IS THERE LIFE AFTER LIFE?

BY Dr. Michael W. Fox

The after-death physical manifestations of dogs and cats to their human companions point to other realities beyond this mortal plane. Such manifestations, documented in my two new books DOG BODY, DOG MIND, and CAT BODY, CAT MIND, (The Lyons Press), are sometimes visual, either as an aura of light or even a clear image of the animal, or are often purely auditory or tactile, as when the deceased animal’s footsteps are heard, a cold nose is felt on one’s leg, or the deceased cat is felt jumping onto the bed.

These phenomena suggest that there is more to the states of life and death than we fully comprehend. There is some form of being, not non-being, after physical death, possibly in a transitional form or state for some time after separation of the physical body from the supra-or metaphysical, that some call spirit or soul.

This phenomenology of life after life is significant to me because I believe that it is an antidote to the prevailing materialism and ultimate nihilism of these difficult times. The sad state of the natural world that mirrors the human condition that is responsible for so much violence, destruction, and animal suffering, are in large part attributable to a nihilistic attitude that has no regard for the sacred; for the sanctity of life.

Materialism and nihilism essentially deny the spirit, the existence of realities other than the purely physical. ‘You live, then you die, and that’s it. There is simply being and nothingness, so make the most of it, and take all you can, because you can’t take it with you,’ are typical nihilistic statements.

But there is no evidence of non-being in nature. How could there be? The existence of non-existence cannot be proven, nor can non-being. But a being can be present or absent. Absence from the living present and presence of others does not mean that the absent one no longer exists in some other place in the world, or in some other dimension. He or she may be absent from, and ‘dead’ to the present, but as these deceased dogs and cats who have manifested in the presence of their witnessing human companions from their former existences, death does not mean non-being or nothingness: Separation, yes; and a sense of loss.

That uncounted numbers of deceased dogs and cats, as I have documented in the above two books, were able to manifest physically and communicated their continuing existence to their grieving human companions, is surely the affirmation of love’s blessing that a living universe of being and becoming, that some call God, Brahman, Allah, Great Spirit, or their Higher Power, can bestow upon all of open heart and mind. The gifts of fellow creatures great and small are indeed subtle and profound, enriching our lives from life to life, and sharing with us part of the great mystery, the mysterium tremendum, that is beyond our worldly realm of comprehension.

I also document another dimension of the great mystery that I term the empathosphere, a realm of feeling and awareness that cats and dogs are clearly connected with, while most of we humans are not. A typical example is that of Bay, a mutt dog from St. Paul MN who knew when one of his beloved family members, the grandfather of the house, had died in hospital. Bay had kept a vigil by the old man’s chair, day and night, for five days, but quit and resumed his normal activities the morning the grandfather had passed on. During his vigil he took no food, and refused to go outside, being carried out to go to the bathroom. The recent account of the cat Oscar, the feline resident of a nursing home in Rhode Island who has predicted the passing on of 25 in-patients, jumping on to their beds and staying close during the in-patients’ release from terminal dementia. On the basis of Oscar’s behavior, the doctors and nurses know when one of their patients is dying.. But as I detail in these two new books, cats and dogs do not have to be present to know when their loved one is dying and has passed on.