Compliments of PsychologyToday.com https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/is-psychology-making-us-sick/201312/death-dying-and-altered-states-bridging-two-realities (originally published December 10, 2013)
Communicating with people in altered states of consciousness
I visited my mother just a few months before she passed; that was about two years ago now. We went out to dinner in a restaurant attached to a casino. After dinner she went to play blackjack and I went to the bathroom. I came back minutes later, sat next to her and said, “How’s it going?” She looked at me strangely, clutched her purse, and said, “I’m waiting for my son.” I replied, “I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”
My mother had many moments in her final months when she was in an “altered state” —a way of perceiving and communicating that was outside of conventional reality. We went on imagined vacations and cruises together; recreated some history (stories that strayed from the truth that we nonetheless “agreed” were the real stories); I even gave her a new Spanish name that made her giggle and helped me let go of the person she used to be. I saw no reason to insist on conventional reality or my reality. In fact, her altered state allowed us to have a new chapter in our relationship, one I was really thankful for. Continue Reading (Death, Dying, and Altered)
Dying & Death Talk 