Life Beyond Death
The purpose of death
The nature of life after death
How we can prepare for death
How we can assist the dying
The Stages of Life After Death
Introduction
Even as the Cosmic Being creates the universe after dissolution, the individual creates his own world after death.
Even though a human life is one continuous experience, we conceptually divide it into separate stages of childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. Similarly, life after death is one continuous experience, with several recognizable stages.
To describe the stages of life after death, we must distinguish the various bodies and planes of experience. (see Illustrations) Beyond all planes of experience is Absolute Divine Consciousness, which is not a body or experience of any kind, but pure presence, or spirit...the very core of our being. As Divine Consciousness expands, it congeals into the various planes of experience.
Each successive plane of experience is denser, slower and increasingly limited by time and space. Likewise, each plane of experience corresponds to a body, or platform of conscious presence, which is uniquely suited to that particular plane. The body, and its corresponding plane of experience, are actually two sides of the same coin. For example, on Earth, the physical body allows a conscious presence on the physical plane of experience. Neither the physical body nor the physical plane exists separate from one another.
After death of the physical body, we awaken with a subtle body, which allows us to have a conscious presence on the inner planes of experience. The subtle body is a field of psychic activity, including the conscious and subconscious psychic impressions which have accumulated during our life on Earth. There are actually several subtle bodies. The heavier, more transient bodies are made of desire and emotion, while the lighter, longer lasting bodies are made of more refined psychic energy. But for the purpose of this writing, I'll refer to all surviving psychic activity as the "subtle body". Although the subtle body survives death of the physical body, it is not eternal and has its own defined life span.
Beyond the inner planes of experience is the Divine realm, and the corresponding spiritual body. The spiritual body evolves gradually from the distilled essence gathered during many cycles of Earth life.
The following analogy may help to illustrate the process of cosmic evolution. Before birth, we spend 9 months in the womb, building a body suitable for the world we are about to enter. In the same way, the Earth serves as our womb for the next phase of evolution. While we are living our lives on Earth from day to day, we are simultaneously building subtle and spiritual bodies for our future lives on the higher planes.
These different planes of experience are not locations but different states of consciousness within us. We will now examine each of these planes in terms of the various stages of life beyond death.
