Life and death

Is death a dream?

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

What's happened 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 very bleak and scary to us. After all, every child knows from an early age: “Life is good, but death... death is I don’t know what, but it’s definitely something bad. It’s so bad that it’s better not to even think about it.”

We grow up, learn, gain 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 scary, 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 unknown grows and grows...

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

We will try to understand these issues in a conversation with the head of the Orthodox Center for Crisis Psychology, created with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II, 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 went to another world was called not dead, but deceased. What does the word "deceased" mean? A deceased person is a person who has fallen asleep. And Orthodoxy figuratively speaks this way about someone who has 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 sleep?

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

If someone thinks that he does not see dreams, then he is mistaken. Everyone who sleeps dreams every day, 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 the stories that we dream about. That is, during sleep we live for some time completely in Another reality. And very often we experience it much brighter and more intensely than reality (for simplicity, we will call it This reality).

We can say that a sleeping person experiences short-term fragments of another life every night. It must be borne in mind that very few people who sleep and dream feel that they are dreaming. In most cases, a sleeping person does not understand that he is only dreaming of everything that is happening, and is completely drawn into the events of Another Reality. The fact that at this time he feels this Other reality as reality is a scientifically proven fact and each of us has repeatedly tested it from our own experience.

It turns out that throughout our entire lives we are in two realities every day. Therefore, it is not surprising if we have a seemingly paradoxical question: “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 real.

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

- Well, you can think so. 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 what is not real for him, but an imaginary reality. 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 true reality is the reality in which we, adults, spend more time. We will assume that if we constantly return to this reality after sleep, work, study and solve various life problems in it, then it is primary for us. But we must still not forget that she is not the only one.

- Okay, we seem to have figured this out: we live in two parallel realities. What then are the differences between these realities?

- They differ significantly from each other. For example, in Another 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 cannot be seen 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 we see a completely different one, logically in no way connected with yesterday’s dream. Today, for example, I dream of a village and cows, tomorrow - that I am an Indian on a 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 everything is usually logical and constructive, like 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 minimal levels of brain activity occur. This process is accompanied by a reduced reaction to the outside world. In addition, the vast majority of scientists agree that sleep is special state of consciousness. Just to answer the question, what is consciousness and what is his special state during sleep, scientists cannot give an answer.

There is a special field of medical science that studies sleep and treats 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 what sleep disorders there are (bruxism, narcolepsy, Pickwickian syndrome, restless leg syndrome, insomnia, and others) and what methods a person can treat for them. But there is still no single plausible theory about the nature of sleep as a phenomenon. There is no clear scientific explanation for what this phenomenon that we all encounter every day actually is. Science in our enlightened age is not able to determine why we need sleep and what mechanisms are involved in it. It describes well the functions of sleep: rest, metabolism, restoration of immunity, processing of information, adaptation to the change of day and night…. but this all applies only to the body! Where is ours at this time? "altered consciousness", which scientists still talk about? They speak, but do not understand. But if scientists cannot answer the question of what consciousness is, then what success can they have in understanding the nature of sleep?

We are very accustomed to being proud of science, considering ourselves advanced, and even in some cases repeating 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 turned out to be unable 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 been studied a long time ago, many diagnostic methods and 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 called somnography. It consists of continuous recording of various indicators of body functions, on the basis of which a sleep analysis is made, and all stages characteristic of it are identified. The data obtained during this registration is thoroughly recorded and studied, and as a result, the entire sleep physiology of the person being examined becomes visible. Based on these indicators, sleep disorders and pathologies can be determined, the necessary treatment can be prescribed... but how to explain the nature of sleep and the reality in which the sleeping person is located? This cannot be achieved by any analysis of impulses, 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, you will not find any mention in any textbook or monograph, as well as in any scientific journal on neurophysiology or neuropsychology, that our consciousness is the result of brain activity. None of the scientists have discovered such a relationship between the brain and the very center of our personality - our “I”. Based on many years of research, the largest specialists in these fields of science came to the conclusion that neither consciousness itself nor its modified 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 a phenomenon, without even trying to look deeper and understand its essence hidden from the eyes. 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, this is not at all surprising.

- But there is also such a science as neuropsychology, which studies the connection between the functioning of the brain and the psyche, the brain and human behavior. Perhaps 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 she was not at all successful in studying the nature of sleep and human consciousness.

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

Imagine that the waves wash up on 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 the incomprehensible find, the Papuans immediately call their smartest 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 will 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 will be heard from it... of different spirits! Rejoicing again... Then a whole “scientific institute” of Papuans finds out that the light in the flashlight only lights up if you press the button, and if you don’t press it, it doesn’t 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 it in water, it dies! Ceremonial presentation of the “Golden Banana” for an outstanding discovery!

As a result of all these “achievements”, Papuan “scientists” begin to feel like experts in the secrets of the Universe. There's just one catch... If you ask them what sound is, where its source is and how it is transmitted, 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 intelligently explain to you how to turn the wheel and why the flashlight does not want to shine under water. Without understanding the essence and not realizing the naivety of their discoveries.

— It’s sad to realize that in the study of sleep we are the same Papuans, but it seems very likely that this is true….

- Exactly. A similar situation, by the way, is with the successes in the fight against mental illness. The nature (etiology) of most of them is still unclear. For example, schizophrenia. The treatment for this disease, which is (often relatively successfully) used in psychiatry, is similar to the way Papuan “scientists” shake a broken receiver with a smart look when the signal disappears: suddenly you’ll be lucky that after a good shake it will start talking again (if the contacts accidentally connect) …. but you may 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 signal transmission and the role of contacts!

Likewise, our scientists do not understand the spiritual basis of human nature. And this situation has developed in many sciences. In almost every field, some scientists behave in much the same way as those Papuans. In pursuit of the next “important” discovery for humanity and the bonus that comes with it, they act like savages shaking a radio. Moreover, just like the Papuans, they are in full confidence about their greatest practical achievements, without having learned anything in essence. And this, as they say, would be funny if it weren’t so sad.

- But why don’t scientists take into account this interdependence between effect and 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. Only the spiritual world can give us answers to the questions: what is consciousness, soul, life, death, eternity and many others.

In order to understand the world order, thousands of years ago people inherited the enormous spiritual experience of our ancestors. And, in addition, the Christian Commandments and the Holy Scriptures - the Bible - were left for eternal use to posterity; and then also an explanation for 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 fundamentals of human existence, and only with such spiritual baggage they undertook serious research, then their results would look completely different. Under such conditions there would be much more benefit and meaning in their scientific research and discoveries.

It must be said that among scientists there are also people who think deeply in this regard, who realize the complexity of comprehending human nature as a particle of the universe created by God. Such scientists do not limit their efforts to understand this nature to the study of human physiological functions 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 “naked” physiology alone... And the human brain, as you say, is not just an organ of the body, but something like an antenna for tuning into the desired reality ?

— To put it figuratively, this is so. A radio receiver without an antenna does not work, and if the functions of the brain are impaired, then the connection is also impaired - the signal does not pass through as it should. 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 in a dream or are we already awake? This can happen to us when “the wave in our receiver is knocked down” - if it has not yet had time to retune from sleep to wakefulness. Very often this happens in young children - after waking up, they can “re-tune” to this reality for quite a long time after vivid and interesting dreams.

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

Again, children perceive the Other reality more sharply and clearly. When they dream of something scary, from which they are running away, 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? A 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 had a very scary dream may even begin to stutter! And, of course, everyone knows about cases of nocturnal enuresis.

As for adults, they sometimes experience a disease called “Pickwickian 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 as in the old days. If such a patient dreams that he is fishing, then in his dream he will seem to be “holding 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 carp went. And the “diner” wonders why all the food was taken away so quickly, because he was not yet full.”(Based on the book “Sleep Disorders. Treatment and Prevention”, compiled by Rashevskaya K., “Phoenix”, 2003)

This is nothing more than “wandering” between Realities and gradual tuning into one of them. A similar mechanism of “slow 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 moves around unconsciously, as they say: “in a twilight state of consciousness.” Somnambulism occurs if 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 speaks in his sleep or sits up in bed. Episodes of somnambulism, as a rule, begin 1-1.5 hours after falling asleep during “slow” (shallow) sleep or during incomplete awakening from fast (deep) sleep; while the brain is in a state of half-sleep, half-awake. In other words, a person in such a state is, as it were, between two realities, because his brain cannot normally tune in to either of them.

— What happens in this regard to mentally ill people or, for example, alcoholics?

— Disruption and distortion of signal transmission. If we again take the analogy with the receiver, then unless it is tuned to a certain wave, only whistling and hissing will be heard from it, occasionally replaced by unclear signals from neighboring stations in the range. There will be no clear signal. The same thing happens in people with damaged psyches. Many objective-minded specialists 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 “retuning” from one reality to another becomes impossible?

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

- And therefore, after death, we will never be able to return to our reality, as it always happened after awakenings?

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

From all that has been said, we can conclude that death is such change in state of consciousness, in 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 move from Another reality to This one, as it did after sleep.

I will quote the words of Archbishop Luke Voino-Yasenetsky (St. Luke). In his book Spirit, Soul and Body he wrote: “The life of all organs of the body is needed only for the formation of the spirit and ceases when its formation is completed or its direction is completely 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, wondrous dream, then we won’t want to wake up at all. How many times have we gotten up irritated by the sound of the alarm clock! Do you know where the irritation comes from? We just felt good in the reality from which this annoying alarm clock pulled us out! And vice versa - we wake up in horror if we had a nightmare, and think: “It’s so good that it was just 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 by the thought of carnal death that they are afraid that their life will 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 remain forever in a beautiful, wondrous, 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, can we say that heaven and hell are just different states of the soul?

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

— After your words, I remembered the expression “fell asleep in eternal sleep.” How true is it?

- First, 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 main 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 in Another reality there is no time, but there is Eternal life, then it is much more logical to call our temporary stay in This reality a dream. Indeed, unlike eternity, it is limited in strength to only a few dozen years.

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

- Certainly! You have probably seen from your own experience that very often in our dreams we experience what worries us. If, for example, our child gets sick, then the dream will be alarming, with worries about this sick child, and if you have a wedding approaching, then the dream will be associated with this joyful event. This happens very often. Sleep in such cases is a continuation of waking life. We dream about what excites and concerns us, or what evokes 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 about or philosophizes about in its sleep: it spends the whole day worrying about human affairs, and it fusses about them in dreams; if she constantly studies in divine and heavenly things, then during sleep she enters into them and gains wisdom in 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 to Another Reality.

- It seems that Christianity says the same thing?

- 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 soil it; how we fight passions, unproductive desires, or how we learn mercy, love - we will take all this with us. This is said not only in Christianity, but also in Islam, and, partly, in Buddhism, and in other religions.

I will give you 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 will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:19-20).

“Do not love the world, nor the things in the world: whoever loves the world does not have the Father’s love 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 passes away, and its lusts, but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15-17).

And this is what the Holy Quran teaches in Islam:

“Know that worldly life is only fun, vanity and vanity, boasting among you, and passion for increasing wealth and children. Like rain, 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 Hereafter there will be a severe punishment, but [for those who believe] there will be forgiveness from Allah and favor. After all, life in this world is only a seduction by transitory blessings.” (Surah Al Hadid, 57:20)

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

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

So that death does not become a terrible disappointment for us, but becomes an awakening into the joy of eternal life. And so that this eternal life turns out to be a reward and not suffering. But, no matter what, 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 acquiring illusory benefits and pleasures. After some time, these earthly pleasures will dissipate like empty, exciting dreams, and there will be nothing to move to another world with. After all, our souls can only take spiritual values ​​there and will take absolutely nothing from the material and sensual.

— How will such “terrible disappointment” manifest itself? Will this be the torment of the hell described in the Bible?

— The torment of hell is mental torment, not physical. Biblical texts about material and de, are an attempt to describe it using human-readable illustrations from material his life. The physical pain of fire is given in the Bible as a metaphor to illustrate mental anguish. Only in such an allegorical way was it possible to convey mental anguish to people who had forgotten about the existence of the immortal soul non-material hell - hell for a sinful soul.

Archbishop Luke Voino-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 opportunity for unlimited development in the direction of goodness and Divine love, in constant communication with God and all ethereal forces. And the gloomy spirit of villains and God-fighters, in constant communication with the devil and his angels, will forever be tormented by its alienation from God, whose holiness it will finally recognize, and by the unbearable poison that evil and hatred conceal within themselves, growing infinitely in constant communication 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 you cannot wake up. This is eternal “outer darkness” - distance from God, from His Love and Light - alone with all your sins and passions.

Hell is darkness and horror without end. It’s this kind of endless horror that you can “wake up” in if you don’t keep the commandments and destroy your soul in every way.

- Yes, a rather bleak picture... You wouldn’t wish endless horror on your enemy. Moreover, you will never 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 for some reason we need periodic transitions into this reality?

— Proof 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. Far from home, while spending the night in the forest, the Holy Great Martyr Catherine appeared to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in a dream and informed him of the birth of his daughter. The Catherine Monastery was subsequently founded on this site (now this monastery is located in the Moscow region, near the city of Vidnoye).

In the book by Alexander Yakovlev “The Age of Philaret” there is a story about a prophetic dream that Saint Philaret of Moscow had shortly before his death. Let me give you a short excerpt from this book:

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

The saint realized that his father had come to warn that his earthly journey would end on the 19th in the coming months... For two months on the 19th, Metropolitan Philaret received communion of the Holy Mysteries and went to God directly after communion on November 19, 1867.

St. Sergius of Radonezh, St. Seraphim of Sarov and many other saints had visions and predictions at the moment of “subtle” (shallow) sleep.

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

In February 2003, Bishop Anthony of Sourozh, who was suffering from cancer, dreamed of his grandmother and, flipping through the calendar, indicated the date: August 4. Vladyka, contrary to the optimism of the attending physician, said that this was the day of his death. Which came true.

How, if not the merging of two realities, can explain such phenomena?

But the existence of Another reality can be judged by other phenomena that have not yet been solved by science. These include lethargic sleep, 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 lethargic sleep, but still no one knows exactly why a person suddenly falls asleep for a period from several days to several years. It is impossible to predict when awakening will come. Outwardly, the state of lethargy really resembles deep sleep. But it is almost impossible to wake up a “sleeping” person; he does not respond to calls, touches and other external stimuli. However, breathing is clearly visible and the pulse is easily palpable: smooth, rhythmic, sometimes a little slow. Blood pressure is normal or slightly reduced. Skin color is normal, unchanged.

Only in extremely rare cases do people who have fallen asleep in a lethargic sleep experience a sharp decrease in blood pressure, the pulse is barely detectable, breathing becomes shallow, and the skin becomes cold and pale. One can only guess 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 newborn children. 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 and spend practically no energy. What do they receive from the Other Reality during this dream? Information, strength for growth? Again, we don’t have an answer, but the conclusion is still clear: they really need this state.

The need for periodic stay in Another reality can be traced through 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 person’s conscious choice or the consequences of forced sleep deprivation during torture and interrogation.

Sleep deprivation can cause many diseases and has a very negative effect on the functioning of the brain. Among the many painful effects on the body, lack of sleep can lead to the following symptoms: decreased 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 truly vital for us.

- So it means that both sleeping and dead people end up in the same reality? If this is so, then perhaps in a dream you can communicate with those who have left?

“Many people want to meet their deceased loved ones in their dreams. This is a very understandable desire: to see and talk with your loved one again. There are simple dreams that realize this unrealizable wish in reality at the subconscious level. But there are also real meetings in Another reality, during which the deceased can tell the sleeper 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 spoke 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 does harm. Because people who have lost a loved one want him to come to them in their dreams again and again. And if this happens, then they become dependent on these meetings in a dream, moving away from their lives. It becomes easier and more joyful 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 about it himself. Much more important is prayer for the repose of his soul and being with God, and not life in communication 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 they want to ask him for forgiveness...

- Here it is important to understand that the deceased is already in Another reality, where there is no place for earthly grievances. Therefore, he has probably already forgiven you. And you, of course, must forgive him. For any Orthodox Christian, forgiveness is an obligation not only towards the deceased, but towards all people in general. If you go to confession and want God to forgive you your sins, then you are obliged to forgive any person. And you don’t have to tell him about it personally. After all, it also happens to the living that a person leaves for no one knows where, leaving neither a telephone number nor an address. We don’t know where he is, but we don’t rush around in desperate searches all over the world just to ask him for forgiveness or to say something unsaid... It’s the same with the deceased - it’s not at all necessary and even harmful to disturb their souls by calling to dream about it in order to finally say something to them.

— So you can’t do practices related to sleep? What does this mean?

— Now this topic is in fashion. Although there have always been and will be occultists who practice out-of-body experiments. This can really 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, but you can also 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 between a good uncle and a bad uncle, go out alone into the street. Because we know about the likelihood that something terrible could happen to him. Although the baby himself may naively believe that every passerby is kind and good.

It is logical for any adult and mentally adequate person to calculate the likelihood of an undesirable and dangerous situation. 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. These are the curious “children” who strive to go out into the unknown and dangerous spiritual Other World in order to meet and communicate with everyone there. But this could end very badly.

Everyone knows that in history there were Holy Fathers who could go into the Other World without fear. But 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 found themselves in and with whom they could communicate in it and with whom they could not.

The rest of the naive “researchers” who learn all this or call spirits for conversations are like youngsters who open the windows and doors wide open for everyone. Then, naturally, various vile entities break into all these “windows and doors” and begin to take over in full. And it’s not for nothing that the Church has always called and continues to call: do not engage in practices of communication with otherworldly forces! Do not rush to “take a walk” into the Other World, where, as here, in addition to good, evil also exists. Spiritually immature people are unable to distinguish one from the other. They can deceive you: they give you an attractive “candy”, for which you will later have to pay with the most priceless thing - your soul. They can, like a child, be taken away irrevocably, or simply even frightened so much that then all your life you will simply be afraid to fall asleep, and not to mention “walking” in another reality.

So do not trust people who offer you to master some practice of communication with the other world, be reasonable - such “entertainment” is not at all safe.

“I heard that monasteries hold special prayer services called “midnight night.” Why at night? Maybe because night prayer is more effective? After all, they say that in a state of half-asleep, when a person is 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 exactly what all the major religions of the world think. We have already talked about revelations when I gave examples of prophetic dreams. A person sees most prophetic dreams precisely at those moments when he is in a state of half-asleep and is already approaching with his consciousness another reality. 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.”

The Monk Isaac the Syrian wrote about 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... The spiritual light from night prayer generates joy during the day.”

In Islam, as well as in Orthodoxy, night prayers are given special attention. During the month of fasting, believers perform additional prayer at night. And in normal times, in addition to the obligatory night prayer, which is performed before 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 some time, and only after that get up to communicate with the Almighty. A reliable legend says about this: “Every night the Lord descends to the lower sky after the first third of the night. He exclaims: “I am the Lord! Is there anyone who calls [to Me]? I'll answer him. Is there anyone who asks Me? I'll give it to him. Is there anyone who repents so that I can forgive him?

Perhaps the special power of these night prayers is due precisely to 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 Another reality?

- That's right, and this is even proven by the results of some of the latest brain research.

Not long ago, a group of scientists from the St. Petersburg Psychoneurological Research Institute named after. V. M. Bekhtereva conducted an experiment on the influence of prayer on the biocurrents of the brain. For this purpose, believers of various concessions were invited. They were asked to pray earnestly and during 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 prayerful state as a new phase of the working brain. " In this state, the brain actually turns off, “active mental activity ceases, and it seems to me - although I cannot yet prove it - that consciousness begins to exist outside the body,” - he claims.

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 gravity. As a physician, I have seen patients who did not respond to any therapeutic treatment. They were able to recover from illness 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 come to us. By turning to God in sincere prayer, we improve and heal our soul and body. It is impossible for any man or woman to fail to have a single moment of prayer without a positive result.”

Do you remember at the beginning of our conversation I talked about babies who, after birth, spend most of their time sleeping - in Another Reality? It turns out that small children and praying people are closest to God.

- Tell me, is it possible to believe 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 embraces a shadow or one who chases the wind; dreams are exactly the same as the reflection of a face in a mirror” (34, 1-3).

The Holy Scriptures say about them that: “...dreams happen with a lot of worries” (Eccl. 5:2) So what: “In a multitude of dreams, as in a multitude of words, there is much vanity” (Eccl. 5:6). This is what belongs 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, some from our own, and some from the enemy. How to find out is beyond your imagination. Peephole peephole. The only thing we can say decisively is that dreams that are contrary to Orthodox Christianity must be rejected. Also: there is no sin in not following dreams when you lack confidence. God’s dreams, which must be fulfilled, were sent repeatedly.”

- Sleep, death, prayer... How interconnected it all is!

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

It is also interesting that in Islam sleep is called the little death. The Prophet Muhammad greeted his companions as they awoke from sleep in the morning: “Truly, the Almighty took your souls when He wished, and returned them when He wished.”

Agree that such a religious judgment is in close proximity to the concept of sleep, as a short-term 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 in this matter all their lives and die in complete ignorance of what awaits them after death, but the media also do their bit - “fog up” with false information.

The famous psychotherapist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Psychotherapy at the Kharkov Institute for Advanced Medical Studies T. I. Akhmedov spoke well about this: “The media, rather than using its enormous educational potential to disseminate useful information about death and dying, contributes to the spread of misconceptions about these phenomena...”

- So what is death? Where do dead people go?

- Let's now summarize all of the above. You and I have already found out that during our lives we are alternately in two parallel realities: in This and in the Other. Sleep is a special state of our consciousness that temporarily transfers us to Another reality. Having awakened from sleep, we return to This reality every time. And only after death do we move into Another reality forever.

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

Many scientists have already come to this opinion, as I said above. But if we consider the issue much deeper than science does, and are 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 sleep - at best, lasting several decades. But, in addition to 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 “eternal sleep”, and for the soul it is awakening in another world(in Another reality). That's why the deceased person is called deceased, that his body fell asleep, i.e. rested, ceasing to function without the soul that had left it.

Here it must be said that the concept "eternal sleep" somewhat metaphorically, because the sleep of the body will last only until the Last Judgment, when people will be resurrected for eternal life. After death, the soul remains either with God or without God - it depends on how a person lived his life and what he managed to enrich his soul with: 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 sin and is far from God, you can often beg for forgiveness 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 awakening of the immortal soul into eternal life. The phenomenon of death should be perceived only as the end 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.

1. death - About the time of death; about its inevitability. Timeless, merciless, close, fleeting, faithful, sudden, formidable, coming (obsolete poet. Dictionary of Russian language epithets
2. death - noun, number of synonyms... Dictionary of Russian synonyms
3. death - DEATH, and, many. and, she, w. 1. Termination of the body’s vital functions. Clinical p. (a short period after the cessation of breathing and cardiac activity, during which tissue viability is still preserved). Biological... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
4. death - DEATH - IMMORTALITY Mortal - immortal (see) We have harsh freedom: Dooming our mother to tears, Buying the immortality of our people with our death. K. Simonov. Glory. Young men listen to verses about death, but in their hearts they hear: immortality. Mayakovsky. Dictionary of antonyms of the Russian language
5. death - -and, genus. pl. -hey, w. 1. biol. Termination of the vital activity of the organism and its death. Physiological death. Cell death. Death of the plant. 2. Cessation of the existence of humans and animals. Sudden death. Early death. Small academic dictionary
6. death - DEATH w. (die), smertushka, Moscow. Thumb. smeryotka, smeryotochka, smeryotushka, smeredushka, novg. olon. arch. the end of earthly life, death, separation of the soul from the body, dying, the state of the obsolete. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
7. DEATH - DEATH is the cessation of life, the natural end of a single living being or the violent killing of not only individuals, but also entire species of animals and plants due to environmental disasters and man’s predatory attitude towards nature. New Philosophical Encyclopedia
8. death - Termination of the vital activity of an organism, which is irreversible. In unicellular organisms (for example, protozoa), death manifests itself in the form of division, leading to the cessation of the existence of a given individual and the appearance of two new ones in its place. Biology. Modern encyclopedia
9. death - J., b. p. -i, ukr. death, blr. death, other Russian death, old glory die θάνατος (Ostrom., Klots., Supr.), Bulgarian. smart, Serbohorv. death, birth n. death, Slovenian. smr̀t, gen. n. smȓti, Czech. smrt, slvts. smrt᾽, Polish śmierć, v.-luzh. smjerć, n.-luzh. Etymological Dictionary of Max Vasmer
10. death - death I f. 1. Termination of life, death and disintegration of the body. 2. transfer Complete cessation of any activity; end. II adv. vernacular Very strongly, to the highest degree (about something unpleasant, bad for someone). III predic. vernacular Explanatory Dictionary by Efremova
11. death - ***** Ryleev. “You can’t have two deaths, but you can’t avoid one.” (last) “Even death is red in the world.” (last). | trans. Death, cessation, destruction (book). Socialism brings death to the capitalist world. 2. in meaning adv., singular only Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
12. DEATH - DEATH - in science - a natural and irreversible cessation of the life of a biological system. In philosophy, human mortality is viewed not so much as a natural phenomenon, but rather as a social phenomenon that requires rational perception and comprehension. The latest philosophical dictionary
13. death - One of the central concepts of forensic medicine; is a stepwise process extending from life to biological life. (irreversible cessation of the body's vital functions). Medicine now recognizes... Large legal dictionary
14. DEATH - Myths about the origin of S. are found among almost all nations. These myths are very diverse, but almost everywhere they are subject to the general laws of mythological thinking. Mythological encyclopedia
15. death - Termination of the vital activity of an organism, its death as a separate integral system. In multicellular organisms, the death of an individual is accompanied by the formation of a dead body (in animals, a corpse). Biological encyclopedic dictionary
16. DEATH - DEATH - cessation of the vital activity of an organism, its death. In unicellular organisms (for example, protozoa), the death of an individual manifests itself in the form of division, leading to the cessation of the existence of this individual and the emergence of two new ones in its place. Large encyclopedic dictionary
17. DEATH - DEATH - English. death; German Tod. Irreversible cessation of an organism's vital functions, the inevitable final stage of its existence. Sociological Dictionary
18. death - spelling death, -and, pl. -and, -ey Lopatin's spelling dictionary
19. Death - The cessation of the vital activity of an organism and, as a result, the death of the individual as a separate living system, accompanied by the decomposition of proteins (See Proteins) and other biopolymers (See Biopolymers), which are the main material substrate of life (See Great Soviet Encyclopedia
20. death - Eyeless (Golen.-Kutuzov, Sologub). Merciless (Danilin). Blissfully terrible (Bryusov). White (Balmont, Oliger). Greedy (Golen.-Kutuzov). Evil (Burenin). Kostlyavaya (Krachkovsky). Fierce (Polezhaev). Slow and deceptive (Balmont). Dictionary of literary epithets
21. DEATH - DEATH, cessation of life. Traditionally, in medicine, death occurs when the heart stops beating. However, modern methods of resuscitation and life support sometimes make it possible to bring even people back to life... Scientific and technical dictionary
22. death - DEATH -and; pl. genus. -tey, dat. -tyam; and. 1. Biol. Termination of the vital activity of the organism and its death. State with. Physiological s. C. cells. C. plants. Biological... Kuznetsov's Explanatory Dictionary
23. death - Formed by means of the prefix съ from мрть - “death”. Since the meaning of the prefix s is “good,” the literal meaning of the word death is “natural, one’s own death.” Krylov's etymological dictionary
24. death - Death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death Zaliznyak's Grammar Dictionary

The topic of today's article will be difficult, but vital... or rather, deadly. Deadly-vital, because, as you know, life and death are two sides of the same coin and, as you know, death befalls everyone.

Words from the film under the article: “ Death is always near... it haunts us. Maybe it will happen tomorrow, maybe in a few years... Usually we are not given the opportunity to know the cause and time of our death.

We are afraid of many things, but the fear of death is the strongest. Perhaps because there is uncertainty there.”

No matter how broadly and ambiguously someone understands the concept of death, as a rule, death is understood as the end of the life of a living organism.

“Death (death) is the cessation, complete stop of the biological and physiological processes of the body. The phenomena that most often cause death are aging, malnutrition, disease, suicide, murder and accidents. Soon after death, the bodies of living organisms begin to decompose.

Death has always carried a certain imprint of mystery and mysticism. The unpredictability, inevitability, surprise and sometimes insignificance of the reasons leading to death took the very concept of death beyond the limits of human perception, turning death into a divine punishment for a sinful existence or into a divine gift, after which a person can expect a happy and eternal life.”

From a medical point of view, the end point of the transition from life to death is biological death; informational, or final death, implies the beginning of the process of rigor, the decomposition of the corpse. Biological death is preceded by a preagonial state, agony, and clinical death.

About 62 million people in the world die annually for a variety of reasons, the main of which are diseases of the cardiovascular system (stroke, heart attack), oncology (lung, breast, stomach cancer, etc.), infectious diseases, hunger, unsanitary conditions. That is, despite all the mystery, death is a concrete phenomenon that claims tens of millions of human lives.

And if many people valued the shortness of life more (for example, they did not smoke, did not drink alcohol, did not drive drunk) - the days of their stay on earth would be extended. However, people, perfectly understanding the finitude of life, very often seem to burn it through the last holes...

But no one knows what is there after death... maybe life on earth is an exam, after passing which we will go to a good or bad place. And whether there will be another life in reincarnation or not... That is why there are so many assumptions that no one knows for sure what will happen there. Everyone is just guessing. However, Christians believe in the singularity of life and salvation through faith and good works.

“Despite the complexity of the problem of death, in medicine there has long been a clear specific classification that allows the doctor in each case of death to establish the signs that determine the category, type, type of death and its cause.

In medicine, there are two categories of death - violent death and non-violent death.

The second qualifying sign of death is gender. In both categories, it is customary to distinguish three types of death. The types of non-violent death include physiological death, pathological death and sudden death. The types of violent death are murder, suicide, and accidental death.

The third qualifying feature is the type of death. Establishing the type of death is associated with determining the group of factors that caused death, united by their origin or effect on the human body. In particular, brain death is considered as a separate type of death, different from classic death with primary circulatory arrest.

The main cause of death is considered a nosological unit in accordance with the International Classification of Diseases: damage or disease that itself became the cause of death or caused the development of a pathological process (complication) leading to death.”

In our country, a death certificate is issued based on the death of the entire brain. There are a number of difficulties here, because with the death of the brain, a so-called “vegetative state” is possible, when a person exists only as a biological organism, his personality is not preserved, doctors often suggest that relatives of patients who have been in a coma for a long time be disconnected from the machines, because the laws are such that that the person is actually already dead.

But besides all these papers, diagnoses, formalities - what remains of a person after his death? There was a man - there is no man. What was his life like? Why are we born? “Just like that, the star will light up and fall asleep, nothing.” And many billions of people have already died. A trail of not just mystery, but a mass of unanswered questions leaves the finitude of life.

Death is something that everyone will go through at one time, because “no one has ever come out of life alive.”

Death is not the opposite of life, although there are many works like Fromm’s treatises, where biophilia is contrasted with necrophilia. Life is the end point of life, death is the end point of the segment called life, and its beginning point is birth. Whoever is born will definitely die... This is the truth of this mortal earth. Everything here is perishable, perishable and impermanent...

Death in the modern world is either avoided, preferring simply not to talk about it, or they convince us from all sides that death is like a cold - it happens to everyone, and there is no need to worry. It is rather a defense of consciousness from breakdown, an escape of a frightened person in an attempt to conquer the finitude of life.

Death, as they want to get into our heads, is a natural physiological process, the same as birth, aging... it’s just that yesterday a person’s heart hurts, and the day before yesterday he was covered with wrinkles... and today he died - and that’s all normal, there’s no need to kill yourself. Until the Middle Ages, they even tried not to draw a clear line between the world of the dead and the world of the living; they held meetings in cemeteries and took walks; later, closer to the Middle Ages, cemeteries began to be moved outside the city limits, they tried to perform funeral services for the dead, seeing them off forever into a world from which they do not return.

They are trying to convince us that death is like inhaling and exhaling... it’s just that someone is born, someone dies... and the birth rate in our world is good now: after all, there are already 7.5 billion people, and all 6.5 billion were born only in recent years two hundred years (by 2024 there will be more than 8 billion people).

In such a string of lives and deaths, it is very difficult to think about what death is, it becomes uncomfortable in the soul, and you know, there is little time for this philosophy - you have to have time to live, so it is very logical to make the final result of life a physiological norm, or rather to convince yourself and those around you is that death is a mosquito bite.

It’s more peaceful to live this way, accepting death as a self-evident fact helps to keep the psyche stable, and not suffer in search of the meaning of life and fear of the inevitability. Something like samurai calm: “death is just part of the samurai’s path, where just a new life awaits him behind the next door.”

Tinsel, bustle, a lot of people around, a million melodies in life, high-rise buildings, a career, the growth of megacities, traffic jams, dynamic progressiveness - all this sometimes does not even leave a modern person time to sit down and think about what is there, beyond the line of his fate... to think about God. ... or about the devil.. about the outcome of your life.

By the way, haven’t you noticed how much bustle and noise there is now? Those who remember, even as children, the period 10-20 years ago will note that it was quieter on earth.. The abundance of cell phones, information technology, tablets, gadgets, players, cars - all this makes noise, noise, and poisons the air. The number of people on earth has increased. Against the backdrop of all this, many things are devalued, questions about life and death fade due to lack of time to search for answers to them, and the noise of the progress of humanity, standing for hours in traffic jams, greeting the 7th iPhone with applause, interferes with focusing on such serious things.

But be that as it may: death is scary, and it’s impossible to get used to it! Even pathologists, police officers, investigators, doctors, people who, on duty, have had to see many deaths and corpses, seem to learn over the years of practice to perceive the death of others without strong emotions, but none of them will calmly endure the death of a loved one and they are all afraid of their own death .

Conclusion: it is impossible to get used to death, you can live in the illusion that death is a continuation of life or justify everything with science, medicine, but death is what makes a person a small insect and absolutely powerless in front of nature, which is stronger than us.

According to Christianity, death is the punishment for sin, and through Adam and Eve who sinned, everyone became mortal, just as everyone ate this forbidden fruit. That is, if we take into account God’s plan, death is already abnormal and non-physiological, since it was not like that in Paradise. Let's leave aside the scourging about the fact that a person chose this himself. But talk about the fact that we are all aging according to the will of God is absurd... In general, we, being on earth, knowing our mortal nature, seem to be constantly called upon to make some kind of choice: either to evaluate life and do deeds worthy of life, or to honor God, whom our ancestors disobeyed...

However, in the end (as it is written in the Bible), death will go away again: “In the Revelation of the Apostle John the Theologian it is written that death will cease after the Last Judgment, in the coming Kingdom of God: “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death; There will be no more mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore (Rev. 21:4).”

The same doctors, who seemed to have learned cynicism and indifference to other people’s pain, in their time (19th and 20th centuries) carried out research: they weighed dying people on a special bed (from then common diseases - tuberculosis, for example), recorded the moment of death, so in this way they established the approximate weight of the “soul”, or some substance that, in their opinion, was leaving the body... The weight of the soul was about 2-3 grams.

Later, these studies were questioned, since the weight of 2-3 grams is so insignificant that it is absurd to attribute their loss to the departure of the soul, and besides, physiological processes occur directly during cardiac arrest that can slightly lighten the weight of the deceased.

But even if the weight of the soul is really a couple of grams, where does the soul go after death, what is death - not a single doctor could answer...

The extinction of life processes, the onset of irreversible processes almost immediately after death, a few minutes after cardiac arrest, very rarely after several hours (after all, in extremely rare cases, resuscitation is carried out for up to 2 hours), the decomposition of the body to dust ultimately puts a stamp on a person’s earthly life. frailty. As if life was a one-time rental of the body with subsequent disposal. We will no longer see the soul, and where it goes is a mystery under thousands of seals, and everything that we loved in a person has become ordinary dust...

And when people say that they are accustomed to death, it seems that they have anesthetized their soul, have withdrawn from their thoughts, it is impossible to get used to death.

In philosophy, the problem of death is especially highlighted, but still there is little specificity, basically all dogmas are built on the value of life thanks to death. The famous thesis “To live is to die” implies both the inevitability of the death of any living organism and the melancholy of philosophers reflecting on rhetorical questions through the prism of the finitude of the mortal world. That is, it is very sad (but definitely, unfortunately): even the very fact of birth already implies death in the future... Parents give birth to a baby, but do they think that they essentially gave birth to him to die?

From the comments. Opinions about what death is:

“According to the theory of biocentrism, death is an illusion that our consciousness creates. After death, a person passes into a parallel world.

Human life is like a perennial plant that always returns to bloom again in the multiverse. Everything we see exists thanks to our consciousness. People believe in death because they are taught so, or because their consciousness associates life with the functioning of internal organs. Death is not the absolute end of life, but represents a transition to a parallel world.

In physics, there has long been a theory about an infinite number of Universes with different variations of situations and people. Everything that can happen is already happening somewhere, which means death cannot exist in principle.”

Let's return to Fromm's above-mentioned biophilia and necrophilia. If philosophy suggests not contrasting death with life, since death is the end point of life, and not its opposite, then Erich Fromm still contrasts death with life, or rather, love for life with love for death.

In his opinion, the love of life underlies the psyche of a normal person, while the love of death (and Fromm worked with criminals, murderers, etc.) makes a person dead even during his lifetime. A person makes a choice towards, so to speak, darkness, is drawn to evil, for example, a classic case of necrophilia according to Fromm is Hitler.

Erich Fromm wrote that the cause of necrophilia can be “an oppressive, joyless, gloomy atmosphere in the family, drowsiness... lack of interest in life, incentives, aspirations and hopes, as well as the spirit of destruction in social reality as a whole.”

It turns out that death is equal to destruction, someone dies after cardiac arrest, his body begins to decompose, the soul, if the person was good, his soul is alive (assumption according to religious versions), and for someone, even during life, despite the vitality of the body, the soul is already dead and is subject to destruction just as a dead body decomposes...

What is death is a question to which there is no specific answer... But no matter how much we say that there is no death, that the whole world is an illusion - our loved ones die, we ourselves are mortal, and the tombstones in cemeteries clearly tell us that death is not at all illusion. And why this is all - our life, as a result of which everyone dies - is an even greater mystery than death itself. Life is too short, often in a world that is too evil... is it really God’s will for all this? Maybe there really is another world after death, much better, more just than our corruptible one?..

“Death is worth living”... (V. Tsoi)

Memento mori... or, as they say, “remember that you are mortal!”...

A reminder to the dying person, his loved ones and everyone who is about to die.

It is better to be prepared for death in advance than to be unprepared when it comes.

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

In this review article, we will look at 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 moment of dying 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 claim that death is not the end of existence, but simply the abandonment by the soul of the gross physical body which can no longer perform important life functions. Soul, that is, the individual consciousness that is located in the body, does not depend on the state of the body, but experiences all bodily and mental sensations.

The body is temporary, and its lifespan, according to the Vedas, is determined at the moment of conception. This period cannot be changed by the desire of man, but can be changed by God, who is the cause of all things. There are many cases where sincere prayers brought a dying person back to life under the most pessimistic forecasts, and even “from the other world.”

The soul, unlike the body, is eternal: it cannot die, although the process of parting with the body can be perceived as its own dying. This occurs due to strong identification with the physical body and lack of awareness of oneself as a soul (consciousness). Therefore, during his lifetime, a person must gain knowledge about his spiritual nature and engage in spiritual practice, comprehending his true immaterial essence - this will help him in 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. Let's talk about this.

What is death and why is it needed?

Just as a person exchanges old rags for new clothes, so the soul receives new material bodies to replace the old and useless ones. This process is called reincarnation in the Vedas - the reincarnation of 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 final exam and successful completion of training. Sometimes we step on the same mistakes, 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 are subordinate, who teach us something in life, explicitly or implicitly. Our whole life is, in fact, a study, and death is the final exam. So, life after life, we receive new bodies and the corresponding training necessary in order to ultimately 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 illness, where forever 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. This is easy to understand by looking at your life and realizing that true happiness has not yet appeared, despite the many efforts made. That is why a person feels deep dissatisfaction in his soul, which is sometimes drowned out by temporary pleasures. The soul can be completely satisfied only 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 complete harmony and experiences true satisfaction and happiness.

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

Having become disillusioned with 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 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 training. Death can come at any moment, and you must always be prepared for it so that it does not come as a surprise. Man is given reason to study wisdom, think about the eternal and engage in self-knowledge. Modern people misuse their minds and waste their allotted life timelessly on entertainment and other activities that will not help them when the time comes to part with their bodies. 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 briefly describes the main points that you need to firmly know, remember and apply when your own death approaches or someone close to you dies.

Preparation for death, pre-mortem stages and the dying process

The first and most important thing that is useful for a dying person to know and remember is 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 one from the 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 come across such names of the Lord as, for example, Jehovah (the Living God), Yahweh (He who is, the Existing One), Hosts (Lord of Hosts), Elohim (the Mighty One, the Most High) and others, less known. For Muslims, the main name of God is Allah (the One Lord), and there are 99 other descriptive names. Other religions also use various titles of Gods, which are translated as the One, the Shining, the Lord, the Just, the Strong, the Manifested, the Victorious, the Healing, etc. Buddhism glorifies God who came to Earth 2500 years ago as Buddha. In Hinduism, such names of the Supreme Lord are widely known as Vishnu (the Supreme, the Omnipresent), Krishna (the All-Attractive), Rama (the All-Pleasing) and Hari (the Eliminator of Illusion) or Hare (the vocative form of “Hari” also means the Energy of Divine Love and Devotion) . 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 during the dying process, you need to focus on the chosen Name of God and constantly call on Him, trying not to be distracted by anything else.

The Vedas say: What a person thinks about at the moment of death is what he is attracted to in the next life. If you think about your dog, you can be born in the body of a dog. If you think about the opposite sex, you can get a body of the opposite sex. If at the moment of death a person thinks about God (calls Him by Name, reads prayers or mantras), he returns to the kingdom of God, where he can communicate with the Lord forever. This is discussed in more detail 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 don’t think about everything else, which is already useless and meaningless.

Stages of the dying process:

1. At the first stage in the whole body feels heavy as if the body is filled with lead. From the outside it looks like loss of control of facial muscles other than the eye muscles. 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 close or nearby read prayers or call on God.
2. The second stage of dying is characterized by a feeling of chills and very strong 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 to meet 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. At the third stage, the dying person feels as if he is being bitten by thousands of scorpions at the same time, as if the body is being torn to pieces, as if torn into atoms. Outwardly this appears as spasmodic breathing with strong vibration. At this moment, the subtle body (described at the end of the article) separates from the gross physical body, and this is painful. Physical senses turn off, but the soul is still in the heart chakra (in the area of ​​the heart) and sees pitch darkness. You need 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 Name!” You also need to read prayers out loud for him and call on God. At the moment of separation from the body (with the last exhalation), the soul may have a feeling of moving through a tunnel (pipe) towards the light, and it needs to continue to call on God. If the soul remains strongly attached to this world and does not want to leave the dying body (which it considers itself), this prevents it from leaving. You need to say to the dying person: "You need to meet God! Don't be afraid of anything and don't regret anything, turn to to God with prayer, call loudly His by name. He will come as a blinding white light, enter into Him!” The dying person must be constantly reminded of God and encouraged to call upon Him. And enter the bright light as soon as the opportunity presents itself. It is unfavorable to discuss any material topics; instead, you need to constantly shift your attention to God.

If the dying person was unable (didn’t have time, didn’t want, didn’t succeed) to turn to God and missed the bright light (didn’t enter it, didn’t see, didn’t 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 outside. He sees their tears and sorrow, hears their lamentations, and such behavior can frighten, plunge into shock, 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 step into it. This is the Light of God, He is your savior. Forget about everyone and everything else, call on God!"

If the soul was unable to concentrate and enter the light, it disappears. Then the soul goes into the intermediate layers for a period of 49 days until it enters a new body. It is beneficial to read prayers for the deceased, and throughout these 49 days to give instructions to the liberated soul to remember God and call on 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 on its own, without a call, because it remains attached to the place and relatives. It is important that relatives read prayers for her daily and ask her to do the same. Through sincere prayers, the lot of the soul left without a body can be greatly improved and it will receive a good body in a suitable family where it can progress spiritually. Also, prayers can rescue a soul from hell, significantly shortening the period of stay there.

The soul can be given a choice in which country and family to be born, therefore, when addressing by name, say: “N Don’t rush to be born if you see a godless country. One of the signs of a spiritual country is many temples. Don't rush to choose your parents. Look through 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 tell the deceased about this, then after 49 days the soul may not incarnate in the best way.

Do's and don'ts when dying

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

At the moment of dying you cannot:

1. Talk about worldly topics, because in the soul this causes attachment to material things, strong confusion and reluctance to leave the body unsuitable for life. This brings unnecessary suffering to the dying person.
2. To mourn, lament, sob and say goodbye - this causes confusion in the dying person and causes him unbearable pain.
3. Touch the body (even take it by the hand), because you can prevent the soul from leaving through the channel destined for it by karma (fate), by directing it to another channel, less favorable. But if a person falls asleep, you need to wake him up, shake him so that he regains 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 state.
4. The attention of a dying person must not be diverted from God (or prayers). Depending on the level of spiritual development and 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 a human body; upper gate (vertex) - enters the heavenly planets. Exiting through the sushumna (central channel) means entering the transcendental level (returning to the spiritual world). Focusing on God or His Name at the moment of dying 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 seized, so at the time of death the focus should be on God alone.

At the moment of dying you need:

1. Talk about God, read prayers or sacred scriptures glorifying the Lord, His games, deeds, names, qualities.
2. Inspire the dying person for an upcoming meeting with God, ask him to read prayers and call on God.
3. To relieve a dying person from grief by explaining the power of God: "Remembering the Almighty and calling Him by Name, you will find yourself in the spiritual world and receive an eternal beautiful body that does not get sick, grow old or 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 the bright white light, which brings deliverance from all suffering. We need to dispel the fear of death.
5. Rejoice at the deliverance of the soul from an incapacitated body and bodily suffering.

What happens at the moment of death

Immediately 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 people or people who die suddenly (for example, in a catastrophe, in battle, in an accident) do not see any light. Very sinful people are taken from the body before the light appears. Pious (almost sinless) people experience bliss when light appears, 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 illness, old age and death. You need to trust God and enter 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 all is lost, and you need to constantly read prayers and call on the Lord.

After the moment of death (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 appropriate prayers or mantras, and ask God to help the soul.

The main instruction for the soul before death, at the moment of dying 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 God, so forget about everything else and call on the Almighty!”

Life after death

Coming out of a dead body, if the soul has not entered the bright light, it finds itself in unfamiliar conditions and an unusual state. If a person has not previously engaged in spiritual practice and does not know that he is an eternal soul and what to do without a gross body, the new reality causes confusion 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 re-enter his body, which does not come to life. For this reason, it is better to burn the body, as they do in India, otherwise the soul may remain for a long time near the grave in the form of a ghost, being tied to the body.

If a person has not been prepared for death, then for the first 3-4 days after leaving the body he may be terrified and not pay attention to the instructions (at the same time, he usually sees a radiance and 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 happened on earth. Constantly think about the Lord, read prayers and call Him by Name, then you will reach the abode of God.”

It is favorable if spiritual music with suitable prayers or mantras, or simply a recording of the prayers of a sincere priest or holy person, is played around the clock in the room of the deceased, near his bed or photograph. 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 must be played for all 49 days, the volume must be kept low, but so that the words of the prayer can be clearly heard.

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 is externally a copy of the physical (gross) body. When you feel yourself, the subtle body feels like the physical body that is familiar to us.
2. The soul in the subtle body sees, hears and has other habitual perceptions.
3. The subtle body also has weight (small) and it obeys the law of gravity. In a relaxed state, it slowly sinks to the ground.
4. It can stretch out or take any other shape. When relaxed, it returns to the form of its usual physical body.
5. It has low density. The soul in the subtle body can pass through walls and any other obstacles (seeping 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 the subtle body).
8. The subtle body is connected to the gross body by a so-called silver thread, which breaks at the moment of death.
9. The subtle body is susceptible to the influence of electricity and can therefore 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, and 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 on its own (like the physical body); it lives and acts only thanks to the presence of the soul. The subtle body itself is not aware of anything, it is simply a temporary limiting shell for the conscious soul. The subtle body changes over time, but the soul remains unchanged. If the soul goes into the spiritual world, it does so without the mentioned bodies, only in its pure form, as pure consciousness. If the soul is destined to receive a body again 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 resides 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 this or that gross body, in which it can realize the remaining desires. If there are no material desires left, nothing holds the soul in the material world anymore.

While in the subtle body, you need to constantly call on God, read prayers, visit churches and temples, and attend divine services.

Light of various colors may appear in front of the soul located in the subtle body:

• Dazzling white is the light of the spiritual world, the kingdom of God. You need to strive into it, calling on God. All other shades of light are different material worlds.
• Dull white - from the kingdom of demigods (heavenly planets, according to Eastern religions).
• Dull green is the realm of demons (where powerful but godless creatures 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 Name. If it was not possible to enter the dazzling white light (and get into the spiritual world), the soul is in a suspended, intermediate state for 49 days. 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 through more families and choose the most spiritual life for yourself, so that you have the opportunity to engage in spiritual practice and progress.

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

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

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

Funerals: do's and don'ts

You need to understand 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 sense subtle energies. An ordinary person is “tuned” to gross sensations (received through the gross body), therefore he is usually not aware of subtle energies. And the soul without a rough body perfectly feels the subtle vibrations (energies) of those who are dear to it or whom it thinks about. In the subtle body, she (the soul), with the speed of thought, can be transported to the place she is thinking about, or to the person she has remembered. That is why, when we remember the deceased, he (like 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 him of karma (sins) and brings great benefit to the soul. Also, those who read these prayers receive no less benefit. Every time, remembering the deceased, you need to give him instructions or switch to prayer for him. At such moments, there is no need to think about anything material or negative, there is no 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 a funeral, the deceased is overcome by fear, because he feels how his karma is worsening because of this (the negative energies of these foods affect him), and he is pulled down into the hellish worlds. He begs the living not to do this, but of course they don’t hear him. If this makes him angry (which arises in the subtle body), the soul quickly falls into hell (like attracts like). Sincere prayer and turning to God by Name can save you. You can tell such a soul: " You see how your relatives sin for your sake, but do not get involved in it. Focus on invoking the NameGod and constantly read prayers, otherwise you will destroy yourself"A person with bad karma (many sins) is delirious and does not hear these instructions, or cannot accept and carry them out. You need to pray for him.

What not to do at a wake:

1. Eat products of violence (eggs, fish, meat), which 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 stupefies the consciousness 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, house, 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 a wake:

1. Read prayers, mantras, scriptures, chant 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 (preferably 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 the consecrated food and receive great benefit. This food should then 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 to or discuss the article on the forum or in the comments.

Having opened the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, we read: “Death is the cessation of the vital activity of an organism and, as a result, the death of the 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 determine the line between where life ends and death begins. After all, death is a process, and a slow one. Once upon a time, cardiac arrest was considered death; today, as is known, a person is definitely considered dead in case of brain death. And the brain can die long before the body stops breathing. But what then should die in the brain? Trunk. It is this that is the most ancient part of the “second Universe”, which is also called the “reptile brain”, the same 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, breathing, 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 often people die from old age and from diseases associated with it, such as cancer and stroke. However, the number one killer is heart disease, the worst of which is heart attack. They kill about a quarter of the population of the Western world.

You'll be completely dead

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

One of the most effective means of revival, oddly enough, is hypothermia - freezing. True, temporary. Doctors are still puzzling 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 have less need for nutrients and oxygen, and for the removal of harmful metabolic products.

German scientist Klaus Sames decided to cryo-freeze his body after death. According to the agreement signed between the 75-year-old scientist and the organization “Institute of Cryonics”, the scientist’s body will remain in the institute’s storage facilities until people learn to revive “frozen” cells

For whom the bell tolls

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

It became the reason for the appearance of the so-called mortuary waiting rooms, 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 process of decomposition was the only reliable method of determining that a person was dead. A rope was tied to the finger of such a “dubious” deceased, 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 the decomposing body. In all the years of the existence of the dead, not a single person came to life.

"Premature burial." Antoine Wirtz, 1854

It is believed that, deprived of the flow of oxygen through the blood, neurons die within minutes. At such supercritical moments, the brain can only maintain activity in those areas that are absolutely essential for survival.

Alive or dead: how to determine?

But there were quicker ways to find out if a person was dead. Some of them, oddly enough, are still relevant today. Sometimes many doctors use them. These methods cannot be called tricky: disturb the cough centers in the lungs; conduct a test for the “doll eyes symptom”, which consists of injecting cold water into a person’s ear: if the person is alive, his eyeballs will react reflexively; well, and very antediluvian ones - stick a pin under the nail (or just press on it), place an insect in the ear, scream loudly, cut the foot with a razor blade...

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

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

Neither alive nor dead

But those people whose brain is still alive are also considered dead, but they themselves are in a stable state of coma. This issue is controversial, and legislative disputes regarding it continue to this day. On the one hand, loved ones have the right to decide whether to disconnect such a person from the devices that support the body’s vital functions, and on the other hand, people who are in a long coma rarely, but still open their eyes...

This 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 more than a certain “set” of feelings, memories, experiences, characteristic only of this particular person. And when he loses this “set”, and there is no way to get it back, the person is considered dead. It doesn’t matter whether his heart beats, whether his organs work - what matters is whether 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 American psychologist Karlis Osis. The study was based on observations of attending physicians and nurses caring for dying people. His conclusions are based on the experience of 35,540 observations of the dying process.

The authors of the study stated that the majority of dying people did not experience fear. Feelings of discomfort, pain, or indifference were more common. About one in 20 people showed signs of elation.

Some studies show that older people experience less anxiety when thinking about death than relatively younger 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 calm.

What will we see before we die?

Osis and his colleagues paid special attention to visions and hallucinations of the dying. 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, brain function was not distorted by either sedatives or high body temperature. However, immediately before death, most people had already lost 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 connotations, 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 dying person’s transition to another world.

What is most interesting is another thing: the study showed that the nature of all these visions depends relatively little on the physiological, cultural and personal characteristics, type of disease, level of education and religiosity of the person. The authors of other works who observed people who experienced clinical death came to similar conclusions. They also noted that descriptions of visions of people returning to life are not related to cultural characteristics and often do not agree with the ideas about death accepted in a given society.

However, this circumstance could 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 very roughly be reduced to the fact that at a deep level we are all custodians of universal human experience, which is the same for everyone, which cannot be changed or realized. It can “break through” into our “I” only through dreams, neurotic symptoms and hallucinations. Therefore, perhaps, the phylogenetic experience of experiencing the end is really “hidden” deep in our psyche, and these experiences are the same for everyone.

Interestingly, psychology textbooks (for example, Arthur Rean's famous work "The Psychology of Man from Birth to Death") often refer to the fact that the events experienced by the dying are strikingly similar to what is described in ancient esoteric sources. It is emphasized that the sources themselves were completely unknown to most people who described post-mortem experiences. One can cautiously assume 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. Nevertheless, it is the most used to this day. Here she is.

1. Denial. The person refuses to accept the fact of imminent death. Having learned about the terrible diagnosis, he convinces himself that the doctors were making a mistake.

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 extend 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, and grieves over separation from family 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 anticipation 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 order may be different. However, in the vast majority of cases, the Kübler-Ross periodization accurately describes what is happening.

Moment of death

Other experts, however, completed the picture of dying. Thus, the American psychologist and physician 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, loud ringing, buzzing. At the same time, he feels that he is moving very quickly through a long, dark tunnel. After this, the person notices that he is outside his own body. He just sees it from the outside. Then the spirits of previously deceased relatives, friends and loved ones appear and want to meet and help him.

Scientists can still explain neither the phenomenon characteristic of most post-mortem experiences, nor the vision of a bright tunnel. It is assumed, however, that neurons in the brain are responsible for the tunnel effect. As they die, they begin to excite chaotically, which creates a sensation of bright light, and the disruption of peripheral vision caused by a lack of oxygen creates a “tunnel effect.” The feeling of euphoria may appear due to the fact that the brain releases endorphins, “internal opiates” that reduce feelings of depression and pain. This causes hallucinations in the parts of the brain that control memory and emotions. People feel happiness and bliss.

Equally possible, however, is the reverse process - physiology begins to turn on in response to stimuli created by psychological phenomena. Understanding what works first is as impossible as answering the question about the proverbial egg and chicken.

There were no signs of trouble

As Bulgakov’s Woland said, “Yes, man is mortal, but that would not be so bad. The bad thing is that sometimes he is suddenly mortal.” Scientists also have a lot of research in this case. One of the most famous is the work of the Norwegian psychologist Randi Noyes, who identified stages for sudden death.

Resistance stage. A person realizes the danger, experiences 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 calm.

Life review. It takes place in the form of a panorama of memories, replacing each other in quick 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 a life review. 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 distinguish every detail in an amazing way. After which even this level is overcome, and the dying person, as it were, goes beyond himself. It is then that he experiences a transcendental state, which is sometimes also called “cosmic consciousness.”

Fear of death and incompleteness of life

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

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

It is necessary to distinguish between the normal presence of this topic in life and the pathological one. Normal should be understood as those situations when the fear of death, for example, helps to include the necessary defenses to regulate behavior and life. This is what protects and saves us. If we are aware that we could 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 migrations, 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 towards self-improvement and a new life.

The fear of death can include powerful compensatory mechanisms, and then a person, defending himself against it on 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 seems to drown out the fear of death. The very thought that something will remain after us (children, objects of art and everyday life, gardens and forests we planted, ideas, business) seems to push death away from us, adding 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 frozenness and numbness, depression, increased anxiety, and phobias. Under these extremely unpleasant conditions there is often hidden traumatization at a very early age from a confrontation with the theme 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 to the world). In this case, a hole seems to form in the soul and psyche, which every now and then makes itself felt with various disturbing experiences.

The fastest, easiest and most “disturbed” way to combat the fear of death is various types of addictions and 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 to ensure that their existence is destroyed.

A strong fear of death always arises there and then when the meaning of life is lost, there is no idea, no goal calling forward imagination, 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 signals of the end, emptiness... In this sense, most religions offer their short answer to the fear of death, talking about the eternity of the life of the soul, other incarnations in other lives. What's the point of being afraid if there is no death as such?

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

There are different types of fear of death

What are the causes of fear of death? We can assume several possible 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 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 a fantasy that overwhelms the inner world of the subject, spills out and interferes with reality. According to the psychoanalytic interpretation, in this case it is appropriate to talk about the presence of a certain desire that feeds and develops a person’s unconscious fantasy. This mental content may have roots in the depths of the distant past and carry the sound of the presence of a murderous drive (i.e., an unconscious desire to kill, destroy), denied by a person due to social disapproval (this is impossible, not accepted, they can be punished).

In another case, there may be fear, like vague anxiety. Without delving into Freud's theory of fear, it can be noted that the German word angst does not have a clear 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 precisely by the absence of such an object. This refers to a kind of “anticipation”, anticipation of the 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 flow of internal and external excitations that the subject is unable to control. This is an automatic reaction. Freud wrote about this in his work “Inhibition, Symptom, Fear.” In this case we are talking about evidence of a person’s mental helplessness. This is an automatically occurring fear of death. It represents the body's spontaneous response to a traumatic situation or its repetition. The prototype of this experience is the infant’s experiences as a consequence of his biological helplessness.

Death is the purpose 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 your life is not something that all people, without exception, are afraid of. For some, life is not of 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 like a heavy burden and vanity of vanities. A person is afraid of losing not his life, but what is significant 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 quickly going to heaven and meeting their god. And for many criminals, death would be a release from the 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 reduction of all stress in the body to zero. Death represents the point of absolute peace and absolute bliss.

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

Therefore, it is not surprising that people who do not have this “I” of their own, who do not have a personality, are not afraid of death, like, for example, some psychotics. Or Japanese samurai, who are not independent reflective individuals, 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 they do not have one to begin with.

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