[adapted from The Other Side]

Knowledge is important. It is something that we take with us when we die. But the most important knowledge is not scientific; it's spiritual. And so it revolves around love.

With that love, said the Blessed Mother in one apparition, we will not even feel the transition. "If you would abandon yourselves to me, you will not even feel the passage from this life to the next life," was her incredible message to a locutionist. "You will begin to live the life of Heaven from this earth."

In the "other realms," we may have a nice place, a pleasant place, but it could still be less than what we would want; it can still be "earthish." It can still bear a subterranean aspect. This is upper purgatory. There are lower levels as well.

When we die, we step into who we really are.

The degree of darkness we encounter corresponds to the lack of love during our test in this world – motivating us to love in every circumstance and to call on Jesus in a constant way to free us. "Jesus, heal me. Jesus free me. Jesus, free my family."

Spiritual forces define the physical and we don't want to leave this world in bondage -- for on the other side the bondage will be more pronounced.

Selfishness leads to the strongest such bonds.

"Self" is the stone around the ankle. It is the albatross. You must rid it on earth in a life lived (in whatever vocation you have been assigned) for God.

We go to Heaven in accordance with good deeds and thoughts that contained no selfish motives.

After death, the soul goes to the level of the afterlife that we have developed within us.

Those who pray avoid the void of purgatory – if they pray from the heart, if they pray unselfishly, if they love God (most importantly). Just thinking of God brings the Light. Love brings lightness of the spirit and allows it to ascend. "In fact, while we live on earth our souls actually dwell not only within us, but also in the spiritual realm we will find ourselves in after death," said near-death researcher Kevin Williams.

The void – whether the tunnel or purgatory – is where we see ourselves and are purged of all illusions.

"I saw that I had been on display my entire life," wrote a man named Daniel Rosenblit – born a Jew, but after his experience a Christian. "Every thought, word, and deed of mine that I had assumed was performed in secret had been recorded since my birth and were all now being fully exposed in the light of day. Everything that I ever did in secret was now brought out into the light for full review in front of God and all the heavenly hosts! Now my entire life was being laid bare before them."

As the popes have taught, there are many ways to God but Catholicism is the discipline of safest and quickest entry (because in that discipline is the narrow gate).

Seek spiritual healing first. That is, removal of all darkness (through Confession, through Mass, though casting away what may curse you).

In the "spirit" -- claim those who were in other realms -- they saw that the decision to return to earth (instead of to remain "dead," during their brushes with death) would cause a miraculous cure of whatever had caused them to die. If they came back, medical tests would show such things as cancer instantly gone. They would survive what is not survivable -- even horrific accidents -- if God wanted them to complete the earthly journey.

Here we see His power and how He operates at levels far beyond medical science.

Knowing that, we should tap into it.

"Brothers and sisters: Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law," said Paul in today's reading (Romans 13:8).

In those other realms, some say they were shown mysteries of physical reality. Claimed one woman:

"I actually crossed over to another dimension where I was engulfed in a total feeling of love. I also experienced with extreme clarity why I had cancer, why I had come into this life in the first place, what role everyone in my family played in my life in the grand scheme of things, and generally how life works. The clarity and understanding I obtained in this state was almost indescribable. I realized what a gift life is and that I was surrounded by loving spiritual beings who were always around me even when I did not know it. I was shown how illnesses [can] start on an energetic level before they become physical. If I chose to go into life, the cancer would be gone from my [spirit], and my physical body would catch up very quickly. I then understood that when people have medical treatments for illnesses, it rids the illness only from their bodies but not from their [spirits], so the illness returns."

Thus, ridding darkness around us not only ensures the brightest afterlife but can rid illness here on earth (if God so wills).

Love rids darkness.

"I realize that absolutely anything is possible in your life every day," concluded the woman quoted above.

On the "other side," there are angels that will seem like they are twelve-feet tall and more familiar to us than our parents. There will be plants like no plants on earth. There will be buildings larger than all the buildings in a big city. Rooms with brilliant light. “Rooms” -- but with no walls. Floors that are transparent -- like precious metal. Remarkable landscapes. Total symmetry. Eye has not seen what is in paradise! It will be a state of total well-being.

With love -- which doesn't just mean being nice, but rather willing the best for others -- we begin to taste Heaven even during the trial called life.