, we had created an opening for the angels to come in and assist all the lost souls in that hospital to go into the Light. If I hadn't cleared myself so that I could become the ''good hollow bone'' that the First People spoke about, I would have been burnt out like a bad fuse by the force of the energy running through me.

Clearing Hell

During the same time period of Dorothy's story, I was working with another client, and after we looked at her death in a past life together, I asked where she had gone in that lifetime after she died and left her body. I always asked this question to make sure that I retrieved all of the pieces of my client, wherever they were, and so that the client could understand the way that those lost fragments of themselves were affecting their lives today. This time, I was in for a surprise. My client said that she had gone straight to Hell.

I had seen Spirits go to many different places after they died, from journeying to other planets to becoming a barnacle on the belly of a whale. But I had never seen one go straight to Hell.

From what this client told me, it seemed that perhaps the fire and brimstone preachers knew what they were talking about, after all. Everything was there: all of the despair, the torture, the hopelessness of the lost Souls who believed in a God who would wish such a thing upon them.

As I questioned her, eliciting more and more details, I soon saw Hell almost as vividly as if I had gone there myself.

I was already very familiar with the process of releasing trapped souls from other dimensions. It is relatively easy; the only real difficulty is finding them. I needed my clients to show me where the lost souls were, because these places don't exist in Space and Time as we understand it.

With my client who had gone into Hell, I could send the Light to her, and we could hold a space for the Souls to go home. It was very much like the way the transporter beams worked on Star Trek.

I felt a familiar rush of energy as I held the gateway open. The cleansing Light of Source flooded all of Hell, like a great ocean wave scours the shore. And then all was still. For a moment, Hell was empty. And there was great beauty in its emptiness. Like the shell of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay, it had become, briefly, a monument to the freedom of those who once inhabited it.

My client's dark eyelashes fluttered like bathing birds in two overflowing, saltwater pools: She had seen the beauty of it, too. I leaned closer to her. ''And how many years have you struggled trying to fulfill this mission?'' I asked her.

''Centuries,'' she whispered. The trickle of tears cascading down her cheeks became a waterfall, ferrying away her fear and her pain, allowing her to be whole again. ''Centuries,'' she whispered again. I held her forehead with my hand as we wept together. Hell was already filling up again, but it was not important, as she had given me the keys. I had had the keys already — as we all have — I just didn't know it.

Human Evolution

We had changed the collective consciousness of what Hell was. Perhaps only for an instant, but we had helped. This is how I believe human beings evolve. As a race, we are the total of all of those tiny changes in our collective consciousness over the course of five billion years. Our shared reality is completely democratic, for this is the nature of Oneness. And this is what we have been struggling to bring into the physical world for centuries.

We vote with our thoughts. And in this sense, we can choose to be Conscious Co-Creators of our reality. For whether we are Creator Gods or unconscious creators, either way, we still create.

Consider: Is Hell simply a place inhabited by Souls that are lost?

Assisting lost Souls into the Light is truly a transformational experience. One that we all can share.

Ken Page offers ''Heart & Soul Healing'' through his Institute of Multidimensional Cellular Healing, kenpage.com, email ken@kenpage.com, toll-free phone (US only): 800-809-1290, phone/fax: 209-754-3040.