People who have had a near-death experience are convinced that they had a glimpse of heaven. Although each near-death experience is unique, we find recurring messages in them. But these messages come right under the domain of religions that say they have the answers.

People often ask if hearing Billy's voice from the afterlife is frightening. Not at all. As he speaks, the bliss of his world flows into mine and I feel almost euphoric. According to Billy, this is just the smallest taste of what awaits each of us when we pass into the hereafter.

Shortly after Jim's funeral, I told Lauren about a grieving widow who found a heart-shaped rock on the beach where she and her husband had vacationed. Jim and I loved that story of God's comfort. For a while, I hoped I'd get my own sign from above. But nothing came.

As a self-confessed mystic and spiritual teacher myself, I have dedicated my life to bearing witness to this invisible yet fundamental and primary dimension of reality. Yet, whenever Spirit seems to speak to us or display itself in specific forms, I find myself growing uncomfortable.

It was only through Joe Carroll's death and dying that I was finally able to draw close to the man I'd long ago fled. Before that, the idea of honoring my father after he'd departed this world would have seemed unimaginable.

On a practical peacebuilding level, where pseudo-religious loyalties are a factor, the film deftly underscores the influence of shallow, self-serving, destructive End Times ideologies on one's behavior.

Over time, Christian hope for life after death eventually became even more incredible, as people began to realize that bodies, in some form, are required for anything worthy of the name "life."

A sense of warmth engulfed me, as though someone had poured a bowl of chicken soup over my head. My spirit guide informed me that I was not yet prepared for the next world and that I would be returning to mine.

As any Penn State alum will tell you, Joe Pa did enormous good for his school and his community. But as most non-Penn-Staters will tell you, he seemed to put the image of his school above a rigorous commitment to rooting out monsters.

American culture is unwilling to discuss dying openly, honestly and in a sustained way. The importance of the fight -- not the dying -- is emphasized. But there is in fact an "art of dying."

In addition to his famed tirades was Jobs' "reality distortion field." Jobs would draw a picture of the world that seemed to defy all reality. At worst, he simply lied. At best, he cast a vision of what could be and then got others caught up in making that vision a new reality.

One lesson I learned after I drowned on a South American river was that to face life's challenges with gratitude and joy, a person must first lose his or her faith.

Everything we value is possible only because of death. We can no longer afford to remain ignorant of it; the cost is too high. Death is no less sacred than life.