Gene Ang, Ph.D. has a healing practice based in Thousand Oaks, CA and sees clients for a number of energy healing and shamanic healing practices*. In addition, he teaches seminars that focus on the integration of science, spirituality, and healing. Gene travels both in the United States and internationally facilitating healing sessions and workshops.

1.  Let go– Almost all the various spiritual traditions and teachers in this field state that during the dying process the key point is to let go.  Our suffering in this life is due to grasping.  Now this dream of this current life is ending and the best advice is to let go.

2.  Focus on the top of the head– There are various points on the body that the consciousness can eject from at the time of death.  This comes from the Nine Gates teachings.  The most ideal opening to leave from is the top of the head.  So when dying, the best place to put your awareness is on this point.  It leads to landing in space of consciousness after death that are of pure or high in nature.

3.  Pray to be reborn wherever you can be of most service–  If compassion is a keynote in your life, holding the thought at the time of death to be reborn wherever you can be of most service is enough for your spiritual GPS system to lead you to the best place possible after death.  It is one of the  most straightforward and simplest pieces of advice I have read from the great teachers in this field.

4.  You will die as you have lived–  The death and dying process reflects the living process in a short intense fractal experience.  A good life ensure a good death.  The practices for death are the practices for life.

5.  Enjoy the ride–  Almost all the teachers I have read have stated that the death process is one of the highlights of life as long as we can let go and enjoy it.  Part of the fear is not facing the process in whatever way possible during life.  Every day we experience micro-deaths as we learn to let go of expectations and demands.  Every moment we experience a fractal of the death process as we transition from one thought to the next.

6.  You have died many times; perhaps millions of times–  This comes from my own experience in certain shamanic initiations dealing with death.  The understanding that came to me is that I have gone through this process many times and perhaps millions of times.

7.  Last though best thought–  The last thought you hold before passing propels you into the inner world in a certain direction.  Holding positive and peaceful thoughts can have a major impact on the trajectory of your entry back into the inner world.  Every night we can practice this process by holding the highest thought possible before falling asleep.  This will lay the ground work for doing the same right before we pass from this physical body.

8.  There is no death-There is no death but only a changing in form.  Most traditions which hold the view of reincarnation view death like the changing of clothes from one day to the next or seeing this life as one day and the waking up to the next day as the rebirth into the next incarnation.  High initiates view one life of intense suffering for example as just a bad day with the next life being like waking up to a fresh new day.

9.  Meditation is a gold insurance policy– Meditation is an ideal practice situation to learn to let go.  We are letting go of thoughts, feelings, and emotions that arise during the practice.  These are the same types of thoughts, feelings, and emotions that will arise during death.  Also during meditation we are letting go of various conceptions of who we are.  In essence, meditation practice is a small death.

10.  The death and dying process is recapitulated each night when we fall asleep–  The spaces of consciousness we enter as we fall asleep, during deep sleep, during dreams, and when we awaken are the same or similar to the spaces of consciousness that we enter as we die, after we have left the physical body, and if and when we reincarnate.  We can practice every night the death process by staying aware during the sleep process.  The practices that focus on these are the lucid dreaming practices and sleep yogas presented for example from the Tibetan tradition.

11.  Stay Calm-  The key injunction in all phases of the dying process is not to react.  Stay calm.  Because the consciousness after death is more highly mobile than in the physical body, any sudden reactions created out of fear, desire, or ignorance will cause you to move away or towards that direction without choice.  Take a step back, remain calm, and observe what is going on.