Assisted Death

Friday January 2, 1998

I had a penfriend in Australia with whom I felt quite close. I had never met her in person, but we had regularly exchanged lengthy letters, photographs, stamps, and small gifts for years. In April 1997 she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Her health deteriorated during the rest of 1997. In late 1997 I went to a Hallmark shop and bought about thirty cards for my penfriend. I mailed several cards a week in hopes of helping my friend keep her spirits up. Her partner told me my penfriend loved the cards and became excited when each card arrived.

On December 30, 1997 I received a letter from my penfriend's partner. She said my penfriend had gotten worse and was back in the hospital. She said my penfriend was psychologically and emotionally at peace and ready to die, but that her body was still strong and might continue fighting for quite a while.

Physical death is a tricky business. There are considerations regarding the dying person's state of mind, the readiness of loved ones, the readiness of legal affairs, the possible benefits to the soul of learning from the process, possible karma that is being balanced, and more. For those reasons I am reluctant to interfere in the process. In this case though, all I knew for sure was that my penfriend was suffering terribly, physically, and that if I could do anything to help alleviate that suffering I should.

On Friday night January 2, 1998 I had a long meditation session in which I envisioned a peaceful death for my penfriend. I envisioned helping her make a smooth transition into the afterlife. I appealed to my alternate spirit selves, the cluster consisting of all my present and past pesonalities. (See Monroe, Robert. Ultimate Journey New York: Doubleday, 1994.) My penfriend died on Sunday, Australian time, about 31 hours after I completed my meditation. She had been ill for eight months and had been hospitalized for about two weeks.

I logged these events into my psychic journal for the record, but I was not convinced my efforts had played any part in helping my penfriend die. It was clear she was going to die soon. The only uncertainty was when.

I changed my mind about this event years later though, when twice more I meditated to help people die, and both times the people died very soon after my meditation. I figured one time could just be coincidence, but three out of three seemed to imply a cause-and-effect relationship.


Copyright 2009 Jon Maloney