I either get that exact question or something similar, like, “Does Dying Hurt?”.   I usually answer with another question, and it’s not because I’m being difficult.  It just really depends on whether you want to know if the getting to the dying part hurts or whether actually dying hurts.  For me, getting to actually dying hurt.  The brain hemorrhage was extremely painful – so much so that I was given a narcotic one hundred times stronger than Morphine to keep my body unconscious - but even then, I still remember hurting A LOT.   

Dying was actually a really easy process.  To keep the blog post short, I’m only going to talk about one instance.  Discussing all three experiences gets to be a bit much in one setting.  Right before I left my body, everything went still.  I compare the stillness to what it feels like when you take a walk outside right before a really big storm - it’s that calm, quiet, yet supercharged buzz - only without the impending sense of doom.  There was a momentary blackness along with the stillness, and then I was above my body, and because I felt so amazing, I was curious!  There was absolutely no more pain.  None.  I felt AWESOME!

I remember looking at mybody in the bed and thinking that I was much smaller than I ever thought I was.  All my life up to that point I had looked at myself as larger, no matter what the tag on the back of my clothing said (at that time it was a size 2).  On the other side, I could really see my body for what it was. I remember thinking I was tiny, especially compared to the size of the bed.  The doctors had put all kinds of grainy gunk in my hair because they needed to do an EEG, so I remember finding it humorous that my hair looked like Frankenstein’s bride’s beehive.  I remember thinking that I definitely wasn’t going to win a beauty contest, and yet everyone in the room emanated a vibration of pure love.  

That vibration is the only thing that carried with me.  I did not grieve on the other side, and because I only felt the love of those in the room, it was really easy to leave when Gabriel and Raphael came to get me.  It’s funny, when I sit and analyze it now, there was absolutely no fear at that point for me and no real attachment to my body either.  I realized it was a shell, and that I was still alive, and that it was time for me to go.

So, to answer the question succinctly, no…death does not hurt.  It didn’t hurt for me, and the numerous others I’ve talked to who have experienced “near death” confirm the same.  Coming back though, now THAT is a different story!  But we’ll save that for another time. 

Until then – be well and live well!