Why the pain and suffering?

I think that the tone of your wife’s communication (in your recent consultation) was in itself an indicator of the shift in perception that occurs with the release of the physical body, leaving behind the “ego-self” and its attachments, as well. That she was able to confirm certain issues that you ask about in such a neutral manner gives evidence to this more expansive perspective that we gain when we “drop the body.”

Likewise, I have found that loved ones seem to have incredible detachment to the events and sensations that occurred at the end of their lives, as their soul was preparing to make its imminent journey. When I merge the timeless consciousness of these souls and (re)experience specific physical sensations that were present at the time of their passing, they seem to carry a memory of them, but with no lingering attachment to their pain or suffering. In fact, they seem more intent upon helping to release haunting images and regrets in the thoughts of those they’ve left behind.

Additionally, I have found where a soul’s life journey has been configured so as to include pain and/or suffering at the end of the physical life in order to play out certain fears to inevitably push through them and embrace new truths and expansion re. the illusion of death, as well as other misperceptions learned in physical dimension. I’ve even seen where a soul’s evolution was furthered exponentially by realizations made in the last few minutes of the physical experience, gaining more in those last moments than from anything that came before in that lifetime. Our linearly-perceiving minds do tend to size things up, linearly and sequentially. Not so, involving matters of the soul!

With your wife, I felt the dramatic contrast that she experienced at the end: the difference between confinement and pain in the physical body, then an indescribable, immediate sensation of freedom and release upon leaving it behind. As Abraham (ala Esther Hicks) emphasizes, “the wonderful thing about life in this dimension is the opportunity to experience all the delicious contrast!” The pain that your wife suffered was in no way a form of punishment, but the opportunity to experience that contrast. And yes, sometimes there is also a karmic component, ie, the need to experience that which has been judged or feared, in order to move beyond it.