My mom called today to tell me how her day went. She's taken a job caring for a lady who is under hospice care and isn't expected to live out the next 30 days. Anyway, she called to especially tell me about some of the paperwork that arrived - there was one paragraph explaining what happens to the spirit of a person at death. It went into some detail about how a spirit will leave the body before actual physical death but sometimes a spirit won't separate from the body if there is unfinished business and how sometimes that business is only needing to be told that everything will be alright and that they can go.

She told me that she was surprised to find this in writing - and that it sounded just like what happened when we visited my grandmother in the hospital. My grandmother hung on, in misery and anger (although some may say that the anger part was normal...;->), until we made it in and I told her that we would miss her but we would be o.k. and that she could go Home. My mom had never heard anyone do that before.

I couldn't comprehend not doing it.

This is one of the topics that I feel that I can't talk to my mom about. She has the 'god will take care of every - and any - thing attitude and we can't know why things happen' and I don't want to wait that long.

Here's what I think:

Yes, the spirit can linger if there is some unfinished business - but only if there is a strong emotional attachment to that business. This is how a ghost is created: they are earthbound spirits trapped by a strong emotional attachment or extreme emotional trauma. Otherwise, death is nothing more than astral travel without a return trip to your physical body.

However, in the case of stroke or some other debilitating illness where the person is unable to physically respond - that does not mean that the person is suddenly deaf or otherwise cannot hear what is being said around them. It seems incredibly rude to stand there and talk about a person in the past tense when they're very much alive. It doesn't matter if the doctor says that they could go at any moment - in that moment in time, they are still there and probably able to hear every word.

There is nothing 'supernatural' about death and the soul. While there may be a supreme being or god/dess - this being is not some spiritual Santa Claus. It doesn't reward you when you're nice or punish you when you're not. You do that very well on your own. It's called Karma.