Ordeal life after death. Ordeals of the soul after death - how the soul goes through ordeals

Body and soul are one, however, the body is mortal, but the soul is not. When a person dies, his soul has to go through ordeals - a kind of exams. We'll tell you what these tests are and how long they last.

Those who have faced terrible grief - the death of a loved one, are probably interested in what happens next to the human soul, what path does it take and why are 40 days considered important? We will tell you about what trials the human soul faces, how long they last and how its final fate will be decided.

Living our earthly life, our body is one with our soul, however, when a person dies, his soul is separated. At the same time, this soul does not forget all the passions and habits, good and bad deeds, character and attachments that were formed over the years. And after death she has to answer for all her actions and actions.

40 days after death are the hardest for the human soul. In Orthodoxy, this day is considered almost as tragic as the day of death itself. All this time the soul remains in the dark about what fate is in store for it. In 40 days, she is destined to go through many tests and fully account for her life.

If six days before this the soul was in heaven, looking at the blessed life and the righteous, then then it follows an “excursion” to hell. There begins the most difficult and responsible part for the human soul - the ordeal. It is believed that there are twenty of them - and this is not the number of sins, but the number of passions, which include many varieties of vices. For example, there is the sin of theft. However, it manifests itself in different ways: someone directly steals other people’s money right from their pockets, someone slightly corrects accounting papers, someone takes bribes. It’s the same with all other ordeals. Twenty passions are twenty exams for the human soul.

Walking through hell lasts until the fortieth day. This is a much longer walk than a journey through paradise, which is not surprising, because a person is much more susceptible to such weaknesses as hatred, anger, envy, guile and pride than to virtues. Therefore, you have to answer for your vices much longer.

It is also interesting that during earthly life a person has the opportunity to repent for his sins and receive forgiveness - he just needs to confess from a pure heart. There is no such possibility in the afterlife. Moreover, if during confession a person can hide some of his vices, then here he is deprived of this right: the person appears as he really is, with his goals, aspirations and secrets.

Of course, the soul does not remain defenseless before strict judges. The guardian angel who accompanies a person from birth acts as an advocate for the soul. He will be ready to find a good deed for any sin. The main thing is to have something to look for. In order to avoid the torment of hell, a person must live his life as close as possible to monasticism. This is extremely difficult in the modern world, full of temptations, but if during your life you are faithful to God, do good deeds, be pure in soul and heart, and take communion, then passing every prepared test will be much easier.

After 40 days, the soul descends to earth for the last time and goes around places that are especially important to it. Many people who lost loved ones admitted that in their dreams they saw the deceased on that day saying goodbye to them, saying that he was leaving forever. Many people also claimed that after 40 days of death they ceased to feel the presence of the deceased nearby: they no longer heard steps and sighs, they could no longer smell the person.

What happens next when 40 days have passed? On the fortieth day, the soul again goes to God, this time for judgment. Only the Lord will not judge a person, he will not condemn or reproach him for his vices. Man is his own judge. Therefore, it is believed that, once in front of the Holy Face, the soul will either unite with this light or fall into the abyss. And this decision is made not by willpower, but by a spiritual state that has become the result of human life.

The soul waits 40 days for its fate to be decided, however, according to the church, this is not the last judgment. There will be another, the Last Judgment, final. It is believed that the fates of many souls can change on it.

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In this fallen world, the habitat of demons, the place where the souls of the newly departed meet them, is the air. Bishop Ignatius further describes this kingdom, which must be clearly understood in order to fully understand modern “posthumous” experiences.

“The Word of God and the Spirit who assists the word reveal to us through their chosen vessels that the space between heaven and earth, the entire azure abyss of the airs visible to us, the heavenly regions, serves as a dwelling for the fallen angels cast out of heaven...’’

"The Holy Apostle Paul calls the fallen angels the spirits of wickedness in high places (Eph. VI, 12), and their head the prince of the power of the air (Eph. II, 2). The fallen angels are scattered in multitudes throughout the transparent abyss that we see above us ". They do not cease to disturb all human societies and each person individually; there is no atrocity, there is no crime in which they were not the instigators and participants; they incline and teach a person to sin by all possible means. Your adversary is the devil," says the holy Apostle Peter, "like a lion walks roaring, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter V, 8) both during our earthly life and after the separation of the soul from the body. When the soul of a Christian, leaving its earthly temple, begins to strive through the air space to the mountainous fatherland, demons stop it, try find in her an affinity with themselves, their sinfulness, their fall and bring her down to hell, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew XXV, 41). So they act according to the right acquired by them "(Bishop Ignatius. Collected works, t 3, pp. 132-133).

After the fall of Adam, Bishop Ignatius continues, when paradise was closed to man and a Cherub with a fiery sword was placed to guard it (Gen. III, 24), the head of the fallen angels - Satan - together with the hordes of spirits subordinate to him, “became on the way from earth to heaven, and from that time until the saving suffering and life-giving death of Christ, he did not let a single human soul separated from the body pass along that path. The gates of heaven were closed for man forever. Both the righteous and sinners descended into hell.

Eternal gates and impassable paths were opened only before our Lord Jesus Christ” (pp. 134-135). After our redemption by Jesus Christ, “all who have clearly rejected the Redeemer are now the property of Satan; their souls, after separation from their bodies, descend straight to hell. But even Christians who deviate towards sin are not worthy of immediate relocation from earthly life to blissful eternity. Justice itself demands, so that these deviations to sin of the Christian soul, these betrayals of the Redeemer are weighed and evaluated. Judgment and analysis are necessary to determine what prevails in it - eternal life or eternal death. And every Christian soul awaits, upon its departure from the body, the impartial judgment of God, as said the holy Apostle Paul: man lies to die alone, and then comes the judgment (Heb. IX, 27).

To torture souls passing through the airspace, the dark authorities have installed separate courts and guards in remarkable order. Along the layers of heaven, from the earth to the sky itself, there are guard regiments of fallen spirits. Each department is in charge of a special type of sin and torments the soul in it when the soul reaches this department. The aerial demonic guards and judgment seats are called ordeals in the patristic writings, and the spirits serving in them are called tax collectors.

How to understand ordeals

Perhaps no aspect of Orthodox eschatology has been more misunderstood than the aerial ordeals. Many graduates of contemporary modernist Orthodox seminaries tend to reject this phenomenon altogether as some kind of “late addition” to Orthodox teaching or as a “fictional” kingdom that has no basis in Holy Scripture, or patristic texts, or spiritual reality. These students are victims of a rationalist education that lacks a nuanced understanding of both the different levels of reality often described in Orthodox texts and the different levels of meaning often found in biblical and patristic texts. The modern rationalistic overemphasis on the “literal” meaning of texts and the “realistic” or down-to-earth understanding of the events described in the Holy Scriptures and the lives of saints obscures or even completely obscures the spiritual meaning and spiritual experience that often serve as the main Orthodox sources. Therefore, Bishop Ignatius, who, on the one hand, was a sophisticated modern intellectual, and on the other, a true and simple son of the Church, can serve as a good mediator with the help of which Orthodox intellectuals could find ways to return to the true Orthodox tradition.

Before further expounding the teaching of Bishop Ignatius on aerial ordeals, let us mention the warnings of two Orthodox thinkers - one modern and one ancient - to those who begin to study the otherworldly reality.

In the 19th century, Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, speaking about the state of the soul after death, wrote: “It should, however, be noted that, just as in general in the depiction of objects of the spiritual world for us, clothed in flesh, features that are more or less sensual, humanoid are inevitable - so , in particular, they are inevitably admitted in the detailed teaching about the ordeals that the human soul goes through upon separation from the body. And therefore, we must firmly remember the instruction that the Angel gave to the Monk Macarius of Alexandria, as soon as he began speaking about the ordeals: “Take earthly things here for the most faint image of heavenly ones''. It is necessary to imagine the ordeals not in a crude, sensual sense, but as much as is possible for us in the spiritual sense, and not become attached to particulars, which in different writers and in different legends of the Church itself, despite the unity of the basic thought about the ordeals, are presented as different” (Met. Macarius of Moscow, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, St. Petersburg, 1883, vol. 2, p. 538).

Some examples of such details, which should not be interpreted rudely and sensually, are given by St. Gregory Dvoeslov in the fourth book of his “Interviews,” which, as we have already seen, are specifically devoted to the issue of life after death.

Thus, describing the posthumous vision of a certain Reperat, who saw a sinful priest standing on top of a huge fire, St. Gregory writes: “Reperat saw the preparation of fires not because wood was burning in hell; but for the most convenient story to the living, he saw in the burning of sinners that which usually maintains the material fire of the living, so that they, hearing about what is known, would learn to fear what they not yet known'' (IV, 31, p. 314).

And also, having described how one person was sent back after death because of a “mistake” - in fact, someone else, bearing the same name, was recalled from life (this also happened in modern “posthumous” experiments), St. Gregory adds: "When this happens, careful consideration will show that it was not an error, but a warning. In His infinite mercy, the good God allows some souls to return to their bodies soon after death, so that by a vision of hell they will finally be taught the fear of eternal punishment, which words alone could not make them believe” (IV, 37).

And when one person in a posthumous vision was shown the golden dwellings of paradise, St. Gregory notes: “Of course, no one with common sense will understand these words literally... Since generous alms are rewarded with eternal glory, it seems quite possible to build an eternal dwelling of gold” (IV, 37).

Later we will dwell in more detail on the difference between visions of another world and real cases of leaving the body there (the experience of the ordeals and many of the modern “posthumous” experiences clearly belong to the latter category); but for now it is enough for us to be aware that we must approach all collisions with the other world carefully and soberly. No one familiar with Orthodox teaching will say that ordeals are not “real”, that in fact the soul does not go through them after death. But we must keep in mind that this does not take place in our crude material world, that although there time and space exist, they are fundamentally different from our earthly concepts, and that in our earthly language stories can never convey otherworldly reality. Anyone well acquainted with Orthodox literature will usually be clear how to distinguish the spiritual reality described there from transcendent ones details which may sometimes be expressed in symbolic or figurative language. Thus, of course, there are no visible "houses" or "booths" in the air where "taxes" are collected, and where "scrolls" or writing instruments are mentioned whereby sins are recorded , or "scales" on which virtues are weighed, or "gold" with which "debts" are paid - in all these cases we can correctly understand these images as figurative or explanatory means used to express the spiritual reality which the soul encounters in this moment. Whether the soul then really sees these images, thanks to the constant habit of seeing spiritual reality in bodily form, or whether later it can remember the experience only through such images, or simply cannot express the experience in any other way - this is a secondary question, which, apparently, for the holy fathers and the writers of the lives of saints, where such incidents are narrated, does not seem significant.

Another thing is important - that there is torture by demons, who appear in a terrible, inhuman form, accuse the newly deceased of sins and literally try to grab his subtle body, which the Angels hold tightly; all this happens in the air above us and can be seen by those whose eyes are open to spiritual reality.

Now let us return to Bishop Ignatius’ presentation of the Orthodox teaching on aerial ordeals.

Patristic testimony on aerial ordeals

“The doctrine of ordeals is the teaching of the Church. There is no doubt that the holy Apostle Paul speaks about them when he proclaims that Christians must contend with the spirits of evil in high places (Eph. VI, 12). We find this teaching in the most ancient church tradition and in church prayers.” (p. 138).

Bishop Ignatius quotes many saints. fathers who teach about ordeals. Here we quote some of them.

St. Athanasius the Great in his Life of St. Anthony the Great describes how once St. Anthony "at the onset of the ninth hour, having begun to pray before eating food, he was suddenly caught up in the Spirit and taken up by the Angels to a height. The air demons opposed his procession; the Angels, arguing with them, demanded an explanation of the reasons for their opposition, because Anthony had no sins. Demons tried to expose the sins he committed from birth; but the Angels blocked the mouths of the slanderers, telling them that they should not count his sins from birth, already blotted out by the grace of Christ, but let them present, if they have, the sins he committed after the time when By entering monasticism, he dedicated himself to God. When accusing the demons, they uttered many blatant lies; but since their slander was devoid of evidence, a free path opened for Anthony. He immediately came to his senses and saw that he was standing in the very place where he stood for prayers. Forgetting about food, he spent the whole night in tears and lamentations, thinking about the multitude of human enemies, about the fight against such an army, about the difficulties of the path to heaven through the air and about the words of the Apostle, who said: our struggle is not for blood and flesh, but to the principalities and to the powers of the air (Eph. VI, 12; Eph. II, 2), who, knowing that the authorities of the air are just looking for this, are concerned about this with all their effort, are straining and striving for this in order to deprive us of free passage to heaven, exhorts: accept all the weapons of God, so that you will be able to resist on the day They are cruel, so that the enemy will be put to shame, having nothing to say reproachfully about us (Eph. VI, 13; Tit. II, 8; p. 138).

St. John Chrysostom, describing the hour of death, teaches: “Then we need many prayers, many helpers, many good deeds, great intercession from the Angels during the procession through the air. If, traveling to a foreign country or a foreign city, we need a guide, then how much more do we need guides and assistants to guide us past the invisible elders and authorities of the world rulers of this air, called persecutors, publicans, and tax collectors!'' (A word about patience and thanksgiving and that we do not cry inconsolably for the dead, which in the Orthodox Church is supposed to be read on the seventh Saturday after Easter and at the burial of the deceased).

St. Macarius the Great writes: “Hearing that under the heavens there are rivers of serpents, mouths of lions, dark powers, a burning fire that brings all members into confusion, don’t you know that if you do not receive the pledge of the Holy Spirit, when they depart from the body they will thy soul they will understand and prevent you from going to heaven'' (Conversation 16, chapter 13).

St. Isaiah the Hermit, one of the authors of the Philokalia (IV century), teaches that Christians must “have death before their eyes every day and be concerned about how to accomplish the exodus from the body and how to pass by the powers of darkness that are about to meet us in the air "(Homily 1, 4). When the soul leaves the body, Angels accompany it; dark forces come out to meet it, wanting to hold it and torturing it to see if they find something of their own in it" (Homily 17).

And again, Saint Hesychius, the presbyter of Jerusalem (5th century), teaches: “The hour of death will come upon us, it will come, and it will be impossible to avoid it. Oh, if only the prince of peace and air, who should then meet us, would find our iniquity insignificant and insignificant and not could have denounced us correctly!" (A Word on Sobriety, 161, Philokalia, vol. 2).

St. Gregory the Dvoeslov (+604) writes in his Discourses on the Gospel: “We must think thoroughly about how terrible the hour of death will be for us, what horror of the soul then, what remembrance of all evils, what oblivion of past happiness, what fear and what apprehension Judges. Then the evil spirits in the departing soul look for its deeds; then they visualize those sins to which they disposed it, in order to entice their accomplice to torment. But why are we talking only about the sinful soul, when they come even to the chosen dying and do they find their own in them, if they have time to do anything? Among people there was only One, Who, before His suffering, fearlessly said: To whom I speak not much with you. For the prince of this world is coming, and in Me he will have nothing (John XIV, 30) (Words on the Gospels, 39, on Luke XIX, 12-47: Bishop Ignatius, vol. 3, p. 278).

St. Ephraim the Syrian (+373) describes the hour of death and judgment in the ordeal: “When terrible armies come, when the divine takers command the soul to move from the body, when, dragging us by force, they take us to the inevitable judgment seat, then, seeing them, the poor man ... everything comes into vibration, as if from an earthquake, everything trembles ... the divine takers, having revealed the soul, ascend through the air, where the rulers and powers and rulers of the world of opposing forces stand. These are our evil accusers, terrible tax collectors, inventory clerks, tax collectors; they meet on the way, describe and calculate the sins and handwritings of this person, the sins of youth and old age, voluntary and involuntary, committed by deed, word, thought... There is great fear there, great trembling of the poor soul, indescribable need that he then suffers from the countless multitude of darkness surrounding her enemies, slandering her, in order to prevent her from ascending to heaven, settling in the light of the living, entering the land of life. But the holy Angels, having taken the soul, take her away "(St. Ephraim the Syrian. Collected works. M., 1882 , vol. 3, pp. 383-385).

The divine services of the Orthodox Church also contain numerous references to ordeals. Thus, in "Octoechos", the work of St. John of Damascus (8th century), we read: “At the hour, O Virgin, of the end of my end the hands of demons will snatch me up, and judgment and debate, and terrible trials, and bitter ordeals, and the cruel prince, the Mother of God, and eternal condemnation” (Tone 4, Friday, troparion of the 8th song of the canon at Matins).

Or: “Whenever my soul desires to be separated from life through carnal union, then stand before me, O Lady, and destroy the ethereal enemies’ councils, and break the jaws of those who seek to devour me mercilessly: for let the standing princes of darkness in the air, O Bride of God, pass unchallenged” (voice 2 , Saturday Matins, stichera on stichera). Bishop Ignatius gives seventeen similar examples from liturgical books, but this list, of course, is incomplete.

The most profound presentation of the doctrine of aerial ordeals among the early Church Fathers can be found in the “Sermon on the Exodus of the Soul” by St. Cyril of Alexandria (+444), which was always included in editions of the Slavic Followed Psalter, that is, the Psalter adapted for use in worship. Among other things, St. Cyril says in this “Word”: “The other fear and trembling that the soul desires on this day is to see terrible and wondrous and cruel and merciless and cold-free demons, like the gloomy murines that are coming! Just as vision itself is the only cruelest torment, Seeing that their soul is confused, worried, ill, restless and hides, resorting to God's Angels, the soul is supported by the holy Angels, passing through the air, and is exalted, finds ordeals, guarding the sunrise, and holding, and rebuking the ascending souls: each time their ordeals every passion of the soul brings sins, and every sin has its own publicans and torturers.”

Many other St. fathers both before and after St. Kirill talk about ordeals or mention them. Having quoted many of them, the above-mentioned historian of church dogma concludes: “Such continuous, ever-present and widespread use in the Church of the doctrine of ordeals, especially among the teachers of the fourth century, indisputably testifies that it was transmitted to them from the teachers of previous centuries and is based on the apostolic tradition.” (Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow. Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, vol. 2, p. 535).

Ordeals in the Lives of the Saints

Orthodox lives of saints contain numerous and sometimes very vivid stories about how the soul goes through ordeals after death. The most detailed description can be found in the Life of St. Basil the New (March 26), which contains the story of Blessed Theodora to the saint’s disciple, Gregory, about how she went through ordeals. This story mentions twenty special ordeals and tells what sins are tested for them. Bishop Ignatius sets out this story at some length (vol. 3, pp. 151-158). It does not contain anything significant that cannot be found in other Orthodox sources about the ordeals, so we will omit it here in order to quote some of these other sources, which, although less detailed, follow the same outline of events.

The story of the warrior Taxiot (“Lives of the Saints,” March 28) tells, for example, that he returned to life after spending six hours in the grave, and said the following: “When I was dying, I saw some Ethiopians standing in front of me; their appearance was very terrible, and my soul was confused. Then I saw two young men, very beautiful; my soul rushed to them immediately, as if flying from the earth. We began to rise to heaven, encountering on the way the ordeals that hold the soul of every person. Each tortured it about a special sin: one about lies, another about envy, the third about pride; so every sin in the air has its testers. And so I saw in the ark held by the Angels, all my good deeds, which the Angels compared with my evil deeds. So we passed these ordeals. When we, approaching the gates of heaven, came to the ordeal of fornication, fears kept me there and began to show all my fornicating carnal deeds that I had committed from my childhood to death, and the Angels leading me said to me: “Everything God forgave you the bodily sins that you committed while in the city, since you repented of them.” But the nasty spirits said to me: “But when you left the city, you committed fornication with your farmer’s wife in the field.” Hearing this, the Angels did not find a good deed that could be opposed to that sin, and leaving me, they left. Then the evil spirits took me, began to beat me and then took me down; the earth parted, and I, being led through narrow entrances through dark and stinking wells, descended to the very depths of the dungeons of hell.”

Bishop Ignatius also cites other cases of ordeals in the lives of St. Great Martyr Eustratius (IV century, December 13), St. Niphon from Constantia of Cyprus, who saw many souls ascending through ordeals (IV century, December 23), St. Simeon Christ for the sake of the Fool of Emesa (IV century, July 21), St. John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria (VII century, Prologue for December 19), St. Macarius the Great (January 19).

Bishop Ignatius was not familiar with the numerous early Orthodox Western sources, which were never translated into Greek or Russian and which are so replete with descriptions of ordeals. The name “ordeal” seems to be limited to Eastern sources, but the reality described in Western sources is identical.

For example, St. Columba, the founder of the island monastery of Iona in Scotland (+ 597), many times during his life saw demons fighting in the air for the souls of the dead. St. Adamnan (+ 704) talks about this in the life of the saint he wrote. Here is one of the cases:

One day St. Columba called his monks and told them: “Let us help with prayer the monks of Abbot Comgel, who are drowning at this hour in the Lake of Veal, for at this moment they are fighting in the air against the forces of evil, trying to capture the soul of a stranger who is drowning with them.” Then, after prayer, he said: “Give thanks to Christ, for now the holy Angels have met these holy souls, freed that stranger, and saved him in triumph from the warring demons.”

St. Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon apostle of the Germans (8th century), conveys in one of his letters a story heard at Wenlock from the lips of a monk who died and a few hours later returned to life. When he left his body, “he was picked up by Angels of such pure beauty that he could not look at them...” “They carried me,” he said, “high into the air.”... Then he said that during that time that he was outside his body, so many souls left their bodies and crowded into the place where he was that it seemed to him that there were more of them than the entire population of the earth. He also said that there was a crowd of evil spirits and a glorious choir of high angels. And he said that the evil spirits and the holy angels had a fierce dispute over the souls that had left their bodies: the demons accused them and aggravated the burden of their sins, and the Angels lightened this burden and brought extenuating circumstances.

He heard how all his sins, starting from his youth, which he either did not confess, or forgot, or did not recognize as sins, cry out against him, each with their own voice, and with sorrow they accuse him... Everything that he did for everything days of his life and refused to confess, and many things that he did not consider to be sins - they all now shouted terrible words against him. And in the same way, the evil spirits, enumerating his vices, accusing and bringing evidence, even naming the time and place, brought evidence of his evil deeds... And so, having piled up and counted all his sins, these ancient enemies declared him guilty and undeniably susceptible their power.

“On the other hand,” he said, “the small, pitiful virtues that I had unworthily and imperfectly spoke in my defense... And these Angelic spirits in their boundless love protected and supported me, and the slightly exaggerated virtues seemed to me beautiful and far greater than I could ever demonstrate in my own strength."

Modern cases of ordeal

In the book “Incredible for many, but a true incident,” you can get acquainted with the reaction of a typical “educated” person of our time to meeting with ordeals during his 36-hour clinical death. “Taking me by the arms, the Angels carried me straight through the wall from the chamber to the street. It was already getting dark, a large, quiet snow was falling. I saw it, but I did not feel the cold or any change in general between the room temperature and the outside temperature. Obviously, such things were lost for my changed body its meaning. We began to quickly rise upward. And as we rose, more and more space opened up to my gaze, and finally it assumed such terrifying proportions that I was seized with fear from the consciousness of my insignificance in front of this endless desert. .. The idea of ​​time went out in my mind, and I don’t know how long we were still climbing up, when suddenly some kind of unclear noise was heard, and then, floating out from somewhere, a crowd of some people began to quickly approach us, screaming and cackling. then ugly creatures.

“Demons!” - I realized with extraordinary speed and became numb from some special, hitherto unknown horror. Demons! Oh, how much irony, how much sincere laughter would have been caused in me just a few days ago by someone’s message not only about that he saw demons with his own eyes, but that he admits their existence as creatures of a certain kind! As befitted an “educated” person of the late 19th century, by this name I meant bad inclinations, passions in man, which is why this word itself had I have the meaning not of a name, but of a term that defines a well-known concept. And suddenly this “known definite concept” appeared to me as a living personification!..

Having surrounded us on all sides, the demons, with shouting and uproar, demanded that I be given to them; they tried to somehow grab me and tear me out of the hands of the Angels, but, obviously, they did not dare to do this. Among their unimaginable and as disgusting to the ear as they themselves were to the sight, howl and din, I sometimes caught words and whole phrases.

“He is ours, he has renounced God,” they suddenly screamed almost in unison, and at the same time they rushed at us with such impudence that all thought froze for a moment from fear.

It's a lie! It is not true! – Having come to my senses, I wanted to shout, but an obliging memory tied my tongue. In some incomprehensible way, I suddenly remembered such a small, insignificant event, which, moreover, belonged to a long-past era of my youth, which, it seems, I could never remember.

Here the narrator recalls an incident from his studies, when one day, during a conversation on abstract topics such as students have, one of his comrades expressed his opinion: “But why should I believe, when I can equally believe that there is no God. After all, really? And maybe He doesn’t exist?’’ To which he replied: “Maybe not.” Now, standing at the ordeal before the demonic accusers, he remembers:

“This phrase was in the full sense of the word “an idle verb”; The stupid speech of a friend could not raise any doubts in me about the existence of God, I didn’t even particularly follow the conversation - and now it turned out that this idle verb had not disappeared without a trace in the air, I had to justify myself, defend myself from the accusation brought against me, and so In this way, the Gospel legend was confirmed that, if not by the will of God, who knows the secrets of the heart of man, then by the malice of the enemy of our salvation, we really have to give an answer in every idle word.

This accusation, apparently, was the strongest argument of my destruction for the demons; they seemed to have drawn from it new strength to boldly attack me and with a frantic roar they were already spinning around us, blocking our further path.

I remembered prayer and began to pray, calling for help on all the saints I knew and whose names came to my mind. But this did not deter my enemies. A pitiful ignoramus, a Christian only in name, I almost for the first time remembered the One who is called the Intercessor of the Christian race.

But my impulse towards Her was probably ardent, my soul was probably so filled with horror that I, barely remembering, uttered Her name, when some kind of white fog appeared around us, which quickly began to cover the ugly host of demons. He hid it from my eyes before it could move away from us. Their roar and cackling could be heard for a long time, but by the way it gradually weakened and became muffled, I could understand that the terrible pursuit had left us” (pp. 41-47).

Ordeals endured before death

Thus, from numerous clear examples one can see what an important and unforgettable test for the soul after death is the meeting with demons at aerial ordeals. This, however, does not necessarily happen only immediately after death. We saw above that Rev. Anthony the Great saw ordeals while praying while outside his body. Rev. John Climacus describes an incident that happened to one monk before his death: “The day before his death, he fell into a frenzy and with open eyes looked around first at the right and then at the left side of his bed, and, as if tortured by someone, he aloud to all those present he sometimes spoke like this: “Yes, indeed, this is true; but I fasted for this for so many years"; and sometimes: "No, I didn’t do that, you’re lying." you slander me." To another, he answered: "Yes, indeed it is, and I don’t know what to say to this; but God has mercy." Truly a terrible and trembling sight was this invisible and merciless torture; and what is most terrible of all, he was accused of something that he did not do. Alas! The silent and hermit spoke about some of his sins: "I don’t know, What can I say to this, "although he spent about forty years in monasticism and had the gift of tears... During this torture, his soul was separated from his body; and it remains unknown what the decision and end of this trial was and what sentence followed" (John , abbot of Mount Sinai "Ladder", word 7, 50).

Indeed, meeting with ordeals after death is only a special and final form of that general battle that every Christian soul wages throughout its life. Vladyka Ignatius writes: “Just as the resurrection of the Christian soul from sinful death takes place during its earthly wanderings, in the same way, here on earth, its torment by the air powers, its captivity by them or liberation from them is mysteriously accomplished here on earth; during the procession through the air, this freedom and captivity only are discovered" (vol. 3, p. 159).

Some of the students of Rev. Macarius the Great was seen going through ordeals. From their testimony the following can be concluded. Individual saints pass by demonic “publicans” without hindrance, because they have already fought with them in this life and won the battle. Here is the corresponding episode from the life of St. Macaria:

“When the time came for the death of the Monk Macarius the Great, the Cherubim, who was his Guardian Angel, accompanied by a multitude of heavenly hosts, came for his soul. The faces of the apostles, prophets, martyr, saints, reverends, righteous descended with a host of Angels. Demons settled in rows and crowds on ordeals in order to contemplate the procession of the spirit-bearing soul. She began to ascend. Standing far from her, the dark spirits shouted at their ordeals: “O Macarius! What glory have you earned!” The humble husband answered them: “No! And I’m still afraid, because I don’t know if I did anything good.” - Meanwhile, he quickly rose to the sky. From other higher ordeals, the air authorities again shouted: “Exactly, you escaped us, Macarius.” - “No,” answered he, - and I still need to escape." When he had already entered the heavenly gates, they, sobbing with anger and envy, shouted: "Exactly! You escaped us, Macarius!" - He answered them: “Protected by the power of my Christ, I escaped your machinations." fight with them and, having won victory over them, in the depths of the heart they acquire complete freedom from sin, becoming the temple and sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, making his verbal abode inaccessible to the fallen angel" (Bishop Ignatius. Vol. 3, pp. 158-159).

Private court

In Orthodox dogmatic theology, going through aerial ordeals is a stage of private judgment, through which the fate of the soul is decided until the Last Judgment. Both private judgment and the Last Judgment are carried out by Angels, who are instruments of God's justice: So it will be at the end of the age: Angels will come out and separate the wicked from among the righteous, and throw them into the fiery furnace (Matthew XIII, 49-50).

Happy are Orthodox Christians that they have the doctrine of aerial ordeals and private judgment, clearly set forth in numerous patristic writings and lives of saints; but in fact, any person who meditates deeply on the Holy Scriptures alone will come to a very close teaching. Thus, Protestant evangelist Billy Graham writes in his book about Angels: “At the moment of death, the spirit leaves the body and moves through the atmosphere. But Scripture teaches us that the devil lurks there. He is the prince of the power of the air (Eph. II, 2 ).

If the eyes of our understanding were open, we might see how the air is filled with the enemies of Christ - demons. If Satan could delay the Angel sent to Daniel on earth for three weeks, then one can imagine what kind of opposition a Christian can expect after death... The moment of death is the last opportunity for Satan to attack a true believer, but God sent his Angels to protect us at this time" (Billy Graham. Angels are secret

The afterlife and its uncertainty is what most often leads a person to think about God and the Church. After all, according to the teachings of the 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 of 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: loved ones, celebrities, relatives die, and all these losses make me think about what will happen when this guest comes to me? The attitude towards the end largely determines the course of human life - waiting for it is painful or a person has lived such a life that at any moment he is ready to appear before the Creator.

Read about the afterlife in Orthodoxy:

Trying not to think about it, erasing it from your 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 corruptible body. And this determines the course of the entire Christian life - after all, the soul does not disappear, which means it will definitely see the Creator and give an answer for every deed. This constantly keeps the believer on his toes, preventing him from living his days thoughtlessly. Death in Christianity is a certain point of transition from worldly to heavenly life, and where the spirit goes after this crossroads directly depends on the quality of life on earth.

Orthodox asceticism has in its writings the expression “mortal memory” - constantly holding in thoughts the concept of the end of worldly existence and the expectation of the transition to eternity. That is why Christians lead meaningful lives, not allowing themselves to waste minutes.

The approach of death from this point of view is not something terrible, but a completely logical and expected action, joyful. As Elder Joseph of Vatopedi said: “I’ve been waiting for the train, but it still doesn’t come.”

The first days after leaving

Orthodoxy has a special concept about the first days in the afterlife. This is not a strict article of faith, but the position held by the Synod.

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 occurred on the third day. St. Isidore Pelusiot writes that the process of Christ’s Resurrection took 3 days, hence the idea 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 a person should be remembered on this day. It is in the requiem service of the third day that the Triune God is asked to forgive the deceased’s sins and forgive him;
2. Ninth- another day of remembrance of the dead. St. Simeon of Thessalonica wrote about this day as a time to remember the 9 angelic ranks, to which the spirit of the deceased can be ranked. This is exactly how many days are given to the soul of the deceased to fully understand its transition. This is mentioned by St. Paisius in his writings, comparing a sinner with a drunkard who becomes sober 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 ascended on the 40th day, which means that the deceased on this day appears before the Lord. Also, the people of Israel mourned their leader Moses at such a time. On this day, not only should there be a prayer asking for mercy from God for the deceased, but also the magpie.

The above three dates are necessary for special remembrance and prayer for the departed. During this period, their fervent prayers for the deceased reach the Lord and, in accordance with the teachings of the Church, can influence 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 God. Everyone will know the answer to this question after their repose. The only thing that is known for sure is the transition of the human spirit from one state to another - from the worldly body to the eternal spirit.

Only the Lord can determine the eternal place of the soul

Here it is much more important to find out not “where”, but “to whom”, because it doesn’t matter where a person will be after, what’s most important is with the Lord?

Christians believe that after the transition to eternity, the Lord calls a person to judgment, 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 eternal place 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 life: good or evil, repentance or proud exaltation, mercy or cruelty? Only a person’s actions determine eternal existence and the Lord judges by them.

From the book of the Revelation of John Chrysostom, we can conclude that the human race faces 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 trial and a general one, the soul has the opportunity to change its verdict, through the prayers of its loved ones, good deeds that are done in its memory, memories in the Divine Liturgy and commemoration with alms.

ordeals

The Orthodox Church believes that the spirit goes through certain ordeals or tests on the way to the throne of God. The traditions of the holy fathers say that ordeals consist of conviction by evil spirits that 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 some fine or be tested by certain sins. The deceased person’s own virtues, which he acquired while on earth, can help him pass this test.

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 life and with which he was not able to fully cope. Only hope in Christ and His mercy can help the soul overcome this line.

Orthodox lives of saints contain many descriptions of ordeals. Their stories are extremely vivid and written in sufficient detail so that you 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 Blessed Theodora about her ordeals. She mentions 20 trials of sins, including:

• a 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, committed actions. 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 deception - 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 falsehood;
• gluttony is not only the pleasure of one’s belly, but also any indulgence of carnal passion: drunkenness, nicotine addiction or drug addiction;
• laziness, together with hack work and parasitism;
• theft - any act the consequence of which is the appropriation of someone else's property, this includes: theft, fraud, fraud, etc.;
• stinginess is not only greed, but also thoughtless acquisition of everything, i.e. hoarding. This category includes bribery, refusal 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, incitement to suicide and abortion;
• fortune telling - turning to grandmothers or psychics is a sin, it is written in Scripture;
• fornication is any lustful actions: viewing pornography, masturbation, erotic fantasies, etc.;
• adultery and the sins of Sodom.

Memorial Days

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

Read about prayer for the dead:

The word “commemoration” means remembrance, i.e. memory. And first of all, this is 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 to 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 loved ones 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 appears before God. Throughout the entire 40 days, the magpie is read, with prayer every day, and on special days a funeral service is ordered. Along with prayer, loved ones visit church and cemetery these days, give alms and distribute funeral food in memory of the deceased. Such memorial dates include subsequent anniversaries of death, as well as special church holidays commemorating the dead.

The Holy Fathers also write that the actions and good deeds of the living can also cause a change in God's verdict on the deceased. The afterlife is full of secrets and mysteries; no one alive knows exactly anything about it. But everyone’s worldly path is an indicator that can indicate the place in which a person’s spirit will spend all eternity.

What are ordeals? Archpriest Vladimir Golovin

Modern man can do almost anything, but the mystery of death remains a mystery today. No one can say exactly what awaits after the death of the physical body, what path the soul has to overcome and whether there will be one. Nevertheless, numerous testimonies from survivors of clinical death indicate 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 beliefs, the soul will have to go through 20 ordeals - terrible tests of mortal sins. This will make it possible to determine whether the soul is worthy of entering the Kingdom of the Lord, where endless grace and peace await it. These ordeals are terrible, even the Holy Virgin Mary, according to biblical texts, feared them and prayed to her son for permission to avoid posthumous torment.

No newly deceased person will be able to avoid ordeal. But the soul can be helped: for this, loved ones who remain on the mortal earth light candles, fast, etc.

Consistently, the soul falls from one level of ordeal 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 deliberate deception of others for the sake of one’s own benefit.
3. Slander is spreading false rumors about a third party and condemning the actions of others.
4. Gluttony is an excessive love of food.
5. Idleness is laziness and a life of inaction.
6. Theft is the appropriation of someone else's property.
7. The love of money is excessive attachment to material values.
8. Covetousness is the desire to obtain valuables through dishonest means.
9. Untruth in deeds and actions is a desire to commit dishonest actions.
10. Envy is the desire to take possession of what your neighbor has.
11. Pride is considering oneself above others.
12. Anger and rage.
13. Grudge – storing in the memory of other people’s misdeeds, thirst for revenge.
14. Murder.
15. Witchcraft is the use of magic.
16. Fornication - promiscuous sexual intercourse.
17. Adultery is cheating on your spouse.
18. Sodomy – God denies unions of man and man, woman and woman.
19. Heresy is the denial of our God.
20. Cruelty is a callous heart, insensitivity to the grief of others.

7 deadly sins

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

Where does a person go after death?

The ordeal of the soul comes and lasts as long as the number of sins a person committed during earthly life. Only on the 40th day after death will the final decision be made about 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 even the most fallen person from sins, if sincere.

In Paradise, the soul knows no worries, does not experience 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 an eternity; even after the World 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 not subject to its will: the newly deceased remains to reconcile and accept the new reality meekly and with dignity. For the first 2 days, the soul stays next to the physical shell, it says goodbye to its native places and 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, the ordeal begins; during this period, relatives should pray especially a lot and earnestly. After the end of the ordeal, 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 known and unknown.

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

It is best to dine on the 9th day with kutia 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 the torment awaiting those who lived unrighteously.

Pastor V. I. Savchak will tell you 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... Remembrances and prayers of relatives can smooth out the earthly sins of the deceased.

Six months after the death of the body, the soul will visit its relatives and friends for the penultimate time: they are no longer able to change its fate in eternal life, all that remains is to remember the good things and pray earnestly for eternal peace.

Orthodoxy and death

For an Orthodox believer, life and death are inseparable. Death is perceived calmly and solemnly, as the beginning of the transition to eternity. Christians believe 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 soul awaits the Last Judgment, at which it will be decided whether a person will enter the Kingdom of God or go straight to Hell of Fire 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 will spend eternity before the face of God. This postulate contains enormous power, giving hope for endless life and humility before death.

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

Soul of a child

Saying goodbye to a child is a huge grief, but you should not grieve unnecessarily; the soul of a child unburdened by 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, since he has not yet reached the age of desire. At this time, the child may be physically weak, but his soul is endowed with enormous wisdom: often children, memories of which emerge in fragments in their minds.

No one dies without their own consent– death comes at the moment when a person’s soul calls for it. The death of a child is his own choice, the soul simply 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 returning to heaven is a bad thing. At the moment of his own death, the child does not feel any grief, no bitterness of parting, no regrets - he often does not even understand that he has given up his life, feeling happy as before.

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

The soul is met by a relative who loved him or simply by a bright being 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 abnormal birth - also do not suffer or suffer. They remain attached to the mother, and she becomes first in line for physical embodiment during the woman's next pregnancy.

Soul of a Suicidal Man

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

Gustave Dore. Suicide Forest

A person who has 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 commit suicide in order to reunite with his beloved. However, he was not close at all: they managed to revive the man and ask him about that side of his life. According to him, this is something terrible, the feeling of horror never goes away, the feeling of internal torture is endless.

After death, the soul of a suicide strives for the Gates of Heaven, 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 right up to the moment when a person was destined to die.

All people who have succeeded from suicide describe terrible pictures. The soul is in an endless fall, which is not possible to interrupt; the tongues of hellish flames tickle the skin and become closer and closer. Most of those rescued are haunted by nightmare visions for the rest of their days. If thoughts about ending your life with your own hands creep into your head, you need to remember: there is always a way out.

The Simplemagic channel will tell you about what happens to the soul of a suicide after death and how to act to calm a restless soul:

Animal souls

Regarding animals, clergy and mediums do not have a clear answer to the question of the final refuge for souls. However, some holy men speak unequivocally about the possibility of introducing the beast to the Kingdom of Heaven. The Apostle Paul directly states that after death an animal awaits deliverance from slavery and earthly suffering; Saint Simeon the New Theologian also 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 physical death.

The souls of animals will find liberation from slavery after physical death.

Theophan the Recluse’s point of view on this is interesting: the saint believed that after death, all 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 being afraid of it is completely normal. Every person wants to look behind the veil of the eternal mystery of Life and find out what awaits beyond it. Thanatology proves that since the times of the Ancient World, death was prepared in advance, it was thought of as 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 awaits exactly what a person deserves during life: what he will spend on the other side. Years lived with dignity, forgiven offenders, warm relationships with loved ones will help the soul 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 gains true immortality, so there is no need to be sad, it is worth letting go of your loved one with a light heart, dreaming that one day you will be able to meet again - on the other side of life.

A little about the author:

There is life after death. And there are thousands of evidences of this. Until now, fundamental science has dismissed such stories. However, as Natalya Bekhtereva, a famous scientist who has studied the activity of the brain all her life, said, our consciousness is such matter that it seems that the keys to the secret door have already been selected. But behind it there are ten more... What is behind the door of life?

“She sees right through everything...”

Galina Lagoda was returning with her husband in a Zhiguli car from a country trip. Trying to pass an oncoming truck on a narrow highway, the husband sharply pulled to the right... The car was crushed by a tree standing by the road.

Intravision

Galina was brought to the Kaliningrad regional hospital with severe brain damage, ruptured kidneys, lungs, spleen and liver, and many fractures. The heart stopped, the pressure was at zero. “Having flown through black space, I found myself in a shining, light-filled space,” Galina Semyonovna tells me twenty years later. “In front of me stood a huge man in dazzling white clothes. I couldn’t see his face because of the light beam directed at me. “Why did you come here?” - he asked sternly. “I’m very tired, let me rest a little.” - “Rest and come back - you still have a lot to do.” Having regained consciousness after two weeks, during which she balanced between life and death, the patient told the head of the intensive care department, Evgeniy Zatovka, how the operations were carried out, which of the doctors stood where and what they did, what equipment they brought, from which cabinets they took what. After another operation on a shattered arm, Galina, during her morning medical rounds, asked the orthopedic doctor: “How is your stomach?” From amazement, he did not know what to answer - indeed, the doctor was tormented by abdominal pain. Now Galina Semyonovna lives in harmony with herself, believes in God and is not at all afraid of death.

"Flying like a cloud"

Yuri Burkov, a reserve major, does not like to remember the past. His story was told by his wife Lyudmila: “Yura fell from a great height, broke his spine and received a traumatic brain injury, and lost consciousness. After cardiac arrest, he lay in a coma for a long time. I was under terrible stress. During one of my hospital visits I lost my keys. And the husband, having finally regained consciousness, first of all asked: “Did you find the keys?” I shook my head in fear. “They are under the stairs,” he said. Only many years later did he confess to me: while he was in a coma, he saw my every step and heard every word - no matter how far I was from him. He flew in the form of a cloud, including to where his deceased parents and brother live. The mother tried to persuade her son to return, and the brother explained that they were all alive, only they no longer had bodies. Years later, sitting at the bedside of his seriously ill son, he reassured his wife: “Lyudochka, don’t cry, I know for sure that he won’t leave now. He will be with us for another year." And a year later, at the wake of his deceased son, he admonished his wife: “He did not die, but only moved to another world before you and me. Trust me, I’ve been there.”

Savely KASHNITSKY, Kaliningrad - Moscow.

Childbirth under the ceiling

“While the doctors were trying to pump me out, I observed an interesting thing: a bright white light (there is nothing like that on Earth!) and a long corridor. And so I seem to be waiting to enter this corridor. But then the doctors resuscitated me. During this time I felt that it was very cool THERE. I didn’t even want to leave!” These are the memories of 19-year-old Anna R., who survived clinical death. Such stories can be found in abundance on Internet forums where the topic of “life after death” is discussed.

Light in the tunnel

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, pictures of life flashing before your eyes, a feeling of love and peace, meetings with deceased relatives and some luminous creature - patients who returned from the other world talk about this. True, not all, but only 10-15% of them. The rest did not see or remember anything at all. The dying brain does not have enough oxygen, which is why it is “glitchy,” say skeptics. Disagreements among scientists have reached the point that the start of a new experiment was recently announced. For three years, American and British doctors will study the testimony of patients whose hearts stopped or their brains turned off. Among other things, the researchers are going to put various pictures on the shelves in the intensive care wards. You can see them only by soaring right up to the ceiling. If patients who have experienced clinical death retell their contents, it means that consciousness is really capable of leaving the body. One of the first who tried to explain the phenomenon of near-death experiences was academician Vladimir Negovsky. He founded the world's first Institute of General Reanimatology. Negovsky believed (and the scientific view has not changed since then) that the “light at the end of the tunnel” was explained by the so-called tube vision. The cortex of the occipital lobes of the brain dies off gradually, the field of vision narrows to a narrow strip, creating the impression of a tunnel. In a similar way, doctors explain the vision of pictures of a past life flashing before the gaze of a dying person. Brain structures fade and then recover unevenly. Therefore, a person has time to remember the most vivid events deposited in his memory. And the illusion of leaving the body, according to doctors, is the result of a failure of nerve signals. However, skeptics reach a dead end when it comes to answering trickier questions. Why do people who are blind from birth, at the moment of clinical death, see and then describe in detail what is happening in the operating room around them? And there is such evidence.

Leaving the body is a defensive reaction

It is curious, but many scientists do not see anything mystical in the fact that consciousness can leave the body. The only question is what conclusion to draw from this. Leading researcher at the Institute of the Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dmitry Spivak, who is a member of the International Association for the Study of Near-Death Experiences, assures that clinical death is only one of the options for an altered state of consciousness. “There are a lot of them: these are dreams, and drug experience, and a stressful situation, and the consequence of illness,” he says. “According to statistics, up to 30% of people at least once in their lives have felt leaving the body and observed themselves from the outside.” Dmitry Spivak himself examined the mental state of women in labor and found that about 9% of women experience “leaving the body” during childbirth! Here is the testimony of 33-year-old S.: “During childbirth, I had a lot of blood loss. Suddenly I began to see myself from under the ceiling. The pain has disappeared. And about a minute later she also unexpectedly returned to her place in the room and again began to experience severe pain.” It turns out that “leaving the body” is a normal phenomenon during childbirth. Some kind of mechanism embedded in the psyche, a program that works in extreme situations. Undoubtedly, childbirth is an extreme situation. But what could be more extreme than death itself?! It is possible that “flying in a tunnel” is also a protective program that is activated at a fatal moment for a person. But what will happen to his consciousness (soul) next? “I asked one dying woman: if there really is something THERE, try to give me a sign,” recalls Doctor of Medical Sciences Andrei Gnezdilov, who works at the St. Petersburg hospice. - And on the 40th day after death, I saw her in a dream. The woman said: “This is not death.” Many years of working in a hospice have convinced me and my colleagues: death is not the end, not the destruction of everything. The soul continues to live." Dmitry PISARENKO

Cup and polka dot dress

This story was told by Andrey Gnezdilov, Doctor of Medical Sciences: “During the operation, the patient’s heart stopped. The doctors were able to start it, and when the woman was transferred to intensive care, I visited her. She complained that she was not operated on by the same surgeon who promised. But she could not see the doctor, being in an unconscious state all the time. The patient said that during the operation some force pushed her out of her body. She calmly looked at the doctors, but then she was overcome by horror: what if I die before I can say goodbye to my mother and daughter? And her consciousness instantly moved home. She saw that the mother was sitting, knitting, and her daughter was playing with a doll. Then a neighbor came in and brought a polka dot dress for her daughter. The girl rushed towards her, but touched the cup - it fell and broke. The neighbor said: “Well, that’s good. Apparently, Yulia will be discharged soon.” And then the patient again found herself at the operating table and heard: “Everything is fine, she is saved.” Consciousness returned to the body. I went to visit this woman’s relatives. And it turned out that during the operation... a neighbor came in with a polka dot dress for a girl and the cup was broken.” This is not the only mysterious case in the practice of Gnezdilov and other workers of the St. Petersburg hospice. They are not surprised when a doctor dreams of his patient and thanks him for his care and touching attitude. And in the morning, upon arriving at work, the doctor finds out that the patient died during the night...

Church opinion

Priest Vladimir Vigilyansky, head of the press service of the Moscow Patriarchate: - Orthodox people believe in the afterlife and immortality. There is much confirmation and evidence of this in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We consider the very concept of death only in connection with the coming resurrection, and this mystery ceases to be such if we live with Christ and for Christ’s sake. “Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die,” says the Lord (John 11:26). According to legend, in the first days the soul of the deceased walks through those places in which it worked the truth, and on the third day it ascends to heaven to the throne of God, where until the ninth day it is shown the abodes of saints and the beauty of paradise. On the ninth day, the soul again comes to God, and it is sent to hell, where wicked sinners reside and where the soul undergoes thirty days of ordeal (tests). On the fortieth day, the soul again comes to the Throne of God, where it appears naked before the judgment of its own conscience: has it passed these tests or not? And even in the case when some trials convict the soul of its sins, we hope for the mercy of God, in whom all deeds of sacrificial love and compassion will not go in vain.