What Happens to Human Consciousness After Death?
Birth is perceived as renewal, as something joyful, whereas death is perceived as sad, even frightening. Is there a way to defeat death, to continue living? Certainly not in the physiological body, which at some point will decay in the earth, but perhaps on the level of the spirit, on the level of consciousness?
First, it should be said that death is frightening because a person does not know what happens. We, those who remain in this world after someone’s passing, part from them and also do not know what happens to them, beyond the fact that their body will gradually decompose into its elements.
In general, it seems to us that death means losing our entire self, our independence, everything we did in life. Therefore, there is something within us that disagrees with the event of death, a kind of inner force that wants to live. From an early age, the understanding that this life has an end raises questions: Why do we live? Why do we die? What is the meaning of everything people do, and of all the suffering of existence?
Throughout the generations there have been people whom such questions did not leave in peace, and they deeply investigated them. Some of them managed to crack the secret of life and discovered a special method of inner development, a method that raises a person to a level above physical life and death. The method was passed from generation to generation among individuals, and today it is available to everyone.
The method teaches how to connect with others and with society in a special way, to build an integral connection with one’s environment. It elevates a person from the natural perception—egoistic and narrow by definition—to a perception beyond the limitations of time, space, and motion. A person moves from sensing reality through their private self to sensing reality through the collective. They begin to live within a network of connections they discover, a network that links all of reality’s details into a single system. Even when the physical body ceases to exist, the person continues to feel their existence within this eternal network. Their spirit and consciousness exist within it, and the event of death does not apply to them.
This is the general picture, and now we can expand a little on this process of development, which is defined as spiritual. The process begins with the awakening of a desire to attain the essence of life, to progress beyond goals such as acquiring wealth, control, honor, knowledge, and education. Within a small group framework that serves as a kind of laboratory, a person learns to connect with others through mutual responsibility, participation, and giving, up to the level of love.
As a result, the person begins to feel what exists between people. They acquire a new collective heart and mind an external awareness, a life beyond the body. New senses are formed within, along with a new spiritual body composed of the shared feelings and thoughts of everyone. As this develops, the person no longer feels themselves within their own body but spread across all others. Gradually, they discover that through such connection with others they become similar to a general force present throughout nature, a force the quality of which is bestowal, love, and pure giving. The person becomes increasingly included in this force and discovers that in doing so they reach the highest form of self-realization. They no longer fear death, but rather the possibility that they might not realize the opportunity given to them to help others undergo the same development.
Today we have reached a special stage in which a general need is emerging to advance to such an integral level of existence. Our world is becoming increasingly interconnected, yet at the same time human egoism is rising to such heights that it prevents us from taking anyone else into consideration. From this stem all the difficulties in relationships, crises and wars, pressures and illnesses, despair and depression. Since the direction of the world’s and the human being’s development are opposite—connectivity versus egocentricity—we end up encountering extremely dangerous clashes the likes of which have never been seen before.
When viewed from an evolutionary perspective, what we experience today can be understood as the birth pangs of a new human being and a new humanity. Through global blows, nature compels the human species to grow, to move from an egoistic perception of reality, in which each person exists within themselves, to an integral perception of reality, one that is common and interconnected, where we all exist as one within the collective. Just as the whole of nature is interconnected, with its parts forming a single integral mechanism, so too must we learn to function. If we do so through awareness and understanding, we will not only survive on planet Earth but also rise to a level of existence beyond life and death, becoming included in the complete and eternal force within creation.
Based on “New Life 104 – Life and Death, Part 1” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.