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
Stage Two - Purification
Whatever a man does while living, be it good or bad, it comes to be remembered at death. Remembering one's bad actions and their dreadful results, the soul feels regret and anguish.
This stage begins when we become aware of our subtle body and engrossed in what appears to be happening around us. At this point, we find that negative emotions such as hatred, fear and guilt, as well as our physical and psychological cravings, are now tangible features of our subtle body in the form of color, fragrance and vibration. After a lifetime of keeping this material hidden, we're suddenly exposed and turned inside out, in a literal sense.
Our inability to accept our shadow material creates a split in the psyche; the split between matter and spirit, evil and good, human and divine. Before we can move on to the next stage of evolution, this psychic split must be healed. One way or another, during life or after death, we have to take responsibility for all the parts of our psyche as well as our past actions, without any filters, excuses or rationalizations.
During this process, certain archetypal experiences come up...archetypal in the sense that they are structured in the fabric of the human psyche and not subject to our personal beliefs or control. These experiences involve our acceptance, repentance and forgiveness for past actions. To the degree we can readily accept our painful psychic material, this stage of purification will be brief and not necessarily difficult.
In some traditions, this stage is called purgatory or hell. But it's important to understand that the process is not about judgment or punishment, although it may be experienced that way. Rather, it's the law of cosmic evolution, as it functions on the inner planes of experience. Before we can proceed to the more subtle planes, the heaver psychic material must be transformed and included within the subtle body.
With the exception of those few who are liberated during life, or just after death, everyone must pass through this stage of purification, which is actually one of the great blessings of life beyond death. Ultimately, only our fear and ignorance dies. And at some point during this process, we realize that only our fear and ignorance have kept us separate from God.
