I stumbled across a puzzling coincidence a day or two ago. One of the new stories we just added to the After-Death Communication section of this site was written by a woman whose mother died some years ago. She wrote us:

"One morning, I had a vision of my mother. She looked to be around sixteen years old and was very beautiful, but I knew that it was my mother. The trees and grass around her were very colorful…[They] made the world look dull and not near as pretty by comparison."

Right now, I'm reading Tom Harpur's 1991 book, "Life After Death." In it, he recounts stories of departed spirits who came to visit loved ones. One account goes: "My mother stood before me, smiling…I had no difficulty recognizing her. She appeared to be about seventeen or eighteen…She was wearing a long garment of a beautiful mulberry shade, and she had a radiance as if…she had seen God."

The age coincidence immediately caught my attention. I had heard that after death we revert to a younger image of ourselves, especially when we choose to appear in the physical world. But I understood that the median age for that reversion was somewhere in the mid-thirties. So, why had both of these women appeared as teen-agers? Puzzling.

I love children and young people so I don't have any bias against youth. But why would people choose to be teen-agers in heaven? Most of the teen-agers I know are incredibly ignorant (in the best sense of the word). They have had almost no life experience, they are shallow, self-absorbed, clannish and insecure. They have a long way to go before they reach true adulthood, which begins, I am also told, around the mid-thirties.

So, why teen-agers? I meditated on the question, and realized that there was another similarity in the stories: Beauty. Teen-agers are beautiful. It may even be the most beautiful stage of our lives. And the flip side of teen-age ignorance is innocence. Their lack of life experience convinces them that they can conquer the world. And teen-agers are filled with anticipation. Their whole future stretches out before them, and they are about ready to graduate into independence. They are immortal, and they can do anything.

What a metaphor! All of those unrealistic descriptions of human teen-agers are literally true for all of us when we return to spirit, to what Sylvia Browne calls "Home." Our soul is exposed and even the most physically unattractive among us is seen to be radiant with spiritual beauty. Even the most jaded among us gazes with innocent awe at the splendors on that side of creation. The opportunities for growth and dazzling new experiences are endless, literally, so that even the most world-weary among us finds a new enthusiasm as we anticipate the adventures to come. Because we will be immortal, and we will be able to do anything.

Not so puzzling after all, is it?

Posted Jan. 17, 2004

Copyright: John W. Sloat 2004