Is There Life After Death ?

Is There Life after Death?

Different religions give different views about life after death. Some people believe that if you were a good person, went to church every Sunday then you would go to heaven; otherwise you would go to hell. There is no unanimity between different religions as to what happens after death. Most major religions are more than 1500 years old and may be little outdated in their views and have not kept pace with modern religious, philosophical and scientific thinking. These religions were often preached to illiterate peasants and fisherman and therefore the teachings are profound but symbolic in nature and prone to misinterpretation.

After reading various religious and non-religious philosophies I came to the conclusion that both hell and heaven does not exist outside the human mind. Both hell and heaven are states of mind, and not places that people go after death, one indicating a state of bliss and other a state of suffering. Both states are existing right here on earth while we are still living and you don't have to die to go to hell or heaven. This still does not explain what happens after death. To find out about states after death we have to study the constitution of the human body.

The human body is composed of several different layers made of gross and subtle forms of matter. Each layer is usually referred to as a body and we are composed of five bodies.

1. Gross physical body
2. Etheric physical body(invisible physical matter or dark matter)
3. Astral body (emotional body)
4. Mental body (mind body)
5. Causal body (soul body)

In other words we are multi-dimensional beings and each body helps us to function on a different plane or dimension of human endeavour.
Our Astral, mental and causal bodies together can separate from the physical bodies during sleep and can function independently during dream states while still connected to the physical body via a thread. Therefore during dreams we are actually functioning on the astral plane where people go after death. When we dream of our dead relatives and friends we may be actually meeting and talking to them. Astral plane is normally referred to as the Spirit World by most people.

The separation of the astral body from the physical body can also happen spontaneously, when fully awake in some people during states of sudden emotional shock, physical illness or in extreme tiredness and is referred to as an out of body experience.

Some people can produce this state at will after relaxing themselves and then it is referred to as astral projection. Astral projection is not generally recommended and is considered harmful by some authorities. Some of the near death experiences, experiences under general anaesthesia, and instances when people describe themselves floating in the air and can see their body sleeping or lying in bed are instances of spontaneous astral projection or out of body experiences. Out of body experiences are sometimes experienced by fighter pilots and it can be considered as a disqualification for the job, by some authorities.

New research on people who were resuscitated after clinical death, the so called “flatliners,” the people whose hearts and brains were clinically dead for a period of time before they were brought back to life shows that they were able to remember what happened during the time they were dead. Up to 10% of patients brought back from the dead have reported conscious memories formed some time after all life has apparently left their bodies.
Some patients who had been declared “brain dead” have later recounted conversations between medical staff trying to resuscitate them. Others have accurately described events or hidden objects they had apparently observed during out of body experiences in the minutes following clinical death when their heart, breathing and brain activity had completely stopped.

According to Sam Parnia, Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, UK. “These people should not be capable of thought if thoughts come from brain, because they have no brain function. In fact there have never been any proof that brain generates thoughts.” He revealed his findings from a study of 63 patients resuscitated after heart attacks, seven of whom described the dying process in terms of tunnels, bright lights and visions of dead relatives.

In other studies people brought to hospital in a lifeless state have described looking down on their bodies while doctors and nurses worked on them. Several have identified the clinicians that saved them in hospital weeks later. (Sunday Times, UK, 08-09-02)

If consciousness was part of the physical brain and thinking, registering memories and recalling them later, seeing and hearing were done by the physical brain or any part of the physical body, then people who were brain dead for a period of time should not be able to think and also remember what they thought, saw or heard during the period they were brain dead. These research show that our consciousness is able to function outside the physical body and that our consciousness survives the physical death.

Death is a long process and death of the physical body is the first stage of that process. After the shedding of the physical body (including the etheric body) there are two further bodies to shed, the astral-emotional body, and the mind body. There can be a gap of few days to thousands of years from the shedding of the physical body to shedding of the astral body. There is a further gap between the shedding of the astral body and the shedding of the mind body. After the shedding of the mind, the soul can exist for a long period of time in a state of bliss before creating another physical body to reincarnate again on earth.

At the time of death the astral body with the etheric, the mental and the causal bodies separate from the gross physical body. The etheric body disintegrates few days after death and the person is left with the astral body and the other two subtle bodies, the mental and the causal body. The astral body resembles the physical body in appearance and people can feel more alive when dead than when they were still living.

Therefore in reality there is no death and it is only a transition from one state of consciousness to another state of consciousness. In practice we are in a state resembling death during sleep. Only difference is that we can return to our physical body after having a dream but we cannot do so after death.

After a sudden, an unexpected or a traumatic death some people fail to recognise that they are dead. This is sometimes the reason for the phenomenon of 'ghosts', or earth bound souls, where a dead person after failing to recognise that he or she is dead continues to live and work in the places where they used to live and work before their death. Sometimes even though the dead person knows that he or she is dead, they continue live in the same surroundings either because of their greed for the material possessions left behind or because of their love for the people left behind.

After death the person should ideally start living on one of the seven astral planes. It may be difficult for someone who has never heard about the astral planes while they were still alive to suddenly find the astral planes, especially if they haven't got anybody to guide them. In the usual case of an expected death, the dead friends and relatives living on the astral plane start visiting their friend or relative still living on the physical plane but is about to die and pay their last respects. They will again visit the person after death and take him or her to the astral plane and acclimatise, guide and train the person to living on the astral planes.

The astral plane is an illusion created by the material minded human beings by their creative visualisations. Some people refer to these planes as heaven but some of the lower astral planes could be as bad as hell. The astral matter is very pliable and people living on these planes could create anything they wish by creative visualisation.

Therefore one could create an illusion of a hell or a heaven for oneself by creative visualisation. Therefore what is important after death is your inner state of mind. If one is full of sadness, guilt, and remorse, one could create an illusion of a hell for oneself or if one is in a state of happiness and bliss one could create an illusion of a heaven. A religious or a non-religious person brought up on a diet of heaven; hell or eternal damnation has a very good opportunity to create an illusion of a hell or heaven for himself or herself depending on their belief systems.

As there is no physical body to nourish and to protect, people living on the astral planes do not need to eat, drink, sleep, breathe or protect themselves from the elements. As there is no physical body one cannot experience physical pain but only emotional or mental pain. But a person who does not know this could create an illusion of pain for themselves.

There is no need to work or to earn a living and one could travel anywhere simply by the power of thought. But because of our material nature people living on the lower astral planes continue to do what they did on earth in their self-created illusionary world. Some people continue to work, eat, drink and sleep, though there is no need to do any of these things.
Some people attempt to contact their dead relatives through the use of mediums and it may be possible to contact them. But there is no way of proving that these communications are genuine and one could become a prey for fraudulent mediums. It is best to leave the dead alone and get on with your own life. Some people try to get teachings from people who are dead via mediums. Just because somebody is dead it does not make him or her spiritually more evolved.

People who remain on the astral planes engrossed in their own self created illusions without moving onto higher planes are generally less evolved than people living on earth. Therefore teachings coming from astral planes via mediums and spiritual guides should be ignored or discarded. Most of the spiritual guides are people belonging to the American Red Indian race who sometimes lived thousands of years ago and spiritually unevolved compared to people belonging to races currently living on earth and their teachings should not be trusted as true.

Spiritual evolution only happens on the physical plane and humanity living on the physical plane can make substantial expansion in consciousness compared to people living on the astral plane. Therefore a being who has spent several hundred years on the astral plane is far less evolved than people living on earth. There are lot of mediums producing channelled teachings from the so-called 'masters'. Basically they are bringing the illusions of the astral plane to the physical plane.

Communication with the astral plane may bring solace to people who are grieving for their loved ones to know that they still alive. Also it will remove the fear of death from people still living on earth to know that life does not end in death. We are eternal beings and our soul continues to exist even after death.

After spending a period of time in their self created hell or heaven people if they wish or when their time have come, could discard their astral bodies and move into the next plane of existence, the mental plane. On the mental planes one has a mind but there is no body or the usual sensory organs.

After spending a period of time in the mental plane if they wish or when
their time have come, people could discard their mental bodies and move into the next plane of existence, the soul plane. The astral planes are called 'divya loka' and mental planes 'brahma loka' in Hindu and Buddhist teachings.

In the soul plane the soul exists in a state of bliss until the time has come for one to incarnate on the physical plane. Soul plane is also referred to as pralaya and is the equivalent of the Christian paradise. When the soul reincarnates on the physical plane, the whole cycle of life and death starts all over again.

We are souls in incarnation; the soul or the divine spark magically creates the mental, the astral and the physical bodies for it to manifest on the physical plane. We identify our physical body, the mind or the personality as the person whereas the soul is the real person, which has created the other vehicles for its manifestation on the physical plane. It is like identifying a car as the person and not the driver who drives the car.

People usually incarnate as a group in which they had previous connections to various individuals in the group, in their former lives. The group could be as large as thousand people, and your husband or wife could be your son, daughter, mother, father, brother, or sister from a former life. By coming together again and again they can pay their mutual karmic debts to each other. The relationships and the sex of the people keep changing with each incarnation. Therefore one could be a man in one life and a woman in another life. These cycles repeat endlessly over and over again and there may be people leaving the group and new blood joining the group. The average person living on earth has had an average of about 100,000 previous births.

Contrary to popular belief it is not possible for a human being to incarnate as an animal though some people believe that if you do bad things you can come back as an animal. Life began on earth as rocks in the mineral kingdom, which then evolve into plants in the vegetable kingdom and then into animals. The human kingdom evolved from the animal kingdom. But the evolution as far as human kingdom is concerned is only upwards. But we have all started life as rocks, which became plants, then animals and from animals arose the human kingdom. Therefore we all were once animals during our long evolutionary journey. I am here talking about the evolution of consciousness and not the evolution of form that Darwin talked about.

The purpose of these rebirth experiences is to achieve perfection or enlightenment through life experiences. When one has perfected oneself the cycle of life and death comes to an end and one becomes a Master free from the pull of the matter and a member of the spiritual kingdom or the kingdom of God. One can hasten this process of evolution and bring the cycle of life and death to an end by the practice of meditation and by serving their fellow human beings in various ways.

The Master of Wisdom has taken the five initiations and has expanded his consciousness to include the spiritual planes and he has control over all planes. He has nothing further to learn on earth and he is free to leave earth and move to one of the higher planets within or outside our solar system. Some Masters remain on earth to serve human and subhuman kingdoms and thereby serve the divine plan. People in general as a rule cannot leave earth until they become a Master and therefore everyone has to remain on earth with their group until they achieve perfection.