The Soul After Death

Researchers in today’s “after-death” experiences almost invariably turn for elucidation of these experiences to that form of literature which claims to be based on experience of the “out-of-body” realm: the occult literature down the ages from the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead down to the occult teachers and experimenters of our own day. Hardly any of these researchers on the other hand, pay very serious attention to the Christian teaching on life after death, or to the Scriptural and Patristic sources upon which it is based. Why is this?

The reason is very simple: the Christian teaching comes from God’s revelation to man of the fate of the soul after death, and it emphasizes chiefly the ultimate state of the soul in heaven or hell. While there is also an abundant Christian literature describing what happens to the soul after death, based on firsthand after-death or out-of-body experiences (as presented in the chapter above on the “toll-houses”), this literature definitely occupies a secondary place when compared to the primary Christian teaching of the soul’s final state. The literature based on Christian experience is chiefly useful in elucidating and making more vivid the basic points of Christian doctrine.

In occult literature, however, exactly the opposite is the case: the chief emphasis is on the soul’s experience in the “out-of-body” realm, while the ultimate state of the soul is usually left vague or open to personal opinions and guesses, supposedly based on these experiences. Today’s researchers are much more easily attracted to the experiences of occult writers (which seem to be capable of at least some degree of “scientific” investigation) than to the teaching of Christianity, which requires a commitment of belief and trust and the leading of a spiritual life in accord with it.

In this chapter we will try to point out some of the pitfalls of this approach, which is by no means as “objective” as it seems to some people, and offer an evaluation of the occult “out-of-body” experiences from the point of view of Orthodox Christianity. In order to do this, we must look at some of the occult literature which today’s researchers are using to elucidate “after-death” experiences.

1. The Tibetan Book of the Dead

The Tibetan Book of the Dead17 is an 8th-century Buddhist book which probably hands down pre-Buddhist traditions from a much earlier period. Its Tibetan title is “Liberation by Hearing on the After-Death Plane,” and it is described by the English editor as “a mystic manual for guidance through the other world of many illusions and realms” (p. 2). It is read at the body of the newly-deceased for the benefit of the soul, because, as the text itself says, “during the moments of death various misleading illusions occur” (p. 151). These, as the editor notes, “are not visions of reality, but nothing more than ... (one’s own) intellectual impulses which have assumed personified form (p. 31). In the later stages of the 49 days of “after-death” experiences described in the book, there are visions of both “peaceful” and “wrathful” deities — all of which, in accordance with Buddhist doctrine, are regarded as illusionary. (We shall discuss below, in examining the nature of this realm, why these visions are indeed largely illusionary.) The end of this whole process is the final fall of the soul into a “reincarnation” (also discussed below), which Buddhist teaching regards as an evil to be avoided by Buddhist training. Dr. C. G. Jung, in his Psychological Commentary on the book, finds these visions very similar to descriptions of the after-death world in the spiritistic literature of the modern West — both “give one a sickening impression of the utter inanity and banality of communications from the ‘spirit world.’ ” (p. 11).

In two respects there are striking similarities between the Tibetan Book of the Dead and today’s experiences, and this accounts for the interest of Dr. Moody and other researchers in this book. First, the “out-of-body” experience described in the first moments of death is essentially the same as that described in today’s experiences (as well as in Orthodox literature): the soul of the deceased appears as a “shining illusory body” which is visible to other beings of like nature but not to men in the flesh; at first it does not know whether it is alive or dead; it sees people around the body, hears the wailing of mourners, and has all sense faculties; it has unimpeded motion and can go through solid objects (pp. 98-100, 156-60). Second, there is a “primary clear light seen at the moment of death” (p. 89), which today’s researchers identify with the “being of light” described by many people today.

There is no reason to doubt that what is described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead is based on some kind of “out-of-body” experience; but we shall see below that the actual after-death state is only one of these experiences, and we must beware of accepting just any “out-of-body” experience as a revelation of what actually happens to the soul after death. The experiences of Western mediums also can be genuine; but they certainly do not transmit actual messages from the dead, as they pretend to do.

There is some similarity between the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the much earlier Egyptian Book of the Dead.18 The latter describes the soul after death as undergoing many transformations and encountering many “gods.” There is no living tradition of interpretation of this book, however, and without this the modern reader can only guess at the meaning of some of its symbolism. According to this book the deceased takes in succession the form of a swallow, a hawk of gold, a serpent with human legs and feet, a crocodile, a heron, a lotus flower, etc., and meets strange “gods” and other-worldly beings (the “Four Holy Apes,” the hippopotamus-goddess, various gods with heads of dogs, jackals, apes, birds, etc.).

The elaborate and confused experiences of the “after-death” realm as described in this book are in sharp contrast to the clarity and simplicity of Christian experiences. Although also based, it may well be, on some kind of actual “out-of-body” experiences, this book is as full of illusory visions as the Tibetan Book of the Dead and certainly cannot be taken as an actual description of the state of the soul after death.

2. The Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

Another of the occult texts which contemporary researchers are investigating holds more hope for being understood, for it is from our own modern times, is thoroughly Western in mentality, and purports to be Christian. The writings of the Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1722) describe the visions of another world which began to appear to him in mid-life. Before the visions began, he was a typical intellectual of 18th-century Europe, fluent in many languages, a scholar and scientist and inventor, a man active in public life as an overseer of Sweden’s mining industries and a member of the House of Nobles — in short, a “universal man” in the early age of science, when it was still possible for one man to master almost all the knowledge of his day. He wrote some 150 scientific works, some of which (such as his 4-volume anatomical treatise, The Brain) were far ahead of his time.

Then, in the 56th year of his life, he turned his attention to the invisible world and in the last 25 years of his life he produced an immense number of religious works describing heaven, hell, angels and spirits — all based on his own personal experience.

His descriptions of the invisible realms are disconcertingly earth-like: in general, however, they are in agreement with the descriptions of most occult literature. When a person dies, according to Swedenborg’s account, he enters the “world of spirits,” which is halfway between heaven and hell.19 This world although it is spiritual and not material, is so much like material reality that a person does not know at first that he has died (461); he has the same kind of “body” and sense faculties as when in his earthly body. At the moment of death there is a vision of light — something bright and hazy (450) — and there is a “review” of one’s life and its good and evil deeds. He meets his friends and acquaintances from this world (494), and for some time he continues an existence very similar to the one he had on earth, except that everything is much more “inward”; one is drawn to those things and persons for which one has love, and reality is determined by thought — as soon as one thinks of a loved one, that person becomes present as though called (494). Once one becomes used to being in this spirit world, he is taught by his friends concerning heaven and hell, and is taken to various cities, gardens and parks (495).

In this intermediate “world of spirits” one is “prepared” for heaven in a process of education that takes anywhere from a few days to a year (498). But “Heaven” itself, as described by Swedenborg, is not too different from the “world of spirits”, and both are very similar to earth (171). There are courtyards and halls as on earth, parks and gardens, houses and bedrooms for “angels”, with many changes of clothing for them. There are governments and laws and law-courts — all, of course, more “spiritual” than on earth. There are church buildings and church services, with clergymen who give sermons and who become confused if anyone in the congregation disagrees with them. There are marriages, schools, the raising and educating of children, public life — in short, almost everything to be found on earth that can become “spiritual.” Swedenborg himself talked with many of the “angels” in heaven (all of whom, he believed, were only the souls of the dead), as well as with the strange inhabitants of Mercury, Jupiter, and other planets; he argued with Martin Luther in “heaven” and converted him to his own beliefs, but was unsuccessful in persuading Calvin out of his belief in predestination. “Hell” is described as a similarly earth-like place where the inhabitants are characterized by self-love and evil actions.

One can easily understand why Swedenborg was dismissed by most of his contemporaries as a madman, and why even until quite recently his visions have seldom been taken seriously. Still, there have always been some who recognized that, for all the strangeness of his visions, he was in actual contact with unseen reality: his younger contemporary, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, one of the chief founders of modern philosophy, took him very seriously and believed the several examples of Swedenborg’s “clairvoyance” that were known throughout Europe; and the American philosopher Emerson, in his long essay on him in Representative Men, called him “one of the mastodons of literature, not to be measured by whole colleges of ordinary scholars.” Today, of course, the revival of interest in occultism has brought him to the fore as a “mystic” and “seer” not bound by doctrinal Christianity, and in particular the researchers in “after-death” experiences find remarkable parallels between their findings and his description of the first moments after death.

There can be little doubt that Swedenborg was in actual contact with invisible spirits and that he received his “revelations” from them. An examination of how he received these “revelations” will show us what is the actual realm these spirits inhabit.

The history of Swedenborg’s contacts with invisible spirits — which he recorded in great detail in his voluminous Journal of Dreams and Spiritual Journal (2300 pages) — reveal precisely the characteristics of one entering into contact with the demons of the air, as described by Bishop Ignatius. From childhood Swedenborg practiced a form of meditation, involving relaxation and intense concentration; in time, he began to see a splendid flame during his meditation, which he accepted with trust and interpreted as a sign of “approval” of his ideas. This prepared him for the opening up of communication with the realm of spirits. Later he began to have dreams of Christ and of being received into a society of “immortals,” and he gradually became aware of the presence of “spirits” around him. Finally, the spirits began to appear to him in a waking state. The first of these latter experiences occurred when he was travelling in London: One night, after overeating, he suddenly saw a blackness and crawling reptiles on the floor, and then a man sitting in the corner of the room, who said only “Eat not so much” and disappeared in blackness. Although he was frightened at this apparition, he trusted it as something “good” because it gave “moral” advice. Then, as he himself related, “during the same night the same man revealed himself to me again, but I was not frightened now. He then said that he was the Lord God, the Creator of the World, and the Redeemer, and that he had chosen me to explain to men the spiritual sense of the Scripture, and that he himself would explain to me what I should write on this subject; that same night were opened to me, so that I became thoroughly convinced of their reality, the worlds of spirits, heaven and hell.... Afterwards the Lord opened, daily very often, my bodily eyes, so that in the middle of the day I could see into the other world, and in a state of perfect wakefulness converse with angels and spirits.”20

It is quite clear from this description that Swedenborg was opened up to contact with the aerial realm of fallen spirits and that all his later revelations came from this source. The “heaven” and the “hell” which he saw were also parts of this aerial realm, and the “revelations” which he recorded are a description of the illusions of this realm which the fallen spirits often produce for the gullible, with their own aims in view. A look at some other occult literature will show us more of the characteristics of this realm.

3. The “Astral Plane” of Theosophy

19th and 20th century Theosophy, which is an amalgamation of the occult ideas of East and West, teaches in detail concerning this aerial realm, which it sees as composed of a number of “astral planes.” (“Astral,” meaning “of the stars,” is a fanciful term to refer to the level of reality “above the earthly.”) According to one resume of the teaching, “the (astral) planes comprise the habitations of all supernatural entities, the locale of gods and demons, the void where the thoughtforms dwell, the region inhabited by spirits of the air and other elements, and the various heavens and hells with their angelic and demonic hosts.... With the help of ritual procedures, trained persons believe that they can ‘rise on the planes,’ and experience these regions in full awareness.”21

According to this teaching, one enters the “astral plane” (or “planes,” depending on whether this realm is viewed as a whole or in its separate “layers”) at death, and, as in Swedenborg’s teaching, there is no sudden change in one’s state and no judgment; one continues to live as before, only outside the body, and begins to “pass through all the sub-planes of the astral plane, on his way to the heaven-world.”22 Each sub-plane is increasingly refined and “inward,” and the progression through them, far from involving fear and uncertainty as do the Christian “toll-houses,” is a time of pleasure and joy: “The joy of life on the astral plane is so great that physical life in comparison with it seems no life at all.... Nine out of ten much dislike returning to the body” (Powell, p. 94).

Theosophy, the invention of the Russian medium Helena Blavatskaya, was founded in the late 19th century in an attempt to give a systematic explanation of the mediumistic contacts with the “dead” which had been multiplying in the Western world since the great outbreak of spiritistic phenomena in America in 1848. To this day its teaching on the “astral plane” (although often not called by that name) is the standard one used by mediums and other dabblers in the occult to explain their experiences in the world of spirits. Although Theosophical books on the “astral plane” are filled with the same “sickening inanity and banality” that Dr. Jung finds to characterize all spiritistic literature, still, behind this triviality there is a basic underlying philosophy of other-world reality that strikes a responsive chord in researchers today. Today’s humanistic world-view is much more favorably disposed to an other-world that is pleasant rather than painful, that allows for gentle “growth” or “evolution” rather than the finality of judgment, that permits “another chance” to prepare oneself for a higher reality rather than determining one’s eternal lot by one’s behavior in earthly life. The teaching of Theosophy gives exactly these characteristics demanded by the “modern soul” and it claims to be based on experience.

In order to give an Orthodox Christian answer to this teaching we must look more closely at the specific experiences which are undergone on the “astral plane.” But where shall we look? The communication of mediums are notoriously unreliable and hazy; and in any case the contact made with the “spirit world” through mediums is too shadowy and indirect to constitute convincing proof of the nature of that world. The “after-death” experiences of today, on the other hand, are too brief and inconclusive to be taken as evidence of the actual nature of the other world.

But there is a kind of experience on the “astral plane” that can be studied in more detail. In Theosophical language it is called “astral projection” or “the projection of the astral body.” It is possible, through the cultivation of certain mediumistic techniques, not merely to enter into contact with discarnate spirits, as ordinary mediums do (when their seances are genuine), but actually to enter into their realm of being and “travel” in their midst. One may well be skeptical on hearing of such experiences in ancient times but it so happens that this experience has become relatively common — and not only among occultists — in our own times, and there is already an extensive literature of firsthand experience in this realm.

4. “Astral Projection”

It is well known to Orthodox Christians that man can in fact be raised above the limitations of his bodily nature and journey to invisible realms. The exact nature of this journey will not concern us here. The Apostle Paul himself did not know whether he was “in the body or out of the body” when he was caught up to the third heaven (II Cor. 12:2), and there is no need for us to speculate as to how the body can become refined enough to enter heaven (if his experience was actually “in the body”), or what kind of “subtle body” the soul may be clothed in during an “out-of-body” experience — if indeed such things can be known in this life. It is enough for us to know that the soul (in whatever kind of “body”) can indeed be raised up by God’s grace and behold paradise, as well as the aerial realm of spirits under heaven.

Often in Orthodox literature such experiences are described as being “out of the body,” as was St. Anthony’s experience of the “toll-houses” while standing at prayer, described above. Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov mentions two ascetics in the 19th century whose souls likewise left their bodies while they were at prayer — Elder Basilisk of Siberia, whose disciple was the famous Zosima, and Schema-Elder Ignatius (Isaiah), a personal friend of Bishop Ignatius (Bishop Ignatius, Collected Works, vol. III, p. 75). The most striking “out-of-body” experience in the Orthodox Lives of Saints is probably that of St. Andrew the Fool for Christ of Constantinople (10th century), who, while his body evidently lay in the snow of the city streets, was raised up in spirit to behold paradise and the third heaven, a part of which he described to his disciple who recorded the experience (Lives of Saints, Oct. 2).

Such experiences occur only by the grace of God and quite apart from the will or desire of men. But “astral projection” is an “out-of-body” experience that can be sought and initiated by means of certain techniques. This experience is a special form of what Bishop Ignatius describes as the “opening of the senses,” and it is clear that — since contact with spirits is forbidden to men except by God’s direct action — the realm that can be reached by this means is not heaven, but only the aerial realm of the under-heaven, the realm inhabited by the fallen spirits.

Theosophical texts which describe this experience in detail are so full of occult opinions and interpretations as to be largely useless in giving one an idea of the actual experiences of this realm. In the 20th century, however, there has been another kind of literature dealing with this experience: parallel to the rise of research and experiments in the field of “parapsychology,” some individuals have discovered, whether by accident or by experiment, that they are able to have the experience of “astral projection,” and they have written books describing their experiences in non-occult language; and some researchers have compiled and studied accounts of “out-of-body” experiences and have written about them in scientific rather than occult language. Here we shall look at several of these books.

The “earthly” side of “out-of-body” experiences is well described in a book by the Director of the Institute of Psychophysical Research at Oxford, England.23 In answer to an appeal made in September, 1966, in the British press and on the radio, the Institute received some 400 replies from persons who claimed to have had personal out-of-body experiences. Such a response indicates both that these experiences are by no means rare in our days, and that those who have had them are much more willing than in previous years to discuss them without fear of being thought “crazy.” Dr. Moody and other researchers have discovered the same things with regard to “after-death” experiences. These 400 persons were given two questionnaires to fill out, and the book was the result of a comparison and analysis of the replies to these questionnaires.

The experiences described in this book were almost all involuntary ones which were triggered by various physical conditions: stress, fatigue, illness, an accident, anesthetization, sleep. Almost all of them occurred in the proximity of the body (not in any “spirit” realm), and the observations made are very similar to those made by people who have had “after-death” experiences: one views one’s own body from “outside,” possesses all sense faculties (even though in the body one might have been deaf or blind), is unable to touch or interact with one’s environment, “floats” in the air with an extreme sense of pleasantness and well-being; one’s mind is clearer than usual. Some persons described meetings with deceased relatives, or journeying to a landscape which seemed not part of ordinary reality.

One investigator of “out-of-body” experiences, the English geologist Robert Crookall, has gathered an enormous number of examples of them, both from occultists and mediums on the one hand and from ordinary people on the other. He summarizes the experience as follows: “A replica-body, or ‘double’ was ‘born’ from the physical body and took up a position above it. As the ‘double’ separated from the body, there was a ‘blackout’ in consciousness (much as the changing of gears in a car causes a momentary break in the transmission of power).... There was often a panoramic review of the past life, and the vacated physical body was commonly seen from the released ‘double.’.... Contrary to what one would expect, no one described pain or fear as having been caused by leaving the body — everything seemed perfectly natural.... Consciousness, as it operated through the separated ‘double,’ was more extensive than in ordinary life.... There were sometimes telepathy, clairvoyance, and foreknowledge. ‘Dead’ friends were often seen. Many of the deponents expressed great reluctance to re-enter the body and so return to earth-life.... This general pattern of events in out- of-body experiences, hitherto unrecognized, cannot be explained adequately on the hypothesis that all such experiences were dreams and that all the ‘doubles’ described were mere hallucinations. It can, on the other hand, be readily explained on the hypothesis that these were genuine experiences and that the ‘doubles’ seen were objective (though ultra-physical) bodies.”24

This description is virtually identical, point-by-point, with Dr. Moody’s “model” of after-death experiences (Life After Life, pp. 23-24). This identity is so precise that it can only be one and the same experience that is being described. If this is so, it is finally possible to define the experience that Dr. Moody and other investigators have been describing, and which has caused so much interest and discussion in the Western world for several years now. It is not precisely an “after-death” experience; it is rather the “out-of-body” experience which is only the antechamber to other much more extensive experiences, whether of death itself or of what is sometimes called “astral travelling” (on which see below). Although the “out-of-body” state might be called the “first moment” of death — if death actually follows — it is a gross mistake to conclude from it anything whatever about the “after-death” state, unless it be the bare facts of the survival and consciousness of the soul after death, which hardly anyone who actually believes in the soul’s immortality denies in any case.25 Further, because the “out-of-body” state is not necessarily bound up with death at all, we must be extremely discerning in sifting the evidence supplied by extensive experiences in this realm; in particular, we must ask whether the visions of “heaven” (or “hell”) which some are undergoing today have anything to do with the true Christian understanding of heaven and hell, or whether they are only an interpretation of some merely natural (or demonic) experience in the “out-of-body” realm.

Dr. Crookall — who has been the most thorough investigator in this field up to now, applying to it the same caution and concern for detail that characterize his earlier books on the fossil plants of Great Britain — has gathered much material on “paradise” and “hades” experiences. He finds them both to be natural and virtually universal experiences in the “out-of-body” state, and he distinguishes them as follows: “Those who left their bodies naturally tended to glimpse bright and peaceful (‘Paradise’) conditions, a kind of glorious earth; while (those who were) forcibly ejected ... tended to be in the relatively dim, confused, and semi-dreamlike conditions that correspond to the ‘Hades’ of the ancients. The former met many helpers (including the ‘dead’ friends and relatives already mentioned); the latter sometimes encountered discarnate would- be hinderers” (pp. 14-15). Persons who have what Dr. Crookall calls a “mediumistic bodily constitution” invariably pass first of all through a dark, misty “Hades” region, and then into a region of bright light that seems like Paradise. This “Paradise” is variously described (by both mediums and non-mediums) as “the most beautiful scenery ever seen,” “a scene of wondrous beauty — a vast parklike garden and the light there is a light that never was seen on sea or land,” “lovely scenery” with “people dressed in white” (p. 117), “the light became intense,” “the whole earth was aglow” (p. 137).

To explain these experiences, Dr. Crookall hypothesizes the existence of a “total earth” which comprises, on the lowest level, the physical earth which we know in everyday life, surrounded by an interpenetrating non-physical sphere with “Hades” and “Paradise” belts at its lower and upper boundaries (p. 87). This is, roughly, a description of what in Orthodox language is known as the aerial realm of fallen spirits of the under-heaven, or the “astral plane” of Theosophy; Orthodox descriptions of this realm, however, make no “geographical” distinctions between “upper” and “lower,” and emphasize more the demonic deceptions which are an integral part of this realm. Dr. Crookall, being a secular researcher, knows nothing of this aspect of the aerial realm, but he does testify, from his “scientific” point of view, to an extremely important fact for the understanding of “after-death” and “out-of-body” experiences: the “heaven” and “hell” seen by persons in these experiences are only parts (or appearances) of the aerial realm of spirits and have nothing to do with the true heaven and hell of Christian doctrine, which are the eternal dwelling-places of human souls (and their resurrected bodies) as well as of immaterial spirits. Persons in the “out-of-body” state are not free to “wander” into the true heaven and hell, which are opened to souls only by the express will of God. If some “Christians” at “death” see almost immediately a “heavenly city” with “pearly gates” and “angels”, it is only an indication that what is seen in the aerial realm depends to some extent on one’s own past experiences and expectations, even as dying Hindus see their own Hindu temples and “gods.” True Christian experiences of heaven and hell (as we shall see in the next chapter) are of a different dimension altogether.

5. “Astral Travelling”

Almost all of the recent “after-death” experiences have been extremely brief; if they had been longer, actual death would have resulted. But in the “out- of-body” state that is not bound up with near-death conditions, a longer experience is possible. If this experience is of sufficient duration, one can leave one’s immediate environment behind and enter an entirely new landscape — not merely for a brief glimpse of a “garden” or a “bright place” or a “heavenly city,” but for an extended “adventure” in the aerial realm. The “astral plane” is evidently quite close to every man, and certain critical experiences (or mediumistic techniques) can “project” one into contact with it. In one of his books, Dr. Carl Jung describes the experience of one of his patients, a woman who had an “out-of-body” experience while undergoing a difficult birth. She saw the doctors and nurses around her, but behind her she was aware of a glorious landscape which seemed to be the boundary of another dimension; she felt that if she turned toward it, she would leave this life — but she returned to her body instead.26

Dr. Moody has recorded a number of such experiences, which he calls the “border” or “limit” experience (Life after Life, pp. 54-57).

Those who deliberately induce the experience of “astral projection” are often able to enter into this “other dimension.” Just in recent years one man’s descriptions of his “journeys” in this dimension have achieved a certain fame, which has allowed him to establish an institute for experiments in the “out-of-body” state. One of the students of this institute has been Dr. Elizabeth Kubler- Ross, who agrees with Monroe’s conclusions regarding the similarity of “out-of-body” experiences and the “after-death” state. Here we shall summarize the findings of this experimenter.27

Robert Monroe is a successful American business executive (president of the board of directors of a multi-million dollar corporation) and an agnostic in religion. His “out-of-body” experiences began in 1958, before he had any interest in occult literature, when he was conducting his own experiments in data-learning techniques during sleep; this involved exercises in concentration and relaxation similar to some techniques of meditation. After starting these experiments, he had the unusual experience of seeming to be struck with a beam of light, which caused temporary paralysis. After this sensation had been repeated several times, he began “floating” out of the body, and then began to experiment with inducing and developing this experience. In this beginning of his occult “journeys,” he reveals the same basic characteristics — a passive meditation, an experience of “light,” a basic attitude of trust and openness to new and strange experiences, all in conjunction with a “practical” outlook on life and a lack of any profound awareness or experience of Christianity — that opened Swedenborg to his adventures in the world of spirits.

At first Monroe’s “journeys” were to recognizable places on earth — nearby places in the beginning, then places farther away — with some successful attempts to bring back actual evidence of the experiences. Then he began to contact “ghost-like” figures, the first contact being as part of a mediumistic experiment (the “Indian guide” sent by the medium actually came for him! —p. 52). Finally, he began to enter into contact with strange landscapes seemingly not of earth.

Taking detailed notes on his experiences (which he recorded as soon as he returned to the body), he categorized them all as belonging to three “locales”: “Locale I” is the “here-now,” the normal this-worldly environment. “Locale II” is a “non-material” environment seemingly immense, with characteristics identical with those of the “astral plane.” This locale is the “natural environment” of the “Second Body,” as Monroe calls the entity that travels in this realm; it “interpenetrates” the physical world, and its laws are those of thought: “as you think, so you are,” “like attracts like,” in order to travel one need only think of one’s destination. Monroe visited various “places” in this realm, where he saw such things as a group of people wearing long robes in a narrow valley (p. 81), and a number of uniformed people who called themselves a “target army” waiting for assignments (p. 82). “Locale III” is a seemingly earth-like reality that is, however, unlike anything known on this earth, with strangely anachronistic features; Theosophists would probably understand this as just another more “solid” part of the “astral plane.”

After largely overcoming his initial feeling of fear when finding himself in these unknown realms, Monroe began to explore them and to describe the many intelligent beings he encountered there. On some “journeys” he encountered “dead” friends and conversed with them, but more often he found strange impersonal beings who sometimes “helped” him but just as often failed to respond when he called, who gave vague “mystical” messages that sound like the communications of mediums, who might shake his hand but were just as likely to dig a hook into his offered hand (p. 89). Some of these beings he recognized as “hinderers”: beast-like creatures with rubbery bodies that easily change into the shapes of dogs, bats, or his own children (pp. 137-40), and others who tease and torment him and merely laugh when he calls (not in faith, it is true, but only as another “experiment”) on the name of Jesus Christ (p. 119).

Having no faith of his own, Monroe opened himself to the “religious” suggestions of the beings of this realm. He was given “prophetic” visions of future events, which sometimes did, in fact, come to pass as he saw them (pp. 145ff). Once, when a white ray of light appeared to him on the boundary of the out-of-body state, he asked it for an answer to his questions about this realm. A voice from the ray answered: “Ask your father to tell you of the great secret.” At the next opportunity Monroe accordingly prayed: “Father, guide me. Father, tell me the great secret” (pp. 131-32). It is obvious from all this that Monroe, although remaining “secular” and “agnostic” in his own religious outlook, gave himself over freely to be used by the beings of the occult realm (who, of course, are demons).

Just like Dr. Moody and other investigators in this realm, Monroe writes that “in twelve years of non-physical activities, I find no evidence to substantiate the biblical notions of God and afterlife in a place called heaven” (p. 116). However, just like Swedenborg, Theosophists, and investigators like Dr. Crookall, he finds in the “non-material” environment he explored “all of the aspects we attribute to heaven and hell, which are but part of Locale II” (p. 73). In the area seemingly “closest” to the material world he encountered a gray-black area populated by “nibbling and tormenting beings”; this, he thinks, may be the “border of hell” (pp. 120-21), rather like the “Hades” region Dr. Crookall has identified.

Most revealing, however, is Monroe’s experience of “heaven.” Three times he travelled to a place of “pure peace,” floating in warm, soft clouds which were swept by constantly-changing colored rays of light; he vibrated in harmony with the music of wordless choirs; there were nameless beings around him in the same state, with whom he had no personal contact. He felt this place to be his ultimate “Home,” and was lonely for it for some days after the experience ended (pp. 123-25). This “astral heaven,” of course, is the ultimate source of the Theosophist teaching on the “pleasantness” of the other world; but how far it is from the true Christian teaching of the Kingdom of Heaven, far outside this aerial realm, which in its fullness of love and personality and the conscious presence of God has become utterly remote from the unbelievers of our times, who ask nothing more than a “nirvana” of soft clouds and colored lights! The fallen spirits can easily provide such an experience of “heaven”; but only Christian struggle and the grace of God can raise one into the true heaven of God.

On several occasions, Monroe has encountered the “God” of his heaven. This event, he says, can occur anywhere in “Locale II.” “In the midst of normal activity, wherever it may be, there is a distant Signal, almost like heraldic trumpets. Everyone takes the Signal calmly, and with it, everyone stops speaking or whatever he may be doing. It is the Signal that He (or They) is coming through His Kingdom.

“There is no awestruck prostration or falling down on one’s knees. Rather, the attitude is most matter-of-fact. It is an occurrence to which all are accustomed and to comply takes absolute precedence over everything. There are no exceptions.

“At the Signal, each living thing lies down ... with head turned to one side so that one does not see Him as He passes by. The purpose seems to be to form a living road over which He can travel.... There is no movement, not even thought, as He passes by….

“In the several times that I have experienced this, I lay down with the others. At the time, the thought of doing otherwise was inconceivable. As He passes, there is a roaring musical sound and a feeling of radiant, irresistible living force of ultimate power that peaks overhead and fades in the distance…. It is an action as casual as halting for a traffic light at a busy intersection, or waiting at the railroad crossing when the signal indicates that a train is coming; you are unconcerned and yet feel unspoken respect for the power represented in the passing train. The event is also impersonal.

“Is this God? Or God’s son? Or His representative?” (pp. 122-23).

It would be difficult to find, in the occult literature of the world, a more vivid account of the worship of satan in his own realm by his impersonal slaves. In another place, Monroe describes his own relationship to the prince of the realm into which he has penetrated. One night, some two years after the start of his “out-of-body” journeys, he felt himself bathed in the same kind of light that accompanied the beginning of these experiences, and he felt the presence of a very strong, intelligent, personal force which rendered him powerless and with no will of his own. “I received the firm impression that I was inextricably bound by loyalty to this intelligent force, always had been, and that I had a job to perform here on earth” (pp. 260-61). In another similar experience with this unseen force or “entity” several weeks later, it (or they) seemed to enter and “search” his mind, and then, “they seemed to soar up into the sky, while I called after them, pleading.28 Then I was sure that their mentality and intelligence were far beyond my understanding. It is an impersonal, cold intelligence, with none of the emotions of love or compassion which we respect so much.... I sat down and cried, great deep sobs as I have never cried before, because then I knew without any qualification or future hope of change that the God of my childhood, of the churches, of religion throughout the world was not as we worshiped him to be — that for the rest of my life, I would ‘suffer’ the loss of this illusion” (p. 262). One could scarcely imagine a better description of the encounter with the devil which so many of our unsuspecting contemporaries are now undergoing, being helpless to resist it because of their estrangement from true Christianity.

The value of Monroe’s testimony regarding the nature and the beings of the “astral plane” is great. Although he himself became deeply involved in it and actually gave his soul over in submission to the fallen spirits, he described his experiences in a straightforward, non-occult language and from a relatively normal human point of view that make his book a persuasive warning against “experiments” in this realm. Those who know the Orthodox Christian teaching on the aerial world, as well as on the true heaven and hell which are outside it, can only be the more firmly convinced of the reality of the fallen spirits and their realm, as well as of the great danger of contacting them even through a seemingly “scientific” approach.29 As Orthodox Christian observers, we do not need to know how much of his experience was “real” and how much was a result of spectacles and illusions engineered for him by the fallen spirits; deception is so much a part of the aerial realm that there is no point in even trying to unravel its precise forms. But that he did encounter the realm of the fallen spirits cannot be doubted.

The “astral plane” can also be contacted (but not necessarily in an “out-of-body” state) through the use of certain drugs. Recent experiments in administering LSD to dying persons has produced very convincing “near-death” experiences, together with a “condensed replay” of one’s entire life, a vision of blinding light, encounters with the “dead” and with non-human “spiritual beings,” and the communication of spiritual messages concerning the truths of “cosmic religion,” reincarnation, and the like. Dr. Kubler-Ross has also been involved in these experiments.30

It is well known that the shamans of primitive tribes enter into contact with the aerial world of fallen spirits in “out-of-body” states, and once “initiated” into this experience are able to visit the “world of spirits” and communicate with its beings.31

The same experience was common among the initiates of the “mysteries” of the ancient pagan world. In the Life of St. Cyprian and Justina (Oct. 2) we have the first-hand testimony of a former sorcerer concerning his experiences in this realm:

“On Mt. Olympus Cyprian studied all manner of diabolical arts: he mastered various demonic transformations, learned how to change the nature of the air.... In this place he saw a numberless legion of demons, with the prince of darkness at their head; some stood before him, others served him, still others cried out in praise of their prince, and some were sent into the world in order to corrupt people. Here he likewise saw in their false forms the pagan gods and goddesses, and also diverse phantoms and specters, the invocation of which he learned in a strict forty-day fast.... Thus he became a sorcerer, magician, and destroyer of souls, a great friend and faithful slave of the prince of hell, with whom he conversed face to face, being vouchsafed to receive from him great honor, as he himself testified. ‘Believe me,’ he said, ‘I have seen the prince of darkness himself.... I greeted him and his ancients.... He promised to make me a prince after my departure from the body, and for the course of earthly life to help me in everything.... The outward appearance of the prince of darkness was like a flower. His head was covered by a crown (not an actual, but a phantom one) made of gold and brilliant stones, as a result of which the whole space around him was illuminated; and his clothing was astonishing. When he would turn to one or the other side, that whole place would tremble, a multitude of evil spirits of various degrees stood obediently at this throne. I gave myself over entirely into his service at that time, obeying his every command” (The Orthodox Word, 1976, no. 70, pp. 136-38).

St. Cyprian does not state explicitly that he had these experiences out of the body; it would indeed seem that more advanced sorcerers and adepts do not need to leave the body in order to achieve full contact with the aerial realm. Swedenborg, even while describing his own “out-of-body” experiences, stated that most of his contact with spirits was, on the contrary, in the body, but with his “doors of perception” opened (Heaven and Hell, Sections 440-42). Still, the characteristics of this realm, and one’s “adventures” in it, are the same whether one happens to be “in” or “out” of the body.

One of the famous pagan sorcerers of antiquity (2nd century), in describing his initiation into the mysteries of Isis, gives a classic example of the “out-of-body” experience, the contact with the aerial realm, that could be used to describe some of today’s “out-of-body” and “after-death” experiences:

“I will record (of my initiation) as much as I may lawfully record for the uninitiated, but only on condition that you believe it. I approached the very gates of death and set one foot on Proserpine’s threshold, yet was permitted to return, rapt through all the elements. At midnight I saw the sun shining as if it were noon; I entered the presence of the gods of the underworld and the gods of the upper world, stood near and worshipped them. Well, now you have heard what happened, but I fear you are still none the wiser.”32

Conclusions about the “Out-of-Body” Realm

All that has been said here about “out-of-body” experiences is sufficient to place today’s “after-death” experiences in their proper perspective. Let us summarize what we have found:

1. These are, purely and simply, “out-of-body” experiences, something well known especially in occult literature, which have been happening with increasing frequency in recent years to ordinary people who are not at all involved in occultism. These experiences, however, in actual fact tell us almost nothing of what happens to the soul after death, except that it does survive and is conscious.

2. The realm into which the soul immediately enters when it leaves the body and begins to lose contact with what we know as “material reality” (whether after death or in a simple “out-of-body” experience) is neither heaven nor hell, but an invisible realm close to earth which is variously called the “After-death” or “Bardo plane” (Tibetan Book of the Dead), the “world of spirits” (Swedenborg and spiritism), the “astral plane” (Theosophy and most of occultism), “Locale II” (Monroe) — or, in Orthodox language, the aerial world of the under-heaven where fallen spirits dwell and are active in deceiving men for their damnation. This is not the “other world” that awaits man after death, but only the invisible part of this world that man must pass through to reach the truly “other” world of heaven or hell. For those who have truly died, and are being conducted by angels out of earthly life, this is the realm where the Particular Judgment begins at the aerial “toll-houses,” where the spirits of the air reveal their real nature and their hostility towards mankind; for all others, it is a realm of demonic deception at the hands of these same spirits.

3. The beings contacted in this realm are always (or almost always) demons, whether they are invoked by mediumism or other occult practices, or encountered in “out-of-body” experiences. They are not angels, for these dwell in heaven and only pass through this realm as messengers of God. They are not the souls of the dead, for they dwell in heaven or hell and only pass through this realm immediately after death on their way to judgment for their actions in this life. Even those most adept in “out-of-body” experiences cannot remain in this realm for long without danger of permanent separation from the body (death), and even in occult literature such adepts are rarely described as meeting each other.

4. Experiences in this realm are not to be trusted, and certainly are not to be taken at their “face-value.” Even those with a firm grounding in Orthodox Christian teaching can be easily deceived by the fallen spirits of the air with regard to any “vision” they may see; but those who enter this realm with no knowledge of it and accept its “revelations” with trust are nothing more than pitiful victims of the fallen spirits.

It may be asked: What of the feelings of “peace” and “pleasantness” which seem to be almost universal in the “out-of-body” state. What of the vision of “light” which so many see? Are these only deceptions also?

In a sense, it may be, these experiences are “natural” to the soul when separated from the body. Our physical bodies in this fallen world are bodies of pain, corruption, and death. When separated from this body, the soul is immediately in a state more “natural” to it, closer to the state God intends for it; for the resurrected “spiritual body” in which man will dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven has more in common with the soul than with the body we know on earth. Even the body with which Adam was created in the beginning had a nature different from the body after Adam’s fall, being more refined and not subject to pain or travail.

In this sense, the “peace” and “pleasantness” of the out-of-body experience may be considered real and not a deception. Deception enters in, however, the instant one begins to interpret these “natural” feelings as something “spiritual” — as though this peace were the true peace of reconciliation with God, and the “pleasantness” were the true spiritual pleasure of heaven. This is, in fact, how may people interpret their “out-of-body” and “after-death” experiences, because of their lack of true spiritual experience and awareness. That this is a mistake may be seen from the fact that even the crudest unbelievers have the same experience of pleasantness when they “die.” We have already seen this in an earlier chapter in the case of Hindus, an atheist, and a suicide. Another striking example is that of the agnostic British novelist, Somerset Maugham, who, when he had a brief “death” experience just before his actual death at the age of 80, experienced first an ever-increasing light and “then the most exquisite sense of release,” as he described it in his own words (see Allen Spreggett, The Case for Immortality, New American Library, New York, 1974, p. 73). This experience was not in the least spiritual; it was but one more “natural” experience in a life that ended in unbelief.

As a sensuous or “natural” experience, therefore, it would seem that death is indeed pleasant. This pleasantness may be experienced equally by one whose conscience is clean before God, and by one who does not deeply believe in God or eternal life at all, and therefore has no awareness of how he may have displeased God during his lifetime. A “bad death” is experienced, as one writer has well said, only by “those who know that God exists, and yet have lived their lives as though He did not”33 — i.e., those whose consciences torment them and counteract by their pain the natural “pleasure” of physical death. The distinction between believers and unbelievers occurs, then, not at the moment of death itself, but later, at the Particular Judgment. The “pleasantness” of death may be real enough, but it has no necessary connection whatever with the eternal fate of the soul, which may well be one of torment.

All the more is this true of the vision of “light.” This may be something merely natural also — a reflection of the true state of light for which man was created. If so, it is still a serious mistake to give it the “spiritual” meaning which the spiritually inexperienced invariably give it. Orthodox ascetic literature is filled with warnings against trusting any kind of “light” that might appear to one; and when one begins to interpret such a light as an “angel” or even “Christ,” it is clear that one has already fallen into deception, weaving a “reality” out of one’s own imagination even before the fallen spirits have begun their own work of deception.

It is also “natural” for the soul apart from the body to have a heightened awareness of reality and to exercise what is now called “extra-sensory perception” (ESP). It is an obvious fact, noted both in Orthodox literature and in modern scientific investigations, that the soul just after “death” (and often just before death) sees things that bystanders do not see, knows when someone is dying at a distance, etc. A reflection of this may be seen in the experience Dr. Moody calls “the vision of knowledge,” when the soul seems to have an “enlightenment” and to see “all knowledge” in front of it (Reflections on Life After Life, pp. 9-14). St. Boniface describes the immediate experience after death of the “monk of Wenlock” thus: “He felt like a man seeing and wide-awake, whose eyes had been veiled by a dense covering and then suddenly the veil was lifted and everything made clear which had previously been invisible, veiled and unknown. So with him, when the veil of the flesh was cast aside the whole universe seemed to be brought together before his eyes so that he saw in one view all parts of the earth and all seas and peoples” (Emerton, Letters of St. Boniface, p. 25).

Some souls seem to be naturally sensitive to similar experiences, even while still in the body. St. Gregory the Great notes that “sometimes it is through a subtle power of their own that souls can foresee the future,” as opposed to those who foresee the future by God’s revelation (Dialogues, IV, 27, p. 219). But such “psychics” invariably fall into deception when they begin interpreting or developing this talent, which can be properly used only by persons of great sanctity and (of course) Orthodoxy of belief. The American “psychic” Edgar Cayce is a good example of the pitfalls of such “ESP”: once he discovered that he had a talent for accurate medical diagnosis in a trance-state, he began to trust all the messages received in this state and ended by giving himself off as a prophet of the future (sometimes with spectacular wrongness, as with the West-coast cataclysm which failed to occur in 1969), offering astrological readings, and tracing out the “past lives” of men in “Atlantis,” ancient Egypt, and elsewhere.

The “natural” experiences of the soul when it is especially sensitive or is separated from the body — whether these be experiences of “peace” and pleasantness, light, or “ESP” — are therefore only the “raw material” of the soul’s heightened awareness, but give (we must say again) very little positive information about the state of the soul after death, and all too often lead one to unwarranted interpretations of the “other world” as well as into direct contact with the fallen spirits whose realm this is. Such experiences are all of the “astral” world and have in themselves nothing spiritual or heavenly; even when the experience itself is real, the interpretations given to it are not to be trusted.

5. By the very nature of things, a true knowledge of the aerial realm of spirits and its manifestations cannot be acquired by experience alone. The boast of all branches of occultism that their knowledge is sure because it is based on “experience” is precisely the fatal flaw of all occult “knowledge.” Rather, the experiences of this realm, because they occur in the aerial realm and are often produced by demons with the ultimate intent of deceiving and destroying men’s souls, are by their very nature bound up with deception, quite apart from the fact that man, not being at home in this realm, can never fully orient himself in it and be sure of its reality as he can of the material realm. Buddhist doctrine (as expressed in the Tibetan Book of the Dead) is certainly correct when it speaks of the illusionary nature of the appearances of the “Bardo plane”; but it is wrong when it concludes from this, on the basis of experience alone, that there is no objective reality whatever behind these appearances. The reality of this invisible realm cannot be known for what it actually is unless this be revealed by a source outside and above it.

The contemporary approach to this realm by means of personal and/or “scientific” experimentation is, for the same reason, bound to result in misleading and deceptive conclusions. Almost all contemporary researchers accept or at least are highly sympathetic to the occult teaching regarding this realm, for the single reason that it is based on experience, which is also the basis of science. But “experience” in the material world is something quite different from “experience” in the aerial realm. The raw material being experienced and studied in the one case is morally “neutral,” and it can be studied objectively and verified by others; but in the other case the “raw material” is hidden, extremely difficult to grasp, and, in many cases, has a will of its own — a will to deceive the observer. For this reason, serious investigations such as those of Dr. Moody, Dr. Crookall, Drs. Osis and Haraldsson, and Dr. Kubler-Ross almost inevitably end by being used for the spread of occult ideas, which are the “natural” ideas to be drawn from a study of the occult aerial realm. Only with the idea (which has become rare today) that there is a revealed truth that is above all experience, can this occult realm be enlightened, its true nature recognized and a discernment made between this lower realm and the higher realm of heaven.

It has been necessary to devote this long chapter to “out-of-body” experiences in order to define as precisely as possible the nature of the experiences now being undergone by a large number of ordinary people, not merely mediums and occultists. (In the conclusion of this book we shall try to explain why such experiences have become so common today.) It is quite clear that these experiences are real, and cannot be dismissed as “hallucinations.” But it is equally clear that these experiences are not spiritual, and the attempts of those who have undergone them to interpret them as “spiritual experiences” which reveal the true nature of life after death and the ultimate state of the soul — only serve to increase the spiritual confusion of contemporary mankind and reveal how far its awareness is from true spiritual knowledge and experience.

In order to see this the better, we shall now turn to an examination of several cases of true experiences of the other world — the eternal world of heaven which is opened to man only by the will of God, and which is quite distinct from the aerial realm we have been examining here, which is still part of this world which will have an end.

A NOTE ON “REINCARNATION”

Among the occult ideas which are now being widely discussed and sometimes accepted by those who have “out-of-body” and “after-death” experiences, and even by some scientists, is the idea of reincarnation: that the soul after death does not undergo the Particular Judgment and then dwell in heaven or hell awaiting the resurrection of the body and the Last Judgment, but (evidently after a longer or shorter stay on the “astral plane”) comes back to earth and occupies a new body, whether of a beast or of another man.

This idea was widespread in pagan antiquity in the West, before it was replaced by Christian ideas; but its spread today is largely owing to the influence of Hinduism and Buddhism, where it is commonly accepted. Today the idea is usually “humanized,” in that people assume their “previous lives” were as men, whereas the more common idea both among Hindus and Buddhists and among ancient Greeks and Romans is that it is rather rare to achieve “incarnation” as a man, and that most of today’s “incarnations” are as beasts, insects, and even plants.

Those who believe in this idea say that it accounts for all of the many “injustices” of earthly life, as well as for seemingly unexplainable phobias: if one is born blind, or in conditions of poverty, it is as a just reward for one’s actions in a “previous life” (or, as Hindus and Buddhists say, because of one’s “bad karma”); if one is afraid of water, it is because one drowned in a “previous existence.”

Believers in reincarnation do not have any very thorough philosophy of the origin and destination of the soul, nor any convincing proofs to support their theory; its main attractions are the superficial ones of seeming to provide “justice” on earth, of explaining some psychic mysteries, and of providing some semblance of “immortality” for those who do not accept this on Christian grounds.

On deeper reflection, however, the theory of reincarnation offers no real explanation of injustices at all: if one suffers in this life for sins and mistakes in another lifetime which one cannot remember, and for which (if one was “previously” a beast) one cannot even be held responsible, and if (according to Buddhist teaching) there is even no “self” that survives from one “incarnation” to the next, and one’s past mistakes were literally someone else’s — then there is no recognizable justice at all, but only a blind suffering of evils whose origin is not to be traced out. The Christian teaching of the fall of Adam, which is the origin of all the world’s evils, offers a much better explanation of injustices in the world; and the Christian revelation of God’s perfect justice in His judgment of men for eternal life in heaven or hell renders unnecessary and trivial the idea of attaining “justice” through successive “incarnations” in this world.

In recent decades the idea of reincarnation has achieved a remarkable popularity in the Western world, and there have been numerous cases suggesting the “remembrance” of “past lives”; many people also return from “out-of-body” experiences believing that these experiences suggest or instill the idea of reincarnation. What are we to think of these cases?

Very few of these cases, it should be noted, offer “proof” that is any more than vaguely circumstantial, and could easily be the product of simple imagination: a child is born with a mark on his neck, and subsequently “remembers” that he was hanged as a horse thief in a “previous life”; a person fears heights, and then “remembers” that he died by falling in his “past life”; and the like. The natural human tendency of fantasy renders such cases useless as “proof” of reincarnation.

In many cases, however, such “previous lives” have been discovered by a hypnotic technique known as “regressive hypnosis,” which has in many cases given striking results in the recall of events long forgotten by the conscious mind, even as far back as infancy. The hypnotist brings a person “back” to infancy, and then asks: “What about before that?” Often, in such cases, a person will “remember” his “death” or even a whole different lifetime; what are we to think of such memories?

Well-trained hypnotists themselves will admit the pitfalls of “regressive hypnosis.” Dr. Arthur C. Hastings, a California specialist in the psychology of communication, notes that “the most obvious thing that happens under hypnosis is that the person is extremely open to any subtle, unconscious, nonverbal, as well as verbal suggestions of the hypnotist and they are extremely compliant. If you ask them to go to a past life, and they don’t have a past life, they will invent one for you! If you suggest that they saw a UFO, they would have seen a UFO.”34 A Chicago-based hypnotist, Dr. Larry Garrett, who has done some 500 hypnotic regressions himself, notes that these regressions are often inaccurate even when it is only a matter of remembering a past event in this life: “A lot of times people fabricate things, from either wishful thinking, fantasies, dreams, things such as this.... Anyone who is into hypnosis and does any type of regression would find out that many times people have such a vivid imagination that they will sit there and make up all kinds of things just to please the hypnotist” (The Edge of Reality, pp. 91-92).

Another researcher on this question writes: “This method is fraught with hazards, chief of which is the unconscious mind’s tendency toward dramatic fantasy. What comes out in hypnosis may be, in effect, a dream of the kind of previous existence the subject would like to have lived or believes, correctly or incorrectly, that he did live.... One psychologist instructed a number of hypnotized subjects to remember a previous existence, and they did, without exception. Some of these accounts were replete with colorful details and seemed convincing.... However, when the psychologist rehypnotized them they were able, in trance, to trace every element in the accounts of previous existence to some normal source — a person they had known in childhood, scenes from novels they had read or movies they had seen years before, and so on.”35

But what of those cases, publicized widely of late, when there is “objective proof” of one’s “previous life” — when a person “remembers” details of time and places he could not possibly have known by himself, and which can be checked by historical documents?

Such cases seem very convincing to those already inclined to believe in reincarnation; but this kind of “proof” is not different from the standard information provided by the “spirits” at seances (which can also be of a very striking kind), and there is no reason to suppose that the source is different. If the “spirits” at seances are quite clearly demons, then the information on one’s “previous lives” can also be supplied by demons. The aim in both cases is the same: to confuse men with a dazzling display of seemingly “supernatural” knowledge, and thus to deceive them concerning the true nature of life after death and leave them spiritually unprepared for it.

Even occultists who are favorable in general to the idea of reincarnation admit that the “proof” for reincarnation can be interpreted in various ways. One American popularizer of occult ideas believes that “most reported instances giving evidence of reincarnation could possibly be cases of possession.”36 “Possession,” according to such occultists, occurs when a “dead” person takes possession of a living body and the latter’s personality and very identity seem to change, thus causing the impression that one is being dominated by the characteristics of one’s “previous life.” Those beings that “possess” men, of course, are demons, no matter how much they may masquerade as the souls of the dead. The recent famous Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation by Dr. Ian Stevenson seems, indeed, to be a collection of cases of such “possession.”

The early Christian Church fought the idea of reincarnation, which entered the Christian world through Eastern teachings such as those of the Manicheans. Origen’s false teaching of the “pre-existence of souls” was closely related to these teachings, and at the Fifth Ecumenical council in Constantinople in 553 it was strongly condemned and its followers anathematized. Many individual Fathers of the Church wrote against it, notably St. Ambrose of Milan in the West (On Belief in the Resurrection, Book II), St. Gregory of Nyssa in the East (On the Soul and the Resurrection ), and others.

For the present-day Orthodox Christian who is tempted by this idea, or who wonders about the supposed “proof” of it, it is perhaps sufficient to reflect on three basic Christian dogmas which conclusively refute the very possibility of reincarnation:

1. The resurrection of the body. Christ rose from the dead in the very body which had died the death of all men, and became the first-fruits of all men, whose bodies will also be resurrected on the last day and rejoined to their souls in order to live eternally in heaven or hell, according to God’s just judgment of their life on earth. This resurrected body, like that of Christ Himself, will be different from our earthly bodies in that it will be more refined and more like the angelic nature, without which it could not dwell in the Heavenly Kingdom, where there is no death or corruption; but it will still be the same body, miraculously restored and made fit by God for eternal life, as Ezekiel saw in his vision of the “dry bones” (Ezek. 37:1-14). In heaven the redeemed will recognize each other. The body is thus an inalienable part of the whole person who will live forever, and the idea of many bodies belonging to the same person denies the very nature of the Heavenly Kingdom which God has prepared for those who love Him.

2. Our redemption by Jesus Christ. God took flesh and through His life, suffering, and death on the Cross redeemed us from the dominion of sin and death. Through His Church, we are saved and made fit for the Heavenly Kingdom, with no “penalty” to pay for our past transgressions. But according to the idea of reincarnation, if one is “saved” at all it is only after many lifetimes of working out the consequences of one’s sins. This is the cold and dreary legalism of the pagan religions which was totally abolished by Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross; the thief on His right hand received salvation in an instant through his faith in the Son of God, the “bad karma” of his evil deeds being obliterated by the grace of God.

3. The Judgment. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment (Heb. 9:27). Human life is a single, definite period of trial, after which there is no “second chance,” but only God’s judgment (which is both just and merciful) of a man according to the state of his soul when his life is finished.

In these three doctrines the Christian revelation is quite precise and definite, in contrast to the pagan religions which do not believe either in the resurrection or in redemption, and are vague about judgment and the future life. The one answer to all supposed experiences or remembrances of “previous lives” is precisely the clear-cut teaching of Christianity about the nature of human life and God’s dealings with men.