What happens after death? Does the soul of a deceased person see loved ones, relatives and his own death? When a person dies, where does the soul go?

On Easter, which coincided with Cosmonautics Day, numerous Internet sites remembered that the idea of ​​resurrection is popular even among scientists. And they illustrated it with the "cosmic" hypothesis of Professor Robert Lanza (Robert Lanza) - about parallel worlds in which life does not end with the death of the body. What are we talking about?

Out of time and space

Lanza outlined his ideas in the book Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe, which was published a few years ago. Since then, it periodically - about once every two years - and excites the Internet. Since it contains very attractive assurances that life goes on forever, albeit in a different place, Day.Az reports with reference to Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The previous surge in popularity happened in 2013. Nothing has changed since then. Unless the professor has more supporters. Including among colleagues.

Robert Lanza is a professor at Wake Forest University, a specialist in regenerative medicine, and the scientific director of Advanced Cell Technology. Formerly known for his research in the field of stem cells, he has several successful experiments on cloning endangered animal species. But a few years ago, the scientist became interested in physics, quantum mechanics and astrophysics. From this explosive mixture was born the theory of the so-called new biocentrism, the preacher of which the professor became.

According to biocentrism, there is no death. It is an illusion that arises in the minds of people. It arises because people identify themselves with their body. They know that the body will die sooner or later. And they think they will die with him. In fact, consciousness exists outside of time and space. Able to be anywhere: in the human body and outside it. Which fits well with the foundations of quantum mechanics, according to which a certain particle can appear here and there, and a certain event can develop according to several - sometimes countless - options.

Robert Lanza, biocentrist.

Lanza believes that there are many universes. It is in them that all possible scenarios of the development of events are realized. In one universe the body died. And in the other, it continued to live, absorbing the consciousness that flowed into this universe.

In other words, a dying person, rushing through that very tunnel, finds himself not in hell or heaven, but in the same world in which he lived, but alive. And so - ad infinitum.

Consciousness, the professor preaches, is like energy. Does not disappear and cannot be destroyed.

Some, quite frantic, biocentrists generally believe that there is no material world, but only its virtual image generated by consciousness. Or the world still exists, but appears in the form in which we are allowed to see and feel it with our senses. And if we had other organs and senses, then we would see something completely different.

Lanz has moderate views. He believes in reality. But he considers it a process that requires the participation of consciousness. Like, a person is both an observer and a creator.

Parallel to us

The hopeful but highly controversial theory of Lanz has many unwitting supporters - not only mere mortals who want to live forever, but also famous scientists. These are those physicists and astrophysicists who talk about parallel worlds, that is, they assume that there are many universes. Multiverse is the name of the scientific concept they advocate. And they assure: there are no physical laws that would prohibit the existence of other universes.

Science fiction writer Herbert Wells was the first to tell earthlings about parallel worlds in 1895 in his story "The Door in the Wall". And 62 years later, his idea was developed in his doctoral dissertation by Princeton University graduate Hugh Everett. Its essence: every moment the universe splits into countless similar ones. And in the next moment, these "newborns" split in exactly the same way. In one of these worlds you exist. In one - you are reading this article, riding the subway, in the other - lying on the couch and watching TV.

The impetus for the multiplication of worlds is our actions, - Everett explained. - As soon as we make a choice, in the blink of an eye, two universes turn out from one. with different fates.

In some of the universes, people did not fly to Kazan by plane, but went by train. And they stayed alive.

In the 1980s, the theory of the multiplicity of the universe was developed by Andrei Linde, a former compatriot, an employee of the Lebedev Physical Institute (FIAN). Now he is a professor of physics at Stanford University.

The cosmos, Linde said, consists of many inflating balls that give rise to the same balls, and those, in turn, give birth to similar balls in even greater quantities, and so on ad infinitum. They are separated in space. They don't feel each other's presence. But they are parts of the same physical world.

The fact that our Universe is not alone is evidenced by the data obtained with the help of the Planck space telescope. On their basis, scientists have created the most accurate map of the microwave background - the so-called relic radiation, preserved from the moment of the birth of our universe. And they saw that it abounded in dark failures - some holes and extended holes.

The hypothesis that there are many universes is popular among scientists. Some physical theories are even based on the fact that there are many universes - infinitely many.

Theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton of the University of North Carolina and her colleagues argue that microwave background anomalies arise from the fact that our Universe is influenced by other nearby ones.

According to scientists, holes and holes - "bruises" as they are called, "arose from direct impacts of neighboring universes on ours.

Physicists suggest that the universes appear like bubbles of steam in a boiling liquid. And having arisen, they collide. And bounce off each other, leaving traces.

Soul quanta

So, there are plenty of places - other universes, where, according to the theory of new biocentrism, the soul could fly off. Does she exist on her own?

The existence of an eternal soul is not in doubt by Professor Stuart Hameroff of the Department of Anesthesiology and Psychology at the University of Arizona and part-time director of the Center for the Study of Consciousness at the same university. Last year, he said that he found evidence that a person's consciousness does not disappear after his death.

According to Hameroff, the human brain is a perfect quantum computer, soul or consciousness - information accumulated at the quantum level. She cannot be destroyed. But it can be transferred.

The anesthesiologist believes that after the body dies, the quantum information of consciousness merges with our Universe and exists there indefinitely. And the biocentrist Lanza proves that she flies to another universe. What is different from his colleague.

Hameroff's associates are Sir Roger Penrose, a famous British physicist and mathematician from Oxford, who also found traces of contact with others in our Universe. Together, scientists are developing a quantum theory of consciousness. And they believe that they have discovered carriers of consciousness - elements that accumulate information during their lifetime, and after the death of the body they "merge" it somewhere. These are protein microtubules (microtubules) located inside neurons, which were previously assigned a modest role of fittings and intracellular transport channels. Microtubules, by their structure, are best suited to be carriers of quantum properties in the brain. Since they can preserve quantum states for a long time - that is, they can work as elements of a quantum computer.

Having died in our universe, a person moves to a parallel one - through the same tunnel.

TOTAL

By the will of God - the programmer

There is nothing fundamentally new in Lanz's biocentrism. But the scientific basis laid down by him and his colleagues cannot but rejoice. It turns out that the afterlife is not fiction, but a quite probable reality. It remains for the scientist to reconcile his concept with religion. After all, while the role of the Lord God in it is not visible. Although...

Someone Seth Lloyd from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology figured out how far a quantum computer can be improved. Obviously, the most powerful device will be one that will involve all the particles in the universe. And there are protons, neutrons, electrons and other trifles, according to the scientist, somewhere around 10 to the 90th degree. And if these particles had been involved since the moment of the Big Bang, then they would have already performed 10 to the 120th degree of logical operations. This is so much that it is impossible to even imagine. For comparison: all computers during their existence produced less than 10 to the 30th degree of operations. And all the information about a person with his many individual quirks is recorded in approximately 10 to 25 bits.

And then Lloyd thought: what if the universe is already someone's computer? Then, he reasoned, everything inside, including us, is part of the computational process. Or his product... It means that there must be a Programmer somewhere. That is, God.

The whole complex world was created by a certain brilliant programmer.

And if you do without the universal computer? And confine ourselves to a much more perfect Creator. Then it may turn out that everything around exists only in His consciousness. And not in ours, as biocentrists assure. But here, perhaps, a completely different theory is needed. A completely new biocentrism.

The Bible says that "the dust will return to the earth from where it came from, and the spirit will return to the Creator, Who gave it" ... Pardon the pun, but today only the dead do not try to find out or find out what happens to the soul when the person dies. This is what I was wondering about.

Human death - what is it?

From a biological and physical point of view, the death of a person is a complete stop of all processes of his life. This is an irreversible phenomenon that none of us can avoid. At the moment of death of a person, processes occur that are inversely proportional to his creation. The brain is irreversibly destroyed, losing its functionality. The emotional world is erased.

Where is she - the edge of being?

The Bible says that "the dust will return to the earth from whence it came, and the spirit will return to the Creator, Who gave it." In accordance with this, today some scientists have derived a formula. In writing, it will have the following two options:

• earthly dust + breath of life = the living soul of a person;
• lifeless body + breath of the Creator = living person.

The formula shows that each of us is endowed with a body and a thinking mind. And as long as we breathe (we have the breath of God in us), we are living beings. Our soul is alive. Death is any cessation of life, it is non-existence. The human body becomes dust, the breath (the spirit of life) returns back to the Creator - to God. When we leave, our soul slowly dies, subsequently being reborn. A decaying corpse remains in the ground. More on this later.

What happens to the soul when a person dies?

Our soul is released from the body for several days, having gone through several stages of purification:

So what happens to the soul when a person dies? From all of the above, we can conclude that she returns back to the Creator, and does not go to heaven or hell. However, let me! But what about the Bible, which says that ours goes either to heaven or to hell? More on this later.

Where do the souls of dead people go?

Today, scientists are trying to prove the existence of heaven and hell, collecting testimonies of people who have returned "from the other world." Who did not understand - I'm talking about the survivors. Their testimonies coincide to the smallest detail! Unbelieving people say that they saw hell with their own eyes: they were surrounded by snakes, demons and a terrible stench. Those who "visited" paradise speak of light, fragrance and lightness.

Where are the souls of dead people?

Priests and doctors who communicated with such people noticed an interesting feature: those who "visited" paradise returned to their physical body enlightened and calm, and those who "saw" hell tried for a very long time to recover from the nightmare. Experts summarized all the testimonies and memories of "dead" people, after which they concluded that heaven and hell really exist, with the first being at the top and the second at the bottom. Everything is exactly the same as in the description of the afterlife according to the Bible and the Koran. As we can see, there is no consensus. And this is absolutely fair. In addition, the Bible says that "the day of judgment will come, and the dead will rise from their graves." Friends, it remains to be hoped that the zombie apocalypse will not fall in our age!

It is important!

So, friends, we have considered some aspects of a person. I have tried to most accurately state some of the opinions of modern scientists regarding this problem. Now seriously. Do you know what happens to the soul when a person dies? So I don't know! To be honest, no one knows the answer to this question: neither I, nor you, friends, nor scientists ... We can only speculate based on certain unproven facts of clinical death of people. There is no direct evidence of life after death or death after death, so we can only operate on the unproven arguments that science provides us with. As they say, all the dead take the secret with them to the grave...

Where does the soul go after death? What path does she take? Where are the souls of the dead? Why are memorial days important? These questions very often force a person to turn to the teachings of the Church. So what do we know about the afterlife? "Thomas" tried to formulate answers according to the doctrine of the Orthodox Church to the most common questions about life after death.

What happens to the soul after death?

How exactly we relate to our future death, whether we are waiting for it to approach or vice versa - we diligently erase it from consciousness, trying not to think about it at all, directly affects how we live our current life, our perception of its meaning. The Christian believes that death as a complete and final disappearance of a person does not exist. According to Christian doctrine, we all will live forever, and it is immortality that is the true goal of human life, and the day of death is at the same time the day of his birth for a new life. After the death of the body, the soul sets out on a journey to meet its Father. How exactly this path will be traveled from earth to heaven, what this meeting will be, and what will follow it, directly depends on how a person lived his earthly life. In Orthodox asceticism, there is the concept of "memory of death" as a constant retention in the mind of the limit of one's own earthly life and the expectation of a transition to another world. For many people who have dedicated their lives to the Service of God and neighbor, the approach of death was not an impending catastrophe and tragedy, but, on the contrary, a long-awaited joyful meeting with the Lord. Elder Joseph of Vatopedsky spoke about his death: “I was waiting for my train, but it still does not come.”

What happens to the soul after death by day

There are no strict dogmas about any special stages on the path of the soul to God in Orthodoxy. However, traditionally, the third, ninth and fortieth days are allocated as special days of remembrance. Some church authors point out that special stages on a person’s path to another world can be associated with these days - such an idea is not disputed by the Church, although it is not recognized as a strict doctrinal norm. If we adhere to the doctrine of special days after death, then the most important stages of the posthumous existence of a person are as follows:

3 days after death

The third day, on which the funeral is usually performed, also has a direct spiritual relationship to the Resurrection of Christ on the third day after His death on the cross and the feast of the victory of Life over death.

About the third day of commemoration after death, for example, St. Isidore Pelusiot (370-437): “If you want to know about the third day, then here is the explanation. On Friday, the Lord gave up his spirit. This is one day. All Sabbath He was in the tomb, then evening comes. With the advent of Sunday, He rose from the tomb - and this is the day. For from the part, as you know, the whole is known. So we have established the custom of commemorating the dead.”

Some church authors, such as St. Simeon of Thessalonica writes that the third day mysteriously symbolizes the faith of the deceased and his loved ones in the Holy Trinity and the pursuit of the three gospel virtues: faith, hope and love. And also because a person acts and manifests himself in deeds, words and thoughts (by virtue of three internal abilities: reason, feelings and will). Indeed, in the memorial service of the third day, we ask the Triune God to forgive the deceased for the sins that he committed by deed, word and thought.

It is also believed that the commemoration on the third day is performed in order to gather and unite in prayer those who recognize the sacrament of the three-day Resurrection of Christ.

9 days after death

Another day of commemoration of the dead in church tradition is the ninth. “The ninth day,” says St. Simeon of Thessalonica, - reminds us of the nine ranks of angels, to which - as an intangible spirit - our deceased loved one could be ranked.

Days of remembrance exist primarily for fervent prayer for deceased loved ones. Saint Paisius the Holy Mountaineer compares the death of a sinner with the sobering up of a drunken person: “These people are like drunkards. They do not understand what they are doing, they do not feel guilty. However, when they die, [earthly] hops are expelled from their heads and they come to their senses. Their spiritual eyes are opened, and they realize their guilt, because the soul, leaving the body, moves, sees, feels everything with incomprehensible speed. Prayer is the only way we can hope that it can help those who have gone to another world.

40 days after death

On the fortieth day, a special commemoration of the deceased is also performed. This day, according to St. Simeon of Thessalonica, arose in the church tradition "for the sake of the Ascension of the Savior", which occurred on the fortieth day after His three-day Resurrection. There is also a mention of the fortieth day, for example, in the 4th-century monument “Apostolic Decrees” (book 8, ch. 42), in which it is recommended to commemorate the dead not only on the third day and ninth days, but also on “the fortieth day after death, according to ancient custom." For so did the people of Israel mourn the great Moses.

Death cannot separate the lovers, and prayer becomes the bridge between the two worlds. The fortieth day is a day of intense prayer for the departed - it is on this day that we, with special love, attention, reverence, ask God to forgive our loved one all sins and grant him paradise. With the understanding of the special significance of the first forty days in the posthumous fate, the tradition of forty-mouths is connected - that is, the daily commemoration of the deceased at the Divine Liturgy. To no lesser extent, this period is important for loved ones who pray and mourn for the deceased. This is the time at which loved ones must come to terms with separation and entrust the fate of the deceased into the hands of God.

Where does the soul go after death?

The question of where exactly the soul is located, which does not cease to live after death, but passes into another state, cannot receive an exact answer in earthly categories: one cannot point a finger at this place, because the incorporeal world is beyond the limits of the material world we perceive. It is easier to answer the question - to whom will our soul go? And here, according to the teachings of the Church, we can hope that after our earthly death our soul will go to the Lord, His saints and, of course, to our departed relatives and friends whom we loved during our lifetime.

Where is the soul after death?

After the death of a person, the Lord decides where his soul will be until the Last Judgment - in Paradise or in Hell. As the Church teaches, the decision of the Lord is only and only His answer to the state and disposition of the soul itself, and what it more often chose during life - light or darkness, sin or virtue. Heaven and hell are not a place, but rather a state of the posthumous existence of the human soul, which is characterized either by being with God or in opposition to Him.

At the same time, Christians believe that before the Last Judgment, all the dead will be resurrected by the Lord again and united with their bodies.

Ordeals of the soul after death

The path of the soul to the throne of God is accompanied by ordeals or trials of the soul. According to the tradition of the Church, the essence of ordeals is that evil spirits convict the soul of certain sins. The very word "ordeal" refers us to the word "mytnya". This was the name of the place for collecting fines and taxes. A kind of payment at this "spiritual customs" are the virtues of the deceased, as well as church and home prayer, which is performed for him by his neighbors. Of course, it is impossible to understand ordeals in the literal sense, as a kind of tribute brought to God for sins. It is rather a complete and clear awareness of everything that burdened the soul of a person during life and that he could not fully feel. In addition, there are words in the Gospel that give us hope for the possibility of avoiding these trials: “he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me does not come to judgment (John 5:24).”

Soul life after death

“God has no dead”, and those who live on earth and afterlife are equally alive for God. However, how exactly the human soul will live after death directly depends on how we live and build our relationships with God and other people during life. The posthumous fate of the soul is, in fact, the continuation of these relationships or their absence.

Judgment after death

The Church teaches that after the death of a person, a private judgment awaits, at which it is determined where the soul will be until the Last Judgment, after which all the dead must rise. In the period after the private and before the Last Judgment, the fate of the soul can be changed and an effective means for this is the prayer of neighbors, good deeds performed in his remembrance, and commemoration at the Divine Liturgy.

Memorial days after death

The word "commemoration" means commemoration, and, first of all, we are talking about prayer - that is, asking God to forgive a dead person for all sins and grant him the Kingdom of Heaven and life in God's presence. In a special way, this prayer is offered on the third, ninth and fortieth day after the death of a person. On these days, a Christian is called to come to the temple, pray with all his heart for a loved one and order a funeral service, asking the Church to pray with him. They also try to accompany the ninth and fortieth days with a visit to the cemetery and a memorial meal. The day of special prayerful commemoration of the departed is considered the first and subsequent anniversaries of his death. However, the holy fathers teach us that the best way to help our deceased neighbors is our own Christian life and good deeds, as a continuation of our love for the deceased loved one. As Saint Paisios the Holy Mountaineer says, “More useful than all the commemorations and funeral services that we can perform for the dead will be our attentive life, the struggle that we make in order to cut off our shortcomings and purify our souls.”

The path of the soul after death

Of course, the description of the path that the soul passes after death, moving from its earthly habitat to the Lord's Throne and then to heaven or hell, should not be taken literally as some kind of cartographically verified route. The afterlife is incomprehensible to our earthly mind. As the modern Greek author Archimandrite Vasily Bakkoyanis writes: “Even if our mind were omnipotent and omniscient, it still could not comprehend eternity. Because he, being limited by nature, always instinctively sets a certain time limit in eternity, the end. However, eternity has no end, otherwise it would cease to be eternity! » In the church teaching about the path of the soul after death, a spiritual truth that is difficult to comprehend is symbolically manifested, which we will fully know and see after the end of our earthly life.

Modern man can do almost anything, but the mystery of death remains a mystery even today. No one can say exactly what awaits after the death of the physical body, what path the soul has to overcome and whether it will be. Nevertheless, numerous testimonies from near-death survivors suggest that life on the other side is real. And religion teaches how to overcome the path to Eternity and find endless joy.

In this article

Where does the soul go after death?

According to church ideas, the soul will have to go through 20 ordeals - terrible trials of mortal sins. This will make it possible to determine whether the soul is worthy of entering the Kingdom of the Lord, where infinite grace and peace await it. These ordeals are terrible, even the Holy Virgin Mary, according to biblical texts, was afraid of them and prayed to her son for permission to avoid death torments.

Not a single newly-departed will be able to avoid ordeals. But the soul can be helped: for this, loved ones who remain on mortal earth put candles, fast and.

Consistently, the soul falls from one level of ordeals to another, each of which is more terrible and painful than the previous one. Here is their list:

1. Idle talk is a passion for empty words and excessive talk.
2. Lying is the intentional deception of others for their own benefit.
3. Slander is the spread of false rumors about a third person and the condemnation of other people's actions.
4. Gluttony is an excessive love of food.
5. Idleness is laziness and life in inaction.
6. Theft is the misappropriation of another's property.
7. Covetousness - excessive attachment to material values.
8. Covetousness is the desire to obtain values ​​dishonestly.
9. Untruth in deeds and deeds - craving to commit dishonest actions.
10. Envy is the desire to take possession of the same that the neighbor has.
11. Pride is the veneration of oneself above others.
12. Anger and fury.
13. Resentment - the storage in the memory of other people's misdeeds, a thirst for revenge.
14. Murder.
15. Sorcery is the use of magic.
16. Fornication - promiscuity.
17. Adultery is adultery.
18. Sodomy - God denies the unions of a man and a man, a woman and a woman.
19. Heresy is the denial of our God.
20. Cruelty - a callous heart, immunity to someone else's grief.

7 deadly sins

Most ordeals are a standard idea of ​​the virtues of a person, prescribed for every righteous person by the law of God. The soul will be able to reach Paradise, only having successfully passed through all the ordeals. If she does not pass at least one test, the ethereal body will get stuck at this level and will be forever tormented by Demons.

Where does a person go after death?

The ordeals of the soul come and last as long as the sins a person committed during his earthly life. Only on the 40th day after death will the final decision be made on where the soul will spend eternity - in Hellfire or in Paradise, near the Lord God.

Every soul can be saved, for God is merciful: repentance will cleanse from the sins of even the most fallen person, if sincerely.

In Paradise, the soul does not know worries, does not feel any desires, earthly passions are no longer known to it: the only emotion is the joy of being near the Lord. In hell, souls are tormented and tormented for eternity, even after the Universal Resurrection, their souls, united with the flesh, will continue to suffer.

What happens 9, 40 days and six months after death

After death, everything that happens to the soul is beyond its will: the newly deceased is left to humble himself and accept the new reality meekly and with dignity. For the first 2 days, the soul stays close to the physical shell, it says goodbye to its native places, to loved ones. At this time, she is accompanied by angels and demons - each side is trying to lure the soul to its side.

Angels and demons fight for every soul

On the 3rd day, ordeals begin, during this period, relatives should pray especially a lot and earnestly. After the cessation of ordeals, the angels will take the soul to Paradise - to show the bliss that can await it in eternity. For 6 days, the soul forgets about all worries and diligently repents of sins committed knowingly and unknown.

the soul again appears before the face of God. Relatives and friends should pray for the deceased, ask for mercy for him. There is no need for tears and groaning, only good things are remembered about the newly deceased.

It is best to dine on day 9 with kutya flavored with honey, symbolizing the sweet life under the Lord God. After the 9th day, the angels will show the soul of the deceased Hell and torment awaiting those who lived unrighteously.

Pastor V. I. Savchak will tell about what happens to the soul after death on each day:

On the 40th day, the soul reaches Mount Sinai and appears before the face of the Lord for the third time: it is on this day that the question of whether is finally decided. Commemorations and prayers of relatives will be able to smooth out the earthly sins of the deceased.

Six months after the death of the bodily soul, the penultimate time will visit relatives and friends: they are no longer able to change its fate in eternal life, it remains only to remember the good and pray fervently for eternal peace.

Orthodoxy and death

For a believing Orthodox person, life and death are inseparable. Death is perceived calmly and solemnly, as the beginning of the transition to eternity. A Christian believes that everyone will be rewarded according to their deeds, therefore they are more concerned not about the number of days lived, but about being filled with good deeds and deeds. After death, the Last Judgment awaits the soul, at which it will be decided whether a person will enter the Kingdom of God or go straight to Gehenna Fiery for grave sins.

Icon of the Last Judgment in the Church of the Nativity of Christ

The teaching of Christ instructs his followers: do not be afraid of death, for this is not the end. Live in such a way that you spend eternity before the face of God. This postulate contains a huge power that gives hope for an endless life and humility before death.

Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy A. I. Osipov answers questions about death and the meaning of life:

The soul of a child

Saying goodbye to a child is a great grief, but do not grieve unnecessarily, the soul of a baby not burdened with sins will go to a better place. Until the age of 14, it is believed that the child does not bear full responsibility for his actions, because he did not have time to reach the age of desires. At this time, the child may be physically weak, but his soul is endowed with great wisdom: often babies, memories of which pop up in fragments in their minds.

Nobody dies without their own consent- death comes at the moment when the soul of a person calls for it. The death of a child is his own choice, just the soul decided to return home - to heaven.

Children perceive death differently than adults. After the death of a relative, the child will be perplexed - why is everyone grieving? He doesn't understand why going back to heaven is something bad. At the moment of his own death, the child does not feel any grief, or the bitterness of parting, or regrets - he often does not even understand that he has parted with his life, feeling happy, as before.

After death, the soul of the child lives in joy in the First Heaven.

The soul is met by a relative who loved him or simply by a bright essence who loved children during his lifetime. Here, life is as similar as possible to earthly life: he has a house and toys, friends and relatives. Any desire of the soul is fulfilled in the blink of an eye.

Children whose lives were interrupted in the womb - due to abortion, miscarriage or improper birth - also do not suffer, do not suffer. Ikh remains attached to the mother, she becomes the first in line for physical incarnation in the next pregnancy of a woman.

Soul of the suicidal

From time immemorial, suicide has been considered a grave sin - in this way a person violates the intent of God, taking away the life bestowed by the Almighty. Only the Creator has the right to dispose of destinies, and the idea of ​​laying hands on oneself is given to those who tempt and test a person.

Gustave Dore. Suicide forest

A person who died a natural death experiences bliss and relief, but for a suicide, the torment is just beginning. One man could not come to terms with the death of his wife and decided to lay hands on himself in order to reunite with his beloved. However, he was not at all nearby: the man was resuscitated and asked about that side of life. According to him, this is something terrible, the feeling of horror never goes away, the feeling of inner torture is endless.

After death, the soul of a suicide seeks the Heavenly Gates, but they are locked. Then she tries to return to the body again - but this also turns out to be impossible. The soul is in limbo, experiencing terrible torment until the moment when a person was destined to die.

All people who succeeded from suicide describe terrible pictures. The soul is in an endless fall, which cannot be interrupted, the tongues of hellish flames tickle the skin and become closer and closer. Most of the saved are haunted by nightmare visions for the rest of their lives. If thoughts of interrupting life with your own hands creep into your head, you need to remember: there is always a way out.

About what happens to the soul of a suicide after death, how to act to calm the restless soul, the Simplemagic channel will tell:

Souls of animals

Regarding animals, clergy and mediums do not have an unequivocal answer to the question of the last refuge for souls. However, some holy men unequivocally speak of the possibility of introducing the beast to the Kingdom of Heaven. The Apostle Paul directly declares that after death the animal is waiting for deliverance from slavery and earthly suffering, and St. Simeon the New Theologian adheres to this point of view, saying that, serving in a mortal body, together with a person, the soul of an animal will taste the highest good after the death of the physical.

The souls of animals will find liberation from the slave share after the death of the physical.

The point of view on this account of Theophan the Recluse is interesting: the saint believed that after death all the souls of living beings (except people) join the great World Soul, created by the Creator long before the creation of the world.

Time to collect stones

Thinking about death and fearing it is completely normal. Each person wants to look behind the veil of the eternal mystery of Life and find out what awaits beyond its borders. Thanatology proves that from the time of the Ancient World, people prepared for death in advance, thought about it as a part of life, and this was perhaps the greatest wisdom of our ancestors.

Parapsychologists say that after the death of a person, the soul experiences the same feelings as a person during physical death, so it is important to remain calm and confident until the very last breath.

After death, the soul is waiting for exactly what a person deserved during his lifetime: which he will spend on the other side. Years lived with dignity, offenders forgiven, warm relationships with loved ones will help the soul to find itself in a better place, where peace, all-consuming love and bliss await it.

Death is an inevitable reality that everyone will face sooner or later. But this is not the end - only the physical shell dies, and the human soul acquires true immortality, so there is no need to be sad, it is worth letting go of your own soul with a light heart, dreaming that one day you will be able to meet again - already on the other side of life.

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There are special days in the year when the whole Church, with reverence and love, prayerfully remembers everyone “from the beginning”, i.e. at all times, the dead of their fellow believers. According to the Charter of the Orthodox Church, such a commemoration of the dead is performed on Saturdays. And this is no coincidence. We know that it was on Holy Saturday, on the eve of His Resurrection, that the Lord Jesus Christ was dead in the tomb.

This touching custom is rooted in the deep belief of Orthodox Christians that a person is immortal and his soul, once born, will live forever, that the death we see is a temporary sleep, a sleep for the flesh, and a time of rejoicing for the liberated soul. There is no death, the Church tells us, there is only a transition, a transition from this world to another world... And each of us once experienced such a transition. When a person leaves the cozy womb of his mother in shudders and pains of birth, he suffers, suffers and screams. His flesh suffers and trembles before the unknown and the horror of the coming life... And as it is said in the Gospel: “A woman, when she gives birth, endures sorrow, because her hour has come, but when she gives birth to a baby, she no longer remembers sorrow for joy, because a man was born in world." The soul, leaving the cozy bosom of its body, suffers and trembles in the same way. But very little time passes, and the expression of grief and suffering on the face of the deceased disappears, his face brightens and calms down. The soul was born into another world! That is why we can pray with our prayers to wish our deceased loved ones a blissful repose there, in peace and light, where there is no sickness, no sorrow, no sighing, but endless life ...

That is why, knowing about the eternal existence of the human soul “beyond visible death”, we pray with hope and faith that our prayers will help the soul in its afterlife journey, strengthen it at the moment of the terrible last choice between light and darkness, protect it from evil attacks...

Today, Orthodox Christians pray for "our departed fathers and brothers." The first people we remember when we pray for the dead are our deceased parents. Therefore, the Sabbath, dedicated to the prayerful memory of the deceased, is called "parental." There are six such parental Saturdays during the calendar year. The parental Saturday has another name: Dimitrievskaya. Saturday is named in honor of the holy Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, who is remembered on November 8. The establishment of the commemoration on this Saturday belongs to the holy noble Grand Duke Dimitry Donskoy, who, having performed a commemoration of the soldiers who fell on it after the Battle of Kulikovo, proposed to perform this commemoration annually, on Saturday before November 8th. Since this year, the Saturday before the Memorial Day of the World Martyr. Demetrius of Thessalonica coincides with the day of the celebration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, the memorial parental Saturday is celebrated today.

According to the definition of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1994, the commemoration of our soldiers takes place on May 9th. Since Demetrius Memorial Saturday takes place on the eve of November 7, the day of the beginning of the bloody coup that marked the beginning of unprecedented persecution against the Church in the history of our Fatherland, today we commemorate all the suffering victims during the years of hard times. Today we pray for our relatives and for all compatriots whose lives were crippled during the period of theomachism.

They left, but love for them and gratitude remained. Does this mean that their souls did not disappear, did not dissolve into non-existence? What do they know, remember and hear us? That they need us?.. Let's think about it and pray for them.

God grant, brothers and sisters, that through our prayer the Lord forgives many and many voluntary and involuntary sins of our deceased relatives and friends, and let us believe that our prayer is not one-sided: when we pray for them, they pray for us.

Do the dead see us after death

In the memoirs of clergyman Nikolai, Metropolitan of Alma-Ata and Kazakhstan, there is the following story: Once Vladyka, answering the question whether the dead hear our prayers, said that they not only hear, but also “pray for us themselves. And even more than that: they see us as we are in the depths of our hearts, and if we live piously, then they rejoice, and if we live negligently, then they grieve and pray to God for us. Our connection with them is not interrupted, but only temporarily weakened. Then Vladyka told an incident that confirmed his words.

A priest, Father Vladimir Strakhov served in one of the Moscow churches. After finishing the Liturgy, he lingered in the church. All the worshipers dispersed, leaving only him and the psalmist. An old woman enters, modestly but cleanly dressed, in a dark dress, and turns to the priest with a request to go and give communion to her son. Gives the address: street, house number, apartment number, name and surname of this son. The priest promises to fulfill this today, takes the Holy Gifts and goes to the indicated address. He goes up the stairs, calls. An intelligent-looking man with a beard, about thirty years old, opens the door for him. Somewhat surprised looks at the father. "What do you want?" - "I was asked to come to this address to attach the patient." He is even more surprised. “I live here alone, there are no sick people, and I don’t need a priest!” The priest is also amazed. "How so? After all, here is the address: street, house number, apartment number. What is your name?" It turns out that the name matches. "Let me come in to you." - "Please!" The priest enters, sits down, tells that the old woman came to invite him, and during his story he raises his eyes to the wall and sees a large portrait of this same old woman. “Yes, there she is! She was the one who came to me!” he exclaims. “Have mercy! objected the landlord. “Yes, this is my mother, she died 15 years ago!” But the priest continues to claim that it was her that he saw today. We got talking. The young man turned out to be a student at Moscow University and had not received communion for many years. “However, since you have already come here, and all this is so mysterious, I am ready to confess and take communion,” he finally decides. The confession was long, sincere - one might say, for the whole conscious life. With great satisfaction the priest absolved him of his sins and communed him with the Holy Mysteries. He left, and during Vespers they come to tell him that this student died unexpectedly, and the neighbors came to ask the priest to serve the first memorial service. If the mother had not taken care of her son from the afterlife, then he would have passed into eternity without partaking of the Holy Mysteries.

This is also a lesson that the Holy Orthodox Church of Christ teaches us all today. Let us be careful, because we know that sooner or later all of us, without exception, will have to part with this earthly life. And we will stand before our Creator and Creator with an answer about how we lived, what we did in our earthly life, whether we were worthy of Our Heavenly Father. It is very important for all of us today to remember and think about this, and ask God to forgive us our sins, voluntary or involuntary. And at the same time, make every effort not to return to sins, but to lead a God-pleasing, holy and worthy life. And for this we have everything: we have the Holy Church with her Holy Mysteries of Christ and the help of all the holy ascetics of faith and piety, and above all, the Queen of Heaven herself, Who is always ready to lend us the hand of her maternal help. Here, brothers and sisters, are the lessons that we all must learn from today, which is called Demetrius Parents' Saturday. The Kingdom of Heaven and eternal rest to all our deceased fathers, brothers, sisters and other relatives of ours. May God grant that all of us, worthily praying for all Orthodox Christians who have died from the ages, at the same time worthily complete our life path. Amen.