Love Doesn’t Need Bodies

The idea that we, as humans and maybe all life on Earth, aren’t really solid material isn’t new. Echoes of the same conclusion are threaded through many new and ancient philosophies and religions. Some (including certain scientists) call our essence consciousness and claim all that we know as Earth is actually a manifestation of consciousness, sometimes called the Universal Mind. Others simply say we’re made of energy or maybe the spirit of Source.

Whatever we suspect life to be, the next question is what is death? No, I’m not going to answer that for you, but many honest mediums will say there is no death, merely a transformation of matter into spirit. Some insist we inhabit two realities from our birth: soul/spirit and human body. The mediums offer to help connect communication of the living with the dead, although many clients find they don’t need a medium to accomplish the deed. People of a darker ilk mutter about ghosts and demons and other negative energies under the command of a devil. The bottom line is essentially the same: life has an invisible side that’s powerful beyond our knowing. When we say love is more powerful than hate, we’re judging a contest that may have crossed a finish line long before we arrived as humans.

I can’t say I have any qualifications to assess the power of hate and other darkness. Happily, I have only moderate exposure, but I have seen terrible consequences and I know of even worse outcomes that have happened outside my experience. That humankind manages to pull itself together again after it destroys most of its civilizations should be counted on the side of love, for all human relationships begin with the creation of life, a baby. Sex can easily be perverted into evil, but babies are born pure, and the innate human urge to shelter home and family with peace and love continues to introduce hope over and over again, regardless of the many who prefer dominance to peace.

People don’t have to be dead to connect with one another by spirit. Non-present communication between loved ones (called extrasensory perception) is a fairly common occurrence–especially in emergencies. But I discovered that relationships can be forged without body language or any physical reinforcement. For over forty years, I enjoyed a friendship with a man who lived half a continent from me, a man I met in person only once. He was older than I and divorced while I was wrestling with new step-motherhood and teaching. The association began as professional advice, but our near-weekly telephone conversations expanded into other realms and by 2023, we were as close as physical friends. He had aged out of his influence in journalism and film, so his latest projects were financed by his thinning wallet and contacts. I was his remote go-to for research and editing. He distracted my husband and me with story-jokes and political conversations. I sat talking with him via cell as he endured his cancer infusions so he wouldn’t be alone.

He knew he was probably arranging his final act as he flew across country to an opening of his films. COVID-19 had hit and cancer therapy had destroyed his immune system. Vaccine was a moot point. When I called a few days later to see how the viewing had gone, his voice was barely recognizable. Against his whispered instructions, I called paramedics to go to his condo. He died in a hospital and not alone on his floor.  When an inheritance gift arrived at my house for my husband and me three years later, I wept. Not many people have a chance to experience love from a distance with no strings or even physical presence attached. Pure unconditional love can be an awe-inspiring power.