In 'Power of positive thinking' Normal Vincent Peale quotes many cases where people about to die are able to see their dead relatives. He also says the whenever he was overcome with grief by the loss of his mother he would assure himself that she was with him always. This realization had occured to him one day when he went to his mother's graveyard and he heard his mother's voice in his mind saying why would she stay in the wretched graveyard, she is always with him, so not to worry.
In Gladiator and Titanic movies we see that people join their loved ones after death.
I used to personally derive solace from this belief. But after meditating for a long time I feel like perhaps these are made up beliefs to help people overcome the grief over death of loved ones. I begin to feel perhaps I won't grieve so much if someone close to me dies, that I would move on with life, and not even expect to meet them after I die. May be because I begin to realize that my roles with family members end with death and it is selfishness to expect them to linger around for me and not move forward with whatever is in store for them, that grief is a projection of ego, worrying more about ourselves than about the journey of the dead.
