Exploring the Nature of Existence: Do We Have Bodies in the Afterlife?

The central theme of this podcast episode revolves around the affirmation of the existence of a body in the afterlife, a notion that is often fraught with existential uncertainty among individuals grappling with the concept of death. I elucidate the idea that our loved ones, who have transcended, retain a form that allows them to interact with the living, thereby providing solace and evidence of their continued presence. Grief is acknowledged as a universal experience, and I emphasize the importance of understanding and accepting our emotions to navigate this arduous journey. Through the exploration of the "Pillars of Grief," we delve into the profound connections that persist beyond the veil of mortality, reinforced by both experiential evidence and anecdotal accounts of those who have encountered their loved ones posthumously. I invite listeners to join us in this exploration, as we seek to uncover the truths surrounding life, death, and the enduring bonds of love that defy the boundaries of existence.

The narrative unfolds a compelling examination of the intersection between grief and the metaphysical understanding of existence beyond physical life. It is articulated that the fear of losing one's identity upon death is fundamentally unfounded, as numerous accounts from both spiritual practitioners and those nearing the end of life indicate a persistence of selfhood. The speaker elucidates the concept of the 'perispirit', an energetic double that mirrors our physical form, thereby affirming that individuals possess a recognizable essence even after transcending the physical realm. This assertion is fortified by references to holistic healing practices and scientific explorations into the nature of consciousness, which highlight the energetic composition of all beings. The episode serves as a poignant reminder that grief can be navigated with the understanding that our departed loved ones continue to exist in a form that allows for connection and recognition. By embracing this perspective, individuals may find solace and meaning in their grief, fostering a path toward acceptance and celebration of the lives that have touched their own.

Takeaways:

• The concept of grief encompasses a natural process that everyone experiences at some stage.
• Acceptance of grief does not equate to forgetting the loss of a loved one.
• Loved ones in the afterlife are often reported to have a recognizable energy form.
• Experiences of terminal lucidity reveal that those nearing death often see familiar spirits.
• Grief can be a profound and isolating journey, yet it is essential to seek support.
• The evidence presented suggests that we maintain a body in the afterlife, contrary to common fears.

Links referenced in this episode:

• jockbrocas.com/grief-group

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
There's been many occasionswhere loved ones have come through
and confirmed that they have abody and that they can interact.
And I've had loved ones comingthrough and say and give evidence
that they were around theirloved one and did something to make
them feel maybe a touch ormoved something in the home and identifying

(00:24):
that they could do thatbecause they had a form, they had
an energetic form.
They could interact with theenergy in the atmosphere and the
energy in the environment, butthat they had a very realistic form.
Grief is a natural part oflife and we all experience it at
some point by becoming awareof our emotions in the process of

(00:47):
grief, we can begin to acceptand move through our pain.
Acceptance doesn't mean thatwe forget or stop feeling the loss,
but it allows us to come toterms with it.
And finally, we can choose tohonor our loved ones by celebrating
their life and finding meaningin our grief.

(01:07):
Join me as we explore thesePillars of Grief and how they can
help us navigate the journeyof grief.
We will explore this journeytogether and you will hear from experiencers,
experts and researchers.
I'm Jock Brokis, and this isthe Pillars of Grief.

(01:32):
Well, good evening, myfriends, or wherever you are in the
world, whichever time zonethat you're listening to this.
This is the Pillars of Grief.
And if you haven't been herebefore, then my name is Jock.
I am the host and the founderof the Pillars of Grief community.

(01:53):
And you can read more.
I'm not going to go into allof my bios and, you know, but suffice
to say that I'm a professionalmedium, have been for well over two
decades involved inconsciousness research and academic
research.
And today, as promised, I madea little announcement in my last

(02:16):
video that I was going tostart a series.
And this series would beseries questions that were asked
not only by my communitymembers, but by people who write
into me through my website orwrite into me through Instagram or
YouTube where they connectwith me all about the afterlife and

(02:36):
all about death and dying andwhat to expect in the afterlife and
some of the greatest questionsthat may even cause kind of existential
distress or shall we say,ontological shock, maybe because

(02:57):
of your experiences.
And so today I'm kind of, Iwant to jump into one of the first
questions, one of the mostimportant questions, and I'm going
to go into it in a little bitof detail, but obviously to know
that there is stay at the endbecause I'll let you know about something
else, something that's comingup that will take everything so much

(03:21):
more Deeper.
So I want to kind of starttoday to talk about the question
that I get often, actuallyprobably every week, is, do we have
a body in the afterlife?
Do we have a body?
Because there's somethingfrightening about thinking when we

(03:44):
pass over, we just become thisethereal ball of light, or we maybe
dissipate into nothing, intothis vast nothingness, and that we
don't, we lose our form and wedon't have any memory.
And so all these questions cancause a lot of distress.

(04:06):
And some people will theirontology, they have some kind of
security in their beliefsystem, as are their experiences
that are fundamentally rootedin the material world.
You know, you, you kind ofwake up during the day, you look
out the window and you know,you can perceive things and you,

(04:26):
you, you can experience things.
And, and you're, you haveyour, your, your ontology is quite
secure.
You kind of, your, yourmeaning is there.
You understand it a little bit.
You know, you understand lifebecause that's what you experience
at the time.
You see the sunshine, or yousee an animal, a bird or something
flying down, or you just seepeople walking past your window or

(04:49):
when you're out shopping.
So there's a kind of securityin what you're experiencing.
But then this question aboutour loved ones pass over.
I get so many questions wherethe individual will be like, well,
are they still around me?
Do they still have a body?
And then, then that causesthem to ask more questions, but will

(05:12):
I still have a body?
Will I still have limbs?
And how will I be able torecognize my loved ones?
All these questions, all ofthese things we're going to go into
over the coming months.
But for today, I want to kindof deal with this whole idea of whether
you have a body or not.
And I can categorically, Imean, this is to bring some kind

(05:35):
of context into it.
Yes, you do, absolutely.
How do I know this?
Right.
Well, it's not because there'sany scientific proof of that, but
there is evidence.
And there's experientialevidence that I like to call there's
lived experience, but there'salso experiential evidence.
There's evidence frommediumship, from communications,

(06:00):
and there's also this history,if you like, from, say, Alan Kardec,
who talked about the perispirit.
What does that mean?
Well, if any of you have beeninterested in healing or any kind
of holistic life, you hear agreat deal about the chakras, the
energy vortices, and then youhear about the energy body.

(06:22):
You know, often what isdepicted you'll see.
And I'll put one on the screen here.
You'll see an auric field, anauric body.
Alan Kardec would determinethat to be what's called the perispirit.
And it's like a carbon copy ofwhat your physical form is like.

(06:42):
And when we look at.
When we study things or weread any books, or even if you see
some of these spiritual cards,you know, like card decks, you'll
see images of a light body.
And then you'll see chakras.
You'll see seven chakras thatkind of depict these energy centers.
That kind of gives you alittle bit of comfort because we're

(07:02):
all made up of energy, right?
And so that what you'reseeing, that peri spirit, as Alan
Kardec would say.
And also there's been research.
NASA's done research.
A lot of scientists have done research.
Dr. Barbara Brennan talkedabout the energy body.
There's been a great deal ofresearch into energy fields.

(07:27):
Kirlian photography.
I think it was Mikhail Kurleanin 1974.
I think it was 1974.
I'm doing this off top of myhead, so don't quote me on that.
I could be wrong.
And I think I wrote about itin Powers of the Sixth Sense, my
book, where they were able toidentify energy, energetic patterns,
auric fields, energy fieldsaround a living organism.

(07:50):
And that exists whether it'sanimate or inanimate, really.
Right.
So when we think about it, weare really fundamentally broken down
to energy.
We're just energy, which.
I don't know if I've mentionedthis story before, but it reminds
me a story.
Years ago when I was teachingin my dojo, in my martial arts dojo,

(08:13):
I had a student and I wasrunning a kind of psychic, intuitive
aspect within the dojo,teaching a workshop on this.
And I was explaining thewhole, you know, rudimentary elements
of energy and atoms andmolecules, and how if we looked at
something that was solid andessentially we'd break it down to

(08:38):
its constituent molecules andatoms and et cetera, et cetera.
And so almost like it's anillusion, solidity was an illusion
because of the way weperceived it.
And this young student wasabsolutely fascinated, but unbeknownst
to me, decided to go home andsit at the dinner table with his
family and say, his dad, youknow, dad, do you realize that table's

(08:59):
not there anymore?
They don't exist.
And his dad was absolutelyflabbergasted and thought, my God,
what is this?
What is this?
Teacher what is this martialarts guy teaching?
My son and I turned up at theTojo to ask me questions and luckily
he took the funny side of it.
But it just goes to show youthat if you don't understand things,

(09:22):
we can make judgments, we canhave preconceptions, and our assumptions
create a lot of illusions andthings in our minds as well.
But one of the greatest fearis to think that when we go over
that we don't have anything.
But there's a great deal ofresearch that's going on at the moment

(09:45):
as well in something calledterminal lucidity.
And this is where loved onesthat are getting ready to pass over
become lucid before they pass.
And so we have an element ofevidence there that, that when our
loved ones, for instance, whenmy granddad was ready to pass over,
he could see loved ones thatwere in the room with them.

(10:07):
And we have people that candescribe their loved ones.
They come through and they arevisual to them, to the loved one
who's getting ready to crossover the veil.
And they can see them in theform that they are, albeit a bit
younger.
They can see them, they knowthem, they have a recognition.
They have an energetic patternabout them.

(10:27):
They have an energetic recognition.
So they know immediately it'stheir loved ones.
And so when they see them,they see them in their form, the
form that they knew that theyhad when they were on the earth plane.
And they often talk about thisif they're, you know, they come back
or it's maybe it's experiencesbecause they're getting ready to

(10:50):
pass over and not.
It doesn't necessarily meanthat when a loved one's ready to
go that they're only going tosee them within a moment before they
pass over.
Because as many people seetheir loved ones, that if you've
got a loved one.
In fact, I went to the, I went to.
Oftentimes I go to the bedsideof people who are getting ready to

(11:13):
pass over and die.
And they often tell me abouttheir loved ones and their experiences
that they see, that theyvisually see objectively, not subjectively
in their mind, objectively,they see them and they tell me that,
you know, their loved ones arein full form, that they look as if

(11:33):
they've got a body, albeitthere's a translucence, there's a
likeness about it.
And I'll talk about that alittle bit in a moment.
I talk about my own near death experience.
But so loved ones will, they'll.
They'll kind of tell you whatthey've seen or even what they've
seen and sometimes, and thisis, there's any nurses out there

(11:55):
that listen to, you know whatI'm talking about.
Because if you're a care nurseand you've worked in a geriatric
unit, I worked in a geriatricunit when I was very young.
I went to college and I did myen nurse before I joined the army.
And I would often be withpeople that were, you know, getting
ready to pass over, that wereon their, you know, they were terminal,

(12:16):
they were, they were dying andthey would claim things that they
were experiencing.
Of course I wasn't as versedas I am now then I didn't know.
And I was pretty religiousbecause I had the Catholic upbringing
and obviously I was in juniorinto spiritual retreats in junior
seminary from a young age andwas looking at taking holy orders.

(12:40):
So I didn't understand thepsychic mediumistic world, so to
speak, and the intricacies ofheavenly or beatric visions.
And I only understood it froma Catholicism point of view.
And so when you have somebodytelling you about these experiences,
you can put it down to maybethey don't understand.

(13:04):
They're getting ready, they'rehallucinating, but there's a pattern.
This happens regularly.
It's too regular for it justto be a one off hallucination that
someone has.
So many people that weregetting ready to cross over would,
would say, would, wouldactually ex, you know, explain what
they were seeing.
And that's very important.

(13:25):
Right?
So you take about, you thinkabout that then.
So there's experiences fromloved ones that are getting ready
to pass over and if you'veever worried about it and you've
been in a hospital room withyour loved one as they're getting
ready to pass, you know thatthey often look up and see things.
They're starting to cross theveil, they're getting ready, they

(13:46):
see the other side.
Now in the same token as mywork as a professional medium, I've
given, as you can imagine,many, many, many, many sittings,
many private settings, one toone or even group sittings, families
and even audiences andchurches and things.

(14:07):
And there's been manyoccasions that in the, the, in me
doing my, in my field of workand doing that vacation and sharing
the knowledge that I'mgetting, sharing the, the connection
that I'm getting from theother side, there's been many occasions
where loved ones have comethrough and, and confirmed that they

(14:30):
are in, they have a body andthat they can interact.
Grieving can be a lonely andisolating experience, but it doesn't
have to be.
Join my free online support community.
For those who are on agrieving journey.
This community is a safe spacewhere you can receive education,

(14:51):
support and love from otherswho are on the same path.
Whether you're struggling withthe loss of a loved one or preparing
for this loss, or you feelthat you have lost your way of life
because of grief, you don'thave to go through it alone.
Join the online communitytoday and walk the journey together.
[e-mail] A lovingwelcome awaits you.

(15:18):
I've even had.
I've had loved ones comingthrough and say and give evidence
that they were around theirloved one and did something to make
them feel maybe a touch ormoved something in the home and identifying
that they could do thatbecause they had a form.
They had an energetic form.
They could interact with theenergy in the atmosphere and the

(15:39):
energy and the environment,but they had a very realistic form,
right?
So the idea that I want you totry and get this out of your head
so that you don't worryyourself too much that you're just
going to go into a nothingnessor that you're going to roll about

(16:02):
the universe in a ball oflight with no memory, no nothing
and no body, and that's it.
That's not true.
In the same, in the sametoken, a lot of very old texts, right?
If we talk about, I'm notgoing to go into any religion.
I don't want to do that.

(16:23):
But in indigenous writings andindigenous folklore or in religious
texts, I'm not going tomention any particular religion,
we have examples where thereare visions of apparitions of full

(16:44):
bodies.
Now, we often then see inparapsychology, when we try to.
When we investigateparapsychologically, when we investigate
hauntings or potentialinteractions with spirits or apparitions,
then what is reported is, whatis seen is full bodies, right?

(17:11):
As they were back in the day.
And sometimes we will.
Sometimes that then becomespart of.
It's not evidence because notpart of psychology, but it's the
experience of the phenomena,anomalous phenomena that the person
has witnessed that becomes adata point, right?

(17:32):
And so we have so many datapoints with so many hauntings that
tell us that there is a form, right?
There's no such thing as just formlessness.
And that's.
You just go into formlessnessfrom formlessness.
We became form and we're anenergetic partner in that form.
And again, I want to go backto this whole idea.

(17:52):
If you think about the periSpirit, this unique energy Body,
right, this spirit body.
And this is why we call it ina lot of texts and even a lot of,
I don't like to get into newage and native ad fantasies type
stuff.
But when we talk about thespirit body, we're talking about
a doppelganger, basically,we're talking about an exact image

(18:16):
and likeness of what yourbody, what you are right now.
And I want to go through whenI had my near death experience, I
was also witness to having a body.
When we had the car accidentand I kind of had my experience,
I recognized I still had a body.

(18:37):
It was very real, there was no difference.
And in a lot of near deathexperiences with people who have
crossed over, they all reportthat they had a form, they had a
body, that they still existedin many, many, shall we say, group

(18:59):
seances and things way back inthe past that again, that was confirmed
that there was a spirit body.
So the reality is that yes, wedo have a body in the afterlife.
Now there's a lot of otherquestions that go into this, right,
because it would be, okay, howdoes the body manipulate things or

(19:23):
how are we able to feel thingsor is there memory?
And that is many, many otherquestions that we're going into.
So there's so much more tocome about this, which leads me on
to.
While I'm just kind of goingover this first question, I will
be going to this in a much,much, much deeper way in a course

(19:47):
that I'm developing that willbe in my community.
And that course will be very,very extensive and will cover almost
everything that you need to,you need to know that'll be coming
soon.
And the only way that you'llbe able to get into that course when
the time is right is to.
Is in our community.
And of course, the communityis not just for anyone.

(20:08):
It's for people that aregrieving, is for people that have
lost loved ones, that want tolearn a little bit more and get that
comfort.
So if you.
And here's the other thing.
While I go through thesequestions on these episodes that
I'm just kind of going overand going into it, you must understand
that when I go into it indepth, there's going to be evidence,

(20:29):
there's going to be, you know,parapsychology, there's going to
be science, there's going tobe a lot for you to be able to, for
you to take that understandingthat away and that knowledge and
come to your own conclusionsand, you know, be your own researcher
into things as well.
So I want to let you know thatdefinitely 100% that we do have a

(20:51):
body.
There's been so muchphenomenological experience, if you
like, there's so much livedexperience that has been shared that
it's undeniable, really.
Even though there's maybe notempirical evidence, there is a potential
to bridge that, that livedexperience, to prove existence, to

(21:14):
prove this.
And we know this from lots andlots of readings that we've done
where loved ones have comethrough and confirmed that they have
a body.
I was once listening to atranscript of it and it was a spirit
on the other side that had hada lot of shock, had a great deal

(21:35):
of shock because they couldstill see and they could still feel
and they could still touch.
They had a body, they lookeddown and they had legs, they had
arms and things like that.
And here's the interesting thing.
When I talk about the limbs, Iwant to kind of go on to this phantom
limb syndrome, right?
I don't know what the fancyname is, but I had a student in my

(21:57):
dojo who was a veteran and Iused to teach, not only veterans,
but I used to teach in the AirForce establishment and army barracks.
I used to teach my classes in there.
And I had a soldier who hadlost his leg in a conflict.
And we often used to talkabout how he would feel that that

(22:21):
phantom limb was there, thathe would feel that even though his
leg had gone from literallyabove the knee, he still felt he
had that.
And he could almost tell me,he would tell me that he would feel
pain sometimes as if it was there.
And so whilst that's notempirical, really, it does beg the

(22:42):
mind to think that his energybody is him, it's his essence, and
that he could still feel that realistically.
So even if you don't want totake this whole idea of a medium,
mystic evidence or somethinglike that, if you think about amputees
that still feel their limbs,it makes you think, well, maybe,

(23:03):
yeah, that energy body'sprobably right, because how else
would they not feel it?
I mean, you could have so manyarguments in psychology and whether
that was an illusion or ahallucination, but at the end of
the day, it's very real to them.
It's a lived experience.
You can't deny someone's experience.
We can only take it as a data point.

(23:25):
And that's what I want toexplain is that we have so many data
points that it points the direction.
It points that, yeah, this isthe right direction to go.
There's something in this, right?
So again, from a near deathexperience that I've had and a lot
of other people have had.
We know we have a body fromreadings and sittings that I've done

(23:47):
and many others have done, andspirit comes through and actually
confirms that they've got abody, but also gives evidence on
how they've interacted in thismaterial world and how they've interacted
with their loved ones againsuggests yet they've got a body,
Right?

(24:08):
And then this whole idea of welook into the research on energy
bodies and holistic healing inthose fields as well, and we look
at writings and writings fromthe past and even Frederick Myers,
who was one of the founders ofthe spr, there's a lot that they
can say from his research andinformation that came through and

(24:30):
other researchers way back inthe past, which I'm going to go into
a lot deeper within that course.
So if you're out there andyou're panicking and you think there's,
I don't have a body, there'sno way.
It just seems so unreal.
And when I go and you don'texist and maybe you're worried about

(24:53):
that, maybe it's causing yousome anxiety and you maybe even get
into spiritual crisis.
Now I want to also go into,and I'll do this more in my court
because it's so important, mycolleague, Dr. Pascal Michael, whom
I'm doing research with for my.
With my dissertation work intoGrief, we're also going to be diving

(25:16):
into psychedelics.
And there's a lot of peoplethat have psychedelic experiences
that witness they have a bodyand that witness what they see.
You know, the experiences thatthey have that open up, which obviously
can cause, you know, anontological shift in their own.
On their own existence in thismaterial world and in this universal

(25:39):
consciousness or this massiveparadigm that has just changed for
them.
There's elements there, butagain, that's something we're going
to go into much deeper later on.
But I want you to take awayfrom this, that, from my experiences,
from all the readings andthings that have done.
I'll tell you, I'm waffling on.
I don't mean to waffle on, butwe did a church service years and

(26:06):
years and years and years agoin Scotland.
I remember the connection thatwas coming through.
The spirit on the other sidehad basically given evidence that
he was with his, you know, hewas in his wife's life still and

(26:26):
that he had the touch that shehad felt.
He'd touched her not in asexual way or anything else, but
in her limbs.
She was so shocked.
And she screamed out and shesays, well, that would have been
the first.
That would have been the firsttouch he gave me for years before
he even passed.
So it kind of, it kind oftells you that there's that interaction

(26:49):
there.
And again, you know, thinkabout this as well.
There's still, there's acomedic side to it, that they still
have a sense of humor.
So, ladies and gentlemen, youstill have a body.
You're not going to disappearin the vast nothingness and float
around the universe like alittle blob of energy.
That's not true.

(27:09):
And I'm going to go deeperinto a lot more questions than this.
And if you have questions andit's not on my list, you won't know
that because you don't see the list.
But you can send yourquestions into me from my website,
jobbrokers.com I'm putting alittle widget up there for this series
in particular where you'll beable to ask those questions.
And there's a lot more thatI'm coming out with.

(27:31):
Have I said every two weeksI'm going to be answering a question.
Questions have been sent in tome from my listeners, from my community
and people that I've read forover the years as well that are going
to be sending in their questions.
So, guys, thank you forjoining me tonight.
And if you're listening tothis in a time, I love it.

(27:52):
Make sure that you subscribeand share this with a friend.
This also helps us to get thisinformation out to those people who
are suffering that do need alittle bit of help and little bit
of knowledge there to helpthem make their own decisions.
Join me again for the next questions.

(28:13):
Keep them coming in foreverybody that's out there.
Just keep these questionscoming in.
And if you want to knowanything more about this, just remember
you can join my community.
If you're grieving and you'velost a loved one and you even want
to get involved in some of theresearch that I'm doing, then you'll
find that on the links belowor on my website, dropbrokers.com

(28:34):
and you can then connect withme in there as well.
Direct.
Look out for it.
This is just an overview.
Everything is going to getanswered much, much deeper in a very,
very long course that you cantake in your own time.
That's going to help educateyou all about these questions, all

(28:55):
about these things over there.
You might know a lot, but thenyou might learn something completely
new that might change andtransform your life in a good way.
Guys, thank you for joining me.
This is Jock, this is Pillarsof Grief.
Do we have a body in the afterlife?
Yes, you absolutely do.
God Bless.

(29:19):
Thank you for tuning in to thePillars of Grief with me.
If you found this podcasthelpful, please consider subscribing
so that you never miss an episode.
Also, leaving a review canhelp others find the show and receive
the guidance they need ontheir journey through grief.
I appreciate your feedback andlook forward to hearing from you
all.
Join my free online supportcommunity for those grieving and

(29:39):
connect with others whounderstand what you're going through.
I offer you a spiritualblessing and hope you will join me
on the next episode.
Till then, open your mind andallow the power of the divine to
transform your grief tospiritual realization.
God Bless.