What happens to the human soul after death. Where does the soul go, what happens to the body after death

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 moves into a new one, just now born human and continues to exist 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 used to talking about the fact that in heaven it is decided 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, a 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 Israeli people commemorated Moses and so says 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, 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, loved ones 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 closed tap, the closet door opens by itself, some thing falls from the shelf and much more. For most people, such 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 are in some cases different meaning. 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 Christian Church has traditionally accepted the commemoration of the dead on the third, ninth, fortieth day and anniversary. She also gave an interpretation of these terms in Christian categories and images.

According to the teachings of the church, for two days the soul is somewhere near the body she loves, near her home, wandering, accompanied by angels, through earthly places dear to her. And on the third day, she must worship the Lord. In the next six days - until nine days - the soul is shown heavenly abode. And in the next thirty - different branches of the underworld. After that, the Lord places her in heaven or hell.

For the first two days, the soul of the deceased is still on earth, passing along with the Angel accompanying her to those places that attract her with memories of earthly joys and sorrows, evil and good deeds. The soul that loves the body sometimes wanders around the house where the body is laid, and thus spends two days like a bird looking for its nest. The virtuous soul, on the other hand, walks in those places where it used to do the right thing.

Ninth day. The commemoration of the deceased on this day is in honor of the nine orders of angels, who, as servants of the King of Heaven and intercessors to Him for us, intercede for mercy on the deceased.

After the third day, the soul, accompanied by an angel, enters the heavenly abodes and contemplates their inexpressible beauty. She remains in this state for six days. For this time, the soul forgets the sorrow that it felt while in the body and after leaving it. But if she is guilty of sins, then at the sight of the enjoyment of the saints, she begins to grieve and reproach herself: “Alas for me! How busy I am in this world! I spent most of my life in carelessness and did not serve God as I should, so that I too would be worthy of this grace and glory. Alas, poor me!" On the ninth day, the Lord commands the Angels to again present the soul to Him for worship. With fear and trembling the soul stands before the throne of the Most High. But even at this time, the holy Church again prays for the deceased, asking the merciful Judge to place the soul of her child with the saints.

Fortieth day. The forty-day period is very significant in the history and tradition of the Church as the time necessary for preparation, for the acceptance of the special Divine gift of the grace-filled help of the Heavenly Father. The prophet Moses was honored to talk with God on Mount Sinai and receive the tablets of the law from Him only after a forty-day fast. The Israelites reached the promised land after forty years of wandering. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself ascended into heaven on the fortieth day after His resurrection. Taking all this as a basis, the Church established a commemoration on the fortieth day after death, so that the soul of the deceased ascended the holy mountain of Heavenly Sinai, was rewarded with the sight of God, achieved the blessedness promised to her and settled in heavenly villages with the righteous.

After the second worship of the Lord, the angels take the soul to hell, and she contemplates the cruel torments of unrepentant sinners. On the fortieth day, the soul ascends for the third time to worship God, and then its fate is decided - in earthly affairs, it is assigned a place of residence until the Last Judgment. That's why it's so timely church prayers and commemoration on this day. They blot out the sins of the deceased and ask his soul to be placed in paradise with the saints.

Anniversary. The Church commemorates the dead on the anniversary of their death. The basis for this establishment is obvious. It is known that the largest liturgical cycle is the annual circle, after which all fixed holidays are repeated again. The anniversary of the death of a loved one is always celebrated with at least a hearty commemoration of his loving relatives and friends. For an Orthodox believer, this is a birthday for a new, eternal life.

“The dead hope to receive help through us: for the time of doing has flown away from them; souls cry out every minute,” said Blessed Augustine in his Sermon on Piety and Commemoration of the Dead.

We know that with the death of even those closest to us in this earthly life, all the threads and bonds of sensual ties with them break. Death creates a great gulf between the living and the dead. But it only separates them sensually, physically, and not at all spiritually: the spiritual connection and communication do not stop and are not interrupted between those who continue to live in this world and those who have moved to the next world. We think about them, even talk to them mentally. We want to help them. But how? The priest will unequivocally answer this question: "Prayer." For forty days the fate of the soul has not yet been decided.

All people are mortal. This simple truth is perceived differently at every age. Little children know nothing about the existence of death. To teenagers, it is presented as something distant and almost unattainable. This explains the readiness of teenagers to take unjustified risks, because it seems to them that life will never end, and death comes only to others.

In adulthood, the transience of life is felt very acutely. Questions about the meaning of life begin to torment. Why all these aspirations, worries, worries, if only oblivion and decay lie ahead? Older people eventually come to terms with the idea of own death, but with special trepidation they begin to relate to the life and health of their loved ones. In old age, a person alone is left with thoughts about the imminent end of his earthly existence. Someone is terrified of death, others are waiting for it as a deliverance. In any case, the final is inevitable.

What's next? What awaits the human soul? Major world religions agree that death is not the end, but only the beginning.

Buddhism: the soul cannot die

From the point of view of Buddhism, death is not only a natural but also a desirable process. It is only a necessary step for achievement of the Ideal. But the Ideal (Absolute) is not achieved by everyone.

beyond life

The soul does not die with the body. Its fate after death depends on how a person passed his earth path. There are three options:

1. Rebirth (relocation).
2. Achievement of nirvana.
3. Room in hell.

Among the punishments prepared for sinners are the following:

• torture with hot iron;
• freezing punishment;
• roasting torture.

Having passed all the tests that still follow take symbolically the soul is reborn. According to Buddhists, birth and life are not blessings, but new torments.

Rebirth or Nirvana

Sinners are waiting for an endless series of migrations. At the same time, it is possible to be reborn not only by a person, but also by an animal, and a plant, as well as celestial. It should be noted that it is not the soul itself that is reborn in the usual sense of the word, but karma - a kind of mentality, one of the characteristics of which is the ability to undergo numerous changes or transformations.

Nirvana awaits the righteous after physical death. Literally, "nirvana" is translated as "extinction". But the flame of life does not die out with the cessation of the existence of the human bodily shell, but continues in a different way. One of the Buddhist monks Nagasen describes nirvana not only as the absence of fear, danger and suffering, but also as bliss, tranquility, purity and perfection. More precisely characterize state of nirvana very problematic, because it is beyond the bounds of human thinking.

Islam: conversation with angels

The body is just an instrument that is completely subordinate to the spirit. Death is considered as the cessation of the functions of the body, its individual organs and systems. Life stops by the will of the Lord, but the angels are entrusted with taking the soul of a person and accompanying it to another world.

Azrael - messenger of death

At the time determined by the Almighty, when the earthly path of a person has come to an end, angels descend to him. The former life of the deceased affects how his soul will leave after death, how easily it leaves the body and what awaits it in the afterlife. If a the righteous dies, at first luminous and smiling angels of mercy appear to him, and then Azrael himself comes - the angel of death.

Pure souls leave the body smoothly and gently. The martyrs, who accepted death for the glory of the Lord, do not at all immediately realize that they have died, since they do not at all feel the agony of death. They just move to another world and enjoy eternal bliss. Angels everywhere greet the spirit of the righteous, admiring him and praising all the good deeds done by a person during his lifetime.

Sinners die painfully. They expect death with fear and anger, and their souls, without any pity, literally break out of their bodies. Angels don't tell them beautiful words, do not accompany to the Almighty. On the contrary, they are treated with disdain, pushed back into the grave.

Munkar and Nakir - questioners from the grave

After the soul appears before Allah, He orders the angels to carry it back to the grave, which is not only the last refuge of the body, but also initial stage transition to eternal life. It is in the grave that the soul is waiting for a conversation with two angels. Nakir and Munkar ask everyone what religion he professed during his lifetime, whether he believed in God, whether he did good deeds. The righteous have no difficulty in answering all these questions.

If a person led a sinful lifestyle, then he may be punished already in the grave, acting as a kind of purgatory. F. Gülen, in the article "Convictions" posted on the Islamic information portal, compares the grave with a bitter medicine, which is followed by recovery and deliverance from hellish torments.

In the afterlife, the spirit of the righteous feels the bliss of paradise. Good deeds done during life, prayers read will appear before him in the form of good friends and helpers. Bad deeds will haunt sinners in the form of ill-wishers, as well as snakes and scorpions. The soul, which has unresolved sins, will suffer punishment in order to be cleansed and, having risen at the appointed hour, go to heaven.

After the transition to another world, the accounting of good and evil deeds of a person stops, but everything that he left on earth after himself is taken into account. It can be written books, created things, properly brought up children, a contribution to the development of society. Everything will be counted. If any deed of a person, committed during his lifetime, caused evil and continues to harm people even after his death, then sins will accumulate. For them, too, will need to answer and be punished.

On the appointed day, Allah will resurrect not only the soul of man. His body will also be resurrected from the particles that did not decompose after being buried.

Judaism: the immortality of the disembodied spirit

The continuation of the life of the human soul after physical death is the main idea of ​​Judaism. In the Torah, the concept of immortality is not fully disclosed; it touches upon the issues of people's earthly life. The prophets tell the Jews about the other world.

The connection between the perishable body and the eternal spirit

The uniqueness of a person, unlike representatives of the animal world, is given by the presence of a soul, which is nothing but the innermost essence of God. Every human soul is in heaven until the day of its earthly birth. The connection between body and spirit begins at conception and ends at death.

After the death of the body, the disembodied spirit is in confusion: it sees its physical shell, but cannot return to it. The soul mourns and mourns for its body for 7 days.

Awaiting the verdict

Within a year after death, the soul has no place where it can find peace. Watching the decay of the tissues of the body that served her in life, the soul is in turmoil and suffers. This is a strong and very painful test for her. It is easiest for the righteous and those who did not attach much importance to external forms, paying special attention to the internal content.

The soul is sentenced after 12 months. Judgment may take less time, but for sinners and wicked people it lasts exactly one year. Then the soul enters Gegein, where a purifying spiritual fire awaits it. After that, she can claim eternal life.

Christianity: ordeals of sinners

The soul in the next world needs to go through ordeals, each of which is a punishment for a certain sin. Having overcome the first test, the easiest, the soul moves on to the next, more difficult and serious. Having gone through all the ordeals, either purification or overthrow into Gehenna awaits her.

20 torture

A person's personal experience gained during his lifetime, his views and beliefs affect the passage of ordeals and their perception. There are twenty trials in total:

1. Idle talk or love of empty talk.
2. Deceit.
3. Slander and gossip.
4. Laziness.
5. Theft.
6. Love of money.
7. Covetousness.
8. Unrighteous condemnations.
9. Envy.
10. Pride.
11. Anger.
12. rancor.
13. Murders.
14. Sorcery.
15. Fornication.
16. Adultery.
17. Sodom sin.
18. Heresy.
19. Cruelty.

Each of the addictions to which a person was prone during his lifetime, after his death, will turn into a demon (publican) and will torment the sinner.

From the fortieth day to the Last Judgment

After the completion of the ordeals, the soul is shown heavenly abodes and the abysses of hell, and on the fortieth day they determine the place where they will be expected Doomsday. Now some souls exist in anticipation of eternal joy, while others - endless torment.

There is an exception to this rule. The innocent soul of a child after death will immediately be granted peace and bliss. And the Lord will allow children who suffer during their lifetime from all sorts of ailments and ailments to choose any place in paradise that they like.

When the appointed hour arrives, all bodies will be resurrected, united with their souls and brought before the judgment seat of Christ. It is not entirely correct to talk about the resurrection of the soul itself, since it is already immortal. Eternal life full of joy awaits the righteous, and the wicked - the flames of hell, by which one should understand not the fire familiar to man, but something known only to God.

eyewitness accounts

There are testimonies of people who, having suffered clinical death, literally returned from the next world. They all describe the events that happen to them in approximately the same way.

After the soul separates from the body, it is not immediately aware of what has happened. Watching her lifeless body, she gradually begins to understand that earthly life is over. At the same time, the consciousness of a person, his thoughts and memory remain unchanged. Many recall how all the events of their earthly life flashed before their eyes. Someone is sure that, being in another world, he was able to learn all the secrets of the universe, but this knowledge was later erased from memory.

Looking around, the soul notices a bright glow, radiating love and bliss, and begins to move towards the light. Some hear at the same time a sound reminiscent of the sound of the wind, others seem to hear the voices of dead relatives or the call of angels. On the other side of life, communication takes place not at the verbal level, but with the help of telepathy. Sometimes people heard a voice commanding the soul to go back to earth, because there were unfinished business and the mission of man was not completely fulfilled.

Many experienced such peace, calmness and joy that they did not want to return to their body. But there are those who felt fear and suffering. Then they needed a lot of time to recover and get rid of painful memories.

Often people who have experienced clinical death change their attitude to life, religion and begin to do things that were previously unusual for them. At the same time, everyone claims that the experience gained had a strong influence on their future destiny.

Scientists who adhere to materialistic views are confident that the visions described by people are able to clinical death, are just hallucinations caused by a lack of oxygen. There is no evidence for the reality of post-mortem experiences.

Without transgressing the line separating life from death, no one is given to know what is prepared for him in the other world. But everyone can worthily pass his earthly path and not commit evil deeds. Not because of the fear of heavenly punishment, but because of the love of goodness, justice and one's neighbors.

The afterlife and its uncertainty is what most often leads a person to think about God and the Church. After all, according to the doctrine Orthodox Church and any other Christian doctrines, the human soul is immortal and, unlike the body, it exists forever.

A person is always interested in the question, what will happen to him after death, where will he go? The answers to these questions can be found in the teachings of the Church.

The soul after the death of the bodily shell awaits the Judgment of God

Death and the Christian

Death always remains a kind of constant companion of a person: relatives, celebrities, relatives die, and all these losses make you think about what will happen when this guest comes to me? Attitude towards the end largely determines the course human life- the expectation of it is painful or the person has lived such a life that at any moment he is ready to appear before the Creator.

The desire not to think about it, deleting it from thoughts is the wrong approach, because then life ceases to have value.

Christians believe that God gave man an eternal soul, as opposed to a perishable body. And it determines the course of the whole Christian life- after all, the soul does not disappear, which means that it will definitely see the Creator and give an answer for every deed. This constantly keeps the believer in good shape, not allowing him to live his days thoughtlessly. Death in Christianity is a certain point of transition from worldly to heavenly life., and that's where the spirit to go after this crossroads directly depends on the quality of life on earth.

Orthodox asceticism has in its writings the expression "memory of death" - the constant retention in thoughts of the concept of the end of worldly existence and the expectation of a transition to eternity. That is why Christians lead a meaningful life, not allowing themselves to waste minutes.

The approach of death from this point of view is not something terrible, but quite a logical and expected action, joyful. As Elder Joseph of Vatopedsky said: “I was waiting for the train, but it still does not come.”

First days after leaving

Orthodoxy has a special concept of the first days in the afterlife. This is not a strict dogma of faith, but the position that the Synod adheres to.

Death in Christianity is a certain point of transition from worldly to heavenly life.

Special days after death are:

1. Third- This is traditionally a day of commemoration. This time is spiritually connected with the Resurrection of Christ, which took place on the third day. St. Isidore Pelusiot writes that the process of the Resurrection of Christ took 3 days, hence the idea was formed that the human spirit also passes into eternal life on the third day. Other authors write that the number 3 has a special meaning, it is called God's number and it symbolizes faith in the Holy Trinity, therefore it is necessary to commemorate a person on this day. It is in the memorial service of the third day that the Triune God is asked to forgive the deceased for sins and forgive;
2. Ninth- another day of remembrance of the dead. St. Simeon of Thessalonica wrote about this day as a time to remember 9 angelic ranks, which may include the spirit of the deceased. That is how many days are given to the soul of the deceased for the full realization of their transition. This is mentioned by St. Paisius in his writings, comparing a sinner with a drunkard who sobers up during this period. During this period, the soul comes to terms with its transition and says goodbye to worldly life;
3. Fortieth- This is a special day of remembrance, because according to the legends of St. Thessalonica, this number is of particular importance, because Christ was exalted on the 40th day, which means that the one who died on this day appears before the Lord. Likewise, the people of Israel mourned their leader Moses at just such a time. On this day, not only a prayer-petition for mercy for the deceased from God should be heard, but also a magpie.

The above three dates are necessary for special remembrance and prayer for the departed. During this period, their fervent prayers for the deceased are brought to the Lord and, in accordance with the teachings of the Church, can affect the final decision of the Creator regarding the soul.

Where does the human spirit go after life?

Where exactly does the spirit of the deceased reside? No one has an exact answer to this question, since this is a secret hidden from man by the Lord. Everyone will know the answer to this question after his repose. The only thing that is known for sure is the transition of the human spirit from one state to another - from a worldly body to an eternal spirit.

Only the Lord can determine the place of eternal residence of the soul

Here it is much more important to find out not “where”, but “to whom”, because it does not matter where the person will be after, the main thing is with the Lord?

Christians believe that after the transition to eternity, the Lord calls a person to court, where he determines his place of eternal residence - heaven with angels and other believers, or hell, with sinners and demons.

The teaching of the Orthodox Church says that only the Lord can determine the place of eternal residence of the soul and no one can influence His sovereign will. This decision is a response to the life of the soul in the body and its actions. What did she choose during her lifetime: good or evil, repentance or proud exaltation, mercy or cruelty? Only the actions of a person determine the eternal stay and according to them the Lord judges.

According to the book of Revelation of John Chrysostom, we can conclude that the human race is waiting for two judgments - individual for each soul, and general, when all the dead are resurrected after the end of the world. Orthodox theologians are convinced that in the period between an individual judgment and a common one, the soul has the opportunity to change its sentence, through the prayers of its loved ones, good deeds who create in his memory, remembrances in the Divine Liturgy and commemoration with alms.

ordeal

The Orthodox Church believes that the spirit goes through certain ordeals or trials on its way to the throne of God. The traditions of the holy fathers say that ordeals consist in denunciation by evil spirits, which make one doubt one's own salvation, the Lord or His Sacrifice.

The word ordeal comes from the old Russian "mytnya" - a place for collecting fines. That is, the spirit must pay a certain fine or be tested by certain sins. To help pass this test can be their own virtues, which the deceased acquired while on earth.

From a spiritual point of view, this is not a tribute to the Lord, but a complete awareness and recognition of everything that tormented a person during his lifetime and with which he was not able to fully cope. Only hope in Christ and His mercy can help the soul overcome this line.

The Orthodox Lives of the Saints contain many descriptions of ordeals. Their stories are extremely vivid and written in sufficient detail so that one can vividly imagine all the pictures described.

Icon of the Ordeal of Blessed Theodora

A particularly detailed description can be found in St. Basil the New, in his life, which contains the story of the blessed Theodora about her ordeals. She mentions 20 trials by sins, among which are:

• the word - it can heal or kill, it is the beginning of the world, according to the Gospel of John. The sins that are contained in the word are not empty statements, they have the same sin as material, perfect deeds. There is no difference between cheating on your husband or saying it out loud while dreaming - the sin is the same. Such sins include rudeness, obscenity, idle talk, incitement, blasphemy;
• lie or deceit - any untruth spoken by a person is a sin. This also includes perjury and perjury, which are serious sins, as well as dishonest trial and undertaking;
• gluttony is not only the delight of one's stomach, but also any indulgence of carnal passion: drunkenness, nicotine addiction or drug addiction;
• laziness, along with hack-work and parasitism;
• theft - any act, the consequence of which is the appropriation of someone else's, belong here: theft, fraud, fraud, etc .;
• stinginess is not only greed, but also thoughtless acquisition of everything, i.e. hoarding. This category also includes bribery, and denial of alms, as well as extortion and extortion;
• envy - visual theft and greed for someone else's;
• pride and anger - they destroy the soul;
• murder - both verbal and material, driving to suicide and abortions;
• fortune-telling - turning to grandmothers or psychics is a sin, it is written there in Scripture;
• fornication is any lascivious actions: watching pornography, masturbation, erotic fantasies, etc.;
• adultery and sodomy sins.

memorial days

This includes not only the first three important days (third, ninth and fortieth), but any holidays and simple days when loved ones remember the deceased, they commemorate him.

The word "commemoration" means commemoration, i.e. memory. And first of all, it is a prayer, and not just a thought or bitterness from separation from the dead.

Advice! Prayer is performed in order to ask the Creator for mercy for the deceased and justify him, even if he did not deserve it himself. According to the canons of the Orthodox Church, the Lord can change His decision about the deceased if his relatives actively pray and ask for him, doing alms and good deeds in his memory.

It is especially important to do this in the first month and the 40th day, when the soul comes before God. For all 40 days, magpie is read, after prayer every day, and on special days a funeral service is ordered. Together with prayer, relatives visit the church and cemetery these days, serve alms and distribute memorial treats in memory of the deceased. To such memorial dates include subsequent anniversaries of death, as well as special church holidays commemoration of the dead.

The Holy Fathers also write that the deeds and good deeds of the living can also cause a change in God's judgment on the deceased. The afterlife is full of secrets and mysteries, none of the living knows anything about it for sure. But the worldly path of each is the indicator that can point to the place where the spirit of man will spend all eternity.

What are tollhouses? Archpriest Vladimir Golovin

Vladimir Streletsky. The life of the human soul after death is scientifically proven!

For a long time, like all normal people belonging to the average, sober-minded majority, I did not believe in the existence of the soul after the death of the body. He did not perceive religious legends about Heaven and Hell because of their fabulousness and naivety. Dr. Moody was skeptical about the results of Dr. Moody's experiments, which were sensational in his time: it is difficult to call the visions of a dying person in moments of death agony a post-mortem experience. The experience of the death of a loved one and meticulous work on the books of Michael Newton turned all my ideas about life and death upside down.

They come to us in dreams to show that world.

On December 31, 2005, in the evening, on the eve of the New Year, my father died of a serious illness in the hospital. The next morning our family gathered in a large room two-room apartment at a mournful table with a lit candle and a portrait wrapped in a mourning ribbon to discuss the upcoming funeral.

I think that it makes no sense to describe the atmosphere and circumstances that weigh heavily on the hearts and souls of the audience. But I, unlike the others present, after 2-3 minutes after everyone gathered together, began to be overwhelmed by sensations and feelings that did not correspond to the spirit of sorrow hovering in the room. Strange, but my soul was surprisingly calm, light and easy. At the same time, I could not get rid of the impression that my father was here with us, that he was very glad that at last all of his large relatives had gathered at one table, and that the excruciating physical pains that had tormented him for the last month had finally gone. Stealthily, I even looked up the corner of the room several times, for some reason I was sure that it was from there that he was looking at all of us - happy and joyful ...

Then he started coming to me in my dreams. I remember these dreams well. First I saw my father in the same hospital bed, in the same room where he died. Only he was healthy, rosy-cheeked, smiling. He told me that he had recovered and left the room.

The next time I sat next to him for a large, festive table covered with a white tablecloth. There were many treats on it and vodka in green decanters - such as he liked to see in his mother's house. At the table, as I remember, former colleagues and friends of my father were sitting, and his birthday was being celebrated.

The third dream was surprisingly vivid and accompanied by sounds. We stood with my father large room resembling a waiting room. There were many doors leading out of the hall. Around us stood in small groups of people who were discussing something vividly. Moreover, it was remembered that each group entered the hall through its own doors. "Where am I to go?" my father asked me.

And finally the last dream. My father sat in a large, spacious classroom, similar to a schoolroom, at a wide table and pointed to me with his hand at the elderly men and women present. “This is our class, and these are my friends with whom we study at school,” he said.

At first, of course, I thought that all these dreams were the result of experiencing the loss of a loved one. But then I had to think: not everything here is so simple. In the two years that have passed since my father's death, I have had to talk with about three dozen people who have lost their loved ones. All of them, as one, on the first day after death dear people clearly felt their presence nearby. They all saw them in dreams, recovering from an illness or a tragic accident. Approximately half of the people with whom I spoke remembered well the dreams where they sat at the same table with the dead and celebrated some fun event with them. Four people, like me, remembered meeting with departed relatives in lecture halls and some classrooms.

Gradually, I began to form at first a hunch, and then a conviction that the subconscious part of the psyche of many people, which is especially clearly manifested in their dreams, stores largely similar and typical information about meetings with the dead dear to them. As if they are forever gone from the Earth, they take us for a short time to some amazing, Paradoxical World to convince us that this world really exists, and there really is no death.

But I could not even imagine that the feelings of the presence of the dead experienced by me and the people I knew on the first day after death, as well as the motives of dreams with the participation of the dead: recovery after an illness or tragedy, festive feasts, halls with groups of people, classrooms and audiences, as well as much that we never dreamed of, are wonderfully described in the books of the American hypnotherapist researcher Michael Newton. Reading these books after everything I experienced after the death of my father was a real shock.

Who are you, Dr. Newton?

Michael Newton, PhD, is a California certified hypnotherapist and a member of the American Association of Counseling Psychologists for 45 years. He devoted his private hypnotherapy practice to correcting various kinds of deviations in behavior, as well as helping people discover their higher spiritual selves. past lives, thus confirming and demonstrating with practical examples the real, meaningful existence of an immortal soul between physical incarnations on Earth. In order to expand his research, the scientist founded the "Society of Spiritual Return" and the Institute of Life After Life. Newton and his wife currently live in the Sierra Nevada mountains in northern California.

Newton detailed the course and results of his experiments in the books The Journey of the Soul (1994), Destiny of the Soul (2001) and Life Between Lives: Past Lives of the Soul's Travels (2004),in which he clearly and consistently described the course of events after physical death. The presentation of the material by the author was conceived as a visual time travel using real stories from hands-on sessions with the researcher's patients who described in detail their experiences in between past lives. Newton's books were not so much just another opus about past lives and reincarnation as a new breakthrough in scientific exploration of the worlds of the afterlife, which were not previously explored with the help of hypnosis.

It should be emphasized that in his research, M. Newton went much further than R. Moody, the author of the bestseller Life After Life (1976). If Moody described in detail the visions and sensations of the soul after clinical death (leaving the body and hovering over it, entering a dark tunnel, watching a "film" of a bygone life, meeting and talking with a luminous Being), then Newton, in the course of his experiments on hypnotic regression, did not only confirmed the results obtained by his predecessor. As a conscientious and meticulous researcher, he managed to look beyond biological death and see the following stages of the Soul's journey: meeting and conversations with the Mentor, as well as with the embodied energies of deceased relatives; rest and recuperation; study in a group of kindred spirits; mastering in the course of classes the ability to manipulate subtle energies; work with files and archives of memory in the libraries of Life; attending a meeting of the Council of Elders; inspection of the Hall of Mirrors of options for the future fate.

The World of Souls of Michael Newton turned out to be not only structured and organized in a certain way, but also controlled formation in the World of Subtle Matter. The scientist does not give an answer in his books to the question of who created this amazing and so unlike the biblical Paradise and Hell world. But it can be assumed that it was created in ancient times by one of the terrestrial civilizations, which mastered subtle energies after the technological stage of development.

It is quite obvious that the sensational results of Newton's experiments met not only the admiration of grateful readers who defeated the fear of death once and for all after reading his books, but also the desperate resistance of the apologists of the scientific paradigm that dominates today, who do not even think that the human subconscious is not less powerful tool of scientific knowledge than the notorious telescopes and hadron colliders.

And criticism does not stand up to criticism.

What arguments are used contemporary critics Michael Newton?

1. The results obtained by Newton in the course of his experiments are unscientific and cannot be considered as proof of the life of the human soul after death.

Okay, let's turn to the philosophy and methodology of science. What experimental results are scientific? First, these are the results obtained by scientific methods. But allow me: is the method of immersing a person into a hypnotic state, which has been successfully used in psychotherapy for at least the last 100 years, unscientific? And what is the unscientific method of statistical sampling of results, which Newton used?

Secondly, the criterion for the scientific character of the obtained results is their reproducibility in the course of similar studies. So with this, everything is in order: Newton and his followers around the world conducted thousands of experiments of hypnotic immersion of people in a post-mortem state. And they all gave similar results.

Thirdly, the results and course of experiments must be recorded with appropriate instruments and technical devices. That's right: all Newtonian sessions of hypnotic immersion in the afterlife world were recorded by audio equipment, and after they were completed, the patients listened to the descriptions of what they saw with their inner vision told to the hypnotherapist in their own voice.

So, the thesis about the unscientific nature of the results obtained by Newton, to put it mildly, is incorrect.

2. Michael Newton invented and inspired his patients with pictures and images of the afterlife.

Most of us believe that the human imagination is omnipotent and can invent anything. In fact, this is far from the case. Psychologists know that all the fantasies that are born in our head are primarily due to specific cultural, national and religious traditions that exist within a particular society. This is clearly seen in the examples of fantasies about the afterlife, received within the framework of the mystical experience of religiously oriented thinkers (E. Swedenborg, D. Andreev, etc.) and ascetics of various religious denominations. In the case of descriptions of the journey of the soul after death, which are contained in the writings of Newton, we have something completely different. And it is practically impossible to inspire this other thing to religiously minded people. But more on that below.

Here is a typical example of critical material on the activities of Michael Newton, posted on the Existenz.gumer.info website (http://existenz.gumer.info/toppage17.htm), the author of which is Fyodor Pnevmatikov from Krasnodar (most likely, the surname is pseudonym - auth.)

“There are areas in the country (USA-author) where the softening of the brain is proceeding at an accelerated pace. And southern California initially assumed the maximum exploitation of everything slanderous in the American mind. California has never been under the yoke of the "Bible Belt". And after the well-known social transformations of the 1950s and 1960s, she actively began to develop new meanings designed to re-actualize the self-identifying space of the middle class. Buddhism, psychotropic drugs and hypno-practices became the material from which the general background of what was happening was formed. And the difficulty here lies in the fact that a number of the deepest problems associated with the study of unconscious processes and altered states of consciousness turned out to be strongly associated with the neo-pagan, transpersonal and occult camp.

So, this is what real California is: a God-forsaken land, given at the mercy of crazy mystics, drug addicts and hypnotherapists! Where better than here to dig in for the inveterate swindler Newton? Only now it is worth reminding Mr. Pnevmatikov and others like him that California, which has unique scientific and intellectual potential, gave the world 31 Nobel Prize winners. It is here that the world-famous California Institute of Technology, founded in 1920, is located. Six years later, the world's first aeronautical department was created here, where he worked Theodor von Karman who organized the jet propulsion laboratory. In 1928, the university founded the Faculty of Biology under the auspices of Thomas Morgan, the discoverer of the chromosome, and also began to build the world famous Palomar observatory .

From the 1950s to the 1970s, two of the most famous particle physics that time, Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann. Both received Nobel Prize for his contribution to the creation of the so-called. " standard model» elementary particle physics.

We read the following "revealing" Newton thesis: "Of course, Newton says nothing about the methodology of the sessions."

After such a “deadly” conclusion, one simply marvels at the degree of competence of a respected critic who did not even bother to read the first chapter of “The Destiny of the Soul”, where it says literally the following:

“In terms of methodology, I can devote an hour or so to the subject's long visualization of images of a forest or a seashore, then I bring him back to childhood. I question him extensively about such things as the furniture in his home when the subject was twelve, his favorite clothes at age ten, his favorite toys at seven, and his earliest memories from three to two years of age. We do all this before I put the patient into fetal development, ask some questions and then guide him into his past life for her. overview. The preparatory stage of our work is completed by the time the patient, having already passed through the scene of death in that life, reaches the gate to the World of Souls. Continuous hypnosis, deepened during the first hour, intensifies the process of releasing or withdrawing the subject from his earthly environment. He also has to answer in detail numerous questions about his spiritual life. It takes two more hours ».

Read on, dear critic: “The fact is that if you subject someone to unorthodox regression hypnosis, then first of all it is time for you to think about the problem of actualizing affectively saturated meanings in the mind of the patient. By itself, belief in an afterlife, being drawn from some occult sources, can lead the patient in a hypnosis session to the corresponding hallucinatory reactions. Existentially colored theme of death ( having a weak level of elaboration even at the semantic level) in the psyche of a significant number of people turns into a firework of ecstatic and ominous hallucinations ... "

Did you understand anything in this verbal gibberish, dear reader? Me too. With Newton, I can assure you, everything is simple and clear, even despite the special terminology:

“People under hypnosis do not see dreams or hallucinations. In this case, in a state of controlled trance, we do not see dreams in their chronological sequence, as is usually the case, and we do not hallucinate ... While in a state of hypnosis, people transmit their exact observations to the hypnologist - the pictures they see and the conversations they hear in your unconscious mind. When answering questions, the subject cannot lie, but he can misinterpret what he sees in the unconscious mind, just as we do in the conscious state. In a state of hypnosis, people find it difficult to accept what they do not believe to be true.

Among my patients who participated in these sessions, there were both very religious men and women, and those who had no special spiritual convictions at all. Most have accumulated somewhere in between, having their own set of ideas about life. In the course of my research, I discovered an amazing thing: once the subjects regressed into their soul state, they all showed remarkable consistency in their responses to questions about the spirit world. People even used the same words and pictorial descriptions when they discussed their life as a soul.”

In general, when you read quite a few respected critics of Dr. Newton, you involuntarily recall the words of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky: “The ignoramuses sow prejudice without even taking the trouble to read the book.”

World of Souls by Michael Newton.

So what exactly did Newton explore and discover? Let's look at the results of his hypnotherapy experiences in detail.

Transition. At the time of death, our soul leaves the physical body. If the soul is old enough and has experienced many past incarnations, it immediately realizes that it has been liberated and goes "home". These advanced souls don't need anyone to meet them. However most of the souls with whom Newton worked are met outside the astral plane of the Earth by their Guides. A young soul or the soul of a dead child may feel a little disoriented - until someone meets it on a level close to earthly. There are souls who decide to stay at the place of their physical death for some time. But the majority wants to leave this place immediately. Time does not matter in the Soul World. Souls who have left the body, but want to calm their loved ones who are in grief or who have some other reason to stay for some time near the place of their death, do not feel the flow of time. It becomes simply present time for the soul, as opposed to linear time.

As souls move away from Earth after death, they notice more and more intensifying radiance of light around them. Some see grayish haze for a short time and describe it as passing through a tunnel or some kind of gate. It depends on the speed of leaving the body and the movement of the soul, which in turn is related to its experience. The feeling of pulling force emanating from our Guides can be mild or strong, depending on the maturity of the soul and its ability to change quickly. In the first moments after leaving the body, all souls fall into thin cloud zone which soon dissipates, and souls can see around for long distances. Right at this moment the ordinary soul notices a form of subtle energy—a spiritual being—approaching it. This being may be her loving spiritual friend, or there may be two of them, but most often it is our Guide. If we are met by a spouse or friend who has died before us, our Guide is nearby so that the soul can make this transition.

In 30 years of research, Newton never came across a single subject (patient) who would be met by such religious beings as Jesus or Buddha. At the same time, the researcher notes that the spirit of love of the Great Teachers of the Earth comes from each personal Guide who is assigned to us.

Restoration of energy, meeting with other souls and adaptation. By the time souls return to the place they call home, the earth aspect of their being has changed. You can no longer call them people in the sense in which we usually imagine a human being with specific emotions, character and physical features. For example, they do not mourn their recent physical death in the way their loved ones do. It is our soul that makes us human on Earth, but outside of our physical body we are no longer Homo sapiens. The soul is so majestic that it defies description, so Newton defined the soul as intelligent, radiant form of energy. The soul immediately after death suddenly feels a change, because it is no longer weighed down by the temporary body that possesses it. Someone gets used to the new state faster, and someone more slowly.

The energy of the soul is able to divide into identical parts, like a hologram. She can simultaneously live in different bodies, although this is less common than it is written about. However, thanks to this ability of the soul, a part of our light energy always remains in the World of Souls. Therefore, it is possible to see your mother after returning there from the physical world, even if she died thirty earth years ago and has already incarnated on Earth in another body.

The transition period (period of energy recovery) that we spend with our guides before joining our spiritual community or group differs for different souls and for the same soul in the intervals between its different lives. This is a quiet period when we can get some guidance or express all sorts of our feelings about the life that has just ended. This period is intended for initial viewing, accompanied by a gentle probing of the soul, a test that is carried out by very insightful and caring Teacher-Guides.

The meeting-discussion can be more or less long, depending on the specific circumstances - on what was or was not completed by the soul according to its life contract. Special karmic issues are also visible, although they will be discussed later in the most detailed way already in the circle of our spiritual group. The energy of some returning souls is not immediately sent back to their spirit group. These are the souls that have been polluted in their physical bodies due to participation in acts of ill will. There is a difference between misdeeds or crimes committed without a conscious desire to hurt someone and actions that are known to be evil. The degree of damage caused to other people as a result of such unkind actions, ranging from some minor offenses to malicious crimes, is viewed and calculated very carefully.

Those souls who have been involved in evil deeds are sent to special centers, which some patients call "intensive care centers." Here, as they say, their energy is reconstructed or dismantled and reassembled into one whole. Depending on the nature of their transgressions, these souls can be brought back to Earth fairly quickly. They can make a just decision to become victims of the evil actions of others in the next life. But still, if their criminal actions in the past life were long and especially cruel in relation to many, many people, this may indicate the presence of some model of malicious behavior. Such souls sink into a lonely existence in spiritual space for a long time - perhaps for a thousand Earth years. It is a guiding principle of the Soul World that the cruel transgressions of all souls, whether conscious or unintentional, must be atoned for in one form or another in the Hereafter. This is not considered a punishment or even a fine, but rather an opportunity for karmic development. For the soul there is no hell - except perhaps on Earth.

Some people's lives are so difficult that their souls return home very tired. In such cases, the newly arrived soul requires not so much a joyful greeting as rest and solitude. Indeed, many souls who wish to rest have the opportunity to do so before reuniting with their spirit group. Our spiritual group may be noisy or quiet, but they respect what we went through during our last incarnation. All groups are waiting the return of their friends - each in her own way, but always with deep love and brotherly feelings. Therefore, noisy feasts are organized, which we sometimes see in our dreams with the participation of the dead.

Here is what one subject told Newton about how he was greeted: “After my last life, my group had a great evening with music, wine, dancing and singing. They did everything in the spirit of a classic Roman festival with marble halls, togas and all those exotic decorations that prevailed in many of our joint lives in ancient world. Melissa (principal spiritual friend) was waiting for me, recreating the age that could most remind me of her, and, as always, looked brilliant.

Meeting with a group of kindred spirits, studying. Groups of spiritual associates include from 3 to 25 members - on average, about 15. Sometimes the souls of nearby groups may wish to establish contact with each other. Often this refers to older souls who have had many friends from other groups with whom they have had fellowship over hundreds of past lives.

In general, returning home can occur in two ways. The returning soul may be immediately greeted by several souls right at the entrance and then provided with a Guide to help her through the preliminary coordinating training. More often than not, the kin group is waiting for the soul to truly return to it. This group may be in an auditorium, or on the steps of a temple, or in a garden, or the returning soul may meet with many groups. Souls passing by other communities on their way to their destination often notice that other souls they have interacted with in past lives recognize them and greet them with a smile or a wave.

How the subject sees his group, his surroundings, depends on the state of advancement of the soul, although the memories of the classroom atmosphere that prevails there are always very distinct. In the World of Souls, the student's status depends on the level of development of the soul. The mere fact that a soul has been incarnated since the Stone Age does not mean that it has reached high level. In his lectures, Newton often cites the example of his patient, who took 4,000 years of incarnations to finally overcome the feeling of envy.

In classifying souls, Newton identifies three general categories: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Basically, a group of souls consists of creatures of approximately the same level of development, although each may have its own strengths and weaknesses. Ethics provide a certain balance in the group. Souls help each other to understand the information and experience gained in their past life, and to see how, while in that physical body, they used the feelings and emotions directly related to this experience. The group critically analyzes every aspect of life, up to the fact that some episodes are played out by members of the group - for a clearer understanding. By the time souls reach the intermediate level, they begin to focus on those major areas and interests in which certain skills have been demonstrated.

Another very significant aspect of Newton's research was the establishment of the colors of the various energies that are manifested by souls in the World of Souls. Colors are related to the level of advancement of the soul. Using this information, which has been collected gradually over many years, one can judge the progress of the soul, as well as what kind of souls surround our subject at a time when he is in a state of trance. The researcher found that pure White color indicates a younger soul as it progresses, the soul energy becomes more saturated in color - turning into orange, yellow and, ultimately, into blue colors. In addition to this basic color of the aura, each group has a slight mixed radiance of various shades characteristic of each soul.

To develop a more convenient system, Newton identified stages in the development of the soul, starting from the I level of beginners - through various stages of training - to the VI level of the Master. These highly evolved souls have a rich indigo color.

During hypnosis, being in a state of superconsciousness, many, immersed in hypnosis, told Newton that in the World of Souls no soul is looked upon as less developed or less valuable than any other soul. We are all in the process of transformation, gaining some more significant and higher than now, the state of enlightenment. Each of us is considered to be uniquely qualified to contribute to the whole, no matter how hard we struggle to learn our lessons.

We usually tend to judge by the system of authorities that exists on Earth, which is characterized by the struggle for power, intrigue and the use of a system of rigid rules within a hierarchical structure. As for the Soul World, there is structure, but it exists in the depths of sublime forms of compassion, harmony, ethics and morality, which are completely different from what we practice on Earth. In the World of Souls there is also an immense kind of "centralized personnel department" that takes into account the tasks, tasks and purpose of souls. However, there is a system of such values ​​as incredible kindness, tolerance and absolute love. In the Soul World, we are not forced to reincarnate or participate in group projects. If souls want to retire, they can do so. If they do not want to take on more and more difficult tasks, this desire is also respected.

Feeling the Violet Presence and the Council of the Elders. Newton was repeatedly asked if his subjects saw the Source of Creation during their sessions. In answering this question, the researcher usually referred to a sphere of intense violet light, or the Presence, which both visibly and invisibly hovers over the Soul World. Presence is felt first of all when we stand before Council of Elders. Once or twice between lives we visit this group of Higher Beings, who are an order of magnitude or more higher than our Teacher-Guides. The Council of Elders is neither a meeting of judges nor a court session in which souls are interrogated and sentenced to this or that punishment for misdeeds. Council members want to talk to us about our mistakes and what we can do to deal with negative behavior in our next life. This is where the discussion of a suitable body for our next life begins.

Future Lives Viewing Hall and a new incarnation. When the time of the new birth approaches, we go into a space that resembles a hall of mirrors where a number of possible physical forms are viewed that could best suit us for the implementation of our goals. Here we have the opportunity to look into the future and test different bodies before making a final choice. Souls voluntarily choose less perfect bodies and more difficult lives to work off karmic debts or work on other aspects of a lesson they didn't quite get to grips with in their past. Most souls accept the body that is offered to them here, but the soul can refuse, and even postpone its reincarnation. Then the soul can also ask to go to some other physical planet during this period of time. If we agree with our new "allocation", then we are usually sent to a preparatory class to remind us of certain key rules, signs and signposts in the life ahead, especially for those moments when we will meet our important soul mates. .

Finally, when the time for our return approaches, we say goodbye to our friends and are escorted into space, from where the souls depart on their next journey to Earth. Souls enter their assigned body in the womb of their future mother at about the fourth month of her pregnancy, so that they already have a sufficiently developed brain at their disposal, which they can use until the moment of their birth. While in the fetal position, they are still able to think like immortal souls, getting used to the peculiarities of the brain and to their new, second self. After birth, the memory is blocked, and the soul combines its immortal qualities with the transient human mind, which gives rise to a combination of new personality traits.

Participants in Newton's experiments, coming out of a trance state after they had mentally been "at home", in the World of Souls, always had an expression of special reverence on their faces, and the state of mind after a session of regressive hypnotherapy was described as follows: "I gained an indescribable feeling of joy and freedom learning about their true nature. The amazing thing is that this knowledge was in my mind all the time. Meeting my Masters, who did not judge me in any way, plunged me into an amazing state of rainbow light. The discovery I made was that the only thing truly important in this material world is the way we live and how we treat other people. Our life circumstances and position are of no importance compared to our compassion and acceptance of others. Now I have knowledge, and not just a feeling, as to why I am here and where I will go after death.

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Is there life of the soul after death, is there life of the soul after death? modern science does not know. Yes, and it cannot know: after all, neither a microscope, nor a telescope, nor any other super-device can be inserted into the only value in the Universe - the human soul -. But the science of the future, which recognizes for this soul the status of the most perfect instrument and means of knowing the world, will consider life after death as a fundamental axiom, without which the knowledge of the objective world, its structure and its laws is generally devoid of any purpose and meaning.

Vladimir Streletsky, writer, journalist, Kiev.