Lifetime religious beliefs and the afterlife
QUESTION: Masters, I had a great great aunt who was a very, generous, giving, and loving person who provided a sanctuary for me in my childhood from my troubles. She fixed me goodies and would buy me gifts as her pension allowed. She was also a religious Baptist. My question is: Since she was religious, did she have a hard time adjusting when she crossed since the afterlife was probably not what she expected? Also is she still watching over me, aware of my troubles I currently have? I also hope she realizes the positive role she played in my life and how much I appreciated it. ~Matt, USA
ANSWER: Organized religions are one of the ways that humans use to decide how to live their lives. There are those who belong to a church for guidance and a sense of protection so that they do not have to make any decisions themselves; they allow the church to dictate their every thought and move and to make all of their choices for them. These people never realize they have freedom of choice about every aspect of their life.
Then there are the people brought up in a religion and the congregation becomes their family. They maintain membership so they have a group with which to socialize, causes to spend time on, and scheduled interaction with others. They will never feel alone as long as they belong to the group.
Your aunt had a need to be needed and to be a part of something, and the church provided that for her. She parroted back the doctrine and beliefs but didn’t spend too much time on whether she fully adhered to the principles. She tried to live in positivity and shun any negativity that would lead to disputes and anger. She liked the path of least resistance.
When she transitioned, her last thoughts – compliments of her friends – were of pearly gates and a smiling God to welcome her home. She had no fears of a negative judgment because of the way she had lived her life. She found Home to be unconditional love with no judgment, and plenty of other friends and relatives were present to help her remember about her essence as a piece of Source and to go over and appreciate the lessons she accomplished during her life. Her prior religion had been based on judgment and she found none here, so it ceased to have any effect on her.
She watches and visits you. She is aware of your life and what has had an impact on you and wishes you would believe in yourself more and follow your intuition – the little voice that gives you advice. She wants you to know you can always talk to her for comfort.