Create Your Own Afterlife, by Samantha Corfield

crea e yourown a ter i e Take Control of Life After Death

About the Author

Samantha Corfield is a spiritual counselor with a PhD in Theology and World Religion who has guided thousands through their fears of death and dying. An ordained minister for more than forty years and an initiated Mambo Asogwe, Samantha combines ancient wisdom with practical spirituality. She splits her time between New Orleans and Albuquerque. Learn more at Spellmaker .com.

Create Your Own Afterlife: Take Control of Life After Death Copyright © 2026

by Samantha Corfield. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd., except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.

First Edition First Printing, 2026 Book design by Samantha Peterson Cover design by Kevin R. Brown Interior illustrations by Llewellyn Art Department Llewellyn Publications is a registered trademark of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Pending) ISBN: 978-0-7387-8181-5 Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business transactions between our authors and the public.

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Any internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific location will continue to be maintained. Please refer to the publisher’s website for links to authors’ websites and other sources.

Llewellyn Publications A Division of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. 2143 Wooddale Drive Woodbury, MN 55125-2989 www.llewellyn.com Printed in the United States of America GPSR Representation: UPI-2M PLUS d.o.o., Medulićeva 20, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, matt.parsons@upi2mbooks.hr

To Wendy I could not have done this without you.

For Matt More.

Contents Introduction

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Chapter One: The Journey of a Lifetime 9 Chapter Two: Your Afterlife Companions

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Chapter Three: The World’s Sacred Stories and How They Help You Shape Yours 37 Chapter Four: Funeral Rites and the Afterlife

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Chapter Five: Emotional Burdens: Releasing the Weights We Carry 65 Chapter Six: Working with Your Grief

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Chapter Seven: Reunions with the Dead

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Chapter Eight: Afterlife Planning with the Living

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Chapter Nine: Connecting Through Ghostly Beliefs

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Chapter Ten: The Bridge of Dreams

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Chapter Eleven: Unbound: Your Afterlife Chapter Book Chapter Twelve: Beyond Human

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Chapter Thirteen: A Day in Your Afterlife

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Conclusion

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Contents Appendix A: For Those with Limited Time: Embracing the Journey 245 Appendix B: Creating Together Forever

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Appendix C: The Caregiver’s Guide to the Afterlife Acknowledgments

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Recommended Reading Bibliography

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Introduction Death is inevitable. Not to bring down the room, but we are all dying right this minute…and the next minute…and so forth.

That absolute truth is why I wrote this book and why you need it. Nothing in this world is as equalizing as the certainty that all living things will die. No matter your background, race, creed, orientation, social status, or wealth, death will find us all one day.

The Uniform Determination of Death Act (yep, that’s a thing) defined death as the irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions.1 Those words—irreversible cessation—settled into my bones like a cold truth I couldn’t unhear. While people have always understood death as final, that phrasing stirs something deeper. It forced me to reflect on just how profound and real the concept of death is: We will all irreversibly cease.

But here’s the twist. Death is not the enemy. Death is the gateway to eternity.

This book is your opportunity to embrace that gateway on your own terms. However, this isn’t just another book. It’s your lifelong companion for your soul’s eternal journey. Much like you take ownership of your life, you will be taking ownership of your afterlife. You are going to build the most remarkable afterlife for yourself! Regardless of your religion, belief system, or lack 1. McCall, “What Is the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA)?”

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Introduction

thereof, you are at the wheel. There are no biases here, no rigid dogmas, and most importantly, no wrong answers.

The Purpose of This Book

Our journey to death is every day of our lives. This isn’t meant to be morbid. In fact, just the opposite. I encourage you to take this journey so you may have a unique, pivotal perspective on your death and your afterlife. This perspective will be one that not only helps you confront and alleviate any fear you may have of death but empowers you to live fully and fearlessly. How? By embracing the principles laid out in these pages, you will discover the ability to shape beliefs about your afterlife in a completely personal way.

In doing so, you will claim control over your spiritual journey.

You, and only you, will be the creator of your afterlife experience.

This concept will instill in you a sense of confidence; you will be provided with not just hope but peace of mind. Uncertainty will be replaced with a clear sense of purpose. I hope this will be the journey of a lifetime for you!

I also developed this guide because I have wishes for you. I wish for your fear and anxiety about death to diminish. I wish for you to feel empowered and in charge of your own destiny. I wish for your life to become enriched when you are no longer worrying about death.

Even if you don’t fear death because you feel prepared for death through religious or spiritual practices, you can still benefit from this book. For instance, perhaps you solidly believe you will go to your current version of eternity and be reunited with your loved ones who have gone before you. So many of us hope for that. I know I do! When you reunite with those loved ones, and I believe you will, what then? That’s the question you will create the

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answer to. That is what this book is all about. I suppose I could have called it Afterlife Vacation Planning!

Whether your belief in an afterlife is strong, questionable, or not even there, this book has something for you. This spiritual path stays with you for an eternity. Even though this journey will be free from any prescriptive beliefs, your traditions can play a huge role in afterlife planning. You will be guided by tradition, not imprisoned by it. If you have anxieties about death, the goal is to alleviate them through planning. If you don’t have those anxieties, you will just have fun planning your afterlife. When you know where you are going, you are free to enjoy where you are.

In many cultures, death remains a taboo subject, but this book helps break down those walls, encouraging honest conversations that lead to a deeper connection with yourself and others. It presents death not as an end but as a crucial part of a complete, welllived physical life; eternal life; and an opportunity for growth, understanding, and fulfillment.

This is not a morbid journey. It is a celebration of your life that moves seamlessly directly into your afterlife. You are meeting death on your own terms. You are dictating what happens, who you see, and what you do in the afterlife. You are taking bold and courageous steps to build exactly what you desire most in your afterlife.

In her book Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life

by Getting Real About the End, death doula Alua Arthur writes, “Death? I toss the idea back and forth in my head like a spikey tennis ball in disbelief. I feel more alive than I have in years. Talk of death is starting to bring me back to life.” 2 2. Arthur, Briefly Perfectly Human, 1.

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Recommendations for How to Use This Book

I highly recommend that you go through this book in the order it is presented because the beginning work you will do is foundational. Each layer of this journey builds on the foundation of the other layers.

Throughout this book, you will find sections marked Affirmation, Meditation, Journal Prompts, and Exercise.

The Affirmation sections are here to help you clear your mind and prepare your spirit for the journey ahead. These affirmations are designed to open your heart, uplift your spirit, and help you shape your unique afterlife journey with intention and love. They offer a moment of internal cleansing, a chance to pause, breathe, and open your heart to the insights of the chapter to come. They help quiet the noise of the outside world and create an inner atmosphere of openness, allowing the soul to receive what it needs most. Each affirmation will help ground and balance you for your important journey through the chapter you are on. When you come across an affirmation, take a few deep breaths and recite it as many times as you would like.

The Meditation sections are your gentle gateways into stillness. They’re designed to help you quiet your mind, soften your thoughts, and enter a receptive state of learning—one that allows you to engage more deeply with the journal prompts and exercises that follow. Think of the meditations as a spiritual breath: a pause that invites presence, reflection, and connection before you begin your inner work. As with all meditation, this can be a very personal process. You may plan to spend a short or long amount of time with each meditation; you may find yourself going back to certain meditations. Each meditation invites you into a sacred space of calm and clarity, guiding you toward deeper insights in

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your journaling and chapter work. These meditations open the mind and soften the heart so the work that follows is done in the most hospitable environment you can create. Read the meditation, close your eyes, and see where your spirit wanders. When you feel ready to begin the next part of your work, open your eyes, stretch, take some deep breaths and move on. Each meditation in this book also has a voice-guided version available at www.createyourownafterlife.com.

The Journal Prompts sections will help you move from thought to feeling to insight. They encourage creative reflection, helping you sift through ideas, memories, and emotions that might otherwise remain just below the surface. When journaling, I don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, or even making sense sometimes; I let my thoughts flow without editing, and that helps me stay emotionally honest. I encourage you to do the same. Let your pen, voice, or keyboard be a space for truth, not perfection.

The Exercise sections are where your vision begins to take form. They guide you in shaping the details of your afterlife plans. They bring clarity, structure, and focus to what your spirit has been whispering to you. While the journal prompts invite free-flowing thought, the exercises help you organize, choose, and define your desire. This is where your imagination becomes a map, and your intentions become practice. Just gently remind yourself you don’t have to get it “right” on the first try. Your answers can grow and change as you do. The point is to begin.

Honor what arises from your heart. Exercises are where you start sketching your soul’s design.

Engaging with each of these four parts (Affirmation, Meditation, Journal Prompts, and Exercise) will set you up for an incredible creative journey. Remember to take a moment to celebrate

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each step you complete, no matter how small. Recognizing your progress can build excitement and confidence as you create your afterlife vision.

You may want to return many times to these elements of the book. They are great tools for your ongoing afterlife planning.

A word about Free Will. As a Haitian-initiated Vodou Mambo who teaches and casts spells, I always remind those who are doing work to influence others that Free Will must remain intact. Working magick on someone else should be a persuasion, an offer, a gift—not a bending of their will. It is the same with your afterlife planning. What if someone doesn’t want to be involved in your afterlife? Are you forcing them to join you even if they don’t want to? Absolutely not. When working on your plans that involve other people, keep in mind the idea of their own Free Will. You could add the phrase “if you desire to join me” to each scenario you write or keep it in mind as a blanket mantra to let others know that while you want them in your afterlife, that only happens if they want it too. Free Will is not only relevant in this life.

Some subjects or exercises may need a little bit of extra help or time. If you encounter a section that feels emotionally overwhelming, take a pause. It’s okay to step away and return when you’re ready. You might also find comfort in talking with a trusted loved one or reflecting in a safe, quiet space before continuing.

Take your time manifesting your incredible afterlife, if you have that luxury. This journey is meant to be a

Introduction

marathon, not a sprint. But if you’re walking this path while facing a terminal illness or time-limiting diagnosis, please know that I’ve created an abbreviated version of the process especially for you. It’s waiting for you with care and respect in appendix A of this book.

This work isn’t about doing everything perfectly; it’s about doing it your way, even if that means pausing, skipping, grieving, laughing, or rewriting along the way. Your vision is valid, even if it’s unfinished.

Your presence is enough. Even a few steps taken with intention can shape a powerful and meaningful afterlife vision. Please don’t hesitate to use the abbreviated version of this journey.

Acknowledge and celebrate your unique journey. This book is designed to guide you through a deeply personal process. Whether you’re here for curiosity, clarity, or comfort, your journey is your own. Move through it at your pace and trust yourself to navigate what feels right.

You may want to collaborate with loved ones. If you’re supporting someone (as a caregiver, friend, or family member) who is planning their afterlife, consider reading along or engaging with them in some of the exercises. Your presence can provide additional comfort and insight, and it might deepen your connection. See appendix C for a special section meant to help caregivers navigate assisting someone else through this book.

Utilize the appendices. The appendices in this book offer guidance for special circumstances: when time is

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short, when you wish to plan with someone else, or when you are supporting a loved one through this process. Each section presents a focused approach drawn from the same heart and spirit as the main text, refined to meet these unique moments of life. Whether you are the one preparing, partnering, or caring, may these pages help you find peace, clarity, and connection in the sacred work of creating your afterlife.

If you need help during your journey, please visit www .createyourownafterlife.com for support, questions, bonus materials, and ideas. You are also welcome to join a group of like-minded individuals who are exploring these same profound questions via the “Create Your Own Afterlife Friends” Facebook Group.3 Everyone there is seeking to understand life and death, and the journey between them, in a more meaningful way.

I hope you will join us if this is something that appeals to you.

Most of all, practice self-compassion. As you travel on this journey, remember it is okay to feel vulnerable, take breaks, or revisit sections later. Trust the process and honor your own pace. Give yourself grace.

Please note: This is not technically a grief book.

However, building an afterlife to include those loved ones you have lost can be cathartic for the grief process. If you are grieving, please consider this as that bit of assistance you have been looking for.

3. www.facebook.com/groups/createyourownafterlife

CHAPTER ONE

The Journey of a Lifetime Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality.

—Emily Dickinson, “Because I could not stop for Death”

Do you remember your earliest afterlife beliefs? So many things can shape our thoughts and beliefs about eternity. Religion, family, education, non-traditional upbringings, even fictional books and movies can spark something inside us. Whether ignited by sermons, stories, starlight, or spells, your earliest visions of the afterlife may still echo quietly within you, or they may be a huge part of your life to this day.

My Afterlife Beliefs Journey

Perhaps for many of you, your beliefs started much like mine. As a young Catholic Italian girl growing up in New Orleans, I was quite sure of what my afterlife would be.

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AFFIRMATION I explore limitless possibilities with an open heart. I am free of bias and full of wonder.

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Of course, I wouldn’t have called it the afterlife. It was heaven in my mind, and I was obsessively determined to get in.

Attending St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School, going to confession every Friday, and going to Mass every single day—well, surely heaven awaited me, right? I was 100 percent sure one day I would be there on a cloud with Jesus, enjoying heaven. Of course, it never occurred to me at that point in my life what exactly that meant. I was going to be on the cloud with Jesus, and…now what?

Jesus, me, and the cloud: That was good enough for me.

To ensure this heavenly status, I was very, very careful to try not to have anything to confess on Fridays. Weird child that I was, I would eagerly await my turn in line at the confessional. I simply could not wait to get to confession with absolutely nothing to confess. Never mind I had to start my confession with, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned.” Then Father would say, “Bless you, my child. Tell me your sins.”

With all the self-importance I could muster, I would say in my most pious voice, “I haven’t sinned at all this week, Father.”

I always said it a bit loudly, bursting with pride. I wanted to flaunt to the others.

“Good for you, daughter. Say three Hail Marys and three Our Fathers.”

“Oh, thank you, Father, but I will say my whole rosary.” I had those pearly gates in my crosshairs. When I think about the smugness with which I left the confessional…Surely there was something sinful about that!

Challenging Childhood Beliefs

Tweenage years came along. I began to slowly understand there were different religions and beliefs. I was in public school and had

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made friends with students who were Jewish and Hindu. I loved learning about their cultures and beliefs.

I was still going to confession, but now I had some impure thoughts to confess! If you are keeping score, impure thoughts were the same three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys. I still had heaven in my crosshairs.

Growing Adult Spiritual Beliefs

On becoming a teenager, however, what my afterlife would look like didn’t seem as clear to me as it did when I was that pious seven-year-old. I could no longer fathom the idea that Jesus was going to be sitting on a cloud with me. Surely Jesus had better and more important things to do.

When I was thirteen, I began to learn folk magick and natural witchcraft from my grandmother, Mattie. She had grown up in the hills of Tennessee. She and her sisters grew up doing root work, mountain magick, and other forms of earth magick. I immediately felt the magickal connection between myself and all natural elements. She taught me to appreciate the natural cycles of living and dying. Grandma used to say, “Dying is just returning to where you began so you can live again.”

My mother had been a tea leaf reader at Bottom of the Cup in the New Orleans French Quarter for a couple of years at this point. New thoughts began to meld with old thoughts. During the 1960s, New Orleans had become rife with seances, Voodoo rituals, psychics, etc. that were all open to the public. Prior to that time, things were more secretive. My mother loved it all, and since she had no babysitter, I went with her and participated in many wonderful things. Interesting thing about New Orleans beliefs

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back then: One could easily still be Catholic and dabbling in all these other things. It just seemed natural.

By the time I was eighteen, I had been initiated as a witch by the late, great Oneida Toups. I had access to a wonderful occult library. As my knowledge of magick, witchcraft, voodoo, root work, and necromancy grew, my beliefs about the afterlife became confusing. My head was full of wonderful and exciting things that I didn’t quite understand yet.

As I entered university to study religion, I still believed 100 percent in the afterlife. What it looked like, however, was less and less clear to me. There were so many religions, so many beliefs.

Who was I to say what was wrong and what was right? What was I to believe now? There were so many options. I began to feel as though the afterlife might be a shifting tapestry, woven from faith, desire, and something more ancient than doctrine.

Life was taking off. A baby was born. School and work took up most of my time. I decided to shrug it all off for the time being and be as good a person as I could. Afterlives would take care of themselves—or so I thought.

Maryenna’s Story: A Catalyst for New Thinking

Many years later, I received some horrible news. One of my best friends, Maryenna, was dying of ovarian cancer. When she found out she was dying, all she really wanted to know was what was going to happen to her next. She turned to me. In the years since university, I had traveled to Haiti and been accepted for initiation as a Mambo Asogwe in the Vodou religion. Maryenna was an initiate under me. I had been her mambo and spiritual advisor for years. She felt an understanding about what would happen directly after death, but then what? What would she see and do?

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Who would be there? Despite what we learned happens directly after death as Vodouisants (we live under sacred waters for a year and a day), her questions seemed unanswerable in the detail she was seeking. My ruling spirit as a mambo is Baron Samedi, the father of the dead. Despite my conversations with him, I couldn’t fathom the details of what Maryenna would experience beyond the sacred waters.

But Maryenna and I still talked about it almost every day. We struggled with trying to sort out different afterlife beliefs. Several years before my mambo initiation, I had become a minister in the Universal Life Church and began to counsel people dealing with grief, dying, and trauma. But even as a mambo and a reverend, it was still difficult to answer all her questions with anything that felt like true clarity. Maryenna wanted details!

One day I blurted out to her, “Well, what do you want to happen?” This suddenly felt like the highest form of divine intervention—the words came out of my mouth, but I didn’t feel like I put them there. I wavered. I couldn’t even believe I asked her such a question.

Maryenna got very quiet. I worried I had been offensive.

Before I could apologize for sounding so blunt, a rush of words poured out of her. She spoke a litany of what she would want to see, do, and be in the afterlife. She talked for fifteen minutes straight with all the strength she could muster. It was a lot. She said she didn’t even know she had such ideas until I asked the question! It all felt miraculous to us.

From that point on until a few days before her death, we talked about how Maryenna could create her own afterlife. We were amazed by this. I believed it. She believed it. I asked her to start writing down all the things she could visualize about her eternity.

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Always a prolific writer, she wrote pages and pages of wonderful events she expected to happen. Now our talks became discussions of all the wonderful things she would do in her afterlife.

Maryenna had left the Catholic church many years prior because the Pope at that time said dogs don’t have souls and won’t be in heaven with you. (I wish she could have lived to hear another Pope rescind the concept of animals not having souls.) She had no human children. Her dogs had been everything. Needless to say, her past pets and her reconciliation with them figured heavily into her visualizations and expectations. This brought her a very special kind of peace.

Interestingly, throughout this whole process, neither one of us questioned it. We felt that we had been gifted with the key to at least our own afterlives.

When Maryenna died, I was so devastated to lose her, but I was uplifted by the fact that she had created a wonderful afterlife with her pets, making friends, and even traveling to places she never got to see.

That is how you and I got here. In the years since Maryenna went on to live her fabulous afterlife, I have worked from the roots of what she and I did together. Maryenna and I didn’t have a concrete system, nor did we have time to create one then. However, from our foundation, I have developed a system to help those who desire to be involved in their own wonderful afterlife. After many years of working with this, I truly believe we can impact our afterlife in detail.

When you think about it, most religions believe in some form of this concept. The “be good and get into heaven” system is widely believed. Reincarnation is a belief among millions of people. If you believe your actions on earth will have an effect on you after

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death, you are already creating some of your own afterlife by acting accordingly. Now you can get more detailed about it. Now you can designate what heaven (or any other concept you might have) will look like for you individually. Surely not everyone’s “heaven” can be the same.

If you don’t believe your actions on earth affect your afterlife, this book is still for you. This is not a book about, nor based on, religious belief. I use the word “heaven” here and there for its commonality and not to indicate a particular religion. In this book I will discuss religious and philosophical beliefs about the afterlife. However, all of this is only for comparative and informative purposes. It doesn’t matter what your belief system is or isn’t; it doesn’t matter if you are religious or an atheist or spiritual. I am not here to preach, convert, or even know what your spiritual/ religious beliefs are. This book is for everyone who wants to create the afterlife they desire. It’s for those who want to have some say in what happens to them after death.

You don’t need much to get started on this important work.

You will need a notebook or journal and something with which to write. Some people prefer or need to work on a computer or voice-activated system. Whatever works for you will be great!

Other than something to keep your thoughts in/on, you only need the desire to create your own wonderful forever.

Your Initial Thoughts About the Afterlife

To see where you want to go, let’s see where you are right now.

Foundational beliefs, or the lack thereof, are going to help you know where to start. What do you already believe about your own afterlife? Right now, right this minute: What do you believe is going to happen to you after you die?

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Perhaps your origin story is much like my own. You may have grown up in a religion that believed in the heaven/hell afterlife.

Maybe you have branched out now into something completely different. Maybe you grew up with no religious beliefs at all. Perhaps you had a wonderful spiritual and/or religious upbringing.

Those teachings may resonate with you now as they did when you were a child. Possibly you felt that your religion was oppressive and have never looked back. If you ended up hating what you were taught, now will be your time to change it. If this journey can help erase some religious trauma, that will be wonderful.

No matter what, a commonality in people is to desire an afterlife while fearing there isn’t one. You can erase that fear forever.

If you have a vague or solidified notion from childhood about the afterlife, start there. If you are reading this even though you don’t believe in an afterlife, that’s okay too. Perhaps you are an atheist. I have found that there is a mistaken concept about atheists. People always assume that atheists don’t believe in an afterlife. But I have talked with many atheists over the years, and they just don’t believe in a God or any supreme being. That doesn’t necessarily mean they believe nothing happens after death!

Don’t worry if you don’t know what you believe—you don’t have to have it all figured out yet. This is an opportunity to really think about what you currently believe about an afterlife. People tell me they are often surprised when they spend some quiet time figuring this out; their answers are often not what they expected.

Afterlife beliefs can take on different meanings and beliefs depending on what you’ve experienced in life.

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MEDITATION

Ignite Your Inner Flame This is a quick meditation you can use at any time to cleanse and prepare space within yourself. This meditation is deceptively simple. It ignites your inner light as a guiding force in planning your afterlife.

Visualize a flame glowing within you, ancient and steady. With each breath, it grows brighter, warming your chest, your hands, your mind. This is your soul fire, the light that will guide you across realms.

Let the flame fill your entire being, clearing away doubt and fear. You are preparing sacred space within, a hearth for vision, a beacon for spirit.

As the light steadies, whisper (aloud or silently): “I am lit from within. I carry the key to my afterlife.”

Let that light remain with you as you begin this journey. It is your eternal lantern.

I also love using this meditation when I feel uninspired, tired, or hangry. Its beauty lies in the fact that it only takes a minute or two and can be completed almost anywhere.

JOURNAL PROMPTS

A Reflection of Your Childhood Afterlife Beliefs Write freely or reflect on your spiritual beliefs as a child. Try beginning with the phrase: “I used to believe…” and see where the words take you. What events caused shifts in your beliefs, whether gentle or dramatic? Any resentment, confusion, joy,

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fear, or relief tied to your evolving beliefs should be explored.

Dig as deeply as you can. If writing is bringing up too many painful memories, take a break. Take some deep breaths and remember there is a reason for doing this.

This isn’t about right or wrong. It’s about uncovering your spiritual belief origin story so you can begin to consciously write your next chapter. After reflecting about your personal belief story, you might find it helpful to map out key moments and themes. The reflection exercise below will gently guide you through that process.

EXERCISE

Creating Your Belief Map If you have worked with candles before, either for meditation, spell work, or something else, consider lighting a candle before you begin this work. Choose a color that represents your current belief state: white for clarity, red for mystery, blue for truth, or green for growth. Let the flame anchor your energy while you reflect.

If you choose not to do the candle work, you can simply start at step one.

Step One: Foundations Draw a winding path on a piece of paper. Use each bend in the road to represent a different period of your life. Use the following bullet points to reflect, then write a summary of your afterlife beliefs beside the first bend or two.

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BELIEF JOURNEY

(Follow the path that brought you here.)

Foundation Points of Change

The Present Moment

Letting Go or Holding On

Consider keeping your finished illustration in your journal as a focal point anytime you need to reflect on what your beliefs are and how you got there.

• Consider what you were taught about the afterlife growing up.

• Reflect on whether you believed it at the time.

• Think about who shared these teachings with you.

How did you feel about them? Did you trust them?

• Notice whether those beliefs have held steady, evolved, or completely transformed over time.

Step Two: Points of Change • Explore when, or if, your beliefs began to shift.

• Did the change feel like a gradual unfolding or a sudden break?

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• Reflect on what influenced these changes: personal experiences, trauma, education, relationships, spiritual curiosity, etc.

Step Three: The Present Moment • Tune in to what you believe right now—in this moment—about what happens after death.

• If your belief is “nothing happens,” consider what that means to you emotionally or philosophically.

• If you feel uncertain, notice what that uncertainty feels like. Is it peaceful, frustrating, liberating, or something else?

Step Four: Letting Go or Holding On • Gently ask yourself if there are teachings or ideas that now feel outdated, painful, or oppressive, ones that you are ready to release.

• Reflect on whether there are beliefs from childhood that still bring you comfort or that you quietly hope might be true.

Step Five: Reflection Take a look at the belief map you just created. Everything has led up to your current belief landscape, a place of sacred soil.

You’re not just uncovering old teachings; you’re beginning the early work of addressing your spirit, sowing the seeds of your afterlife, and gathering the tools to weave your soul’s sanctuary. You’re not here to fix anything; you’re here to explore.

Remember, this is just your starting place. Right now, the goal is for you to have, to the best of your ability, the start of a

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clear understanding of what you already believe. This will be your working foundation. Take your time with it. When you are done, you have completed the first step toward creating your afterlife.

You are on your way to planning your afterlife! Who will walk beside you in the after realms? Who will you greet across the veil? The journey ahead is yours to craft to include all of those beings you love, have loved, and will love.

Body, Mind & Spirit / Afterlife

What if you could design your own afterlife, tailored precisely to your deepest desires? This revolutionary guide makes it possible.

Spiritual counselor Samantha Corfield shatters death taboos, offering you an empowering approach to what awaits beyond. Through compassionate guidance and practical exercises, Samantha helps you craft a personalized vision of eternity, providing advice on how to reunite with loved ones, explore cosmic realms, and experience what you may have missed in life.

Free from dogma yet respectful of all beliefs, Create Your Own Afterlife features exercises to release religious guilt, define your spiritual truth, and create a detailed afterlife blueprint. This hands-on book will profoundly shift your perspective, leading to reduced death anxiety, heightened present-moment awareness, and newfound spiritual autonomy. Planning your afterlife may just be the most liberating act of self-love you’ll ever experience.

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$18.99 US

COR FI ELD

Samantha Corfield is a spiritual counselor with a PhD in theology and world religion who has guided thousands through their fears of death and dying. An ordained minister for more than forty years and an initiated Mambo Asogwe, Samantha combines ancient wisdom with practical spirituality. She splits her time between New Orleans and Albuquerque. Learn more at Spellmaker.com.