For My Friends & Loved Ones

These protocols are something I recommend to my friends and loved ones, at ANY stage in their lives as my dad I have found them to be not just beneficial to alleviate fear of dying but facilitate fuller more compassionate living.

Steve K.

So Thankful

When my dear friend was dying, I was sitting vigil with two other caregivers. I was so thankful for the Shared Crossing training as it prepared me for the amazing, heart-opening experiences that occurred during and after the death of my friend. 

Arlene R.

William's Story

My interests in end of life and shared crossings began when I was 17 years old—I had a near-death experience resulting from a high-speed skiing accident that left my spine crushed.  This experience was an initiation into the space that exists for all of us beyond this human life. 

Some years later, when I was a social worker in Peru, living with a group of Aymara people who had been forced off their land for sociopolitical reasons, I learned about the Aymaran belief that after death human souls make a journey to other dimensions in order to connect with their ancestors.  I also learned that, as a part of their spiritual practices, the Aymara were able to make these journeys while alive. 

As fate would have it, I experienced my first shared death experience while in Peru.  While traveling on a country road, I came across a seriously injured farmer who had been struck by a car. I was in the middle of administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation when I felt a number of loving presences descend upon us; I had the inexplicable feeling that these presences were there to offer support and affirmation for me and the farmer,e, who soon thereafter died due to his injuries. Still, I did not know how to make sense of this experience.

I continued working as a social worker in San Francisco when I returned to the United States.  This was right when the AIDS epidemic exploded.  During this period, I came to hear several stories from caregivers and loved ones of persons dying from AIDS that described bewildering accounts of people somehow having accompanied the dying to a glorious afterlife.  With my interest piqued, I joined the Zen Hospice Project of San Francisco, which led me to have many shared death experiences at the bedside of patients. 

I didn’t even know there was a term in our culture for these experiences until I heard Dr. Raymond Moody speak in 2009.  Moody identified shared death experiences or SDEs as “accompanying the dying halfway to heaven.”  As I sat there listening to Dr. Moody describe SDEs, memories of my own experiences flooded my mind, and my body lit up with an unknown energy.  I had discovered a name for what I had experienced.

I spoke to Raymond after his talk and was surprised to realize that not only was I familiar with the SDE and its various features, but—more incredibly—that I knew how to enable other people to have this experience with their dying loved ones. Indeed, at that very moment, the groundwork for the methods and protocols that I will teach you in this course was seemingly downloaded into my consciousness instantly. 

Since then, I have dedicated myself to better understanding shared death experiences. I have also created the Shared Crossing Project and the Shared Crossing Research Initiative, which are organizations working toward understanding and raising awareness about shared death experiences and their therapeutic potential.

I am considered one of the world’s leading authorities on shared death experiences.  But my passion lies in enabling others to have this transformative experience for themselves and their loved ones. As such, I created the Pathway program to offer laypeople and professionals alike an opportunity to learn these methods so that they, their loved ones, and their patients can experience the grandeur of this awe-inspiring experience. To date, over 80% those who have completed this pathway workshop have reported one or more extraordinary experience with a loved one. 

Now I invite you to discover what I, as an experiencer, a practicing psychotherapist, and a researcher, have come to learn about SDEs. 

I invite you to become prepared for one of life’s greatest journeys!

William J. Peters

Day 1

WHAT IS POSSIBLE AT THE END OF HUMAN LIFE?

Extraordinary end-of-life experiences or shared crossings have been reported for millennia, although they have been the subject of scientific inquiry for only a little more than a century.  During our first meeting we will review what research has revealed about various kinds of end-of-life phenomena and what our own cutting-edge work into shared crossings has unveiled. 

You will discover:

• Fascinating facts about experiences occurring around end of life that were uncovered by pioneers such as Peter Fenwick, Maggie Callanan, and Raymond Moody. 

• A comprehensive typology of the kinds of extraordinary end-of-life experiences available to the dying and their loved ones. 

• How, just by learning about shared crossings, you can begin to transform your relationship to life itself and uncover a deeper meaning and purpose for your own life here and now.

Day 2

PREPARING FOR A CONSCIOUS, CONNECTING AND LOVING END OF LIFE

Day 2 takes us deeper into the wisdom teachings of shared crossings and how they can prepare us all for a conscious, connected, and loving end-of-life experience.  By participating in various experiential exercises, we will begin to engage in the shared crossing healing process.  This invites a review of our life, identifies our regrets, and calls forth our compassion and forgiveness as we come to a state of appreciation and gratitude  about the life we have lived. 

By the end of day 2 you will:

• Understand and be able to work with various kinds of regret transforming them into valuable life lessons. 
• Learn how to identify and heal any unfinished business by applying compassion and forgiveness practices, thereby clearing the path for a graceful death.
• Engage in dynamic personal explorations and meaningful group work that prepares you to work with the Shared Crossing Protocols.

Day 3

THE SHARED CROSSING PROTOCOLS

The final day of this seminar involves actively and imaginatively engaging in preparing for the best death possible. 

Through a series of meditations, guided visualizations, and small group and partner work, you will open up to what is possible at the end of a life.  

By the end of this 3^rd day, you will learn:

• How to choreograph one’s death and transition.
• What the signposts are along this awe inspiring the path of transition.
• How to incorporate the Shared Crossing Protocols to connect with the soul of the dying and to enable a shared crossing at the time of one’s transition, which we identify as a shared death experience.

Opened a Door to Another Dimension

The group was full of supportive information that served as a comfort to me and created the container in which to process my grief. In a society that doesn't address crossing over questions, one can be left feeling bewildered and alienated after loss of a loved one. The group explores, acknowledges, and supports all the unanswered questions. It opened the door to another dimension that I hope others will get to experience through this important work.

Jeannie R.

A Beautiful Rite of Passage

Most importantly for me is the impact this group has directly for people and their families, because with more of an understanding and acceptance of death, dying, and afterlife, they can start to have conversations they otherwise wouldn’t have with their families. In so doing perhaps they can experience death and dying as the beautiful rite of passage it is and be a part of mindful, peaceful passings with their loved ones.

Jill W.