The great 5th-century monastic Father, St. John Cassian, sets forth quite clearly the active state of the soul after the death of the body, in answer to the early heretics who believed the soul was unconscious after death:
“Souls after the separation from this body are not idle, do not remain without consciousness; this is proved by the Gospel parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:22-28).... The souls of the dead not only do not lose their consciousness, they do not even lose their dispositions — that is, hope and fear, joy and grief, and something of that which they expect for themselves at the Universal Judgment they begin already to foretaste.... They become yet more alive and more zealously cling to the glorification of God. And truly, if we were to reason on the basis of the testimony of Sacred Scripture concerning the nature of the soul, in the measure of our understanding, would it not be, I will not say extreme stupidity, but at least folly, to suspect even in the least that the most precious part of man (that is, the soul), in which, according to the blessed Apostle, the image and likeness of God is contained (I Cor. 11:7, Col. 3:10), after putting off this fleshly coarseness in which it finds itself in the present life, should become unconscious — that part which, containing in itself the whole power of reason, makes sensitive by its presence even the dumb and unconscious matter of the flesh? Therefore it follows, and the nature of reason itself demands, that the spirit after casting off this fleshy coarseness by which now it is weakened, should bring its mental powers into a better condition, should restore them as purer and more refined, but should not be deprived of them.”66
Today’s “after-death” experiences have made men shockingly aware of the consciousness of the soul outside the body, of the keener and quicker state of its mental faculties. But this awareness by itself is not enough to protect one in that state from being deceived by appearances in the “out-of-body” realm; one must be in possession of the full Christian doctrine on this subject.
THE BEGINNING OF SPIRITUAL VISION
Often (this spiritual vision) begins in the dying even before death, and while still seeing those around them and even speaking with them, they see what others do not see.
This experience of the dying has been noticed throughout the ages, and its occurrence among the dying today is nothing new. What was stated above, however (Chapter One, part 2), should be repeated here: only in the grace-given visitations to the righteous, when saints and angels appear, can we be certain that it is actually beings from the other world who come. In the ordinary cases when the dying person begins to see departed relatives and friends, the experience is perhaps only a kind of “natural” introduction to the unseen world which he is about to enter; the actual nature of the images of the departed which then appear is perhaps known to God alone — there is no need for us to pry into it.
Apparently God grants this experience as the most evident way to inform the dying person that the other world is not, after all, a totally strange place, that life in the other world is also characterized by the love that one has for one’s close ones. Bishop Theophan expresses this touchingly in his words to the dying woman: “There your father and mother, brothers and sisters will meet you. Bow down to them, and give them our greetings, and ask their prayers for us. Your children will surround you, with their joyous greetings. It will be better for you there than here.”
ENCOUNTERS WITH SPIRITS
But when it leaves the body, the soul finds itself among other spirits, good and evil. Usually it inclines toward those which are more akin to it in spirit, and if while in the body it was under the influence of certain ones, it will remain in dependence upon them when it leaves the body, however unpleasant they may turn out to be upon encountering them.
Here we are solemnly reminded that the other world, even though it will not be totally strange to us, will not be simply a pleasant meeting with loved ones in a “summerland” of happiness, but a spiritual encounter which will test the disposition of our soul in this life — whether it has become more inclined towards the angels and saints through a life of virtue and obedience to God’s commandments, or whether by its negligence or unbelief it has made itself more fit for the company of fallen spirits. Bishop Theophan the Recluse has well said (see above, pp. 86-87) that even the trial at the aerial toll-houses may well turn out to be less one of accusations than of temptations.
While the fact of judgment in the next life is quite beyond doubt — both the Particular Judgment immediately after death, and the Last Judgment at the end of the world — the outward sentence of God will only answer to the inward disposition which the soul had developed in itself towards God and the spiritual beings.
THE FIRST TWO DAYS AFTER DEATH
For the course of two days the soul enjoys relative freedom and can visit places on earth which were dear to it, but on the third day it moves into other spheres.
Here Archbishop John simply repeats the teaching known to the Church since the 4th century, when the angel who accompanied St. Macarius of Alexandria in the desert told him, in explaining the Church’s commemoration of the dead on the third day after death: “When an offering is made in church on the third day, the soul of the departed receives from its guardian angel relief from the sorrow it feels as a result of the separation from the body.... In the course of the two days the soul is permitted to roam the earth, wherever it wills, in the company of the angels that are with it. Therefore the soul, loving the body, sometimes wanders about the house in which its body had been laid out, and thus spends two days like a bird seeking its nest. But the virtuous soul goes about those places in which it was wont to do good deeds. On the third day, He Who Himself rose from the dead on the third day commands the Christian soul, in imitation of His resurrection, to ascend to the Heavens to worship the God of all.”67
St. John Damascene, in the Orthodox funeral service, vividly describes the state of the soul, parted from the body but still on earth, helpless to contact the loved ones whom it can see: “Woe is me! What manner of ordeal doth the soul endure when it is parted from the body! Alas! How many then are its tears, and there is none to show compassion! It raiseth its eyes to the angels; all unavailing is its prayer. It stretcheth out its hands to men, and findeth none to succour. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, meditating on the brevity of our life, let us beseech of Christ rest for him who hath departed hence, and for our souls great mercy.”68
Bishop Theophan the Recluse, in a letter to the brother of the dying woman mentioned above, writes: “Your sister will not die: the body dies, but the personality of the dying one remains. It only goes over to another order of life....
It is not she whom they will put in the grave. She is in another place. She will be just as alive as she is now. In the first hours and days she will be around you. Only she will not say anything, and you won’t be able to see her; but she will be right here. Have this in mind. We who remain weep over the departed, but for them it is immediately easier; that condition is a happier one. Those who have died and then have been brought back into the body have found it to be a very uncomfortable dwelling. Your sister will feel this also. She is better off there; and we are in agony, as if some kind of tragedy has happened to her! She will look and surely be astonished at this” (Soul-Profiting Reading, August, 1894).
66
First Conference, ch. 14, in the