Sleep, a Prelude to Death

Years ago, I read in "Looking into the Invisible," Omraam's advice to "Just before you go to sleep, commend yourself into the hands of the angel of death -- known in the Cabbalah as the angel of sleep -- for each night we die and each morning we rise from the dead. To go to sleep, to leave our physical body, is something we practise every night in order to be ready when the time comes for our true departure to the next world."

So, I pray, "Beloved Azrael, Angel of Sleep, take me in my soul and soul consciousness to the etheric retreat of your choice where I may study at the universities of the spirit. Thank you." Thus, when the time comes for me to enter the sleep of death, I will have no fear, for the Angel of Death who comes to escort me to heaven will be my old friend, Azrael.

I wrote a book about near death experiences (https://www.amazon.com/Near-Death-Experiences-Fascinating-Beyond-Death-ebook/dp/B01L9LIH3U/). One of the fascinating facts is that the state of consciousness a person is in at the moment of death determines whether they will experience heaven or hell in an NDE. Someone who gets into an accident on the way home from a spiritual retreat, as Don Piper did in "90 Minutes in Heaven," will experience heaven, whereas someone who temporarily dies in a drunken brawl will experience hell.

Thus, just as it's important tp prepare ourselves for sleep by taking a shower, reading a divinely inspired book, praying, and meditating, it's important to prepare ourselves for the ultimate sleep of death so that we may awaken to a bright morning of heavenly existence.

Some people have trouble falling asleep and when they do, they have nightmares. They must call to Azrael and trust that he will protect their souls from the entities of the astral plane through which they must pass to reach the etheric retreats and ultimately heaven. This is more likely if they make bedtime a sacred ritual like the sacrament of Extreme Unction. But even more important, they should live their waking life as a series of sacraments: communion with God in prayers of thanksgiving, praise, and solicitation; penance and reparation for missteps we have taken; and confirmation to gird ourselves to pass a difficult test. Then they'll be prepared, no matter if they die in their sleep or suddenly in an accident, to enter heaven. May we all go to heaven every night and when we breathe our last breath.