What happens after the death of the physical body?

Many people have heard of out of body experiences or near death experiences (NDEs). As described by those who have had such experiences, they often find themselves floating out of the body, often looking down at their body from above. What is it that floats above the physical scene? It is consciousness.

For those of us alive today on the physical plane, our consciousness is tied to our physical body when we are awake. However, when we go to sleep, we go to a realm where the laws of the physical plane do not apply. Sometimes in dreams we can fly, or can instantaneously move to a different location. That is because when we sleep, our consciousness sheds (temporarily) the physical body. The same thing happens when the physical body dies, only then, the consciousness leaves the physical body never to return to that body again (unless one 'comes back' after a NDE).

Where do we go after we die?

Christians believe in heaven, and many Buddhists and Hindus also believe in a heaven-like realm, sometimes called devachan, or the devachanic plane. Both in the Christians' heaven and in the Buddhists' devachan, there is continual bliss, with no negative experience at all allowed.

While some Christians believe in a purgatory that must be endured by some before one reaches heaven, many Buddhists believe in the astral plane, which also must be traversed before one's consciousness reaches devachan. The 'saintly' or extremely good person still must pass through the astral plane on the way to devachan, however, such an individual will pass very quickly through this plane and will not regain consciousness until reaching devachan.

It is important to realize that the astral plane, and the devachanic plane, are not located somewhere else. They are not 'up there' in the sky, but instead are right here, all around us. One can think of them as existing at different vibrational frequencies, which is why most of us cannot see them while we are in our physical bodies. However, we can do so while we are asleep. You may have heard the phrase 'heaven is all around you'. And, indeed it is. It is not just a figure of speech, but is an actual reality.

So, after we die, our consciousness experiences first the astral plane, then ultimately, the devachanic plane. The astral plane often is thought of as the emotional plane, where one must shed attachments to anger, fear and frustration, etc., before being capable of moving on to the devachanic plane. One also first must shed any remaining attachments to things that only exist on the physical plane (such as drugs, alcohol, tobacco, food, and sex). These things only can be experienced with a physical body, and on the astral plane one no longer has a physical body, but has an astral body. After relinquishing those attachments, one then sheds the astral body (much as one sheds the physical body before leaving the physical plane for the astral plane). Then, one's consciousness goes to devachan, also considered the realm of thought. After spending anywhere from a day to a few thousand years in devachan in the devachanic body, the consciousness is drawn back into a new physical body in a process called reincarnation. As we are drawn towards a new physical body, a new astral body, built up of many of the astral particles that we left behind on the astral plane when we left it for devachan, is formed around the physical body. That often results in us having a similar emotional make up in each lifetime. It is our own attachment to the things of earth, as well as our remaining karma (our lack of understanding), yet to be balanced, that causes our consciousness to be drawn back to Earth into a newborn physical body.