The Sound of Silence: Reflections on What Lies Beyond Death
The Sound of Silence
Have you ever experienced a moment so quiet you could hear your own heartbeat? When my father passed away, I discovered a special kind of silence in his hospital room that made me wonder about heaven and what happens after we die.
This is my story about finding meaning in life’s quietest moments, and what silence can teach us about love and loss.
If you’re like me, you have had people and things in your life, even routines or a pet that you’ve said to yourself, “I can’t imagine living without this.”
And then, one day, that person or that thing is gone.
The only thing in its place is silence.
And we find our world doesn’t really make sense anymore. We have to restructure our lives. How is it we actually walk through those moments and live?
Let me tell you about a silent moment in my life. It was the first time I had really experienced silence.
Deep, deep silence.
A Personal Story of Silence
I walked into my father’s hospital room many years ago. Alone. I knew he was at the end of his struggle with cancer of the brain, but as long as he was alive, I treasured each moment of being in his presence.
Others had left. The lights were off. All sounds of life support had stopped.
No hum of monitors. No chatter of visitors, no sounds from the street.
Not even the sound of my heartbeat broke the silence that filled that room. Even my inner voices sensed the solemness and hushed their chatter.
There was nothing to be said but “Goodbye.”
And profound silence.
I have always wondered if it became as silent for my dad wherever he was after he took his last breath, as it was for me.
I have images of angels singing, and conversations with St. Peter at heaven’s gate asking him for something…but what?
Certainly not his ID, or if he preferred a place in heaven near the clouds.
These were the images from my early childhood that remain, no matter how foolish they seem to my adult understanding.
These are metaphors for heavenly sounds of praise and acceptance and love.
It seems to be the only language available for the mysteries of the afterlife. But it still makes me wonder…
What if there were no limits to the range of what was audible? If a deaf person dies, will he experience sound in the afterlife? Or, after death is there deep silence for everyone?
Perhaps that is what we fear the most about death—sheer nothingness?
Silence and Sound Waves
I believe that the energy of music, conversation, and heartbeats is not inherently different from the ‘sound’ of silence.
Silence only exists because most of us have not learned to feel the waves and receive meaning in the vibrations.
Or our neurons do not have the right wiring for the frequency.
My dog has a much different sensitivity to sound waves than I do, and other created beings from dolphins to butterflies have more variation in their ability to experience soundwaves than we humans.
Sound waves are energy waves. Akin to light waves, but at different energy levels.
To me, radio waves have always been a mystery and now with the internet we live in a veritable ocean of waves all dancing together.
It’s a good thing that we can only perceive certain frequencies; otherwise, we would surely drown!
After death, what will be the experience of sound waves…or any other waves, for that matter?
Will there be a way of ‘soul listening to soul,’ no longer dependent on physical waves of energy?
What will be the experience of ‘listening’ in the ‘still life’ of death, (brings new meaning to that art form!)?
What will I be ‘hearing’ without limit from the breadth and depth of vibrations of all of creation, unrestrained by the limit of my ear drums…which of course will have returned to dust with the rest of my body.
The experience could range from pure cacophony (i.e. Hell) to something totally new, never-before ‘heard’ or felt. Will it matter?
After all, our bodies will have turned to dust, either quickly through cremation, or slowly over time in the earth.
I don’t believe my afterlife will necessarily be in human form. Still thinking that one through!
After death philosophies
Over the years, I have explored philosophies of resurrection, transmutation, reincarnation, or sheol (nothingness).
I recently listened to a podcast of someone who has spent a lifetime studying NDE’s (near-death experiences) and my take-away is ‘We still don’t know.’
I am coming to an understanding of sound after death as another aspect of divine mystery.
Much like my thoughts about silence in this lifetime.
The silence I refer to is not so much an absence of words, or music, or anything that creates sound waves.
This silence is deeper than merely quiet to my ears, although environmental stillness is helpful in moving into this holy place.
I will say I have felt this inner silence in a concert hall with a Beethoven concerto filling the air.
And I have been near the ocean during a storm, with the roar of incoming waves filling my ears, and yet my soul in silence.
Why ask?
If I weren’t so curious about life, constantly asking questions I think I might dwell in this silence more often, but I want to know everything…all the what’s, why’s, and how’s crowd my soul and of course there are always voices responding…either in my head or from books that I read, or speakers I listen to.
My brain is never (make that seldom) silent, but that is my goal.
Someday I may get to experience archangels singing to welcome me to my afterlife, or the voice of God assuring me I have arrived…. but truthfully, I will know I am in heaven by the silence in my soul.
I’ve had glimpses of that silence in this life.
In my father’s hospital room.
Watching a newborn child sleep.
Resting against the trunk of a giant oak in the middle of a forest. In an ongoing practice of prayer and meditation.
I wonder if I should put in my end-of-life instructions: “Please! No sirens!! My soul is listening to the silence….”
Do you like to reflect on life’s questions?
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