WHY FEAR DEATH?

The most important message that a Spiritualist Church wants to give to people is that there IS a life after death.
I have been involved with Spiritualist Churches for thirty years and have heard over and over again proof that people who have passed over are still watching their loved ones and are in a much happier state than when they were here on earth.  I have heard mediums connecting with those who have passed over and giving information that could not be falsified to people attending churches or meetings.
If we hear this information time after time why should we be frightend of dying?   We often hear from those who were very ill when they passed over that they are fine and happy and well now.   So if we fear dying we have had proof that an ill body is healed when we get 'home'.
I had only been going to a Spiritual Church in Enmore/Sydney for a short while when I had an experience that gave me proof of being watched by our spiritual family.    I was studying Astrology and my teacher said that I must be like my fathers side of the family because of a certain placement in my chart.   I said "no, I am more like my mother's side of the family".  I did not think of it again, but a few weeks later a medium who was giving out messages from the platform of the Church said to me.  "Shirl, there is an old fashioned man here beside me, he has a bushy mustache and is dressed in an 1800's style.   He is VERY angry with you and tells me that he will not leave until you realise that you are like your father's side of the family.     Because I had forgotten about the incident in my Astrology class I did not understand what she was talking about.  It was on my way home in the car that I realised that one of my ancestors had been watching me and was not happy with my attitude.   
That was one of the first things that convinced me of life after death and I have had thirty years of hearing proof to members of the meetings I have attended.    I have also read many books that explain different aspects of the other side.
Michael Newton has written two books that I think are a wonderful help to understand what happens.
His first book Journey of the Soul explains that when we arrive in Heaven we go through a process of looking at our life and deciding what we need to learn next.   He says that we all have our own Soul Group of about 12 to 20 people with whom we spend lives.   Some of the group incarnate and some stay behind to watch and help.   These people are the ones we are most connected to each lifetime.  We swap roles so that each of us can learn to be a man or woman, mother or father, child or teacher etc.  Usually your really close people this lifetime are part of your soul group, mother, father, brothers and sisters,lover, special friends that you feel close to.   Apparently there is an 'outer' group of people who pop into our lives to help us or to set us off on different journeys.   Our soul group however needs to experience all experiences and feelings so that they can all be totally evolved.  Until each member of our group is totally evolved the group cannot move on.  This is why we often fees so stressed if one of our very close people is not working to their full potential and we want to help them but often cannot.    The other thing that he says in the book is that only part of our soul's energy comes to earth each time we incarnate.   The rest stays there so that part of all of our soul group is there at all times.   This means that when we die we will be able to join members of our true soul group even if they are still here on earth.   He says also that sometimes souls that are about to incarnate decide not to take too much energy with them.  Such souls, he says, often find the earth plane much harder to cope with than they expected and often turn to drink or drugs to cope. 
This is just one of the books I have read concerning our journey to the other side.  He has a following book called Destiny of Souls that is more involved with deciding what we are to do and who we are to do it with next time we decide to come back to School on Earth.
A very old book that gave more answers was A Soul's Journey by Peter Richelieu.   I read that many years ago and found it had other ideas to learn about.
We know that we are Spirit encased in a physical body ( I call it the vehicle) to travel through our current life in order to learn what WE chose to learn this time.   When we have learned it then it is time to go.  Time to have a vacation from this School until we decide to try again.