ORIENTATION AFTER DEATH

When a person dies a natural death, he notices that he leaves his body, but soon afterwards he goes ‘to sleep’. His consciousness goes into a vegetative sleep which is more like being in an undifferentiated state of mind for a while. In this state of mind he can hang around in the neighborhood of the place where he passed over. His nebulous consciousness is able to perceive the physical world vaguely, and sometimes he will attach himself to objects, plants, animals or people. In the esoteric teachings this is called the great Sleep, caused by the Dark Angel, the Angel of Death. This initial vegetative state can last from a couple of hours to several days.

When he leaves his place of passing over, he still thinks he is alive, and visits the living, and sometimes he lives with them for a while. He is still half or totally unconscious of his deceased state.

Many souls have little interest in what happens to their physical bodies once they are dead. But they do like to hover around the place where they died for a few days.

Some souls are still attached to the physical world. They try to communicate with the living. In houses that have been built over an earth’s energy spot, they are able to use that energy to manifest himself to the living. 

Some of the deceased are still so much attached to the physical that they attach themselves to a living person to enjoy, through that person, the earthly pleasures, like the taste of alcohol, cigarettes, food and so on. Those souls used to be habitual drinkers, smokers and even compulsive criminals. Such a situation is always to the detriment of the living person, as the deceased interferes with the energy body of that living person. Ailments and disease will follow, sometimes quickly, sometimes gradually. Some of the deceased have a grudge against a living person and will attach themselves to him in order to cause harm. Others had such a strong connection with for example a family member, that when they pass over they attach themselves to that family member, because they cannot give up the relationship they had with that person. This also causes harm to the living person, and the deceased often does not realize that. Such disturbed spirits are rare, and help is available from higher, caring entities, who can assist in the adjustment process from the other side.

So, the deceased now knows that he has passed over. Some of the deceased now create themselves a dream world based on that what they had expected to find when they would die. Based on these expectations he creates himself a heaven, a hell or any other place he likes. Here he indulges himself in what he likes to do, like eating, feasting and so on, until, after a while, he gets bored with it and realizes that heaven or hell, as he imagined it, is a boring place, and that his expectations of these places were childish constructs of his mind. More developed souls will move much faster through this stage.

Many spirits will hear relaxing music, allowing them to feel more "at home". Souls will find themselves in an environment of houses, rooms, parks, nature and so on. These are all places created by their mind that relate to the laces they have lived in on Earth. This astral world is usually much nice, more beautiful, more colorful, and much more euphoric.

Although the soul itself is androgynous, it will usually adapt an outer appearance of male or female in the spirit world. It is a question of what sex one wants to identify with.

Once the deceased wakes up from his dreamy consciousness, and is clear and lucid, he is calm and feels free. In this of mind he can also contact the living. 

Souls arriving in this world are greeted by soul mates, friends, guides. Initially guides might be in the background when friends welcome the deceased soul.

After the initial stages souls will speed to their destination. They arrive at their own specific group of entities at their own maturity level. Group placement is determined by soul level. The souls represented in these cluster groups are intimate old friends who have about the same awareness level. It is usually a small primary unit of entities who have direct and frequent contact, such as we would see in a human family. Contact with souls from other groups is also possible. Members of the same cluster group are closely united for all eternity. They are often composed of like-minded souls with common objectives which they continually work out with each other. Usually they choose lives together as relatives and close friends during their incarnations on Earth.

If necessary the deceased will undergo a healing process and a reorientation to its spiritual environment. The reorientation is a substantial counseling session with one's guide. The newly refreshed soul undergoes a debriefing of the life just ended. It is a self-evaluation process. It also provides emotional release and readjustment back into the spirit world. More advanced souls might skip the orientation process, although they will meet and talk to their guides. They are usually able to move on much quicker after their arrival in the spirit world.

At a later time the soul will meet with a group of wise beings, usually called the Council masters or Elders. This board of review is generally composed of between three and seven members. While the Council is not prosecutorial, they do engage in direct examination of a soul's activity. Here the soul's higher self will then show him his entire past life with the highs and lows, and he will judge himself according to universal spiritual laws. Yes, there is no one else to judge you than yourself. You can also not deceive yourself in this regard, as your higher self is straightforward, knows the truth, and shows you incontrovertible where you failed.

After the soul has spent time playing, studying, creating in the spiritual world in order to enhance its development, it will eventually feel the need again to reincarnate. This involves an orientation process too, during which a soul will be shown a series of possible lives on Earth. 

P.S.:   Most deceased are so ignorant that they think they are already in heaven, because they think they have lived a moral and civil life. They never considered that both the bad and the good live a similar life outwardly, alike in doing good to others, attending public worship, hearing sermons and praying. They are ignorant not understanding that external deeds and external acts of worship are of no avail, only the internal state of being from which the external acts proceed is real.

The habitual tendencies, like anger, hate, attachment, ignorance and so on, drive the soul to the next stage in the afterlife: "Three Poisons": Ignorance, which give rise to aversion and attachment. Aversion and attachements are sometimes taken for greed and pride. All three keep the human being in a vicious circle of self-sustaining suffering.