November 24, 2014

There is no Death

Gloria Oelman grew up in the 50s in a mining town in the outback of Australia. Family life was chaotic and unstable as her father had done a disappearing act and her mother was often hospitalised with nervous breakdowns. Some of her caretakers were angels, some were devils.

She met her husband when she was 18 and he was her saviour. They married in 1970 and soon went into business together. For most of their married life, they were joined at the hip with no children to distract them from each other. His death in 1997 left a gaping hole in Gloria's life but it also proved to be a catalyst to reconnect with the spiritual life that had sustained her in childhood. She was sent on a journey of discovery she would never have imagined, and this led her to finally accept that there really is no death.

Episode Segments:

NDE Radio: Gloria Oelman The world of dreams opened up unexpectedly to Gloria soon after her husband died in 1997. In retrospect, she suspects that all the new experiences she had been having prior to his death, as well as the stress of the situation, affected her nervous system in a way that initiated a different way of mental functioning than was the usual modus operandi.
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Guest(s) Appearing on this Episode

Gloria Oelman As I reflected on what to write for this section, it occurred to me that with my 64th birthday fast approaching I would soon be the age my mother was when she died. I also reflected on the fact that it was my husband’s death in 1997 at the relatively young age of 48 that had set my life on a completely different trajectory than the one it had been on. Loss and death had haunted me all my life and I had coped with the grief as most of us do in this society, by pushing it out of awareness as quickly as possible and getting on with life. With my husband’s death, the ending of this phase of my life contained within it so many losses that it would take the next fifteen plus years to fully process them, a task which included a futile attempt to recreate what I had lost by getting married again. That marriage, in spite of holding great promise, lasted only twenty one months and the ending of it presented the opportunity to finally and fully process all that had gone before. Learn more about Gloria at her blog