Eyewitnesses about life after death. Life after death! - Amazing story. My path to salvation lay through hell

D Good day, dear visitors of the Orthodox island “Family and Faith”!

AND There was a man on earth who turned over with his life, or rather death, many atheistic minds, and returned many to salvation. life path Christ!

His name was Konstantin Ikskul.

After his miraculous return to life, he wrote an amazing story about his experience of clinical death, consisting of 32 chapters, which we publish below.

Introduction

...The doctors who observed K. Ikskul reported that all clinical signs of death were present and the state of death lasted 36 hours...

This book, truly amazing in its content, reveals to us the secrets of the afterlife, the secrets of eternal existence outside one’s body. The author of the book, K. Iskul, talks about his personal posthumous experience. He talks about how during serious illness his soul separated from his body and passed on to another world. What did the author of the book see in that spiritual world? You can read about this in this book with a title as intriguing as the content itself, “Incredible for many, but true incident" K. Iskul provides objective evidence that he did not invent everything written in this book, but actually experienced it. We think that this book may be of interest to anyone who has ever thought about what awaits them after death.

Konstantin Ikskul

UNBELIEVABLE TO MANY, BUT TRUE INCIDENT

Chapter 1

M Many of our century (I mean the 19th century, for the 20th century is still so young that it would be a great honor for it to take it into account and give it definitions as a century) call it “the century of negation” and explain such characteristic feature his spirit of the times.

I don’t know whether such semblances of epidemics and epidemics are even possible here, but there is no doubt that, in addition to these, so to speak, epidemic denials, we have quite a few that have grown entirely out of our frivolity. We often deny what we do not know at all, and what we have heard about is not thought through and is also denied - and whole heaps of this unthought-through accumulate, and unimaginable chaos results in our heads; some scraps of different, sometimes completely contradictory teachings, theories, and nothing consistent, integral, and everything is superficial, unclear and foggy for ourselves; to the point of complete inability to understand anything. Who we are, what we are, what we believe in, what ideal we carry in our souls, and whether we have one - all these are for many of us the same unknown things as the worldview of some Patagonian or Bushman. And there is an amazing strangeness here: it seems that people have never loved to reason so much as in our “enlightened” age, and along with this they do not want to comprehend themselves. I say this both from observation of others and from personal consciousness.

I will not go into a general description of my personality here, since this is not relevant, and I will try to introduce myself to the reader only in my relations in the religious field.

As someone who grew up in an Orthodox and fairly devout family and then studied in an institution where unbelief was not considered a sign of a student’s genius, I did not become an ardent, inveterate denier, as most young people of my time were. What came out of me, in essence, was something very vague: I was not an atheist and could not in any way consider myself a religious person at all, and since both were not a consequence of my convictions, but arose only due to a certain situation, then I ask the reader to find the proper definition of my personality in this regard.

Officially I bore the title of Christian, but, undoubtedly, I never thought about whether I really had the right to such a title; It never even occurred to me to check what it requires of me and whether I satisfy its requirements?

I have always said that I believe in God, but if you asked me how I believe, how does it teach me to believe in Him? Orthodox Church, to which I belonged, I would undoubtedly have become stumped. If I were consistently and thoroughly asked whether I believe, for example, in the saving power for us of the incarnation and suffering of the Son of God, in His second coming as Judge, how I feel about the Church, whether I believe in the necessity of its teaching, in the holiness and saving power for us of its sacraments and so on - I can only imagine what absurdities I would babble in response.

Here is a sample: One day my grandmother, who always strictly observed fasting, reprimanded me that I was not doing this.

“You are still strong and healthy, you have an excellent appetite, so you can eat lean food perfectly well.” How can we not fulfill even such institutions of the Church that are not difficult for us?

“But this, grandmother, is a completely meaningless establishment,” I objected. “After all, you eat only this way, mechanically, out of habit, but no one will meaningfully obey such an institution.”

- Why is it meaningless?

- Does it really matter to God what I eat: ham or balyk?

Isn’t it true, what a depth of understanding an educated person has about the essence of fasting!

- How do you express yourself like that? - Grandmother continued meanwhile. “Is it possible to say that this is a meaningless institution when the Lord himself fasted?”

I was surprised by such a message, and only with the help of my grandmother I remembered the Gospel account of this circumstance. But the fact that I completely forgot about him, as you see, did not in the least prevent me from launching into objections. and also in a rather arrogant tone.

And don’t think, reader, that I am more empty-headed, more frivolous than other young people in my circle.

Here's another sample for you.

One of my colleagues, who was reputed to be a well-read and serious person, was asked: does he believe in Christ as the God-man? He answered that he believed, but immediately from further conversation it became clear that he denied the Resurrection of Christ.

“Excuse me, but you are saying something very strange,” one elderly lady objected. What do you think happened next with Christ? If you believe in Him as God, how can you at the same time admit that He could completely die, that is, cease His existence?

We are waiting for some clever answer from our smart guy, some subtleties in understanding death or a new interpretation of the said event. Nothing happened. The answer is simple:

- Oh, I didn’t realize that! He said how he felt.

Chapter 2

IN A completely similar incongruity settled in and, through an oversight, made a strong nest for itself in my head.

I believed in God as if as I should have, that is, I understood Him as a personal, omnipotent, eternal Being; recognized man as His creation, but did not believe in an afterlife.

A good illustration of the frivolity of our relationship both to religion and to our internal structure can be the fact that I did not know this unbelief in myself until, just like my aforementioned colleague, it was discovered by chance.

Fate brought me into acquaintance with one serious and very educated man; At the same time, he was both extremely handsome and lonely, and from time to time I willingly visited him.

One day I came to see him and found him reading the catechism.

- What are you, Prokhor Alexandrovich (that was my friend’s name), or are you planning to become a teacher? — I asked in surprise, pointing to the book.

- What, my friend, to become a teacher! At least I could get into decent schoolchildren. Where can we teach others? You need to prepare for the exam yourself. After all, the gray hair, you see, is increasing almost every day; “They’ll call him any minute,” he said with his usual good-natured smile.

I did not take his words in their true meaning, thinking that he, as a person who always reads a lot, simply needed some help in the catechism. And he, obviously wanting to explain the reading that was strange to me, said:

- But do you really believe this?

- That is, how can one not believe in it? Where am I going, may I ask? Am I really going to crumble into dust? And if I don’t fall apart, then there can be no question of what they will demand to answer. I am not a stump, I have will and reason, I consciously lived and... sinned...

“I don’t know, Prokhor Alexandrovich, how and from what we could have developed our belief in an afterlife.” It seems that a person dies and that’s the end of everything. You see him lifeless, all this is rotting, decomposing, what kind of life can you imagine here? - I said, also expressing what I felt and how, therefore, I formed the concept.

- Excuse me, where do you tell me to put Lazarus of Bethany? After all, this is a fact. And he is the same person, molded from the same clay, as I am.

I looked at my interlocutor with undisguised surprise. Does this educated man really believe such improbabilities?

And Prokhor Alexandrovich, in turn, looked at me intently for a minute and then, lowering his voice, asked:

- Or don’t you believe?

- No, why? “I believe in God,” I answered.

— Don’t you believe in the revealed teaching? However, today God has begun to be understood differently, and almost everyone has begun to remake the revealed truth at their own discretion; some classifications have been introduced here: one must believe in this, but one may not believe in this, but one may not believe in this at all. you have to believe! It’s as if there are several truths, not just one. And they don’t understand that they already believe in the products of their own mind and imagination, and that if so, then there is no place for faith in God

“But you can’t believe everything.” Sometimes such strange things happen.

- That is, incomprehensible? Make yourself understood. If you fail, know that the fault is in you, and submit. Start talking to a commoner about squaring the circle, or about some other wisdom of higher mathematics, he will also not understand anything, but it does not follow from this that this science itself should be denied. Of course, it's easier to deny; but not always... cute.

Think about what, in essence, inconsistency you are saying. You say that you believe in God, but not in the afterlife. But God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Otherwise, what kind of God is this? Christ Himself spoke about life beyond the grave; was he really telling a lie? But they could not accuse Him of this even worst enemies. And why then did He come and suffer if we were only going to crumble into dust?

No, this can’t be done, this must absolutely, absolutely,” he suddenly spoke heatedly, “correct.” After all, understand how important this is. Such faith should illuminate your life in a completely different way, give it a different meaning, and direct all your activities differently. This is a whole moral revolution. This faith contains for you both a rein, and at the same time, a consolation and a support for the struggle against the everyday adversities that are inevitable for every person.

Chapter 3

I understand the entire logic of the words of the venerable Prokhor Alexandrovich, but, of course, a few minutes of conversation could not instill in me faith in something that I was accustomed to not believing in, and the conversation with him, in essence, only served to reveal my view of a certain circumstance, - a look that I myself didn’t know well until then, because I didn’t have to express it, much less think about it.

And Prokhor Alexandrovich, apparently, was seriously agitated by my disbelief; he returned to this topic several times during the evening, and as I was about to leave him, he hastily selected several books from his extensive library and, handing them to me, said:

- Read them, be sure to read them, because you can’t leave it like that. I am sure that rationally you will soon understand and be convinced of the complete groundlessness of your unbelief, but this conviction must be carried out from the mind into the heart, it is necessary for the heart to understand, otherwise it will continue with you for an hour, a day - and will scatter again, because the mind - This is a sieve through which various thoughts only pass, and the storehouse for them is not there.

I read the books, I don’t remember if they were all, but it turned out that habit was stronger than my reason. I admitted that everything written in these books was convincing, conclusive (due to the poverty of my knowledge in the religious field, I could not object to the arguments in them with anything more or less serious), but I still did not have faith .

I realized that this was not logical, I believed that everything written in the books was true, but I had no sense of faith, and death remained in my mind the absolute finale of human existence, followed only by destruction.

Unfortunately for me, it so happened that soon after the said conversation with Prokhor Aleksandrovich, I left the town where he lived, and we never met again. I don’t know, maybe he, as a person who had the charm of an ardently convinced person, would have been able to at least somehow deepen my views and attitudes towards life and things in general, and through this make some change in my concepts about death.

But, left to my own devices and not being at all a particularly thoughtful and serious young man by nature, I was not at all interested in such abstract questions and, due to my frivolity, even at first I did not think a bit about the words of Prokhor Alexandrovich about the importance of the shortcoming in my faith and the need to get rid of From him.

And then time, changes of places, meetings with new people not only erased from my memory both this question and the conversation with Prokhor Aleksandrovich, but even the very image of him and my short-term acquaintance with him.

Chapter 4

Many years have passed. To my shame I must say that I have changed little morally over the past years. Although I was already at the level of my days, that is, I was already a middle-aged man, a little seriousness had arrived in my attitude towards life and myself. I did not comprehend life, some sophisticated knowledge of myself remained for me the same “chimerical” invention, like the reasoning of a metaphysician in the famous fable of the same name, I lived, driven by the same rude, empty interests, the same deceitful and contented the same base understanding of the meaning of life as most secular people of my environment and education live.

My attitude towards religion stood at the same point, that is, I was still neither an atheist nor in any meaningful sense pious man. As before, I went to church occasionally out of habit, fasted once a year out of habit, was baptized when I was supposed to - and that was all. I was not interested in any questions of religion, except, of course, the most elementary, elementary concepts; I didn’t know anything here, but it seemed to me that I knew and understood everything very well, and that everything here was so simple, “not tricky,” that an “educated” person had nothing to worry about. Naivety is hilarious, but, unfortunately, very typical of “educated” people of our century.

It goes without saying that with the availability of such data, there could be no talk of any progression of my religious feelings, or of expanding the range of my knowledge in this area.

Chapter 5

And at this time it happened that I ended up in K. on business and became seriously ill.

Since I had no relatives or even servants in K., I had to go to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed me with pneumonia.

At first I felt so decent that more than once I thought that such a trifle was not worth going to the hospital, but as the illness developed and the temperature began to rise quickly, I realized that with such a “trifle” “It was not at all interesting to lie around alone in a hotel room.

The long winter nights in particular bothered me in the hospital; the fever did not allow me to sleep at all, sometimes it was even impossible to lie down, and sitting on the bed was awkward and tiring; I sometimes don’t want to get up and walk around the ward, sometimes I can’t; and so you turn and turn in bed, then you lie down, then you sit down, then you lower your legs, then now you pick them up again and you keep listening: when will this clock strike! You wait and wait, and as if out of luck, they will strike two or three, so there was still an eternity left before dawn. And how depressingly this affects the patient general sleep and the silence of the night! It was as if he was alive and in a cemetery with the dead.

As things moved towards a crisis, it, of course, became worse and more difficult for me; at times I began to feel so overwhelmed that I had no time for anything, and I did not notice the tedium of the endless nights. But I don’t know what should be attributed to this: whether it was the fact that I had always been and considered myself a very strong and healthy person, or it happened because until that time I had never been seriously ill and those sad thoughts that Sometimes they bring on serious illnesses, but no matter how bad my health was, no matter how severe the attacks of my illness were at other moments, the thought of death never once entered my head.

I confidently expected that today or tomorrow a turn for the better would come, and I impatiently asked every time they took the thermometer out from under my arm what my temperature was.

But, having reached a certain height, it seemed to freeze at one point, and to my question I constantly heard the answer: “forty and nine tenths,” “forty one,” “forty and eight tenths.”

- Oh, what a long rigmarole this is! — I said with annoyance, and then asked the doctor, “Is it possible that my recovery will proceed at such a snail’s pace?”

Seeing my impatience, the doctor consoled me and said that at my age and with my health there was nothing to be afraid of, that the recovery would not be delayed, that under such favorable conditions one could recover from any illness in almost a few days.

I fully believed this and reinforced my patience with the thought that all that remained was to somehow wait for the crisis, and then everything would immediately go away.

Chapter 6

One night I felt especially bad; I was tossing about from the fever, and breathing was extremely difficult, but by morning I suddenly felt so much better that I could even fall asleep. When I woke up, my first thought, remembering the night’s suffering, was: “This was probably the fracture. Perhaps now there will be an end to both this suffocation and this unbearable heat.”

And, seeing a young paramedic entering the next room, I called him and asked him to put me a thermometer.

“Well, master, now things are getting better,” he said cheerfully, taking out the thermometer after the allotted time, “your temperature is normal.”

- Really? - I asked joyfully.

- Here, if you please, look: thirty-seven and one tenth. And the cough didn’t seem to bother you that much.

At nine o'clock the doctor came. I told him that I had not felt well during the night, and suggested that it was probably a crisis, but that now I felt quite well and could even sleep for several hours before morning.

“That’s great,” he said and went up to the table to look at some tablets or lists lying on it.

— Would you like to set a thermometer? — the paramedic asked him at that time. — Their temperature is normal.

- How normal? “The doctor asked, quickly raising his head from the table and looking at the paramedic with bewilderment.

- That's right, I was looking just now.

The doctor ordered the thermometer to be placed again and even looked to see if it was placed correctly.

But this time the thermometer didn’t reach thirty-seven: it turned out to be thirty-seven minus two tenths.

The doctor took his thermometer out of the side pocket of his coat, shook it, turned it over in his hands, obviously making sure that it was working properly, and handed it to me.

The second showed the same as the first.

To my surprise, the doctor did not express the slightest joy about this circumstance, without even making, well, at least for the sake of decency, any kind of cheerful face, and, turning around somehow fusily and stupidly at the table, he left the room, and through A minute later I heard the telephone ringing in the room.

Chapter 7

Soon the senior doctor appeared; The two of them listened, examined me and ordered to cover almost my entire back with flies; then, having prescribed the medicine, they did not hand over my prescription with the others, but sent a paramedic with it separately to the pharmacy, apparently with orders to prepare it out of turn.

“Listen, why are you thinking now, when I feel quite well, to burn me with flies?” — I asked the senior doctor.

It seemed to me that the doctor was confused or annoyed by my question, and he answered impatiently:

- Oh my god! But you can’t just be left to the mercy of illness without any help, because you feel a little better! We need to get out of you all this rubbish that has accumulated there during this time.

About three hours later the junior doctor looked at me again; he looked at the condition of the flies that were given to me and asked how many spoons of the mixture I had managed to take. I said three.

— Did you cough?

“No,” I answered.

- Never?

- Not once.

“Tell me, please,” I said after the doctor had left, to the paramedic who was hovering almost constantly in my room, “what abomination is in this mixture?” She makes me sick.

“There are various expectorants, and there is a little ipecac,” he explained.

In this case, I did exactly what today’s deniers often do in matters of religion, that is, understanding absolutely nothing of what was happening, I mentally condemned and reproached the doctors for their lack of understanding: they allegedly gave me an expectorant when I had nothing to cough up.

Chapter 8

Meanwhile, an hour and a half or two after the last visit to the doctors, three of them again appeared in my room: two of ours and a third, some important and dignified, stranger.

For a long time they tapped and listened to me; a bag of oxygen appeared. The last one surprised me a little.

- Now what is this for? - I asked.

- Yes, you need to filter your lungs a little. After all, they were probably almost baked by you,” said the alien doctor.

“Tell me, doctor, what is it about my back that captivates you so much that you are fussing over it so much?” This is the third time this morning you’ve tapped it, it’s all covered with flies.

I felt so much better compared to the previous days, and therefore my thoughts were so far from everything sad that no accessories must have been able to lead me to guess about my actual situation; I even explained the appearance of an important foreign doctor to myself as an inspection or something like that, without suspecting that he was called specifically for me, so that my situation required a consultation. I asked the last question in such a relaxed and cheerful tone that probably none of my doctors had the courage, even by a hint, to make me understand the impending disaster. And really, how can you tell a person full of joyful hopes that he may have only a few hours left to live!

“Now we need to take some trouble with you,” the doctor answered vaguely.

But I also accepted this answer in the desired sense, that is, that now that a turning point has come, when the strength of the illness is weakening, it is probably necessary and more convenient to use all means to finally drive out the disease and help recover everything that was affected by it.

Chapter 9

I remember that around four o’clock I felt a sort of slight chill and, wanting to warm myself, I wrapped myself tightly in the blanket and was about to go to bed, but I suddenly felt very sick.

I called the paramedic; he came over, lifted me from the pillow and handed me a bag of oxygen. Somewhere a bell rang, and a few minutes later the senior paramedic hurriedly entered my room, and then, one after the other, both of our doctors.

At another time, such an extraordinary gathering of all the medical personnel and the speed with which it gathered would undoubtedly have surprised and embarrassed me, but now I was completely indifferent to it, as if it did not concern me.

A strange change suddenly occurred in my mood! A minute before, cheerful, now, although I saw and perfectly understood everything that was happening around me, but to all this I suddenly felt such an incomprehensible indifference, such alienation, which, it seems, is not even characteristic of a living being.

All my attention was focused on myself, but here too there was a surprisingly peculiar feature, some kind of duality: I quite clearly and definitely felt and was aware of myself, and at the same time treated myself so indifferently that it seemed as if I had lost the ability to physical sensations.

I saw, for example, how the doctor reached out his hand and took my pulse, and I understood what he was doing, but I did not feel his touch. I saw and understood that the doctors, having lifted me, were all doing something and fussing over my back, from which my swelling probably began, but I didn’t feel what they were doing, and not because I actually lost ability to feel, but because I was not at all interested in this, because, having gone somewhere far deep into myself, I did not listen and did not follow what they were doing to me.

It was as if two beings suddenly appeared in me: one, hidden somewhere deep and most important; the other is external and obviously less significant; and now it was as if the composition that bound them burned out or melted, and they disintegrated, and the strongest was felt by me clearly, definitely, and the weakest became indifferent. This was my weakest body.

I can imagine how, perhaps just a few days ago, I would have been amazed by the revelation in myself of this hitherto unknown to me, inner being and the consciousness of its superiority over that other half of me, which, according to my concepts, constituted all a person, but whom I hardly noticed now.

This state was amazing: to live, see, hear, understand everything, and, at the same time, as if not to see or understand anything, to feel such alienation to everything.

Chapter 10

So the doctor asked me a question; I hear and understand what he is asking, but I don’t give an answer, I don’t give it because I have no need to talk to him. But he is busy and worried about me, but about that half of my self, which has now lost all meaning for me, about which I have nothing to do.

But suddenly she declared herself, and how sharply and unusually she declared!

I suddenly felt that I was being pulled down somewhere with an uncontrollable force. In the first minutes, this feeling was like as if heavy, multi-pound weights were suspended from all my members, but soon such a comparison could no longer express my feeling: the idea of ​​such a pull turned out to be insignificant.

No, the law of gravity was at work here with some terrifying force.

It seemed to me that not only all of me, but every member of mine, every hair, the finest vein, every cell of my body individually was being pulled somewhere with the same irresistibility as a powerful magnet attracts pieces of metal to itself.

And, however, no matter how strong this feeling was, it did not prevent me from thinking and being aware of reality, that is, that I was lying on a bed, that my room was on the second floor, that there was the same room below me, but, at the same time, based on the strength of the sensation, I was sure that if under me there were not one, but ten rooms piled one on top of the other, all of this would instantly part before me to let me through... where?

Yes, exactly into the ground, and I wanted to lie down on the floor; I made an effort and rushed about.

Chapter 11

“Agony,” I heard the doctor say above me.

Since I did not speak, and my gaze, as a person focused on himself, must have expressed complete indifference to the surroundings, the doctors probably decided that I was in an unconscious state and talked about me over me, no longer embarrassed. Meanwhile, I not only understood everything perfectly, but I could not help but think and observe in a certain area.

"Agony! death!" - I thought when I heard the doctor’s words. “Am I really dying?” - turning to myself, I said loudly; but how? Why? I can’t explain this.

I suddenly remembered a scientific discussion I had read long ago about whether death is painful, and, closing my eyes, I listened to myself, to what was happening in me.

No, I didn’t feel any physical pain, but I undoubtedly suffered, I felt heavy and languid. Why is this? I knew what disease I was dying from; Well, did the swelling suffocate me, or did it restrict the activity of the heart, and it tormented me? I don’t know, maybe this was the definition of the approaching death according to the concepts of those people, that world, which was now so alien and distant to me; I only felt an irresistible desire somewhere, a gravitation towards something, which I spoke about above.

And I felt that this gravity was intensifying every moment, that I was already coming very close, almost touching that magnet that was attracting me, touching which I would be soldered with all my being, fused with it in such a way that no force could will separate me from him. And the more strongly I felt the closeness of this moment, the more terrible and difficult it became for me, because at the same time the protest was more clearly revealed in me, the more clearly I felt that all of me could not merge, that something had to separate in me, and this something... then I was torn from an unknown object of attraction with the same force with which something else in me was striving for it. This struggle caused me languor and suffering.

Chapter 12

The meaning of the word “agony” that I heard was quite clear to me, but everything in me has now somehow turned upside down, from my relationships, feelings and concepts inclusive.

Undoubtedly, if I had heard this word even while three doctors were listening to me, I would have been inexpressibly frightened by it. There is also no doubt that if such a strange revolution had not happened to me, if I had remained in the usual state of a sick person, even at this moment, knowing that death was coming, I would have understood and explained everything that was happening to me differently; but now the doctor’s words surprised me, without causing the fear that is generally inherent in people when thinking about death, and gave a completely unexpected interpretation, in comparison with my previous concepts, of the state that I was experiencing.

“So that's it! It is she, the earth, that pulls me so much,” suddenly floated clearly in my head. “That is, not me, but what she gave me for a while. And is she pulling or is it striving for her?”

And what previously seemed so natural and certain to me, that is, that after death I would all crumble into dust, now became unnatural and impossible for me.

“No, I won’t leave, I can’t,” I almost screamed loudly, and, having made an effort to free myself, to break free from the force that was pulling me, I suddenly felt that I felt at ease.

I opened my eyes, and everything that I saw at that moment was imprinted in my memory with perfect clarity, down to the smallest detail.

I saw that I was standing alone in the middle of the room; to my right, surrounding something in a semicircle, all the medical personnel crowded together; the senior doctor stood with his hands behind his back and intently looking at something that I couldn’t see behind their figures; next to him, leaning slightly forward, is the younger one; the old paramedic, holding a bag of oxygen in his hands, shifted hesitantly from foot to foot, apparently not knowing what to do with his burden now, whether to carry it, or whether he might still need it; and the young man, bending over, supported something; from behind his shoulder I could only see the corner of the pillow.

This group surprised me; in the place where she stood there was a bed. What now attracted the attention of these people, what were they looking at when I was no longer there, when I was standing in the middle of the room?

I moved and looked where they were all looking...

I was lying there on the bed.

Chapter 13

I do not remember that I experienced anything resembling fear at the sight of my double; I was filled with only bewilderment: “How is this possible? I feel like I’m here, and yet I’m there too?”

I looked back at myself standing in the middle of the room. Yes, it was undoubtedly me, exactly the same as I knew myself.

I wanted to touch myself, to take my left hand with my right hand: my hand went right through; I tried to grab myself by the waist - the hand again passed through my body, as if through empty space.

Struck by such a strange phenomenon, I wanted someone from the outside to help me figure it out, and, having taken a few steps, I extended my hand, wanting to touch the doctor’s shoulder, but I felt: I was walking somehow strangely, not feeling touching the floor, my hand No matter how hard I try, I still can’t reach the doctor’s figure; there’s only maybe an inch or two of space left, but I can’t touch him.

I made an effort to stand firmly on the floor, but although my body obeyed my efforts and sank down, and, having reached the floor, just like the figure of the doctor, it turned out to be impossible for me. There was also an insignificant space left here, but I could not overcome it.

And I vividly remembered how a few days ago the nurse in our ward, wanting to protect my medicine from spoilage, put a bottle with it in a jug of cold water, but there was a lot of water in the jug, and she immediately took the light bottle upstairs, and the old woman, not understanding what was going on, she persistently lowered it to the bottom once, twice, and three times and even held it with her finger, in the hope that it would stand, but as soon as she lifted her finger, the bubble turned to the surface again.

So, obviously, for me, the current me, the surrounding air was already too dense.

Chapter 14

What happened to me?

I called the doctor, but the atmosphere in which I was found turned out to be completely unsuitable for me; she did not perceive or transmit the sounds of my voice, and I realized my complete disconnection from everything around me, my strange loneliness, and panic gripped me. There was truly something inexpressibly terrible in this extraordinary loneliness. Whether a person is lost in the forest, whether he is drowning in the depths of the sea, whether he is burning in fire, whether he is sitting in solitary confinement, he never loses hope that he will be understood, if only his call, his cry for help, can be heard somewhere; he understands that his loneliness will continue only until the minute he sees a living creature, that a guard will enter his casemate, and he can immediately speak to him, tell him what he wants, and he will understand him.

But to see people around you, to hear and understand their speech, and at the same time to know that, no matter what happens to you, you have no opportunity to express yourself to them, to expect help from them, in case of need, - from Such loneliness made the hair on my head stand on end, my mind became numb. It was worse than being on a desert island, because there at least nature would have perceived the manifestation of our personality, but here, in this one deprivation of the opportunity to communicate with the outside world, as a phenomenon unnatural for a person, there was so much deadening fear, such a terrible consciousness of helplessness that cannot be experienced in no other position and conveyed in words.

Of course, I didn’t give up right away; I tried in every possible way and tried to express myself, but these attempts only led me to complete despair. “Can’t they really see me?” - I thought in despair and, again and again, I approached the group of people standing above my bed, but none of them looked back, did not pay attention to me, and I looked around myself in bewilderment, not understanding how they could not see me, when I'm the same as I was. But I tried to feel myself, and my hand again cut only air.

“But I’m not a ghost, I feel and am aware of myself, and my body is a real body, and not some deceptive mirage,” I thought and again carefully examined myself and became convinced that my body was undoubtedly a body, for I could examine it in every possible way and quite clearly see the slightest line or dot on it. Appearance it remained the same as it was before, but obviously its property changed: it became inaccessible to touch, and the surrounding air became so dense for it that it did not allow it to come into complete contact with objects.

"Astral body. I think that’s what it’s called?” - flashed through my head. “But why, what happened to me?” — I asked myself, trying to remember if I had ever heard stories about such conditions, strange transfigurations in diseases.

Chapter 15

No, nothing can be done about it! “It’s all over,” the junior doctor said at that time, hopelessly waving his hand, and walked away from the bed on which I was lying.

I became inexpressibly annoyed that they were all interpreting and fussing over that “I” of mine, which I did not feel at all, which did not exist for me at all, and left without attention the other, real me, who is aware of everything and, tormented by the fear of the unknown, is looking for, requires their help.

“Can’t they remember me, don’t they understand that I’m not there,” I thought with annoyance and, approaching the bed, I looked at the self who, to the detriment of my real self, was attracting the attention of the people in the room.

I looked, and only then for the first time did the thought appear to me: “Didn’t something happen to me that in our language, in the language of living people, is defined by the word “death”?”

This came to my mind because my body, lying on the bed, had the complete appearance of a dead person: without movement, lifeless, with a face covered with some kind of special pallor, with tightly compressed, slightly blue lips, it vividly reminded me of all the dead people I had seen. It may immediately seem strange that only at the sight of my lifeless body did I realize what exactly had happened to me, but after delving into it and tracing what I felt and experienced, such bewilderment, strange at first glance, will become understandable.

In our concepts, the word “death” is inseparably connected with the idea of ​​some kind of destruction, the cessation of life, how could I think that I died when I did not lose self-awareness for a single minute, when I felt just as alive, hearing everything, seeing, conscious, able to move, think, speak? Even the doctor’s words that “it’s all over” did not attract my attention and did not arouse any guesses about what had happened - what happened to me was so different from our ideas about death!

Disconnection from everything around me, a split in my personality, most likely could have made me understand what happened if I believed in the existence of the soul and were a religious person; but this was not the case, and I was guided only by what I felt, and the feeling of life was so clear that I was only perplexed by strange phenomena, being completely unable to connect my sensations with traditional concepts of death, that is, feeling and being aware of myself , to think that I don't exist.

Subsequently, I repeatedly heard from religious people, that is, those who did not deny the existence of the soul and the afterlife, such an opinion or assumption that the soul of a person, as soon as he throws off his mortal flesh, immediately becomes some kind of omniscient being, that for it nothing there is nothing incomprehensible or surprising in the new spheres, in the new form of her existence, that she not only instantly enters into the new laws of the new world that has opened up to her and her changed existence, but that all this is so akin to her that that transition is for her, as it were, a return to real fatherland, a return to its natural state. This assumption was based mainly on the fact that the soul is spirit, and for the spirit there cannot be the same restrictions that exist for a carnal person.

Chapter 16

This assumption, of course, is completely wrong.

From the above, the reader sees that I came to this new world exactly the same as he left the old one, that is, with almost the same abilities, concepts and knowledge that he had while living on earth.

So, wanting to somehow express myself, I resorted to the same techniques that are usually used for this by all living people, that is, I tried to touch, push someone; Noticing a new property of my body, I found it strange; Consequently, my concepts remained the same; otherwise it would not have been strange for me, and, wanting to be convinced of the existence of my body, I again resorted to the usual method for me as a person.

Even after realizing that I had died, I did not comprehend in any new way the change that had taken place in me, and, perplexed, I called my body “astral”, then the thought flashed through my mind that perhaps the first man was created with such a body, and that the leather vestments he received after the fall, which are mentioned in the Bible, are not that mortal body that lies on the bed and after a while will turn into dust; in a word, wanting to understand what happened, I gave him such explanations as were known and accessible to me based on my earthly knowledge.

And this is natural. The soul, of course, is a spirit, but a spirit created for life with a body; therefore, how can the body appear to her as something like a prison, some kind of bonds chaining her to an existence that seems alien to her?

No, the body is a legitimate home provided to her and therefore will appear in the new world to the degree of its development and maturity that it achieved in life together with the body, in the normal form of existence assigned to it. Of course, if a person was spiritually developed and tuned in during his lifetime, his soul will have many things that are more akin to and therefore more understandable in this new world than the soul of someone who lived without ever thinking about it, and while the former will be able to, so to speak, , read it right away, although not fluently, but with hesitation, the second, like mine, needs to start with the alphabet, it takes time to understand both the fact that she had never thought about, and the country in which she ended up, in which I have never even mentally experienced.

Remembering and subsequently thinking through my then state, I only noticed that my mental faculties acted then with such amazing energy and speed that it seemed that there was not the slightest trace of time left for me to make an effort to figure out, compare, remember anything; As soon as anything stood before me, my memory, instantly piercing the past, dug up all the crumbs of knowledge on a given subject that were lying there and decayed, and what at another time would undoubtedly have caused my bewilderment, now seemed to me to be known. Sometimes, by some intuition, I even foresaw what was unknown to me, but still not before it appeared to my eyes. This was the only peculiarity of my abilities, except for those that were a consequence of my changed nature.

Chapter 17

I turn to the story of the further circumstances of my incredible incident.

Incredible! But if it seemed incredible until now, then these further circumstances will appear in the eyes of my educated readers as such “naive” fables that it would not be worth telling about them; but, perhaps, for those who wish to look at my story differently, the very naivety and poverty will serve as evidence of its truth, for if I were composing, inventing, then a wide field opens up for imagination and, of course, I would invent something wiser, more effective.

So, what happened next for me? The doctors left the room, both paramedics stood and talked about the vicissitudes of my illness and death, and the old nanny (nurse), turning to the icon, crossed herself and loudly expressed her usual wish to me in such cases:

- Well, the Kingdom of Heaven to him, eternal peace...

And as soon as she uttered these words, two Angels appeared next to me; For some reason I recognized my Guardian Angel in one of them, and the other was unknown to me.

Taking me by the arms, the Angels carried me straight through the wall from the room to the street.

Chapter 18

It was already dark and a big, quiet snow was falling. I saw this, but I didn’t feel the cold or any change in general between the room temperature and the outside temperature. Obviously, such things have lost their meaning for my changed body. We began to quickly climb up. And as we rose, more and more space opened up to my gaze, and finally it assumed such terrifying proportions that I was seized with fear from the consciousness of my insignificance in front of this endless desert. This, of course, was due to some peculiarities of my vision. Firstly, it was dark, but I saw everything clearly; Consequently, my vision gained the ability to see in the dark; secondly, I covered with my gaze such a space that, undoubtedly, I could not cover with my ordinary vision. But I didn’t seem to be aware of these features then, and that I didn’t see everything, that for my vision, no matter how broad its horizons, there was still a limit - I understood this perfectly well and was horrified. Yes, to what extent, therefore, it is typical for a person to value his personality for something: I recognized myself as such an insignificant, meaningless atom, the appearance or disappearance of which, of course, should have remained completely unnoticed in this boundless space, but instead to find some peace for myself in this, a kind of security, I was afraid... that I would get lost, that this immensity would swallow me up like a pitiful speck of dust. An amazing resistance of an insignificant point to the universal (as some people think) law of destruction, and a significant manifestation of man’s consciousness of his immortality, his eternal personal existence!

Chapter 19

The idea of ​​time went out in my mind, and I don’t know how long we were still climbing up, when suddenly some kind of unclear noise was heard, and then, floating out from somewhere, a crowd of some ugly creatures began to quickly approach us, screaming and cackling. creatures

"Demons!" - I realized with extraordinary speed and became numb from some special horror, hitherto unknown to me. Demons! Oh, how much irony, how much sincere laughter would have been evoked in me just a few days, even hours ago, by someone’s message, not only that he saw demons with his own eyes, but that he admits their existence as creatures of a certain kind! As befitted an “educated” person of the late nineteenth century, by this name I meant bad inclinations, passions in a person, which is why the word itself had the meaning not of a name, but of a term that defined a well-known concept. And suddenly this “well-known abstract concept” appeared to me as a living personification! I still cannot say how and why I then recognized demons in this ugly vision without the slightest bewilderment. What is certain is that such a definition was completely out of the order of things and logic, for if I had seen such a spectacle at another time, I would have said that this was some kind of fable in the faces, an ugly whim of fantasy - in a word, anything, but , of course, I would not have called it by the name by which I meant something that cannot be seen. But then this definition poured out with such speed, as if there was no need to think here, as if I had seen something long ago and well known to me, and since my mental faculties were working at the time, as I said, with some sometimes with incomprehensible energy, then I realized almost as quickly that the ugly appearance of these creatures was not their real appearance, that it was some kind of vile masquerade, invented, probably, with the aim of frightening me more, and for a moment something similar to pride stirred in me. I felt ashamed of myself, of man in general, that in order to frighten him, who thinks so much of himself, other creatures resort to such techniques as we practice in relation to small children.

Having surrounded us on all sides, the demons, with shouting and uproar, demanded that I be given to them; they tried to somehow grab me and tear me out of the hands of the Angels, but, obviously, they did not dare to do this. Among their unimaginable and as disgusting to the ear as they themselves were to the sight, howl and din, I sometimes caught words and whole phrases.

“He is ours: he has renounced God,” they suddenly screamed almost in unison, and at the same time they rushed at us with such impudence that all thought froze for a moment from fear.

"It's a lie! It is not true!" - Having come to my senses, I wanted to shout, but an obliging memory tied my tongue. In some incomprehensible way, I suddenly remembered such a small, insignificant event, which, moreover, belonged to a long-past era of my youth, which, it seems, I could not even remember.

Chapter 20

I remembered how, back in the days of my studies, we once gathered at a friend’s place, after talking about our school affairs, we then moved on to talk about various abstract and lofty subjects - conversations that we often had.

“I generally don’t like abstractions,” said one of my comrades, “but this is a complete impossibility.” I can believe in some, albeit unexplored by science, force of nature, that is, I can admit its existence without seeing its obvious, definite manifestations, because it can be insignificant or merging in its actions with other forces, and that is why it is difficult to catch; but to believe in God as a personal and omnipotent Being, to believe - when I do not see clear manifestations of this Personality anywhere - this is already absurd. They tell me: believe. But why should I believe when I can equally believe that there is no God? Isn't it true? And maybe He doesn’t exist? — my comrade addressed me point-blank.

“Maybe not,” I said.

This phrase was in the full sense an “idle verb”: the stupid speech of a friend could not raise any doubts in me about the existence of God, I didn’t even particularly follow the conversation - and now it turned out that this idle verb did not disappear without a trace in the air, I had to to justify myself, to defend myself from the accusation brought against me, and thus the Gospel legend was confirmed that, if not by the will of God, who knows the secret of the heart of man, then by the malice of the enemy of our salvation, we really have to give an answer in every idle word.

This accusation, apparently, was the strongest argument for my destruction for the demons; they seemed to have gained new strength for the boldness of their attacks on me and with a furious roar they spun around us, blocking our further path.

I remembered prayer and began to pray, calling for help those Saints whom I knew and whose names came to my mind. But this did not deter my enemies. A pitiful ignoramus, a Christian only in name, I almost for the first time remembered the One who is called the Intercessor of the Christian race.

But, probably, my impulse towards Her was ardent, my soul was probably so filled with horror that as soon as I, remembering, uttered Her name, a kind of white fog suddenly appeared around us, which quickly began to cover the ugly host of demons. He hid it from my eyes before it could separate from us. Their roar and cackling could be heard for a long time, but by the way it gradually weakened and became muffled, I could understand that the terrible pursuit was lagging behind us.

Chapter 21

The feeling of fear I experienced so captured my entire being that I was not even aware whether we continued our flight during this terrible meeting, or whether it stopped us for a while; I realized that we were moving, that we were continuing to rise, only when the endless air space again spread out before me.

Having walked some distance, I saw a bright light above me; it resembled, as it seemed to me, our solar one, but was much stronger than it. There is probably some kind of kingdom of light there.

“Yes, exactly the kingdom, the complete dominion of light,” I thought, anticipating with some special feeling something I had not yet seen, “because in this light there are no shadows.” “But how can there be light without shadow?” - My earthly concepts immediately appeared in bewilderment.

And suddenly we quickly entered the sphere of this light, and it literally blinded me. I closed my eyes and raised my hands to my face, but this did not help, since my hands did not provide a shadow. And what did such protection mean here!

“My God, what is this, what kind of light is this? For me it’s the same darkness. “I can’t look and, as if in the darkness, I don’t see anything,” I prayed, comparing my earthly vision and forgetting, or perhaps not even realizing that now such a comparison was not suitable, that now I can see in the darkness .

This inability to see, to look, increased for me the fear of the unknown, natural when being in a world unknown to me, and I worriedly thought: “What will happen next? Will we soon pass this sphere of light and is there a limit, an end to it?

But something else happened. Majestically, without anger, but imperiously and unshakably, the words came from above: “I’m not ready!”

And then... then an instant stop in our rapid flight upward - and we quickly began to descend.

But before we left these spheres, I was given knowledge of one wondrous phenomenon.

As soon as the said words were heard from above, everything in this world, it seemed, every speck of dust, every smallest atom responded to them with their will. It was as if a multimillion-dollar echo repeated them in a language elusive to the ear, but tangible and understandable to the heart and mind, expressing its complete agreement with the subsequent definition. And in this unity of will there was such a wonderful harmony, and in this harmony there was so much inexpressible, rapturous joy, before which all our earthly charms and delights appeared on a miserable sunless day. This multimillion-dollar echo sounded like an inimitable musical chord, and the whole soul spoke, all carefreely responded to it with a fiery impulse to merge with this common wondrous harmony.

Chapter 22

I did not understand the real meaning of the words that applied to me, that is, I did not understand that I had to return to earth and live again the same way I lived before; I thought that I was being carried to some other country, and a feeling of timid protest stirred in me when the outlines of the city first appeared vaguely in front of me, as in the morning fog, and then the familiar streets clearly appeared.

Here is the hospital building that I remember. Just as before, through the walls of the building and closed doors I was brought into some room completely unknown to me: in this room there were several tables painted with dark paint in a row, and on one of them, covered with something white, I saw lying myself, or rather my dead, numb body.

Not far from my table, some gray-haired old man in a brown jacket, moving a bent wax candle along the lines of large print, was reading the Psalter, and on the other side, on a black bench standing along the wall, sat, apparently already notified of my death and having managed to arrive, my sister, and next to her, bending over and saying something quietly, her husband.

“You heard God’s decree,” my hitherto silent Guardian Angel turned to me, leading me to the table, “and get ready!”

And for this, both Angels became invisible to me.

Chapter 23

I remember quite clearly what and how happened after these words to me.

At first I felt as if I was being constrained by something; then a feeling of unpleasant cold appeared, and the return of this ability, which I had lost, to feel such things vividly resurrected in me the idea of ​​​​my former life, and a feeling of deep sadness, as if about something lost, came over me (I will note here, by the way, that this feeling remained after what I described events are with me forever).

The desire to return to my old life, although until that time there was nothing particularly sorrowful in it, did not stir within me for a minute; I was not attracted at all, nothing attracted me to her.

Have you, reader, ever seen a photograph that had lain for some time in a damp place? The drawing on it was preserved, but due to dampness it faded, faded and, instead of a certain beautiful image, it turned out to be some kind of solid pale reddish dregs. So life became discolored for me, turning into some kind of continuous watery picture, and it remains so in my eyes to this day.

How and why I felt it right away - I don’t know, but she didn’t attract me in any way; the horror I had previously experienced from the consciousness of my separation from the world around me now for some reason lost its strange meaning for me; I saw, for example, my sister and understood that I could not communicate with her, but this did not bother me at all; I was content with seeing her myself and knowing everything about her; I didn’t even have, as before, the desire to somehow declare my presence.

However, there was no time for that. The feeling of embarrassment made me suffer more and more. It seemed to me that I was being squeezed by some kind of vice, and this feeling was intensifying; I, for my part, did not remain passive, I did something, whether I struggled, trying to free myself from him, or made efforts, without freeing myself, to somehow cope, overcome him - I can’t determine, I only remember that it was becoming more and more cramped for me and closer, and finally I lost consciousness.

Chapter 24

I woke up already lying in a hospital room on a bed.

Opening my eyes, I saw myself surrounded by almost a whole crowd of curious people, or, to put it differently: faces watching me with intense attention.

At my very head, on a pulled-up stool, trying to maintain his usual grandeur, sat the senior doctor; his posture and manners seemed to say that all this was supposedly an ordinary thing, and there was nothing surprising here, and yet intense attention and bewilderment sparkled in his eyes fixed on me.

The junior doctor, without any embarrassment, literally glared at me with his eyes, as if trying to look right through me.

At the feet of my bed, dressed in a mourning dress, with a pale, worried face, stood my sister, next to her was my brother-in-law, from behind my sister the calm face of a hospital nurse looked out more than others, and even further behind her could be seen the completely frightened face of our young paramedic .

Having finally come to my senses, I first of all greeted my sister; she quickly came up to me, hugged me and started crying.

“Yes, I remember perfectly everything that happened to me,” I said.

- How? Didn't you lose consciousness?

- So - no.

“This is very, very strange,” he said, looking at the senior doctor. - It’s strange because you were lying like a real stump, without the slightest signs of life, nothing anywhere, no, no. How can you maintain consciousness in such a state?

“It’s probably possible, if I both saw and was aware of everything.”

- That is, you could not see anything, but hear and feel. And did you really hear and understand everything? We heard how you were washed, dressed...

- No, I didn’t feel anything like that. In general, my body was not at all sensitive to me.

- How so? You say that you remember everything that happened to you, but you didn’t feel anything?

“I’m saying that I didn’t feel only what was happening to my body, being under the vivid impression of what I experienced,” I said, thinking that such an explanation was quite enough to understand what I said above.

- Well, then? - Seeing that I stopped there, the doctor said.

And I even hesitated for a minute, not knowing what else he needed from me? It seemed to me that everything was so clear, and I just repeated again:

“I told you that I didn’t feel only my body, and therefore everything that touched it, but my body is not the whole of me, is it?” After all, not all of me was lying upside down. After all, something else still lived and continued to act in me! - I said, thinking that the split, or rather separation, in my personality, which was now clearer than God’s day to me, was also known to those people to whom I addressed my speech.

Obviously, I had not yet fully returned to my previous life, had not been transported to the point of its concepts, and speaking of what I now knew and experienced, I myself did not understand that my words could seem almost like the ravings of a madman for those who had not experienced anything like this and denied everything. like people.

Chapter 25

The younger doctor wanted to object or ask something else, but the older one made a sign to him to leave me alone - I don’t know whether it was because I really needed this peace, or because he drew a conclusion from my words that my head is still not in order, and therefore there is nothing to talk to me about.

Having made sure that my body was in more or less proper shape, they disobeyed me: there was no swelling in the lungs; then, having given me what seemed like a cup of broth to drink, everyone left the room, allowing only my sister to stay with me for some more time.

Thinking, probably, that reminders of what had happened could worry me, causing all sorts of terrible assumptions and fortune-telling, such as the possibility of being buried alive, etc., everyone around and visiting me avoided starting conversations with me about it; the only exception was the junior doctor.

He, apparently, was extremely interested in what had happened to me, and he came running to me several times a day, either just to see what was going on, or to ask one or two far-fetched questions; sometimes he came alone, and sometimes he even brought with him a friend, mostly a student, to look at the person who had been in the dead.

On the third or fourth day, finding me probably quite strong, or perhaps simply losing the patience to wait any longer, he came to my room and began a longer conversation with me.

Holding my pulse, he said:

— It’s amazing: all the days your pulse is completely even, without any flashes or deviations, and if you only knew what was happening to you! Miracles, and that’s all!

I had already gotten used to it, had settled into the rut of my old life, and I understood the extraordinary nature of what had happened to me, I understood that only I knew about it, and that those miracles that the doctor spoke about were some external manifestations of the incident that I had experienced. any wonders from a medical point of view, and asked:

- When did miracles happen to me? Before I came back to life?

- Yes, before you woke up. I’m not even talking about myself, I’m an inexperienced person, and so far I’ve never seen a case of lethargy, but to whomever I told the old doctors, everyone is surprised, you know, to the point that they refuse to believe my words.

- What exactly happened to me that was so outlandish?

- I think you know - however, you don’t even need to know here, it’s already self-evident - that when a person goes through even a simple fainting state, all his organs work extremely weakly at first: you can barely catch the pulse, you can barely breathe. inconspicuously, you won’t find your heart. And something unimaginable happened to you: your lungs immediately began to puff like some gigantic bellows, your heart began to pound like a hammer on an anvil. No, this cannot even be conveyed: you had to see it. You see, it was some kind of volcano before an eruption, frost runs down the back, from the outside it became scary; It seemed that in another moment there would be no pieces left of you, because no organism could withstand such work.

“Hm... it’s no wonder that before I woke up, I lost consciousness,” I thought.

And before the doctor’s story, I was still perplexed and did not know how to explain what seemed to me a strange circumstance, that during dying, that is, when everything froze in me, I did not lose consciousness for a minute, and when I was supposed to come to life, I fainted. Now this became clear to me: at death, although I also felt oppression, at the extreme moment it was resolved by the fact that I threw off what was causing it, and one soul, obviously, cannot faint; when I had to return to life, I, on the contrary, had to take upon myself something that was subject to all kinds of physical suffering, including fainting.

Chapter 26

The doctor, meanwhile, continued:

“And you remember that this is not after some kind of fainting, but after a day and a half of lethargy!” You can judge the power of this work by the fact that you were a frozen stalk, and after some fifteen to twenty minutes, your limbs had already gained flexibility, and by an hour even your limbs were warm. This is incredible, fabulous! And so, when I tell them, they refuse to believe me.

- Do you know, doctor, why this happened so unusually? - I said.

- Why?

— According to your medical concepts, do you understand the definition of lethargy as something similar to fainting?

- Yes, only in highest degree…

“Well, then, then, it wasn’t lethargy with me.”

- What then?

“It means that I really was dying and came back to life.” If there had only been a weakening of vital activity in the body, then, of course, it would have been restored without any such “bulversion,” and since my body had to urgently prepare to receive the soul, then all the members also had to work extraordinarily.

The doctor listened to me carefully for a second, and then his face took on an indifferent expression.

- You're kidding; and for us doctors, this is an extremely interesting case.

“I can assure you that I didn’t mean to joke.” I myself undoubtedly believe what I say, and I would even like you to believe it too... well, at least in order to seriously investigate such an exceptional phenomenon. You say that I couldn’t see anything, but you want me to draw you a picture of the whole dead environment, in which I have never been alive. Do you want me to tell you where any of you stood and what they were doing at the moment of my death and after that?

The doctor became interested in my words, and when I told and reminded him how it all happened, he, with the look of a confused man, muttered:

- Well, yes, it’s strange. Some kind of clairvoyance...

- Well, doctor, this doesn’t fit at all: the state of a frozen pike perch - and clairvoyance!

But the height of amazement aroused in him was my story about the state in which I was at first after the separation of my soul from my body, about how I saw everything, saw that they were fussing over my body, which, in his insensibility, had for me the meaning of discarded clothes; how I wanted to touch, push someone in order to attract attention to myself, and how the air, which had become too dense for me, did not allow me to come into contact with the objects around me.

Chapter 27

He probably informed the senior doctor about this, because the latter, during a visit the next day, after examining me, lingered near my bed and said:

“You seemed to be hallucinating during your lethargy.” So you look, try to get rid of this, otherwise...

- Am I going crazy? - I suggested.

- No, this is probably too much, and it could turn into mania.

— Do hallucinations occur during lethargy?

- Why are you asking? You know better than me now.

- The only case, even with me, is not proof for me. I would like to know the general conclusion of medical observations on this circumstance.

- What should we do with the case with you? After all, this is a fact!

- Yes, but if we put all cases under one heading, then won’t we close the door to the study of different phenomena, different symptoms of diseases, and won’t such a technique result in an undesirable one-sidedness in medical diagnoses?

- Yes, nothing like that can happen here. That there was lethargy with you is beyond any doubt, therefore, what happened to you should be accepted as possible in this state.

- Tell me, doctor: is there any reason for the appearance of lethargy in such a disease as pneumonia?

“Medicine cannot indicate what kind of soil is needed for it, because it happens with all sorts of diseases, and there have even been cases where a person fell into a lethargic sleep without preceding any illness, being apparently completely healthy.

- Can pulmonary edema go away on its own during lethargy, that is, at a time when his heart is inactive and, therefore, the increase in edema does not encounter any obstacles?

“Since this happened to you, it means it’s possible, although, believe me, the swelling went away when you woke up.”

- In a few minutes?

- Well, in a few minutes... However, at least that way. Such work for the heart and lungs, as it was at the moment of your awakening, can, perhaps, break the ice on the Volga, not to mention dispel any swelling in a short time.

“Could constricted, swollen lungs work the way they worked for me?”

- That is.

“Therefore, there is nothing surprising or amazing in what happened to me?”

- No, why not! This is, in any case... a rarely observed phenomenon.

- Rarely, or in such an environment, under such circumstances - never?

- Hmm, how could it never happen when this happened to you?

“Consequently, edema can go away on its own, even when all a person’s organs are inactive, and the heart, constricted by edema, and swollen lungs can, if they please, work brilliantly; It would seem that there is nothing to die from pulmonary edema! Tell me, doctor, can a person wake up from the lethargy that happened during pulmonary edema, that is, can he get out of two such...unfavorable incidents at once?

An ironic smile appeared on the doctor's face.

“You see: I didn’t warn you about mania for nothing,” he said. “You all want to classify the incident that happened to you as something other than lethargy, and you ask questions with the goal of...

“In order to make sure,” I thought, “which of us is a maniac: am I, who wants to use the conclusions of science to verify the validity of the definition you made of my condition, or you, who, perhaps, despite even the possibility, classifies everything under one name available in your science? »

But out loud I said the following:

“I ask questions in order to show you that not everyone, having seen fluttering snow, is able, contrary to the instructions of the calendar and flowering trees, to assert at all costs that it is winter, simply because, according to science, snow is considered a part of winter; for I myself remember how snow fell one day when the calendar reckoned the twelfth of May and the trees in my father’s garden were in bloom.

This answer of mine probably convinced the doctor that he was too late with his warning, that I had already fallen into “mania,” and he did not object to me, and I did not ask him anything more.

Chapter 28

I brought up this conversation so that the reader would not accuse me of unforgivable frivolity, that I, hot on the heels, so to speak, did not scientifically examine the extraordinary incident that happened to me, especially since it happened in such a favorable environment. Indeed, in fact, there were two doctors who treated me, two doctors who witnessed everything that happened, and a whole staff of hospital employees of various categories!

And from the above conversation the reader can judge how my “scientific research” should have ended. What could I learn, what could I achieve with such an attitude? I wanted to know a lot, I wanted to know in detail and understand the whole course of my illness, for reasons of consideration, I wanted to know: was there even an iota of probability that my swelling could be absorbed at a time when my heart was inactive and my blood circulation was apparently completely stopped because I was numb? The fable that it passed in me in a few minutes, when I had already woken up, was equally difficult to believe, because then such activity of the heart and lungs, constrained by edema, was still incomprehensible.

But after similar attempts as above, I left my doctors alone and stopped questioning them, because anyway, I myself would not believe the truthfulness and impartiality of their answers.

I subsequently tried to “investigate scientifically” this issue; but the result was almost the same; I encountered the same apathetic attitude towards any independent “examinations”, the same slavery of thought, the same cowardly fear of stepping beyond the line of the circle outlined by science.

And science... Oh, what a disappointment this has been! When I asked: is it possible for a person who has fallen into lethargy when edema occurs after pneumonia to wake up, or whether such cases have been observed in medicine and whether, according to the law of nature, such cases are generally possible so that during lethargy the patient completely recovers from an illness, the entire course of which and the finale were , according to the doctors, a completely natural and correct death, they usually immediately answered me in the negative. But now, with my further questions, the confident tone turned into a fortune-telling one, various “however,” “you know,” etc. appeared. There was, of course, no mention of the fact that this happened to me. Here, immediately, without the slightest hesitation, the most submissive to science and all-encompassing and all-satisfying scientists floated out: “since it happened to you...”, and so on. And no bewilderment, no surprise, which indicated a complete lack of confidence and validity of what was said a quarter of an hour before. As someone who was not initiated into the intricacies of this science, and who unfortunately was accustomed to reasoning, this made me terribly angry, and I more than once asked passionately, posing the question point blank: “But please tell me, even though lethargy is a rare phenomenon, even if it itself has been little observed, little researched, but is it really impossible to find any definite answer to such questions in your laws on the life of an organism?

But here we had to make sure that this “scientific law for the life of an organism” had as much unshakable ground behind it as the hypothesis about the origin of canals on Mars and the floods that occur there. And what was there to delve into the essence of entities, when even to my question whether there are hallucinations during lethargy (I no longer asked whether they were possible or impossible, since here again independent thinking and inference was required) I did not receive a direct answer.

And I myself had to take on the task of collecting the information that I wanted to find ready-made in science, and I collected it, especially at first, very diligently, firstly, because I wanted to understand for myself what should be understood by the word “ “lethargy” - is it deep sleep, fainting, in a word, a state when life in a person seems to freeze, but does not leave him completely, or is this idea of ​​medicine incorrect and, in essence, the same thing happens to anyone who has fallen into lethargy, by our definition? it happened to me too. And secondly, I foresaw, of course, the distrust (frankly speaking, completely senseless and unfounded, since it is impossible to scientifically prove the impossibility of such a phenomenon) that would be met with my story and which it will undoubtedly cause even now, and being myself ardently convinced of what happened to me, I wanted to find confirmation of the validity of my conviction in observations and possible studies of this circumstance.

Chapter 29

So, what was the result of my research, what exactly happened to me? There is no doubt what I wrote, that is, that my soul left my body for a while, and then, by God’s decree, returned to it. An answer that can, of course, have a twofold relationship: certainly impossible for some and quite probable for others, depending on the internal structure and worldview of a person. For one who does not recognize the existence of the soul, even the question of any plausibility of such a definition is unacceptable. What soul can separate when it doesn’t exist at all? It is only desirable that such butchers pay attention to what in a person can see, hear, in a word, live and act when his body lies numb and completely insensitive. And whoever believes that in a person, in addition to his physical composition, physical functions, there is also some kind of force, completely independent of these latter, there is nothing incredible in such a fact.

And to believe this, it seems, is much more reasonable and thorough, for if it is not this force that spiritualizes and gives life to our body, but itself is only a product of the activity of this latter, then death is a complete absurdity. Why should I believe in the logic of such phenomena as old age and destruction, when the metabolism in my body required for nutrition and renewal of my body does not stop? When I addressed my story to clergy of different hierarchical levels, and among them there were very smart people, they all unanimously answered me that there was nothing incredible in the incident that happened to me, that there are stories about similar cases in both the Bible and the Gospel , both in the lives of the saints, and for His good and wise purposes, the Lord sometimes allows such anticipations of the soul, giving according to its abilities - one to contemplate more, another less of that mysterious world, in which we all have an inevitable path. I will add here on my own behalf that sometimes the purpose of such revelations is immediately clear and understandable, sometimes it remains hidden and so much so that the revelation seems to be causeless, not caused by anything, and sometimes only after a long period of time or in some roundabout way its necessity is indicated.

So, in the literature I re-read on this subject, I came across a case where only for a great-grandson such a circumstance was formidable and such a powerful, irresistible warning influenced him that he did not hesitate to refuse suicide, from which until then nothing could turn him away. Obviously, it was necessary to shed such knowledge into this family, but except for the great-grandmother of the young man saved by this knowledge, probably no one was able to perceive it, and that is why there was such a long period of time between the revelation and its application. This is the spiritual, religious side of this circumstance. Let's move on to others. Here I met a lot that could only confirm my faith, and nothing that could refute it.

Chapter 30

First of all, from all the references and everything I have read on this subject, I have learned that there can be essentially no hallucinations in lethargy, that someone who has fallen into a lethargic sleep either hears and does not feel anything, or feels and hears only what is actually happening around him, and the medical name of such a state as “sleep” is completely incorrect. This is rather some kind of numbness, paralysis, or, as our common people more appropriately express it, “fading away,” which, depending on the degree of its strength, sometimes extends to all the smallest functions, to all the finest work of the body, and in this case, of course Of course, there can be no talk of any dreams or hallucinations, since all activity of the brain is just as paralyzed as that of other organs. With a weaker degree of torpor, the patient feels and is aware of everything quite correctly, his brain is in a completely sober state, like that of a awake and completely sober person, and, therefore, this terrible illness is completely unusual, even to a small extent, in the likeness of at least sleep or slight oblivion, darken consciousness.

Further, undoubtedly weighty, although perhaps not for people of “positive” sciences, but for people simply with common sense and a sober attitude to things, proof that the visions that occur in circumstances similar to those that happened to me are not delusions, hallucinations, but are actually what they experience serves as their strength and reality. I think each of us is familiar with some vivid dreams, delusions, nightmares and similar phenomena, and each of us can check for ourselves how long-lasting the impressions they usually leave. Usually they turn pale and dissipate after awakening, if it is a dream or nightmare, or when a turning point occurs in recovery, in the case of delirium or hallucinations. It is enough for a person to come to his senses, and he immediately gets rid of their power and realizes that it was delirium or a nightmare. So I knew one feverish person who, an hour after the crisis, talked with laughter about the fears he had experienced in delirium; Despite his still very strong weakness, he already looked at what had barely passed with the eyes of a healthy person, realized that it was delirium, and the memories of it no longer aroused fear in him. The condition I am talking about is completely different. I never for one moment doubted that everything I saw and experienced in those hours that passed, in the language of the doctors, from my “agony” to my “awakening” in the dead room, were not dreams, but just as real reality , like my current life and environment. They tried in every possible way to shake me from this confidence, sometimes they even challenged me to the point of ridiculousness, but is it possible to make a person doubt that? that for him is as real and memorable as the day he lived yesterday. Try to assure him that he slept all day yesterday and had dreams, when he knows very well that he drank tea, dined, went to work and saw famous people.

And note that I am not an exception here. Re-read or listen to the stories about such cases, and you will see that such revelations of the afterlife sometimes had, obviously, a purely personal purpose, and in such cases the person who received them was forbidden to tell others about what he saw (to a certain extent), and at least this the person lived for decades after that, no matter what a frivolous, weak-willed person he was, he did not reveal the secret for anything, not even to the people closest and dearest to him. From this it is clear how sacred the order he received was for him, and that throughout his life, therefore, it retained the character of an undoubted reality, and not a product of his disordered imagination. It is also known that after such incidents, notorious atheists became and remained deeply religious people throughout their subsequent lives.

What kind of strangeness is this, what kind of exclusivity is this? How completely healthy man, as, for example, I know myself, perhaps, contrary to the general law for such things, remain throughout my life under the influence of some nightmare, hallucinations, and even more than that: how something like this can change him, his worldview, when And everyday experience, and the most stunning catastrophes in this real life of ours, are often powerless to produce such a change in a person?

Obviously, this is not a matter of lethargy and hallucinations, but of what has actually been experienced and experienced. And taking into account the general tendency of people to forget, as a result of which the phrase was formed: “time heals everything,” all kinds of losses, experienced disasters, heart wounds, does not such extraordinary, exceptional memory prove that a person who survived such an incident really stepped over that formidable for us and of greatest significance is the line beyond which there will be no more time and oblivion, and which we call death?

Chapter 31

Is it necessary to repeat here all the other extraordinary things that happened to me? Where, in fact, did my swelling go - and the swelling, as one must think, is very significant, if my temperature immediately dropped so low and it filled my lungs so much that I could not cough up anything, despite all the means that contributed to this, although Was my chest full of phlegm? How did it disperse, what was it absorbed into, when my blood froze? How could my swollen lungs and heart work so correctly and strongly if the swelling remained with me until I woke up? Given such conditions, it is very difficult to believe that I could wake up and remain alive, not by a miracle, but naturally.

It is not very often that a patient extricates himself from pulmonary edema, even in more favorable circumstances. And here, there is nothing to say, the situation is good: health care left, washed, dressed, and taken out to the unheated dead room! And then, what is this incomprehensible phenomenon? I saw and heard not some creations of my imagination, but what was actually happening in the ward, and I understood all this perfectly, therefore, I was not delirious and was generally fully conscious, and at the same time, having good mental abilities , I see, feel and recognize myself as divided - I see my lifeless body lying on the bed, and I see and recognize, in addition to this body, another myself, and I recognize the strangeness of this circumstance, and I understand all the features of the new form of my existence. Then I suddenly stop seeing what is happening in the room. Why? Is it because my mental activity is immersed in real nirvana that I completely lose consciousness? No, I continue to see and be aware of what is around me and do not see what is happening in the hospital ward only because I am absent, and when I return, I will again see and hear everything, but no longer in the ward, but in the dead room, in which I have never been in my life. But who could be absent if man does not have a soul as an independent being? How could the soul be completely separated from the body if what in our language is called death did not happen here? And what desire would I have, in our age of disbelief and denial of everything supersensible, to talk about such an incredible fact and prove its truth, if everything had not happened and was not so clear, tangible and undeniable for me? This is the need of a person who is not only a believer, but confident - confident in the truth of the Orthodox teaching on death, the confession of a person miraculously cured of the senseless, formidable and all too common in our evil time illness of disbelief in the afterlife.

At some point in life, often from a certain age, when relatives and friends pass away, a person tends to ask questions about death and about possible life after death. We have already written materials on this topic, and you can read the answers to some questions.

But it seems that the number of questions is only growing and we want to explore this topic a little deeper.

Life is eternal

In this article we will not give arguments for and against the existence of life after death. We will proceed from the fact that life exists after the death of the body.

Over the past 50–70 years, medicine and psychology have accumulated tens of thousands of written evidence and research results that make it possible to lift the veil from this mystery.

It is worth noting that, on the one hand, all recorded cases of post-death experiences or travel differ from each other. But, on the other hand, they all coincide in key points.

Such as

• death is simply a transition from one form of life to another;
• when consciousness leaves the body, it simply goes to other worlds and universes;
• the soul, freed from physical experiences, experiences extraordinary lightness, bliss and heightened all senses;
• feeling of flight;
• spiritual worlds are saturated with light and love;
• in the posthumous world, time and space familiar to humans do not exist;
• consciousness works differently than when living in the body, everything is perceived and grasped almost instantly;
• the eternity of life is realized.

Life after death: recorded real cases and recorded facts

The number of recorded accounts of eyewitnesses who have experienced out-of-body experiences is so great today that they could make big encyclopedia. And perhaps a small library.

Perhaps the largest number of described cases about life after death can be read in the books of Michael Newton, Ian Stevenson, Raymond Moody, Robert Monroe and Edgar Cayce.

Several thousand transcribed audio recordings of regressive hypnosis sessions about the life of the soul between incarnations can only be found in the books of Michael Newton.

Michael Newton began using regression hypnosis to treat his patients, especially those for whom traditional medicine and psychology could no longer help.

At first he was surprised to find that many serious problems in life, including the health of patients, had their reasons in past lives.

After several decades of research, Newton not only developed a mechanism for treating complex physical and psychological injuries that began in past incarnations, but also collected the largest amount of evidence to date for the existence of life after death.

Michael Newton's first book, Journeys of the Soul, was released in 1994, followed by several more books dealing with life in the spirit worlds.

These books describe not only the mechanism of the soul’s transition from one life to another, but also how we choose our birth, our parents, loved ones, friends, trials and circumstances of life.

In one of the forewords to his book, Michael Newton wrote: “We are all about to return home. Where only pure, unconditional love, compassion and harmony exist side by side. You need to understand that you are currently in school, the Earth school, and when the training is over, this loving harmony is waiting for you. It is important to remember that every experience you have during your current life contributes to your personal, spiritual growth. No matter when or how your training ends, you will return home to the unconditional love that is always available and waiting for us all.”

But the main thing is that Newton not only collected the largest amount of detailed evidence, he also developed a tool that allows anyone to gain their own experience.

Today, regressive hypnosis is also represented in Russia, and if you want to resolve your doubts about the existence of an immortal soul, now you have the opportunity to check it for yourself.

To do this, just find the contacts of a specialist in regressive hypnosis on the Internet. However, take the time to read the reviews to avoid unpleasant disappointment.

Today, books are not the only source of information about life after death. Films and TV series are being made on this topic.

One of the most famous films on this topic, based on real events, “Heaven is for Real” 2014. The film was based on the book “Heaven is Real” by Todd Burpo.

A book about the story of a 4-year-old boy who experienced clinical death during surgery, went to heaven and returned back, written by his father.

This story is amazing in its details. While out of body, 4-year-old baby Kilton clearly saw what the doctors and his parents were doing. Which exactly corresponded to what was actually happening.

Kilton describes the heavens and their inhabitants in great detail, although his heart only stopped for a few minutes. During his stay in heaven, the boy learns such details about the life of the family that, according to his father’s assurances, he could not have known, if only because of his age.

The child, during his out-of-body journey, saw dead relatives, angels, Jesus and even the Virgin Mary, apparently due to his Catholic upbringing. The boy observed the past and the near future.

The events described in the book forced Father Kilton to completely reconsider his views on life, death and what awaits us after death.

Interesting cases and evidence of eternal life

An interesting incident happened several years ago with our compatriot Vladimir Efremov.

Vladimir Grigorievich experienced a spontaneous exit from the body due to cardiac arrest. In a word, Vladimir Grigorievich experienced clinical death in February 2014, which he told his relatives and colleagues about in every detail.

And it seemed like there was one more case confirming the presence of an otherworldly life. But the fact is that Vladimir Efremov is not easy a common person, not a psychic, but a scientist with an impeccable reputation in his circles.

And according to Vladimir Grigorievich himself, before he experienced clinical death, he considered himself an atheist and perceived stories about the afterlife as the dope of religion. He devoted most of his professional life to developing missile systems and space engines.

Therefore, for Efremov himself, the experience of contact with the afterlife was very unexpected, but it largely changed his views on the nature of reality.

It is noteworthy that in his experience there is also light, serenity, extraordinary clarity of perception, a pipe (tunnel) and no sense of time and space.

But, since Vladimir Efremov is a scientist, designer of aircraft and spacecraft, he gives a very interesting description of the world in which his consciousness found itself. He explains it in physical and mathematical concepts, which are unusually far from religious ideas.

He notes that a person in the afterlife sees what he wants to see, which is why there are so many differences in the descriptions. Despite his previous atheism, Vladimir Grigorievich noted that the presence of God was felt everywhere.

There was no visible form of God, but his presence was undeniable. Later, Efremov even gave a presentation on this topic to his colleagues. Listen to the story of the eyewitness himself.

Dalai Lama

One of the greatest proofs of eternal life is known to many, but few have thought about it. Laureate Nobel Prize world, the spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama XIV, is the 14th incarnation of the consciousness (soul) of the 1st Dalai Lama.

But they began the tradition of reincarnation of the main spiritual leader, to preserve the purity of knowledge even earlier. In the Tibetan Kagyu lineage, the highest reincarnated Lama is called Karmapa. And now the Karmapa is experiencing his 17th incarnation.

Based on the story of the death of the 16th Karmapa and the search for the child into whom he will be reborn, filmed famous movie"Little Buddha"

In the traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism, in general, the practice of repeated incarnations is very widespread. But it is especially widely known in Tibetan Buddhism.

It is not only the supreme Lamas, such as the Dalai Lama or the Karmapa, who are reborn. After death, almost without interruption, their closest disciples also come to a new human body, whose task is to recognize the soul of the Lama in the child.

There is a whole ritual of recognition, including recognition among many personal belongings from a previous incarnation. And everyone is free to decide for themselves whether they believe or not in these stories.

But in the political life of the world, some are inclined to take this seriously.

Thus, the new reincarnation of the Dalai Lama is always recognized by the Pancha Lama, who, in turn, is also reborn after each death. It is the Pancha Lama who finally confirms that the child is the embodiment of the consciousness of the Dalai Lama.

And it so happened that the current Pancha Lama is still a child and lives in China. Moreover, he cannot leave this country, because the Chinese government needs him so that without their participation it would not be possible to determine the new incarnation of the Dalai Lama.

Therefore, in the past few years, the spiritual leader of Tibet sometimes jokes and says that he may no longer incarnate or incarnate in a female body. You can, of course, argue that these are Buddhists and they have such beliefs and this is not evidence. But it seems that some heads of state perceive this differently.

Bali - “Island of the Gods”

Another interesting fact takes place in Indonesia, on the Hindu island of Bali. In Hinduism, the theory of reincarnation is key and the islanders deeply believe in it. They believe so strongly that during the cremation of the body, the relatives of the deceased ask the gods to allow the soul, if it wants to be born again on earth, to be born again in Bali.

Which is quite understandable, the island lives up to its name “Island of the Gods”. Moreover, if the family of the deceased is wealthy, she is asked to return to the family.

When a child reaches 3 years of age, there is a tradition of taking him to a special clergyman who has the ability to determine which soul has come into this body. And sometimes it turns out to be the soul of a great-grandmother or uncle. And the existence of the entire island, practically a small state, is determined by these beliefs.

Modern science's view of life after death

Science's views on death and life have changed greatly over the past 50–70 years, largely due to the development of quantum physics and biology. In recent decades, scientists have come closer than ever before to understanding what happens to consciousness after life leaves the body.

If 100 years ago science denied the existence of consciousness or soul, today this is already a generally accepted fact, as is the fact that the consciousness of the experimenter influences the results of the experiment.

So does the soul exist, and is Consciousness immortal from a scientific point of view? - Yes

Neuroscientist Christoph Koch in April 2016, at a meeting of scientists with the 14th Dalai Lama, said that the latest theories in brain science consider consciousness as a property that is inherent in everything that exists.

Consciousness is inherent in everything and is present everywhere, just as gravity acts on all objects without exception.

The theory of “Panpsychism”, the theory of a single universal consciousness, has received a second life these days. This theory is present in Buddhism, Greek philosophy and pagan traditions. But for the first time, Panpsychism is supported by science.

Giulio Tononi, the author of the famous modern theory of consciousness “Integrated Information Theory” states the following: “consciousness exists in physical systems in the form of diverse and multilaterally interconnected pieces of information.”

Christopher Koch and Giulio Tononi did something amazing for modern science statement:

"Consciousness is the fundamental quality inherent in reality."

Based on this hypothesis, Koch and Tononi came up with a unit of measurement for consciousness and called it phi. Scientists have already developed a test that measures phi in the human brain.

A magnetic pulse is sent to the human brain and how the signal is measured in the brain's neurons is measured.

The longer and clearer the brain reverberation in response to a magnetic stimulus, the more conscious a person is.

Using this technique, it is possible to determine what state a person is in: awake, asleep or under anesthesia.

This method of measuring consciousness has found widespread use in medicine. The phi level helps to accurately determine whether actual death has occurred or the patient is in a vegetative state.

The test helps to find out at what time consciousness begins to develop in the fetus and how clearly a person is aware of himself in a state of dementia or dementia.

Several proofs of the existence of the soul and its immortality

Here we are again faced with what can be considered proof of the existence of the soul. In court cases, witness testimony is evidence in favor of the innocence and guilt of suspects.

And for most of us, the stories of people, especially loved ones, who have experienced a post-mortem experience or the separation of the soul from the body will be evidence of the presence of a soul. However, it is not a fact that scientists will accept this evidence as such.

Where is the point after which stories and myths become proven with scientific point vision?

Moreover, today we already know that many of the inventions of the human mind that we use now were present exclusively in science fiction works 200–300 years ago.

The simplest example of this is an airplane.

Evidence from psychiatrist Jim Tucker

So let's look at several cases described by psychiatrist Jim B. Tucker as evidence for the existence of the soul. Moreover, what could be a greater proof of the immortality of the soul if not reincarnation or the memory of one’s past incarnations?

Like Ian Stevenson, Jim spent decades researching the issue of reincarnation based on children's memories of past lives.

In his book Life Before Life: A Scientific Study of Children's Memories of Past Lives, he reviewed more than 40 years of reincarnation research at the University of Virginia.

The studies were based on children's exact memories of their past incarnations.

The book, among other things, discusses birthmarks and birth defects that are present in children and correlate with the cause of death in a previous incarnation.

Jim began studying this issue after he encountered quite frequent requests from parents who claimed that their children told very consistent stories about their past lives.

Names, occupations, places of residence and circumstances of death are given. What a surprise it was when some of the stories were confirmed: houses were found in which the children lived in their previous incarnations and graves where they were buried.

There were too many such cases to consider it a coincidence or a hoax. Moreover, in some cases, young children as young as 2-4 years old already possessed skills that they claimed to have mastered in past lives. Here are a few such examples.

Baby Hunter incarnate

Hunter, a 2-year-old boy, told his parents that he was a multiple golf champion. He lived in the United States of America in the mid-30s and his name was Bobby Jones. At the same time, at only two years old, Hunter played golf well.

So good that he was allowed to study in the section, despite the existing age restrictions of 5 years. It is not surprising that the parents decided to have their son checked. They printed out photographs of several competitive golfers and asked the boy to identify himself.

Without hesitation, Hunter pointed to the photograph of Bobby Jones. By the age of seven, memories of his past life began to blur, but the boy still plays golf and has already won several competitions.

Incarnation of James

Another example about the boy James. He was about 2.5 years old when he started talking about his past life and how he died. First, the child began to have nightmares about the plane crash.

But one day James told his mother that he was a military pilot and died in a plane crash during the war with Japan. His plane was shot down near the island of Iota. The boy described in detail how the bomb hit the engine and the plane began to fall into the ocean.

He remembered that in a previous life his name was James Houston, he grew up in Pennsylvania, and his father suffered from alcoholism.

The boy's father turned to the military archives, where it turned out that a pilot named James Houston really existed. He took part in air operation off the islands of Japan during the Second World War. Houston died off the island of Iota, exactly as the child described.

Reincarnation researcher Ian Stevens

The books of another no less famous reincarnation researcher, Ian Stevens, contain about 3 thousand verified and confirmed childhood memories of past incarnations. Unfortunately, his books have not yet been translated into Russian, and are currently only available in English.

His first book was published in 1997 and was entitled "Reincarnation and Stevenson's Biology: Contributions to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects."

In researching this book, two hundred cases of birth defects or birthmarks in children that could not be explained medically or genetically were examined. At the same time, the children themselves explained their origins by events from past lives.

For example, there have been cases of children with irregular or missing fingers. Children with such defects often remembered the circumstances under which these injuries were received, where and at what age. Many of the stories were confirmed by death certificates found later and even stories from living relatives.

There was a boy with moles that were shaped very much like the entrance and exit holes from bullet wound. The boy himself claimed that he died from a shot in the head. He remembered his name and the house in which he lived.

The deceased's sister was later found and confirmed her brother's name and the fact that he shot himself in the head.

All the thousands and thousands of similar cases recorded today are proof not only of the existence of the soul, but also of its immortality. Moreover, thanks to many years of research by Ian Stevenson, Jim B. Tucker, Michael Newton and others, we know that sometimes no more than 6 years can pass between soul incarnations.

In general, according to the research of Michael Newton, the soul itself chooses how soon and why it wants to incarnate again.

Further proof of the existence of the soul came from the discovery of the atom.

The discovery of the atom and its structure led to the fact that scientists, especially quantum physicists, were forced to admit that at the quantum level everything existing in the universe, absolutely everything, is one.

An atom is 90 percent composed of space (emptiness), which means that all living and nonliving bodies, including the human body, consist of the same space.

It is noteworthy that more and more quantum physicists are now practicing Eastern meditation practices, because, in their opinion, they allow them to experience this fact of unity.

John Hagelin, a famous quantum physicist and popularizer of science, said in one of his interviews that for all quantum physicists, our unity at the subatomic level is a proven fact.

But if you want not just to know this, but to experience it yourself, take up meditation, because it will help you find access to this space of peace and love, which is already present inside everyone, but is simply not realized.

You can call it God, soul or higher mind, the fact of its existence will not change in any way.

Isn’t it possible that mediums, psychics and many creative personalities can connect to this space?

Religious opinions on death

The opinion of all religions about death agrees on one thing - when you die in this world, you are born in another. But the descriptions of other worlds in the Bible, Koran, Kabbalah, Vedas and other religious books differ in accordance with the cultural characteristics of the countries where this or that religion was born.

But taking into account the hypothesis that after death the soul sees those worlds that it is inclined and wants to see, we can conclude that all differences in religious views on life after death are explained precisely by differences in faith and beliefs.

Spiritualism: communication with the departed

It seems that humans have always had a desire to communicate with the dead. Because throughout the existence of human culture, there have been people who have been able to communicate with the spirits of deceased ancestors.

In the Middle Ages, this was done by shamans, priests and sorcerers; in our time, people with such abilities are called mediums or psychics.

If you watch television at least occasionally, you may have come across a television show that shows sessions of communication with the spirits of the deceased.

One of the most famous shows in which communication with the departed is a key theme is “Battle of Psychics” on TNT.

It is difficult to say how real what the viewer sees on the screen is. But one thing is for sure - it is now not difficult to find someone who can help you contact your deceased loved one.

But when choosing a medium, you should take care to obtain proven recommendations. At the same time, you can try to set up this connection yourself.

Yes, not everyone has psychic abilities, but many can develop them. There are often cases when communication with the dead occurs spontaneously.

This usually happens up to 40 days after death, until the time has come for the soul to fly away from the earthly plane. During this period, communication can occur on its own, especially if the deceased has something to tell you and you are emotionally open to such communication.

“Death is just a transition from one life to another, a re-dressing from old clothes to a new one."

(Bhagavad Gita, from the epic Mahabharata)

Clinical death as a transition period between life and death is becoming more common in the modern world. This is due to the use of modern resuscitation methods, people began to survive more often.

Doctors admit that clinical death is still a mystery to them. Experts do not have a consensus on what is actually happening to a person at this time.

Particularly fierce debate arises around the so-called “post-mortem experience,” which some people experience at the moment of clinical death. They started talking about this phenomenon in 1976 after the publication of Dr. Raymond Moody’s book “Life After Life.”

Alan Rickler, 17 years old
Died of leukemia. “I saw the doctors enter the room, with them my grandmother in the same robe and cap as everyone else. At first I was glad that she came to visit me, and then I remembered that she had already died. And I became scared. Then some strange figure in black came in... I started crying... my grandmother said, “Don’t be afraid, it’s not the time yet,” and then I woke up.”

Igor Goryunov - 15 years old; polytechnic school student
- The guys arrived in the evening. They asked me to remove the earring from my ear. I didn't take it off. They beat me. I fainted. Then they found me. The doctors said that I was dead. I remember being in a dark well. First it flew down, and then up. I saw a bright light. Emptiness. I woke up with chest pain.

Pensioner from Novosibirsk Alexey Efremov,
suffered extensive burns and underwent several skin grafting operations. During one of them, his heart stopped. Doctors managed to bring the man out of the state of clinical death only after 35 minutes - a unique case, since it is known that under normal conditions the period of clinical death in a person is 3-6 minutes. This is followed by irreversible changes in the brain. However, Alexey Efremov did not experience such changes. He thinks clearly and clearly.

Movement through a dark tunnel and a bright light at the end - images that, thanks to Moody’s book, the whole world learned about, Tibetan mystics would explain as a transition to another reality of the posthumous world and a subsequent meeting with the “absolute secondary light.” Moody describes this phenomenon as follows: “This occurs immediately after death and lasts up to several hours. At this time, the most vivid and memorable visions are celebrated. Consciousness finds itself in conditions that are unusual for it.” Following Moody's testimony, we can give them several characteristics.

When I “looked” through the paintings, there was practically no light visible. He disappeared as soon as he asked what I had done in life. And yet I felt his presence, he guided me in this “viewing”, sometimes noting certain events. He tried to emphasize something in each of these scenes. Especially the importance of love. In moments when this was most clearly visible, such as in communication with my sister. He seemed to take an interest in matters related to knowledge.

Every time, noting events related to the teaching, he “said” that I should continue to study and that when he comes for me again (by this time I already realized that I would return back to life), I should still have a desire for knowledge . He spoke of knowledge as a constant process, and I had the impression that this process would continue after death.”

The Dutch identified the signs of clinical death and calculated the frequency of their manifestation.
So, more than half of the patients in the group (56 percent) experienced positive emotions during clinical death. In 50 percent of cases, awareness of the fact of one’s own death occurs.

Meetings with deceased people occur in 32 percent of cases.

31 percent of those who died report traveling through a tunnel;
- 29 percent observe pictures of starry landscapes;
- 24 percent see themselves from the outside;
- 23 percent of respondents observe dazzling light;
- the same number of people - bright colors;
- 13 percent of patients see flashing pictures of past life;
- 8 percent of them say that they clearly saw the famous border between the world of the living and the dead.

No one in the control group reported feeling unpleasant or frightening.

It is also impressive that people who were blind from birth talk about visual impressions, repeating word for word the stories of sighted people. How were people blind from birth able to describe in detail what they saw in the operating room at the moment of their “death.” However, this is a fact - a survey of more than 200 blind women and men conducted by Dr. Kennett Ring from the USA proves this.

Today, many scientists are inclined to think that after physical death, a person’s consciousness remains. One of the leading doctors at Southampton Hospital, Sam Parnia, says: “There is no doubt that in some people, while the brain has ceased to function, clear thought processes and the ability to think and remember continue.” According to Dr. Parnia and his colleagues, the mind, or soul, continues to think and reflect, “even if the patient’s heart has stopped, he is not breathing, and his brain has stopped working.”

The ability to return back to the material world

“The human soul is immortal. All her hopes and aspirations are transferred to another world” (Plato).

Return process physical body different people described differently, and just as differently they explained why this happened. Many simply said that they did not know how or why they returned and could only guess. Some thought that the deciding factor was their own decision to return to earthly life. Here's how one person described it:

“I was outside of my physical body and felt I had to make a decision. I understood that I could not stay close to my body for a long time - this is difficult to explain to others. I had to decide on something - either move away from here or go back. Now this may seem strange to many, but partly I wanted to stay. So, I thought and decided: “I need to return to life,” and after that I woke up in my physical body.”

Suicides

Here are a few contemporary stories that illustrate the otherworldly state of suicide. One man who loved his wife dearly committed suicide when she died. He hoped to be united with her forever. However, it turned out to be completely different. When the doctor managed to resuscitate him, he said: “I ended up in a completely different place from where she was. It was some kind of terrible place. And I immediately realized that I had made a huge mistake" (Raymond A. Moody, MD, Life after Life, Bantam Books, NY 1978, p. 143).

Some suicides who were brought back to life described that after death they found themselves in some kind of dungeon and felt that they would remain here for a very long time. They realized that this was their punishment for violating the established law, according to which every person must endure a certain share of sorrows. Having voluntarily thrown off the burden placed on them, they must bear even more in the other world.

One day, at the age of seven, driven to despair by her parents, the girl threw herself head down and broke her head. During clinical death, her soul saw familiar children surrounding her lifeless body. Suddenly a bright light shone around, from which an unknown voice said to her: “You made a mistake. Your life does not belong to you, and you must return."

The border between the world of the dead and the living

“Socrates was once asked where he was from. He did not answer: “From Athens,” but said: “From the Universe” (from Michel Montaigne’s “Experiences”)

Up to 8% of people who went through clinical death found themselves on the border between the world of the living and the dead. What kind of border is this?

The idea that water separates the earthly world from the afterlife and serves as a boundary that the soul overcomes on its way to the “other” world is known to many peoples. For example, the indigenous people in the Vologda province. They believed that the soul, on the fortieth day after death, crosses the Forget River and forgets everything that happened to it in this world. Those who cross the border completely lose their memory.

A very common practice is to leave money to the deceased (a bribe to the ferryman). In Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, the deceased was also given a coin so that he had something to “pay for the crossing to the island of the blessed.” The border itself is a sacred place and full of danger due to the presence of creatures who do not obey any laws and do not serve either “white” or “black”.

What does the Bible say about death?

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:1). As you can see, a person consists of dust and divine breath (soul).

The most famous statement is that after death people do not disappear but are transferred to other worlds - these are heaven and hell. In these “worlds” the human soul remains after physical death. People usually get there based on “merit” in material life. “Say to the children of Israel, If a man or a woman commits any sin against another, and thereby commits an offense against the Lord, that soul will be guilty...” (Numbers 5:6).

At the moment of death, according to the Bible, “his spirit departs, and he returns to his own land” (Psalm 146:4). “And the dust will return to the earth as it was; and the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

What does the Koran say about death?

The Qur'an mentions death 164 times, which shows the importance attached to this issue in Islam. We will limit ourselves to citing only a few of them:

“Say: “Verily, death from which you are fleeing will certainly overtake you. And then you will be resurrected and returned to the Almighty - the One who knows about the secret and the obvious, and, truly, in the next world you will be informed about what you did on earth, and you will be responsible for all your deeds” (Sura Al-Jumu 'a', verse.

“...And life in this world is just a deceptive pleasure” (Surah Alu ‘Imran, verse 185).

The Koran mentions the so-called Angels of Death:

“Say: “Your souls will be separated by the angel of death, who is entrusted with taking your souls, and after death you will be resurrected and return to your Lord” (Surah As-Sajda, verse 11).

The process of leaving the body

“When the soul, leaving the body, comes to the throat, and those next to the dying person say: “Who can save him and who can keep him alive?!”, then it will become clear to him that the time has come to part with this world. The hardships of this worldly life will converge with the hardships of the hereafter, and on that day his soul will be driven to your Lord" (Sura Al-Qiyama, verses 26-30).

City of Light

“We feel and know that we are immortal.” (Benedict Spinoza)

“The Land of Eternal Summer” is a place that some exorcists describe. This is not paradise, but it is somewhat similar to it. Here is the story of one “spirit” about this place:

“The inhabitants of the Earth were persistently interested in the nature of our homes, the foundations of the structure of the society in which we live and work.

My area of ​​interest was science, and I continued to study it after death, finding myself here in another world. To do this, I often visit the laboratory that provides all the necessary conditions to carry out my experiments. I live in my own house, very comfortable, with a library full of books not only on history, science, medicine, but also on other fields of knowledge: books are just as important for us. When inexplicable sadness overcomes me, I visit those whom I loved most on Earth.”

Here's another description:
“It’s very difficult to talk about working in the spiritual world. It is distributed among everyone depending on the progress achieved by the individual. If the soul comes directly from Earth or from another material world, then it must realize its past errors in order to achieve perfection here. Music is one of the greatest engines of progress in the afterlife.

Here everyone has the opportunity to enjoy peace. Some people prefer to communicate with nature. Every home is an oasis. The other world is not only picturesque landscapes, but also pretty houses inhabited by beautiful, kind, beautiful people, experiencing joy and bliss simply from the fact that they live in such a wonderful place. Yes, that's great! No earthly mind can comprehend the miracle that this world gives us. The colors are so refined, and relationships in everyday life are much warmer.”

Another story:
“In this wonderful place there were colors, bright colors, but not like on earth, but completely indescribable. There were people there, happy people... whole groups of people. Some of them were studying something. In the distance I saw a city with buildings in it. They sparkled brightly. Happy people, sparkling water, fountains... it seems to me that it was a city of light in which beautiful music sounded. But I think that if I entered this city, I would never return... I was told that if I went there, I would not be able to return back... and that the decision was mine.”

Descriptions of the state of consciousness after clinical death

“The soul is not part of one specific body and can be found in one body or another” (Giordano Bruno)

“I had an accident and from that time on I lost the sense of time and the sense of physical reality in relation to my body. My essence, or my Self, seemed to come out of my body... it resembled a certain charge, but it felt like something real. It was small in volume and was perceived as a ball with unclear boundaries. It looked as if it had a shell... and felt very light...

The most amazing experience I had was the moment when my essence stood over my physical body, as if deciding whether to leave it or return. It seemed as if the passage of time had changed. At the beginning of the accident and after it, everything happened unusually quickly, but at the moment of the accident itself, when my essence seemed to be above my body and the car was flying over the embankment, it seemed that all this happened for quite a long time before the car fell to the ground. I watched everything that was happening as if from the outside, not tying myself to the physical body and existed only in my consciousness.”

Description of our world through the eyes of the deceased

"People sleep; when they die, they wake up." (Muhammad)

Personally, I found it interesting to see the description of the material world (our world) by one of the survivors of clinical death.

Andrey, 32 years old
“No prerequisites, no disasters, no serious illnesses, I just realized that in 20 minutes I would die. I was serving in the army then. This realization brought peace and tranquility, even pleasant joy. I went to the shower and cleaned up my body, knowing that it was necessary. Then he tidied up his uniform. He found a secluded place, lay down on the couch, and closed his eyes. The countdown has begun. The heart was counting, this was the only sound that was heard. The speed of my heartbeat slowed down, I began to count the last beats, and here was the last blow of the gong, which was already very distant and dull.

Failure into darkness and complete lack of perception. Then again enlightenment, everything seems to be the same, I just see through the walls and ceiling, I understand that I am no longer lying, I looked around, and it is so, the body is lying as I laid it. hands neatly folded, cap on top. Looks quite dead. This is my body, but it’s already kind of unnecessary.

I looked up and saw the sky through the ceiling and roof. (it was about 20.00; autumn). The sky opened and I saw the light. I'm going there. He began to rise, passed through the window without obstacles and then higher and higher. No body, no weight. Consciousness is so open that everything is perceived directly, there are no logical chains, direct perception, there is no time.

An uncontrollable craving for the light, the closer to it, the happier, there are no words to find here, there are no thoughts as such in the usual earthly understanding, there is simply perception. Life is remembered all at once and without a temporal context.

A creature is moving towards me. I can't say who, man or woman. And it doesn't matter. This is yours. Just deep kinship and acceptance. It stopped me. I feel anxious. There's something wrong with the body. I looked back and saw my friend walking towards the room where I left the body. Clear thought, he's a nuisance. I see him enter the room. I try to shout out, but in vain. His words sound (he addresses the body) as if underwater. I turn to the one who met,

One feeling question: WHY?
Answer: EARLY.

I'm spinning, everything goes out, shrinks into a ball of dirt, everything is clogged, pain in my chest, an explosion of inhalation. The cold, cramped body began to breathe, the consciousness was dim, everything was visible as through cloudy glass, the colors were faded. Cold meat of a former corpse. It’s as tight as in a wet rubber spacesuit. Crazy gravity. It seems like hell, deep under the wet ground.

The heart accelerates, becomes warmer, the blood brings living warmth with each wave. The world is expanding, the chest is shaking with bellows. My head becomes clearer, but I understand that perception will be curtailed. I move my clumsy body, so much effort, it’s still heavy. I opened my eyes, there was a transom, a trap, the world was drawn flat, all the colors were faded. I want to tear off the veil. In vain, he waved his hand to tear off the canvas, the problem was that the hand was also drawn.

Possibilities of consciousness after death

“I am sure that I am the same one who has already lived thousands of times before you and will live thousands of times more” (Johann Wolfgang Goethe)

When we enter another world, we become pure consciousness and many of the limitations of the material world no longer apply to us:

1. Feelings and emotions become more intense.
2. The ability to fly and move over long distances in a split second.
3. You can walk through walls.
4. Our thoughts play a decisive role in the new world. The idea becomes clearer and quickly implemented.
5. The sense of time is lost. There is a feeling of complete lack of time.
6. In a short period of time (if the body is not badly damaged), you can still decide to go back. Some people come back that way.
7. If you get sucked into underground worlds– resist it. It's within your power. You can move to another place for example.
8. The ability to completely modify your body.

“Things that were impossible in the physical world became possible. And it was nice. My consciousness could perceive all phenomena at once, and immediately resolve questions that arose, without returning again and again to the same thing.”

So, a huge number of sources claim (including personal examples) that life after the death of the physical body not only does not end, but also takes us to a new level of understanding of the world. Different and different people talk about approximately the same thing, and in religious teachings there is a common opinion about the afterlife.

There is no such person born on the planet who can calmly relate to death. Such thoughts cause fear in more than half of humanity. What is the reason for fear? Illness, poverty, stress, and difficulties do not frighten us, but why does death make us afraid, and why do the human stories of survivors make us tremble? Maybe the reason is that even about a serious illness there are a couple of lines, but about life in the afterlife we ​​don’t even know who to ask.

Past upbringing once again proves: after all, almost all the inhabitants of the planet are sure that life after death does not exist. There will be no more sunrises or sunsets, as well as meetings with loved ones and warm hugs. All important senses will disappear: hearing, vision, touch, smell, etc. This article will help you figure out what happens after death and whether the stories of people who have experienced clinical death are true.

What does our body consist of?

Everyone has a physical body and a disembodied soul. Scientists and esotericists have discovered the factor that a person has several bodies. In addition to the physical, there are also subtle bodies, which, in turn, are divided into:

• Essential.
• Astral.
• Mental.

Any of these bodies has energy field, which when combined with thin bodies form an aura or, as it is also called, a biofield. As for the physical body, it can be touched and seen. This is our main body, which is given to us at birth for a certain period of time.

Etheric, astral and mental body

The so-called double of the physical body has no color (invisible) and is called etheric. It exactly repeats the entire shape of the main body, and also has the same energy field. After the death of a person, it is completely destroyed after 3 days. For this reason, the funeral process does not begin until 3 days after the death of the body.

“The body of emotions”, also known as the astral body. A person’s experiences and emotional state can be changed by personal radiation. During sleep it is capable of disconnecting, which is why, when we wake up, we can remember a dream, which is only a journey of the soul at that moment while the physical body rests in the bed.

The mental body is responsible for thoughts. Abstract thinking and contact with space distinguishes this body. The soul leaves the main body and separates at the time of death, rapidly heading towards a higher world.

Return from that world

Almost everyone is shocked by the stories of people who have experienced clinical death.

Some people believe in such luck, while others are skeptical in principle about this kind of death. And yet, what can happen in 5 minutes at the moment of rescue by resuscitators? Is there really an afterlife after life, or is it just a fantasy of the brain?

In the 70s of the last century, scientists began to carefully study this factor, on the basis of which the book “Life After Life” by Raymond Moody was published. This is an American psychologist who has made many discoveries over the decades. The psychologist believed that the sensation of out-of-body existence involves stages such as:

• Disabling the physiological processes of the body (it has been established that the dying person hears the words of the doctor who pronounces death).
• Unpleasant noisy sounds with increasing intensity.
• The dying person leaves the body and moves with incredible speed along a long tunnel, where light is visible at the end.
• His whole life flies by before him.
• There is a meeting with relatives and friends who have already left the living world.

Stories from people who have experienced clinical death note an unusual split in consciousness: you seem to understand everything and are aware of what is happening around you during “death,” but for some reason you are unable to contact living people who are nearby. Another amazing factor is that even a person who is blind from birth sees a bright light in a mortal state.

Our brain remembers everything

Our brain remembers the whole process at the moment when clinical death occurs. Stories from people and research by scientists have found explanations for unusual visions.

Fantastic explanation

Pyall Watson is a psychologist who believes that in the last moments of a dying person's life they see their birth. Acquaintance with death, as Watson said, begins with a terrible path that everyone must overcome. This is the birth canal of 10 cm.

“It is not in our power to know exactly what is happening in the creation of a baby at the moment of birth, but perhaps all these sensations are similar to the different phases of dying. After all, it may be that the pre-death images that emerge before the dying person are precisely experiences during the birth process,” says psychologist Pyall Watson.

Utilitarian explanation

Nikolai Gubin, a resuscitator from Russia, is of the opinion that the appearance of a tunnel is a toxic psychosis.

This is a dream that is similar to hallucinations (for example, when a person sees himself from the outside). In the process of dying, the visual lobes of the cerebral hemisphere have already undergone oxygen starvation. Vision quickly narrows, leaving a thin band that provides central vision.

For what reason does your whole life flash before your eyes when clinical death occurs? The stories of survivors cannot give a clear answer, but Gubin has his own interpretation. The stage of dying begins with new brain particles and ends with old ones. Restoration of important brain functions occurs in reverse: first the old areas come to life, and then the new ones. That is why the memories of people who returned from the afterlife reflect more imprinted fragments.

The secret of the dark and light world

“Another world exists!” - say medical specialists, stunned. The revelations of people who experienced clinical death even have detailed coincidences.

Priests and doctors who had the opportunity to communicate with patients who returned from another world recorded the fact that all these people have a common property of souls. Upon arrival from heaven, some returned more enlightened and calm, while others, having returned from hell, for a long time could not calm down from the nightmare they had seen.

After listening to the stories of survivors of clinical death, we can conclude that heaven is above, hell is below. This is exactly what is written in the Bible about the afterlife. Patients describe their sensations as follows: those who went down met hell, and those who flew up found themselves in heaven.

Word of mouth

Many people have been able to experience and understand what clinical death consists of. The stories of survivors belong to the inhabitants of the entire planet. For example, Thomas Welch was able to survive a sawmill disaster. Subsequently, he said that on the shore of the burning abyss he could see some people who had died earlier. He began to regret that he had worried so little about salvation. Knowing in advance all the horrors of hell, he would have lived differently. At that moment the man saw a man walking in the distance. The unfamiliar appearance was light and bright, radiating kindness and mighty strength. It became clear to Welch: this is the Lord. Only he has the power to save people, only he can take a doomed soul to his torment. Suddenly he turned and looked at our hero. This was enough for Thomas to find himself back in his body and his mind to come to life.

When the heart stops

In April 1933, Pastor Kenneth Hagin was plunged into clinical death. The stories of those who experienced clinical death are very similar, which is why scientists and doctors consider these to be real events. Hagin's heart stopped. He said that when the soul left the body and reached the abyss, he felt the presence of a spirit that was leading him somewhere. Suddenly, a powerful voice sounded in the darkness. The man could not understand what was said, but it was the voice of God, of which he was sure. At that moment, the spirit released the pastor, and a strong whirlwind began to lift him back up. The light slowly began to appear, and Kenneth Hagin found himself in his room, jumping into the body the way one usually gets into trousers.

In heaven

Heaven is described as the opposite of hell. The stories of clinical death survivors never go unnoticed.

One of the scientists, aged 5, fell into a pool filled with water. The child was found in a lifeless state. The parents took the baby to the hospital, but the doctor had to say that the boy would no longer open his eyes. But the greater surprise was that the child woke up and came to life.

The scientist said that when he found himself in the water, he felt flying through a long tunnel, at the end of which a light could be seen. This glow was incredibly bright. There was the Lord on the throne, and below were people (perhaps they were angels). Getting closer to the Lord God, the boy heard that the time had not yet come. The child wanted to stay there for a moment, but in some incomprehensible way he ended up in his own body.

About the Light

Six-year-old Sveta Molotkova has also seen the other side of life. After doctors brought her out of her coma, a request came in for a pencil and paper. Svetlana drew everything she could see at the moment the soul moved. The girl was in a comatose state for 3 days. Doctors fought for her life, but her brain showed no signs of life. Her mother could not look at the lifeless and motionless body of her child. At the end of the third day, the girl seemed to be trying to grab onto something, her fists clenched tightly. The mother felt that her girl had finally grasped the thread of life. Having recovered a little, Sveta asked the doctors to bring her paper and a pencil so she could draw everything that she could see in another world...

Soldier's story

One military doctor treated a patient for fever in various ways. The soldier was unconscious for some time, and when he woke up, he notified his doctor that he had seen a very bright glow. For a moment it seemed to him that he had entered the “Kingdom of the Blessed.” The military man remembered the sensations and noted that it was best moment his life.

Thanks to medicine, which keeps pace with all technologies, it has become possible to survive, despite such circumstances as clinical death. Eyewitness accounts of life after death frighten some and interest others.

American private George Ritchie was declared dead in 1943. The doctor on duty that day, a hospital officer, determined death, which occurred because the Soldier had already been prepared to be sent to the morgue. But suddenly the military orderly told the doctor how he saw the dead man move. Then the doctor looked at Ritchie again, but could not confirm the orderly's words. In response, he resisted and insisted on his own.

The doctor realized that it was useless to argue and decided to inject adrenaline directly into the heart. Unexpectedly for everyone, the dead man began to show signs of life, and then the doubts disappeared. It became clear that he would survive.

The story of a soldier who experienced clinical death spread all over the world. Private Ritchie was not only able to cheat death itself, but also became a medic, telling his colleagues about his unforgettable journey.

MY DEARS! THIS TOPIC WRITTEN FOR US BY THE MODERATOR OF THE "LIGHT OF ORTHODOXY" GROUP About freedom Peace to all! My article today is devoted to a sensitive, difficult and relevant topic for many people - freedom. What is freedom in relation to a human being? To answer this question, you must first “decipher” everything that is connected with this concept - life, death, independence, lack of freedom, slavery, sin, the meaning of life, free will and some others. In turn, in order to understand these concepts related to freedom, we need to understand a number of essential details that contribute to the “decipherment” and thus we will come to other concepts and topics, as well as to the following important details, which in turn... And so I will write until the second coming! Now let's get serious. The topic is really complex, but despite this, I will try to explain it as clearly and briefly as I can imagine it all. So, with the help of God, the Bible, the holy fathers, common sense and logic, let’s begin to pray. The life that a person lives on earth is not Life at all, but only the threshold of Life! The death that a person dies after living life on earth is not death at all, but just a door (transition, outcome) to Life or to death (1). It is clear that here I mean the concept of death, as final and eternal death in hell. Thus, the concept of a door cannot be good for a person crossing through it and discovering death behind it, which he himself quite rightly deserved with all his deeds and thoughts, willingly or unwillingly! And vice versa - the concept of a door (whatever it may be - violent, accidental, early, from illness, etc., etc.) cannot be evil for the human soul, which passes through it into Life! So we have discovered the two final “points” of good and evil, which are on the border of life and Life - death. Behind the door there is no longer any possibility of getting from death to Life (perhaps with very rare exceptions - through the prayers of holy people) and from Life to death (here I think without any exceptions). The starting “points” of good and evil are located in Eden before the fall of Adam and Eve (good) and after the fall (evil). Between these four “points” lies the life of absolutely every person. In such a life, a person cannot have any true freedom (except for the freedom of choice over which neither God nor the devil has power), we can only hope for freedom in Life. To understand all this we must consider the falsity of freedom (or rather freedoms) in human life . To do this, let's imagine an absolutely “free” person. Let’s say this is a non-religious man who is absolutely independent of other people, the law, finances, prejudices, information, anyone’s beliefs, etc. He tries to live according to his conscience and goes through life with full responsibility for his “freedom.” Whatever he does and whatever he thinks about on a global scale, he will always return to the same point - the door behind which is absolute unknown! It is limited by the framework of life, which has a beginning, but does not have a clear, conscious and precise end. By resigning himself to the darkness and nothing outside the door, he thereby destroys his “freedom,” which in fact he never had! Such humility will lead him to inevitable despondency and the understanding that his children, grandchildren, friends and relatives have the same meaningless and hopeless end. This person can say (and believe it) that he is not afraid of death and that there is an infinity of the human race and the eternity of himself in his descendants. In fact, this is self-deception (because absolutely all people will die) which gives him at least some pathetic hope for the meaning of his life. Also, this humility before the afterlife nothingness gives him a subconscious feeling of the wrongness of his life, its purposelessness. For him, a vital example of a conscientious life were his parents, grandmothers, grandfathers... No one told him about Christ, his thoughts belonged to the earthly world, he saw evil only outside, and not inside himself, so he came to the realization of the door as absolute evil for yourself! WHAT TO DO??? How to get rid of the despondency of the collapse of life and gain hope for true freedom, that is, Life? Many religions talk about the possibility of eternal Life. It is only necessary to determine which religion is true! To do this from my point of view is easy and simple, you just need to study and analyze which of them is the most viable, all-conquering, strong and glorious for its saints, miracles, although I will not talk about saints, miracles and the internal content of religions here . I think the Christian religion will be beyond any competition here in all these respects. So let us remember the cruel persecution at the very beginning of the creation of the Church of Christ! Despite this, Christianity has only strengthened and expanded in an amazing (if not supernatural, miraculous) way! Further, continuing to recall historical facts - the cult of Caesar, incredible in its cruelty and savagery! Caligula, Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Trajan, Decius. For a long time, the full power of the Roman Empire fell on Christians! I guess it was at that time that they began to see the light simple people The Roman Empire, when they saw that Christians preferred the door to the renunciation of their God the Savior. The first Christian martyrs incredibly strengthened the truth of their faith and made people think - what is stronger than the cessation of life? The emperors used the full power of the law, wild animals, fire, poison, torture and every type of weapon available to intimidate and destroy Christianity. You don’t have to be an “archive worm” and a doctor of historical sciences with access to secret documents to understand that all these seven emperors were on the side of true evil! And evil, as we know, cannot fight evil so long and stubbornly; it is only capable of fighting with its opposite! How did this total persecution of the Christian faith and the Church end? Complete defeat of Roman paganism! What weapons did Christians use for this victory? Patience, humility, love, hope and unshakable faith in your God - the Savior! All these are weapons of defense, but as weapons of “attack” and “capture” (saving human souls), Christians successfully used the Gospel Word and their own example of living according to this Word. All this made it possible for the first Christians to receive an impenetrable shield and the all-conquering sword of Jesus Christ, which was the final predetermination of the defeat of the Roman power of Caesar! By the way, the Jews were freed from the cult of Caesar; they were involved in the persecution of Christians, as they used their influence on officials, administration and governors to fight the Christian “sect,” as they then believed. After the separation of Catholicism from the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ, persecution continued! But the persecutor was the church itself, and not the Orthodox one. INQUISITION! CRUSADES! And again, you don’t have to be a genius to determine whether the Catholic Church created evil or good in the person of these phenomena. Of course, they may ask me - what about the destruction of two-thirds of the pagan population during the time of Russia's adoption of Christian Orthodoxy? I will answer this question this way. Suppose you are right and the pagan faith of Rus' was true goodness and blessing for all people of the Earth. But why then did it not strengthen and expand in spite of persecution, as Christianity did at the time of its founding despite the monstrous opposition of Judaism and the Roman “divine” power? No, my dear neo-pagans - Rodnovers, true religion does not behave like that! The widespread disappearance from the face of the earth of the religion of polytheism and human sacrifice suggests that it was dead from its birth (2). All this proves the weakness, falsity and delusion of the ancient Slavic faith of our pre-Christian ancestors! After the baptism of Rus', our ancestors knew almost no military defeats! Why? Because, unlike all other states and peoples surrounding Rus', our glorious ancestors went into battle to die, and not to win (killing enemies)! Die for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland! The Christian Orthodox faith, eternal, glorious, true, sacred, and not at all pagan! Of course, many people here can argue with me, as they say, “foaming at the mouth,” but the evidence lies on the surface! And whoever does not see them, from my point of view, does not have a sound mind. It is enough to recall the territory of Rus' under Prince Vladimir and compare it with the territory that exists now. Who achieved this? Who can name at least five famous and great people of the pagan faith who would develop and glorify Rus'? And how many of them are there in the Orthodox faith? And of course, within the framework of determining the truth of religions, one cannot help but mention the very recent events regarding the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church. Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev. 1917 - 1964. For 47 years, evil tried to destroy good. Masquerading as industrialization, collectivization, the fight against illiteracy, religious obscurantism, improving the lives of workers, using rabid propaganda of atheism, socialism, communist morality, using slogans of freedom, equality, brotherhood, etc. and so on. evil sought to destroy churches, monasteries, killing priests, faith, and with them the souls of people. This disguise was so cunning and plausible that even now many people consider that time (before Brezhnev) to be good and beneficial for all people of the USSR, without noticing the fall of the inner spiritual moral essence of man, that is, his distance from Jesus Christ. The true freedom of the God-man was replaced by the surrogate freedom of the ideas of socialism and communism. And again, nothing came of it for the opponents of Jesus Christ - good again defeated the evil power of Caesar using the same weapons as in ancient times. As paradoxical as it may sound, the sheep again prevailed over the wolves. “Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves: therefore be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” Matt. (10:16). Divine Love, the power and glory of the Savior of all people is victorious over everything, well, it’s finally time for everyone to understand this, and not from my words, but after studying historical facts from the creation of the universe to the present day. Thus, only the Christian Orthodox religion is the only truth. It is she who can give a person great hope for eternal life and true freedom in it, the essence of which is the acquisition of an incorruptible body, as well as: “And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them; they will be His people, and Himself God will be with them and will be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death, neither mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And he said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, It is finished! I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end; to the one who thirsts I will give freely from the fountain of living water. He who overcomes will inherit all, and I will be his God, and he will be to me. son" (Rev. 21:3 - 7). Modern (believers at heart) atheists and many others say - we don’t need a church, we live according to our conscience and regret (repent) at home about our sins that we committed earlier. Well, what about the sacrament of Baptism (which is not possible without studying the faith for an adult) and the sacrament of Communion (which is not possible without the sacrament of Confession and sacred rites) - I ask such people? After all, the grace received through these sacraments is absolutely necessary for the salvation of a person’s soul, for the ability to fight evil in oneself. And all this is not possible without priests, who, although in quotation marks, are “heirs” of the apostles - “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives him who sent Me” (Matthew 10:40). God must be sought in the study of the Bible, the teachings of the Holy Fathers, in union with Him through the sacraments of the Church, prayer, humility, patience... in becoming like Him, and not in our souls! And only after such a search for God, true repentance, forgiveness and changing yourself in the image of God, will you be able to discover Him in your soul, which will mean your Love for Him and for all people. But such people do not pay attention to the sacraments of the church, proven over thousands of years. They are ready to risk their souls, just not to feel shame in front of the priest in confession. They forget that in addition to shame and torment about their previously committed abominations in the face of God, they can receive the greatest hope for Life and perfect freedom! “And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). They do not understand a simple thing - eternal Life and the freedom granted in it outweigh absolutely everything that was before the door, and only for this reason all atheists should understand, believe, accept and say that... Christ is Risen!!! An amazing thing, we are afraid of the door, but we are not afraid of sin, although the door does not always lead to death, but just one mortal sin is its guarantee! We do not want to fear God and be His slaves without understanding that this fear (in the sense of reverent awe of God) and slavery (in the sense of slavery to good and war with evil in ourselves) frees us from the fear of the door and gives us hope for liberation from death itself, which is the measure of the maximum freedom of human life on earth! Thus, even a person deprived of health, freedom of movement (prisoner), finances, etc., but having an insignificant grain of hope for Life, is much more free than the person I presented in the example above! Such a person knows that only God is absolutely always completely free. He has no need to choose; He absolutely knows His goals and how to achieve them. God eternally does true (absolute, Divine) good, where he wants and how he wants, but not a single person is now able to fully understand this goodness! He has neither internal nor external obstacles to this. The Almighty is outside of time, which means He is not affected by cause and effect relationships. God is eternally and infinitely Almighty, except for one thing - He cannot force a person to love Himself against his will, because Love, just like Him, is absolutely free! The concept of “freedom” is associated with many people with the absence of any restrictions or prohibitions, like absolute independence. And again an amazing thing arises - the more we receive such freedom, the more we, on the contrary, fall into dependence (slavery) of various passions, sins, bad habits and vices! “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12). My dear readers, do not risk Life and freedom for the sake of your (false, non-Orthodox) understanding of life, freedom, hell and heaven... please don’t! Answer one question correctly - “Therefore I find a law, that when I want to do good, evil is present to me. to the inner man I find pleasure in the law of God; but in my members I see another law, warring against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. Poor man I am! who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Rom. 7:21 - 24). Our life gives us enough time and opportunity to sow correctly, we will reap outside the door. God gave us all an awareness of good and evil, a desire for Love, through His Word He revealed moral boundaries and paths. He also provided man with laws, rules of life and conscience, which is still a relative thing. The entire world before Moses lived according to the law of conscience, and what happened as a result? So it turns out , that the law of conscience works well only in combination with the law of Jesus Christ! Suffice it to remember how many holy righteous people there were in the Old Testament history of mankind and how many there were after He created his Church! The death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ proved to all humanity the possibility of eternal Life that evil and death must and can be overcome by any person who truly believes and receives grace! With all the strength of your soul, strive for good (which can be tested by untruth, suffering and seeming injustice), reject evil (which can masquerade as justice and goodness), do not question teaching of Christ, follow Him and then we will be able to answer with joy and hope: Truly He is Risen!!! Always your ordinary person (with a gray soul) moderator of the group "LIGHT OF ORTHODOXY" (1) For the convenience of the narrative, I will call the threshold of Life life with a small letter, and the true (eternal) Life after life (Kingdom of Heaven) with capital letters. Also, for ease of understanding, I will call human death after earthly life a door, and hell death. (2) My third article will be about dead religion in exactly a week. p.s. Despite the fact that I often mention the word “truth” in this article, I ask all my readers not to take my thoughts as the ultimate truth. Everyone separates the wheat from the chaff for himself. It should also be understood that everything written above is by and large not mine - this is the totality of my thoughts from everything I have read and thought about throughout my life, that is, in essence, these are the books that I read and how I understood them.