Cecil the Lion and the Flipside

There's a passage in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" where a spirit guide is being asked a question that one of the people in the book posed as a question.  "What's the meaning of "the shift?"   

She asked the question half in jest, as she didn't believe she would get anywhere in her session, as she didn't believe in an "afterlife" or wherever the hell it was that people were claiming to go to speak to "wiser souls" that seemed to answer the deeper questions we have in life.

And her spirit guide said something to the equivalent of "You humans think that by naming something you'll get a better handle on it.  In terms of the cosmos, the "shift" has very little meaning, but if you want to understand a shift in consciousness, imagine yourself a crab walking on the ocean floor and you open your eyes and realize you're in an ocean."

This little fella is a ghost crab. Hmm. Aptly named?

I'm paraphrasing.  That came from my notes while I was filming the session.  My friend, who has worked on a few film blockbusters in the past, didn't believe a word I'd told her about this research into what people say under deep hypnosis about the afterlife.  She agreed to do a session because she had an upcoming surgery, and had heard that "hypnosis" could be beneficial.  (The surgery went fine, she's okay.)

I drove her out to Scott De Tamble's office in Claremont ("Lightbetweenlives.com") and Scott took her on a successful journey (I've filmed 25 with him, all successful journeys) where she not only saw a lifetime she had lived previously, naming towns and locations that I was able to find through searches, but she also described in detail this "between lives" realm where she met up with her soul mates, pals and others, including this kind of curmudgeon of a spirit guide, who felt her questions might have been lightweight.  After all, you get to a point where you can ask about anything in the universe, and your question is "what's the meaning of "the shift" in terms of new age concepts?

Amusing that he lumped us into the "you humans" part of the equation, but it brings to mind this tragic killing of the lion known as Cecil.

Of course that's not his name, Cecil is a name given to him by humans to examine him, "as if that would give us a better handle on him."  I too agree with the sentiments of Jimmy Kimmel, who eloquently put this man's journey to Africa in perspective, calling him out for some kind of mental or physical deficiency that made him want to populate his "man cave" with the bodies, skins and heads of animals. (Also agree that everyone should donate something in Cecil's name at wildcru.org)


Lest we forget: 100 years ago this dentist fellow would have been given a parade down main street.  Less than 50 years ago, he would have been in the pages of National Geographic, lauded for his "humane" hunting skills.  What a difference a few decades make - and a few pages on social media.

This dude is not a dentist methinks.

  Now we have dear heart Mia Farrow posting the fellow's address. The head of PETA calling for his "hanging" - and numerous others calling for his execution.  Preferably in Place de la Concorde where they used to take bourgeois pigs to administer justice.  And when someone does hunt down this dentist, put his head on a stake, quite a few people would say "well, I thought he should be punished, but maybe not that punished."  It's clearly a "Lord of the Flies" moment, when we use social media to "Kill the pig, drink his blood!"

I'm not mitigating any of this.  I don't believe in hunting animals for sport.  I do my best to feed our kids organic food from farms where I can only believe their inserts that the animal I'm eating was humanely treated. (Again with the humane label.  You think the animals are walking around saying "Well, Joe, at least you're going to be killed humanely.  I'm just going to be hit by a Vespa.")

From the New Yorker

So in the desire to take the bows and arrows out of the hands of those about to hunt this fellow down, and perhaps to disarm some of the bows and arrows of those who feel the need to hunt - it's a simple question; "So why are you on the planet?"

It's not a hard question.  And when people get the opportunity to answer it - either during a near death experience, or perhaps under deep hypnosis, or even via communication with those no longer on the planet - the answers are always interesting.

Everyone, according to these reports, has a reason or multitude of reasons why they chose to be on the planet.  Some to work out issues from previous lifetimes, indeed, and many who agree to come here to help out others during their journey here.  I don't know the reason behind this dentist's journey here - perhaps it was to fix a lot of teeth, and kill a handful of animals - but there's also the possibility that he agreed to come here to raise the consciousness of the planet.

Because you see, his one act of brutality - allowing these hunters to lure the lion out of its sanctuary, shooting him with a bow and arrow, not killing him, then hunting him for 40 hours and "taking" him... that may have been done with the desire to teach the planet a lesson.

Let's start with this.  We don't die.  Cecil is not dead. We will not be dead.  We will go on.

Wait, what?

This is what this research shows.  Thousands of cases, and the 25 I've filmed, as well as examining reports from near death experiences and people speaking to those who are no longer on the planet - well, they all say the same danged thing. 

We don't die.

So if you start there - we don't die. Cecil didn't die.  Cecil (for lack of a better name, and it's not his name, but one given to him by dudes at Oxford - who deserve our help and support - if you can donate to them at wildcru.org in Cecil's name) has gone back "home."  He'll be there with his friends and loved ones, the folks who went before him, and will reconnect to see what his next lifetime is going to be.

Because that's how it works.  It's not my philosophy or belief in how it works - its what people consistently report how it works.  It's what people report the architecture of the afterlife actually is.  That we don't die - our physical bodies do - but our spirits, or souls, or energy pattern - whatever you prefer, does not.  And according to these reports, it melds back with our loved ones and together we work on what our next adventure is going to be.  

Home.  (Home?) "Home."

Somewhere along the line this dentist agreed to help heal people, helping them with cavities and other problems (I read it somewhere that dentists have the highest suicide rates - why is that? I don't know) and also agreed to play this role of hunter.  And on some level knew that his hunting was going to affect a shift in consciousness.

Not everyone is going to stop eating meat.  Not everyone is going to stop hunting. But big game hunters who used to post their pix on Facebook and social media will think twice about doing that - as it certainly can be negative on the pocketbook - and perhaps, just perhaps, a person will think twice about taking up the "sport."  Look, racism was once "par for the course." Sexism was once "part of the deal."  "Wanton mistreatment of animals" is also something the planet has dealt with since man climbed down a tree or walked out of the cave.

There is an ecosystem to be sure.  But have humans screwed it up?  Just ask the fish who live near Fukushima. Ask the rhino that has been decimated for it's packed animal hair that becomes horn.  Dogs for lunch? Just ask the Chinese dogs who are decimated as food scraps.  The list goes on and on.  None of us are immune to what we've done to the planet as a species - but there is always hope, because we are sentient beings.  There is always hope for a shift in consciousness that will alter how we view this blue dot that we currently inhabit.

from Oliver Sach's Twitter - the Pale Blue Dot

The good news is that Cecil has returned "home" - just the way the native Americans spoke of the "Buffalo Realm" where the buffalo would return to the loving realm of the White Buffalo before choosing to come back again. Cecil is okay, Cecil is going to be fine.  This dentist, not so much.  He's got a long way to go before he gets to go back home and reap the scorn or the accolades that await him there. 

That's why this research is so fascinating from the standpoint of perspective.  Did the dentist sign up for a lifetime where he could bring this kind of sport to an end?  If so, then we should applaud him.  But there's no way of knowing that - as much as we might want to judge him, might want to do the same injustice to him that he's done to other animals - we can't because we aren't in his shoes.  We can't because we aren't part of his soul group.  We don't know why he's a jerk.  But we can isolate him, take him out of circulation, and prevent him from doing this kind of harm to the planet again.  And by doing so, we raise our own awareness of the planet.

After all, and I may sound like a broken record, if what these thousands of people are saying about the journey of souls is true, that we choose our lifetimes, that we come back here at the behest of others, usually to help and take care of others, doesn't it make sense to leave behind a place we might want to return to?  A place with fresh water, air and earth so we can enjoy those things like we have in the past? And let's expand that to include "and a healthy, robust animal kingdom that we can all appreciate?" 

My two cents.