Death by Appointment

To me one of the most fascinating aspects of bona fide near-death experiences is the emergence of the idea that we die at a chosen time. It’s literally in the cosmic appointment book.

Some of this comes logically from what some NDErs hear on the other side. “No, it’s not your time yet. You have to go back.” Metaphorically, they look at their watches and say, “I’m early? But I’m having a stroke. I don’t want to go back into that ol’ thing.”

“Nope, it’s not your time. Back you go. No whining!”

Some of this comes from what some NDErs get on their tours of the heavens. They are shown visions of their future deaths. This would of course presume that the event was planned at some other time. (Suspend for the moment the idea that time and space may not exist in the bigger picture!)

Other NDErs are told that their souls before incarnating pick and choose a time of birth and a time and manner of death. It’s as if we don’t make the trip to mortal life without an itinerary.

On the one hand, this sounds pretty crazy. We in our culture spend so much time and money trying to deal with our unknown death dates. We buy life insurance to protect our families. We try to eat right and exercise to prolong life. We worry about being safe against crime and violence.

There is nothing in science that says we die by appointment. Our entertainment media continuously feed us stories about death and dying, making us quiver on our sofas wondering about our own impending doom. When will we go? How will we go?

On the other hand, as a creative writer, I can see a tremendous logic in this system. If I were to write a novel or a movie that involved a death, part of my artistic chore would be to give my character a date with death. I would choose the time and place to produce the highest possible impact, either for that character or for the audience.

Designing the plot of a novel, I imagine, is a lot like designing a life as a soul. I might sit there thinking, “Well, if I kill off Mary Lou around page 40, it will sink her husband Earl into a deep grief, forcing him to question the meaning of life and eventually opening his heart to new possibilities.”

It makes sense to me that if we are put on this planet to do something, part of that plan could be designed and instituted before we are born. It could be that some of the major good guys and the major bad guys of our lives are cast ahead of time.

It could be that some of the major events in our lives are as choreographed and orchestrated as in the creation of a movie. We’ve got a script. We act our parts.

When I ask NDErs about their take on this death by appointment idea, they often reply with, “Yeah, but you’ve also got free will. You may come in with a plan but through free will you can change it.”

What I like to do with “weird ideas” is try them on for size. Rather than instantaneously pooh-poohing them, I imagine what my life would be like if they were true. What would it mean to you if you knew for a fact that many deaths were actually part of an orderly plan, and not just any plan, but a plan you designed as a soul?

What if those “tragic deaths” so frequently lobbed at us like propaganda grenades on the News You Can Lose were actually plot points in some soul’s autobiography? Would those deaths be so tragic if they were part of the story designed by that person?

The pain of losing someone can be horrendous, but for me it can be very comforting to think that death is often planned and life for the so-called dead goes on and on.