Welcome to episode 47 of the Multidimensional Evolution podcast. My name is Kim McCaul and today I bring you a conversation about death, grief and the after life with the Irish counsellor and self-described spiritual midwife Mariel Clarke. Mariel spoke with me from Galway, Ireland and the influence of her Irish culture on her spirituality is woven through the conversation.
Mariel speaks from the heart about her work assisting people transitioning to the extra-physical from the physical and shares a number of stories that transform the experience of death from something fearful and terrible, into an opportunity of beautiful connection with the person transitioning. Mariel describes her understanding of the transition process from the perspective of both the person dying and those staying behind.
Speaking with Mariel reminded me of the wide gamut of spiritual beliefs and the fact that we often meet people with whom we share many common values and understandings, while other understandings are quite divergent. It is almost as if - in terms of our understandings of multidimensionality and the human condition - we exist in only partially overlapping circles akin to a ven diagram. In the case of Mariel for example, I feel totally on the same page with her when she shares her NDEs, talks about her experiences of the silver cord and understanding of OBEs, the importance of forgiveness and grieving while understanding that we do not really die or the support she receives from her deceased dad and other non-physical beings. But when at the very end she talks about ascended masters, Lemurian crystal cities, and archangels I notice a strong inner skeptic arise and realise we are operating on different paradigms.
It is curious, because if you have read my book Multidimensional Evolution you will know that I also share some pretty out-there experiences with extra-terrestrials and other non-human beings as well as earth crystals. And yet, when I cannot relate to experiences shared by others I find myself treating the information with much caution. There are a number of reasons for this. One is that I know that there are people who simply make stuff up. I do not at all think this applies to Mariel, but it is something I have seen very clearly with several quite prominent self-proclaimed gurus. Another factor is that there are many factors that can lead us to misinterpret our own experiences. And finally I realise that these days my focus is much more on the practical every day significance of altered states of consciousness - I have seen more than one friend lose themselves in the magical realms that accompany a lot of new age beliefs. Of course this is very much in the spirit underpinning this podcast and my approach to consciousness research generally, which is don’t believe in anything, experiment have your own experience … and I would add, follow the data.
