The process in which animated matter ceases to function and starts to decay. A process of transformation.
There are many controversies as to the exact moment of death. Death is final when the silver cord is severed and the spirit body leaves the physical one. Physical death generally occurs over a period of three days, during which the body should not be disturbed. At the moment of final death, a tremendous amount of psychic and spiritual energy becomes released. This is why there are cases of people who, when they are passing into the world of spirit are able to manifest to relatives many miles away. The burst of psychic and spiritual energy carries them, while still being close to earth. When the silver cord is finally severed, no medical man or person can make that physical body live again.
After final death, the conscious essence may find itself in one of many planes of existence, depending on spiritual realizations, attachment to the Earth Plane the way death occurs, etc. When the soul is conscious, it sees the spirit body withdrawing gradually and opens its eyes to the world of spirit. The transition into the new world is easier for those with knowledge, for they pass through and into new states with an awareness of the new life. Others have to sleep and rest for a long period, or be taken to a special place--a rest home--until they can adjust themselves for their transition.
All life that is forced to quit its body before it has achieved its maturity on earth is unprepared for the world of spirit. The majority of people know when they have died, even though it may take some time for a complete awareness to be realized. This world has hospitals for treating bruised and injured bodies, but the spirit world has to treat bruised and injured souls. Where an individual has rendered great service, love, good will, affection, and prayer accompanies his passing into the next world, then the awakening is speeded, for these vibrations help him.
When a portion of the Collective Spirit withdraws from the body of matter, the work of that body is finished and it goes back to the earth. When, in the next stage of life, the Spirit withdraws from the astral body, then the work of that body is finished and it resolves itself once more into the elements of which it was composed; for when the essence of Spirit withdraws, the life is withdrawn also.
The evolutionary level that an entity has reached, dictates the plane of existence they ultimately find themselves after physical death. There is no night and day, just eternal light in higher realms, with darkness, or gray, in lower realms.
People on earth mourn and weep when those close to them die, because in thinking that the body is the individual, they believe that death removes the loved one. Death has no power over life, because the soul, once liberated becomes a resurrected spirit welcoming the escape from the thraldom and bondage of a material prison. In reality, we only begin to live when we are dead. Ultimately, there is a fuller expression, for once released from the body, the mind is able to come into its own, as it has a more perfect instrument through which to express itself.
When we pass into the world of spirit, we have complete recollection of every visit made in sleep states. Some people in the world of spirit know when the final dissolution will take place for somebody, but it depends on a variety of circumstances. knowledge by ties of love is a significant factor, for there is always the company of a beloved being to help them across the border and to receive the soul which has passed through the valley of shadows to begin the new and wondrous epoch of its life.
With time, we will realize that the unity of spirit is greater than the unity of physical things. A loved one lost by their physical presence can be great, but they are invariably closer to their beloved than they ever could be in the world of matter. A loved ones only sorrow is the sorrow of the beloved.
Those who insist that there is no life after physical death, should consider that energy cannot be destroyed, and that it can only change (transform) it's structure. Electrical impulses are generated in the conscious mind which is a form of energy. Life itself is an energy form, so there has to be a transformation for energy that was once contained within life itself. This holds true for any life form, whether it contains consciousness or not.