What does a person feel when he dies? clinical death. Last minutes of life. What is death

Life and death

Is death a dream?

« The fear of death comes from what people acceptfor one small life, their own false idealimited part of it. (L. N. Tolstoy)

What death? Few of us seriously think about the nature of this phenomenon. Most often, we superstitiously avoid not only conversations, but also thoughts about death, because this topic seems to us very bleak and terrible. After all, every child knows from an early age: “Life is good, but death .... death - I don't know what, but definitely something bad. It's so bad that it's better not to even think about it.

We grow up, learn, acquire knowledge and experience in various fields, but our judgments about death remain at the same level - the level of a small child who is afraid of the dark.

But the unknown is always frightening, and for this reason, even for an adult, death will always remain the same unknown, frightening darkness until he tries to understand its nature. Sooner or later, death comes to every home, and every year the number of relatives and friends who have gone into this obscurity is growing and growing ....

People leave - we grieve and suffer from parting with them, but even in these periods of another loss that has befallen us, we do not always try to figure it out and understand: what is this - this death? How to perceive it? Is it only as an incomparable loss and blatant injustice of life, or is it possible to have a completely different perception of it?

We will try to sort out these issues in a conversation with the head of the Orthodox Center for Crisis Psychology, created with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, psychologist Mikhail Igorevich Khasminsky.

— Mikhail Igorevich, what do you think death is?

- Let's start with the fact that, in accordance with the traditions of Orthodoxy, a person who had gone to another world was called not dead, but deceased. What does the word "deceased" mean? A dead person is a person who has fallen asleep. And Orthodoxy figuratively speaks of the one who ended his earthly life human body which after death will rest until it is resurrected by God. The body can fall asleep, but is it possible to say this about the soul? Can our soul sleep?

In order to answer this question, it would be good to first understand in the nature of sleep and dreams.

- A very interesting topic. There is probably no person on earth who would never ask himself the question: “Why did I dream about this?” Indeed, why do we dream? What is a dream?

- People spend about a third of their lives in a dream, and if this function is inherent in our very nature, then it is very important for us. We fall asleep every day, sleep a few hours and wake up rested. Let's look at modern ideas about the nature of sleep and its meaning. Scientists in their research, based on methods for recording the bioelectrical activity of the brain, muscles and eyes, found that sleep can be conditionally divided into several phases, the main of which are the phase of non-REM sleep and the phase of REM sleep. Slow-wave sleep is also called slow-wave sleep or orthodox. Fast - fast wave or paradoxical. We see dreams in the phase of REM sleep - this is the stage of rapid eye movement (abbreviated - REM - sleep). From now on, for convenience, we will call our dreams simply dreams.

If someone believes that he does not see dreams, then he is mistaken. Dreams are seen daily by all sleeping people, and more than once a night. Only some people don't remember them. And, it should be noted that we not only see dreams, like, for example, movies, but also participate in those plots that we dream about. That is, during sleep, we live for some time completely in Another reality. And very often it is experienced by us much brighter and richer than the reality of reality (for simplicity, we will call it this reality).

It can be said that a sleeping person lives through short-term fragments of another life every night. It must be borne in mind that very few of the sleeping and dreaming people feel that they are sleeping. In most cases, a sleeping person does not understand that everything that happens to him is only a dream, and is completely drawn into the events of another reality. The fact that at this time he feels this Other reality as a reality is a fact scientifically proven and repeatedly verified by each of us from our own experience.

It turns out that we are in the course of our entire lives every day in two realities. Therefore, it is not surprising if we have a paradoxical, at first glance, question: “And which of these realities is real, and which is a dream? After all, we alternately perceive both of these realities as true and the most, that neither is, real.

- Of course, the real reality is when we are awake! After all, we spend much more time in it.

- Well, you can count it that way. Only then does it turn out that for an infant who sleeps much more time than he is awake, the Other Reality will be real. In this case, the mother will sing him a lullaby and breastfeed in a fake reality for him, but an imaginary one. Will one reality be true for a child, and another for his mother? This paradox can only be resolved if we recognize both of these realities, as true and parallel.

But, in order not to get completely confused, let's conditionally accept as a fact that the reality in which we adults spend more time is true. We will assume that if we constantly return to this reality after sleep, work, study and solve various life tasks in it, then it is primary for us. But we must, nevertheless, not forget that she is not the only one.

— Well, we sort of figured it out: we live in two parallel realities. What then are the differences between these realities?

- They differ significantly from each other. For example, in the Other Reality, time flows differently: there, in a few minutes of sleep, we can see so many events that simply do not have time to happen in the same time in reality. For such a number of events in our reality, it would take not a few minutes, but several days or even more. We can participate in a completely extraordinary dream, the bright and incomparable colors of which you will not meet in reality. In addition, all the events that happen to us in the Other Reality are often inconsistent and even chaotic. Today we see one plot in a dream, and tomorrow - a completely different one, logically unrelated to yesterday's dream. Today, for example, I dream of a village and cows, tomorrow - that I am an Indian on the hunt, and the day after tomorrow - a completely incomprehensible futuristic heap .... And in this reality, all events develop sequentially: from childhood to old age, from ignorance to wisdom, from the basics to more complex structures. Here we usually have everything logical and constructive, as in a long "life" series.

- Tell me, what does modern science say about the nature of sleep? Why do we need it and what happens to us when we sleep?

- What does science say? Science says that sleep is a natural physiological process during which there is a minimum level of brain activity. This process is accompanied by a reduced reaction to the surrounding world. In addition, the vast majority of scientists agree that sleep is a special state of consciousness. Just to the question, what is consciousness and what is his special state during sleep, scientists cannot give an answer.

There is a special area of ​​medical science that deals with the study of sleep and the treatment of sleep disorders. It is called somnology. Based on the results of numerous scientific studies, we can now learn about the benefits of sleep, the stages of sleep and sleep hygiene. Science can tell us about what sleep disorders are (bruxism, narcolepsy, Pickwickian syndrome, restless leg syndrome, insomnia, and others) and what methods a person can be treated for. But there is still no single plausible theory about the nature of sleep as a phenomenon. There is no clear scientific explanation: what really is this phenomenon that we all face on a daily basis. Science in our enlightened age is not able to determine why we need sleep and what mechanisms are involved for it. It well describes the functions of sleep: rest, metabolism, immunity restoration, information processing, adaptability to the change of day and night .... but it's all about the body! And where is ours at this time "altered mind" about which scientists are still talking? They speak but do not understand. But, if scientists cannot answer the question, what is consciousness, then what success can they have in understanding the nature of sleep?

We are very accustomed to being proud of science, to consider ourselves advanced, and even in some cases to repeat the common nonsense that "science has proven the absence of God." In fact, science not only failed to prove this crazy hypothesis about the absence of God, but also failed to understand a million times simpler problem: what is sleep.

- Why do serious and numerous scientific studies lead nowhere and cannot explain the nature of sleep? It seems that everything has long been studied, many methods and diagnostic tools have been invented ...

- Yes, you can describe in detail the process of falling asleep and the dream itself, you can study what it is connected with. But no descriptions will help explain its nature. There is a way to diagnose sleep, which is called somnography. It consists in the continuous recording of various indicators of body functions, on the basis of which sleep is analyzed, and all stages characteristic of it are distinguished. The data obtained during this registration are thoroughly signed, studied, and as a result, the entire physiology of the sleep of the person being examined becomes visible. Based on these indicators, sleep disorders and its pathologies can be determined, the necessary treatment can be prescribed ... but how to explain the nature of sleep and the reality in which a sleeping person is? No analysis of impulses can achieve this, because the altered form of consciousness is not recorded even by the most modern sensors.

Despite the fact that all the functions of the brain have now been thoroughly studied, in no textbook or monograph, as well as in any scientific journal in neurophysiology or neuropsychology, you will not find a mention that our consciousness is the result of brain activity. None of the scientists found such a relationship between the brain and the very center of our personality - our "I". Based on many years of research, the largest experts in these fields of science have come to the conclusion that Neither consciousness itself nor its altered forms depend in any way on the activity of the brain. The brain in this case is just a repeater (antenna), and not a signal source.

It is quite obvious that while in another reality called sleep, our consciousness maintains contact with the body, sending it certain signals. These signals are picked up by the brain like an antenna, and it is they that are recorded by scientists during his scientific research. The problem is that all these studies are focused only on brain - antenna, and not on the source of signals - Consciousness (You can read more about this). Scientists study and record only the external manifestations of the phenomenon, not even trying to look deeper and understand its hidden essence. Therefore, all the successes of the science of somnology in studying the nature of sleep do not explain anything at all. With such a simplified, one-sided approach, it is not at all surprising.

“But there is also such a science as neuropsychology, which studies the connection between the work of the brain and the psyche, the brain and human behavior. Maybe she is already close to unraveling the nature of sleep and consciousness?

- Yes, there is such a science, and many discoveries have also been made in its field. But only she did not succeed in the study of the nature of sleep and human consciousness.

This science is necessary, but when it tries to pretend to understand the most complex transdental processes, it looks absolutely ridiculous. Let us take for clarity a simple metaphor that reflects such unsuccessful intellectual attempts of scientists studying these phenomena.

Imagine that waves wash a boat on the shore of an island inhabited by wild Papuans, in which they find a radio and a flashlight. Delighted and surprised by an incomprehensible find, the Papuans immediately call their most intelligent fellow tribesmen to explain what these things are and what can be done with them. After some time, one group of Papuan "scientists" makes the first discovery: without round shiny sticks (batteries), neither the receiver nor the flashlight work. General rejoicing on the occasion of this scientific discovery! The second group of "scientists" makes another statement: if you turn the wheel on the receiver, then quiet and loud voices of ... different spirits will be heard from it! Again jubilation…. Then a whole "scientific institute" of the Papuans finds out that the light in the flashlight is on only if you press the button, and if you do not press it, then it does not light up. In the end, the wisest and greatest Papuan scientist makes a sensational statement: “He who shines without fire (a flashlight) cannot breathe under water! If you put him in water, he dies!” Solemn presentation of the "Golden Banana" for an outstanding discovery!

As a result of all these "achievements", the Papuan "scientists" begin to feel themselves experts in the secrets of the Universe. Yes, but there is one catch... If you ask them what sound is, where its source is and how it is transmitted, then they will not be able to answer you .... The same thing happens if we ask about the nature of the light in a flashlight. They, just like modern scientists, will explain to you with a smart look about how to turn the wheel and why the flashlight does not want to shine under water. Not understanding the essence and not realizing the naivety of their discoveries.

— It is regrettable to realize that in the study of sleep we are the same Papuans, but it is very likely that this is the case ....

- Exactly. The situation is similar, by the way, with the successes in the fight against mental illness. The nature (etiology) of most of them is still not clear. For example, schizophrenia. The treatment of this disease, which is (often relatively successfully) used in psychiatry, is similar to how the Papuan "scientists" intelligently shake a broken receiver when the signal disappears: suddenly it's lucky that after a good shake it will speak again (if the contacts accidentally connect) …. but you might not be lucky. Over time, the Papuans become more experienced and shake more successfully, but this cannot fundamentally change the situation - they do not understand the nature of the signal and the role of contacts!

Similarly, our scientists do not understand the spiritual basis of human nature. And this situation has developed in many sciences. In almost every branch of it, some scientists behave in much the same way as those Papuans. In pursuit of the next “important” discovery for humanity and the prize that is due to it, they act like savages shaking the receiver. Moreover, just like the Papuans, they are in full confidence about their greatest practical achievements, without knowing anything in essence. And this, as they say, would be funny if it were not so sad.

“But why do scientists not take into account this interdependence between the effect and the cause?

– Because for this it is necessary to be able to see not only our material three-dimensional world, but also to understand the influence of another – much more complex, multidimensional world – the spiritual one. Only the spiritual world can give us answers to the questions: what is consciousness, soul, life, death, eternity, and many others.

People for knowledge of the world order thousands of years ago inherited a huge spiritual experience of our ancestors. And, besides, the Christian Commandments and the Holy Scripture - the Bible - were left for eternal use to the descendants; and then also an explanation to it - the Tradition of the Church.

If all scientists worked taking into account the knowledge acquired in these spiritual treasuries, based on the rules prescribed in them, understanding the basics of human existence, and only with such spiritual baggage they undertook serious research, then their results would look completely different. Under such conditions, it would be much more useful and meaningful in their scientific research and discoveries.

It must be said that among scientists there are also people who think deeply in this regard, who are aware of the complexity of comprehending the nature of man, as a part of the universe created by God. Such scientists do not limit themselves in their efforts to comprehend this nature by studying the physiological functions of man and do not renounce the experience and wisdom of religion.

– Yes, if you don’t understand the fundamentals of the universe, then the study of the nature of sleep will remain at the level of “bare” physiology alone... And the human brain, as you say, is not just an organ of the body, but something like an antenna for tuning to the desired reality ?

“To put it figuratively, it is. A radio receiver without an antenna does not work, and if brain functions are impaired, then communication is also disrupted - the signal does not pass as expected. And what is very interesting: this property of it is confirmed by those phenomena that occur in altered states of consciousness! Let's, for example, remember how sometimes we wake up and cannot understand: are we still or already awake in a dream? This can happen to us when “a wave in our receiver is knocked down” - if it has not yet had time to reconfigure from sleep to wakefulness. Very often this happens in young children - after waking up, they can “reconfigure” for quite a long time after vivid and interesting dreams to this reality.

Moreover, the emotions that we experience in a dream persist for some time in reality: if something good is dreamed, then after waking up we experience joy (it is even very annoying that this happened in a dream), and if some kind of horror is dreamed, then and the emotions with which we wake up will be appropriate.

Again, children perceive the Other Reality more sharply and clearly. When they dream of something terrible, from which they run away in a dream, it happens that their legs “run” in bed (many have probably seen the same movements not only in children, but also in sleeping cats and dogs). What explains this? The danger signal in a dream triggers the same physiological mechanisms that are triggered in such a situation in reality. In extreme cases, a child who has a very scary dream may even begin to stutter! And, of course, everyone knows about cases of nocturnal enuresis.

As for adults, they sometimes have such a disease as "Pickwick's syndrome", one of the main symptoms of which is poor orientation between realities, not only after waking up, but also during sleep. This disease is still incurable, and, unfortunately, it is no longer as rare today as it was in the old days. If such a patient dreams that he is fishing, then in a dream he will, as it were, “hold a fishing rod”, and if he dreams that he is eating, then he will reproduce the corresponding movements. “After waking up, such a“ fisherman ”is not able to immediately figure out where the magnificent pond overflowing with carps has gone. And the “diner” wonders why all the dishes were taken away so quickly, because he has not yet been satisfied.(According to the book "Sleep Disorder. Treatment and Prevention" compiled by Rashevskaya K., "Phoenix", 2003)

This is nothing but "wandering" between the Realities and gradually attuning to one of them. A similar mechanism of "delayed reconfiguration" can be observed in patients with somnambulism (sleepwalking). Somnambulism translated from Latin: Somnus - sleep and ambulare - to walk, walk, wander. This is a form of pronounced sleep disorder when a person gets out of bed and unconsciously moves, as they say: "in a twilight state of consciousness." Somnambulism occurs if the inhibition of the central nervous system during sleep does not extend to the areas of the brain that determine motor functions. An example of incomplete, shallow inhibition is when a sleeping person talks in his sleep, sits up in bed. Episodes of somnambulism usually begin 1-1.5 hours after falling asleep during "slow" (shallow) sleep or during incomplete awakening from REM (deep sleep); while the brain is in a state of half-sleep-half-wakefulness. In other words, a person in this state is, as it were, between two realities, because his brain cannot normally tune in to either of them.

- And what happens in this regard with mentally ill people or, for example, with alcoholics?

— Violation and distortion of signal transmission. If we take the analogy with the receiver again, then outside of tuning it to a certain wave, only whistling and hissing will be heard from it, occasionally replaced by obscure signals from neighboring stations in the range. There will be no clear signal. The same thing happens in people with a damaged psyche. Many objectively thinking experts believe that incorrect relaying of brain signals manifests itself in a person in a distorted, painful consciousness.

- What happens? If after death the brain does not function, then it becomes impossible to “reconfigure” from one reality to another?

— Of course. Now we come close to the topic of death. Based on all of the above, we can conclude that after death, the "reconfiguration" of realities will no longer be possible. Our "antenna" - the brain ceases to function along with the death of the body, and therefore the Consciousness remains forever in the Other Reality.

“And so after death we will never be able to return to our reality, as it always happened after awakenings?”

What is "our" reality? We agreed to consider this reality as “ours” conditionally only because we stay in it longer and return to it after every dream throughout our lives. But, based on this basis, then, as we have already discussed, for a very tiny baby, just another reality will be “its own”, because he sleeps almost constantly (by the way, science cannot explain why babies sleep so much). And for an alcoholic, “his” reality will also not coincide with ours. Because he is most often in an alcoholic dope, which means that he is on a wave that is very far from the wave of sober and awake people.

From all that has been said, it can be concluded that death is such a change in the state of consciousness, at which it is no longer able to function in the same way as it functioned during the life of the body. It can no longer pass from another reality to this one, as it did after sleep.

I will quote the words of Archbishop Luke Voyno-Yasenetsky (St. Luke). In his book Spirit, Soul and Body, he wrote: “The life of all the organs of the body is needed only for the formation of the spirit and stops when its formation is completed or its direction is fully determined.”

This quote is very accurate and, in my opinion, explains a lot.

“Still, how scary it must be for a person who cannot wake up ...

- When we sleep, we rarely think about the possibility or impossibility of waking up. Moreover, if we have a wonderful, marvelous dream, then we don’t want to wake up at all. How many times did we get up with irritation at the sound of the alarm clock! Do you know where the irritation comes from? We just felt good in that reality, where this annoying alarm clock pulled us out of! And vice versa - we wake up in horror if we had a nightmare, and we think: "It's good that it was only a dream!". So awakenings, like dreams, are very different.

The same applies to our final, posthumous transition to another reality. Leo Tolstoy wrote: “It is not because people are horrified at the thought of carnal death that they are afraid that their life would not end with it, but because carnal death clearly shows them the need for true life, which they do not have.”

All of us would not refuse to stay forever in a beautiful, marvelous, wonderful reality, but we would not at all want to be in a terrible dream, without the possibility of awakening.

“Very similar to the biblical description of hell and heaven!” So it can be said that heaven and hell are only different states of the soul?

This is what the Church has been teaching for centuries. Here you can draw an analogy with sleep, when sweet, calm, good dreams give us a state of bliss, and nightmares torment and torment. But which of these states we fall into after death depends only on ourselves!

- After your words, I remembered the expression "I fell asleep forever." To what extent is it true?

- First of all, we need to figure out - WHERE the dream actually is. In the history of mankind, all the world's traditional religions have always considered the state of sleep (Another Reality) to be very important and true, and reality (This Reality) to be much less significant. And until now, all the major religions of the world look at earthly life as a temporary stage, and consider this reality to be much less important than the one into which we pass after death. If there is no time in the Other Reality, but there is Eternal Life, then it is much more logical to call our temporary stay in This Reality a dream. After all, unlike eternity, it is limited by strength to only a few decades.

— But, if compared to eternity our life is like a short dream, then, probably, our well-being and well-being in the Other reality will depend on how we live it?

- Of course! You have probably seen from your own experience that very often in a dream we live what worries us. If, for example, our child falls ill, then the dream will be disturbing, with worries about this sick child, and if your wedding is approaching, then the dream will be associated with this joyful event. This happens very often. Sleep in such cases is a continuation of life in reality. We dream about what excites and cares us, or what causes the strongest feelings and emotions.

Saint Simeon the New Theologian wrote: “What the soul is busy with and what it talks about in reality, it dreams or philosophizes in a dream: it spends the whole day worrying about human affairs, and it fusses about them in dreams; but if she learns all the time in things divine and celestial, then even during sleep she enters into them and manages to see visions.

Consequently, the scenarios of our dreams most often directly depend on real life. The conclusion suggests itself: “eternal sleep” (which is actually eternal life) also directly depends on how we live our temporary life in this reality. After all, we carry with us everything that has accumulated in our souls into the Other Reality.

“It seems that Christianity is talking about the same thing, isn’t it?”

Yes, Christianity has been talking about this for more than two thousand years. How will we live this life, how will we enrich our immortal soul, or how will we stain it; how we fight with passions, unproductive desires, or how we learn mercy, love - all that we will take with us. So it is said not only in Christianity, but also in Islam, and, to some extent, in Buddhism, and in other religions.

Here are some quotes from the Holy Gospel:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mat. 6:19-20).

“Do not love the world, nor what is in the world: whoever loves the world does not have the love of the Father in him. For everything that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but from this world. And the world is passing away, and its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15-17).

And the Holy Quran in Islam teaches the same:

“Know that worldly life is only fun, vanity and vanity, bragging among you, and passion in increasing wealth and children. Like rain, that shoots will grow for the joy of the sowers (sinners), then [the plants] will wither, and you see how they turn yellow and turn into dust. And in the next life, a severe punishment is prepared, and [those who believe] - forgiveness from Allah, and goodwill. After all, life in this world is only a seduction of transitory blessings. (Sura Al Hadid, 57:20)

Think about it, why do we need wealth or fame, if all these values ​​are temporary and have no meaning for eternal life? If you lose all this, how do you lose all the joys you dreamed about? To wake up later in eternal life with an empty soul of an egoist - a consumer, and a bitter, dreary disappointment?

The Church has been preparing human souls for the new Reality with all its commandments since ancient times. The Church constantly calls on its parishioners to take care of their immortal soul, and not about the temporary and transient.

So that death does not become a terrible disappointment for us, but becomes an awakening to the joy of eternal life. And so that this eternal life turns out to be a reward, not suffering. But, in spite of everything, we do not always listen to the wise voice of the Church and continue in our earthly temporary "sleep" to spend all our strength on the acquisition of illusory benefits and pleasures. These earthly pleasures will dissipate after a while, like empty fascinating dreams, and there will be nothing to go to another world with. After all, our souls can take only spiritual values ​​there and take absolutely nothing from the material and sensual.

- What will manifest such a "terrible disappointment"? Will it be the torments of the hell described in the Bible?

“The torments of hell are mental torments, not physical ones. Bible texts about material and de, are an attempt to describe it with the help of human-readable illustrations from material his life. The physical pain of fire is given in the Bible as a metaphor illustrating mental anguish. Only in such an allegorical way could it be possible to convey mental anguish to people who had forgotten about the existence of an immortal soul. non-material hell - hell for a sinful soul.

Archbishop Luke Voyno-Yasenetsky (St. Luke) wrote: “The eternal bliss of the righteous and the eternal torment of sinners must be understood in such a way that the immortal spirit of the former, enlightened and powerfully strengthened after liberation from the body, receives the possibility of infinite development in the direction of goodness and Divine love, in constant communion with God and all incorporeal forces. And the gloomy spirit of villains and theomachists, in constant communion with the devil and his angels, will forever be tormented by his estrangement from God, whose holiness he will finally know, and by that unbearable poison that evil and hatred conceal in themselves, infinitely growing in unceasing communion with the center and source of evil. - Satan.

Each of us has experienced some kind of horror in a dream. So here it is: hell is a nightmare from which one cannot wake up. This is the eternal "outer darkness" - remoteness from God, from his Love and Light - one on one with all your sins and passions.

Hell is darkness and horror without end. It is in such an endless horror that one can “wake up” if one does not follow the commandments and destroy one’s soul in all ways.

- Yes, a rather bleak picture .... Horror without end and you do not wish the enemy. Moreover, you will not wake up from such a nightmare. But let's continue our conversation about dreams. Is there any evidence that the Dream is another reality? And that we need periodic transitions to this reality for some reason?

- The evidence of the existence of another reality can be at least the facts of prophetic dreams. Thanks to such dreams, the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and hundreds of other miraculous icons were found at one time. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, far from home, while spending the night in the forest, the Holy Great Martyr Catherine appeared in a dream and announced the birth of his daughter. Later, the Catherine's Monastery was founded on this site (now this monastery is located in the Moscow region, in the region of the city of Vidnoye).

In the book of Alexander Yakovlev "The Age of Philaret" there is a story about a prophetic dream that St. Philaret of Moscow had a dream about shortly before his death. Here is a short excerpt from this book:

“... He was now calmly thinking about his departure. Two days earlier, at night in a dream, his father came to Filaret. At the first moment, seeing a bright figure and clearly distinguishable facial features, the saint did not recognize him. And suddenly an understanding came from the depths of my heart: this is a father! How long, how soon the visit was, Filaret could not understand, captured by the unusually pacifying peace emanating from the priest. “Take care of the 19th,” was all he said.”

The saint understood that the father had come to warn that his earthly journey would end on the 19th in the coming months... For two months on the nineteenth, Metropolitan Philaret took communion of the Holy Mysteries and departed to God right after communion on November 19, 1867.

Visions and predictions at the moment of "thin" (shallow) sleep were with St. Sergius of Radonezh, St. Seraphim of Sarov and many other saints.

And not only the saints. The mother of the Decembrist Ryleev prayed for him in childhood from death during a serious illness, although she was predicted in a dream that if the boy did not die, then he would face a difficult fate and execution by hanging. That's exactly how it all happened.

In February 2003, Vladyka Anthony of Surozhsky, who was ill with cancer, dreamed of his grandmother and, turning over the calendar, indicated the date: August 4th. Vladyka, contrary to the optimism of the attending physician, said that this was the day of his death. Which came true.

How can such phenomena be explained if not by the merging of two realities?

But the existence of another reality can also be judged by other phenomena not yet unraveled by science. These include a lethargic dream, which everyone has probably heard of. Word lethargy translated from Greek means oblivion and inaction (Greek "lethe" - oblivion and "argia" - inaction). There are many theories about the reasons why people fall into a lethargic sleep, but so far no one knows exactly why a person suddenly falls asleep for a period of several days to several years. Nor is it possible to predict when awakening will come. Externally, the state of lethargy really resembles a deep sleep. But the "sleeper" is almost impossible to wake up, he does not respond to calls, touches and other external stimuli. However, breathing is clearly visible and the pulse is easily felt: smooth, rhythmic, sometimes a little slow. Blood pressure is normal or slightly low. Skin color is normal, unchanged.

Only in exceptionally rare cases, people who have fallen asleep with a lethargic sleep experience a sharp decrease in blood pressure, the pulse is barely detectable, breathing becomes shallow, and the skin cold and pale. One can only guess about what happens to the consciousness of a person who has fallen asleep in such a dream.

Another phenomenon of this kind is the prolonged sleep of newborns. After birth, babies sleep almost around the clock, which means they stay in Another Reality for a long time. Why? Why do they need to contact her? They are not tired, because they still do not walk, do not run, do not play, but only lie down and practically do not spend energy. What do they receive from the Other Reality during this dream? Information, strength for growth? Again, we have no answer, but the conclusion, nevertheless, is unambiguous: this state is very necessary for them.

The need for periodic stay in Another reality can be traced on the example of such a phenomenon as sleep deprivation. This term refers to an acute lack or complete lack of satisfaction of the need for sleep. This condition most often arises from a sleep disorder, but can also be the result of a conscious choice of a person or the consequences of forced sleep deprivation during torture and interrogation.

Sleep deprivation can cause many diseases and has a very negative impact on the functioning of the brain. Among the many painful consequences for the body, lack of sleep can lead to the following manifestations: a decrease in the ability to concentrate and think, loss of personality and reality, fainting, general confusion, hallucinations. The consequences of prolonged sleep restriction can even lead to death.

From all these examples it is clear that a change in the state of consciousness with its transition to another reality is really vital for us.

“Does that mean that both sleeping and dead people fall into the same reality?” If so, is it possible, perhaps, in a dream to communicate with those who have left?

- Many people want to meet their deceased loved ones in a dream. This is a very understandable desire: to see and talk with your loved one again. There are simple dreams that realize this unrealizable desire in reality at the subconscious level. But there are also real meetings in Another reality, in which the deceased can tell the sleeping person something important - these are prophetic dreams, which we have already talked about. In the reality of sleep, communication between our two worlds is possible, and such phenomena, as we have said today, often happened to the Holy Fathers. But in most cases, such communication does not bring joy to ordinary people, but on the contrary, it only harms them. Because people who have lost a loved one want him to come to them in a dream again and again. And if this happens, then they become dependent on these meetings in a dream, while moving away from their lives. It becomes easier and happier for them to live in another reality, and they themselves do not notice how their whole life, all their plans and relationships with people are collapsing. But the worst thing is that in the guise of a loved one in a dream, dark entities can come to us, attracted by our dark energy of despair.

My advice to everyone: you should never call a departed loved one into your dreams. God willing - he will dream himself. Much more important is a prayer for the repose of his soul and being with God, and not life in communion with an unknown entity that has taken the form of your deceased.

- But, if people want to see a loved one in a dream, because they didn’t have time to say something to him during his lifetime or want to ask him for forgiveness ...

“It is important to understand here that the deceased is already in another reality, where there is no place for earthly insults. Therefore, he has already forgiven you for sure. And you, of course, must forgive him. For any Orthodox Christian, forgiveness is a duty not only in relation to the deceased, but to all people in general. If you go to confession and want God to forgive you your sins, then you must forgive any person. And you don't have to tell him personally. After all, it happens with the living that a person leaves for no one knows where, leaving neither a phone number nor an address. We don’t know where he is, but we don’t rush around in a desperate search all over the world just to ask him for forgiveness or say something unsaid ... It’s the same with the dead - it’s not at all necessary and even harmful to disturb their souls, calling dream to say something to them in the end.

- So you can’t do practices related to sleep? What does it threaten?

- Now this theme is in vogue. Although there have always been and will be occultists who practice out-of-body experiments. It really can be learned. But just for what? Remember: a dream is a gateway to another world, another reality. Even in our world, there is a danger of unwanted meetings: you can leave the house and meet good friends, or you can run into evil and dangerous bandits. We do not let three-year-old children who are not only helpless, but also do not know how to distinguish a good uncle from a bad uncle, alone on the street. Because we know about the likelihood that something terrible could happen to him. Although the kid himself may naively believe that every passerby is kind and good.

Calculating the probability of an undesirable and dangerous situation is logical for any adult and mentally adequate person. But it is only in the physical plane that we can be adults and reasonable, but in the spiritual plane, we are all at the level of three-year-old kids. Such curious "kids" strive to go to the unknown and dangerous spiritual Other World in order to get to know and communicate with everyone there. And it could end very badly.

Everyone knows that in history there were Holy Fathers who could go out into the Other World without fear. But only unlike many ordinary people in this regard, they were much more mature spiritually - they were there "adults". Therefore, they had the gift of reasoning about what world they got into and with whom it was possible to communicate in it, and with whom it was impossible.

The rest of the naive "researchers" who learn all this or call spirits for conversations are like youngsters who open wide open windows and doors to everyone. Then, naturally, various vile entities break into all these “windows and doors” and begin to manage in full. And it is not in vain that the Church has always called and calls: do not engage in practices of communication with otherworldly forces! Do not rush to "walk" in the Other World, where, as here, in addition to good, there is also evil. Spiritually immature people are unable to distinguish one from the other. You can be deceived: they give you an attractive "candy", for which you will later have to pay the most priceless - the soul. They can, like a child, be taken away forever, or simply even scared so that later on all your life you will simply be afraid to fall asleep, and not that “walking” in another reality.

So do not trust people who offer you to master any practice of communication with the other world, be reasonable - such "entertainment" is completely unsafe.

- I heard that special prayer services are held in monasteries, which are called "midnight". Why at night? Maybe because the night prayer is more effective? After all, they say that in a state of half-asleep, when a person is already almost falling asleep, he feels the world more subtly, and that at such moments revelations can come to him. This is true?

— Yes, that's what all the major religions of the world think. We already talked about revelations when I gave examples with prophetic dreams. A person sees the majority of prophetic dreams precisely at those moments when he is in a state of half sleep and is already approaching another reality with his consciousness. As for night prayers, I can say that many Fathers of the Church called night prayer the most powerful, and spoke of it as “night standing before God.”

Saint Isaac the Syrian wrote about the night prayer: “At night, the mind soars for a short time as if on wings and ascends to the delight of God, it will soon come to His glory and, due to its mobility and lightness, floats in knowledge that exceeds human thought ... Spiritual light from night prayer gives rise to joy during the day.”

In Islam, as well as in Orthodoxy, special attention is paid to night prayers. In the month of fasting, believers perform an additional prayer at night. And at ordinary times, in addition to the obligatory night prayer, which is performed before going to bed, there is an additional Tahajjud prayer, which is recommended to be performed in the last third of the night. That is, a person must sleep for a while, and only after that get up to communicate with the Almighty. In a reliable tradition it is written about this: “Every night the Lord descends into the lower heaven after the first third of the night. He exclaims: “I am the Lord! Is there anyone who calls [to Me]? I will answer him. Is there anyone who asks me? I will give it to him. Is there a penitent so that I can forgive him?

Perhaps the special power of these nightly prayers is connected precisely with the fact that a person performs them in a state when the mind is practically turned off, and the gates to another world open before him. During night prayers, a person communicates with God on a deeper, unconscious level.

— It turns out that prayer also brings us closer to the Other Reality?

“That's right, and it's even being proven by some of the latest brain research.

Not so long ago, a group of scientists from the St. Petersburg Psychoneurological Research Institute. V. M. Bekhtereva set up an experiment on the influence of prayer on the biocurrents of the brain. For this, believers of various concessions were invited. They were asked to pray fervently, and during the prayers, an electroencephalogram was taken from them. The head of the laboratory of neuro- and psychophysiology of this institute, Professor Valery Slezin, speaks of the state of prayer as a new phase of the working brain. " In this state, the brain actually turns off, "active mental activity stops, and it seems to me - although I cannot prove it yet - that consciousness begins to exist outside the body", he says.

The world famous physician, Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine for his work on vascular suture and transplantation of blood vessels and organs, Dr. Alexis Carrel said:

“Prayer is the most powerful form of energy emitted by a person. It is as real a force as the earth's gravity. As a doctor, I have seen patients who were not helped by any therapeutic treatment. They managed to recover from diseases and melancholy only thanks to the calming effect of prayer ... When we pray, we connect ourselves with the inexhaustible life force that sets the entire Universe in motion. We pray that at least some of this power will be transferred to us. Turning to God in sincere prayer, we improve and heal our soul and body. It is impossible that at least one moment of prayer does not bring a positive result to any man or woman.

Remember, at the beginning of our conversation, I spoke about babies who, after birth, spend most of their time in a dream - in another reality? It turns out that small children and praying people are closest to God.

“Tell me, is it possible to believe in dreams?” What does the Church say about dreams? After all, there are prophetic dreams, how to distinguish them from ordinary ones?

God Himself admonishes people through Moses "not to guess by dreams" (Lev. 19:26): “Reckless people,” says Sirach, “deceive themselves with empty and false hopes: whoever believes in dreams is like one who hugs a shadow or chases after the wind; dreaming is exactly the same as the reflection of a face in a mirror ”(34, 1-3).

The Scriptures say about them that: "... dreams come with many worries" (Eccl. 5:2) and what: “In the multitude of dreams, as in the multitude of words, there is much vanity” (Ecclesiastes 5:6). This is what applies to ordinary dreams.

But in Scripture there are also teachings that God sometimes tells a person through a dream His will or a warning about future events.

Saint Theophan the Recluse writes: “Historically, it is confirmed that there are dreams from God, there are our own, there are from the enemy. How to find out - do not apply your mind. Peephole lookout. It can only be decisively said that dreams that are contrary to Orthodox Christianity should be rejected. Also: there is no sin not to follow dreams when there is not enough confidence. God's dreams, which must be fulfilled, were repeatedly sent.

Sleep, death, prayer... how it's all connected!

- Yes, there is such a connection, we have already seen this in the many examples given here.

It is also interesting that in Islam sleep is called a small death. The Prophet Muhammad greeted his companions, who woke up from sleep in the morning: "Indeed, the Most High took your souls when He willed, and returned them when He willed."

Agree that such a religious judgment is in close proximity to the concept of sleep, as a short stay of the soul in another reality.

As you can see, the main traditional religions since ancient times have been closer to understanding the nature of death and the foundations of the universe than the entire modern scientific world. Not only do most people remain ignorant on this issue all their lives and die in complete ignorance of what awaits them after death, but the media also do their bit - they “catch up with fog” with false information.

Well-known psychotherapist, doctor of medical sciences, professor, head of the department of psychotherapy of the Kharkov Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education T. I. Akhmedov spoke well about this: “The media, instead of using their enormous educational potential to disseminate useful information about death and dying, contribute to the dissemination of misconceptions about these phenomena…”.

“So what is death?” Where do dead people go?

Let's now sum up all of the above. We have already found out that during our life we ​​are alternately in two parallel realities: in This and in Another. Sleep is a special state of our consciousness that temporarily takes us to another reality. When we wake up from sleep, we return to this reality every time. And only after death we pass into Another reality forever.

Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) spoke about death: “Death is a great mystery, the birth of a person from earthly life into eternity”.

As I said above, many scientists have already come to this opinion. But if we consider the issue much deeper than science does, and be guided by the Bible, comprehending the secrets of the universe, then the following can be said about life and death: our life in the body is like a short, at best, lasting several decades, sleep. But, besides the body, we all have an immortal soul given to us by God. So, from the point of view of Orthodoxy, for the body, death is an “eternal sleep”, and for the soul, it is awakening in another world(in another reality). Therefore, the deceased person is called deceased that his body fell asleep, i.e. rested, ceasing to function without the soul that left him.

It must be said here that the concept "eternal sleep" somewhat metaphorical, because the sleep of the body will last only until the Last Judgment, when people are resurrected for eternal life. The soul after death remains either with God or without God - it depends on how a person lived his life and how he managed to enrich his soul: goodness and light or sins and darkness. In this regard, prayers are of great importance for the soul of the deceased. For a person who has died in sins and is far from God, forgiveness can often be begged if you pray for him with a loving heart, because God is Love.

Death is not "nothing" - not emptiness and oblivion, but only a transition to another reality and the awakening of the immortal soul into eternal life. The phenomenon of death should be perceived only as the completion of bodily life and, at the same time, as the beginning of a new state of the human personality, which continues to exist separately from the body.

The question "What is death?" worries more than one generation, which is absolutely understandable - a person is born, lives and ... leaves. Where? What for? Why? Believers of various faiths have an ambiguous attitude to this issue, but the fact that after the end of earthly life a new life begins is a fact that modern scientists do not completely reject.

Everyone is interested in what death is, because sooner or later we will all die, which means it is pointless to be afraid of this, because while we are alive, we live, and when this “lady with a scythe” gets close to us, we will already be dead.

Why are people afraid of death?

Death, an unexplored phenomenon, it bears the imprint of mysticism and mystery. The inevitability, unpredictability and unexpectedness, and sometimes insignificant reasons that take a person’s life, take the concept of death far beyond the boundaries of human perception, turning this physiological process into a divine punishment for our sins, or they are a gift from God, as a reward for a worthy life, and portends eternal life.

What is death and why do people fear this phenomenon?

• An Orthodox person accepts death as a natural phenomenon. As long as he has the opportunity to be saved, the Lord will grant him this opportunity. We are born only by the will of God and die when we most do not expect it. That is why the Orthodox do not think about what death is. It is important to be ready for this event and live your new day as if it were your last - only then life becomes meaningful;
• Science believes that death is the cessation or suspension of vital processes in the body. A person lives - all organs and systems function, a person has grown old, cells, organs, etc. have worn out - it's time to find out what physiological death is ... Death due to illness is also understandable. Nevertheless, despite such an explanation, it is scientists who distinguish several types of death: clinical, when a return to life is still possible, the death of individual organs, the brain ...
• Philosophy sees death as the end of life. Birth is opposed to death. Everything is much simpler here, death is explained as a natural process of transition from one state to another - from inanimate to living.

Is everything so simple?

Of course, there is nothing in the world that would happen just like that - meaningless, in itself. Any blade of grass sprouts from a grain, a house from bricks, a person from a cell, etc. What is death really? Is it a normal physiological process? If everything on Earth were so simple and understandable, such questions would not bother us. Many scientists, theologians, philosophers and simply wise people know that death is the moment at which a person ceases to exist. That is why even in relation to the living one can hear bitter words: "This person is dead for me."

Death is a transition to a new life, a life unknown and unknown. If we follow the logic that we always get what we deserve, and life really places its accents and stresses in its own way. In search of an answer to the question: "What is death?" it is important to think about how we live now, what we think about, whether we care about our future, which definitely awaits all of us ... And most importantly: do not die for others, being alive.

Having opened the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, we read: “Death is the cessation of the life of an organism and, as a result, the death of an individual as a separate living system. In a broader sense, it is an irreversible cessation of metabolism in a living substance, accompanied by the decomposition of protein bodies. It would seem, what else?

Between life and death

No one can accurately define the line between where life ends and death begins. After all, death is a process, and a slow one at that. Once upon a time, cardiac arrest was considered death, today, as you know, a person is definitely considered dead in the event of brain death. And the brain can die long before the body stops breathing. But what then must die in the brain? Trunk. It is he who is the most ancient part of the “second Universe”, which is also called the “reptile brain”, the very one that millions of years ago made up the entire brain of our ancestors - it is the core of our brain.

Over the course of evolution, the trunk has found itself inside more complex structures, but it is still the basis of life. It controls the basic functions of our body: heartbeat, respiration, blood pressure, body temperature ... Therefore, when the brain stem dies, doctors can be sure that the patient has at least clinical death.

Statistics say that most people die from old age and from diseases associated with it, such as cancer and stroke. However, "number one killers" are heart disease, the worst of which is a heart attack. They kill about a quarter of the population of the Western world.

You will be completely dead.

Doctors say that there is a state when a person is "mostly dead", and sometimes - when "completely dead." Today, science knows that during cardiac arrest, organs and tissues can remain in a so-called pseudo-dead state for at least several hours. And since death, as it should be for an old woman, walks slowly, the moment of its onset, with skillful and, most importantly, prompt medical assistance, can often be suspended and a person revived.

One of the most effective means of recovery, oddly enough, is hypothermia - freezing. True, temporary. Doctors are still puzzled over why hypothermia is so effective. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that at very low temperatures, cells stop dividing (the limit of cell division is 50 times), and vital activity in them is greatly inhibited. They need less supply of nutrients and oxygen, and the removal of harmful metabolic products.

German scientist Klaus Sames decided to freeze his body after death. According to an agreement signed between the 75-year-old scientist and the Institute of Cryonics, the body of the scientist will be in the institute's vaults until people learn how to revive "frozen" cells.

For whom the bell tolls

Two hundred years ago, people asked in their will before their funeral... to cut off their heads. At times, the fear of being buried alive took on the character of mass hysteria.

She became the reason for the emergence of the so-called mortuary waiting, the houses of the dead. When people doubted that their loved one was really dead, they left his body in such a mortuary and waited until the corpse began to decompose. The decomposition process was the only reliable method to determine that a person was dead. A rope was tied to the finger of such a "doubtful" dead man, the end of which went into another room, where a bell hung and a man sat. Sometimes the bell rang. But it was a false alarm caused by the displacement of bones in a decaying body. For all the years of the existence of the deceased waiting, not a single person came to life.

"Premature burial". Antoine Wirtz, 1854

It is believed that, having lost the flow of oxygen from the blood, neurons die within minutes. At such supercritical moments, the brain can only remain active in those areas that are absolutely essential for survival.

Alive or dead: how to determine?

But there were faster ways to make sure if a person was dead. Some of them, oddly enough, are still relevant today. Sometimes they are used by many doctors. These methods cannot be called cunning: to disturb the cough centers in the lungs; conduct a test for the "symptom of puppet eyes", which consists in the fact that a person is injected with cold water into the ear: if a person is alive, his eyeballs will react reflexively; well, and absolutely antediluvian - stick a pin under the nail (or just put pressure on it), place the insect in the ear, scream loudly, cut the foot with a razor blade ...

Anything to get some sort of reaction. If it is not there, then even a beating heart indicates that the person is dead. From a legal point of view, it is a so-called corpse with a beating heart (in this case, the heart can beat on its own, or be supported by the apparatus). "Living corpses" often serve as organ donors for the truly living.

Our body cells die throughout our lives. They begin to die even when we are in the womb. Cells are programmed to die at birth. Death allows new cells to be born and live.

Neither alive nor dead

But those people are also considered dead whose brain is still alive, but they themselves are in a steady state of coma. This question is ambiguous, and legislative disputes do not subside in relation to it to this day. On the one hand, relatives have the right to decide whether to disconnect such a person from devices that support the vital activity of the body, and on the other hand, people who are in a long coma, rarely, but still open their eyes ...

That is why the new definition of death includes not only the death of the brain, but also its behavior, even if the brain is still alive. After all, a personality is nothing but a certain “set” of feelings, memories, experiences that are peculiar only to this particular person. And when he loses this “set”, and there is no way to return it, the person is considered dead. It doesn’t matter if his heart is beating, if his organs are working - it matters if he has at least something left in his head.

Dying is not scary

One of the largest and most widely recognized studies of post-mortem experiences was also conducted back in the 1960s of the last century. It was led by the American psychologist Karlis Osis. The study was based on the observations of attending physicians and nurses caring for the dying. His conclusions are based on the experience of 35,540 observations of the dying process.

The authors of the study stated that most of the dying did not experience fear. More often there was a feeling of discomfort, pain or indifference. Approximately one in 20 people showed signs of elation.

Some studies show that older people experience less anxiety at the thought of death than relatively young people. A survey of a large group of elderly people showed that the question "Are you afraid to die?" only 10% of them answered yes. It is noted that old people think about death often, but with amazing calmness.

What will we see before we die?

Osis and his colleagues paid special attention to the visions and hallucinations of the dying. At the same time, it was emphasized that these were “special” hallucinations. All of them are in the nature of visions experienced by people who are conscious and clearly understand what is happening. At the same time, the work of the brain was not distorted by either sedatives or high body temperature. However, immediately before death, most of the people were already losing consciousness, although an hour before death, about 10% of the dying were still clearly aware of the world around them.

The main conclusions of the researchers were that the visions of the dying often corresponded to traditional religious concepts - people saw paradise, heaven, angels. Other visions were devoid of such subtext, but were also associated with beautiful images: beautiful landscapes, rare bright birds, etc. But most often, in their posthumous visions, people saw their previously deceased relatives, who often offered to help the transition of the dying person to another world.

Most interesting of all: the study showed that the nature of all these visions relatively weakly depends on the physiological, cultural and personal characteristics, the type of disease, the level of education and religiosity of a person. Similar conclusions were reached by the authors of other works, who observed people who survived clinical death. They also noted that descriptions of the visions of people who came back to life are not related to cultural characteristics and often do not agree with the ideas about death accepted in a given society.

However, such a circumstance would probably be easily explained by the followers of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. It was this researcher who always paid special attention to the "collective unconscious" of humanity. The essence of his teaching can be very roughly reduced to the fact that we all, at a deep level, are the guardians of the universal human experience, which is the same for everyone, which can neither be changed nor realized. It can "break" into our "I" only through dreams, neurotic symptoms and hallucinations. Therefore, it is possible that the phylogenetic experience of experiencing the end is really "hidden" deep in our psyche, and these experiences are the same for everyone.

Interestingly, textbooks of psychology (for example, the famous work of Arthur Rean "The Psychology of Man from Birth to Death") often refer to the fact that the events experienced by the dying coincide strikingly with those described in ancient esoteric sources. At the same time, it is emphasized that the sources themselves were completely unknown to most people who described the post-mortem experience. It can be cautiously assumed that this actually proves Jung's conclusions.

Stages of dying

The most famous periodization of the stages of this sad process was described by the American psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross back in 1969. However, it is still the most used today. There she is.

1. Denial. A person refuses to accept the fact of imminent death. Having learned about the terrible diagnosis, he assures himself of the error of the doctors.

2. Anger. A person feels resentment, envy and hatred towards others, asking himself the question: “Why me?”

3. Bargaining. A person is looking for ways to prolong his life and promises anything in exchange for it (to doctors - to stop drinking and smoking, to God - to become a righteous man, etc.).

4. Depression. The dying person loses interest in life, feels complete hopelessness, grieves for separation from relatives and friends.

5. Acceptance. This is the last stage in which a person resigns himself to his fate. Despite the fact that the dying person does not become cheerful, peace and calm expectation of the end reign in his soul.

Despite its wide popularity, this concept is not recognized by all experts, since a person does not always go through all these stages, and their sequence may be different. However, in the vast majority of cases, Kübler-Ross periodization accurately describes what is happening.

moment of death

Other experts, however, added to the picture of dying. Thus, the American psychologist and physician Raymond Moody (Raymond Moody), having studied 150 cases of post-mortem experiences, built a "complete model of death." Briefly, it can be described as follows.

At the moment of death, a person begins to hear an unpleasant noise, a loud ringing, buzzing. At the same time, he feels himself moving very quickly through a long, dark tunnel. After that, the person notices that he was outside his own body. He just sees it from the side. Then the spirits of previously deceased relatives, friends and loved ones appear who want to meet and help him.

Neither the phenomenon characteristic of most post-mortem experiences, nor the vision of a bright tunnel, scientists can still explain. It is assumed, however, that brain neurons are responsible for the tunnel effect. When they die, they begin to become chaotically excited, which creates a feeling of bright light, and the disruption of peripheral vision caused by a lack of oxygen creates a “tunnel effect”. Feelings of euphoria may also come from the release of endorphins, "internal opiates" in the brain that reduce feelings of depression and pain. This causes hallucinations in those parts of the brain that are responsible for memory and emotions. People feel happiness and bliss.

Just as possible, however, is the reverse process - physiology begins to turn on in response to stimuli created by psychological phenomena. To understand what acts first is as impossible as to answer the question about the notorious egg and chicken.

Nothing foretold trouble

As Bulgakov's Woland said, “Yes, man is mortal, but that would be half the trouble. The bad thing is that sometimes he is suddenly mortal. In this case, scientists also have a lot of research. One of the most famous is the work of the Norwegian psychologist Randy Noyes, who identified stages for sudden death.

stage of resistance. A person is aware of the danger, feels fear and tries to fight. As soon as he realizes the futility of such resistance, fear disappears, and the person begins to feel serenity and calmness.

Review of life. It takes place in the form of a panorama of memories, replacing each other in rapid succession and covering the entire past of a person. Most often this is accompanied by positive emotions, less often by negative ones.

stage of transcendence. The logical conclusion of the review of life. People begin to perceive their past with increasing distance. Eventually, they are able to reach a state in which all life is seen as one. At the same time, they amazingly distinguish every detail. After that, even this level is overcome, and the dying person, as it were, goes beyond himself. It is then that he experiences a transcendent state, which is sometimes also called "cosmic consciousness."

Fear of death and the incompleteness of life

Despite everything, many perfectly healthy and young people are often afraid of death. Moreover, they do it much more obsessively than everyone else. What is it connected with? With this question, we turned to experts.

The fear of death is a very important “building block” in the foundation of cultures, religions, the development of mankind, civilizations, large and small social groups, that is, a necessary element of some kind of “collective unconscious,” says psychoanalyst, specialist of the European Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Lyubov Zayeva. - But this is also something without which there is no development, functioning of each individual personality, individual psyche. Freud believed that the fear of death is generated by the fear of castration: this is a deep fear of losing part of oneself, the fear of the destruction of one's bodily "I".

It is necessary to separate the normal presence of this theme in life and the pathological one. Under normal should be understood those situations where the fear of death, for example, helps to include the necessary protection for the regulation of behavior, life. This is what keeps and saves us. If we are aware that we can die if we do not follow the rules of the road, then this helps us stay safe and avoid dangerous situations.

In a global sense, the fear of death helped entire nations survive, stimulating migration, discoveries, and the development of science and culture. In order not to die, not to perish, to prolong life, to improve it, it is necessary to simply learn something, do something, change something, know something and remember something. That is, the fear of death can push us to self-improvement and a new life.

The fear of death can turn on powerful compensatory mechanisms, and then a person, defending himself from it at an unconscious level, begins, for example, to closely monitor his health and adhere to a healthy lifestyle. He can become a creator, bearing fruit, "giving birth" in spite of death - then creativity in all its forms, as it were, drowns out the fear of death. The very thought that something will remain after us (children, objects of art and everyday life, gardens and forests planted by us, ideas, business), as if pushes death away from us, adds a “drop of eternity” to life.

The pathological presence of the theme of death in the life of a particular person reveals itself, for example, in states of freezing and stupor, depression, increased anxiety, phobias. Beneath these extremely unpleasant states often lies traumatization at a very early age from encountering the topic of death, when there was not even a real death of the object (no one actually died), but something was lost in the inner world (a beloved object, a sense of security or trust in the world). At the same time, a hole appears in the soul and in the psyche, which now and then makes itself felt by various disturbing experiences.

The fastest, easiest and "disturbed" way to deal with the fear of death is various kinds of addictions, dependencies. An alcoholic and a drug addict are always in the grip of the fear of death, but at the same time they do everything so that their being is destroyed.

A strong fear of death always arises there and then, when the meaning of life is lost, there is no idea, goal, calling forward fantasy, that is, when a person is existentially disoriented. Then it is as if the music of life does not sound in his soul, and he hears the signals of the end, emptiness ... In this sense, most religions offer their short answer to the fear of death, speaking about the eternity of the life of the soul, other incarnations in other lives. What is the point of being afraid if there is no death as such?

In fact, religious concepts are reminiscent of the frailty of one and the immortality of the other in us, the most important. A person who is pathologically attuned to the wave of the “radio station of the voice of death” is always afraid to say goodbye to something that has become obsolete in his soul, life, and does not see, does not appreciate his real future path. We sometimes visit cemeteries, but we must always leave on time. Remembering death, we must remember much more about the value of life.

Fear of death is different

What are the causes of fear of death? We can assume several answers, - says Elena Sidorenko, a psychoanalytically oriented psychologist, chairman and member of the board of the regional branch of the European Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of the RO ECPP-Russia-Samara. - First of all, it is the fear of death as such, the fear that it will come. Your own or a loved one, a stranger on the street, etc.

In this case, most likely, we are talking about the existence of fantasy, overflowing the inner world of the subject, splashing out and interfering with reality. According to the psychoanalytic interpretation, in this case it is appropriate to speak of the presence of a certain desire that nourishes and develops the unconscious fantasy of a person. This mental content can be rooted in the depths of the distant past and carry the sound of the presence of a murderous desire (i.e., an unconscious desire to kill, destroy), denied by a person due to social disapproval (this is not allowed, not accepted, they can be punished).

In another case, there may be fear, as a vague anxiety. Without delving into Freud's theory of fear, it can be noted that the German word angst does not have an unambiguous meaning. This word can often have a contrasting meaning. Unlike fear, as the fear of something that has a specific object, the feeling of anxiety is characterized by the absence of such an object. This refers to a kind of “anticipation”, anticipation of experience as such.

And, finally, it makes sense to touch upon the fear of death as a special state, a stable reaction of the subject in a traumatic situation with a stream of internal and external excitations that the subject is unable to control. This is an automatic reaction. Freud wrote about this in his book Inhibition, Symptom, Fear. In this case, we are talking about evidence of a person's mental helplessness. It is an automatic fear of death. It is a spontaneous response of the body to a traumatic situation or its repetition. The prototype of this experience is the experience of the infant as a consequence of his biological helplessness.

Death is the goal of life

From psychoanalytic practice, we know that the fear of death is not a basic fear, - says the famous St. Petersburg psychoanalyst Dmitry Olshansky. - Losing a life is not something that all people, without exception, are afraid of. For some, life is of no particular value, for some it is so disgusting that parting with it looks like a happy outcome, someone dreams of heavenly life, so earthly existence seems to be a heavy burden and vanity of vanities. A person is afraid of losing not his life, but that significant thing with which this life is filled.

Therefore, for example, it makes no sense to apply the death penalty against religious terrorists: they already dream of going to heaven as soon as possible and meeting their god. And for many criminals, death would be deliverance from pangs of conscience. Therefore, the exploitation of the fear of death for social regulation is not always justified: some people are not afraid of death, but strive for it. Freud even tells us about the death drive, which is associated with the lowering of all body tensions to zero. Death represents the point of absolute rest and absolute bliss.

In this sense, from the point of view of the unconscious, death is an absolute pleasure, a complete discharge of all drives. It is not surprising, therefore, that death is the goal of all instincts. Death, however, can frighten a person, since it is associated with the loss of personality or one's own "I" - a privileged object created by the gaze. Therefore, many neurotics ask themselves: what awaits me after death? What will be left of me in this world? What part of me is mortal and what part is immortal? Giving in to fear, they create for themselves a myth about the soul and about paradise, where their personality is allegedly preserved after death.

Therefore, it is not surprising that people who do not have this own "I", who do not have a personality, are not afraid of death, as, for example, some psychotics. Or Japanese samurai, who are not independent reflecting personalities, but only a continuation of the will of their master. They are not afraid of losing their lives on the battlefield, they do not hold on to their identity, because initially they do not have it.

Thus, we can conclude that the fear of death is imaginary and is rooted only in the personality of a person. Whereas in all other registers of the psyche there is no such fear. Moreover, the instincts tend towards death. And it can even be said that we die precisely because the drives have reached their goal and completed the earthly path.

Death- a consequence of the fall; the sacrament of separation and, after which the body is committed to the earth, and the soul, having passed through the test of the air, is determined to its proper place until the general resurrection of the dead in incorruptible bodies and, on which the eternal fate of man will already be decided.

In the Christian understanding, death is primarily a spiritual phenomenon. One can be dead while still living on earth, and be innocent of death while lying in the grave. Death is the separation of man from life, that is, from God. The Lord is the only Giver of life and Life Itself. Death is opposed not to immortality, but to true Life, which was the “light of men” (). It is from this true life that a person is free to refuse and, thus, die in such a way that his very “immortality” becomes eternal death.

Despite the unnaturalness of death, it is allowed by God so that evil does not become immortal: “For this reason, so that the evil that has settled in us is not perpetuated ... the vessel is destroyed for a while by death, so that, after the expiration of evil, human nature is transformed and, pure from evil, restored to its original state" (St.). But such a restoration is possible only on the condition of the resurrection from the dead: "For if there is no resurrection, the nature of the whole man will not be preserved." According to the teachings of St. , since God's mercy could not allow "that once created rational beings and His participating Words perish and through corruption again turn into non-existence," God the Word became a man so that "people who have turned into corruption, again return to incorruption and revive them from death, by appropriating the body to Himself and by the grace of the Resurrection, destroying death in them like straw with fire.

At all divine services in litanies, a petition is raised up for the gift of a Christian death to the members, i.e. death with parting words - Repentance, Communion and Unction. Therefore, if the dying person wishes to receive these sacraments, and also if he is not baptized and wishes to be baptized, a priest should be invited to him without delay.

In order to alleviate the dying languor of the dying, it is necessary to place him so that he sees the holy icons, the cross, the fire of the lamp, light a candle near the icons. Facilitates the transition to eternity by reading over the dying, popularly called waste. (If death occurs during the reading, then the canon is read with the refrain: “Rest, Lord, to the soul of your departed servant”).

In the case when the near-death illness lasts a long and painful time, with the blessing of the priest, a canon can be read containing a petition for a speedy and peaceful death -.

Perception of death

Sermon by Hieromonk Methodius

Death is perceived differently. See how she comes.

She can be a terrible guest, suddenly coming with her chilling breath to where life has just flourished joyfully and stormily.

She can be a comforter when she comes to a person after long and severe bodily suffering.

Finally, she can be God's messenger, who flew in for a human soul when a person completed his work on earth.

She comes in different ways... She comes quietly, imperceptibly, unexpectedly... She comes after a long and agonizing wait. But what it has in common is that it is always something new.

New in its great antiquity. A person does not remember himself outside the last dream of a mortal, but he, this dream, always frightens him, always reveals before him the abyss of non-existence and the end of life. And hence the cowardice before death, animal fear at the mere thought of it, at the thought that you will not escape from it.

And only one faith in Christ, the living and life-giving Christ, through Himself and in Himself by death trampled down death, is the only strength for a Christian in the inevitable meeting with the visitor of the last hour.

Only a Christian can face death with open eyes. For it is only in the Christian hope that it is overcome by an effective and invincible victory.

Grant us, Lord, to live like a Christian in our lives and at the hour of the last trial not to doubt the hope of a bright future life, but with a contrite heart and a humble spirit to stand before the Judgment of God's Truth and God's Love that awaits each of us.

Christian teaching unequivocally indicates that the human body was created by God potentially immortal. So the Council of Carthage says: “If anyone says that Adam, the primordial man, was created mortal, so that, even if he sinned, even if he did not sin, he would die in his body, that is, he would leave the body, - not as a punishment for sin, but according to the necessity of nature, let there be anathema. Aging is a property that appeared after the fall of the forefathers.

As the separation of the soul from the body is the death of the body, so the separation of God from the soul is the death of the soul.
saint, Omilia 16.

“So, most beloved brothers, the Kingdom of God is near: with the passing of the world, the reward of life will already come, the joy of eternal salvation, everlasting security and possession of paradise, once lost; the earthly is replaced by the heavenly, the small by the great, the temporal by the eternal. Where is the place for melancholy and anxiety? Who will worry and grieve at the same time, if not the one who lacks hope and faith?
Only those who do not want to go to Christ can be afraid of death; and not wanting to go to Christ is characteristic only of those who do not believe that they will begin to reign with Christ.”
holy martyr

We always think of death as parting, because we think about ourselves and about the deceased, we think that we will never hear our beloved voice again, we will never touch our beloved body again, we will never plunge our gaze into the eyes dear to us, which reveal the whole depth of the human soul, we will never again live together with a person that simple human life, which is so dear to us, which is so precious. But we forget that death is at the same time a meeting of the living soul with the Living God. Yes, a departure from the earth, a departure from us, at least relative, but a departure in order to become face to face with the Living God, with the God of life, and enter into such a fullness of life that is not available to anyone on earth.
, .

Memo to the dying, his loved ones and all who are to die.

It is better to be ready for death in advance than not ready when it comes.

What is death. How to prepare, die and live on

In this overview article, we will consider the Vedic perspective on the following issues:

What is death?
- why is it needed?
What are the stages of dying?
- how to prepare for death?
- what to do at the time of death and after the death of the body?

We will also learn many other important and useful "otherworldly" secrets of death.

The Vedas and various religions state that death is not the end of existence, but simply the abandonment of the gross physical body by the soul which can no longer perform important vital functions. The soul, that is, the individual consciousness that is in the body, does not depend on the state of the body, but experiences all bodily and mental sensations.

The body is temporary, and the term of its life, according to the Vedas, is determined even at the moment of conception. This period cannot be changed by the will of man, but can be changed by God, who is the cause of all things. There are many cases when sincere prayers brought the dying person back to life with the most pessimistic forecasts, and even "from the next world."

The soul, unlike the body, is eternal: it cannot die, although the process of parting with the body can be perceived as one's own dying. This is due to a strong identification with the physical body and a lack of awareness of oneself as a soul (consciousness). Therefore, during life, a person should receive knowledge about his spiritual nature and engage in spiritual practice, comprehending his true intangible essence - this will help him at the hour of parting with the mortal physical shell, which has become unsuitable for life in this world. At the moment of death, a person can change a lot in his future destiny if he knows what to do. We'll talk about this.

What is death and why is it needed

Just as a person replaces old rags with new clothes, so the soul receives new material bodies to replace the old and useless ones. This process is called in the Vedas reincarnation - the reincarnation of the individual consciousness (soul).

The material world in which we live is a kind of school that has a very specific goal. This school takes everyone through all the necessary classes - to the last exam and the successful completion of training. Sometimes we step on the same rake, but in the end we learn the lesson, draw the right conclusions and move on. God can be called the main teacher or director of this school, to whom all people and circumstances that teach us something in life, explicitly or implicitly, obey. Our whole life is, in fact, study, and death is the final exam. So, life after life, we receive new bodies and the corresponding training necessary in order to finally understand the true meaning of life and return to our native spiritual world (home to God), where there is no birth and death, old age and disease, where there is eternal happiness, love and awareness reign.

How did we get into this world and why do we suffer

The Vedas compare the material creation with the abode of suffering, and say that real happiness does not exist in this world. It is easy to understand this by looking back at your life and realizing that real happiness has not yet appeared, despite a lot of effort. That is why a person feels deep dissatisfaction in the soul, which is sometimes drowned out by temporary pleasures. The soul can only be fully satisfied in the spiritual world, where she fully realizes that she is an integral part of God and therefore lovingly serves Him and His other particles, the same eternal souls. In the kingdom of God, the soul is in perfect harmony and experiences true satisfaction and happiness.

Once having wished to live only for himself (solely for the sake of his own pleasure, “bypassing God”), the soul gets such an opportunity and ends up in the material world, where it can endlessly try to get happiness. Having lived here for many lives and completely disappointed in the unrealizable idea of ​​achieving happiness, the individual consciousness (soul) loses all interest in the material world, which eternally feeds with beautiful promises, and gives only temporary pleasures, sufferings and a painful change of material bodies.

Disappointed in the material world, the soul begins to be interested in spiritual topics: philosophy, esotericism, various practices and religions. Finding answers to his questions, a person understands what needs to be done in order to return home, to the spiritual world, to God, where everything is much more beautiful, more interesting and pleasant, where eternal happiness reigns and there is no suffering.

The Importance of Thinking About Death

In the old days, people studied spiritual sciences from childhood, and the topic of death was an integral part of the education. Death can come at any moment, and one must always be ready for it so that it does not come as a surprise. Reason is given to man in order to study wisdom, think about the eternal and engage in self-knowledge. Modern people misuse their minds and waste their time of life on entertainment and other activities that will not help them when the time comes to part with the body. You need to think about your future, which will come after the death of the body, and there is a problem here, because people do not have knowledge in this area. Therefore, the following are briefly described the main points that you need to firmly know, remember and apply when your own death is approaching or someone close to you dies.

Preparation for death, near-death stages and the process of dying

The first and most important thing that is useful for a dying person to know and remember is that you need to constantly cry out to the Lord, read prayers or suitable mantras, or turn to God in your own words. It is better to call God by name, He has many Names, and you can choose any - from that religion or spiritual tradition that is close and understandable to you.

In different religions, the Almighty is called by different names, and each of His Names indicates one or another quality of God. In Christianity, we meet such names of the Lord as, for example, Jehovah (the Living God), Yahweh (He Who Is, Existing), Sabaoth (Lord of Hosts), Elohim (Powerful, Most High) and others less known. For Muslims, the main name of God is Allah (One Lord), and there are 99 more descriptive names. Other religions also use various titles of the Gods, which are translated as the One, Shining, Master, Just, Strong, Manifested, Victorious, Healing, etc. Buddhism glorifies God, who came to Earth 2500 years ago as the Buddha. In Hinduism, such names of the Supreme Lord as Vishnu (the Most High, Omnipresent), Krishna (All-attractive), Rama (All-rejoicing) and Hari (Removing illusion) or Hare (vocative form from “Hari”, also means the Energy of Divine Love and Devotion) are widely known . You need to understand that the supreme Lord is one, but He manifests Himself in different Forms and is known by different Names, where each Name indicates one of His many divine qualities.

Before death and in the process of dying, you need to focus on the chosen Name of God and constantly call Him trying not to get distracted by anything else.

The Vedas say: what a person thinks about at the moment of death, to that he is attracted in the next life. If you think about your dog, you can be born in the body of a dog. If you think of the opposite sex, you can get the body of the opposite sex. If at the moment of death a person thinks about God (calls Him by His Name, reads prayers or mantras), he returns to the kingdom of God, where he can communicate with the Lord forever. More on this at the end of the article.

Therefore, at the moment of leaving the body, the most important thing is to remember God, call Him, focus on Him. And do not think about everything else, already useless and meaningless.

Stages of the dying process:

1. At the first stage in the whole body feels heaviness as if the body is filled with lead. From the outside it looks like loss of control of facial muscles other than the muscles of the eyes. The face becomes motionless, like a mask, and only the eyes remain mobile. You need to read prayers or simply repeat the Names of the Lord, calling on Him to help. If the dying person does not do this, let someone from his relatives or people who are nearby read prayers or call on God.
2. The second stage of dying is characterized by a feeling of chill and very cold, turning into feverish heat. Vision is lost, eyes become empty. Hearing is lost. You need to repeat the name of God or read prayers, and prepare for a meeting with the light. The bright white light is the light of God, you do not need to be afraid of it, on the contrary, you need to enter it, this is the light of salvation, deliverance.
3. In the third stage, the dying person feels as if thousands of scorpions are biting him at the same time, the body seems to be torn to pieces, as if torn into atoms. Outwardly, this appears as convulsive intermittent breathing with strong vibration. At this moment, the subtle body (described at the end of the article) is separated from the gross physical body, and this is painful. Physical senses turn off, but the soul is still in the heart chakra (in the region of the heart) and sees pitch darkness. It is necessary to speak loudly to the dying person, addressing him by name: "Don't be afraid of anything! Now you will see a bright light, focus on it and enter it. Call God by His Name!" You also need to read aloud prayers for him and call God. At the moment of separation from the body (with the last exhalation), the soul may experience a sensation of moving through a tunnel (pipe) towards the light, and it needs to continue to call on God. If the soul has a strong attachment to this world and does not want to leave the dying body (which it considers itself), this prevents it from leaving. It is necessary to say to the dying: "You need to meet God! Do not be afraid of anything and do not regret anything, turn to God prayerfully call out loud His by the name. He will come as a dazzling white light, enter into Him!" It is necessary to constantly remind the dying of God and encourage him to call on Him. And enter into the bright light as soon as the opportunity presents itself. It is unfavorable to discuss any material topics; instead, one should constantly switch attention to God.

If the dying person could not (did not have time, did not want, did not succeed) turn to God and missed the bright light (did not enter it, did not see it, did not have time), the soul leaves the body and remains in the room, not far from the body. She sees her abandoned body and the people present from the side. He sees their tears and sorrow, hears their lamentations, and such behavior can frighten, shock, and lead to great confusion, if before that a person considered himself a body and was strongly attached to material existence. It is imperative to reassure the deceased by addressing him by name: " Don't be afraid of anything. Pray to the bright white light that appears before you and enter into it. This is the Light of God, He is your savior. Forget about everyone and everything else, call God!"

If the soul could not concentrate and enter the light, it disappears. Then the soul goes to the intermediate layers for a period of 49 days, until it enters a new body. It is favorable to read prayers for the deceased, and all these 49 days to give instructions to the liberated soul to remember God and call Him. In this intermediate state, the soul can come to you from anywhere in space as soon as you call it, so call it by name every day and give it instructions. This should be done at a place associated with the deceased (his bed, photograph, etc.). The soul can come by itself, without a call, because it remains attached to the place and relatives. It is important that the relatives read prayers for her daily and ask her to do the same. Thanks to sincere prayers, the fate of the soul left without a body can be greatly improved, and she will receive a good body in a suitable family, where she can progress spiritually. Also, prayers can rescue the soul from hell, significantly reducing the period of stay there.

The soul can be given a choice in which country and family to be born, so when addressing by name, say: "N Do not hurry to be born if you see a godless country. One of the signs of a spiritual country is a lot of temples. Don't rush to choose your parents. View their future, and only if it is related to spirituality, choose them". Also, every day, give instructions to remember God and read prayers. If you do not talk about this to the deceased, then after 49 days the soul may not incarnate in the best way.

Do's and Don'ts at the Time of Dying

These tips will help not to harm, but, on the contrary, to benefit and help the soul being freed from the body.

At the time of death, you can not:

1. To talk on worldly topics, because in the soul this causes attachment to the material, strong confusion and unwillingness to leave the body unfit for life. This brings unnecessary suffering to the dying.
2. To mourn, lament, sob and say goodbye - this causes a clouding of the mind of the dying person and causes him unbearable pain.
3. Touching the body (even taking it by the hand), because you can prevent the soul from leaving through the channel intended for it by karma (by fate), directing it to another channel, less favorable. But if a person falls asleep, you need to wake him up, shake him so that he comes to consciousness, and then continue to give him instructions. It is much better for the soul to leave the body in a conscious state than in an unconscious one.
4. It is impossible to divert the attention of the dying from God (or prayers). Depending on the level of spiritual development and the accumulated sins of the dying person, his subtle body can exit through the lower gate (anus), then the soul incarnates into an animal; middle gate - the soul receives the human body; the upper gate (crown) - gets to the heavenly planets. Exit through the sushumna (central channel) means entering the transcendental level (return to the spiritual world). Focusing on God or His Name at the time of death allows the soul to leave the body through the central channel, immediately get rid of all sins and return to the Kingdom of God. This rare chance must be used, so at the time of death, attention should be focused only on God.

At the time of death you need:

1. Talk about God, read prayers or scriptures glorifying the Lord, His games, deeds, names, qualities.
2. Inspire the dying person to the upcoming meeting with God, ask him to read prayers and call on God.
3. Deliver the dying from grief by explaining the power of God: "Remembering the Almighty and calling Him by His Name, you will enter the spiritual world and receive an eternal beautiful body that does not get sick, does not grow old and does not suffer. The Lord will free 100 tribes before and after you, and if you wish, you will be able to communicate with them in the Kingdom God."
4. Explain to the soul the process of liberation as a meeting with the light. The soul needs to enter a bright white light that brings deliverance from all suffering. We need to dispel the fear of death.
5. Rejoice in the deliverance of the soul from an incapacitated body and bodily suffering.

What happens at the time of death

Right at the moment of death, the eyes no longer see anything, the soul looks at the body from the inside, and therefore it is very dark. Then, depending on the sinfulness of the person, his upper or lower energy channels (nadis) are illuminated, and thanks to this, the person sees a tunnel (pipe) with light at the end of it.

Only extremely sinful or suddenly dying people (for example, in a catastrophe, in a battle, in an accident) do not see any light. Very sinful people are taken out of the body before the light appears. Pious (almost sinless) people experience bliss at the appearance of light, and mystic yogis see the four-armed form of the Lord (described in detail in Hinduism). The dying person needs to be explained that light is God, and He came to save the soul from new births in the material world, as well as illnesses, old age and death. You need to trust God and enter into His bright light.

At the moment of death of the gross body, the soul enters the tunnel and moves towards the light. At this time, you need to call God (preferably by name) or read prayers until the soul meets God. If the soul did not have time (or could not) realize that the light is God, it leaves the body and remains in the room, seeing its relatives and the abandoned body. In this case, too, not everything is lost, and you need to constantly read prayers and call on the Lord.

After the moment of death (the last exhalation), when 20 minutes have passed, the soul has already left the body. During these 20 minutes, it is important to constantly give instructions to the departing soul, as well as read the appropriate prayers or mantras, ask God to help the soul.

The main instruction to the soul before death, at the time of death and after leaving the body: "No matter what happens, call the Lord by name, read prayers and constantly think about Him. You need to meet with God, so forget about everything else and call on the Almighty!"

Life after death

Having left the dead body, if the soul has not entered into a bright light, it finds itself in unfamiliar conditions and an unusual state. If a person has not been engaged in spiritual practice before and does not know that he is an eternal soul, and what to do without a gross body, the new reality is confusing and frightening. In horror, he begins to rush around familiar places, trying to talk to loved ones who cannot see or hear him, and tries to enter his body again, which does not come to life. For this reason, it is better to burn the body, as they do in India, otherwise the soul can remain for a long time near the grave in the form of a ghost, being tied to the body.

If a person was not prepared for death, then for the first 3-4 days after leaving the body, he may be horrified and not pay attention to instructions (at the same time, he usually sees radiance, perceives various energies). Then only prayers for him help.

Sitting near the empty bed of the deceased or in front of his photograph, for 4 days you need to repeat to him periodically: "Don't worry and calm down! Forget everything that was on earth. Constantly think about the Lord, read prayers and call Him by His Name, then you will reach the abode of God.

It is favorable that spiritual music with suitable prayers or mantras sound around the clock in the room of the deceased, near his bed or photograph, or simply a recording of the prayers of a sincere priest or holy person. The soul often returns to the place to which it is strongly attached, it will hear these prayers and be cleansed thanks to their spiritual vibrations. The recording should sound all 49 days, the volume should be low, but so that the words of the prayer are clearly audible.

What is the “subtle body” and how does it differ from the soul

Leaving the dying body, the soul leaves it in the so-called subtle body. But the soul and the subtle body are completely different things.

Description and properties of the subtle body:

1. The subtle body consists of subtle material energies and outwardly is a copy of the physical (gross) body. When you feel yourself, the subtle body is felt like the physical body familiar to us.
2. The soul in the subtle body sees, hears and has other habitual perceptions.
3. A thin body also has a weight (small) and it obeys the law of gravity. In a relaxed state, it slowly sinks to the ground.
4. It can stretch or take any other form. When relaxed, it returns to the form of a familiar physical body.
5. It has a low density. The soul in the subtle body can pass through walls and any other obstacles (leaking through particles of matter). The only obstacle is the electromagnetic field.
6. The subtle body can move objects in the physical world (poltergeist).
7. Under certain conditions, the subtle body can become visible, and it can also see the subtle bodies of other beings (for example, in a dream we travel in a subtle body).
8. The subtle body is connected with the gross body by the so-called silver thread, which breaks at the moment of death.
9. The subtle body is affected by electricity, so it can be shocked.
10. The movement or change of the subtle body is controlled by thought and occurs at the speed of thought.

Herself the soul is pure consciousness, which is immaterial and eternal, but the subtle body is a material temporary shell, which, as it were, envelops the soul, conditions it, limits it. The physical body is an even coarser shell on top of the subtle body, it limits even more. The subtle body does not exist by itself (like the physical body), it lives and acts only due to the presence of the soul. The subtle body itself is not aware of anything, it is just a temporary limiting sheath for the aware soul. The subtle body changes over time, but the soul is unchanged. If the soul goes to the spiritual world, it does so without the mentioned bodies, only in its pure form, as pure consciousness. If the soul is destined to again receive a body in the material world, its subtle body remains with it. The soul cannot die, but the subtle body can; it simply "dissolves" when the soul returns to God. While the soul is in the material world, it always stays in a subtle body, through which it perceives what is happening. In the subtle body, the experience of the past and all unfulfilled dreams are stored, thanks to which the soul receives in the future one or another gross body in which it can realize the remaining desires. If there are no material desires left, the soul is no longer held by anything in the material world.

Staying in the subtle body, one must constantly call on God, read prayers, visit churches and temples, and be present at divine services.

In front of the soul in the subtle body, light of various colors may appear:

• Dazzling white is the light of the spiritual world, the kingdom of God. It is necessary to aspire to it, calling God. All other shades of light are different material worlds.
• Dull white - from the kingdom of the demigods (paradise planets, according to Eastern religions).
• Dull green is the realm of demons (where powerful but godless beings live).
• Yellow - people.
• Dull blue - animals.
• Dull red - perfume.
• Dull gray - hellish worlds.

If this dim light of different colors appears, you need to resist with all your might, push away from it and call God by His Name. If it was not possible to enter the dazzling white light (and get into the spiritual world), for 49 days the soul is in a suspended, intermediate state. Closer to the 49th day, the soul sees future parents and its destiny in this family. There is a choice, so you need to slowly look at more families and choose the most spiritual life for yourself so that you can do spiritual practice and progress.

Depending on karma (sinfulness or piety), a person is doomed to incarnate in one form or another of life (that is, the type of the future body is determined). However, if he sees that he is being drawn into the body of an animal (for example, a pig or a dog), he must resist and call out to God loudly.

If a person leaves a gross body in terrible torment, at the same time (in the process of dying) he does not hear instructions, but after the death of the body, when the soul resides in a subtle body, it hears and sees everything, so you need to call him by name daily and read instructions.

If the soul has gone to hell, you also need to read instructions and prayers for it yourself, this will help you get out of the hellish worlds as soon as possible. Prayers for the deceased have a strong cleansing effect.

Reminders: Do's and Don'ts

It must be understood that the state of the soul that has left the body and the state of its relatives are very closely connected. They have a connection at the level of subtle bodies. Living people (that is, souls living in a gross body) may not feel this connection, except for real psychics, mystic yogis and saints who feel subtle energies. An ordinary person is “attuned” to gross sensations (received through a gross body), therefore, he is usually not aware of subtle energies. And the soul without a gross body perfectly feels the subtle vibrations (energies) of those who are dear to her or who she thinks about. In the subtle body, she (the soul) can be transported at the speed of thought to the place she thinks about, or to the person she remembered. That is why, when we remember the deceased, he (as a soul with a subtle body) is immediately attracted to us, like a magnet. Therefore, it is important to call him, give instructions and read prayers for him: through the divine energy of prayers, he will contact God, and this cleanses from karma (sins) and brings great benefit to the soul. Also, those who read these prayers receive no less benefit. Each time, remembering the deceased, you need to give him instructions or switch to praying for him. At such moments, you do not need to think about anything material or negative, you do not need to grieve or regret, cry or lament, this is harmful and very painful for the departed soul.

When relatives eat meat, fish or eggs at the wake, the deceased is overcome with fear, because he feels how his karma worsens because of this (the negative energies of these products affect), and he is pulled down to the hellish worlds. He begs the living not to do this, but of course they don't hear him. If this causes anger in him (which arises in the subtle body), the soul quickly falls into hell (like attracts like). Sincere prayer, an appeal to God by name can save. You can tell such a soul: " You see how your relatives sin for you, but don't get involved in it. Focus on invoking the NameGod and constantly read prayers, otherwise you will destroy yourself." A person with bad karma (a lot of sins) is delirious and does not hear these instructions, or cannot accept and fulfill them. You need to pray for him.

What not to do at the wake:

1. Eat foods of violence (eggs, fish, meat) that contain the energy of violence and murder. The living almost do not feel this energy, but for a soul without a body it is a heavy anchor pulling to the bottom.
2. Drink alcohol. This not only intoxicates the minds of those who drink, but also greatly harms the soul for which they drink.
3. Talk about worldly topics. This binds the soul to the material world and does not allow it to go to God.
4. Remember the qualities and deeds of the deceased (this binds him to the deceased body, home, things and past).
5. Indulge in grief and negativity, as this pessimistic mood is transmitted to the departed soul and pulls it down.

What to do at the wake:

1. Read prayers, mantras, scriptures, sing the names of God.
2. Discuss the deeds of the Lord, talk on spiritual topics.
3. Distribute consecrated food (vegetarian, offered to the Almighty). If there is no way to consecrate food in a church or temple, you can do it at home, guided by the scriptures or the article "Yoga of Cooking and Eating".
4. Offer (better out loud) some consecrated food to the deceased in front of his photograph. The soul, with the help of its subtle body, will eat all the subtle energy of consecrated food and receive great benefits. Then this food should be given to street animals or left on the ground near a tree, etc., where it will be eaten by lower life forms.
5. Try to maintain a positive spiritual attitude, understanding that the departed soul needs positive energy.

Continuation of the article (source) Death. Preparation, dying and life after death on the site of self-knowledge and enlightenment. You can add or discuss the article on the forum or in the comments.