Welcome to
The Afterlife Advocate
 A Conversation about Conscious Dying, Conscious Grieving
and the Journey of the Soul

Issue # 1 - November 201



Published by The Afterlife Education Foundation,
producer of the original Afterlife Conference 
IN THIS ISSUE...

The Collective 
Inheritance 
of Grief
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FREE download of
Terri Daniel's new book,
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Aya Despacho :
A Shamanic
Grieving Ritual
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The Fifth Annual 

Where mystics and medics, shamans and scientists gather together to  share wisdom and create common ground!

Our 2015 lineup includes psychic medium John Holland, Dr. Raymond Moody, Dr. Eben Alexander, out-of-body explorer William Buhlman, Suzane Northop,  authors Anita  Moorjani and Annie Kagan (Annie appears via Skype), and a stellar list of  physicians, researchers, grief counselors and spiritual leaders.

Earlybird prices expire Dec. 31, for a $40 discount!
Hello friends! 

Many of you have been following the work of the Afterlife Conference and its founder Terri Daniel for years, and we are deeply grateful for your continued support. We've come a long way together, and with the introduction of our new Afterlife Advocate newsletter, we renew our commitment to bringing you fresh educational content that can lead to a deepening awareness about birth, death and beyond.

This month's newsletter is dedicated to a higher understanding of loss and grief, and particularly, the value of ritual in the grief experience. You won't find cliches and psychobabble here. Instead, you'll find information about ancient ceremonies, communal processes and and a metaphysical perspective on loss as a spirit
ual gift rather than a senseless tragedy. 

And speaking of gifts, to celebrate the maiden voyage of our newsletter, we are offering a
free download of Terri Daniel's new book,
Turning the Corner on Grief Street: Loss and Bereavement as a Journey of Awakening
Click  HERE for your FREE download
(enter coupoon code DQ95L)

IN NEXT MONTH'S ISSUE:  
Developing Your Mediumship Skills

 AYA DESPACHO:
A Prayer Package for the Dead
Contributed by Kitty Edwards

 

The Aya Despacho has been practiced for hundreds of years in the high Andes Mountains of South America. In this ceremony, participants build a rainbow bridge to assist one who has died to more easy navigate the afterlife.   

A despacho is a prayer bundle that is created as an offering to the mountains, the earth and our guiding spirits. During a traditional despacho ceremony, participants build a despacho together by assembling various ingredients representing symbolic elements, and adding prayers of gratitude.

 

There are many types of despacho ceremonies, each unique in form and intention. While some elements are common to all despachos, the particular healing intention of the individual ceremony -- such as bringing harmony and balance to the earth, honoring new beginnings, or overcoming illness -- determines the unique design of the offering, its contents, and even the way it is assembled. 

 

An Aya Despacho is created to assist the deceased in their journey into the afterlife. In ceremony, participants create a seven-layered rainbow bridge to ease the process of crossing over. This ceremony provides a safe environment for friends and family to process their grief together, connecting to the ancient wisdom of this indigenous tradition rooted in archetypal energies.  

 

Many thanks to The Living and Dying Consciously Project  for providing this information. Click HERE for a detailed article on how to create your own Aya Despacho ceremony.

 

  The Collective Inheritance 
of Grief
Contributed by Terri Daniel

"Pain that is not transformed 
will be transmitted"
Richard Rohr

I recently had the honor of attending an African "community grieving ritual" conducted by a spiritual teacher from the Dagara tradition named Sobonfu Some'. This ritual is conducted whenever a village has experienced trauma or loss, and in Sobonfu's words, it helps us "regain a lasting sense of connectedness with ourselves and with spirit, and to find a proper place to release our grief about the loss of loved ones, the loss of our dreams and the loss of our connection with the ancestors."

Prior to experiencing this ritual, I didn't realize how much influence our ancestors have on the way we work with grief. In the West, we are taught to grieve quietly and politely; most of our ancestors placed a high value on being strong, stoic and independent, and as a result, they ended up handing down a collective inheritance of grief that was never released or healed in their own lives. By participating in rituals like Sobonfu's (and the Aya Despacho described above), and finding deeper meaning in our losses, we have the opportunity to break the cycle of suppression so that we don't bequeath a legacy of unresolved pain to our own descendants.

In African tribal life, the idea of personal independence or self-sufficiency is unimaginable. A village experiences everything as one, and grieving is done communally... fully, fearlessly and publicly. In the grief ritual, the villagers cry, wail, dance, drum and sing for two or three days as they discharge their grief onto sacred objects that are part of an altar, which is dismantled at the end of the ceremony and ritually purified and buried.

Suffering without community and grieving without a mystical connection can deprive us of the great lessons pain can offer. If we grieve only within the confines of our three-dimensional understanding of the universe, we risk missing out on true spiritual healing and the unity that binds us to our collective responsibility to build communities that know how to heal. Our pain should not be denied, dismissed or defeated. It must be lovingly cared for and honored as a sacred messenger.  

Create Your Own 
Grief Rituals

Click HERE to learn how to create meaningful rituals for honoring the grief journey.

 
Pearls of Wisdom
 Snippets of conversation
from our 
Facebook group

"The vast majority of Near-Death-Experiencers have a dramatic shift in their behavior, personalities and beliefs. No other human experience causes such a dramatic and permanent transformation. These NDE changes include: a loss of fear of death; interest in spirituality more than religion; losing interest in material things; greater interest in serving others; changing careers and reverence for all living things."
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"Hospice nurses are our greatest allies in teaching the world about inter-dimensional communication. They are true witnesses."
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"Many people don't know that Sigmund Freud spent most of his career studying and writing about religion. An avowed atheist, he theorized that humans created the idea of God from an infantile need for a protector/punisher father figure."
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"I am a medium, and while a reading cannot change what happened in a troubled past relationship, it can help facilitate the healing that is needed among not only those who are left behind, but with the soul that has returned home in spirit."

 Want to be part of the conversation?
Join us on Facebook! \
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The Fifth Annual Afterlife Conference

Norfolk, VA.
June 4 -7, 2015

Earlybird prices expire Dec. 31. 
REGISTER NOW to save $40! 

Featuring psychic medium John Holland, Dr. Raymond Moody, Dr. Eben Alexander, out-of-body explorer William Buhlman, authors Anita Moorjani and Annie Kagan (Annie appears via Skype), mediums Suzane Northrop and Hollister Rand, and a stellar lineup of physicians, shamans, scientific researchers, grief counselors and spiritual leaders.
 

Contact us:

 [email protected]  

503-908-8633

 

Our main website:

www.AfterlifeConference.com

 

The Afterlife Education Foundation (AEF) is an Oregon non-profit corporation founded in 2010 in response to the need for
an expanded worldwide conversation
about the survival of consciousness after death.
 Stay informed!
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