A zombie isn't what you think it is.

If you've taken the chance to watch the show Ghost Whisperer, have checked out John Edwards or have seen the movies, The Sixth Sense or What Dreams May Come, or just have a colloquial knowledge of the 'Ways of the Dead', then you are familiar with the vagaries of Lost Souls, or the Un-restful Dead. These are Souls who held on to their lives too tightly, or who have 'unfinished business', meaning that they were murdered or left some karmic business undone during their lifetime that affects their ability to 'move into the light' and leave the mundane world of fleshy incarnation behind, at least for this turn of the cycle.

One of the primary characteristics of these Lost Souls is their inability to come to terms with the reality of their situation; the fact that they are indeed dead, have passed on, have left the body, the stage, the light has dimmed and their part of the play is over, their scene become a memory, merging into the sepia-toned collage of the past. The lack of present relevance, perhaps, an unhealthy but understandable attachment to their loved ones, or even negative attachments to worldly pleasures, belongings or both, are all psychic characteristics that seem to typify the plight of these Lost Souls. We watch their stories on the screen, or listen to those of our friends who have firsthand experience with these Souls, or read about them in New Age books concerned with the Worlds Beyond, and shake our heads in pity, abstract concern or disbelief, all the while treating the phenomena as if it were an amusement only, and certainly not as if it were a very possible occurence in our own afterlives.

It seems, then, that ghosts have problems with denial too, with ignoring very big elephants in ethereal rooms, as in the fact that they are dead, that this world is no longer for them, and that letting go of the material world and the clinging emotional patterns that keep us tied to this world is for the best, and will help them to move on into parallel or higher evolutionary forms of incarnation.

But this denial is always accompanied by a strong sense of unease, a sure knowledge - subliminal and almost unconscious in some cases - that they are indeed ignoring something, that there is some super-reality of which they cannot help but be conscious of. And yet, there is still the willful desire to hold on to what they know, what they are familiar with, because of the fear of the unknown. The unknown that is truly anything but, when it comes down to it. The unknown which is made up of All That Is, that consciousness 'forgets' in order to create the illusion of daily life, of separation and isolation one from the other, from the world and from creation beyond.

Which brings me to the Living. Surely most of us walk around like Lost Souls, the Living Dead, don't we. Cognizant perhaps, intellectually, of the super-reality within which we all exist, live and love, and also conscious of the fact that the worlds we create and exist within are only conceptual straw huts barely standing against the breath of the biggest wolves of all, that predatory lover Eternity and her brother, Infinity, as well as that which is inconceiveable and lies beyond even these twin avatars of Creation, outside of time and space, encompassing The All.

We exist knowing at a very real place within ourselves that there is mystery in the world. That, within us, that heat born in the solar plexus is indicative of a power beyond our ken. That the  worries of the day, the news of the hour, the love of the minute are all pale renditions of greater events occuring at ever-increasing scales of aggregation, from solar to galactic to universal to omniversal, from one to three dimensional moving into time and the fifth, all the way up to ten dimensions and more, ad infinitum, beyond intelligence, beyond knowing, beyond creation, into, again, All That Is.

But it is easier to concentrate upon our dramas, to leave the deep thought to another day, another lifetime, or, if we're lucky enough, until the golden years of our lives and the abstract contemplation of age and experience; the sure blessing of a long life, time and space to reflect and prepare one's Self for what must surely come afterwards or, failing that last test, perhaps until the moment of our death and its final revelation.

Living life as if dead is comforting; the repetitive patterns of familiarity, the sure attraction of emotional vampirism and uneven psychic and spiritual development, the pleasures of sensual experience and the indulgence of the physical. Habits formed over lifetimes demand expression and carrying these past life, apparently, is an almost certain probability unless steps are taken, experiences experienced, that reveal the tenuous nature of incarnation, the sure existence of an Afterlife, or even just the fact that there is more to life than what we see. Being able to break through that bubble into what lies beyond life is a revelation of such immense importance that admitting its possibility to one's Self while alive achieves an almost transcendent status upon the scales of knowledged gained and lost.

So what does all of this mean to the Living Dead, you and I? Only that we have to embrace the unfamiliar and the unknown. We have to live seeking inner knowledge and outer awareness, secure only in the fact that God is Love and because of that, we are protected by an infinite and eternally caring embrace. Being Lost in memory, in fear, in trepidation is the easy way out and leads to psychosis and neurosis, ills that most of us, diagnosed or not, are well familiar with. Western Society's uneasy relationship with death affects all of us indoctrinated with its philosophic and religious dogma.

But the good news is that the way out is clear, and that we are surrounded upon every possible dimensional side with proof of life beyond Life, that our perceptions can be widened, our ability to 'see'  sharpened, our range of emotional experiences extended out past the boundaries of anything we ever dreamed possible.  Opening one's  third eye and visualizing  the Now as a manifestation of both Past and Future brings awareness totally into the moment, which is all we truly have, dissipating the vague worries and doubts which plague us whenever we allow our mind/intellect to run the show.

Life is our promise, being among the Living Dead our choice. You can choose differently, right now, this instant, if only by making the conscious decision to let your fears go and explore what lies within you, beyond your thoughts, beyond your memories, beyond your experience. It is not necessary to read a book, watch a movie or listen to anybody else. Just close your eyes, cultivate silence and listen...past the voices are feelings, and when the two combine in a dance and song of Love and Oneness, you know you are hearing God. 

Let go of Death and embrace Life. It is our Birthright.