I think its gonna depend on your beliefs and mental health or disabilities at the time of the death.


I am autistic and dissociative and was a teen (though emotionally much younger) when my mother died.


I didn't understand the concept of death and couldn't imagine 'the other side' or where she was going or why she had to go.


She asked me to promise I'd never forget her and that her spirit would always be with me, now I think very literally, even more so back then.


I would often go and talk to people in my own room who no-one else could see and so I just recreated her in my own inner world, it was as simple as that for me at the time, then I could carry on life doing as she said she'd wanted me to do. (probably because I had no concept of what death was before it happened).



I didn't learn about dissociation or Tulpa's/alters for many more years until I was in my 40's by which time she was well and truly established as an alter within my system.


I found it comforting but was very aware that others would not see it as 'normal' and would try and make her go away (maybe via medication or something) and I'd promised I'd never forget her so I just never told anyone! ..she became my 'secret twin' because of course as mother and daughter we would look alike at the same ages.


I have passed the age she died at by several years now, but I know when I look in a mirror we'd look very similar (at this age, though in reality she would have been in her 70's by now if she was still here) ..so now her only being a spirit within me seems an advantage as ...had she been alive we would have possibly been separated by the pandemic if she had been in a care home or something, or she had got the covid from me or another family member bringing it home.

With regard to animals/pets...my belief is... because their lives are not as long as ours they are able to return to us as another dog/cat etc..as in the film 'A Dog's Purpose'. Both of my dogs have been with me before and will possibly be again (depending how long my life is).


I also believe in soul bonds and that the people we have in our lives are people who were also in our past lives as loved ones and will find us again in the future. I see that as no different to a Catholic believing in God or an Indian-Asian person believing cows are sacred for religious reasons. (no-one tells them they are mad or delusional and need therapy to rid them of these beliefs!) These thoughts are respected as 'their religion' which is not wrong just because they maybe different to your own! I mention this because 'death' is viewed differently in different religions so is relevant.


Reincarnation for me is very tightly entwined with the beliefs my mother told me about (even though I didn't understand them at the time I remember and honour them).