The 5 Key Factors That Determine How and When We Die
A clear and digestible explanation to a complex question, offering a new level of inner peace around the subject of dying.
If you’re enjoying my articles, please click the ❤️ button so more people can discover it on Substack, thanks!
When I first began investigating the afterlife in 1997, I was mostly interested in knowing where my father went after death. As the years progressed, however, I came to ask myself new questions, deeper questions. The subject of this article was a big one.
I’m going to explain the five key factors that became apparent many years into my investigation, but one should keep in mind that there are an infinite number of factors that determine how and when we die. It’s important to know too that while one or two factors might be the most influential, it’s really an intricate combination and balance of all of them that leads to the ultimate deciding factor.
Personally, I don’t think the human brain is capable of understanding the infinite, at least not in the way we’ll understand it in the spiritual dimension. Imagine trying to create a plan that not only helps one individual accomplish her goals for a human life but also correlates with the goals of perhaps 200 or more human beings who have a relationship of some sort with that person. Then, take that a step further to consider the ripple effects of both that first individual and those 200 people and how those ripple effects influence millions of other people and the world itself.
This is the issue with spiritual discussions of this sort. Still, I believe that by understanding these five key factors regarding how and when we die, we can at least grab hold of a reasonable comprehension of this vast and complex question. And in doing so, I think it helps to provide us with a level of inner peace that we might not have had before our understanding of this subject.
Throughout this article, keep in mind that my using the word “die” has a slightly different meaning than how most people use it. Dying, when I use the word, only means that our physical body dies, not our consciousness. In reality, we go on living without our body—consciousness survives death. So when I use the word “die” or “dying,” I’m simply referring to the death of the physical body. When this occurs, our spirit (consciousness) returns to the spirit world (the afterlife).
FIRST FACTOR: PRE-BIRTH CHOICES
The first factor consists of our pre-birth choices regarding what we came into this lifetime to accomplish. Picture yourself as a soul in the spirit world (before you are born) getting together with your spirit guides to help preplan your trip to the physical plane (this human life).
You and your guides decide that there are particular experiences you want to have, meaning you want to gain certain lessons and insights that can only be obtained by having a human life. Well, once you have completed what you came to experience in your lifetime, it’s eventually going to be time for you to leave this life and go back home to the spirit world. But this is just one factor of many.
It’s also possible that your soul recognizes that you won’t be able to accomplish all that you hoped to experience here. This too happens. It’s not terribly disappointing or uncommon for a soul to realize that some of its goals just aren’t going to unfold. Nonetheless, this can be a determining factor in your soul’s choice to end your lifetime. It’s like, “Okay, I’ve completed all the goals that I’m going to be able to complete. Do I have any other reasons to stick around?” That question leads us to the second factor.
In my interview with Robert Schwartz, who wrote two books on pre-birth planning, he described it like this: “The pre-birth plan is created by the soul in consultation with God, Spirit Guides, Angels—what we would call Ascended Masters. Then once a plan is in place, the soul creates the personality. That would be you and me who are going to be in body. So the personality is a spark of the soul and the soul is a spark of God. Now once the personality is created, the personality is told what the plan is for the upcoming lifetime.”
SECOND FACTOR: LIFE ENJOYMENT
Having explained pre-birth choices, many souls choose to hang around and enjoy life for a while once they’ve accomplished what they desired to experience in this lifetime. As we know, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” so it’s not like everyone instantly dies the moment they finish what they came here to do.
While some souls will choose to leave once they’ve accomplished their goals (or at least accomplished all they will be able to accomplish), many souls choose to exit life slowly and gradually, what we might think of as dying of old age. Of course, we always continue to learn and grow from a spiritual perspective, even if we have already completed the major experiences we hoped to know in our lifetime. So sticking around for five, ten, or fifteen additional years will only add to a soul’s growth.
THIRD FACTOR: ASSISTING OTHERS
Many souls choose to remain on the physical plane in order to help other souls accomplish what they set out to experience during their lifetimes. It’s not all about us, after all, although we do grow spiritually from helping others.
While no other soul “needs” our help to accomplish what they set out to experience here (there are multiple opportunities for them to accomplish their own goals), if we can be helpful, we might choose to stick around for the benefit of another.
FOURTH FACTOR: OPPORTUNITY
The fourth factor that determines how and when we die is opportunity. If we consider that our soul and spirit guides are forever creating miracles and coincidences for our benefit, it helps to understand that an opportunity might arrive for us to exit the planet. Said another way, once we’ve accomplished what we set out to do (or realize we won’t be able to have those experiences), our soul and spirit guides must determine how we’re going to end this life in order to go home.
Many people think we’re fated to die on a certain date due to a certain cause, but my investigation leads me to conclude that our time of death, including our cause of death, is not predetermined. It’s open-ended.
Say, for example, that the potential for a car accident crosses our path. In this case, our soul and spirit guides calculate if this is the best moment for us to exit our human life. If it is, the accident happens and our life is over. If it’s not, we might not get in the accident at all, or we might be involved in the accident but are not killed in it, possibly not even injured.
Returning to the complicated idea of the infinite, a soul’s choice to influence a human’s exit with a car accident must also take into account the human beings who will be affected by that accident. As one of many possible examples, if the child of that person would not benefit from having his father die in a car accident, then this would factor into the soul’s decision. If, on the other hand, the child’s pre-birth goals included experiencing a parent’s tragic death, it might be a good fit (from a spiritual perspective). Aren’t you glad you don’t have to make these difficult choices?
While there are infinite factors that determine the time, place, and circumstances of one’s death, opportunity is a significant factor. Yet, opportunity can be affected by one’s free will, the final element of the five key factors.
FIFTH FACTOR: FREE WILL
One of the most important factors that determine how and when we die is free will. Most people have no idea just how powerful our free will is. Yet free will is what makes having a human life so intriguing to souls. If every aspect of a human life were predetermined, there’d be no mystery or adventure to the experience. However, free will is the wildcard in the human experience that leaves every right or left turn up to choice—our choice.
I’ve mentioned this story before, but it’s a prime example of the power of free will. I have a friend whose mother was dying in her home on New Year’s Eve. The 90-year-old woman’s organs were shutting down, and everyone knew death was imminent. In accordance with her personality, hours before midnight, the dying woman asked her husband if it was more advantageous for their tax return if she died on December 31 or January 1. He looked it up online and found that it was better if she passed after the New Year had begun. Sure enough, the dying woman clung to life and took her last breath at 12:10 a.m.
To illustrate just how much free will plays a critical role in how and when we die, let’s examine a few more examples.
First example: If, for instance, a person purposely takes their own life, it was free will that ended that life. That final act of free will both ends their life and tragically affects the lives of everyone who loves that person. It’s also possible the person might attempt to take their own life but not succeed. I know someone who did this and suffered brain damage for the rest of her life, which obviously affected her but also affected many people who loved her.
Second example: If a person suddenly takes a left turn instead of going straight as planned, that free will choice might avoid the fatal accident that was intended to bring them home to the afterlife. His soul will likely look for another exit point in the near future, yet other free will choices might change the soul’s plan altogether so that the human lives for another five or ten years.
Third example: If a person chooses to treat their illness alternatively by eating raw foods, practicing self-love, and/or spending more time with loved ones (and less time working), that person might heal the illness that was going to end their life. Why? That person’s soul might recognize a valuable experience is in the works that the soul would benefit from experiencing.
In my interview with near-death experiencer, Anita Moorjani, she told me: “I reached a point where I had a choice of whether I wanted to come back into my life or go on into death... I was aware that if I chose to go back into life that my test results, which had already been taken, would show that my organs were starting to function again. If I chose not to go back into life, not to go back into my body, the test results would show that my organs had failed. So basically, the diagnosis would be my death was caused by organ failure due to end-stage cancer.”
Anita’s story was a great example of how she still retained her free will to choose life or death even as she was in the midst of her near-death experience. Obviously, she chose life, which is why she was able to tell me her miraculous story.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Our pre-birth choices, life enjoyment, assisting others, opportunity, and free will are the significant factors that determine how and when we die; but, as I mentioned, there are an infinite number of factors at stake.
Our deaths also affect other people, people who love and depend upon us or people we don’t know who might be affected in some way by our deaths. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes spiritually regarding the decision to exit a human life, which includes infinite factors that must be taken into account. Since our soul and spirit guides can understand all these infinite factors much better than we can, these factors are all considered and calculated into the final determination of how and when we die.
Having a better understanding of this subject can help us to make sense of the various ways people we love have died. It still leaves a lot up to interpretation and conjecture, but a little understanding is still better than having no clue at all. And even if we’re unable to make sense of someone’s irrational or tragic death, I hope this explanation at least helps you to realize that there is an infinite intelligence to the process that makes sense in the afterlife even if it makes no sense to us here in the physical dimension. I guess this is what people refer to as having faith—having faith that there’s a higher intelligence at work on our behalf even if we don’t understand it.
Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear from you.
Warmest wishes,
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.
Latest Friday articles you might have missed…
Soul Sharing: A new way of introducing you to new things while getting to know me and my interests a little more.
The Epic Tale of the Missing Tabby: A fun and wild mystery with meaningful messages about life.
The Law of Distraction: A simple story with a simple yet powerful lesson.
Latest Tuesday articles you might have missed…
Will I See My Pet Again in the Afterlife?: What I discovered in my investigation of the afterlife to establish if pets have souls.
The Question of Hell: If there’s an afterlife, does that mean there’s also Hell? What I've learned in my 25-year investigation of life after death about Hell.
Will You Wait for Me in Heaven? How to Know if Your Loved One Will Reincarnate Before You Arrive.
If you’re enjoying my articles, please click the ❤️ button
so more people can discover it on Substack, thanks!
Bob, I am amazed at your ability to clearly explain and summarize a topic that can be challenging for most people. I am trained as an end-of-life doula and plan on sharing this article with folks as the need arises. Thanks for all you do to enlighten humankind.
I read years ago about how to know what your life lessons are and it gave lists of some typical lessons. (Sorry, I don't know what the book was.) From that it was fairly easy for me to determine my major and minor life lessons to conquer. So then I worried that, since I'm over-achieving and doing such an awesome job conquering these lessons (if only! :D ) maybe I'll die sooner than I'd like. But your article gives me new hope that I can choose to have a few more easier decades just for fun! I love your picture of Heaven! And the rainbow. I see you get behind the lens sometimes, too! Thanks, Bob!