Does the soul of a deceased person see loved ones, relatives and his own death? What happens after death with a person, soul and consciousness Does the soul come after death to relatives.

People of all religions have always believed that the human soul does not die with the body, but continues to live in the other world. It has now become a scientific fact. Some physicians have explored this issue by asking those patients who died but came back to life after resuscitation.

Man is not an animal. His personality, his "I" continues to live even after the death of the body, the personality is indestructible. What happens to the human soul when, after being separated from the body, it enters the spiritual realm?

The Orthodox understanding of the life of the soul after death is based on Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition (the experience of the holy fathers, liturgical texts, lives of saints). Trying to comprehend the other world, the posthumous state of the soul and its ordeals, we must bear in mind that everything is not the same as here, everything is completely different there.

On earth, no one lives forever, and yet everyone is afraid of death. It is not for nothing that our Church always prays for the granting of a Christian death to us, painless, shameless, peaceful, and a good response at the Last Judgment.

Therefore, you need to ask the Lord for a Christian death in advance. Our only hope is the mercy of God to all who believe in Him and recognize their shortcomings and sins. You need to pray like a publican: “God, be merciful to me a sinner” or “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Earthly life for a Christian is a preparation for eternity (death). Whoever comes to Christ with faith, the feasible fulfillment of the gospel commandments and repentance, he will be with Him even after death. “He who comes to me I will not cast out” (John 6:37).

Every person in the depths of his soul feels his immortality. It is true that man is immortal. And what is called death is only a transition from one state to another or a second birth from the material world to the spiritual world, to eternity.

The posthumous state of a person directly depends on his aspirations, heart dispositions and actions in earthly life.

If a person strives for God, strives to love his neighbors, to live with everyone in peace, to be merciful (and fulfill other commandments according to his own strength), then such a person will be in paradise with God even after death.

And if a person, living on earth, strives for evil, strives to be the first in everything, envies, loses heart, grumbles, gets angry at his neighbors, offends (and fulfills other passions), then such a person will be in hell after death, with tormenting demons. whose orders he carried out.

Where does a person's soul go immediately after death?

The story of K.Ikskul "Incredible for many, but true incident" is very interesting. Describing his clinical death, the author first experienced heaviness, pressure. And when the soul was freed, escaped from the body that was dragging him to the ground, she felt an extraordinary lightness.

Seeing his lifeless body on the bed, Ikskul did not at first think about death, because he felt himself just as alive, conscious of everything, seeing, hearing, able to speak, think, move. The soul acquires greater sharpness and quickness of its mental faculties. At the sight of his double and the doctors around him, he was perplexed: “How is it? I feel here, meanwhile, and there, too, am I?”

Looking around himself, he saw that it was really him, the same as he knew himself. So the soul has the shape of a human body. But he could not touch himself: the hand passed through the body, as through air. He could not touch the doctor, and when walking he did not touch the floor: there was a small space that he could not overcome. The surrounding air was too dense for the subtle body of the soul.

The atmosphere did not convey the sounds of the voice of the deceased, and he felt loneliness, disconnection from the outside world and panic fear. Ikskul believed in God, but did not believe in the afterlife, and therefore was not immediately able to realize his death. There are many such testimonies of post-mortem experiences.

According to church tradition, the first 2-3 days after death, the soul enjoys relative freedom, being in the conditions of earthly gravity.

She is still trying to communicate with family and friends. The soul can instantly be transported from one place to another just by thinking about it. The soul bound to the earth usually spends this time near its body. And a believing soul can visit holy places, and can visit Jerusalem. Before you die, you can make a plan of which places you want to visit.

At the hour of death or a little later, two Angels usually meet the soul: one is the Guardian Angel, the other is the oncoming Angel. Angels have the image of shining beautiful youths. Their duty is to accompany the soul of the newly deceased to the afterlife. And for the first two days the soul walks the earth, accompanied by these Angels.

But this general rule does not apply to all souls. In Orthodox literature, we read that saints, not attached to earthly things and all the time waiting for the transition to another world, immediately begin their ascent to heaven. Others, like Ikskul, rise earlier than two days by the special permission of God.

What happens to the soul on day 3

After the death of a person, a private judgment awaits: “It is appointed for men to die once, and then judgment” (Heb. 9:27). This court decides the fate of the soul until the Last Judgment.

On the 3rd day, the Lord commands the soul to ascend to worship God (in imitation of the Resurrection of Christ on the 3rd day after death). Angels take the subtle body of the soul under their arms or on their hands and carry it up through the air space. Here, evil spirits block the soul's path to heaven (as if outposts or customs) and accuse it of sins.

Demons test the soul for the presence of their goods in it, that is, sinful passions. In Orthodoxy, this is called air trials. The Apostle Paul teaches us that the devil lurks in the air: "The prince of the power of the air" (Eph. 2:2). Ordeals are an integral part of the Orthodox teaching about invisible spiritual warfare with demons.

For example, in the “Canon for the Exodus of the Soul” at the bedside of a dying person, we read: “Prince of the air, a rapist, tormentor, of the terrible ways of standing and these words in vain, grant me to pass unhinderedly departing from the earth” (Song 4).

According to St. Theophan the Recluse, ordeals may not necessarily be terrible. But demons can represent something charming, seductive according to different types of passions. If in earthly life a person cleansed his soul of passions and planted opposite virtues in it, then his soul will not have sympathy for seductions there.

But if a person did not purify his heart during his life on earth or left sympathy for passions, then his soul is there and rushes to the bait of some passion. Then the demons take her and drag her to their hell.

Descriptions of ordeals are different in the lives of the saints and in the legends of the Church and are described in human language, metaphorically, so that we can understand. For example, the ordeal of Theodora from the life of St. Basil the New. But we need to imagine this as far as possible in the spiritual sense, because everything is not so there, the spiritual world is completely different.

According to various revelations, there are 20 ordeals, it is like a model, an image. But the personal experience of different people may differ from this model. And the souls of the saints were lifted up by the angels to heaven, bypassing the demonic outposts. Even the Most Holy Theotokos, before her Assumption, asked Her Son to deliver Her from terrible demons. And the Lord Himself carried Her Most Pure Soul to heaven.

Therefore, on the 3rd day they make an offering in the Church and the funeral of the deceased.

The church and loved ones pray hard for him, thus helping to get through the ordeal. Prayer is the highest manifestation of love for our loved one. In Theodora's story, in the ark, from which the Angels took to pay off the publicans, there were the prayers of her elder Basil. Our prayers will produce the same effect.

If the soul successfully passes the ordeal exam, then the Angels lift it up to heaven to worship God.

The soul of a person on the 9th day after death

After worshiping God, in the next 6 days, from the 4th to the 9th, the soul, accompanied by Angels, visits the heavenly abodes. Here she is, as it were, taking exams, or being tested, for virtue. For example, the soul found itself in the face of meekness. Will she unite with the spirit of this virtue, or will her acquired anger and irritability push her aside?

If a person in his life aspired to God, truth, love, and sees all their Divine beauty in heaven, then, of course, his soul will rush to them with all his might, and the Lord will accept it. Then she no longer needs to visit the hellish abyss, because Christ said: “He who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).

The repentant prudent thief, hanging on the cross to the right of Christ, was not tempted by ordeals, but immediately entered paradise: “And Jesus said to him: Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). The sacrifice of Christ frees all sincerely repentant and humble Christians from demonic torments. Therefore, it is possible that already on the 9th day such souls will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

After visiting paradise, on the 9th day, the soul again ascends to God for worship. God decides what to do with her next.

Therefore, the relatives of the deceased do well, ordering services in the Church on this day, distributing alms and praying fervently themselves. Because they still do not know the fate of the soul: whether it remains in paradise or whether it will have to go through ordeals in hell.

Commemoration on the 9th day is a symbol of nine ranks of angels and nine faces of saints. This is our hope that our loved one will rest in paradise with the saints.

40 days after death: what happens to the soul

If the soul did not pass the test for good, then it visits the hellish abyss and is tested by demons for sinful passions over the next 30 days, that is, it goes through ordeals. Most people have to be tested at ordeals, because on earth they did not see and did not realize their sinfulness, but, on the contrary, considered themselves worthy of heavenly blessings, in fact, fulfilling passions.

In hellish tortures, the soul experiences painful experiences, but as a result, all the evil power of its passions is revealed to it. If on earth she could not know her passions, then here she knows and begins to regret her unworthy life. The soul wants to repent, but it can no longer, because the will is taken away after death. That is why they say that there is no repentance after death.

Take, for example, the ordeal of gluttony and drunkenness. Everyone knows how difficult it is to keep from overeating delicious food, or how difficult it is for a drunkard to get out of a binge. Living in the body, a person could still satisfy these passions. But without a body, the soul cannot satisfy them, although the burning of these passions increases many times over. She cannot resist the demonic temptations and falls on this ordeal, uniting with the tormenting demons. As a result, the soul experiences eternal hellish torment.

Ordeals are not God's punishment, but the last remedy for the sinner, so that he can know himself, his sinful state and believe in Christ, receive hope for salvation or relief of his condition through the prayers of his loved ones and the Church. But if the soul does not believe in the Savior, then prayers may turn out to be in vain. For the Savior can help only those who want it and seek Him.

On the 40th day, the Angels lift up the soul for the third time to worship God, Who finally decides her fate and assigns her a suitable place where she will stay until the Last Judgment.

Therefore, the Church appointed this day for a special commemoration of the deceased. And if his relatives order a service in the Church, pray intensely and distribute alms, they will help their deceased.

Commemoration on the 40th day is a symbol of the fact that Christ ascended to heaven on the 40th day after His death.

Where is the soul a year after the end of earthly life

If souls successfully pass posthumous tests, that is, ordeals, then the Lord determines them to heavenly abodes. “There are many mansions in my Father's house. And if it were not so, I would say to you: I am going to prepare a place for you. And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that you too may be where I am” (John 14:2-3).

Great radiant cloisters are prepared for the saints. For us, today's weak Christians, who have not reached such purity of heart as the saints, these are small monasteries. Abodes are of different sizes for different degrees of purification. Abodes, of course, are not the same as in the material world. In the spiritual world, things are different. Many monasteries are named not by the difference in places, but by the degree of spiritual gifts.

How a lamp in a room illuminates objects that are closer or farther from it in different ways. So souls will be illumined by Divine grace in different ways, depending on how much they can contain.

But even those souls who settle in small abodes will be able to continuously improve themselves in eternal life. What they did not have time or could not do in earthly life, they will do in these monasteries. Life with God in eternity is not a static state, but an eternal upward movement in love, joy and God-knowledge. This is a consolation for us, weak Christians, far from the perfection that Christ commanded us: “Be perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

If the souls "fall" on ordeals, then they are sent to hell, and they are in fear of eternal torment, which will begin completely after the Last Judgment. There are also many different places in hell, because the degree of sinfulness is different for everyone and the passions are also different. Each passion is controlled by certain demons. And the demons are very scary, one of their appearance is vile and nauseating.

There is a place in hell for souls with an uncertain fate, whose evil deeds could not outweigh their good ones, but they cannot be in heaven either. In the deepest places of hell are suicides, theomachists, apostates, heresiarchs, blasphemers of the Holy Spirit.

For souls in hell, changes are possible. They are cleansed by the prayers of the Church, relatives and loved ones, by good deeds done for them, by almsgiving. But the commemoration at the Divine Liturgy brings them the greatest benefit - the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice (proskomidia) for them. Even sinners doomed to eternal torment can be relieved by such means.

Approximately one tenth of the condemned souls are in a demonic state in hell. They neither ask nor accept any help. Other condemned in hell feel guilty, suffer and ask for help. They receive help through the prayers of their loved ones and the Church and will receive help until the Second Coming of Christ.

Since after death the will is taken away, it is much easier to beg for the deceased than for the living. Because the soul no longer resists, while a living person resists with his free will. Our prayers for the deceased are like a rope thrown to save a drowning man.

Start praying for your deceased, and you will see how the Lord will comfort you and send some kind of dream and show your deceased in a better condition than he was before. For example, he will be transferred from the cell to the best apartment, or from the lower floor to the upper one closer to the sky, or dressed in the best clothes.

Christians make a special commemoration on the first anniversary of death and on subsequent ones, so as not to forget about their deceased loved one. For the dead, the anniversary of death is like a birthday for the living. Death is like being born from temporal life into eternal life. And the more often we pray (not once a year, but every day), the faster the soul will come out of prison in prison and move into the Kingdom of Heaven.

20 ordeals of the soul after death - list

In the life of St. Basil the New, his servant Blessed Theodora in a vision tells her disciple Gregory about her posthumous ordeals. There are twenty of them in total. This list can help you prepare for .

Idle talk, foul language, ludicrousness.
Lies, perjury, failure to fulfill promises, concealment of sins in confession, in vain calling on the name of the Lord.
Blame, slander.
Gluttony, drunkenness, drug addiction, smoking, failure to fast.
Laziness, negligence, not going to the temple, despondency, idleness.
Theft, concealment, non-return of other people's things, ticketless travel.
Covetousness, avarice, greed.
Covetousness (unrighteous acquisitions, bribery, extortion, non-repayment of debt).
Untruth (wrong judgment, deceit in business, weighting).
Envy, hatred, enmity.
Pride, vanity, arrogance. Disrespect for parents and superiors.
Anger, rage, irritability.
Resentment, resentment, unforgiveness of insults, vindictiveness.
Murder, robbery, fights.
Witchcraft (occultism, magic, divination, spiritualism).
Fornication, fornication thoughts and touch.
Adultery, non-fidelity.
Sodom sins.
Heresy, idolatry.
Mercy, cruelty.

How to remember the departed loved ones

The commandment to love one's neighbor also includes prayer for the departed, who are not excluded from the number of neighbors. This prayer is for them feeding, dressing, healing, visiting in prison, the repose of the wanderer (Matthew 25; 35-36). The dead need prayer more than the living.

Commemoration of the dead is almsgiving, care for them, a debt of love, a feat of piety for Orthodox Christians. For the Church, the living and the dead are members of one family, one Body of Christ. We are all alive in Christ, and the souls of the departed hear our prayers. Through prayer we maintain fellowship with the dead.

There is a false way of communicating with the dead: spiritualism and necromancy. The Orthodox Church warns us about the danger of this path, which can plunge the human soul into the power of demons. After all, a person voluntarily calls them, trying by occult methods to find out something about the dead.

If we live a Christian life and pray fervently, then the Lord himself will send us some kind of dream about the deceased. And it happens that the dead dream of their loved ones and ask for help. Then you must immediately go to church, order a service and pray at it yourself.

Parting words of the dying, funeral

When an Orthodox Christian is at death's door, the priest confesses and communes him, and, if possible, gives unction. It is necessary to take care of this in advance, before the dying person falls into unconsciousness. Then the priest or layman reads over the dying "Canon of Prayer at the Separation of the Soul from the Body" on behalf of the dying. Thus, with the words of the Church, they prepare him for the coming trials. Some saints themselves read this canon before their death. After death, they immediately read "Following the Exodus of the Soul from the Body."

The best evidence of love for the deceased will be if, leaving the cares of the funeral to others, we ourselves retire and plunge into prayer for his new needs in his new state. So you need to unceasingly pray for help to the soul of the deceased for 40 days. Further, we also need to pray daily, as long as our strength is enough. It is good to read the Psalter before the funeral.

Immediately after death, you need to order a magpie in the church - a daily commemoration at the Liturgy for 40 days.

Commemoration at the proskomedia is of great benefit to the souls of the departed, since their sins are washed away by the Blood of Christ. If there are no daily services in your temple, then you can order a magpie in another temple.

On the 3rd day after the death of the deceased, the rite of burial (funeral service) is performed. It is desirable that it be in the temple. If there are several dead in the church, it is better that the funeral service be common for everyone and without reduction. Then the prayer of all those gathered will be more ardent.

Days of Special Remembrance for the Dead

The first 40 days after the death of the deceased is called the newly deceased.

In the "Apostolic Decrees" of the 4th century, it is recommended to make a special commemoration on the 3rd, 9th, 40th day (the day of death is considered the first) according to ancient custom, and on the anniversary of the memory of the deceased.

This is how the people of Israel mourned Moses. There is a tradition every anniversary especially to commemorate the deceased.

On these special days, it is good to order a proskomedia for the Liturgy, a memorial service, and pray at these services yourself. Many arrange memorial meals, but this is not the main thing. It is better to give alms, or feed the hungry, or bring food to the temple. The beggars will pray for your deceased.

Use your money not for sumptuous funerals and dinners, but to help the poor and temples where prayers are offered. Take care of your dead, be merciful to them, because in due time you will also want to be remembered with prayer, and not at a drunken table. "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy" (Matthew 5:7).

Common days of special commemoration of the departed according to the church calendar

The Church has established special days in the year to commemorate our loved ones and all those who have died from the ages.

Meat and Trinity parental Saturdays are called universal. These days, we must first of all pray at church services for the repose of all the servants of God who have died from the ages, even without knowing their names. It is love for the members of our body, the Body of Christ. At the same time, you can pray for your loved ones.

Fulfilling this commandment of the Church to pray for all the deceased, we ensure the commemoration of our loved ones until the Last Judgment. And also we make a pledge to the treasury of the Church for the commemoration of ourselves in the future, when there will no longer be any of our loved ones alive who would remember us and pray. Then the whole Church will pray for us until the end of time: “With what measure you measure, it will be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38).

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Saturdays of Great Lent are just parental. Here in the first place is the commemoration of relatives, and then - all those who have died from the century.

Dimitriev parental Saturday- The Saturday before St. Demetrius of Thessalonica November 8th. It was established by Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy to commemorate the soldiers who died in the battle on the Kulikovo field. The dead were 250,000 people. Over time, this Saturday became the day of remembrance for all the departed Orthodox Christians.

Radonitsa- the general commemoration of the dead, celebrated on Tuesday after Bright Week (in some regions on Sunday or Monday). This memorial day was established so that after Easter, believers could share with their dead the joy of the Resurrection of Christ.

Another day of remembrance 9th May- Installed in 1994. Here, first of all, the soldiers who died in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 are commemorated.

How do our prayers help the departed?

All believers are members of the one Body of Christ. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer. And if one rejoices, then the other members of the Body rejoice (1 Corinthians 12:26-27). It is non-Orthodox to consider one person in isolation from all mankind. All people are cells of one spiritual organism. If some members are damaged, then other, stronger and healthier members take over their load.

Also, one person can spiritually help another. But in order to help a weaker person, one must be stronger and healthier oneself. And in order to be spiritually stronger, we must live with Christ, try to fulfill His commandments and learn to pray correctly.

Only Christ can help us in the fight against the passions and the devil. It is impossible for people to be saved, but for God everything is possible (Matthew 19:26). Thus, the more we cleanse ourselves of passions (that is, become spiritually stronger), the stronger and more effective our prayers for our loved ones will be.

But if we rely only on the Church (notes, magpies, requiems), and we ourselves do not work for our own correction and purification, then this will not help our loved ones who have died. Because we will be the same spiritually weak members as they are.

As St. Paisius of Athos said: “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.”

Watch a 5-minute video about what happens to the soul after death:

Blessed is the man who sincerely confesses and partakes of the mysteries of Christ on the day of his death. Then the holy angels take his soul and, for the sake of the Body and Blood of Christ, safely carry it through all the aerial ordeals. Communion is, as it were, the seal of the Lamb, to which the demons do not dare to approach.

In this life, we are given little to know about otherworldly reality. But we know that heaven and hell exist. Some say that heaven and hell are nowhere, but only states of the soul. But we know that these are places because some of the living have been there and returned to their bodies to tell us about them.

We know that heaven is above, in the spiritual world. There are at least three heavens above paradise. The apostle Paul says: “I know a man in Christ who…was caught up to the third heaven. And ... he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which a man cannot utter" (2 Corinthians 12: 2-4). And we know that hell is underground. But this is not in our three-dimensional reality, but in a completely different, spiritual one.

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...

When the body dies, the soul finds itself in completely unusual for it, new conditions. Here she can no longer change anything and must come to terms with what happened. Of essential importance is the spiritual development of a person during life, his deep faith in God. This is what helps the soul to calm down, understand its true purpose and find a place in another dimension.

People who have experienced clinical death often describe their condition as rushing through a dark tunnel, at the end of which a bright light shines.

Indian philosophy explains this process by the existence of channels in our body through which the spirit leaves the body, these are:

Navel
Genitals

If the spirit exits through the mouth, it returns to Earth again; if through the navel, it finds shelter in space, and if through the genitals, it enters the dark worlds. When the spirit leaves the nostrils, it rushes towards the moon or the sun. In this way, life energy passes through these tunnels and leaves the body.

Where is the soul after death

After physical death, the intangible shell of a person enters the subtle world and finds its place there. The basic feelings, thoughts and emotions of a person during the transition to another dimension do not change, but become open to all its inhabitants.

At first, the soul does not understand that it is in the subtle world, since its thoughts and feelings remain the same. The ability to see her body from a height allows her to understand that she has separated from him and is now just floating in the air, easily hovering above the ground. All emotions that come in this space are completely dependent on the inner wealth of a person, his positive or negative qualities. It is here that the soul finds its heaven or hell after death.

The subtle dimension consists of numerous layers and levels. And if during life a person can hide his real thoughts and essence, then here they will be completely exposed. Its ephemeral shell should take the level it deserves. The position in the subtle world is determined by the essence of a person, his life deeds and spiritual development.

All layers of the illusory world are divided into lower and higher:

Those souls who during their lifetime received insufficient spiritual development fall into the lower levels. They have to be only below and cannot go up until they reach a clear inner consciousness.
The inhabitants of the upper spheres are endowed with bright spiritual feelings and move without problems in any direction of this dimension.

Getting into the subtle world, the soul cannot lie or hide black, vicious desires. Her secret essence is now clearly reflected in her ghostly form. If a person during life was honest and noble, her shell shines with a bright glow and beauty. The dark soul looks ugly, repels with its appearance and dirty thoughts.

What happens 9, 40 days and six months after death

In the first days after death, the spirit of a person is in the place where he lived. According to church canons, the soul after death prepares for God's judgment for 40 days.

The first three days she travels to the places of her earthly life, and from the third to the ninth she goes to the gates of Paradise, where she discovers the special atmosphere and happy existence of this place.
From the ninth to the fortieth days, the soul visits the terrible dwelling of Darkness, where it will see the torment of sinners.
After 40 days, she must obey the decision of the Almighty about her further fate. It is not given to the soul to influence the course of events, but the prayers of close relatives can improve its destiny.

Death This is the transformation of a person's shell into another state, a transition to another dimension.

Relatives should try not to make loud sobs or tantrums and take everything for granted. The soul hears everything, and such a reaction can cause it severe torment. Relatives need to say sacred prayers to calm her down, to point out the right path.

Six months and a year after the death, the spirit of the deceased comes to his relatives for the last time to say goodbye.

Orthodoxy and death

For a believing Christian, death is nothing but a transition to eternity. An Orthodox person believes in an afterlife, although it is presented differently in different religions. The unbeliever denies the existence of the subtle world and is absolutely sure that a person's life consists in the period between birth and death, and then emptiness sets in. He tries to take from life to the maximum and is very afraid of death.

An Orthodox person does not see earthly life as an absolute value. He firmly believes in eternal existence and accepts his existence as a preparation for the transition to another, perfect dimension. Christians worry not about the number of years lived, but about the quality of their own life, the depth of its thoughts and deeds. In the first place, they put spiritual wealth, and not the sound of coins or powerful power.

A believer is preparing for his last journey, sincerely believing that his soul after death will gain eternal life. He is not afraid of his death and knows that this process does not bring evil or catastrophe. This is just a temporary separation of the ephemeral shell from the body in anticipation of their final reunion in the subtle world.

Soul of a suicide after death

It is believed that a person does not have the right to take his own life, since it was given to him by the Almighty, and only he can take it away. In moments of terrible despair, pain, suffering, a person decides to end his life not on his own - Satan helps him in this.

After death, the spirit of the suicide rushes to the Gates of Paradise, but the entrance there is closed for him. When he returns to earth, he begins a long and painful search for his body, but also cannot find it. The terrible ordeals of the soul last for a very long time, until the time of natural death comes. Only then does the Lord decide where the tormented soul of the suicide will go.

In ancient times, people who committed suicide were forbidden to be buried in the cemetery. Their graves were on the edge of the roads, in a dense forest or swampy area. All objects with which a person committed suicide were carefully destroyed, and the tree where the hanging was carried out was cut down and burned.

Transmigration of souls after death

Supporters of the theory of the transmigration of souls confidently assert that the soul after death acquires a new shell, another body. Eastern practitioners assure that the transformation can occur up to 50 times. A person learns about the facts from his past life only in a state of deep trance or when some diseases of the nervous system are detected in him.

The most famous person in the study of reincarnation is the US psychiatrist Ian Stevenson. According to his theory, the irrefutable evidence of the transmigration of the soul are:

The unique ability to speak in strange languages.
The presence of scars or birthmarks in a living and deceased person in identical places.
Accurate historical narratives.

Almost all reincarnated people have some sort of birth defect. For example, a person who has an incomprehensible growth on the back of his head, during a trance, remembered that he was hacked to death in a past life. Stevenson began investigating and found a family where the death of one of its members happened in this way. The shape of the wound of the deceased, like a mirror image, was an exact copy of this growth.

Details about facts from a past life will help to remember hypnosis. Scientists conducting research in this area interviewed several hundred people in a state of deep hypnosis. Almost 35% of them talked about events that never happened to them in real life. Some people began to speak in unknown languages, with a pronounced accent or in an ancient dialect.

However, not all studies are scientifically proven and cause a lot of thought and controversy. Some skeptics are sure that a person during hypnosis can simply fantasize or follow the lead of the hypnotist. It is also known that incredible moments from the past can be voiced by people after clinical death or patients with severe mental illness.

Mediums about life after death

Adherents of spiritualism unanimously declare that existence continues after death. The proof of this is the communication of mediums with the spirits of dead people, receiving information or instructions from them to relatives. According to them, the other world does not look terrible - on the contrary, it is illuminated with bright colors and radiant light, warmth and happiness emanates from it.

The Bible condemns intrusion into the world of the dead. However, there are adherents of "Christian spiritualism" who defend their actions, citing as an example the teachings of the Zodiac, a follower of Jesus Christ. According to his legends, the other world of spirits is made up of different spheres and layers, and spiritual development continues even after death.

Absolutely all statements of mediums arouse curiosity among researchers of the paranormal, and some of them come to the conclusion that they are telling the truth. However, most realists are sure that spiritualists have only a good ability to persuade and excellent insight by nature.

"Time to collect stones"

Every person is afraid of death, so he tries to get to the bottom of the truth, to learn as much as possible about the unknown subtle world. Throughout his life, he tries with all his might to extend the years of existence, sometimes even resorting to unusual methods.

However, the time will come when we will have to part with our familiar world and go to another dimension. And in order for the soul not to wander after death in search of finding peace, it is necessary to worthily live the allotted years, accumulate spiritual wealth and change something, understand, forgive. After all, the opportunity to correct your mistakes is only on Earth when you are alive, and there will be no other chance to do this.

We often wonder how the soul of a deceased person says goodbye to loved ones.

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

What happens to the soul after the death of the body.

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

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

Soul after death by day.

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

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

Third day after death.

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

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

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

Nine days after death.

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

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

Forty days after death.

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

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

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

Departure of the soul after death.

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

Location of the soul after death.

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

Ordeals of the soul after death.

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

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

Life after death.

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

Terrible Judgment.

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

Memorial days.

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

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

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

Path after life.

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

Stuck between worlds.

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

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

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

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

The souls of the dead come to relatives in a dream.

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

Interpretations are usually as follows:

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

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

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

Strange calls.

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

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

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

Reflection in the mirror.

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

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

Tactile sensations:

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

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

Mankind has been trying to unravel the mystery of death for many millennia. But no one could fully understand the essence of this process and where our soul rushes after death. In the course of life, we set ourselves tasks, dreams, we try to get the maximum of positive emotions and happiness from them. But the hour will come, and we will have to leave this world, plunge into the unknown abyss of another existence.

People have been interested in what the soul does after death since ancient times. Many who have experienced clinical death say that they fell into a tunnel known to many and saw a bright light. What happens to a person and his soul after death? Can he observe living people? These and many questions cannot but excite. The most interesting thing is that there are many different theories about what happens to a person after death. Let's try to understand them and answer the questions that concern many people.

The human soul continues to live after death. It is the spiritual beginning of man. The mention of this can be found in Genesis (chapter 2), and it sounds something like this: “God created man from the dust of the earth and blew the breath of life into his face. Now man has become a living soul.” Holy Scripture "tells" us that man is two-part. If the body can die, then the soul lives forever. She is a living entity endowed with the ability to think, remember, feel. In other words, the human soul continues to live after death. She understands everything, feels and - most importantly - remembers.

In order to make sure that the soul is really capable of feeling and understanding, it is only necessary to recall the cases when the human body died for a while, but the soul saw and understood everything. Similar stories can be read in a variety of sources, for example, K. Ikskul in his book “Incredible for many, but a true incident” describes what happens after death to a person and his soul. Everything that is written in the book is the personal experience of the author, who fell ill with a serious illness and experienced clinical death. Almost everything that can be read on this topic in various sources is very similar to each other.

People who have experienced clinical death characterize it with a white enveloping fog. Below you can see the body of the man himself, next to him are his relatives and doctors. Interestingly, the soul, separated from the body, can move in space and understand everything. Some argue that after the body ceases to give any signs of life, the soul passes through a long tunnel, at the end of which a bright white light burns. Then, as a rule, for some time the soul returns to the body again, and the heart begins to beat. What if the person dies? What then happens to him? What does the human soul do after death?

First few days after death

It is interesting what happens after death with the soul of a person in the first few days, because this period is for her a time of freedom and enjoyment. It is during the first three days that the soul can freely move around the earth. As a rule, she is at this time near her native people. She even tries to talk to them, but it turns out with difficulty, because a person is not able to see and hear spirits. In rare cases, when the connection between people and the dead is very strong, they feel the presence of a soul mate nearby, but cannot explain it. For this reason, the burial of a Christian takes place exactly 3 days after death. In addition, it is this period that the soul needs in order to realize where it is now. It is not easy for her, she may not have had time to say goodbye to anyone or say anything to anyone. Most often, a person is not ready for death, and he needs these three days to understand the essence of what is happening and say goodbye.

However, there are exceptions to every rule. For example, K. Ikskul began his journey to another world on the first day, because the Lord told him so. Most of the saints and martyrs were ready for death, and in order to go to another world, it took them only a few hours, because this was their main goal. Each case is completely different, and information comes only from those people who have experienced "post-mortem experience" on themselves. If we are not talking about clinical death, then everything can be completely different here. The proof that in the first three days the soul of a person is on earth is also the fact that it is during this period of time that the relatives and friends of the deceased feel their presence nearby.

What happens 9, 40 days and six months after death

In the first days after death, the spirit of a person is in the place where he lived. According to church canons, the soul after death prepares for God's judgment for 40 days.

The first three days she travels to the places of her earthly life, and from the third to the ninth she goes to the gates of Paradise, where she discovers the special atmosphere and happy existence of this place.
From the ninth to the fortieth days, the soul visits the terrible dwelling of Darkness, where it will see the torment of sinners.
After 40 days, she must obey the decision of the Almighty about her further fate. It is not given to the soul to influence the course of events, but the prayers of close relatives can improve its destiny.

Six months and a year after the death, the spirit of the deceased comes to his relatives for the last time to say goodbye.

Soul of a suicide after death

Transmigration of souls after death

The most famous person in the study of reincarnation is the US psychiatrist Ian Stevenson. According to his theory, the irrefutable evidence of the transmigration of the soul are:

The unique ability to speak in strange languages.
The presence of scars or birthmarks in a living and deceased person in identical places.
Accurate historical narratives.
Almost all reincarnated people have some sort of birth defect. For example, a person who has an incomprehensible growth on the back of his head, during a trance, remembered that he was hacked to death in a past life. Stevenson began investigating and found a family where the death of one of its members happened in this way. The shape of the wound of the deceased, like a mirror image, was an exact copy of this growth.

What does the soul look like after death?

What is the appearance of the human soul after death? Here, in earthly life, we see ourselves in a certain form, and we may like it or not. And what kind of view do we have in the Subtle World after death?

When the soul leaves the body its appearance does not remain constant, but changes. And these changes depend on the level of development of the soul. Immediately after death, the soul retains the human form in which it was in the physical world. For some time, usually up to a year, she retains her former external ghosts.

If the soul has a low level of development, but sufficient to continue its development, then after a year of being in another world, it begins to change outwardly.

The low soul is not capable of comprehending the Subtle World and working in it, and therefore falls asleep. Similarly, for example, in our world, a bear falls asleep for the winter, unable to actively manifest itself in forest conditions in winter. And other animals can exist well in the cold season.

That is, the activity of the soul on the Thin Plan depends on the degree of its development and the ability to actively participate in its life. Such a soul can be engaged in cleaning the space from unnecessary elements, perform some primitive work. Therefore, low souls can be divided into two types in relation to their appearance.

The soul that falls asleep, as a rule, loses its human appearance quite quickly, because it is not yet adapted to anything, and even more so is not able to maintain its appearance in the desired form.

The same low soul, which has already had several incarnations and acquired the rudiments of primary human qualities, is able to retain the form in the form of a human body for up to six months or a year, and then, forgetting about its former appearance, begins to adapt to anything.

Low souls do not yet possess any stable qualities, knowledge, therefore their idea of themselves and the world around them can often change. Since souls have developed imitation, at first they will form themselves according to what they see nearby, or what is preserved in their memory from past lives.

A young soul does not have a constant concept, therefore its form can take on a variety of external signs: after several years of being on the Thin Plan, a soul can look like an octopus, cuttlefish, oval, ball, any shape, etc. It is able to adapt to what sees. So the appearance of young souls who have not fallen into hibernation can change constantly during their entire stay on the Thin Plan.

All low souls are isolated from medium and high souls. All of them are in certain artificial worlds at their Levels. And the souls of the same Level cannot move into the lower or higher planes, more precisely, it will not work out for them purely according to physical laws. Because each soul can be located only in the layer corresponding to it in terms of energy potential.

The soul of an average development is already capable of maintaining the general form of the human body during its entire stay in the Subtle World. But outwardly, she is rapidly changing and does not resemble the person whose physical body she left. Their appearance is also constantly undergoing changes, as, indeed, the human body during earthly life.

The High Soul similarly retains the external features of the human body, but changes in features and details, as any person in the physical world changes. Appearance is influenced by the energies that the soul matrix is gaining. The higher its energy, the more harmonious and beautiful the soul becomes in its external form.