Death and Afterlife

Death

What happens when your body dies?

You are an eternal soul. When your body dies you leave it and
return as a unique consciousness to the spiritual dimensions.

As a soul, you always have access to all dimensions or planes of
creation, though your conscious awareness of this is veiled from
you in order that you may fully experience your current physical
incarnation. Your body only exists in the physical universe.

Death means that your physical body ceases to function as a
temporary housing for you. Death is not a punishment; it is part
of your natural soul cycle.

The spiritual dimensions are our true or real home. The spiritual
dimensions are often referred to as the spiritual “realms”. When
we arrive back in the spiritual realms, for most of us the veil of
forgetfulness will be lifted, and we will remember that we are
back in our real home.

All souls transition to the spiritual realms when their body dies,
regardless of what they believed or how they behaved during
their physical lifetime.

There is no reason to fear death if you have tried to live an
unselfish life, and treated others the way that you would like
them to treat you.

Those souls who have used their freewill to live an unloving and
selfish life have rejected God's loving way. They will not return
to the love of God when their bodies die, because they will find
themselves in an environment which corresponds to their inner
nature. However, all souls may choose to grow and progress
spiritually, and these opportunities are available to those who are
willing to reconcile themselves with God and ask for His help.

It is possible for souls to leave their bodies and visit the spiritual
realms, and then return to their bodies with a conscious memory
of their visit. These experiences are called "near-death
experiences" or "out of body" experiences. The majority of
people who can remember these experiences have said that
leaving their bodies was a most wonderful and liberating
experience. However, some souls do not experience a positive
near-death experience.

In the spiritual realms you will have a spiritual body. Unlike your
physical body, your spiritual body does not require environmental
support.

Soon after you arrive back in the spiritual realms you may
experience a review of your recent incarnation so that you may
learn from it. This is often referred to as a "Life Review". You
will feel the impact that your thoughts and actions had on other
souls, from their perspective. The Golden Rule represents the
standard by which your thoughts and actions are measured. You
will understand that when we love others we love ourselves, and
when we hurt others, we hurt ourselves.

The purpose of a physical incarnation is to learn to love, and your
life review is part of your education. It helps you to evaluate
your progress. God does not judge you based on this review. To
the extent that there is judgment, you judge yourself.

During your life review you will be surprised to learn that what
you now consider to be insignificant thoughts and actions are
capable of causing great joy or pain to others. You will also be
surprised to discover the extent to which your thoughts and
actions affected God's creation. This includes all life, including
plant life and our planet.

As a soul, you generally maintain the level of soul growth that
you have achieved; you do not regress, but your character does
not become perfect because your body dies.

As you move into the spiritual realms, what you experience will
be affected by your attitude and beliefs. This is exactly the same
as your experiences during physical life; your attitude and beliefs
shape the feedback you receive. You will therefore be better off
if you develop kind, gentle and loving attitudes and beliefs during
your physical incarnation, because you will take them with you
when you leave your body and return to the spiritual realms.

Deathbed confessions and “conversions” are misunderstood. We
are always forgiven by God regardless of whether or not we ask
for it, but this does not mean the slate is wiped clean and we
start again. Our soul is measured by the love within us, and it is
this love that defines where we fit into God's creation, both in
the physical and spiritual dimensions. This is God’s perfect
system of justice.

Killing life, including your own life, can invoke significant karmic
consequences, and might inhibit your soul growth.

Some may consider suicide to be a personal choice, but, except
for exceptional circumstances, it is not a loving act because it
usually reveals that we neither love ourselves or others. We
cannot avoid problems that we need to overcome through
suicide; it is not a viable escape. Suicide generally causes severe
pain and hurt to those left behind, and therefore a soul who kills
their own physical body may incur significant karmic debt.

If you make no progress, and do not learn the lessons you agreed
to try to learn during your physical incarnation, you will get the
opportunity, if you choose, to reincarnate and try again.

If you are afraid, confused, or fear God, especially around the
time of your death, talk to Him and ask for His help. Talking to
God will help you. Remember this even if it does make much
sense to you now, or you never came to know God during your
physical life. When the time comes, you only have to sincerely
ask God to help you.

Afterlife

When our bodies die and we move on to the spiritual realms, we
commonly refer to this as being in the “afterlife”. The “afterlife”
is misnamed because the reality is that life continues in the
spiritual realms, and this new life will seem more real than the
physical life we just left.

For most of us, our existence in the afterlife is an infinitely more
positive experience than our life in the physical incarnation we
just left. Even though our character does not automatically
upgrade, we are not subjected to the negativity of other souls,
and our own level of negativity, if it is not too great, is canceled
or dissolved by the love of God. We will feel the love of God to
the full extent once the veil of forgetfulness is lifted.

All souls are not equal in the spiritual realms. The difference is
your level of spiritual enlightenment, or the love within you, and
it is obvious to all. There are no secrets in the afterlife.

The love within you determines the speed at which you spirit
body vibrates. The more love, the faster it vibrates and the more
light your spirit body will project for all souls to see. This is a
very fair and objective scientific process. It is the reason for
references to light within the Bible. Halos are a way of depicting
this light in art and literature.

Where you end up in the spiritual dimensions depends on how
loving a life you lived, not what you say you believe. In the
afterlife, you will be treated the way you treated others during
your incarnation. You get an afterlife that reflects your
character. Some people express this in terms of getting the
afterlife that you earned, because the more effort you make at
developing your character and evolving as a soul, the better the
afterlife will be for you.

Although God loves us unconditionally and forgives us completely,
we have freewill, and He expects us to use our freewill to grow
more loving. Therefore, we take our unresolved negative karma
with us into the afterlife. This karma represents lessons that we
still need to learn. We will have the opportunity to learn these
lessons, and we may choose to re-incarnate to do so.

Some think of the afterlife in religious terms as a bipolar world
consisting of Heaven and Hell. This is a misconception. Heaven
and hell are not “either/or”, “black/white” or “pass/fail”
alternatives. In reality Heaven and Hell are the opposite ends of
a scale, and where you end up on that scale is entirely
dependent on the love within you. This reflects God’s perfect
system of justice. Anything else would be unfair.

Religions have many misconceptions about what happens in
"heaven" and "hell". Heaven does not need to involve sitting
around in front of God’s throne praising Him, and hell is not
about fire and burning forever.

The heavenly spiritual realms involve living in God’s love
and being free to live and grow as we choose. We end up
in the heavenly realms because we have used our freewill
to attain a certain level of soul growth. The heavenly
realms are indescribably wonderful, and God’s love and
presence there is obvious.

We do not feel God's love in the "hellish" realms. They are
dark, and we feel isolated, cold and alone. This is why hell
is sometimes referred to as the “void”. Hell is not forever;
we can choose to move to the light by accepting God and
asking for His help. God created all dimensions or realms.
He does not share His love with the lower realms because
He gave souls freewill, and souls in the lower realms have
ignored or rejected Him, or generally behaved without
loving intent. Hell is the absence of God.

When we cross over to the spiritual realms, most of us will be
greeted by souls with whom we had a loving relationship in the
physical realms. We will also have guides and teachers available
to help us with the transition. Help is never far away, both in
the physical and spiritual realms.

Life in the heavenly spiritual realms is wonderful. As long as we
are not causing harm to God's creation, we can choose who to be
with and what to experience. We still have freewill, so we are
free to live and grow as we choose. The presence of God here is
obvious to all, and we experience unimaginable joy during our
time here.

To a certain extent, your initial experience in the spiritual realms
is dependent on the beliefs that you take with you. If you are
religious, you may gravitate towards religious communities with
common beliefs until you realize that God is universal and that it
is love, not religion, that is important. Some beliefs can be
limiting or damaging, so be careful about what beliefs you
develop during your physical incarnation.

Religions can teach you to love, but after your body dies they
cannot control the afterlife that you earned during your physical
lifetime, though loving souls can petition on your behalf.

The lowest spiritual realms are normally referred to as hell, and
are reserved for those less developed souls who abused power
and authority and caused deliberate harm or injury to others.
Souls who find themselves here have chosen to reject God, but
these realms are not a place of eternal punishment. Even here
we can choose to learn to become more loving and therefore
move up to more pleasant spiritual realms. Those who find
themselves in the lowest realms can reach out to God.

How much time do you have to grow your soul?

You have the freewill to decide how fast you grow as soul; God is
patient and you are eternal.

Time is relevant in this physical incarnation because your physical
body is subject to time limits. However, you, a soul, are eternal,
and time is not relevant in the spiritual dimensions. The idea
that time does not exist in the spiritual dimensions is almost
impossible to understand, but it is true none the less.

We generally retain the level of growth we have achieved as we
continue to grow throughout eternity. We, as souls, are not
magically upgraded and made perfect when our bodies die.
Lessons keep repeating until they are learnt.

Opportunities for accelerated soul growth are not limited to one
lifetime in this physical world. That would be grossly unfair.
Reincarnation is real. You may have already reincarnated many
times, and may do so many times more till you have learned the
lessons of love that karma teaches.

Understand that your time in the physical world is short, and that
you have the opportunity to make significant progress here. This
is why you agreed to come here! Your opportunities for
happiness and love are dependent on the effort you make to
grow as a soul, so your time here is best spent on your growth.

The later years of your life can be very beneficially devoted to
soul growth. Physical life is short, but it is never too late to learn
to love unconditionally, and to forgive.

You are totally in control of the love in your heart and the speed
at which it grows. This speed is not based on a linear
interpretation of time; it can be accelerated as rapidly as you
intend.

When you decide to try to become a more loving soul, you can
sincerely ask for help and guidance from God, and He will help
you.

Have you left it too late to change?

What is important in this incarnation (or lifetime) is the state of
your soul when your physical body dies. It does not matter what
you used to be 20 years ago. Your character at the time of your
death is what matters.

Your character may be a reflection of what you did during your
lifetime, but the number and type of your thoughts and actions
are irrelevant in determining your character. Your character is
measured by the love within you at the time that your body dies,
not the sum of what you did during your life.

I believe there are two sides to
the phenomenon known as death,
this side where we live, and the
other side where we shall
continue to live. Eternity does
not start with death. We are in
eternity now.
Norman Vincent Peale

Death is nothing else but going
home to God, the bond of love
will be unbroken for all eternity.
Mother Teresa

Death is not the end, it is simply
walking out of the physical form
and into the spirit realm, which
is our true home. It's going back
home.
Stephen Christopher

Death is only an experience
through which you are meant to
learn a great lesson: you cannot
die.
Paramahansa Yogananda

Death is simply a shedding of the
physical body like the butterfly
shedding its cocoon. It is a
transition to a higher state of
consciousness where you
continue to perceive, to
understand, to laugh, and to be
able to grow.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Those who have stunted their
spiritual growth through an
undeveloped or misdirected
lifestyle, have led a purely self-
centered life or have hurt other
people, their spiritual
environment will reflect
something of these realities. A
self-centered life on Earth places
one in an area of the spirit world
with like-minded people who
have yet to learn the value of
unselfishness for the
advancement of the soul.
Nora Spurgin

Each time we die we gain more
of life. Souls pass from one
sphere to another without loss of
personality, become more and
more bright ... I am a soul. I
know well that what I shall
render up to the grave is not
myself ... Earth, though are not
my abyss! ... The whole of
creation is a perpetual ascension,
from brute to man, from man to
God. To divest ourselves more
and more of matter, to be
clothed more and more with
spirit, such is the law.
Victor Hugo

It is the secret of the world that
all things subsist and do not die,
but only retire a little from sight
and afterwards return again ...
Nothing is dead; men feign
themselves dead, and endure
mock funerals and mournful
obituaries, and there they stand
looking out of the window, sound
and well, in some new strange
disguise. Jesus is not
dead; he is very well alive: nor
John, nor Paul, nor Mahomet, nor
Aristotle; at times we believe we
have seen them all, and could
easily tell the names under which
they go.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

When your time comes to die, be
not like those whose hearts are
filled with fear of death, so that
when their time comes they
weep and pray for a little more
time to live their lives over
again in a different way. Sing
your death song, and die like a
hero going home.
Tecumseh

If the Lord should bring a wicked
man to heaven, heaven would be
hell to him; for he who loves not
grace upon earth will never love
it in heaven
Christopher Love

We have no evidence whatsoever
that the soul perishes with the
body.
Mahatma Gandhi

Every soul is immortal -- for
whatever is in perpetual motion
is immortal … All that is soul
presides over all that is without
soul and patrols all heaven, now
appearing in one form and now in
another…Every man's soul has by
the law of this birth been a
spectator of eternal truth, or it
would never have passed into
this our mortal frame, yet still it
is no easy matter for all to be
reminded of their past by their
present existence ... By making
the right use of those things
remembered from the former
life, by constantly perfecting
himself in the perfect mysteries,
a man becomes truly perfect -- an
initiate into wisdom more divine.
Plato

A man is what he is, not what
men say he is. His character no
man can touch. His character is
what he is before his God and his
Judge; and only he himself can
damage that. His reputations
what men say he is. That can be
damaged; but reputation is for
time, character is for eternity.
John Ballantine Gough

A good character is the best
tombstone. Those who loved you
and were helped by you will
remember you when forget-me-
nots have withered. Carve your
name on hearts, not on marble.
Charles H. Spurgeon

Character is the total of
thousands of small daily strivings
to live up to the best that is in
us. Character is the final decision
to reject whatever is demeaning
to oneself or to others and with
confidence and honesty to choose
the right.
Arthur G. Trudeau

You don't get to choose how
you're going to die, or when. You
can only decide how you're going
to live. Now.
Joan Baez

Do your work as though you had a
thousand years to live, and as if
you were to die tomorrow.
Mother Anna Lee

Death is a challenge. It tells us
not to waste time... It tells us to
tell each other right now that we
love each other.
Leo Buscaglia

Yesterday is ashes; tomorrow is
wood. Only today does the fire
burn brightly.
Old Eskimo proverb

Each today, well-lived, makes
yesterday a dream of happiness
and each tomorrow a vision of
hope. Look, therefore, to this
one day, for it and it alone is life.
Sanskrit Poem

I wish it need not have happened
in my time,” said Frodo.“So do
I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all
who live to see such times. But
that is not for them to decide. All
we have to decide is what to do
with the time that is given us.
J R R Tolkein - 'Lord of the Rings'

Plan for this world as if you
expect to live forever; but plan
for the hereafter as if you expect
to die tomorrow.
Ibn Gabirol

Don't wait for the Last Judgment.
It takes place every day.
Albert Camus

It is the greatest mistake to
think that man is always one and
the same. A man is never the
same for long. He is continually
changing. He seldom remains the
same even for half an hour.
George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff

Time is the coin of your life. It
is the only coin you have, and
only you can determine how it
will be spent.
Be careful lest you let other
people spend it for you.
Carl Sandburg

Character cannot be developed in
ease and quiet. Only through
experience of trial
and suffering can the soul be
strengthened, ambition inspired,
and success achieved.
Helen Keller

To fear death is nothing other
than to think oneself wise when
one is not. For it is to think one
knows what one does not know.
No one knows whether death may
not even turn out to be one of
the greatest blessings of human
beings. And yet people fear it as
if they knew for certain it is the
greatest evil.
Socrates

Do not seek death. Death will
find you. But seek the road which
makes death a fulfillment.
Dag Hammarskjöld

I've told my children that when I
die, to release balloons in the sky
to celebrate that I graduated. For
me, death is a graduation.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Death is nothing more than a
doorway, something you walk
through.
Dr. George Ritchie

He has achieved success who has
lived well, laughed often and
loved much; who has enjoyed the
trust of pure women, the respect
of intelligent men and the love of
little children; who has filled his
niche and accomplished his task;
who has left the world better
than he found it, whether by an
improved poppy, a perfect poem,
or a rescued soul; who has never
lacked appreciation of Earth's
beauty or failed to express it;
who has always looked for the
best in others and given them the
best he had; whose life was an
inspiration; whose memory a
benediction.
Betty Anderson Stanley

What we have done for ourselves
alone dies with us; what we have
done for others and the world
remains and is immortal.
Albert Pike

Death is not extinguishing the
light; it is putting out the lamp
because the dawn has come.
Rabindranath Tagore

What we call life is a journey to
death. What we call death is the
gateway to life.
anonymous

And when the Earth shall claim
your limbs, then shall you truly
dance.
Kahlil Gibran

Death ... is no more than passing
from one room into another. But
there's a difference for me, you
know. Because in that other room
I shall be able to see.
Helen Keller

Life is a dream walking. Death is
going home.
Chinese proverb

I am standing on the seashore. A
ship spreads her white sails to
the morning breeze and starts for
the ocean. I stand watching her
until she fades on the horizon,
and someone at my side says,
"She is gone." Gone where? The
loss of sight is in me, not in her.
Just at the moment when
someone says, "She is gone,"
there are others who are
watching her coming. Other
voices take up the glad shout,
"Here she comes!" That is dying.
Henry Scott Holland

Death is not extinguishing the
light; it is putting out the lamp
because the dawn has come.
Rabindranath Tagore

Some day you will read in the
papers that D.L. Moody, of East
Northfield, is dead. Don't you
believe a word of it. At that
moment I shall be more alive
than I am now. I shall have gone
up higher, that is all; out of this
old clay tenement into a house
that is immortal, a body that
death cannot touch.
Dwight L. Moody

There are many rooms in the
Father's House just as there are
many grades in school. The
period of time we spend on earth
is but one grade of life. It is but a
beginning.
Robert A. Russell

George’s passing is really sad,
but it does make the afterlife
seem much more attractive.
Michael Palin talking about George
Harrison’s death

When death, the great
reconciler, has come, it is never
our tenderness that we repent of,
but our severity.
George Eliot

All goes onward and outward,
nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what
any one supposed, and luckier.
Walt Whitman

Death is but a passage out of a
prison into a palace.
Unknown

Nothing can happen more
beautiful than death.
Walt Whitman

There is no telling how much I might change in the future. Just as
one wouldn’t draw a lasting conclusion about oneself on the basis of
a brief experience of indigestion, one needn’t do so on the basis of
how one has thought or behaved for vast stretches of time in the
past. A creative change of inputs to the system—learning new skills,
forming new relationships, adopting new habits of attention—may
radically transform one’s life.
Sam Harris, Free Will

The best way to get to heaven is to take it with you.
Henry Drummond

You grow to heaven. You don't go to heaven.
Edgar Cayce

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.
Kahlil Gibran

You'll not be in heaven if you're not leaning on the arm of someone
you have helped.
Edgar Cayce

The sheer volume of evidence for survival after death is so immense
that to ignore it is like standing at the foot of Mount Everest and
insisting that you cannot see the mountain.
Colin Wilson

But not everyone goes to the same location in the next world. We
will be acutely aware of everything we have done or failed to do in
our lives. We will also know the lives of those around us and they will
know ours. Therefore we will seek out those who "think" the same
way we do, who "value" the same things we do. We will gravitate
toward those we feel at ease with, who are like us. Judgment is
more a process of self-evaluation than the product of a heavenly
tribunal. The next world is segmented into spheres organized around
qualities of love, service, and personal preparedness.
Dr. Harold Widdison

When we come to the last moment of this lifetime and we look back
across it, the only thing that's going to matter is 'What is the quality
of our love?'
Richard Bach

If everyone completely understood the afterlife, they'd quit trying
to keep up with the Joneses and start learning how to live
unselfishly. Here [in the world] we can change ourselves quite easily
and should use this life to make ourselves into the kind of people we
want to be in the hereafter. [The spirit world] is a miserable place
for anyone who hasn't learned internal harmony - characterized by
unselfish love.
Arthur Yensen

He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized
there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there
wasn't an afterlife.
Douglas Adams
English humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 - 2001)

Dear Child,
I condole with you. We have lost a most dear and valuable relation,
but it is the will of God and Nature that these mortal bodies be laid
aside, when the soul is to enter into real life: 'tis rather an embryo
state, a preparation for living.
A man is not completely born until he is dead. Why then should we
grieve that a new child is born among the immortals? A new member
added to their happy society?
That bodies should be lent to us is a kind and benevolent act of God.
When they become unfit for these purposes and afford us pain
instead of pleasure -- instead of an aid, become an encumbrance and
answer none of the intentions for which they were given -- it is
equally kind and benevolent that a way is provided by which we may
get rid of them.
Death is that way. … Why should you and I be grieved at this, since
we are soon to follow, and know where to find him.
Excerpt of a letter from Ben Franklin to the widow of his brother
John, Feb. 22, 1756

To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Shakespeare (Hamlet, contemplating death)

We came into this world to have trouble and to learn from it.
Unfortunately many people don't realize this and complain about
their bad luck and spend their lives chasing pleasure, fame and
money. Then they die without making any spiritual progress. And so
they waste life after life. It should be obvious that all we'll take with
us is our character, our karma and our abilities, and that we'll have
to live with people like ourselves. Therefore, our highest success
would be to rise into the highest heaven through unselfish love.
Arthur Yensen