What is the afterlife in spirituality?

When the time arrives for the psyche to quit the earthly plane and leave its earthly covering behind it, then the link, which unites it to the physical is broken. 

This link partakes of the two natures and the only pain and struggle connected with this passing is when the soul is unwilling to lose its hold on the earthly or fears to do so. Then a moment of unconsciousness supervenes—a time of longer or shorter duration, according to circumstances. 

The psychical does not generally quit the body immediately, but slowly withdraws itself, and then only the body gradually decays and disintegrates—the lower forms of life escape to reincarnate themselves in some other form while there must always be a certain degree of life abiding in each atom, for without it they would have no existence. 

So the spirit of the animal goes downward, remaining in the earthly sphere, and the spirit goes upward, entering into the higher life.

We now have the departed spirit divested of his lower form, ready to enter into the intermediate state. 

And with what body does he come? 

With one that closely resembles the earthly one, very closely at first, but with powers enfolded within it that far transcend the old ones though those powers are yet more or less dormant. 

The departed spirit is still far from being pure spirit—he bears a form, which is in four dimensions and which cannot be seen by ordinary earthly vision. 

The old body is the matrix in which the new spirit is formed and from which he is parted to enter into his second life. 

How does the new spirit appear to other spirits? 

Spirit eyes do not see the physical (this we must always bear in mind) and what they see of the earthly is only the soul-image reflected in some medium. It is, therefore, after this uncovering that the newborn spirit appears within the scope of their vision. He awakes and finds himself in a state that seems to him at first the same to which he has been accustomed—he continues, as he thinks, his old life until the fact gradually dawns upon him that the great change has taken place and that he has passed from death unto life.

So He giveth His beloved sleep. 

And now the psyche sleeps for a while, for a few hours, days or years, according to our ideas of time. 

This sleep is not that of unconsciousness—the sleeper is unconscious of his actual surroundings while he moves and lives in fancy in other times and states. 

The length and character of this sleep depend entirely on the state of his being when he passed over—depend on what he was in his earthly life. His experiences are as manifold, as different the one from the other, as he differs in himself, for no two souls are alike and no two can have exactly the same experience—

Diversity in Unity is the Law of our Nature. 

To some there is a reliving of the past life, a taking up of broken threads and a weaving together in a more finished manner—perhaps the failings are now first seen in their true light—the clouds of self-deception caused by self-love, wilful transgression, and so on, fade away, and a soul can look back upon his past life with a clear and true vision, and when the soul thus truly sees and knows good and evil, it can but choose the good and refuse the evil. 

Others imagine that they continue their life, and starting with all the old habits and prejudices, they gradually drop the evil and are strengthened in the good.

Paul said—We shall not all sleep, and there is much truth in this, for to some it is of such a brief duration that it may be more truly called a change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

There is a fourth dimension, which we can easily understand though we have not attained to it yet. 

Besides the line, the square, and the cube, there is something, which represents what we might call the Interpenetrative Sphere. We have motion forward, upward, across, but in the future there will also be motion through. 

At present, one has to move out of the way of another but then they will just interpenetrate. 

As we know, no two bodies touch, but then, not only will so-called solid pass through solid by the separation of each molecule, but there will also be a fusion of molecules and a separation again when desired. 

This is intersphericity or interpenetration of spheres.

What is the aspect in which spirits regard these sleepers, and what is their connection with them? Spirits look upon them much as we do on very young children—spirits care for them and guard them in much the same way. 

There is no sense of unfitness in their ignorance, and they can feel neither surprise when they awake quickly, nor impatience if the state is prolonged, for it is simply that their new powers are not yet adjusted to their new environment. 

They are not purposely deceived as to their state, but even if spirits should wish to tell them where and what they were, it would be as incomprehensible to them, as deep philosophy to a young child. Then they need food—food, which is the counterpart of ours, and they need employment in such ways as most resemble the old duties. 

In these, and other ways, their past life is gently and gradually withdrawn from the prominent place in their mental horizon, which it formerly filled, and the new rises like a new day upon their clearer vision. 

The call comes to them in different ways to awake out of their sleep and arise from the earthly and walk in the newness of life—as one flower unfolds and expands differently from another, so is it with the soul.