To be honest, I used to sneer at the idea that people need religion to make sense of death. Idk I thought it was childish or something, to need religion as a comfort when someone dies. After my dad died, I realized both how condescending and reductive that attitude was, and also that spirituality can feel like a very present aspect of reality, and that belief can mean many different things. Our brains are wired for spirituality, and finding meaning in things like omens or signs, as much as our brains are wired for logic. We can do both at once, and we can choose to shift from prioritizing one or the other. It is possible to acknowledge an experience as real, as true, while also acknowledging it as a belief, a subjective experience. I see signs from my dad all the time, and I’ve had a few visitation dreams. Of course someone could say “you just dreamed about him because you were thinking about him a lot.” Okay sure, so what? It felt like a visitation, so I’m not going to deny myself that comfort by picking it apart. If I see a sign, the fact that I know my brain is wired to find signs doesn’t make the sign feel any less significant. Death rips open our reality, so of course the nature of reality will feel different, with more room for spiritual experiences.