Is there life after death? It’s one of the oldest questions humanity has ever asked.

Life after death has fascinated humanity for thousands of years. Every culture has tried to answer what happens after we die. Some believe we immediately go to heaven or hell. Others believe in reincarnation. Many people aren’t sure what they believe anymore, yet they still find themselves wondering what happens when this lifetime ends.

At the Boulder Psychic Institute, we approach that question a little differently.

Rather than asking people to adopt a particular belief system, we encourage them to become curious. Psychic development isn’t about collecting someone else’s answers. It’s about learning how to discover your own.

In a recent Psychics Gone Live, Miwa and Three explored this topic through Miwa’s decades of experience as a psychic, including years working in hospice, where she sat with many people during the final stage of life.

Before sharing any of her observations, Miwa offered insight she offers every new student who walks through the doors of the BPI.

Run everything through your own truth.

If something resonates, wonderful. If it doesn’t, set it aside. The purpose isn’t to convince you of anything. It’s to offer another perspective while encouraging you to strengthen your own spiritual awareness.

Does the Soul Leave the Body Immediately?

Many people picture death as an instant event. The body stops breathing, and the soul immediately leaves.

Miwa’s observations suggest the transition is often more gradual.

She described seeing people whose souls separated from the body with remarkable ease. In some cases, the soul left within only a few hours after the body died, remaining nearby briefly as though it were gently completing its connection to that lifetime before moving on.

Other souls take considerably longer. Rather than immediately crossing over, they remain connected to the physical plane while gradually releasing what still ties them here. That may be loved ones, a home, unfinished business, unresolved trauma, or simply not realizing the body has died. The stronger those attachments, the more difficult it can be to let go.

Miwa was careful not to frame this as something frightening. Instead, she sees it as a natural part of each soul’s journey. “We’re all on this soul’s journey,” she explains. “Every soul is unique.”

From her perspective, there isn’t a right or wrong timeline for crossing over. Every soul moves through the transition in its own way, just as every person grows differently during life.

Why Some Souls Stay Close to Earth

Three asked a question many people wonder about: What happens if crossing over isn’t smooth? Is everyone immediately greeted by angels, loved ones, and the white light, or can the experience be more complicated?

Miwa believes both experiences are possible.

From her observations, some souls remain close to the physical world because they haven’t fully released their connection to it. This is where she says she most often observes what many people call ghosts. Rather than seeing them as frightening or malicious, she sees them as souls still moving through their own process of learning before continuing on.

One of the most distinctive aspects of Miwa’s perspective is that she doesn’t judge those souls.

Here on Earth, we’re quick to label experiences as good or bad, successful or unsuccessful. We often carry that same thinking into spiritual conversations, assuming a quick transition is somehow better than a slower one.

Miwa has never observed it that way.

Instead, she sees every experience, including remaining close to Earth for a time, as part of the soul’s ongoing education. Rather than asking whether someone crossed over the “right” way, she encourages a different question:

What might this soul still be learning?

That shift from judgment to curiosity lays the foundation for understanding everything else Miwa shared about life after death, and it lays the foundation for understanding everything else Miwa shares about what happens in life after death.

What Happens After We Cross Over?

Once the spirit has fully released its connection to the body, what happens next?

People who have had near-death experiences often describe moving toward a brilliant white light. They talk about feeling overwhelming peace, unconditional love, and a deep sense of coming home. Although those stories come from many different cultures and belief systems, the similarities are striking.

Miwa believes there’s a reason so many people describe a similar experience.

In the BPI’s  Trance Medium Program, she teaches what she calls the “spiritual mechanics” of crossing over. She explains that as the spirit leaves the body, it naturally moves up and out through energetic structures above the head, including the crown chakra and the creative rings. As she puts it, “You go up and out as the soul is leaving the body, and you go through these rings and chakras and, woo, there’s the white light.” 

The white light isn’t simply something people happen to see. It’s part of the spirit’s natural journey as it returns to the other side. That’s why she isn’t surprised when people from very different backgrounds describe similar experiences after a near-death event. The language they use may differ, but the underlying experience can be remarkably alike.

She also shared something that many people find comforting. If the transition is smooth, the spirit is greeted by what she calls Source. Others might call it the Supreme Being, God, Allah, or another name for the same loving presence. The name isn’t what’s important. What matters is the experience of returning to that source of unconditional love before beginning the next stage of the journey. 

From there, Miwa says the spirit naturally moves into a life review, then spends time on the other side until it’s ready for whatever comes next. Rather than seeing death as an ending, she describes it as a transition. The body has completed its work, but the spirit continues its own journey of learning, awareness, and growth. 

Life After Death Includes a Life Review, Not Judgment

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the discussion was Miwa’s description of the life review.

Many of us grow up with some version of the idea that after death we’ll stand before someone else who decides whether we lived a good enough life. Depending on your background, that might be St. Peter at the pearly gates, a divine judge, or another spiritual authority deciding what happens next.

Instead, Miwa describes something different and, in many ways, much more compassionate: the soul reviews its own life.

No one is handing out grades. No one is waiting to point out every mistake you’ve ever made. Instead, the soul naturally begins looking back over the lifetime it just completed from a much broader perspective than was possible while living in a physical body.

What did I learn from this experience? How did I grow? Where did fear hold me back? Which relationships helped me become more of who I really am? What still feels unfinished?

Those are the kinds of questions Miwa sees arising during a life review. Rather than focusing on punishment or reward, the soul is trying to understand the life it just lived. It isn’t looking for reasons to criticize itself. It’s gathering wisdom. Every relationship, challenge, success, and disappointment becomes another piece of a much larger picture.

Miwa also shared something Three found especially interesting. She doesn’t see people going through this process alone. Instead, she describes what she calls a council of souls that has been with each of us since our own spiritual beginning. Their role isn’t to judge or criticize. Instead, they help us remember the intentions we had before entering this lifetime and offer perspective as we reflect on everything we experienced.

That doesn’t mean someone else decides your future.

According to Miwa, free will doesn’t suddenly disappear after death. The soul remains an active participant in its own journey. As the life review unfolds, it begins to consider what it would like to learn next and which experiences might help it continue growing.

What Near-Death Experiences Suggest About Life After Death

Three pointed out something that’s difficult to ignore once you start paying attention.

Many people who return from a near-death experience don’t simply go back to living the way they did before. Some lose their fear of death almost overnight. Others walk away from careers that no longer feel meaningful, repair relationships that have been broken for years, or completely reorganize their priorities.

From the outside, those changes can seem dramatic, but Miwa’s perspective, they make perfect sense.

She explained that, from what she’s observed psychically, there is no time on the other side. That’s a difficult concept for the logical mind because nearly everything we experience here revolves around clocks and calendars. Yet if the soul isn’t bound by time in the same way, it’s possible for someone whose body was unconscious for only a few minutes to experience something that feels much longer, much deeper, and far more expansive.

In that expanded state, the soul may gain an extraordinary amount of understanding in what appears to us to be only a brief moment. That may help explain why so many people return describing experiences that changed them at their core.

Imagine seeing your entire life from a completely different perspective. Imagine instantly understanding how your choices affected other people, recognizing what truly mattered to you, or remembering the deeper reasons you came into this lifetime in the first place. It’s easy to see how an experience like that could reshape the way someone chooses to live after returning.

At the same time, Miwa was careful not to make sweeping conclusions. Not everyone who has a near-death experience remembers seeing a white light or having a life review. Some remember extraordinary details. Others remember nothing at all. Neither experience means someone is more spiritually evolved than another. Just as every lifetime is unique, every soul’s journey back through the transition of death is unique as well.

What Working in Hospice Taught Miwa About Dying

Some of Miwa’s most meaningful observations about death didn’t come from psychic readings. They came from years of working in hospice, where she had the privilege of sitting with people during the final chapter of their lives. Spending that much time with people who were actively crossing over gave her a unique perspective. While every person’s experience was different, she began to notice patterns that recurred over and over again.

One of the first things she noticed was that dying rarely looked as simple as people expected. Families often assumed there would be one clear moment when their loved one would pass, but that wasn’t usually what she observed. 

Instead, the process often unfolded gradually.

 A person might seem as though they were only hours away from dying, only to become unexpectedly alert the following day. They might ask for something to eat, tell a story, recognize everyone in the room, or suddenly seem stronger than they had in days. Then, just as unexpectedly, they would begin declining again.

For families, those changes could be incredibly confusing. It was hard to know whether their loved one was recovering or whether the end was still approaching. 

Miwa came to see those shifts differently. Rather than thinking something had gone wrong, she believed the soul was gradually preparing for its transition. Instead of leaving all at once, it seemed to loosen its connection to the body, little by little, until it was ready to let go completely.

To explain what she was observing, Miwa used a simple analogy. Imagine packing for a long trip. Most people don’t throw everything into the car in one motion and drive away. They gather their belongings, make several trips back and forth, realize they forgot something, and go back one last time before finally leaving. 

Tthe soul often prepares for death in much the same way. Part of its awareness begins preparing for what’s next while another part remains connected to the physical body. 

Looking at the process this way helped explain why every person’s transition unfolded differently. Some seemed ready almost immediately. Others needed more time. Neither experience was better than the other because every soul was simply following its own path.

Why Families Often Begin Remembering the Past

There was another pattern Miwa noticed that had nothing to do with the dying person. It had everything to do with the people gathered around them.

As someone approached the end of life, family members often began remembering stories they hadn’t thought about in years. A childhood memory would suddenly surface. Someone would laugh about an old family vacation. Another person would remember a funny conversation or an event everyone thought had been forgotten. 

Before long, the room would be filled with stories that seemed to appear almost effortlessly.

If you’ve ever spent time with someone in hospice, you’ve probably seen this happen yourself. It almost feels instinctive. People naturally begin reflecting on the life they’ve shared together.

Miwa doesn’t believe that’s simply because everyone is feeling emotional. 

From her perspective, something much deeper may be taking place. As the soul begins reviewing the lifetime it has just lived, the people closest to that soul may naturally begin reviewing it as well. 

They remember the moments that shaped them, the experiences they shared, the challenges they overcame together, and the love that connected them throughout the years.

Whether someone views that spiritually or psychologically, it’s a beautiful reminder that our lives are deeply intertwined with one another. We don’t experience life in isolation. Our stories become part of other people’s stories, just as theirs become part of ours. 

As one chapter comes to a close, everyone who shared it is, in their own way, gently preparing to turn the page.

Understanding Death Changes the Way We Live

Although the conversation centered on what happens after death, Miwa continually brought the focus back to life.

Knowing what may happen after we die isn’t meant to make us obsessed with death. 

If anything, it should help us appreciate life more deeply. When you begin seeing yourself as a spirit having a human experience, the questions naturally change. Instead of asking whether you’re doing everything perfectly, you begin asking whether you’re actually present for the life you’re living.

That’s one reason Miwa talks so much about awareness. 

If the soul eventually looks back over this lifetime, then every experience has value. The joyful moments matter. The painful moments matter. The relationships that challenged you matter. Even the mistakes become meaningful because they teach the soul something it couldn’t have learned any other way.

Looking at life through that lens can be surprisingly freeing. 

You don’t have to spend your life trying to avoid every difficult experience or worrying that you’ve somehow fallen behind. 

Growth doesn’t come from getting everything right. It comes from becoming more conscious of how you move through each experience and what you learn from it.

Spiritual growth isn’t about escaping your humanity. It’s about becoming more present for it. 

The more aware you become of yourself as a spirit, the more fully you can participate in the life you’re living right now.

Can You Prepare for Death While You’re Alive?

Toward the end of the conversation, Three asked a question that many people wonder about: if crossing over is a natural spiritual process, is there anything we can do now to prepare for it?

Miwa’s answer wasn’t complicated.

Become familiar with your own spirit while you’re alive.

That’s one of the reasons psychic development exists. Learning to ground, meditate, become aware of your energy, and recognize your own spiritual awareness isn’t simply preparation for what happens someday after death. 

Those tools help you become more present today. They make it easier to navigate relationships, respond to life’s challenges with greater clarity, and trust your own inner knowing rather than constantly reacting out of fear.

In many ways, that became the message running beneath the entire conversation. The question isn’t simply, What happens after death? The deeper question is, How fully am I living while I’m here?

If understanding the soul’s journey helps us become more compassionate, more aware, and more present with the people we love, then perhaps that’s one of the greatest gifts these conversations can offer.

Life After Death and Reincarnation

Once Three and Miwa finished talking about the life review, the conversation naturally turned to another question. If the soul reflects on its life after death, what happens next? Does it remain in spirit forever, or does it eventually return?

For Miwa, reincarnation isn’t a strange or mysterious idea. It simply makes sense.

If the soul continues growing, why would that growth stop after a single lifetime?

She describes each lifetime as one chapter in a much longer journey. Every life offers different relationships, different challenges, and different opportunities to understand ourselves more deeply. Some experiences teach compassion. Others teach courage, patience, forgiveness, or trust. 

When one lifetime ends, another opportunity to learn eventually begins.

Looking at reincarnation this way removes much of the pressure people carry around getting life exactly right. 

Rather than believing we have one chance to accomplish everything we’re meant to do, Miwa sees the soul as continually expanding over many lifetimes. 

Difficult experiences matter just as much as joyful ones because each one deepens the soul’s understanding. Growth isn’t measured by perfection. It’s measured by awareness.

She was also careful to point out that reincarnation isn’t a punishment. 

We don’t come back because we failed. Instead, the soul chooses to continue learning.

 After reflecting on one lifetime, it naturally begins considering what it would like to experience next. There may be qualities it wants to strengthen, relationships it wants to explore from a different perspective, or entirely new experiences that will help it continue evolving. 

Reincarnation isn’t about repeating the same lessons forever. It’s about expanding the soul’s understanding one lifetime at a time.

Do We Choose Our Lives Before We’re Born?

That naturally leads to another question. If the soul returns, does it also choose the life it’s about to live?

Miwa believes the answer is yes, but probably not in the way most people imagine. She doesn’t describe life as a rigid script in which every event is planned and every decision made in advance.

Free will still exists. We make choices every day, and those choices shape our lives in meaningful ways.

Instead, she describes something more like creating a blueprint. Before entering a new lifetime, the soul begins looking at the kinds of experiences that would support its continued growth. It may choose certain opportunities, certain relationships, or even particular challenges because they provide exactly the experiences the soul hopes to have. 

Once life begins, however, how those experiences unfold depends on the choices we make along the way.

That perspective also explains why two people can experience similar circumstances but grow from them in completely different ways. 

The opportunity may be similar, but each soul brings its own awareness, choices, and intentions into the experience. The blueprint creates possibilities. Free will determines how we move through them.

Why Don’t We Remember Our Past Lives?

This is usually the next question people ask. If we’ve lived before, why don’t we remember any of it?

Miwa’s answer is surprisingly practical. 

Imagine trying to fully experience your current life while carrying the memories of dozens or even hundreds of previous lifetimes. Every relationship would come with layers of old history. Every disappointment would be mixed with grief from another lifetime. 

Instead of being fully present with the people and experiences in front of you, your attention would constantly be pulled into the past.

Forgetting gives us the chance to fully arrive in this lifetime. 

That doesn’t mean those previous lives disappear. According to Miwa, the wisdom remains with the soul even when the conscious memories don’t. Sometimes that wisdom shows up as an unexpected talent, an immediate connection with someone you’ve just met, or a lifelong fascination with a place you’ve never visited. 

Other times, memories from another lifetime become useful during a psychic reading or healing because they help explain something that’s happening in the present.

That’s why the BPI approaches past lives differently than many spiritual traditions. 

The purpose isn’t to become fascinated with who you might have been centuries ago. The purpose is always in the present time. 

If understanding another lifetime creates more freedom, clarity, or healing in your life today, then exploring it serves a purpose. If it doesn’t, there’s no need to become attached to the story.

What Life After Death Can Teach Us About Living

By the end of the conversation, it became clear that Miwa and Three weren’t simply trying to answer the question, What happens after death? They were pointing toward a much more practical question: How does understanding the spirit change the way we live today?

If the spirit continues beyond this lifetime, then every experience becomes part of its growth. Success, loss, relationships, unexpected detours, moments of intuition, and even mistakes all contribute to the evolution of the spirit. Life becomes less about getting everything right and more about learning from every experience.

That’s why the BPI places such an emphasis on psychic development. The purpose isn’t simply to satisfy curiosity about what happens after death. It’s to better understand yourself as a spirit while you’re here. That understanding can bring greater perspective, helping you navigate life with more trust, clarity, and purpose.

Perhaps that’s the greatest gift conversations like this offer. Rather than pulling our attention toward death, they invite us to live this life more consciously.

Continue Exploring

If learning about life after death has sparked your curiosity, chances are you’re searching for more than an answer about what happens after death. You’re searching to better understand the spirit, your own experiences, and what it all means. The Boulder Psychic Institute offers practical ways to begin that journey.

Whether you’re interested in learning the foundational tools taught in Self Healing 101, scheduling a psychic reading, or experiencing a healing, you’ll find practical techniques that help you become more aware of yourself as a spirit and bring that awareness into everyday life. That’s where the BPI always brings the conversation back to: not simply understanding what happens after death, but living this lifetime with greater awareness, presence, and ease.

Frequently Asked Questions About What Happens After Death