For many centuries, the nature of death has been a central concern of the world’s religious traditions and of philosophical inquiry and belief in some kind of afterlife or rebirth has been a central aspect of religious belief. In modern scientific inquiry, the origin and nature of consciousness has yet to be fully understood; any such view about the existence or non-existence of consciousness after death, therefore, remains speculative.
Physiological death is now seen as less an event than a process: conditions once considered indicative of death are now reversible, where in the process a dividing line is drawn between life and death depends on factors beyond the presence or absence of vital signs. In general, clinical death is neither necessary nor sufficient for a determination of legal death. A patient with working heart and lungs determined to be brain dead can be pronounced legally dead without clinical death occurring. Precise medical definition of death, in other words, becomes more problematic, paradoxically, as scientific knowledge and medicine advance.
Signs and symptoms of Death
Generally, we understand that someone has died due to the presence of one or more signs mentioned below:
- Ceasing breathing
- Cessation of metabolism
- No pulse
- Pallor mortis, paleness which happens in the 15–120 minutes after death
- Livor mortis, a settling of the blood in the lower (dependent) portion of the body
- Algor mortis, the reduction in body temperature following death. This is generally a steady decline until matching ambient temperature
- Rigor mortis, the limbs of the corpse become stiff and difficult to move or manipulate
- Decomposition, the reduction into simpler forms of matter, accompanied by a strong, unpleasant odor.
The concept of death is a key to human understanding of the phenomenon. There are many scientific approaches to the concept. For example, brain death, as practiced in medical science, defines death as a point in time during which brain activity ceases. One of the challenges in defining death is in distinguishing it from life. As a point in time, death would seem to refer to the moment at which life ends. However, determining when death has occurred requires drawing precise conceptual boundaries between life and death. This is problematic because there is little consensus over how to define life.
It is possible to define life in terms of consciousness. When consciousness ceases, a living organism can be said to have died. One of the notable flaws in this approach, however, is that there are many organisms which are alive but probably not conscious (for example, single-celled organisms). Another problem with this approach is in defining consciousness, which has many different definitions given by modern scientists, psychologists and philosophers. This general problem of defining death applies to the particular challenge of defining death in the context of medicine.
Historically, attempts to define the exact moment of a human’s death have been problematic. Death was once defined as the cessation of heartbeat (cardiac arrest) and of breathing, but the development of CPR and prompt defibrillation have rendered that definition inadequate because breathing and heartbeat can sometimes be restarted. Events which were causally linked to death in the past no longer kill in all circumstances; without a functioning heart or lungs, life can sometimes be sustained with a combination of life support devices, organ transplants and artificial pacemakers.
Today, where a definition of the moment of death is required, doctors and coroners usually turn to “brain death” or “biological death” to define a person as being clinically dead; people are considered dead when the electrical activity in their brain ceases. It is presumed that an end of electrical activity indicates the end of consciousness. However, suspension of consciousness must be permanent, and not transient, as occurs during certain sleep stages, and especially a coma. In the case of sleep, EEGs can easily tell the difference.
However, the category of “brain death” is seen by some scholars to be problematic. For instance, Dr. Franklin Miller, senior faculty member at the Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health, notes: “By the late 1990s, however, the equation of brain death with death of the human being was increasingly challenged by scholars, based on evidence regarding the array of biological functioning displayed by patients correctly diagnosed as having this condition who were maintained on mechanical ventilation for substantial periods of time. These patients maintained the ability to sustain circulation and respiration, control temperature, excrete wastes, heal wounds, fight infections and, most dramatically, to gestate fetuses (in the case of pregnant “brain-dead” women).”
Those people maintaining that only the neo-cortex of the brain is necessary for consciousness sometimes argue that only electrical activity should be considered when defining death. Eventually it is possible that the criterion for death will be the permanent and irreversible loss of cognitive function, as evidenced by the death of the cerebral cortex. All hope of recovering human thought and personality is then gone given current and foreseeable medical technology. However, at present, in most places the more conservative definition of death – irreversible cessation of electrical activity in the whole brain, as opposed to just in the neo-cortex – has been adopted (for example the Uniform Determination Of Death Act in the United States). In 2005, the Terri Schiavo case brought the question of brain death and artificial sustenance to the front of American politics.
Even by whole-brain criteria, the determination of brain death can be complicated. EEGs can detect spurious electrical impulses, while certain drugs, hypoglycemia, hypoxia, or hypothermia can suppress or even stop brain activity on a temporary basis. Because of this, hospitals have protocols for determining brain death involving EEGs at widely separated intervals under defined conditions.
Death occurring In Legal Terms
In the United States, a person is dead by law if a Statement of Death or Death certificate is approved by a licensed medical practitioner. Various legal consequences follow death, including the removal from the person of what in legal terminology is called personhood.
The possession of brain activities, or ability to resume brain activity, is a necessary condition to legal personhood in the United States. “It appears that once brain death has been determined … no criminal or civil liability will result from disconnecting the life-support devices.” (Dority v. Superior Court of San Bernardino County, 193 Cal.Rptr. 288, 291 (1983))
Misdiagnosed
There are many anecdotal references to people being declared dead by physicians and then “coming back to life”, sometimes days later in their own coffin, or when embalming procedures are about to begin. From the mid-18th century onwards, there was an upsurge in the public’s fear of being mistakenly buried alive, and much debate about the uncertainty of the signs of death.
Various suggestions were made to test for signs of life before burial, ranging from pouring vinegar and pepper into the corpse’s mouth to applying red hot pokers to the feet, or even into the rectum. Writing in 1895, the physician J.C. Ouseley claimed that as many as 2,700 people were buried prematurely each year in England and Wales, although others estimated the figure to be closer to 800.
In cases of electric shock, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for an hour or longer can allow stunned nerves to recover, allowing an apparently dead person to survive. People found unconscious under icy water may survive if their faces are kept continuously cold until they arrive at an emergency room. This “diving response”, in which metabolic activity and oxygen requirements are minimal, is something humans share with cetaceans called the mammalian diving reflex.
As medical technologies advance, ideas about when death occurs may have to be re-evaluated in light of the ability to restore a person to vitality after longer periods of apparent death (as happened when CPR and defibrillation showed that cessation of heartbeat is inadequate as a decisive indicator of death). The lack of electrical brain activity may not be enough to consider someone scientifically dead. Therefore, the concept of information theoretical death has been suggested as a better means of defining when true death occurs, though the concept has few practical applications outside of the field of cryonics.
There have been some scientific attempts to bring dead organisms back to life, but with limited success. In science fiction scenarios where such technology is readily available, real death is distinguished from reversible death.
The leading cause of death in developing countries is infectious disease. The leading causes of death in developed countries are atherosclerosis (heart disease and stroke), cancer, and other diseases related to obesity and aging. These conditions cause loss of homeostasis, leading to cardiac arrest, causing loss of oxygen and nutrient supply, causing irreversible deterioration of the brain and other tissues. Of the roughly 150,000 people who die each day across the globe, about two thirds die of age-related causes. In industrialized nations, the proportion is much higher, reaching 90%. With improved medical capability, dying has become a condition to be managed. Home deaths, once commonplace, are now rare in the developed world.
In developing nations, inferior sanitary conditions and lack of access to modern medical technology makes death from infectious diseases more common than in developed countries. One such disease is tuberculosis, a bacterial disease which killed 1.7 million people in 2004. Malaria causes about 400–900 million cases of fever and 1–3 million deaths annually. AIDS death toll in Africa may reach 90–100 million by 2025.
According to Jean Ziegler, who was the United Nations Special reporter on the Right to Food from 2000 to March 2008; mortality due to malnutrition accounted for 58% of the total mortality rate in 2006. Ziegler says worldwide approximately 62 million people died from all causes and of those deaths more than 36 million died of hunger or diseases due to deficiencies in micro-nutrients.
Tobacco smoking killed 100 million people worldwide in the 20th century and could kill 1 billion people around the world in the 21st century, a WHO Report warned. Many leading developed world causes of death can be postponed by diet and physical activity, but the accelerating incidence of disease with age still imposes limits on human longevity. The evolutionary cause of aging is, at best, only just beginning to be understood. It has been suggested that direct intervention in the aging process may now be the most effective intervention against major causes of death.
How to Prevent death?
Life extension refers to an increase in maximum or average lifespan, especially in humans, by slowing down or reversing the processes of aging. Average lifespan is determined by vulnerability to accidents and age or lifestyle-related afflictions such as cancer, or cardiovascular disease. Extension of average lifespan can be achieved by good diet, exercise and avoidance of hazards such as smoking.
Maximum lifespan is determined by the rate of aging for a species inherent in its genes. Currently, the only widely recognized method of extending maximum lifespan is calorie restriction. Theoretically, extension of maximum lifespan can be achieved by reducing the rate of aging damage, by periodic replacement of damaged tissues, or by molecular repair or rejuvenation of deteriorated cells and tissues.
Researchers of life extension are a subclass of bio-gerontologists known as “biomedical gerontologists”. They try to understand the nature of aging and they develop treatments to reverse aging processes or to at least slow them down, for the improvement of health and the maintenance of youthful vigor at every stage of life.
Those who take advantage of life extension findings and seek to apply them upon themselves are called “life extensionists” or “longevists”. The primary life extension strategy currently is to apply available anti-aging methods in the hope of living long enough to benefit from a complete cure to aging once it is developed, which given the rapidly advancing state of biogenetic and general medical technology, could conceivably occur within the lifetimes of people living today.
Before about 1930, most people died in their own homes, surrounded by family, and comforted by clergy, neighbors, and doctors making house calls. By the mid-20th century, half of all Americans died in a hospital. By the start of the 21st century, only about 20 to 25% of people in developed countries died in the community. The shift away from dying at home, towards dying in a professionalized medical environment, has been termed the “Invisible Death”.
Death is the center of many traditions and organizations, and is a feature of every culture around the world. Much of this revolves around the care of the dead, as well as the afterlife and the disposal of bodies upon the onset of death.
The disposal of human corpses does, in general, begin with the last offices before significant time has passed, and ritualistic ceremonies often occur, most commonly interment or cremation. This is not a unified practice, however, as in Tibet for instance the body is given a sky burial and left on a mountain top. Proper preparation for death and techniques and ceremonies for producing the ability to transfer one’s spiritual attainments into another body (reincarnation) are subjects of detailed study in Tibet. Mummification or embalming is also prevalent in some cultures, to retard the rate of decay.
Legal aspects of death are also part of many cultures, particularly the settlement of the deceased estate and the issues of inheritance and in some countries, inheritance taxation.
Capital punishment is also a culturally divisive aspect of death. In most jurisdictions where capital punishment is carried out today, the death penalty is reserved for premeditated murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. I
n some countries, sexual crimes, such as adultery and sodomy, carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes such as apostasy, the formal renunciation of one’s religion. In many countries, drug trafficking is also a capital offense. In China human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are also punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the world courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offenses such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny.
Death in warfare and in suicide attack also have cultural links, and the ideas of dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, mutiny punishable by death, grieving relatives of dead soldiers and death notification are embedded in many cultures. Recently in the western world, with the supposed increase in terrorism following the world tower in US and Mumbai attacks, but also further back in time with suicide bombings, kamikaze missions in World War II and suicide missions in a host of other conflicts in history, death for a cause by way of suicide attack, and martyrdom have had significant cultural impacts.
Suicide in general, and particularly euthanasia, are also points of cultural debate. Both acts are understood very differently in different cultures. In Japan, for example, ending a life with honor by seppuku was considered a desirable death, whereas according to traditional Christian and Islamic cultures, suicide is viewed as a sin. Death is personified in many cultures, with such symbolic representations as the Grim Reaper, Azrael and Father Time.
In biology
After death the remains of an organism become part of the bio-geochemical cycle. Animals may be consumed by a predator or a scavenger. Organic material may then be further decomposed by detritivores, organisms which recycle detritus, returning it to the environment for reuse in the food chain. Examples of detritivores include earthworms, woodlice and dung beetles.
Microorganisms also play a vital role, raising the temperature of the decomposing matter as they break it down into yet simpler molecules. Not all materials need be decomposed fully, however. Coal, a fossil fuel formed over vast tracts of time in swamp ecosystems, is one example.
Natural selection
Contemporary evolutionary theory sees death as an important part of the process of natural selection. It is considered that organisms less adapted to their environment are more likely to die having produced fewer offspring, thereby reducing their contribution to the gene pool. Their genes are thus eventually bred out of a population, leading at worst to extinction and, more positively, making the process possible, referred to as speciation.
Frequency of reproduction plays an equally important role in determining species survival: an organism that dies young but leaves numerous offspring displays, according to Darwinian criteria, much greater fitness than a long-lived organism leaving only one.
Extinction
Extinction is the cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point). Because a species’ potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly “reappears” (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence.
New species arise through the process of speciation, an aspect of evolution. New varieties of organisms arise and thrive when they are able to find and exploit an ecological niche – and species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in changing conditions or against superior competition.
Evolution of aging
Inquiry into the evolution of aging aims to explain why so many living things and the vast majority of animals weaken and die with age (a notable exception being hydra, which may be biologically immortal). The evolutionary origin of senescence remains one of the fundamental puzzles of biology. Gerontology specializes in the science of human aging processes
What do you mean by the word, “Death” in spiritual terms?
Strangely, in spite of all the statements given above about the death, I would like to commence this section by emphatically stating an extremely important truth which everyone should know and understand beyond any possible doubt: There really is no such state as “death”.
What many people believe to be the finality of “death” is in fact no more and no less than the transition from one state of life and reality, that of the physical matter, to a state of life of a vastly finer density of the Universe, often known as the “Astral planes”, sometimes referred to as “the beyond”, the “fourth dimension” or the “afterlife”.
What they are called is of no consequence however, the fact is they do exist and for a time becomes the new home for people departing physical life, before either returning for another life on earth or progressing to the inner spheres of reality, the Mental planes, the Spirit worlds.
We are all multi-dimensional beings, each of us having numerous “bodies” corresponding to our many states of “being” within the multi-dimensional Universe. These very broadly consist of the physical body, the Etheric or Energy Body, the Astral Body and the Mental bodies. We have numerous Mental or Spirit bodies, all relating to the infinite degrees and states of vibration, density and being, ranging from the very lowest to the very highest. The Astral Body is often referred to as the “Soul” and the Mental Body the immortal “Spirit”. It is the Mental Body, the immortal Spirit that is “made in the true image of God”, not the physical body as many suppose.
God is pure Spirit, and ultimately every single person exists as pure Spirit beyond all concept of form. The seat of our very “being” or Consciousness is within the Mental Body, the immortal Spirit. The Astral Body, the Soul, actually consists of both the conjoined Astral and Mental bodies, and is therefore can be more accurately referred to as the Astra-Mental Body. These subtle bodies are composed of Energy, vibrations, the nature of which is completely unique for everyone, each individual possessing a unique Energy signature by means of which they can be uniquely identified.
Within the inner spheres of reality, the Astral and Mental planes, people exist at the level of vibration of the Ether that is exactly equivalent to the level of vibration of their Astral and Mental bodies respectively. The level of vibration of the Astral and Mental Body depends in turn upon many factors, including but not limited to individual degree of ennoblement or perfection, degree to which the ego has been transcended, realization of Spirit or “God” within, degree of unresolved karma, and most importantly the realization of the most powerful force in the Universe; Unconditional Love.
So what actually happens when people experience physical “death”?
The circumstances upon which people arrive at the end of their current physical existence obviously varies very widely, and can range from very sudden death, for example resulting from an accident or sudden illness, through death as a result of a long illness, to natural death as a result of old age; and of course there are numerous possibilities in between.
Regardless of the precise circumstances prevailing at the end of physical life, what follows is substantially the same in all cases. At the instant where the physical body ceases to function, a large amount of Vital Energy is transferred to the Etheric Body, also known as the Energy Body. The Etheric, or Energy Body also includes the Astral and Mental bodies. The Etheric Body will then, in many cases become the new “temporary” body of the recently “deceased” person. Sometimes however the recently deceased person will transition directly to the Astral worlds.
What happens next again varies from person to person and circumstance to circumstance, but is usually in the range of the following possibilities. Those who do not transition directly to the Astral worlds will, immediately after physical death, find themselves very much “alive” in their Etheric Body. A person after “death” can often fully observe everything happening around them, including all people present.
In fact what the person is “seeing” is not their actual physical surroundings, no longer having any physical senses and existing a a much higher rate of vibration and lower density as compared to the actual physical world, but is rather a very close Etheric “reflection” of those surroundings; but to all intents and purposes they seem identical.
If other people are present, for example doctors, the person might well see and hear himself or herself being pronounced “dead”. The “deceased” person can then, if desired, stay and watch what happens to their “old body”, observe the actions of the people present for example doctors, nurses and relatives, or may decide to immediately go elsewhere.
It should be noted that in this much finer state of existence as pure Energy, it is quite possible to travel anywhere in the world or indeed the entire Universe in an instant, literally at the speed of thought. The Etheric plane is a Mind world, an extension of the Astral planes and the Universe as a whole, and therefore existing beyond the boundaries and restrictions of physical space and time.
The “deceased” person often remains very close to the physical world while the level of Etheric Energy in their Etheric Body remains sufficiently high. They will very often make the most of this opportunity to visit and say goodbye to family and friends, and perhaps to visit their old home and favorite places they particularly enjoyed in physical life. Of course, living people cannot, with the exception of psychics and clairvoyants, usually “see” the “deceased” person, and usually any attempt by the deceased person to communicate with living people will fail. Very often the “deceased” person will also attend their own funeral, not only to see all family, friends and other people they knew in physical life gatherer to pay their respects, but also to realize the finality of the end of that particular physical life on Earth.
The deceased person can make the decision to transition to the Astral worlds at any time simply by desiring and willing it to happen, and by thinking of being there, but only if they realize the possibility exists. Otherwise the transition will usually take place naturally once the supply of Etheric Energy is depleted, and the dense
Etheric Body will dissipate, giving way to the finer vibrations of the Astral Body, naturally enabling a transition to the appropriate level of the Astral planes in accordance with the level of perfection of the Soul, and the level of vibrations of the person generally. This will determine which part of the Astral planes they will naturally migrate to, most decent people transitioning to the mid-Astral worlds which, as well will see later in this book, are remarkably similar to the physical world that has been left behind.
The other extreme occurs when a newly deceased person transitions directly to the Astral world almost immediately after physical “death”. Sometimes they will be aware of their physical death, but very often the first thing a deceased person will be aware of is a “tunnel of light” into which they are pulled at great speed. In other cases the scenery will simply fade away from the physical world and “melt” into the Astral world almost seamlessly.
Irrespective of how the deceased person arrives in the Astral world, they will never be alone. Other Astral residents, frequently previously deceased relatives and friends, will often be there to greet them and to help them to settle into their new home. Very often the newly deceased person will arrive at, or be taken to a place in the Astral world which is effectively a “reception area” for newly arrived Souls.
There they will be met by a host of helpers with the task of assisting new arrivals to settle in to their new Astral home. Such helpers specialise in all manner of cases, and are able to assist with the transition process regardless of the circumstances surrounding physical death. There are billions of people living within the Astral world, having previously experienced life from the past, present and future of Earth.
Every eventuality is fully accounted for, and no person is ever left alone in the Astral worlds after physical death. For most decent people arriving at the mid-levels of the Astral worlds, those who have led a “normal” life and had no strongly held beliefs, in particular religious beliefs, the environment is always extremely peaceful and harmonious but otherwise quite similar in many respects to the Earth environment from whence they just arrived. If the physical death was sudden, violent or due to some self-inflicted disorder such as alcoholism, or the person was ill for some time before physical death occurred, there will be the Astral equivalent of hospitals with doctors and nurses, people who might well have been doctors and nurses in a previous life on hand to assist.
Very often, because the Astral worlds can appear to be almost identical to the physical world in appearance, some people simply do not believe they have actually “died”, and therefore cannot understand what has happened. Such people can become most bewildered and confused and might require attention by specialist helpers until they can come to terms with their new state of existence in the “afterlife” of the Astral worlds.
Another situation requiring a great deal of care from Astral specialists are the cases of children, infants and babies who leave the physical world before their time. In these situations there are the equivalent of specialist nurses and carers on hand who will look after the child until he or she is old enough to join a family in the Astral worlds. There are many such families who will gladly take on the responsibility of looking after children who arrived before their own parents. Older children will usually join a family as soon as they have come to terms with their new reality and home in the Astral worlds.
Children can usually adapt to their new life in the Astral worlds much more quickly than adults, largely because they had not yet been fully indoctrinated into the ways of the physical world. Younger children might well feel at home in the Astral worlds almost immediately as it has not been very long since they originally left the Astral or Spirit worlds to be born into the physical life which they have recently departed. Such children will therefore still be of an age where they can still vividly remember their previous life in the Astral or Spirit worlds. To such infants their stay on Earth was nothing more than a very short adventure, often with a specific purpose in their own individual evolution and progress on the path.
Upon arriving in the Astral worlds most people settle in to their new home very quickly indeed, and soon create a new “life” for themselves. They will, sooner or later, completely lose interest in the physical world and their previous life associated with it. However, people living in the Astral worlds can, and very often do “visit” the physical world whenever they feel the need to, often to visit loved ones left behind. There are numerous cases of bereaved family and friends suddenly feeling the “presence” of their loved one, and in these cases it very often really is their loved one visiting for a time from the Astral worlds.
It should be mentioned that “deceased” people living in the Astral worlds will often watch over their loved ones still living in the physical world, guiding them by means of inspiration, and protecting them from inner dangers whenever possible. Because the Universe is infinite living Mind, thought is a very powerful primary Energy, and it is therefore relatively easy for people in the Astral worlds to influence the Minds of people still living in the physical world. Such influence can suddenly arrive in the Minds of people on Earth as intuition, inspiration or ideas, the recipient of such thoughts believing them to be their own thoughts and ideas. Pets, such as cats and dogs, can very often sense the presence of their deceased owners in a very powerful way.
It is also possible for people living in the Astral worlds to visit family and others in their dreams. This happens much more often than most people realize. Dreams of meeting deceased people are often very real indeed, and such contacts should always be noted, taken very seriously and any messages remembered. Everyone in the physical world leaves their body at night while in deep sleep, and Astral residents sometimes take this opportunity to meet with their loved ones “face to face” in the Astral worlds, such meetings often being remembered in the morning as a vivid lifelike dream. Again, these meetings are often very real indeed and should always be remembered and all messages received well and truly noted. Sometimes important information is passed on this way, as well as reassurances that the “deceased” person is very well, happy and content in their new Astral home.
Although it is perfectly natural, and to a reasonable extent healthy to grieve for a deceased loved one, it is most important to realize these people are not really “dead”, and have not therefore in any way ceased to exist. The loved one is now living in what is actually a truer reality than the physical world. Assuming they are living in the mid to high Astral worlds, or within the Spirit worlds, they will be experiencing an existence of pure love, light, bliss, peace and happiness on a level beyond the comprehension of most people still living on Earth.
One of the benefits of Astral Projection, which will be discussed in detail later in this book, is the ability to visit and explore the Astral worlds and to meet deceased loved ones and friends. To Astral projectors death holds no absolutely fears whatsoever, with the absolute knowing, beyond any doubts whatsoever the glorious life waiting after the final release from the confines of physical life on the physical plane in the restrictions of a physical body.
Everyone in the Astral worlds lives at the same level, the same realm, sphere or plane as people who were of a similar nature in the physical world; similar characters, beliefs and in particular level of Spiritual development. In the mid-Astral worlds where most decent people, probably around fifty percent or more transition after physical death, there is no work, no money, no unhappiness, but rather complete peace and happiness, everyone living together in perfect harmony.
People, who in the physical world were disruptive in any way, will be living in the lower Astral worlds with like Minded, similarly disruptive people, thus always preserving the complete peace and harmony of the inner Astral worlds. Of course everyone always has the opportunity to evolve from the lower Astral worlds to the inner Astral worlds once they have learned their lessons, and have attained a vibration that will enable them to co-exist with others at the same higher level of vibration.
People who have left the physical world of matter have been liberated once again, and will live and rest for a time in the Astral and Mental worlds before returning to Earth once again if necessary to begin a new physical life. Friends, relatives and loved ones should celebrate this joyfully! Death, however sad, tragic or unexpected means the liberation of a Soul from their physical body to the inner worlds of existence where they will be with like-Minded people.
Although people still living in the physical world regard those living in the Astral and Spirit worlds as “dead”, to those people who passed on to and our now living in the Astral and Spirit worlds it is the people still living in the density of the physical world, with all of the trials it brings who actually appear to be “dead” by comparison, dead to the splendors, glories, peace, harmony and liberation of the inner worlds, to which every single person will transition sooner or later.
“Death” should never be feared. It is something to anticipate when the time comes as a completely natural aspect of individual evolution, and a transition to glorious worlds of pure harmony, bliss and beauty, inhabited by like-Minded people, where none of the hardships, trials and misery that is so prevalent on Earth exists. The transition of passing to the inner, Astral worlds is a joyous time, a time for celebration. We should not fear from Death.
Be Happy – Death is not the end of your Journey.