Consciousness after death

Does anything remain of us after death, and if so, what?

PART FOUR of Astral Conversations—an unusual series of investigations into the occult with a humorous twist.

Introduction

Once again, the mysterious currents of the astral telegraph have brought us another conversation between Bombast and Flitterflop, whom we find arguing about consciousness after death.

The uncharacteristically elevated tone of this discussion suggests that our two mystery-mongers have made some progress since we last encountered them, or perhaps this is due to the presence among them of an enigmatic and altogether more inspiring personage whom we shall refer to simply as 'M'?

FLITTERFLOP: "What are you saying, and am I supposed to believe this nonsense? That nothing remains of us after death? That my personality, which you dismiss as my 'temporary self-consciousness,' simply evaporates like steam from a boiling kettle?"

BOMBAST: "That's exactly what I'm saying! Do you really imagine that the earthly personality of every nincompoop is going to be miraculously transported into some New Age Nirvana after his death?"

M: "In Flitterflop's case it can, because he sincerely and firmly believes it."

BOMBAST: "How is that possible? Doesn't Occult Science teach that immortality of the Self is conditional? How can there be any exceptions to this established law?"

M: "There are no exceptions to the fundamental spiritual laws, but there are rules for those who see, and rules for those who do not."

FLITTERFLOP: "That's what I've been trying to explain to Bombast for the past ten minutes. The complete and final disappearance of our self-consciousness is an utter impossibility. It's like saying that because a blind man can't see the sun and denies that it exists during life he still won't see it after death. But he will see it with his spiritual eyes after he dies, won't he?"

M: "Physical blindness ends with the dissolution of the body. Spiritual blindness does not. The spiritually blind will see nothing at all. Having closed his eyes to spiritual truths during his lifetime he will not see them beyond the grave."

BOMBAST (triumphantly): "You see? Didn't I tell you the same thing?"

(Flitterflop was dreadfully perturbed and stared about him in expectation of a more explicit answer, which M now provided.)

M: "You are both confusing the immortal soul with the soul of the mortal. Spirit is deathless, for it is without beginning or end. But we are now discussing the self-conscious human personality. Flitterflop confuses it with the Higher Self, while Bombast denies that the human personality continues after death, and both of you misunderstand the true nature of consciousness."

FLITTERFLOP and BOMBAST: "Eh?"

M: "I shall try to express myself more clearly. The whole gist of your argument is to learn whether it is possible to lose all awareness of our human personality after death. Is that so?"

FLITTERFLOP: "Yes, because Bombast completely denies that anything remains of us after death."

BOMBAST: "That's not what I said!"

FLITTERFLOP: "Yes, you did!"

M (shaking his head): "It seems to me that Bombast regards the continuance of the human personality in the post-mortem state, or the interval between two lives, as a conditional state that applies to some, but not all. Is that so?"

BOMBAST: "Yes."

M: "Then I put to you both that whether this intermission between two incarnations lasts one year or a million, that post-mortem state may, without any breach of the spiritual law that governs these matters, prove to be exactly like the state in which we find ourselves in a dead faint. Bombast, therefore, is right as he sees it."

FLITTERFLOP: "But why?...How is that possible, since the laws of immortality as you tell us, admit of no exceptions?"

M: "Certainly they do not—for all that really exists."

FLITTERFLOP: "But doesn't Occult Science teach that there is no more difference between the mortal soul and the immortal soul than between a forest and its trees?"

M: "It does, because one or even a hundred trees withered because of lack of life-giving sap, or uprooted, cannot prevent the forest from still being a forest."

FLITTERFLOP: "Yes...but if the forest in your simile represents the Higher Self, and the individual trees in it, the human personalities it incarnates into, if the former is immortal, how can the latter, being parts of it, entirely lose their consciousness? That's what puzzles me..."

M: "Because you will insist on confusing an abstract representation of the whole with the concrete modifications of its parts. In short, you are confusing the forest with the trees. If it can be said that the Higher Self is unconditionally immortal, the same cannot be said of that part of it which incarnates into a physical body. The personality cannot exist apart from the incarnating Higher Self, being only an attribute of it, like a drop of water temporarily detached from the ocean. Consequently, the continuation of consciousness for the terrestrial personality after death depends entirely on the conditions and beliefs it created for itself during the life of its body. In other words, we reap in our after-life only the fruit of the thoughts and deeds we sowed in life."

FLITTERFLOP: "But if my mind can, after the dissolution of my body, find itself in a state of complete unconsciousness, how am I punished for any sins I committed during my lifetime?"

M: "Occult philosophy teaches that punishment overtakes the mind only in a future life. After death it receives only the reward for the unmerited sufferings it endured during earthly life. What I think you are referring to is the absence of any reward and the utter loss of the consciousness of one's bliss and rest after death. There is no grief or misfortune in this life which is not the fruit and direct result of some transgression of our former existence."

BOMBAST (slyly): "What if an old soul had committed a few—very trifling—transgressions in his past life but was now living an unblemished life, would he be deprived of bliss after death?"

M: "The Higher Self is entitled to the fullest consolation, rest and peace in its post-mortem existence. To our higher selves, death always comes as a deliverer and friend; like the placid sleep of an infant, or a sleep of blissful fancies and dreams."

FLITTERFLOP: "Hah! You see? I am right! Consciousness does survive after death."

'M': "Not necessarily. You persist in confusing the consciousness of the earthly personality with the Higher Self. The former is 'Flitterflop', one of a countless number of other roles played by the indwelling actor. It is the actor behind the mask of personality who is your Higher Self. So you see, they are not the same, though seemingly united during each incarnation."

BOMBAST: "Flitterflop also confuses sleep with death."

FLITTERFLOP (sarcastically): "As you're such an old soul, perhaps you'd explain the difference?"

BOMBAST (smugly): "With pleasure. After sleep, another day commences for us but we, both soul and body, are still the same as we were the day before, whereas at every new incarnation, a complete change takes place not only of our bodies but of our entire personality too. If your comparison was valid, how is it that people, when they awaken from sleep, remember not only what they did yesterday but also what they did many days, months, and even years before, whereas in their present life they don't remember anything of their past lives? A person who has awakened can, I grant you, forget what he saw in his dreams, but he knows just the same that he has slept and that he existed during sleep. But YOU do not know even that much about your past lives."

M: "Perhaps there may be those who do know..."

FLITTERFLOP: "It seems to me that the only difference between sleep and death is one of degree and not kind."

M (smiling): "Well put. Sleep is a general and immutable law for man, as well as for every living terrestrial creature, but there are many different degrees of sleep and a great variety of dreams and visions. Moreover, there is a very great difference between sleep and death. During sleep there is a connection, however weak it may be, between the lower and Higher Self and the latter is more or less reflected into the former, however much its rays may be distorted. This is the reason we remember, as Bombast said, that we have slept, even if we cannot recall what we did or saw during our sleeping hours. But once the physical body dies, the lower self is left to its own devices."

BOMBAST: "So I'm right, as usual!"

M: "Not at all, though it is quite true that without preliminary inner perception of, and faith in, the immortality of the Soul, the Higher Self will not retain any part of the consciousness of your present personality."

FLITTERFLOP: "Well, that's a blessing at least!"

M: (ignoring the interruption): "Occult science teaches that after the dissolution of the body, the discarnate mind experiences one of three states: a period of fully awakened consciousness, chaotic dreams, or completely dreamless sleep. If physiologists find the cause of dreams and visions in an unconscious preparation for them during our waking hours, why cannot the same be true for post-mortem dreams? I simply repeat what Occult Science has always known and taught: sleep is the little death. After death, before the spiritual eyes of the Higher Self begins a performance according to a programme learnt and very often unconsciously composed by ourselves: the practical carrying out of either our correct beliefs or the illusions that we ourselves have created. These are the post-mortem fruits of the tree of life. Although belief or unbelief in consciousness after death is unable to influence the unconditioned reality of the fact itself, what we believed or did not believe during life cannot fail to colour that fact with our preconceptions after death. I trust you both understand me now?"

FLITTERFLOP: "I begin to. Materialists, disbelieving in everything that is not verifiable by their senses and so-called scientific reasoning, and rejecting every spiritual manifestation, regard earthly life as the only conscious existence. According to this belief, or rather unbelief, they will lose their personal 'Ego' after death and fall into dreamless sleep until their next incarnation. Is that right?"

M: "Almost. I would add that Occult Science recognises two kinds of conscious existence: terrestrial and spiritual. It regards the latter only as an irrefutable reality; whereas terrestrial life, as a result of its changefulness and transitory nature, is considered to be merely an illusion of the deceptive senses. Life in the higher spiritual realms must be admitted as reality by the fact alone that our changeless, infinite, and immortal 'Ego'—the Higher Self—dwells in these spheres; whereas with every new incarnation, it dons a temporary and transitory personality completely distinct from the preceding one, in which everything except its spiritual prototype is doomed to utter destruction, leaving no trace behind."

FLITTERFLOP (aghast): "Does that mean that my personality, my conscious terrestrial 'Ego,' will perish, not only temporarily as in the case of materialists, but permanently?

M: "According to occult scientific laws, it must so perish."

BOMBAST: "Well, that's a blessing at least!"

FLITTERFLOP: "So nothing will be left of Bombast either?"

BOMBAST (laughing): "Touché!"

M: "Nothing at all, except those thoughts and aspirations which, having united themselves with his Higher Self during life, have become purely spiritual, forming with it henceforth and forever an indestructible whole. But in the case of a thorough-going materialist it may happen that, since absolutely nothing from his terrestrial personality had gravitated toward his Higher Self, either consciously or unconsciously, the latter would have no occasion to carry away a single particle of this terrestrial personality into eternity. The spiritual 'I' is immortal; but will carry away from your present personalities only that which merits immortality, namely, the aroma alone of the flower that has been mown by death."

BOMBAST: "But that doesn't explain why you term the life after death immortal, infinite and real, and the terrestrial life an illusion, when, according to your teaching, post-mortem life also has its boundaries, and though it lasts much longer than terrestrial life, must also come to an end."

M: "And so it does. The Higher Self moves in eternity like a pendulum between the hours of birth and death. But these hours, marking the periods of incarnate and discarnate life which make up the whole pilgrimage of the Higher Self during its many incarnations, have their beginning and end, whereas the spiritual pilgrim himself is eternal. Hence, it is the hours of his post-mortem life when, disembodied, he stands face to face with Truth, and not the mirages of his transitory earthly existences, that is the only reality."

BOMBAST: "So you're saying that as the Poet tells us, the Higher Self is the actor, and the parts it plays, our earthly personalities?"

M: "Precisely. After the performance is over the actor returns home, wherever home may be, and continues his real life, whatever it may be, until he is ready to take on a new role upon the stage of earthly life. Like the actor, the Higher Self is obliged to play many parts during the cycle of its incarnations, many of which may be deeply unpleasant and painful to it. One day he is Prospero, the next Caliban. As the bee gathers honey from every flower, leaving the rest as food for earthly worms, so does the Higher Self gather only the nectar of the spiritual qualities and self-consciousness of every terrestrial personality into which it is compelled to incarnate, finally blending all these qualities into one whole, and emerging then as a perfect being, a veritable god. So much the worse for those terrestrial personalities from which it could collect nothing. Consequently, such personalities do not and cannot consciously outlive their terrestrial existence."

BOMBAST: "But if immortality is still conditional for the terrestrial personality, then immortality itself cannot be unconditional?"

M: "Not in the least. Immortality and eternity are absolute. The essence of you, or Flitterflop, or a worm is without beginning or end, but the exterior vessel it informs is simply the illusion of our senses and personal conceptions. Therefore, Occult Science calls the life beyond the grave a reality, and the terrestrial life, including the terrestrial personality, an illusion."

BOMBAST: "Then why call sleep the reality and waking the illusion?"

M: "To facilitate the better understanding of a complex subject. From the point of view of our earthly conceptions it is a very correct one."

FLITTERFLOP (disingenuously): "If, as you say, life beyond the grave is founded on a just reward for all the unmerited sorrows we suffer on earth, and if the Higher Self makes use of the smallest spark of spirituality in each of its incarnations, then how is it possible for the spirituality in—let us say Bombast's personality—who is so very humble, courteous and wise—to perish like the 'refuse of a flower', or 'steam from a kettle?' to use his own words?"

M: "Who, but himself, shall consign him to such a fate? I know Bombast better than he knows himself and am convinced that his Higher Self will reap a plentiful harvest from him, though I should not like to say of what fruits that harvest might consist! In short, although his arrogance, rudeness and foolishness are far from being a mere pretence, even his personality cannot entirely completely perish."

BOMBAST (flippantly): "Well, that's a blessing at least!"

FLITTERFLOP (triumphantly): "Hah! So you finally admit that the complete and final disappearance of the personality is an utter impossibility?"

BOMBAST: "I admit no such thing! If you had been paying proper attention to everything M has told you, you would know that the personalities of all those New Age turnip-heads whose drivelling claptrap you suck up like a desiccated sponge are going to disappear into final oblivion like steam from a kettle!"

FLITTERFLOP (turning to M in confusion): "I don't understand."

BOMBAST: "That would explain why your entire consciousness is destined to disappear after death! M has repeatedly confirmed that I am right and you are wrong. Do try to keep up!"

FLITTERFLOP: "Did you confirm his views?"

M: "I did and confirm them anew. One can sleep and miss several stations during a train journey, and despite not having the slightest awareness of them, awaken at a subsequent station and reach one's destination in a conscious state. Do you find fault with the simile between sleep and death? Don't forget that at least three kinds of sleep are known to everyone: deep and dreamless sleep; chaotic sleep, with confused dreams; and finally, the sleep where our dreams are so real and lucid that they become, for the time, completely real to us. Why, then, can you not admit that the same takes place when the Higher Self is freed from the body? After death, the Higher Self, depending on its merits and mainly its faith, lives a life either completely conscious or semi-conscious, or it falls into that deep, dreamless sleep which is without awareness and is comparable to the state of non-existence. This is the conclusion of the performance I mentioned earlier, created and prepared beforehand by the actor himself. But actors vary. An evil man, or even just a downright egotist, who adds to his complete unbelief an indifference for the whole world, must certainly drop his personality forever at the threshold of death. There is nothing that binds it to the Higher Self, and with its last breath every connection between the two is broken. Others will sleep through and miss only one 'station.' But the time will and must come when they, too, will perceive themselves again in eternity and repent that they lost even one day from the life eternal."

FLITTERFLOP: "So we are both right and wrong at the same time?"

BOMBAST: "Wouldn't it be more correct to say that I am mostly right and you are mostly wrong?"

FLITTERFLOP: "No it would not. M has shown that the best part of us does remain after death, though in YOUR case I admit there may not be enough of it to survive!"

BOMBAST (thoughtfully): "Perhaps, perhaps not. What do you think M?"

(There was no reply. M had vanished. Only the faint aroma of hyacinths, indescribably delicious but elusive, revealed the enigmatic prolocutor's precipitate disappearance.)

Whilst it would appear that Bombast and Flitterflop have learnt something from this remarkable conversation, we fear they have some way to go before they can overcome the illusions, errors and obstacles which still beset them. No doubt we shall hear from them again, but until then, we wish them, and you dear reader, every success in your search for Truth.

You can find a complete list and brief descriptions of all the conversation between these two colourful occult students on the introductory page to these Astral conversations. Although these conversations can be read on their own, they are best read in chronological sequence as they form an ascending scale of revelation.

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Cosmic Consciousness

Many philosophers and mystics have written about Cosmic Consciousness but none have done so with greater clarity, simplicity and accuracy than J Michaud in The Golden Star, from which the afterword to this article has been adapted.

The term 'Cosmic Consciousness,' refers to the consciousness of Cosmic Truth—which is God, as well as to the Consciousness of the Kosmos Itself, which is also God. If a human has this Cosmic Consciousness he is aware of all things and conditions at the same time. He knows past, present, and future, and they are ONE! For All is contained within the Consciousness of God, and therefore in the Soul of Man.

If we know how to raise the Veil, or are helped to do so, we can attune with that Consciousness of God and Man. Once we have raised the Veil and beheld the interior of the Temple Within, we have established an everlasting connection between our outer and our inner Consciousness; that is between the lower and Higher Selves as well as the Higher Self and the Divine Soul. At that divine moment we have contacted Truth, and we can never forget it nor deny its existence, nor obliterate it from our outer or inner memory.

As we have learnt from the discussion on consciousness in our article at left, it is of the utmost importance for the occult student to make this Holy contact, for as he realises spiritual Truth when in the flesh, so he will take this realisation with him when he dwells in the Astral World after death, between his earthly incarnations. As we have also learnt, this realisation is all we can take with us when we leave the shackles of the earthly body, for all the rest perishes or dissolves like shadows—being only Illusion, and false, and without actual existence.

This realisation of Truth can be attained by contemplation and meditation; withdrawing from the outer world and going within; by leaving—in spirit—the lower regions and ascending to the higher; by turning our back upon the shadows and focusing our inner sight upon the Light. This perception cannot be obtained by any process of thought; for mere thinking will bring at most a dim apprehension of the higher faculties of the Soul—although this process is already a mode of perception which transcends mere intellect.

Cosmic Consciousness can only be attained by clairvoyant perception, transcending all bodily limitations, and bringing the consciousness of the Higher Self en rapport with conditions in the higher realms by means of attunement with the Soul; which in turn is in direct communication with all the Souls in the superior regions—which are ONE! To attain Cosmic Consciousness, or even to strive after it, is the most profound homage that Man can render to God.

But before Cosmic Consciousness can be attained, it is necessary to obtain full consciousness and knowledge of the illusion of our self-hood as human beings, for the Hermetic axiom tells us that 'who knows himself knows all things in himself.'

But whilst we devote our attention to divine things, we must at the same time faithfully perform the duties of practical life; for we are placed within the Temple of the body in order to execute certain worldly duties, and to serve our fellowmen and women.

These truths will be hard to understand by those whose thoughts and desires are centred exclusively on the material world and therein find their dim delights. They behold effects, but not the cause; to them the material reflection from the spiritual reflection of the One Actuality—a double dream this—is reality. That reality is not the actuality, but only a realisation of the senses which image within the earthly mind a further reflection of that reality which has only objective existence that hides the Truth.

How then, can we withdraw from these earthly illusions, how achieve extinction of desire, cessation of longing, leading to that Peace Profound which is the goal of all seekers in quest of the Divine Mysteries? Only by forsaking greed and hatred and by turning to love and service can the curtain be lifted and the Truth be revealed. Those of coarse minds, moving in the darkness of earthly preoccupations and dwelling in the world of forms, can never behold it. But those who once see the Light must spread the Message, for there are those who are ready and only await the kindly word in order to hear; they only need the cooling touch of a healing hand upon their aching eyes to see opened to them the Gates of Eternity.

Ordinary natural reasoning can never lead to Cosmic Consciousness, for the Essence of God is the domain of Light, and into that Celestial Region no speculations of the unfolded reason can penetrate. The Philosopher Kant taught this, but the real meaning of his wisdom is so hidden that but few can follow the trend of his elevated teachings. The principal cause of that inability is the fact that most students overlook, or cannot see, the difference between intellectual reasoning, which is of a material nature, and therefore corrupt, and the Light of Inspirational Wisdom, which is divine, and therefore eternal and pure.

This is the 'pure' reason of Kant; a god-like attribute of the Soul of man, as compared with the earthly thinking of man's mind, which prevents a realisation of transcendental Truth. We can see this in the discussion between Bombast, Flitterflop and 'M' in our article on consciousness after death. The former speculate and analyse using their intellect and senses and so fall into numerous errors whilst the latter transmits the transcendental Truth perceived through Divine Inspiration. This Truth can only be revealed to those who have faith; for only by faith can the inner perceptions unfold.

We may then say that Cosmic Consciousness is a reaching out beyond gross matter. We can do so only through one of our seven spiritual senses, either by training one or another, or if one is a born Seer. Cosmic Consciousness is further a 'togetherness' with all things and beings contained within the Kosmos.

Actually there is but One Absolute Consciousness, whether it is called that or Cosmic Consciousness, or by any other name; it is the ONE REALITY, the ABSOLUTE, the ONE LIFE; it is that ESSENCE which is out of all relation to conditioned existence, and of which conscious existence is a conditioned symbol; conditioned existence being material, subject to change, error and illusion. The duality of consciousness and matter, subject and object, are to be regarded as the two symbols or aspects of the Absolute, and not as independent realities.

The nearer a soul is to the Absolute, the more it approaches to the true Cosmic Consciousness, and the further it is removed from material illusion. On the way to absolute consciousness it passes through a number of stages. The unevolved Mind will dwell in the Astral World after each of thousands of incarnations, until it grows in spiritual perception and may dwell for hundreds of intervals between its earthly lives on the next or higher plane. Then it may be ready for the next, which takes many millions of years. On each plane it will have different realisations of physical existence in different shapes. It will assume many bodily forms, extensions of the human shape, in more spiritualised or ethereal manifestations as it ascends.

After this the consciousness expands still more and in the highest planes the Soul-Mind enters into conditions of bliss and intelligence, blazing with life, extended and magnified to a high condition of such perfection that it cannot be spoken of but only realised; for no words could describe the nature of these planes or the sensations experienced there. Even if one who has experienced Cosmic Consciousness should attempt to describe it, his auditors would only hear but not understand: unless they themselves knew from experience.

So we have seen that the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness whilst still in the flesh gives a deep understanding of all mankind, so that we can become guides and way-leaders to those who are worthy, and lead them back to the One Reality and One Truth. May YOU, who reads this, attain that great blessing in God's good time.

The Golden Star

A book for Initiates
by J Michaud PhD

This aptly subtitled 'book for Initiates' is written in the form of a compelling story, in which two Egyptian pilgrims, Ma-u and Ma-uti, are conducted through the higher and lower planes by Neteru-Hem, a Messenger from the Divine.

During their remarkable journey, the two pilgrims are taught about the real nature of matter and spirit and the ways in which these two entirely opposite principles are interwoven. The many subjects covered include the origins of the universe, witchcraft, magic (both black and white), spiritualism, the inhabitants of the four elemental kingdoms (Gnomes, Sylphs, Undines and Salamanders), psychism, clairvoyance and clairaudience, true, spiritual vision, divine inspiration, the occult constitution of man and how to attain cosmic consciousness and oneness with the Divine.

occult mysteries

Consciousness after death

Does anything remain of us after death, and if so, what?

Introduction

Search our website

Cosmic Consciousness

Many philosophers and mystics have written about Cosmic Consciousness but none have done so with greater clarity, simplicity and accuracy than J Michaud in The Golden Star, from which the afterword to this article has been adapted.

The Golden Star

A book for Initiates
by J Michaud PhD

Further reading

occult mysteries

Consciousness after death

Does anything remain of us after death, and if so, what?

Introduction

Search our website

Cosmic Consciousness

Many philosophers and mystics have written about Cosmic Consciousness but none have done so with greater clarity, simplicity and accuracy than J Michaud in The Golden Star, from which the afterword to this article has been adapted.

The Golden Star

A book for Initiatesby J Michaud PhD

Further reading

A book for Initiates
by J Michaud PhD