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Life After Death: The Atheist's Awakening

• Douglas James Cottrell PhD • Season 2 • Episode 1

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What happens when someone who doesn't believe in an afterlife actually dies? Do they wander aimlessly, become "ghosties," or face a cosmic surprise party? 

Dr. Douglas James Cottrell tackles this profound question with remarkable insight, revealing how our consciousness continues beyond physical death regardless of our beliefs. Drawing from over four decades of spiritual teaching, he explains that when atheists and skeptics cross over, they often experience a surprising awakening—finding themselves greeted by familiar faces and a gentle cosmic "I told you so" from loved ones who preceded them.

The spiritual realm operates as an extension of our minds, with thoughts manifesting as experiences. Those who feared punishment might temporarily create hellish scenarios, while others immediately recognize the loving presence of friends and family. This thoughtform reality eventually gives way to what Dr. Cottrell calls "the debriefing"—a process where souls review their earthly journey, examining lessons learned and growth achieved.

Time works differently beyond the physical plane, with "a thousand years passing in the moment it takes to slap your hands together." This timelessness allows for profound healing and transformation as souls prepare for their next journey. The persistence of hauntings and ghostly apparitions represents souls caught in the transition phase, still operating from earthly memory before fully crossing over.

Everyone's afterlife experience ultimately serves the same purpose—guiding us back toward unconditional love and reconnection with our divine source. Whether you're a devoted spiritual seeker or questioning what lies beyond, this episode offers a fascinating glimpse into the consciousness that awaits us all. Subscribe now for more insights that bridge science, spirituality, and the mysteries of human existence.

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Announcer:

Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell, your source for helpful information, advice and tips to live your life in a mindful way in this increasingly chaotic world. For over four decades, dr Douglas has been teaching people how to develop their intuition and live their lives in a conscious way. His news and views of the world tomorrow, today, are always informative and revealing. To learn more about Dr Douglas, be sure to visit his website, douglasjamescottrellcom, where you can download self-help exercises you can do right in the comfort of your own home. And now here's your host, dr Douglas James Cottrell.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Hi, this is Douglas James Cottrell speaking. Welcome to Wake Up Podcast. Joining me is my good friend Les Hubert, a researcher, broadcaster and fellow seeker of spiritual truths.

Les Hubert:

Hi, doug, you know we go to YouTube at least I do a lot and I come across a lot of these near-death experiences where people explain their experiences on the other side. They meet the creator, Sometimes they just drift. But what happens basically to a person who doesn't believe in anything? They just believe that once they're gone, they're gone. Do they encounter a being? Do they just wander? Do they become ghosties? What happens to them? Great question, les. Do they become ghosties?

Douglas James Cottrell:

What happens to them?

Douglas James Cottrell:

Great question, Les the bottom line on that one is that let's take the equation out of qualifying somebody who's on the other side, as if they still have the same opinions, thoughts and prejudiced concepts of what they've been going through in their life. When you die, there is that essence we call the soul that moves on. The clay, the physical body is left behind and that particular body is no more, it has ceased to exist. However, that essence, the soul, the consciousness that moves on, however, that essence, the soul, the consciousness that moves on, goes into a realm, or realms of what it expects to happen. And then, of course, if there's no expectation, if there is just an acceptance that there is nothing, well, one of two things happens the person remains asleep in their coffin, if you will, or in their urn, in their body, because they're still attached to the last remnant of their physical experience.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Could be right, could be wrong, but just for argument's sake let's say that's what happens to these people who are asleep spiritually, after a while they wake up and they might become aware that they have actually physically died. To other people who pass on they have expectations of going to heaven, to hell. Or those who are just aware that there is something else on the other side, the spiritual realms, the post-existence. So to ask me what it's like for somebody who is an atheist or has no belief that there is life after life, that this is it. Once you die, it's over, you're in the nothingness. That this is it once you die, it's over, you're in the nothingness. There are some religious points of view in the world that believe that that there is nothing else, just a consciousness that merges with a greater consciousness. Okay, but let's take it and narrow it down to the person who has no expectations, doesn't believe in any universal being or higher being of consciousness. God Almighty, if you will. What happens to them? Well could be.

Douglas James Cottrell:

It's like surprise. Here's all the people on the other side that passed away, that were in your life your grandparents, your parents, maybe some siblings, maybe some of the people you went to high school with or later on in college or university, maybe people you used to work with. All of a sudden, there's a gaggle of people, there is a crowd of folks there looking at you with a little bit of a shesher cat smile, more than likely saying we told you see, we're all here, maybe, maybe, okay, but the idea is that they become aware of the other souls that are on the other side. And that's when they're in the wake up and they realize that, oh my God, their personal opinion was inaccurate and that there is life after death. They can also go into expectation that you know hell and damnation and they go into a lower realm where their friends aren't waiting for them at all.

Douglas James Cottrell:

But there are enemies, there are mischievous entities, there are even demons and some people who've had near life, sorry near death experiences, when they come back, have had recollections of you know hell, flames, burning things, you know like hell fires. And when somebody tells me that, I say can you imagine that, that somebody's actually seen hell fires? And I say no, I can't. You see, on the other side, you'd have to have like an earthly realm to have fire. How could you possibly have fire in a spiritual realm that is like an invisible place, possibly have fire in a spiritual realm that is like an invisible place? So therein lies the debate consideration that maybe, just maybe, this spiritual realm is an extension of what's in your mind, of what you expect on the other side, and the person is generating, creating this hell fire, damnation, because they feel extremely guilty and maybe they've done some really bad stuff in their life. Could be right, could be wrong.

Douglas James Cottrell:

But, in that essence they are experiencing the derogatory, negative punishment of for sins that they may have created while in their physical life, in the earth. The other side of the coin is that oh my god, I was wrong and the family comes over, pats them on the back, so to speak, in that ghostly spiritual way, because the person can't comprehend what a spiritual form looks like. It looks like light, it looks like an orb, it looks like a shape, it looks like ectoplasmal, like a cloud of pasty substance, whatever it looks like. In the spiritual realm it converts itself so that the person who just passed over the neophyte the baby, if you will can realize or recognize more exactly its friends and family or those that are meaningful to the soul. And so they are welcomed. And then, of course, they go down to the I call it the debriefing, they go into that respite or that spiritual hospital.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Now is a pretty hard time. Come on over. We're going to love you up, we're going to give you some refreshments, whatever that might be. We're going to reestablish. You know, you're now back home where you were. That was like being sent out to college, you know, sent to the colonies. You were incarcerated. You were sent over there, the bad place, you know, difficult place, but now you're here, this is the real existence. The other thing is, you know you graduated from grade one to grade two and there's like a hundred grades above you to go. But yeah, it's okay, you did all right, come on over. And.

Douglas James Cottrell:

And so that soul is rekindled in the relationships that it has with all the spirits that are meaningful to it for that particular existence and maybe other experiences that it's had at other times.

Douglas James Cottrell:

And then we say to the atheist who's now in the spiritual wake up, the realization of whatever they did in their life, the lessons they learned, the progress they made, or perhaps the progress that they didn't make, where they made some mistakes, where they regressed instead of progressed, that's all worked out.

Douglas James Cottrell:

But the idea that you know you're an atheist and you're stamping, you're smashing your hand on the desk as you're alive and saying there is no such thing as life, well, that's forgotten. Because here you are in this consciousness, with all your friends, and you got to admit you're not alone. And so the person is readjusted, goes through the process of debriefing, looking over the life that it just lived, where it gained, where it lost, whatever the spiritual karmic lessons were. That's all done at that particular point in time, and thereafter an assignment is given, another location, another, another group of souls comes together to form, yet again, the new blueprint, the new plan for the next sojourn, the next entry into the world, which includes, of course, location, the time, the family connections, the spiritual connections that are necessary, and then the person is prepared to jump on that wild and willy slide that comes all the way back down and they enter into the world again.

Les Hubert:

So okay. So let's say, here's a scenario for you. I'm an atheist, I don't believe in anything. Now, you mentioned before people had created hellfire and brimstone on the other side. If I have a preconceived idea that that's what I might be facing, am I creating that on the other side, Because obviously it's not there? So can I create that easily on the other side? Can I create a library if I want? And if that's the case, how does this person get out of that illusion?

Douglas James Cottrell:

First of all, they're creating through their imagination a place. Thoughts are real things and in their mind you know. When you close your eyes, you know you're still there, but you can't perceive anything. If you didn't hear with your ears or feel something touching you, you would be kind of lost in space, but you would be aware, self-aware, that you're somewhere, somewhere. So in that void, in that darkness, a person would find themselves who doesn't believe in anything because they're still going through the transition of leaving the physical existence behind and that lingers for a little while.

Douglas James Cottrell:

A way to think of it is this way you have a conscious mind, a subconscious mind and a soul conscious mind or a super subconscious. When the personality dies, the physical form, the logical mind, passes away as well, but not immediately. There is still this consciousness, still this recognition and still this desire as a spiritual being, to come back and attend to your relatives who may be grieving or weeping for you. You may also want to investigate people that you used to know and come back and say goodbye to them. There may be some lingering memory in your mind, in your intellectual mind, in your personality mind that continues to exist for a little while, and then it too, over time fades away, and the greater consciousness, the greater mind. The subconscious mind becomes the conscious mind, the aware mind, and the super subconscious mind, or the soul mind, becomes like the subconscious. So, as a person who is passing over, who's an atheist, they still have lingering thoughts, opinions, and the stronger their beliefs and opinions are, well then, the longer it takes for those opinions and thoughts perceptions, if you will to fade away In the timeless moment. On the other side, it could be a thousand years past in the time. It takes to slap your hands together, just like that. So the idea or the concept, the theory is that the person who doesn't believe, or the person who is afraid or has you know concepts of going to meet Mother Mary or Jesus Christ is going to be there, or Buddha or Krishna. That happens, those deities come, the angels come, because that's what they do. That's what it's like on the other side. They welcome you back. It's like the prodigal son, it's like the kid who comes back from college after having a heck of a time at college, all the families there and they say come on home, don't worry about it, we love you and this is your real life from here on in, so that transitional time can proceed to exist for some time. But the point is that your imagination is revealed, or causes those images to be revealed, but because they're not real, they're not authentic, they don't last, they fade away. And so the revelation is when you go to the other side.

Douglas James Cottrell:

If you're a spiritual person and you expect to be in a spiritual world, you expect to have some spiritual existence, not quite sure where. It's kind of like you're expecting to go on vacation to a city you've never been. You have some notion of what it's going to be like there, but you don't really know until you get there. And so, as a spiritual person, you're more prepared for these spiritual encounters and experiences. For those who are not prepared, they're not in the wake up, they're in the mundane well then, it takes a little while, and that's why we see hauntings.

Douglas James Cottrell:

We see people who have haunted a building for 100 years. We see ghosts walking up the side of a wall and people say why are they walking up the side of a wall? And people say why are they walking up the wall? And then you find out well, there used to be a staircase there, but they took it out of the mansion and now the ghost still sees the staircase. It was always there. Meanwhile it's not there. So the memory of the earthly experience continues for some time, but again, a thousand years can pass in a moment, because you're in the ever present moment, where there is no time and there is no space.

Les Hubert:

So when somebody gets to the other side and they can, because thoughts are things how do they differentiate between what is real and what is illusion, or is it all illusion?

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, first of all, there is that transition between your physical consciousness you still believe and think and feel, if you will, because that difficult time, because we all love our families and it's logical that we would in the in between dimension before we get to the spiritual dimensions, which is complete severance of this dimension, and the physical world, which is completely disjointed from the spiritual realms. That in between time, in between lives, in between places, there is a communication, a bridge that's often depicted as a river or a bridge. People who have had dreams, who have been on the other side temporarily visiting their relatives or their deceased or sickly spouse or grandma, they're always told at least the ones that have reported to me that no, no, you can't stay, you have to go back, you can't cross the river, you can't cross the paths, you can't cross over the bridge, and so that a earthly understanding, is it as a dimension, barrier or separation? So when you're on the other side, your life is to be.

Douglas James Cottrell:

If you're a living person who's not, time has come, you cannot stay and you're asked to leave or you're escorted back to the physical world. But if you're a discarded person, you're in a soul mind and you want to watch out for your family. You want to linger a little bit? You can do that and sooner or later you will come to that bridge, that river, that field, that barrier, and you will cross over that. And you will not come back, except rarely, to people in the physical world and that's why, occasionally, very rarely, grandparents, friends uh, friends we used to know with children, teachers, guidance, even deities they come rarely because they have to make that journey. A great difficulty, I'm assuming it's great difficulty to come back into our earthly dimension to give us those words of wisdom Wake up, there is life after death.

Les Hubert:

Interesting. So, and if a person came in as an atheist, why do you think they would be an atheist in the first place? Doug?

Douglas James Cottrell:

why is anybody anything less Life's experiences? They could have seen a tragic experience and they could say how could God let that happen? No loving God would ever let little children get hurt like that, forgetting that God doesn't make everything happen for us like a dictator. God gave us the most precious gift of all. God loved us so much that God gave us free will and free choice. That happens is because somebody was making a decision and a choice and took an action, for better or worse. But that's the purpose of coming here with the gift of free will and free choice is to learn how to overcome the dark side within us and develop the light side within us, the illumination of the spiritual forces, to be in harmony with unconditional love. After all, we come into the world as individuals. We're on the same path with all the people in the world individually, and we are experiencing our lives as a single entity on the same path that everybody else is on. It's our choice to advance quickly, to stand still or to maybe take a step back or two, because we don't know. But the idea is that we're all here together and, at the same time, free will and free choice allows us to be constructive or to be destructive in this world of duality, and the purpose is to learn to overcome those destructive tendencies. To overcome those destructive tendencies, you know the seven sins, and to develop the seven virtues, it's your choice. And the thing is that if you make the right choices, you benefit.

Douglas James Cottrell:

You make the wrong choices, well, you get to feel what the other side of that choice is. That's called karma. Karma corrects you to get you back on track so that you don't constantly go down a dark, deep hole of pain and loneliness and darkness and evil. Evil means the absence of love. Instead, as you become familiar with the ways of loving, and loving unconditionally, you're gaining back what you used to be a spark of genius, a part of God Almighty that committed the original sin, which was the sin of separating from God, because we thought we could go and get it right, do it better and experience everything in the physical world to our nth degree. And then, all of a sudden, one day we realized wake up, this is painful, I had a good thing going. How do I get back there? And that, my friend, is why an atheist will be surprised when they cross that great divide to the other side.

Les Hubert:

Thank you, doug, as always for your wisdom and your time.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Okay, my friends, until next time may you enjoy all aspects of God health, wealth and peace of mind.

Announcer:

Thank you very much for listening to Wake Up. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you'll be notified when a new episode is posted, and we'd greatly appreciate your review of our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts to let others know about the great content we're producing. For more about Dr Douglas' self-development classes, books and other related products, please visit his website douglasjamescartrellcom. Until next time, we wish you all of God's blessings health, wealth and peace of mind.