Consciousness is the foundation of all meaning, because without awareness, nothing has significance. People mistakenly identify with their ego, which is simply a collection of thoughts and self-concepts they are aware of. This false identification leads to tremendous suffering. True spiritual enlightenment comes from recognizing that the self is not the ego but the pure awareness behind it.
There are two very different approaches to achieving a beautiful, love-filled life. The first is externally focused—seeking joy, love, and peace through outside circumstances, people, or actions. The second is inward, asking why these very natural states are blocked internally and taking responsibility for removing those blockages. Love and joy are inherent to everyone but are obscured by stored emotional pain, fears, and responses conditioned by past experiences. By letting go of these internal blockages and facing life’s challenges with openness rather than resistance, you can cultivate love and inner freedom as your unconditional state of being.
In part one of this two-part conversation in our Being Open podcast series, Tami Simon speaks with Guy Shahar, the author of Transforming Autism, for his unique perspective on how we can best connect with and support our family and community members in the neurodivergent population. Most of us have a general sense of how difficult it can be to raise an autistic child. In Guy Shahar’s case, this already challenging path took a new turn when he discovered, at age 46, that he is also on the spectrum.
Give a listen as Tami and Guy discuss: educating the parents and caregivers of autistic children, three keys to connecting with autistic children, flexibility and play, the intuitive capacity of autistic children to tune in to our energy and intentions, altruistic and idealistic values, the shift from anxiety to faith, how people on the spectrum can serve as spiritual and evolutionary guides for humanity, self-worth and self-acceptance, depathologizing neurodiversity, how autistic and non-autistic people can learn from each other, helping someone recover from overwhelm, the spiritual gifts of individuals on the spectrum, and more.
In the second part of this special episode on Being Open, Tami Simon speaks with Dr. Edwards about the overlooked gifts of autism and the unique capacity for people on the spectrum to experience—and point neurotypical people toward—the interconnection at the core of our lives. Autism is often described as a lack of connection. As a psychiatrist and the mother of an autistic daughter, Dr. Melinda Edwards holds a contrary position. “My daughter wasn’t disconnected,” reflects Dr. Edwards. “Her symptoms were often a reflection of a deep connection..
Discover: the limitations of the term “neurodiversity”; the “exquisitely sensitive, exquisitely porous” nature of autistic people; bringing your sensitivity into the world; vulnerability, openness, and the trajectory of human evolution; the paradox of boundaries for people on the spectrum; compassionate support; three ways of experiencing the world: physically, psychologically, and from a place of interconnection; pronoun problems; getting past the stereotypes we have about autistic people; the connection between trauma and truth-seeking; the spiritual path of parenting an autistic child; and more.
Note: These interviews originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
What does it mean to truly see another person—not just their surface, but their soul, their yearning, their infinite dignity?
This week, Tami speaks with David Brooks—acclaimed New York Times columnist, author, and PBS NewsHour commentator—about his remarkable journey from emotional guardedness to what he calls “heart vision.” In this profound interview on Insights at the Edge, David shares the mystical experiences that transformed his understanding of human connection, including a pivotal moment in a New York subway when he suddenly perceived everyone around him as souls in motion.
Join Tami and David to explore:
David’s emotional awakening and the journey from cerebral detachment to human vulnerability
The distinction between diminishers and illuminators—and how we see others
Why attention is the ultimate form of generosity and morality
The difference between heart intelligence and mental intelligence
How perception itself is an act of creation, not passive observation
Practical skills for seeing others deeply: the on/off switch of attention, being a loud listener, and avoiding the topper trap
Why he identifies as a religious rather than a spiritual person
The moral order of the universe and how our yearnings reflect something woven into reality itself
How rupture and repair shape us—and why staying in pain can be necessary for growth
David’s wisdom reminds us that in a world increasingly dominated by data and algorithms, the art of truly seeing another human being remains our most sacred—and most practical—capacity.
Listen now to discover how cultivating the illuminator’s gaze can transform every relationship in your life.
This conversation offers genuine transmission—not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together. Originally aired on Sounds True One.
For many heart patients, stress is the elephant in the room – not only around the holidays, but all the time. When we discuss why they missed their goals for proper exercise, nutrition, abstinence from smoking, and proper sleep, stress is often the reason. Here are some stress-management tips taken from a series of lectures I’ve given – I share them with the hope that they help manage stresses in your life.
Adaptogens
When I talk to patients about stress, I begin by describing adaptogens, or herbs that appear useful in stabilizing physiology and improving anxiety and stress. I do this because so many of them are already using pills — typically benzodiazepines like Xanax and Ativan — and my goal is to get them off those prescription medications ASAP. Frankly, substituting one pill for another is something most patients accept faster than any other technique. I’ve had success in many patients using L-theanine 200 mg twice a day and ashwagandha 500 mg twice daily, usually together. Even elderly patients report they feel less stressed and more functional. Rhodiola is another adaptogen I like because it’s been studied in heart patients and shows benefits for their symptoms. I recommend 100 mg a day.
Breath-work
There are many styles of breath-work, but I find I can teach my patients the 4-7-8 breathing practice in the office in just a few minutes, and they use it right away. I refer them to an online video created for children, and ask them to practice this at home and use it in their daily routine:
Meditation
Teaching meditation is a longer process than the first two techniques, but has been shown to benefit heart patients and should be taught routinely. I ask them to study the Kirtan Kriya taught by Dr. Khalsa because it’s only 12 minutes and is supported by great research results at UCLA. When I tell them that they may slow aging and improve their memory while dealing with their stress, they’re eager to use it in their lives.
HeartMath
This is an online program using heart-centered breathing and positive emotions to restore balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. It requires purchasing a cable that clips on the earlobe and connects to a smartphone, tablet or a PC. I recommend it to patients because it resembles a game, is easy to learn, and is supported by published scientific studies showing lower blood pressure, lower cortisol levels, improved memory, and better school performance.
Yoga
Different styles of yoga have been studied in a variety of serious stress disorders including cancer, post-trauma, and addictions, and has been found to be beneficial even when tested using rigorous scientific study design. Yoga can be adapted for the elderly using only a chair; it provides a sense of community, and offers some cardio benefit as well.
Massage
My patients ask me if massage is worthwhile, and when I tell them that medical benefits have been identified for this therapy, including blood pressure and stress reduction, they’re excited.
Will these six tips help offer something for everyone? Unfortunately, there are people who aren’t willing to try and stick with these practices, and others who have unrealistic expectations. There are other approaches to consider, including essential oils, music, exercise proper nutrition, hormonal balance, and improved GI tract function. I refer challenging patients to holistic psychiatrists and counselors.
I remind my patients of a story about a man speaking to a religious leader repeating over and over that he was frustrated with the stresses in life. The leader suggested they take a walk, and stopped in front of a cemetery. The man asked why they stopped there and the leader replied, “They are the only people who have no worries and stress, for the rest of us, we need to manage and work out the issues.”
Looking for more great reads?
Dr. Kahn is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine and Director of Cardiac Wellness, Michigan Healthcare Professionals PC. He is a graduate Summa Cum Laude of the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He lectures widely on the cardiac benefits of vegan nutrition, mind body practices and heart attack prevention. He writes blogs for MindBodyGreen, OneGreenPlanet, Aloha.com, Forksoverknives.com, and for Readers Digest Magazine as the Holistic Heart Doc. His latest book, The Plant-Based Solution will be released in January 2018.
Love is one of the deepest forces we know. When someone we love dies, it can feel as though that bond has been broken beyond repair. Yet many spiritual traditions suggest something different. They point to the possibility that love after death is not a fantasy or a coping mechanism, but a mystery woven into the fabric of existence itself. The question is not only what happens to us when we die, but what happens to the love we have shared.
For more than four decades, we have been devoted to sharing the living wisdom of the world’s great spiritual teachers. From contemplative Christianity to Buddhist psychology and beyond, our work preserves authentic, heart-led teachings in the voices of those who embody them. Through our books, audio programs, and podcasts, we offer a trusted space for seekers to engage life’s most profound questions with depth and clarity.
Here, we will reflect on love after death through Cynthia Bourgeault’s mystical understanding of eternal connection, and consider how spiritual practice reshapes our experience of grief, relationships, and enduring love.
Key Takeaways:
Divine Source: Love after death is rooted in divine life, not limited to physical existence.
Inner Communion: Spiritual connection with the deceased may be experienced through prayer and contemplative awareness.
Transformative Grief: Mystical love reshapes grief, allowing sorrow to deepen trust in eternal love.
Love After Death: A Spiritual Vision of Eternal Love
What does love after death truly mean? For Cynthia Bourgeault, it is not sentimentality or denial of loss. It is a spiritual insight rooted in the Christian mystical tradition.
Mystics teach that love does not originate in personality or physical presence. Love arises from the divine ground itself. If love is rooted in God, then it is not subject to decay. Death may change the form of a relationship, but it does not erase the essence of what was shared.
This vision reframes grief. We still mourn the absence of voice, touch, and daily companionship. Yet beneath that sorrow, there can be a quiet recognition that the bond continues in another way. Eternal love is not about clinging to memory. It is about trusting that what was real in love participates in something timeless.
In Love Is Stronger Than Death, we share teachings that echo this truth: love belongs to a deeper order of reality than mortality. When two people meet in authentic love, they participate in a current of divine life that does not end at the grave.
Cynthia invites us to see death not as a severing, but as a threshold. The outer form changes. The inner communion remains. In this sense, mystical love reveals that what is grounded in God cannot be undone by death.
How Love Transcends Death in the Christian Mystical Tradition
Cynthia Bourgeault approaches love after death through the lens of Christian mysticism. In this tradition, love is not limited to emotion or memory. It is participation in divine life. If love arises from God, then love transcends death because its source is eternal.
Love as Participation in Divine Being
Mystics teach that our deepest identity is rooted in God. When we love from that depth, the bond is more than attachment. It becomes communion grounded in being itself.
In Is There Life After Death, we reflect on what continues beyond the body. Cynthia shifts the focus toward the quality of love we share. If it is rooted in divine presence, it already belongs to eternity.
The Contemplative Path and Spiritual Connection with the Deceased
Contemplative practice helps us experience this truth directly. In silence, we rest in the presence that holds both the living and the departed. Through Centering Prayer Course, many begin to sense a peaceful spiritual connection with the deceased. This is not about clinging or attempting to retrieve the past. It is about recognizing shared participation in eternal love. Grief remains, but it is held within a wider field of trust.
Mystical Love and the Ongoing Spiritual Connection with the Deceased
Cynthia Bourgeault teaches that mystical love is not confined to time. When someone dies, the outer relationship changes, but the deeper communion remains. Love rooted in God continues because its source is eternal.
Moving from Memory to Living Presence
Grief often begins in memory, yet mystical love invites us beyond recollection into living presence. A spiritual connection with the deceased is not about imagination or clinging. It arises from shared participation in divine life. Whatever Arises, Love That reflects this same invitation — to meet every experience, including loss and grief, with unconditional openness rather than resistance. That inner transformation does not disappear at death. What love has formed within us continues.
Love Transcends Death Through Inner Transformation
Love changes our being. When we have loved deeply, we are altered at the core. That change remains part of us.
In this sense, love transcends death because its imprint endures. The beloved’s physical absence is real, yet the communion grounded in eternal love continues to unfold within the heart.
Eternal Love as a Living Reality, Not a Memory
In Cynthia Bourgeault’s teaching, eternal love is not confined to the past. It is not something we visit only through recollection. It is a present reality grounded in divine life.
When we reduce love after death to memory alone, we unintentionally limit it. Memory can comfort us, but mystical love points to something deeper. Love that is rooted in God continues to live and move, even when the beloved is no longer physically here.
Beyond Sentimentality Toward Spiritual Maturity
There is a difference between holding onto sentiment and growing into spiritual maturity. Sentimentality can keep us tethered to what was. Spiritual maturity invites us to trust what still is. The Great Transformation speaks directly to this deepening, offering a framework for the kind of inner shift that allows grief to open the heart rather than close it. As we mature spiritually, we begin to sense that eternal love is not fragile. It does not depend on circumstances. It abides because it participates in divine being.
Living in Relationship Across the Threshold
To live in a relationship across the threshold of death requires inner stillness and trust. It does not mean attempting to recreate the old dynamic. Instead, it means allowing the relationship to assume a new form. Presence Online Course supports this quality of awareness, cultivating the steady inner attentiveness through which love after death becomes a quiet companionship carried in prayer, silence, and daily awareness of God’s presence. The connection is no longer defined by physical exchange, yet it remains real.
The Spiritual Connection Deceased Loved Ones Continue to Offer
Cynthia Bourgeault reminds us that a spiritual connection with the deceased is not a one-sided longing. Love continues to shape and guide us. While the physical presence is gone, the inner bond often deepens in subtle and meaningful ways.
This ongoing connection may express itself through:
A deepened capacity for compassion, as the love you shared softens your heart toward others
Inner guidance that arises in prayer or quiet reflection, reflecting the wisdom of the relationship
A renewed commitment to live with integrity, inspired by the life and values of the one who has passed
A sense of companionship in solitude, especially during moments of contemplationA widening trust in eternal love, as grief gradually opens into surrender
These expressions are not fantasies. They are signs that love after death continues to bear fruit. The relationship evolves, yet its spiritual essence remains active. In this way, love transcends death by continuing to shape who we are and how we walk our path.
Love Transcends Death: Insights from Contemplative Prayer
Cynthia Bourgeault teaches that contemplative prayer reveals how love transcends death. In silence, we shift from surface thoughts into deeper awareness. From that depth, separation feels less absolute.
Prayer does not attempt to prove what happens after death. Instead, it grounds us in the divine presence that holds both the living and the departed. As we rest there, grief is steadied by trust.
Through this contemplative awareness, love after death becomes less an idea and more a lived knowing that what is rooted in God endures.
Mystical Love and the Transformation of Grief
Cynthia Bourgeault does not dismiss grief. In the mystical path, grief is honored as the natural response to deep love. The pain of loss reflects the depth of the bond.
Over time, mystical love reshapes how grief is carried. Sorrow may soften into gratitude and quiet companionship. The relationship is no longer expressed through physical presence, yet it continues inwardly.
In this way, love after death does not erase grief. It transforms it, allowing eternal love to widen the heart even in loss.
Love After Death and the Mystery of Eternal Connection
Love after death invites us into mystery rather than certainty. Cynthia Bourgeault reminds us that eternal love is not something we control or define. It is something we participate in.
The form of the relationship changes at death, yet the deeper bond remains within divine life. What was shared in truth is not erased but gathered into a larger communion.
In this mystery of eternal connection, we are asked to trust that love transcends death because it is rooted in something greater than time.
Final Thoughts
Love after death invites us into mystery. Through Cynthia Bourgeault’s teaching, we see that eternal love is rooted in divine life, not limited by physical form.
Grief remains real, yet mystical love widens our trust. What is grounded in God endures, and the spiritual connection with the deceased continues within that greater communion.
Frequently Asked Questions About Love Beyond Death and Love After Death
What does love after death mean in spiritual terms?
Love after death refers to the understanding that love is not limited to physical existence. Spiritually, it suggests that love continues as a form of connection rooted in divine reality rather than the body alone.
Is love after death a belief or a mystical experience?
For many contemplatives, it is both. Some approach it as a belief grounded in faith, while others describe it as a lived mystical experience of ongoing communion through prayer and inner awareness.
How is eternal love different from romantic attachment?
Eternal love points to a deeper spiritual bond that is not dependent on physical closeness or emotional intensity. It reflects a connection grounded in shared being rather than circumstance.
Can grief coexist with trust in love after death?
Yes. Trusting that love continues does not remove sorrow. Grief and faith can exist together, allowing mourning to unfold within a wider spiritual framework.
What role does prayer play in sensing a continued connection?
Prayer creates inner stillness and receptivity. In that space, some people report a quiet awareness of connection that feels peaceful rather than driven by longing.
Is the idea that love transcends death unique to Christianity?
No. While Cynthia Bourgeault speaks from the Christian mystical tradition, many spiritual paths affirm that love transcends death in different theological languages.
Does believing in love after death prevent healthy grieving?
Not necessarily. When grounded in spiritual maturity, this belief can support healing by offering hope without denying emotional reality.
What is meant by a spiritual connection with the deceased?
It refers to an inward sense of continued relationship that may arise through memory, prayer, intuition, or moral inspiration, without requiring physical interaction.
How does mystical love shape our understanding of mortality?
Mystical love reframes mortality as a transition rather than an absolute ending. It encourages seeing life as participation in something larger than the individual self.
Why does the topic of love after death resonate so deeply?
Because love is central to human identity. Questions about its endurance touch our deepest fears and hopes about meaning, continuity, and belonging.
Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant, and intuitive healer. She is the author of six books, including Skill in Action and Finding Refuge. Amy Burtaine is a leadership coach and racial equity trainer. With Robin DiAngelo, she is the coauthor of The Facilitator’s Guide for White Affinity Groups. For more, visit https://www.michellecjohnson.com/wisdom-of-the-hive.
