Where does the soul go after death. What after death? Where does the soul go after the death of a person? Is there life after death? Death as the soul leaves the body

Not so long ago, in my blog, you read my story about a school friend Galina, who, after the death of her beloved human became terrified of death . We spent a lot of time together, fighting this terrible phobia, until she finally got better. She continues to think about of death , but in a different way.

After our conversations regarding the death of a person, Galya began to literally collect articles, books and films on this topic. And it infected me with everything. Fuel to the fire was added by my own son. He, after listening to our exchange of opinions on these topics, became interested in the concepts of human consciousness and the topics as modern scientists are trying to digitize it and place it in the virtual world. The son, you see, dreams of the appearance of computer games in which such digitized souls of players could be introduced, who will live and develop in an alternative reality under the supervision of their own living prototypes.

Scientistsfigured outwhere people fall after of death?

As a result of our collective efforts, a lot of information has accumulated in my laptop regarding all these issues, which, by the way, have always worried humanity - not only religious people, but also atheists. Perhaps atheists and agnostics in our time are even more interested in all this than sincere believers in God, because they are more afraid to die. They are afraid to disappear into the abyss of non-existence completely and without a trace, while religions speak of the obligatory continuation of life in its other form. Perhaps that is why it was the unbelievers who became the first rational researchers of the phenomenon of continuing life after the death of the body. They wanted to test the ancient revelations by scientific means. I have read a lot on this topic and with all reason I can say that almost every one of scientists, who was at first a typical unbelieving Thomas, eventually came to the conclusion that after the physical death of the body, a person continues to exist.

Where do people go after they die? said in all ancient beliefs and world religions. They were born in different parts of the planet, often completely independently of each other, but at the same time about the life of the soul human after his death they said almost the same thing.

All without exception
The ancestors of modern mankind were absolutely sure that that the gods death at the moment appointed by fate force the soul to leave the body, afterwhich for the incorporeal essence begins a new life in the world of the dead. Each religion describes in detail both the path to non-existence and the very place where souls reside after the death of a person. Be sure to tell about the difficulties and trials that the soul must endure during the journey to the kingdom of the dead. The other world itself is drawn full of miracles and secrets, divine and demonic entities that judge the soul and determine its place in its kingdom. Some of them (primarily Hinduism and Buddhism) argue that the soul incarnates into new bodies before finally merging with the divine Absolute an incalculable number of times.

Many skeptics who do not believe in any mysticism say that all such stories about the soul and its responsibility for lifetime actions human invented the priests, who were profitable to intimidate and subjugate of people . And all sorts of mystical meetings and visions, supposedly confirming religious stories about the other world, are also fictions or tricks of the same cultists.

Okay, but what about cases when such visions visit completely unbelieving people? Take, for example, my aunt, who was a communist, a hero of labor and did not even come close to any church all her life. Once, in the early 70s of the last century, she was in Moscow on a business trip. Just before leaving home, I decided to take a walk along Kalininsky Prospekt (now Novy Arbat). She walked to herself, looked at shop windows, hurried to the Book World for new products. And suddenly, near the Vesna store, she saw her subordinate, who did not understand what he was doing there instead of being at his workplace in Perm. He greeted her and turned to the store. Auntie was taken aback at first, then followed him, but she did not find him inside the store. And when she returned home and came to work, she found out that this comrade had just been buried. On the day she saw him in Moscow, he was already in the morgue. After this incident, my aunt did not start going to churches, but she began to read the Bible and was interested in all sorts of mystical cases.

What does science say?

Many scientists with world famous names were also originally believers or through their personal life experience came to the conclusion that a life person afterthe death of his bodily shell as such does not stop. E the best minds of all time have said starting with the ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Pythagoras. The materialists Galileo, Newton, Pascal, Pasteur, Einstein, Pavlov, Tsiolkovsky and many others were also people convinced of the existence of a higher reality, a divine principle and an afterlife. They cannot be called blind believers, since they came to their conclusions through purely scientific research and reflection, which led them to evidence of a reasonable, multidimensional and animated structure of the universe. All researchers of the other world, with the help of experiments and observations, tried to answer very specific questions.

1. How true are people's stories about meetings or other communication with the dead?
2. How gradually (or, conversely, simultaneously) does the separation of the soul and body occur?
3. Can the posthumous life of a person be recorded by any scientific methods?
4. Is it possible to catch with the help of modern instruments the processes of separation of the physical body and subtle essence (soul) from each other?
5. Are the physical and spiritual essences of a person equally separated from each other in the case of a calm and tragic deaths?
6. Where does the soul go after the death of the body?

I found a wide variety of scientific hypotheses and described discoveries, which indicate that the life of a person, or rather his soul, continues in the so-called subtle dimension. I will give just a few examples.

Emmanuel Swedenborg was probably the first scientists , which systematically approached the study of the otherworldly existence of the soul. In the 18th century, he made technical inventions, lectured at the largest Swedish university, Uppsala, and wrote more than 150 scientific papers, including those on the life of the soul in other worlds. Swedenborg said that personality after death essentially does not change, but continues to evolve. He, long before the emergence of quantum theories, suggested that the world consists of particles, which are flows and swirls of energy. Souls are also energy bundles, invisible to the eye. Swedenborg conducted experiments on communication with the other world for more than 20 years and published the results. Many contemporaries (including the Queen of Sweden) were forced to believe him, since scientist told them secrets that could only be known to their deceased relatives.

R Russian biologist V. Lepeshkin in the 30s. The twentieth century has managed to register special energy bursts that are spread around by dying bodies. He concluded that at the moment of death of a living being, a certain special biofield separates from it. During such experiments, biofields leaving the earth's shell even illuminated photographic film of special sensitivity.

K.G. Korotkov - Doctor of Technical Sciences of the St. Petersburg Technical university - directs the research of subtle bodies that leave the physical flesh after its of death . The generator of high-voltage electromagnetic radiation during laboratory experiments captures the exit from the dead human his astral form and transmits the waves of her energy field to the display. The outcome of the soul is fixed as a special pulsating glow, which then fades, then again intensifies. Scientist convinced that after bodily death human his destiny continues in another dimension.

Physicists Michael Scott of Edinburgh and Fred Alan Wolf from California prove the existence of multiple parallel universes. They may be similar to our own reality or differ significantly from it. Scientists conclude: everyone who has ever lived not only does not die, but exists in these parallel spaces forever. Thus, death as there is none at all, but the spiritual essences of people and animals are presented in a plurality of incarnations.

Robert Lantz , a professor from North Carolina, compares the continuous life of a person with as There are plants that die off in the winter and grow back in the spring. In fact, Lanz agrees with Eastern theories of reincarnation and that the same soul is physically reborn many times in parallel worlds and comes to Earth again and again. The professor suggests that death and rebirth happen at the same time, so as particles of subtle matter that make up the spirit (photons, neutrinos, etc.) are able to be present at the same moment in different dimensions.

Stuart Hammeroff , an anesthesiologist at the University of Arizona, as a result of long work, became convinced of the quantum nature of the soul. He argues that it does not consist of neurons, but of a special fabric of the universe. So after death information about the personality goes into space and exists in it in the form of free consciousness.

In general, these and other scientists came to the same conclusions
to which, long before them, mankind was led by a variety of religions. These conclusions were voiced in his speech at one of the international symposiums by the researcher of the St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University A.V. Mikheev.

• Not a single skeptic could prove through experiments that after the death of a personeverything stops for him that life has no continuation in some other form or place.

• After the physical (in our understanding) death of peopletheir so-called subtle bodies remain. They are carriers of various information about individuals: this is their self-consciousness, memory, emotions, the whole inner world.

• The continuation of the existence of an individual after death is one of the natural laws of nature and human life.

• Subsequent realities numerous and differ from each other by different energy frequencies on which they are located.

• Where specifically it hitsthe soul of the deceased is most likely determined by his earthly actions, feelings and thoughts. This works on the principle of electromagnetic radiation, the spectrum of which depends on its composition. What is the inner component of the soul, such is its new place after death.

• Heaven and Hell words it is possible to define two poles of the posthumous state I. Between these poles there are many intermediate states. Soul hit in them according to the emotional and mental load that she formed on Earth. Therefore, negative emotional states, bad deeds, the desire to destroy, any fanaticism are very badly reflected in the future fate of the individual. Thus, the responsibility of the soul for everything that its bearer did during his earthly life is inevitable.

I don’t know about you, but I have all these hypotheses and conclusions scientists with world-famous names struck me and forced me to re-evaluate my own life. It turns out that science fully confirms the ethical side of religion. Secret Eastern teachings, Christianity, Islam have long told people that earthly experience and knowledge play a huge role in the posthumous fate of the soul. They pointed to the personal and inevitable responsibility of a person for what he did on this earth. now and people from science they say that absolutely everything lived by a person is recorded, weighed and entails consequences after death her physical shell. So, one main conclusion remains: it is not worth living in this world in such a way that one would later be ashamed of it in other habitats of the spirit. I also somehow don’t want to get into a bad dimension through my own fault.

We often wonder how the soul of a deceased person says goodbye to loved ones. Where does she go and what path does she make. After all, it is not in vain that the days of remembrance of those who have gone to another world are so important. Someone does not believe in the existence of the soul after the death of a person, someone, on the contrary, diligently prepares for this and strives for his soul to live in paradise. In the article, we will try to deal with the issues of interest and understand whether there really is life after death and how the soul says goodbye to relatives.

What happens to the soul after the death of the body

Everything in our life is important, including death. Surely more than once everyone thought about what will happen next. Someone is afraid of the onset of this moment, someone is looking forward to it, and some just live and do not remember that sooner or later life will come to an end. But it should be said that all our thoughts about death have a huge impact on our life, on its course, on our goals and desires, actions.

Most Christians are sure that physical death does not lead to the complete disappearance of a person. Remember that our creed leads to the fact that a person should strive to live forever, but since this is impossible, we truly believe that our body dies, but the soul leaves it and inhabits a new, just born person and continues their existence on this planet. However, before getting into a new body, the soul must come to the Father in order to “account” for the path traveled there, to tell about its earthly life. It is at this moment that we are accustomed to talking about the fact that it is decided in heaven where the soul will go after death: to hell or to heaven.

Soul after death by day

It is difficult to say which path the soul travels while moving towards God. Orthodoxy says nothing about this. But we are used to allocating memorial days after the death of a person. Traditionally, this is the third, ninth and fortieth day. Some authors of church writings assure that it is on these days that some significant events take place on the path of the soul to the Father.

The Church does not dispute such opinions, but does not officially recognize them either. But there is a special teaching that tells about everything that happens after death and why these days are chosen as special.

Third day after death

The third day is the day when the rite of burial of the deceased is performed. Why the third one? This is connected with the Resurrection of Christ, which took place exactly on the third day after the death on the cross, and also on this day there was a celebration of the victory of Life over death. However, some authors understand this day in their own way and talk about it. As an example, you can take St. Simeon of Thessalonica, who says that the third day is a symbol of the fact that the deceased, as well as all his relatives, believe in the Holy Trinity, and therefore strive for the deceased to fall into the three Gospel virtues. What are virtues, you ask? And everything is very simple: it is faith, hope and love familiar to everyone. If during life a person could not find this, then after death he has the opportunity to finally meet all three.

It is also associated with the third day that a person performs certain actions throughout his life and has his own specific thoughts. All this is expressed with the help of three components: reason, will and feelings. Remember that at the funeral we ask God to forgive the deceased for all his sins, which were committed by thought, deed and word.

There is also an opinion that the third day was chosen because on this day those who do not deny the memory of the three-day Resurrection of Christ gather in prayer.

Nine days after death

The next day, on which it is customary to commemorate the dead, is the ninth. St. Simeon of Thessalonica says that this day is associated with nine angelic ranks. The deceased loved one could be ranked among these ranks as an intangible spirit.

But St. Paisius the Holy Mountaineer recalls that the days of commemoration exist so that we pray for our deceased loved ones. He cites the death of a sinner as a comparison with a sober person. He says that, while living on earth, people commit sins, like drunkards, they simply do not understand what they are doing. But when they get to heaven, they seem to sober up and, finally, understand what was done during their lifetime. And we can help them with our prayer. Thus, we can save them from punishment and ensure a normal existence in the other world.

Forty days after death

Another day when it is customary to commemorate a departed loved one. In church tradition, this day appeared for the "ascension of the Savior." This Ascension took place exactly on the fortieth day after his Resurrection. Also, the mention of this day can be found in the "Apostolic decrees". Here it is also recommended to commemorate the deceased on the third, ninth and fortieth day after his death. On the fortieth day, the people of Israel commemorated Moses, and so goes the ancient custom.

Nothing can separate people who love each other, not even death. On the fortieth day, it is customary to pray for loved ones, loved ones, to ask God to forgive our loved one all his sins committed during his lifetime, and to give him paradise. It is this prayer that builds a kind of bridge between the world of the living and the dead and allows us to “connect” with our loved ones.

Surely many have heard about the existence of Magpie - this is the Divine Liturgy, which consists in the fact that the deceased is commemorated daily for forty days. This time is of great importance not only for the soul of the deceased, but also for his loved ones. At this time, they must come to terms with the idea that a loved one is no longer around and let him go. From the moment of his death, his fate must be in the hands of God.

Departure of the soul after death

Probably, people will not soon receive an answer to the question of where the soul goes after death. After all, she does not stop living, but is already in a different state. And how can you point to a place that does not exist in our world. However, it is possible to answer the question regarding to whom the soul of a deceased person will go. The Church claims that she gets to the Lord himself and His saints, where she meets with all her relatives and friends who were loved during her lifetime and left earlier.

Location of the soul after death

As already mentioned, after the death of a person, his soul goes to the Lord. He decides where to send her before the moment she goes to the Last Judgment. So, the soul goes to Heaven or Hell. The Church says that God makes this decision on his own and chooses the place of residence of the soul, depending on what she chose more often during her lifetime: darkness or light, good deeds or sinful ones. Heaven and Hell can hardly be called any specific places where souls come, rather, this is a certain state of the soul when it is in agreement with the Father or, on the contrary, opposes Him. Also, Christians have an opinion that before appearing before the Last Judgment, the dead are resurrected by God and the soul is reunited with the body.

Ordeals of the soul after death

While the soul goes to the Lord, it is accompanied by various ordeals and trials. Ordeal, according to the church, is the denunciation by evil spirits of certain sins that a person indulged in during his lifetime. Think about it, the word "ordeal" clearly has contact with the old word "mytnya". In mytna, they used to collect taxes and pay fines. As for the ordeals of the soul, here, instead of taxes and fines, the virtues of the soul are taken, and also the prayers of loved ones, which they perform on the memorial days, which were mentioned earlier, are necessary as a payment.

But one should not call ordeals a payment to the Lord for everything that a person did during his lifetime. It is better to call it the recognition of the soul of what weighed it down during the life of a person, what he could not feel for any reason. Everyone has the opportunity to avoid these ordeals. This is what the gospel says. It says that you just need to believe in God, listen to His word, and then the Last Judgment will be avoided.

Life after death

The only thought to be remembered is that for God the dead do not exist. In the same position with Him are those who live on earth and those who live in the afterlife. However, there is one "but". The life of the soul after death, or rather, its location, depends on how a person lives his earthly life, how sinful he will be, with what thoughts he will go his way. The soul also has its own destiny, posthumous, so it depends on what kind of relationship a person will have with God during his lifetime.

Last Judgment

The teachings of the church say that after the death of a person, the soul enters a certain private court, from where it goes to heaven or hell, and there it already awaits the Last Judgment. After him, all the dead are resurrected and returned to their bodies. It is very important that in that very period between these two judgments, relatives do not forget about prayers for the deceased, about appeals to the Lord for mercy on him, forgiveness of his sins. You should also do various good deeds in his remembrance, commemorate him during the Divine Liturgy.

wake days

"Commemoration" - this word is known to everyone, but does everyone know its exact meaning. It should be noted that these days are needed to pray for a deceased loved one. Relatives should ask the Lord for forgiveness and mercy, ask Him to grant them the Kingdom of Heaven and give them life beside Himself. As already mentioned, this prayer is especially important on the third, ninth and fortieth days, which are considered special.

Every Christian who has lost a loved one should come to church for prayer these days, you should also ask the church to pray with him, you can order a funeral service. In addition, on the ninth and fortieth day, you need to visit the cemetery and organize a memorial meal for all loved ones. Also, the first anniversary after the death of a person is a special day for commemoration by prayer. Subsequent ones also matter, but not as strong as the first.

The Holy Fathers say that prayer alone on a certain day is not enough. Relatives who remain in the earthly world should do good deeds for the glory of the deceased. This is considered a manifestation of love for the departed.

Path after life

You should not treat the concept of the “path” of the soul to the Lord as a kind of road along which the soul moves. It is difficult for earthly people to know the afterlife. One Greek author claims that our mind is not capable of knowing the eternities, even if it were omnipotent and omniscient. This is due to the fact that the nature of our mind, by its very nature, is limited. We set a certain limit in time, setting an end for ourselves. However, we all know that there is no end to eternity.

stuck between worlds

Sometimes it happens that inexplicable things happen in the house: water starts to flow from a closed tap, a closet door opens by itself, some thing falls from a shelf, and much more. For most people, these events are quite frightening. Someone rather runs to church, someone even calls the priest home, and some do not pay attention to what is happening at all.

Most likely, these are deceased relatives trying to get in touch with their relatives. Here you can say that the soul of the deceased is in the house and wants to say something to his loved ones. But before you find out why she came, you should find out what happens to her in the other world.

Most often, such visits are made by souls who are stuck between this world and the other world. Some souls do not understand at all where they are and where they should move on. Such a soul strives to return to its physical body, but it can no longer do this, therefore it "hangs" between the two worlds.

Such a soul continues to be aware of everything, to think, it sees and hears living people, but they can no longer see it. Such souls are called ghosts, or ghosts. It is difficult to say how long such a soul will stay in this world. This may take several days, or it may take more than one century. More often than not, ghosts need help. They need help to get to the Creator and finally find peace.

The souls of the dead come to relatives in a dream

This is not uncommon, perhaps one of the most common. You can often hear that a soul came to someone to say goodbye in a dream. Such phenomena in individual cases have different meanings. Such meetings do not please everyone, or rather, the vast majority of dreamers are frightened. Others do not pay attention at all to who and under what circumstances they dream. Let's find out what dreams can tell about in which the souls of the dead see relatives, and vice versa. Interpretations are usually as follows:

• A dream can be a warning about the approach of some events in life.
• Perhaps the soul comes to ask for forgiveness for everything that was done during life.
• In a dream, the soul of a deceased loved one can talk about how he "settled" there.
• Through the dreamer to whom the soul has appeared, she can convey a message to another person.
• The soul of a deceased person can ask his relatives and friends for help, appearing in a dream.

These are not all the reasons why the dead come to the living. Only the dreamer himself can determine the meaning of such a dream more accurately.

It does not matter at all how the soul of the deceased says goodbye to his relatives when he leaves the body, what is important is that she is trying to say something that was not said during her lifetime, or to help. After all, everyone knows that the soul does not die, but watches over us and tries in every possible way to help and protect.

strange calls

It is difficult to unequivocally answer the question of whether the soul of the deceased remembers his relatives, however, according to the events taking place, it can be assumed that he remembers. After all, many see these signs, feel the presence of a loved one nearby, see dreams with his participation. But that's not all. Some souls try to contact their loved ones by telephone. People can receive messages from unknown numbers with strange content, receive calls. But if you try to call back to these numbers, it turns out that they do not exist at all.

Usually such messages and calls are accompanied by strange noises and other sounds. It is the crackling and noise that is a kind of connection between the worlds. This may be one of the answers to the question of how the soul of the deceased says goodbye to relatives and friends. After all, calls are received only in the first days after death, then less and less, and then completely disappear.

Souls can "call" for various reasons, perhaps the soul of the deceased says goodbye to relatives, wants to tell something or warn about something. Do not be afraid of these calls and ignore them. On the contrary, try to understand their meaning, maybe they can help you, or maybe someone needs your help. The dead will not call just like that, for the purpose of entertainment.

reflection in the mirror

How does the soul of a deceased person say goodbye to loved ones through mirrors? Everything is very simple. For some people, deceased relatives appear in mirrors, TV screens and computer monitors. This is one way to say goodbye to your loved ones, to see them for the last time. Surely it is not in vain that mirrors are often used for various fortune-telling. After all, they are considered a corridor between our world and the other world.

In addition to the mirror, the deceased can also be seen in the water. This is also a fairly common occurrence.

Tactile sensations

This phenomenon can also be called widespread and quite real. we can feel the presence of a deceased relative through a breeze passing by or some kind of touch. One simply feels his presence without any contact. Many in moments of great sadness feel that someone is hugging them, trying to hug them at a time when no one is around. This is the soul of a loved one who comes to calm his beloved or relative, who is in a difficult situation and needs help.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many ways how the soul of the deceased says goodbye to relatives. Someone believes in all these subtleties, many are afraid, and some completely deny the existence of such phenomena. It is impossible to accurately answer the question of how long the soul of the deceased is with relatives and how she says goodbye to them. Here, much depends on our faith and desire to meet at least once with a loved one who has passed away. In any case, one must not forget about the dead, on the days of remembrance one must pray, ask God for forgiveness for them. Also remember that the souls of the dead see their relatives and always take care of them.

The life on Earth of each individual is only a segment of the path in the material incarnation, intended for the evolutionary development of the spiritual level. Where does the deceased end up, how does the soul leave the body after death, and what does a person feel when they pass into another reality? These are some of the exciting and most discussed topics throughout the existence of mankind. Orthodoxy and other religions testify to the afterlife in different ways. In addition to the opinions of representatives of various faiths, there are also testimonies of eyewitnesses who survived the state of clinical death.

What happens to a person when he dies

Death is an irreversible biological process in which the vital activity of the human body ceases. At the stage of dying of the physical shell, all metabolic processes of the brain, heartbeat and respiration stop. Approximately at this moment, the thin astral body, called the soul, leaves the obsolete human shell.

Where does the soul go after death?

How the soul leaves the body after biological death and where it rushes to is a question that interests many people, especially the elderly. Death is the end of being in the material world, but for an immortal spiritual entity, this process is only a change of reality, as Orthodoxy believes. There is a lot of discussion about where the soul of a person goes after death.

Representatives of the Abrahamic religions talk about "heaven" and "hell", into which souls end up forever, according to their earthly deeds. The Slavs, whose religion is called Orthodoxy because they glorify "Right", hold beliefs about the possibility of the rebirth of the soul. The followers of the Buddha also preach the theory of reincarnation. It can only be unequivocally stated that, leaving the material shell, the astral body continues to "live", but in a different dimension.

Where is the soul of the deceased up to 40 days

Our ancestors believed, and the living Slavs to this day believe that when the soul leaves the body after death, it stays for 40 days where it lived in earthly incarnation. The deceased is attracted to places and people with whom he was associated during his lifetime. The spiritual substance that has left the physical body, for the entire forty-day period, “says goodbye” to relatives and home. When the fortieth day comes, it is customary for the Slavs to arrange the farewell of the soul to the “other world”.

Third day after death

For many centuries there has been a tradition to bury the deceased three days after the death of the physical body. There is an opinion that only at the end of the three-day period does the soul separate from the body, all vital energies are completely cut off. After a three-day period, the spiritual component of a person, accompanied by an angel, goes to another world, where her fate will be determined.

On day 9

There are several versions of what the soul does after the death of the physical body on the ninth day. According to the religious figures of the Old Testament cult, the spiritual substance, after a nine-day period after the Dormition, goes through ordeals. Some sources adhere to the theory that on the ninth day the body of the deceased leaves the "flesh" (subconscious). This action takes place after the “spirit” (superconsciousness) and “soul” (consciousness) left the deceased.

What does a person feel after death?

The circumstances of death can be completely different: natural death due to old age, violent death or due to illness. After the soul leaves the body after death, according to eyewitness accounts of coma survivors, the etheric double has to go through certain stages. People who have returned from the "other world" often describe similar visions and sensations.

After a person dies, he does not immediately enter the afterlife. Some souls, having lost their physical shell, at first do not realize what is happening. With special vision, the spiritual entity “sees” its immobilized body and only then understands that life in the material world has ended. After an emotional shock, resigned to his fate, the spiritual substance begins to explore a new space.

Many at the moment of the change of reality, called death, are surprised that they remain in the individual consciousness, to which they are accustomed during earthly life. Surviving witnesses of the afterlife claim that the life of the soul after the death of the body is filled with bliss, so if you have to return to the physical body, this is done reluctantly. However, not everyone feels peace and tranquility on the other side of reality. Some, returning from the "other world", talk about the feeling of a rapid fall, after which they found themselves in a place filled with fear and suffering.

Peace and tranquility

Different eyewitnesses report with some differences, but more than 60% of the resuscitated testify to a meeting with an amazing source that emits incredible light and perfect bliss. To some this cosmic personality appears to be the Creator, to others as Jesus Christ, and to others as an angel. What distinguishes this unusually bright creature, consisting of pure light, is that in its presence the human soul feels an all-encompassing love and absolute understanding.

Sounds

At the moment when a person dies, he can hear an unpleasant hum, buzzing, loud ringing, noise as if from the wind, crackling and other sound manifestations. Sounds are sometimes accompanied by movement at great speed through the tunnel, after which the soul enters another space. A strange sound does not always accompany a person on his deathbed, sometimes you can hear the voices of deceased relatives or the incomprehensible "speech" of angels.

In the Christian tradition, the concept of the ordeal of the soul after death is a test of strength, something that tests the soul after it leaves the body and before it goes to the other world, to the Underworld or to Heaven.

In the article:

Ordeals of the soul after death

As various revelations say, after death, each spirit passes twenty "ordeals", which means trials or torment by some kind of sin. Through ordeals, the soul is either cleansed or thrown into Gehenna. Having overcome one of the tests, the spirit steps over to another, higher in rank, to serious sins. Having passed the test, the soul of the deceased has the opportunity to continue on the path without constant demonic temptations.

The ordeal after death, according to Christianity, is terrible. You can overcome them with prayers, fasting and strong, unshakable faith. There is evidence of how terrible demons and trials after death are - the Virgin Mary herself begged her son Jesus to save her from the torments of ordeal. The Lord responded to the prayers and took the pure soul of Mary in order to turn the Virgin Mary to Heaven with his divine hand. The icon of the Assumption, revered by Orthodox Christians, depicts the salvation of the Mother of God from many days of torment and the ascension to Heaven.

The tests of the holy fathers and hagiographic texts about the ordeals of the soul describe these tests in a similar way. The individual experience of any person affects his own torture and perception of them. The severity of each test is increasing, from the most common sins to serious ones. The spirit of a person after death is under a small (private) court, where life is viewed and summed up all the deeds committed by the living. Depending on whether the judge fought with fallen spirits or succumbed to passions, a sentence is passed.

The first ordeal is idle talk - words spoken in vain, love for chatter. The second is lies, spreading rumors, deceiving others for their own benefit. The third are slander and disapproval, slander on someone else's reputation or condemnation of the actions of others from one's own place. The fourth is gluttony, indulging the base passions of the body, hunger.

20 ordeals of the soul of Blessed Theodore, painting before descending into a cave in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

Fifth - laziness, idleness. The sixth is theft, appropriation of someone else's property that does not belong to a person as a result of an honest exchange. Seventh - love of money and stinginess as a symbol of excessive attachment to things of the material, temporary world. Eighth - covetousness, that is, craving for unrighteous acquisitions obtained dishonestly. The ninth is deceit, lies in deeds, wrong judgment without a fair judgment. The tenth is envy, the scourge of God, the desire to dispose of what is near and far. Eleventh - pride, excessive conceit, inflated ego, self-respect.

The twelfth is anger and rage, symbols of intemperance and lack of meekness befitting a Christian. Thirteenth - vindictiveness, keeping in memory other people's bad deeds against oneself, the desire to commit revenge. The fourteenth ordeal is murder, the deprivation of the life of another person. Fifteenth - sorcery, charm, the summoning of demons, demons and spirits, the use of magic for one's own and other people's needs as a way of death of the soul. Sixteenth - fornication, promiscuous intercourse with a change of many partners in life, unfaithfulness before the face of the Lord.

Seventeenth is adultery, the betrayal of a spouse. The eighteenth is a sodomy offense, when a man lies down with a man, and a lady with a woman. For this sin, Sodom and Gomorrah were cast into dust by God. The nineteenth is heresy, falling into doubt, rejection of the God-given faith. The twentieth and last is recognized as torture - mercilessness and cruelty, keeping a hard heart and lack of compassion for people.

The path of the soul that has left the physical body lies through these trials. Every sin to which a person was inclined during earthly life will return after death, and demons, called tax collectors, will begin to torment the sinner. Sincere prayer, coming from the very depths of a penitent soul, will help to save oneself from one's own sins and ease the torment.

Where does a person go after death?

This question has tormented the minds of people since ancient times. Where do the dead go, where does a person go after death? Where does the soul fly after the death of the physical shell.? The traditional answer is given by all religions, speaking of another kingdom, the afterlife, where every dead person will go. This name is not accidental: otherworldly - "on the other side", and afterlife - "behind the grave".

In the Christian tradition, ordeals take place on, lasting for everyone as long as the sins are strong. The past soul bows to God, and in the next thirty-seven earthly days after death, the path of the soul passes through the halls of Heaven and the abyss of Hell. The spirit does not yet know where it will have to stay until the Last Judgment arrives. Hell or Heaven - reported on the fortieth day, and it is impossible to appeal the verdict of the Heavenly Court.

Close people and relatives of the deceased should, within the next forty days after the death of a dear person, ask for help to his soul. Prayers are the help that a Christian provides to another on a long posthumous journey. This alleviates the fate of the sinner and helps the righteous, it turns out to be that spiritual gold that does not burden the spirit and allows you to atone for sins. Where the soul goes after death, prayer is more precious than gold, sincere, pure, honest, which is audible to God.

Venerable Macarius of Alexandria

Having overcome ordeals and finished earthly affairs, discarding them, the soul gets acquainted with the true world on the other side of being, one of the parts of which will become its eternal home. If you listen to the revelation of St. Macarius of Alexandria, prayers for the dead, the commemoration that is customary to perform (three times three, a sacred divine number, similar to nine angelic ranks), is due to the fact that after this day the soul leaves Paradise, all the abysses and nightmares of the Underworld are shown to it . This continues until the fortieth day.

Forty days is a total number, an approximate model, which is guided by in the earthly world. Each case is different, examples of post-mortem travel will vary endlessly.

There is an exception to every rule: some of the dead complete their journeys earlier or later than the fortieth day. The very tradition of an important date came from the description of the posthumous journey of St. Theodora, in which her journey in the depths of Hell was completed after forty earth days.

Where do souls live after death?

Christian books promise that the physical universe, subject to decay and dying, will disappear and the Kingdom of God, eternal and inescapable, will ascend the throne. In this kingdom, the souls of the righteous and those whose sins have been redeemed will be reunited with their former bodies, immortal and incorruptible, in order to shine forever in the glory of Christ and lead a renewed, holy life. Before that, they stay in Paradise, where they know joy and glory, but partial, and not that which will come at the end of time, when a new creation is accomplished. The world will appear renewed and washed, like a young man full of health after a decrepit old man.

Where the souls of dead people who led a righteous life live, there is no need, grief and envy. No cold, no scorching heat, but happiness to be near Him. This is the purpose that God gave for people, creating them on the sixth day of creation. Few can follow him, but everyone has a chance for the redemption of sins and the salvation of the soul, for Jesus is merciful, and every person is dear and close to him, even a lost sinner.

The one who did not accept the divine blessing, did not escape, will forever remain in Hell. Hell - Gehenna Fiery, Tartarus, Underworld, a place where souls undergo great suffering. Before the beginning of the Apocalypse and the onset of the Last Judgment, sinners suffer in a spiritual form, and after the completion they will begin to suffer, reuniting with their earthly bodies.

And where does the soul go after death until the Last Judgment occurs? First, he goes through ordeals, then, up to the nineteenth, he travels through Paradise, where he eats its fruits. On the ninth day and until the fortieth day, she is led through Hell, showing the torments of sinners.

Where do the souls of the dead go after this? Heaven, Hell or Purgatory. Purgatory is the dwelling place of those who did not sin fully, but did not observe righteousness either. These are atheists, doubters, representatives of other religions who have fled there from the Christian faith. In Purgatory, where the soul resides after death, there is neither bliss nor torment. The spirit dwells between Heaven and Earth, waiting for a chance and to exist worthy of the fate of a righteous man or a sinner: it all depends on what lesson the soul has learned from the previous life and from the visions of Hell and Paradise.

All trials, hardships and bitterness in the world seem to be a preparation for the Kingdom of Heaven. The primary tasks of every believer and Orthodox person are work on oneself, observance of the commandments, diligence and diligence in doing good deeds. Meekness, humility and prayers will help to overcome twenty ordeals and enter the gates of Paradise.

In contact with

Thousands of people visit or experience mortal danger every year, and about half of them have stories to tell. Not everyone who has come into contact with death recounts exactly the same kind of experience. But Iris Zelman, a 36-year-old high school teacher in Flint, Michigan, had a typical encounter with death.
“I was in the intensive care unit for open heart surgery for a valve replacement. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I screamed, and two nurses immediately took me back to the operating room. I felt that the doctors were inserting wires into my chest, and I felt a prick in my arm. Afterward, I heard one of the doctors say, "We can't save her."

I saw that a white haze, like fog, enveloped my body and floated to the ceiling. At first I was fascinated by this haze, and then I realized that I was looking at my body from above, and my eyes were closed. I said to myself, “How can I be dead? After all, I continue to be conscious!”. The doctors opened my chest and worked on my heart.
At the sight of blood, I felt unwell, and I turned away, looked as if upward and realized that I was at the entrance to something that looked like a long dark tunnel. I was always afraid of the dark, but I entered the tunnel. Immediately, I floated up to a distant bright light and heard frightening, but not unpleasant, sounds. I experienced an irresistible desire to merge with the light.

And then I thought about my husband, I felt sorry for him. He always depended on me for everything. He cannot live without me. At that moment, I realized that I could either continue walking towards the light and die, or return to my body. I was surrounded by spirits, forms of people that I could not recognize... I stopped. I was absolutely depressed that for the sake of my husband I had to return, I felt that I had to, and suddenly a voice unlike anything I had ever heard, commanding but gentle, said: “You made the right choice and you will not regret it. Someday you'll be back." When I opened my eyes, I saw the doctors.”

Nothing in Iris Zelman's story can be scientifically verified. This is a highly personal meeting. Psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross of Chicago, who spent 20 years watching dying patients, believes that stories like Iris Zelman's are not hallucinations. “Before I started working with the dying,” says Dr. Kubler-Ross, “I did not believe in life after death. Now I believe in her without a shadow of a doubt.”

One of the pieces of evidence that has convinced Dr. Kubler-Ross, as well as a growing number of scientists, is the commonalities found in thousands of encounters with death described by people of completely different ages, cultures, nationalities, religions. Some of the most common features identified by Dr. Kubler-Ross and Dr. Raymond Moody in their study of over two hundred death encounters are:

Peace and tranquility

Many describe unusually pleasant feelings and sensations in the initial period of these meetings. The man showed no signs of life after a severe head injury. Subsequently, he said: “At the moment of injury, I felt an instant pain, and then all the pain disappeared. It felt like my body was floating in a dark space.”

A woman who came back to life after a heart attack said: “I experienced absolutely wonderful sensations. I felt nothing but peace, comfort, lightness, only calm; I felt like all worries were gone.”

ineffability

People who have come close to death find their experience difficult to put into words. Iris Zelman testifies: "You really have to be there to understand what it's like." Another woman expressed her impressions as follows: “The light was so dazzling that I just can't explain it. It is not only outside our perception, but also outside our vocabulary.”

Psychologist Laurence Le Champ, who has studied the experience of "cosmic consciousness" in the psyche and mysticism, believes that ineffability stems not only from extraordinary beauty, but primarily because such an experience transcends our reality of space-time and therefore transcends the logic and language that is derived strictly from logic. Raymond Moody in "Life after Life" gives the example of a woman "dead" and brought back to life. She said: “Now it is simply difficult for me to talk about this experience, because all the words I know are three-dimensional. I mean, if you take geometry, for example, I've always been taught that there are only three dimensions, and I've always accepted that explanation. But this is not true. There are more of these dimensions... Of course, our world, in which we now live, is three-dimensional, but the next one is beyond any doubt. And that's why it's so hard to talk about it. I have to use 3D words… I can't give you the full picture verbally.”

Sounds

A man who was “dead” for 20 minutes during an abdominal operation describes “painful buzzing in the ears; after this sound, as it were, hypnotized me, and I calmed down. The woman heard "a loud ringing, like chimes." ‘Some have heard ‘heavenly bells’, ‘divine music’, ‘whistling sounds resembling the wind’, ‘the rhythm of the ocean waves’. Perhaps everyone who has met death face to face has heard some repetitive sounds.

No one can be absolutely sure of the meaning of these sounds, but irony or coincidence, as one likes to regard, is that such sounds are mentioned in the ancient Tibetan "Book of the Dead", written around 800 AD. In short, the book details the stages of dying. According to the text, at some point after the soul has left the body, a person may hear disturbing, frightening or pleasant sounds that lull and calm him down. Scholars have been astonished at the coincidence between the Tibetan book's predictions about the experience of dying and the reported experience of Americans living in the 20th century who were unaware of the book's existence.

Perfume

Eduard Megeheim, a 56-year-old professor who “died” on the operating table during an operation for a cancerous tumor, claims to have seen his late mother. “Mother was talking to me. She said that this time I should return. I know it sounds crazy, but her voice was so real that I still hear it to this day.” Peter Tompkins, a student who "died" twice, first in a car accident, then during a chest operation, met deceased relatives on both of his travels "outside".

Seeing spirits is not a characteristic, but a phenomenon that occurs when meeting with death. Dr. Carlis Oziz, director of the American Society for Psychical Research in New York City, noted the high frequency of this phenomenon in the dying people he studied in the United States and in India. Oziz refers to these phenomena as "leading away" images - deceased relatives or friends who, according to the dying person, should lead him out of this world. Reverend Billy Graham calls them angels.

Many skeptics argue that these images are nothing more than fragments of the dying person's imagination that caused them to make the transition from life to death easier. In Freudian terms, they can be called "wish-fulfilled" images. But Dr. Oziz strongly disagreed: “If the images of 'withdrawal' were only 'wish granted', we would encounter them more often in patients who expect to die and less often in those who hope to recover. But in reality, there is no such correlation.”

Light

Described as "shining", "sparkling", "dazzling", but never hurting the eye, light is one of the most common elements of encounters with death, light is directly related to religious symbolism. According to Raymond Moody's research, "despite various manifestations uncharacteristic of light, no one I interviewed doubted that it was a being, a being of pure light." Many describe light as a being with a certain personality. “The heat of love for the dying that emanates from this creature is completely beyond words,” Moody says. The dying person feels how the light surrounds him, absorbs him into himself, makes him a part of himself.

For singer Carol Berlidge, who was “dying” during her second birth, the light had a voice: “Suddenly it spoke to me. He said that I should return, that I had a new child who needed me. I didn’t want to go back, but the light was very insistent.” She said that the voice was neither male nor female, indefinite; Iris Zelman and many others agree with her. “From now on,” says Carol, “I always remember the words of Jesus: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).

Dr. Pascal Kaplan, dean of the School of General Studies at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California, an expert on Eastern religions, noted that the light spoken of by the dying is also mentioned in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. “He plays a major role in all Eastern religions,” says Dr. Kaplan. “Light is seen as wisdom or enlightenment and as such is the main goal of mysticism.”

Dark void or tunnel

It seems to serve as a transition from one level of reality to another. Many claim that they instinctively felt that they had to pass through the darkness before they reached the light, which in all cases is at the far end of the tunnel. “This emptiness is not scary,” says Iris Zelman, “it’s just black space, and I found it inviting, almost purifying.” Another woman defines the tunnel as an acoustic chamber where every spoken word reverberates in her head. In any case, the passage through the darkness represents, at least symbolically, rebirth.

Out-of-body experience (OBT)

Almost without exception, anyone who recounts encounters of any kind with death has experienced a sense of release from their physical body. They had the ability to travel to virtually any point in space, near or far, and travel great distances at lightning speed, simply by thinking of a place they would like to visit. Many researchers believe that OBT, which can be achieved with simple relaxation techniques, is a mini-death, or rehearsal for the last step. There is direct evidence to suggest that people who have had OBE can get rid of the fear of death, and the process of their death is easier and more enjoyable.

Sense of responsibility

Many say they “turned back” because they considered their work on earth unfinished. The duty made them choose to return. Singer Peggy Lee was performing at an evening club in New York City in 1961 and fell into a slumber backstage. She was sent to the hospital with pneumonia and pleurisy. Peggy's heart stopped, and for about 30 seconds. She was in a state of clinical death. Peggy's OBT was very pleasant, but she was very worried about the idea of ​​returning. “Pain is a small price to pay to live for the people you love,” she later said. “I could not bear the sadness and longing of separation from my daughter.” Martha Egan felt responsible for her mother, Iris Zelman for her husband. We will see that it is the sense of responsibility that is most often manifested in contact with the dead or dying - or the fourth kind of encounter with death.

The arrival of clinical death is sudden. It can be caused by a heart attack or severe shock to the nervous system or brain, or the consequences of an accident. Whatever the cause, the result is a sudden transition from life to death. Collecting and analyzing messages from people who have experienced near-death experiences means, in a way, looking towards death from the back door - messages come only after a step is taken back from the threshold, after returning. But what do people experience before the usual, gradually approaching death, when they appear at its front door? If the sounds and images of death are genuine, universal phenomena, they will remain the same no matter how they came to death.

Drs. Karlis Oziz and Erlendur Haraldsson address this issue in a published study, the result of a 4-year follow-up of 50,000 terminally ill patients in the US and India. Both psychologists wanted to know exactly what the patient sees and hears in the last minutes before death. In most cases, they believed, it had to be a subjective experience, encounters with death. However, with the help of hundreds of doctors and nurses who worked directly with dying patients and were present at the time of their death, Oziz and Haraldsson came to a startling conclusion.

We know that suffering precedes death. Cancer in a short time metastasizes throughout the body and in the last stages brings torment, pain, which is not always alleviated even with the help of drugs. Severe heart attacks are accompanied by a sharp pain in the chest, extending into the arms. Those who die as a result of accidents suffer from bone fractures, contusions, and burns. But Dr. Oziz and Dr. Haraldsson discovered that just before death, suffering gives way to peace. According to Dr. Oziz, "There seems to be harmony and silence coming from the patient." A 10-year-old boy with cancer suddenly sat up in bed, opened his eyes wide and smiled for the first time in months, and exclaimed with his last breath: “How wonderful, mother!” And fell on the pillow dead.

The nature of messages about the moments preceding death is quite diverse. A nurse at a large hospital in New Delhi reports the following: “A woman in her forties, suffering from cancer, and during the last days depressed and lethargic, although always conscious, suddenly began to look happy. The joyful expression did not leave her face until her death, which came after 5 minutes.

Often the patient does not utter a word, but the expression on his or her face is reminiscent of descriptions of ecstasy in religious literature. Unexplained physical changes can also occur, as happened, for example, in the United States. The nurse tells about this case:
“A woman in her 70s who had pneumonia was half disabled and eked out a miserable, painful existence. Her face became so calm, as if she had seen something beautiful. It lit up with a smile that can't be described in words. The features of her old face became almost beautiful. The skin became soft and transparent - almost snow-white, completely unlike the yellowish skin of people close to death.

The nurse who was watching the patient felt that the woman saw something that "changed her whole being." Peace did not leave her until her death, which came an hour later. How can you explain that the skin of an old woman suddenly became luminous, youthful? A healer who worked with terminally ill patients testifies that she repeatedly saw an aura around the patient's body shortly before death. “The light comes from the skin and hair, as if it were an infusion of pure energy from some external source,” she said. Laboratory evidence clearly shows that the phenomenon of light is also associated with randomly triggered OBEs. Researchers believe that the energy contained in the astral body is radiated light energy; a similar statement was made by mystics and mediums centuries ago.
Sometimes the changes that occur to the patient not only take away the suffering of the patients, but also affect the environment. A hospital spokesperson speaks of a 59-year-old woman who suffered from pneumonia and heart failure:

“Her face was beautiful; her attitude changed radically. It was more than a change of mood… It was like there was something outside of us, something supernatural… Something that made us think she was seeing something that our eyes couldn’t see.”
What wonderful visions pass before the dying? How can the pain experienced for months or years disappear? Dr. Oziz believes that the mind is “freed”, its connection with the body weakens when a person is close to death. prepares to separate from the physical, and as death approaches, the physical body and its troubles become less and less significant.

Below is a typical case where pain and suffering disappear. The doctor who told it was the director of a city hospital in India.
“A 70-year-old patient suffered from advanced cancer. He experienced severe pain that did not give him a break and caused insomnia. Somehow, after he managed to get some sleep, he woke up with a smile, it seemed that all bodily suffering and torment had suddenly left him, and he was independent, calm and peaceful. For the past six hours, the patient has been given only small doses of phenobarbital, a relatively mild pain reliever. He said goodbye to everyone, to each one separately, which he had never done before, and told us that he was going to die. For 10 minutes he was fully conscious, then fell into an unconscious state and died peacefully a few minutes later.

According to traditional religious beliefs, the soul leaves the body at death. Mediums say that the soul and the astral body are one and the same. According to Dr. Oziz, no doubt whatever leaves the body, it can do so very gradually. “While still functioning normally,” says Dr. Oziz, “the consciousness of the dying person, or the soul, can gradually be released from the sick body. If so, we can reasonably expect that the awareness of bodily sensations is gradually weakening.

Many patients talk before they die, and many of them claim that they have fleetingly seen long-dead people, landscapes of unearthly beauty, this is very similar to the stories of people who survived after clinical death. One American study shows that more than two-thirds of the dying saw images of people who “called”, “beckoned” them, and sometimes “ordered” the patient to go to them. One doctor said that a 70-year-old woman suffering from bowel cancer suddenly sat up in bed and, turning to her dead husband, said: “Guy, I’m coming”, smiled peacefully and died.

Could these voices, images, lights be nothing more than hallucinations caused by disease, drugs, or brain disorders? It is known that high fever, drugs, urine poisoning, and brain damage can produce very convincing hallucinations. The researchers found that the most logically consistent and most detailed patients were those who were the healthiest until death. “The dementia hypothesis cannot explain visions,” concluded Dr. Oziz. “They are like emerging images associated with life after death.”

Here is what a hospital doctor says about one of the women who was dying: “She said she saw my grandfather next to me and told me to go home right away. I got home at half past four and was told that he died at four. Nobody expected him to die so unexpectedly. This patient really met my grandfather.”

The changes that occur shortly before death often puzzle physicians. It turns out that even patients with severe brain and emotional problems become surprisingly bright and reasonable before death. Dr. Kubler-Ross has observed this in a number of her chronic schizophrenic patients. This is consistent with the statement that around the time of death the astral body (consciousness or soul) gradually separates from the physical body. The case, which the doctor told about, can serve as confirmation: a 22-year-old young man, blind from birth, suddenly regained his sight before his death, looked around the room, smiling, clearly seeing doctors, nurses and, for the first time in his life, members of his family.

It cannot be a mere coincidence that both patients who have undergone clinical death and those who are in the hospital and slowly dying testify, inhabited by the spirits of the dead, of a country full of silence and peace, which makes a person ardently desire to be there. So the experience of dying, no matter how death comes, is basically the same and only seems to make sense if we accept that something in the human body experiences death...