Children and the Afterlife

An Afterlife Investigator’s Thoughts Following a School Shooting.

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A year ago, I was moved to write this piece following the Uvalde school shooting. Whenever something of this nature occurs, I remind myself of five truths I’ve learned about life after death that give me comfort, especially when children have died. I wrote this thinking about the family members and friends whose lives would never be the same, yet not knowing how to share this with them, I placed what I’d written in a drawer. I recently came across it, so I thought I’d share it with you.

If you’re anything like me, contemplating what occurred in Texas on May 24^th (2022) is utterly incomprehensible. The death toll numbers are similar to those of Sandy Hook nearly a decade ago. Although I can’t possibly make sense of this heartbreaking and unconscionable event, I do have a few insights that might help you manage some of the emotions you may be feeling in response to it. I call them my five truths.

First Truth: Death Means Going Home

Whenever I first learn about children dying (due to any cause), my mind consoles my immediate sadness by reminding me that the child has now returned to our true home (the spiritual dimension). The child’s journey “away” from our eternal home is now complete, and that child’s spirit effortlessly returns to its natural state of being.

Life in the spirit world has present-moment awareness built into the natural state of being a spirit. Accordingly, it’s natural for the newly departed to feel the freedom from being out of the confinement of their physical bodies and being reacquainted with the peace and grace of their light bodies.

Despite the circumstances of their death, people returning home feel no pain, no fear, and no suffering of any kind. Pain, fear, and suffering are physical-world experiences, which are not possible for beings of light in the ever-loving, joyful, and serene hereafter.

Second Truth: The Homecoming Celebration

I also remind myself that these children are immediately surrounded by people in spirit who have loved them. This includes people the child knew here on earth (family and friends who are now deceased) as well as the spirits who loved that child from the spirit world (such as spirit guides and angels).

Regardless of age or circumstances of death, every human being who dies goes home to be reunited with loved ones waiting for them in the spirit world. In fact, every returning spirit gets a homecoming celebration.

Consequently, to offset my own sorrow following news of Uvalde’s gruesome killings, I envisioned the children who died being surrounded by a blissful love and joy at their welcome-home reunions. This is true for the adults who died as well. During this reunion, the newly departed immerse themselves in the bliss of their family, friends and spirit guides as these loved ones fill them with love and adoration for a journey well done.

Third Truth: Spirits Have a Built-In Ability for Detachment

Spirits are present-moment beings by nature, so it’s natural for the recently deceased to have a detachment from their physical-world memories, including the circumstances of their passing. This means they are no longer frightened or tormented by the tragic event leading to their deaths, because these emotions are unable to exist in the spiritual dimension.

It’s not that people returning to spirit are unaware that they died or even how they died—they know exactly how they arrived home—but they have an innate ability to disengage from their physical-world pain and suffering, especially any traumatic circumstances that ended their life.

The spirits of the children who died will have plenty of opportunity to process all their physical-world memories later, including the events of their passing. But returning to their eternal state as a being of light and celebrating their homecoming with loved ones is first on their itinerary.

Fourth Truth: Spirits Know How to Comfort Their Loved Ones Left Behind

All spirits, including the spirits of children who pass, instinctively know how to provide solace to their loved ones left behind. What this means is that the spirits of the children who died have the wisdom and know-how to energetically embrace their loved ones in the physical world to ease their suffering. Said another way, they hug their loved ones with their spiritual bodies to comfort their heartache and sorrow.

While these ethereal embraces do not eliminate our grief, they do hold the power to soften it. And if we open our minds and remain aware, we’ll know our deceased loved ones are with us. We may feel their presence. We may hear their voice. We may even see their spirit for a mere moment. These connections can hold a lifetime of comfort.

For those of us who are not in touch with our ability to sense their presence, we still have the gift of after-death communications (ADCs). These are the signs and signals our loved ones in spirit send us. I’ve written and spoken about ADCs a lot in my book and on Afterlife TV. They can be quite comforting when they occur while you’re thinking or talking about your deceased loved one. I wrote an article about my first after-death communicationshere on Bob Olson Connect.

Fifth Truth: We Are Eternal Spiritual Beings

While it might be difficult to imagine that a child has the ability to do what I’m about to explain, it’s helpful to remember that we as spiritual beings are eternal. The little girl will always be a little girl to you, but as a spiritual being, she has wisdom and knowledge far beyond what she had as a mortal being. She will show herself to you in a dream, or to a medium during a reading, as the little girl you remember. Yet she now holds the insights and memories of many lifetimes—perhaps thousands—not just her brief life as the child you know and love.

We see signs of this wisdom in children all the time, perhaps because they haven’t been in this world long. It sneaks through the barrier separating physical life knowledge and spiritual knowing.

Recently, I attended the memorial services for a 45-year-old mother. As I approached the hall where the services were held, I was greeted by a 13-year-old girl. She introduced herself as the daughter of the woman who passed. I was taken by surprise because I’d arrived to comfort the girl’s grandmother, yet here I was face to face with the child of the deceased. I hadn’t prepared myself for such an encounter. What does a stranger say to a teenage girl who just lost her mom?

My instinct was to be authentic, which for me meant expressing my true feelings. I expressed my sorrow for her loss, adding that her mother’s young passing was very sad.

The little girl smiled at me and said, “Well don’t be too sad, because today is a celebration of life.”

Chills ran down my spine after she said it.

The wisdom of this little girl’s soul poured through in that moment and spoke such truth that my hand reached for my lips in wonderment. As my hand extended upward toward my mouth, the girl thought I was reaching up to high-five her, so she raised her hand to slap mine. I gently tapped her hand with mine, and I swear her eyes twinkled—her soul winking at me.

I thought to myself, She’s right. Her mother’s life needs to be celebrated. There’ll be plenty of time for sadness later.

When I interviewed Scarlett Lewis about losing her six-year-old son, Jesse, in the Sandy Hook tragedy, she told me about several precognitive signs that suggested her son knew he’d be crossing over soon. This doesn’t mean he knew of his upcoming death at a conscious level, but definitely at a subconscious level (aka a soul level).

Scarlett explained that Jesse stood beside his teacher when she was murdered. When the shooter ran out of ammunition and was reloading, Jesse called out to the other students to run. Survivors said this act was instrumental in saving the lives of nine children. Jesse did not run, electing to stand by his teacher, so he was killed after the shooter reloaded.

Scarlett told me, “I look back now, and it’s only recently that I’ve been thinking about [precognitive signs]. I really think he was gearing up for this. My friend had sent him [an] army helmet... he wore that army helmet to bed. He wore it all the time. He wanted to wear it to school and I said, ‘You can’t wear it to school.’ He would come home and strap it on. He’d literally wear it to sleep, and I just feel like he knew he was this little soldier and he was going to have to do something brave. I mean, my God, that classroom, literally, was a war zone... I feel like he had this spiritual knowing that he would have to play that role and he was preparing for it.”

The morning Jesse died, Scarlett’s husband, Neil, drove Jesse to school. Neil explained that Jesse was upset because, the night before, they had signed up for a gingerbread-making class but the class was full. Neil told Jesse, “Don’t feel bad about missing that class, because your mom and I are meeting in your classroom today at 2:00. We’re going to make gingerbread houses.”

Jesse responded to Neil, “That’s not going to happen.”

Neil said, “Yeah, it is. I mean, we talked about it. We bought the kit last week and it’s all set up. We’re going to meet in the classroom.”

Jesse said, kind of angrily, “That’s not going to happen.”

Neil thought, Hmm, well I’m not going to argue with him. Maybe he got his dates wrong. Maybe he doesn’t feel that well. Neil confessed that some part of him was like, Maybe he doesn’t feel well. Maybe I should keep him home from school. Neil told Scarlett, “I just didn’t argue with him. We went to school. I walked him into the little foyer and I bent down, like I always do, to give him a kiss goodbye.”

Jesse put his arms around Neil and gave him a kiss and whispered in his ear, “Dad, it’s going to be okay and I love you and Mom,” and then turned and walked away. For Scarlett’s full story, I highly recommend her book, Nurturing Healing Love: A Mother’s Journey of Hope and Forgiveness.

Final Thoughts

I believe I do this work because I’m empathic. In fact, Melissa often calls me SpongeBob. In order to manage the compassion I feel for others, I tend to write articles for the people I wish to console. I don’t usually have a way of sharing what I write with the people who I have in mind when writing, but I believe that the act of getting my thoughts on paper somehow comforts them remotely—even if they never read my words.

I’m also comforted by what I’ve discovered about the afterlife, as I know others are as well. Yet, I often must remind myself about these discoveries in order to feel that comfort, which I do by writing them down. Consequently, this exercise becomes an act of compassion as well as therapy.

These five truths remind me that the children who died at Uvalde and any school shooting are in a peaceful, joyful place filled with infinite love because, even though their bodies are mortal, their spirits are eternal. And I’ve shared what I’ve written because I want to remind you of it too. I hope that these five truths give you a level of comfort for your grief. They work for any person’s passing, of course, but I find that I especially need them when children have perished.

Thank you for reading my writing. I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

With love,
Bob

Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of two books, Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the directory of psychics and mediums, BestPsychicDirectory.com. His newest venture is Bob Olson Connect, where you can read Bob’s articles before they become books.

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If this article comforts or informs you, please click the ❤️ button so more people will benefit from it as well—thank you!