What Happens After Death?
The Midplane and Purgatory
Even the mainstream scientific community is starting to believe that consciousness continues after death. Jonathan Dinsmore, M.S. (Psychological Scientist) even conceded that NDEs seem to be the most convincing form of experiential evidence so far for spirituality and life after death. Although, there are some in the mainstream scientific community that believe NDE’s are simply extreme dreams stemming from a type of sleep-wake state. Others believe they’re psychedelic trips stemming from a spike in DMT — which has been reported in the brains of rats that suffered cardiac arrest.
DMT is considered a powerful, fast-acting hallucinogenic tryptamine. Found naturally in the human brain, it’s frequently used in ayahuasca rituals. Perhaps DMT temporarily overwrites sensory data coming from our eyes and ears. This would effectively jam lower-density signals and allow us to tap into higher-density broadcasts from higher planes of existence. But we digress…
The Law of One (48:7) explains that after existing our gross physical bodies, there’s an adjustment period where unliberated souls typically activate their indigo ray bodies until proper future placement is made. While activating these causal bodies we enter a sort of purgatory — a temporary, intermediate state or midplane of existence, as explained in Unlocking the Soul. The same thing is said to happen once a planetary cycle comes to an end – we enter our causal bodies while a harvest takes place. Think of harvests as specific cosmic transition points where planets graduate to their next density level (Law of One, 6:14). Is it also possible that the midplane is where entities visit during near-death experiences (NDEs), out-of-body experiences, deep meditations, and psychedelic journeys?
What is the midplane like? The subtle astral midplane is seen as a transitional plane beyond space/time. It gives unliberated souls the opportunity to adjust to post-incarnation and heal before life planning begins. During this transitional period, it’s said that the midplane can often take on familiar surroundings to help ease the transition to the next phase of the spiritual process, according to The Seth Material. It’s also said to be completely thought-based. Is it while in a subtle astral plane that we go through the steps of light ascension process? The steps of light ascension process is said to determine the level of vibration we’ve achieved during a lifetime, dictating our consciousness level.
After death, some entities can linger in the midplane, taking more time to cross over (Law of One, 47:11-14) to the next stage of their spiritual journeys — specifically, those having trouble letting go of their attachments and those who die suddenly or traumatically. No worries though. Our guides can help us transition, often taking familiar forms such as religious figures or family members, as mentioned in Unlocking the Soul.
Subtle Astral and Causal Planes
Three Types of Outcomes Post-Death
According to the Bhagavad Gita (2:42-43), souls have several options in terms of next steps after an initial resting period and all good karma or merits are depleted on subtle astral planes. These options are said to be sorted out during life planning (review, selection, and programming). But essentially, which plane/realm of existence we inhabit could depend on a variety of factors, including our karma, consciousness level, and spiritual disposition – service to self (STS) or service to others (STO), as explained by the Law of One (20:9). Let’s elaborate on this.
For example, the Bhagavad Gita (2:38, 14:18, 15:3-4, 18:12) explains that entities continuously experience one of three types of outcomes after death — pleasant, unpleasant, and mixed — based on their actions, karma, and dominance of the three gunas (sattva, rajas, and tamas). Although, this only seems to apply when actions are performed with a desire for selfish rewards. When actions are done as a duty to Source without attachment to results, then it’s said that no such consequences accrue.
As Swami Mukundananda (Bhakit Yog Saint & Yoga Teacher) explains, those dominated by righteous actions (sattva) are said to experience higher, pleasant celestial realms synonymous with swarga (Bhagavad Gita, 8:16). Could this be similar to the concept of heaven? Those with a mixture of righteous and unrighteous actions (rajas) are said to experience life on human planets like Earth. Finally, those dominated by unrighteous actions (tamas) and anger are said to experience unpleasant nether regions (Bhagavad Gita, 18:40). Perhaps the nether regions could be similar to narak (Bhagavad Gita, 8:16) or hell-worlds (Tibetan Book of the Dead, 14).
The Law of One (20:9) suggests that our destinations after death depend on our consciousness level and, in some cases, a conscious choice of a spiritual disposition: service to self (fear and separation) versus service to others (love and unity). These paths determine if we reside on planets polarized (committed) towards love and unity or fear and separation.
Post-Death Cycle
Autobiography of a Yogi’s (43:352-366) explanation for post-death consists of a cycle of rebirth between the gross physical, subtle astral, and causal planes. It explains that after death on gross physical planes, entities reside on subtle astral planes for a rest period. After resting, if we have unresolved gross physical plane karma, then we reincarnate back onto gross physical planes to work it out.
If we don’t have unresolved karma, then we can remain on subtle astral planes for an extended period – perhaps for hundreds of years (Autobiography of a Yogi, 43:354) before we ascend to causal planes. After a rest period on causal planes, if we have subtle astral plane karma, then we reincarnate back on subtle astral planes to work it out. Once we no longer have subtle astral plane karma or seed karma we can again return to the causal planes where we can drop our material bodies to achieve complete liberation.
On the other hand, could the higher-density planes be bypassed if an entity achieves liberation on gross physical planes through different states of samadhi? The Tibetan Book of the Dead (50) suggests that devotees (or yogis) who are spiritually advanced can make the best use of the moment of death to bypass the intermediate state, instead departing by the great straight-upward path.
Heavenly and Hellish Realms
Consider this fellow souls. Perhaps where we reside after death shouldn’t be seen as a punishment or reward. What if it’s simply spiritual metaphysics? What if we gravitate to certain planes/realms after death because the vibrational frequency of those planes/realms match our vibrational frequency — the vibrational frequency we’ve cultivated throughout our lives through our thoughts, intentions, and actions? Ergo, our environment after death wouldn’t be imposed from the outside. It would be generated from within and manifested as part of the divine law of attraction — like attracts like.
If one resonates with the concept that we are essentially constructing the vibrational frequency that will determine where our consciousness goes when our gross physical body dies, then essentially are we manifesting our own heaven and hell? Or as Edgar Cayce (Clairvoyant, 1877-1945) puts it, are we growing to the awareness of heaven and hell (Readings: 281-16, 3605-1, 5753-1)? As suggested in Buddhism, perhaps heaven and hell begins as states of mind, intricately woven into the fabric of our daily experiences and eventually manifested into existence after death.
This coincides with the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol) which explains that realizing our true nature while living will make it easier to recognize the real truth during death since the bodies/realms we inhabit are reflections or hallucinations of our individual consciousness (12, 34). Ergo, apart from one’s own hallucinations, heaven and hell doesn’t exist outside oneself (38).
Ultimate Liberation
Once we no longer have material desires, attachments, or karma, it’s said that we can drop all of our material bodies (gross physical, subtle astral, and causal) to achieve complete liberation from the material universe (Autobiography of a Yogi, 43:362-363).
For liberated souls perhaps this means that the soul becomes one with the Infinite without any loss of individuality (Autobiography of a Yogi, 43:363). What if this means we could reside with Source (Bhagavad Gita, 18:54) in the spiritual universe with a new divine, spiritual body? And with this new divine body, the soul would be free to engage in loving past times (leelas). Or perhaps we could descend to the material universe to aid others while not being bound by karma. The Law of One (97:9) describes liberation as completely merging in harmony with Source (sayujya) and returning to a state of undifferentiated awareness without a body, beyond creation.
Regardless of what happens after liberation, we shouldn’t get too comfy in the material universe. Based on our research, experiences in the causal, subtle astral, or gross physical planes are considered temporary (Bhagavad Gita, 18:40) because these planes are not the ultimate destination or our true reality. Much love on your journeys fellow souls!