Is death a permanent change?

To die is one of two things—

Either the dead may be annihilated and have no sensation of anything whatever—or there is a change and passage of the soul from one mode of existence to another. 

If it is a privation of all sensation—or a sleep in which the sleeper has no dream, death would be a wonderful gain, for thus all the future appears to be nothing more than a single night. But if on the other hand death is a renewal, to me the sojourn would be admirable.

The judges there do not condemn to death, and in other respects those who live there are happier than those that are here, and are henceforth immortal.

To a good man, nothing is evil, neither while living, nor when dead—nor are his concerns neglected by the divine ones.

What has befallen me is not the effect of chance. It is clear to me that to die now and be freed from cares is better for me.

—Socrates, The Encyclopaedia of Death and Life in the Spirit World [Opinions and Experiences from Eminent Sources]