Is death the only way to crossover to the next side or can you cross over into the spiritual plane without going through death as we know it?
OK fine, but that doesn't answer my question about crossing over.
Death is not the only way to "cross over". Full trance "Channelers" do it all the time. Some trained psychics can "search" for a specific person who has crossed over.
The problem with this is where that person may be. Just as there is a "heaven" there are shadowed and disturbing places as well. I don't like searching in such places and will not go alone. I mean if I have any reason to believe that someone for whom I am searching is in any of the shadowed places I will have at least two more psychics with me when I attempt to find the spirit.
I have seen some things, felt so threatened in some places I have been unable to function for a day or two after coming back. It takes a very strong spirit to search in such places.
Whether or not there is a "hell" as Christian mythology paints it, I can not say. I've never been to such a place. My experience with entities who do not go to Source (God) is that they are lost in a place of malevolence and shadow, only shadow.
It is my understanding that the material is not the only aspect of our creation and that there are "places" that follow some of the same physics as the material plane. Some of these "astral" planes are dark and deadly but I don't find the dead there. The only places I have found persons who "crossed over" who are not with God have been in shadows. They wander here, alone, for all intents and purposes for they do not see or sense each other and it is very difficult to get their attention for they are lost in loneliness, remorse, hatred, anger and any other negative emotion you can think of. They never see or interact with each other, but it is a very populous place.
Sorry, what I mean is that death is only a blinking of an eye. We change our state of being, we merge with our Karmatic flow towards our path of learning. If we need to learn lessons we will learn them on a plane that is chosen, but we still make choices for ourselves.
Thanks for the replies but I don't think I'm getting the answer. I'm not talking about just looking at the other side. I guess what I am saying is can I will myself to go to the next side or must one actually die.