Life Beyond Death
The purpose of death
The nature of life beyond death
How we can prepare for death
How we can assist the dying
The Stages of Life After Death
You say I am going away. But where can I go? I am always here.
Introduction - Divine Consciousness
For millennia, the great sages have told us there is no death. That all of life is rooted in Divine Consciousness, which is eternal and unchanging. But Divine Consciousness is not an objective reality, existing "out there" in space. It's the very essence of our being. It's the light of Consciousness which shines behind the mind, making it possible to read and understand these words, right now.
The presence of Divine Consciousness in the body produces a reflection which we experience as "individual consciousness". This reflection is similar to a mirage in the desert, or a dream. It's a purely subjective experience which has no basis in objective reality. Although we experience ourselves as separate individuals, this is only how it appears to the mind and senses. In truth there is only one, indivisible, eternal, Divine Consciousness reflecting in different bodies, like the sun reflecting in different pools of water.
This dream of individual consciousness continues for some time after death of the body. And the experience we call "death" is the dissolution of this dream into the reality of Divine Consciousness from whence it came. The purpose of this writing is to examine this experience and the role it plays in cosmic evolution.
Bodies and Planes of Experience
To explain the different stages of life after death, we must distinguish the various bodies and planes of experience. (see Illustrations) Beyond all planes of experience is Divine Consciousness, which is not a body or experience of any kind, but pure Spirit. No one knows what Spirit is, because it's what we are. The entire universe, including the dream of individual consciousness, arises spontaneously out of Divine Consciousness.
Similar to the bands of visible color, the dream of individual consciousness is spread across several vibrational frequencies, or planes of experience. Each successive plane is denser, slower and increasingly limited by time and space. Likewise, each plane corresponds to a different body, or platform of conscious experience. The body and its corresponding plane of experience are actually two sides of the same coin. For example on Earth, the physical body allows conscious experience of the physical plane. For this reason, the physical body and the physical plane are really one phenomenon and cannot exist apart from one another.
The subtle bodies are a field of psychic activity, including the conscious and subconscious psychic impressions that have accumulated during Earth life. After death of the physical body, the remaining subtle bodies allow individual consciousness to shift its focus from the physical plane to the inner planes of experience. Although the subtle bodies survive death of the physical body, they're not eternal and have their own defined life span.
Beyond the inner planes of experience is the Divine realm, and the corresponding spiritual body, which evolves gradually from the distilled essence gathered during many cycles of Earth life.
These different planes of experience are not locations but different states of consciousness within us. We will now examine each of these planes in terms of the various stages of life beyond death.
