From a letter:

“... I am tormented by the question of where people who were killed by a violent death end up, because the person who was killed did not have time to confess before death, and is it true that all sins are forgiven them? The fact is that almost two years ago my husband was killed (we were not married to him), and I keep thinking about whether his soul found peace? I also wanted to ask you when there will be the second coming of Christ, I am already tired of everything. I am very sad and bad without him, there is no support. "

About your question: "Is it true that all sins are forgiven to a murdered person?" I think that only the Lord God can know the answer to this question. It is up to him to decide who to have mercy and who to execute. Judge for yourself, for example, the man who himself killed people and was killed in a shootout or in a fight, as you say, whether his sins will be forgiven if he, even not of his own free will, did not have time to confess and take communion before his death. On the other hand, there is an opinion that those people who died on Easter are forgiven for all sins. Each of the people wants to believe that his sins are justified, perhaps this is so, but, nevertheless, only God can decide whether to forgive a sin or not to forgive. You can only lighten the lot of your deceased husband. Do good deeds and deeds in his memory. Read psalms and prayers to his heart. Ask the Theotokos for protection for his soul, for justification and mercy from Her Son Jesus Christ, and your labors will not remain without God's reward.

Not only you, but also many of my readers ask me about the fate of the souls of dead people. No one can know everything, but I will say what my grandmother explained to me, what the holy elders, for example, Saint John the Larch, said: “When a person confesses, then through repentance the sins committed are destroyed and are not mentioned anywhere, not at ordeals (three days after death), nor at the judgment of God. Immediately, as soon as a person dies, light and dark angels come to him in order to determine which of them the person (his soul) should follow. The bright angels declare about his good deeds in earthly life, and the dark ones convict the soul of committing sins.

There are twenty ordeals of the soul after the death of a person. This is how Saint Theodora narrates about these painful steps: “After parting with the body, on the way to the Lord, the soul meets its own first ordeal where sins are presented to her: verbosity, idle talk, idle talk, profanity, ridicule, blasphemy, singing obscene songs, passionate hymns, outrageous exclamations, insolent laughter, etc.

Then second ordeal: perjury, non-fulfillment of vows given to God, mentioning the name of God in vain, etc.

The third ordeal: exaltation of slander and slander against one's neighbor, as well as humiliation, dishonor, ridicule and mockery of other people, etc.

The fourth ordeal: violation of fasts, drunkenness and greed for satiety, gluttony, voluptuousness, eating food without prayer, etc.

The fifth ordeal: abandonment of prayer (not praying to God), neglect in serving God, parasitism, laziness, etc.

The sixth ordeal: stealthy and hidden theft, theft and unlocking of one's own theft, etc.

The seventh ordeal: avarice, money-grubbing, avarice, etc.

Eighth ordeal: covetous people, buyers of stolen goods, usurers, bribe-takers, appropriators of other people's goods, etc.

Ninth ordeal: unrighteous judgments, lovers of discussing other people's sins, sowing injustice, inciting quarrels, etc.

The tenth ordeal: envious people, hating those who live better, harming from their own evil, etc.

Eleventh ordeal: vanity, pride, self-greatness, not paying due honor to one's parents, not honoring spiritual and civil authorities, conceit (those who disregard other opinions), disobedience and disobedience to elders.

Twelfth ordeal: arrogance, vindictiveness, inability to forgive a neighbor, rage, blasphemy, anger, etc.

Thirteenth ordeal: secret and open revenge on one's neighbor, rancor, threats, etc.

The fourteenth ordeal: murders, abortions, driving a person to suicide, etc.

Fifteenth ordeal: deception, seduction, introduction into sin, etc.

Sixteenth ordeal: voluptuous views, fornication from spouses in marriage, fornication of persons not bound by the sacrament of marriage, fornication in thoughts, thoughts, desires and deeds, defilement by touch, etc.

Seventeenth ordeal: the prodigal falls of those who have dedicated themselves to God, the fall in their faith in God, etc.

Eighteenth ordeal: unnatural, prodigal sins, sodom (depraved) behavior, incest (marriage between people related by blood), seduction into incest, etc.

The nineteenth ordeal: blasphemy, apostasy from the Orthodox faith, doubts about the faith and invocation against faith, the spread of unbelief in God, etc.

Twentieth ordeal: mercilessness towards the weak, mockery of the poor and the weak, mercy and cruelty, the use of their power against the weak, orphaned and defenseless, etc. "

All sources about the ordeals of souls come from the apostles, and we learn that all the ordeals take place on the third day after death. That is why the relatives of the deceased rush to the church so that she brings prayers for the soul undergoing ordeals, trying to make it easier with prayers, begging her forgiveness from the Lord. After all the ordeals, the soul receives permission from God to visit the abodes of all saints and experience the beauty of paradise. The walking of the soul in the holiest and purest places lasts exactly six days. A righteous and sinless soul, contemplating paradise and the abode of saints, rejoices with emotion and glorifies the Creator. At the same time, the soul forgets the sorrow that it could have known while in the body. The same soul that was sinful and did not have time or did not want to repent, at the sight of the pleasure and joy of pure souls and saints, begins to grieve heavily and reproach itself for the life lived in sin, and not in serving God. On the ninth day, the soul, after its journey through paradise, again, together with its Angel, ascends to the second worship of God. On the same, ninth day, the relatives and friends of the deceased person gather to commemorate his soul. They pray for him themselves and ask the church to pray for the reckoning of the departed soul to the nine angelic faces. It is after the second worship that our Heavenly King and Lord commands his angels to show their souls hell and all hellish torments. The soul sees and hears the gnashing of teeth, the crying and groans of sinners, and so thirty days pass. All this time, having gone around all the circles of hell, the soul trembles in fear of being in this hell. And when the fortieth day of the separation of the soul from the body comes, she must appear before the Heavenly Judge for the third time. The fortieth day is the decisive day for determining the fate of this soul, where, in what place the promise is prepared for it before the general Last Judgment. On the fortieth day, commemoration takes place on earth. Memorial services are ordered, prayers for a sinful soul, relatives and close people gather at the table, who must necessarily serve as a prayer for the soul of the one who has reposed. Having the prayers of these intercessors, our Merciful Lord can have mercy on a sinful soul.

So I have answered your questions concerning the newly departed soul, who did not have time to repent before death. A very vivid example of caring for the soul of the departed is Xenia of Petersburg, who, in order to receive complete forgiveness for the soul of her husband, who died without repentance, turned her whole life into the service of this holy goal. I think everyone knows about her glorious feat.

Not so long ago, on my blog, you read my story about my school friend Galina, who, after the death of her beloved human began to panic fear of death ... She and I spent a lot of time together, battling this terrible phobia, until she finally felt better. She continues to think about of death , but in a different way.

After our conversations regarding the death of a person from life, Galya began to literally collect articles, books and films on this topic. And she infected me with all like that. My own son also added fuel to the fire. He, after listening to our exchange of views on these topics, became interested in the concepts of human consciousness and topics how modern scientists are trying to digitize it and place it in the virtual world. The son, you see, dreams of the appearance of computer games in which such digitized souls of players could be introduced, which will live and develop in an alternative reality under the supervision of their own living prototypes.

Scientistsfound outwhere people fall after of death?

As a result of our collective efforts, a lot of information has accumulated in my laptop concerning all these issues, which, by the way, have always worried humanity - not only religious people, but also atheists. Perhaps atheists and agnostics in our time are even more interested in such things than sincere believers in God, because they are more afraid to die. They are afraid to disappear into the abyss of nothingness completely and without a trace, while religions speak of the obligatory continuation of life in its other form. Perhaps that is why it was the unbelievers who became the first rational researchers of the phenomenon of the continuation of life after the death of the body. They wanted to scientifically test ancient revelations. I read a lot on this topic and with good reason I can say that almost every scientists, who at first was a typical unbelieving Thomas, eventually came to the conviction: after the physical death of the body, a person continues to exist.

About where people go after they die, spoken in all ancient beliefs and world religions. They were born in different parts of the planet, often completely independently of each other, but at the same time about the life of the soul human after his death they said almost the same thing.

All without excl.
the ancestors of modern mankind were absolutely sure that what gods death at the appointed moment by fate force the soul to leave the body, afterwhich for a disembodied entity begins a new life in the world of the dead. Each religion describes in detail both the path into nothingness and the very place where souls reside after a person's death. Be sure to tell about the difficulties and trials that the soul must endure during the journey to the kingdom of the dead. The other world itself is depicted as full of miracles and secrets, divine and demonic entities that judge the soul and determine its place in their kingdom. Some of them (primarily Hinduism and Buddhism) argue that the soul incarnates into new bodies before the final merger with the divine Absolute an incalculable number of times.

Many skeptics, who do not believe in any mysticism, say that all such stories about the soul and its responsibility for lifetime deeds human invented by the priests, who were profitable to intimidate and subjugate people ... And all sorts of mystical meetings and visions, supposedly confirming religious stories about the other world, are also inventions or tricks of the same clergymen.

Okay, but what about the cases when such visions are visited by completely unbelieving people?? Take, for example, my aunt, who was a communist, a hero of labor and did not even come close to any church all her life. Once, in the early 70s of the last century, she was in Moscow on a business trip. Just before leaving home, I decided to walk along Kalininsky Prospekt (now Novy Arbat). She walked for herself, looked at the shop windows, hurried to the Book World for new items. And suddenly, near the Vesna store, I saw my subordinate, who did not understand what he was doing there instead of being at his workplace in Perm. He greeted her and turned into the store. Auntie was at first taken aback, then followed him, but inside the store she could not find him. And when she returned home and came to work, she found out that this comrade had just been buried. On the day when she saw him in Moscow, he was already in the morgue. After this incident, my aunt did not start going to churches, but began to read the Bible and take an interest in all sorts of mystical cases.

What does science say?

Many scientists with world-famous names were also initially believers or through their personal life experience came to the conclusion that a life person afterthe death of his bodily shell, as such, does not stop. E the best minds of all time have claimed, starting with the ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Pythagoras. Materialists Galileo, Newton, Pascal, Pasteur, Einstein, Pavlov, Tsiolkovsky and many others were also people convinced of the existence of a higher reality, divine principle and life after death. They cannot be called blindly believers, since they came to their conclusions through purely scientific research and reflections, which led them to evidence of a reasonable, multidimensional and animate structure of the universe. All researchers of the otherworldly, with the help of experiments and observations, tried to answer very specific questions.

1. How true are people's stories of encounters or other interactions with the dead?
2. How gradually (or, conversely, simultaneously) does the separation of soul and body take place?
3. Can the posthumous life of a person be recorded using any scientific methods?
4. Is it possible to catch with the help of modern devices the processes of separation of the physical body and the subtle essence (soul) from each other?
5. Are the physical and spiritual essences of a person equally separated from each other in the case of a calm and tragic deaths?
6. Where does the soul of a person go after the death of the body?

I found many different scientific hypotheses and described discoveries that indicate that a person's life, or rather his soul, continues in the so-called subtle dimension. Here are just a few examples.

Emmanuel Swedenborg was perhaps the first scientists , which the systematically approached the study of the otherworldly existence of the soul. In the 18th century, he made technical inventions, lectured at the largest Uppsala Swedish university and wrote more than 150 scientific works, including about the life of the soul in other worlds. Swedenborg said that after death the person's personality in its essence does not change, but continues to develop. He, long before the emergence of quantum theories, suggested that the world consists of particles, which are currents and swirls of energy. Souls are also energy clots invisible to the eye. Swedenborg has been experimenting with the other world for more than 20 years and has published the results. Many contemporaries (including the Queen of Sweden) were forced to believe him, since scientist told them secrets that could only be known to their deceased relatives.

R Russian biologist V. Lepeshkin in the 30s. The twentieth century managed to register special energy surges that dying bodies spread around them. He concluded that at the moment of the death of a living creature, a certain special biofield is separated from it. During such experiments, the biofields leaving the earth's shell even illuminated photographic film of special sensitivity.

K.G. Korotkov - Doctor of Technical Sciences of the St. Petersburg Technical University - directs research on the subtle bodies that leave the physical flesh after it of death ... The generator of high-voltage electromagnetic radiation in the course of laboratory experiments fixes the exit from the dead human its astral form and transmits the waves of its energy field to the display. The exodus of the soul is recorded as a special pulsating glow, which then fades out, then intensifies again. Scientist convinced that after bodily death human his fate continues in another dimension.

Physicists Michael Scott from Edinburgh and Fred Alan Wolf from California prove the existence of multiple parallel universes. They can be similar to our own reality or differ significantly from it. Scientists conclude: everyone who has ever lived not only does not die, but exists in these parallel spaces forever. In this way, death like there is none at all, but the spiritual essences of people and animals are presented in a plurality of incarnations.

Robert Lanz , a professor from North Carolina, compares the continuous life of an individual to that how there are plants that die off in winter and grow back in spring. In fact, Lanz agrees with the Eastern theories of reincarnation and that the same soul is physically reborn many times in parallel worlds and comes to Earth again and again. The professor suggests that death and rebirth take place at the same time, so how particles of subtle matter that make up the spirit (photons, neutrinos, etc.) are capable of being present at the same moment in different dimensions.

Stuart Hammeroff , an anesthesiologist at the University of Arizona, became convinced of the quantum nature of the soul as a result of long work. He claims that it does not consist of neurons, but of the special tissue of the universe. So after death information about the personality goes into space and exists in it in the form of free consciousness.

In general, these and others scientists came to the same conclusions
to which, long before them, a variety of religions led mankind. These conclusions were voiced in his speech at one of the international symposia by A.V. Mikheev.

• Not a single skeptic was able to prove through experiments that after the death of a personeverything stops for him, that life does not have its continuation in some other form and in another place.

• After the physical (in our understanding) death of peopletheir so-called subtle bodies remain. They are carriers of a variety of information about individuals: this is their self-awareness, memory, emotions, the whole inner world.

• The continuation of the existence of an individual after death is one of the natural laws of nature and human life.

• Subsequent realities numerous and differ from each other by different energy frequencies on which are located.

• Where exactly goesthe soul of the deceased is most likely determined by his earthly actions, feelings and thoughts... It works on the principle of electromagnetic radiation, the spectrum of which depends on its composition. What is the inner component of the soul, so is its new place after death.

• With the words Heaven and Hell you can define two poles of the posthumous state I am. There are many intermediate states between these poles. The soul gets into in them according to the emotional and mental burden that she has formed on Earth. Therefore, negative emotional states, bad deeds, the desire to destroy, any fanaticism have a very bad effect on the future fate of the individual. Thus, the responsibility of the soul for everything that its bearer did during his earthly life is inevitable.

I don't know about you, but I have all these hypotheses and conclusions scientists with world names amazed and made me appreciate my own life in a new way. It turns out that science fully confirms the ethical side of religion. Secret Eastern teachings, Christianity, Islam have long told people that earthly experience and knowledge play a huge role in the posthumous fate of the soul. They pointed to the personal and inevitable responsibility of a person for what he did on this earth. Now and people from science they say that absolutely everything lived by a person is recorded, weighed and entailed after death her physical shell. This leaves one main conclusion: it is not worth living in this world so that later it would be ashamed of it in other places where the spirit dwells. I don't want to get into a bad dimension through my own fault either.

In the Christian tradition, the concept of the ordeal of the soul after death is a test of strength, something that is used to test the soul after it leaves the body, and before it goes to the other world, to the Underworld or to Heaven.

In the article:

The ordeal of the soul after death

According to various revelations, after death, each spirit passes twenty "Ordeals", by which are meant trials or torture by any sin. Through ordeals, the soul is either purified or thrown into Gehenna. Having overcome one of the trials, the spirit steps over to another, higher rank - to serious sins. Having passed the test, the soul of the deceased has the opportunity to continue along the path without constant demonic temptations.

Ordeals after death, according to Christianity, are terrible. They can be overcome by prayer, fasting and strong, unshakable faith. There is evidence of how terrible demons and trials after death are - the Virgin Mary herself begged the son of Jesus to save her from the torment of the ordeal. The Lord responded to the prayers and took away the pure soul of Mary in order to turn the Virgin Mary to Heaven with his divine hand. The icon of the Assumption, revered by Orthodox Christians, depicts the salvation of the Mother of God from many days of torment and ascension to Heaven.

The tests of the holy fathers and hagiographic texts about the ordeal of the soul describe these tests in a similar way. The individual experience of any person influences his own torture and the perception of it. The severity of each trial is increasing, from the most common sins to the most serious. The spirit of a person after death is under a small (private) judgment, where life is reviewed and the results of all the deeds committed by the living are summed up. Depending on whether the convicted person fought against fallen spirits or succumbed to passions, a sentence is passed.

The first ordeal is idle talk - words spoken in vain, love of chatter. The second is a lie, spreading rumors, deceiving others for their own benefit. The third are slander and disapproval, slander about someone else's reputation or condemnation of the actions of others from their place. Fourth - gluttony, indulging the base passion of the body, hunger.

20 ordeals of the soul of blessed Fedora, painting before descending into a cave in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

Fifth - laziness, idleness. Sixth - theft, appropriation of someone else's property that does not belong to a person as a result of an honest exchange. Seventh - love of money and avarice as a symbol of excessive attachment to things of the material, temporary world. Eighth - covetousness, that is, a craving for unrighteous acquisitions, obtained dishonestly. Ninth - deception, lies in business, wrong judgment without fair judgment. Tenth - envy, the scourge of God, the desire to dispose of what the near and far have. Eleventh - pride, excessive conceit, an inflated ego, self-esteem.

Twelfth - anger and rage, symbols of incontinence and lack of meekness befitting a Christian. Thirteenth - rancor, keeping in the memory of other people's bad deeds in their address, the desire to take revenge. The fourteenth ordeal is murder, the deprivation of the life of another person. Fifteenth - sorcery, charm, the call of demons, demons and spirits, the use of magic for their own and other people's needs as a path to the death of the soul. Sixteenth - fornication, disorderly intercourse with a change in many partners in life, unfaithfulness before the face of the Lord.

Seventeenth is adultery, betrayal of a spouse. The eighteenth is a sodomistic offense when a man lies with a man, and a lady with a woman. For this sin, Sodom and Gomorrah were thrown into the dust by God. Nineteenth - heresy, falling into doubts, rejection of God-given faith. The twentieth and last is recognized torture - mercy and cruelty, keeping a callous heart and lack of compassion for people.

The path of the soul that left the physical body is through these trials. Every sin to which a person was inclined during his earthly life will return after death, and demons, called publicans, will torment the sinner. Sincere prayer, coming from the very depths of the repentant soul, will help to save oneself from one's own sins and ease the torment.

Where does a person go after death

This question has tormented the minds of people since ancient times. Where do the dead go, where does a person go after death? Where does the soul fly away after the death of the physical shell.? The traditional answer is given by all religions, speaking of another kingdom, the afterlife, where every deceased will follow. This name is no coincidence: the otherworldly - "on the other side" and the afterlife - "behind the grave".

In the Christian tradition, ordeals occur on, lasting for everyone as long as the sins are strong. The past soul bows to God, and in the next thirty-seven earthly days after death, the soul's path passes through the palaces of Heaven and the abyss of Hell. The spirit does not yet know where it will have to stay until the coming of the Last Judgment. Hell or Paradise - reported on the fortieth day, and it is impossible to appeal against the judgment of the Heavenly Court.

For the next forty days after the death of a dear person, close people and relatives of the deceased should ask for help for his soul. Prayers are the feasible help that a Christian provides to another on a long posthumous path. This eases the lot of the sinner and helps the righteous, it turns out to be that spiritual gold that does not burden the spirit and allows one to atone for sins. Where the soul goes after death, prayer is dearer than gold, sincere, pure, honest, which is audible to God.

Venerable Macarius of Alexandria

Having overcome the ordeals and finished earthly affairs, discarding them, the soul gets to know the true world on the other side of being, one of the parts of which will become its eternal home. If you listen to the revelation of the Monk Macarius of Alexandria, prayers for the dead, the commemoration accepted to be performed (three times three, a sacred divine number, similar to nine angelic ranks), is due to the fact that after this day the soul leaves Paradise, all the abysses and nightmares of Hell are shown to it ... This continues until the fortieth day.

Forty days is a total number, an approximate model that is guided by in the earthly world. Each case is different, examples of the posthumous journey will vary infinitely.

There is an exception to every rule: some deceased complete their paths earlier or later than the fortieth day. The very tradition of an important date came from the description of the posthumous journey of Saint Theodora, in which her path in the depths of Hell was completed after forty earth days.

Where do the souls of people live after death?

Christian books promise that the physical universe, subject to decay and dying, will disappear and the Kingdom of God will ascend to the throne, eternal and inescapable. In this, the reign of the souls of the righteous and those whose sins have been atoned for will be reunited with their former bodies, immortal and incorruptible, in order to shine forever in the glory of Christ and lead a renewed, holy life. Until then, they are in Paradise, where they know joy and glory, but partial, and not the one that will come at the end of time, when a new creation is accomplished. The world will appear renewed and washed, like a youth full of health after a decrepit old man.

Where the souls of dead people who led a righteous life dwell, there is no need, sorrow and envy. Neither cold nor scorching heat, but happiness to be near Him. This is the purpose that God gave for people, creating them on the sixth day of creation. Few can follow him, but everyone has a chance for atonement for sins and salvation of the soul, for Jesus is merciful, and everyone is dear and close to him, even a lost sinner.

The one who did not receive the divine blessing, was not saved, will abide in Hell forever. Hell - Gehenna Fiery, Tartarus, Underworld, a place where souls undergo great suffering. Before the beginning of the Apocalypse and the onset of the Last Judgment, sinners suffer in a spiritual form, and after the accomplishment they will begin to suffer, reuniting with their earthly bodies.

And where does the soul go after death, until the Last Judgment took place? First, he goes through ordeals, after, until nine o'clock, he travels to Paradise, where he eats its fruits. On the ninth day and until the fortieth day, she is taken through Hell, showing the torment of sinners.

Where do the souls of dead people go after that? To Heaven, Hell or Purgatory. Purgatory is a dwelling place for those who did not sin fully, but did not observe righteousness either. These are atheists, doubters, representatives of other religions, who have deserted there from the Christian faith. In Purgatory, where the soul is after death, there is neither bliss nor torment. The spirit dwells between Heaven and Earth, waiting for a chance

Do the slain go to heaven?

From a letter:

“Dear Natalya Ivanovna, if you remember, it was I who called and told that once, out of the kindness of my heart, I gave your books to my ex-girlfriend, and after reading them, she decided to earn extra money, began to receive people on your behalf. You then asked me to go to her and tell her to stop doing it immediately. I went to her, but she pushed me out, insulting and cursing me in every way. Then I, outraged by her behavior, gave an announcement that people would not believe her, since she is a false healer, and not NI Stepanova from Novosibirsk. You would know what she did after that ...

This person does not understand good things, she rented a room in one trading house and is holding a reception there, but now she does not say that she is Stepanova, but says that she is your sister. I'm sorry if I upset you again, but she needs to be stopped, because she can harm many people, and you will get the shame. I am writing to you for one more reason. I am tormented by the question, where do the people who were killed by a violent death end up, because the person who was killed did not have time to confess before death, and is it true that all sins are forgiven them? The fact is that almost two years ago my husband was killed (we were not married to him), and I keep thinking about whether his soul found peace?

I also wanted to ask you when there will be the second coming of Christ, I am already tired of everything. I am very sad and bad without him, there is no support. Let me remind you that the name of the false healer is Natalya Sergeevna Tereshchenko (nee Skripchenko) born in 1980. I am very sad that she was once my friend. But you should know that her tongue is serpentine and deceitful, she will definitely start spreading all sorts of dirty rumors in revenge and will try to slander you in every possible way. So you, if anything, now you will know who should answer for this! "

My dear, first of all, thank you for trying to defend my name. I will help you as much as I can. Many messages of this kind come to me, for the sake of money advertisements are given, in which it is said that N.I.Stepanova is conducting a reception (there and there), and, of course, it is not me, but another person who is conducting this reception. And you are right that after the proceedings these enterprising people are trying in every possible way to annoy me. They spread false rumors, write on the Internet that I do not exist, that I am too old to treat people, or that I have died. Every time such fuss ends in trouble for those who organize such a vicious game. There is nothing secret that does not become obvious - this should not be forgotten.

Now about your question: "Is it true that all sins are forgiven to a murdered person?" I think that only the Lord God can know the answer to this question. It is up to him to decide who to have mercy and who to execute. Judge for yourself, for example, the man who himself killed people and was killed in a shootout or in a fight, as you say, whether his sins will be forgiven if he, even not of his own free will, did not have time to confess and take communion before his death. On the other hand, there is an opinion that those people who died on Easter are forgiven for all sins. Each of the people wants to believe that his sins are justified, perhaps this is so, but, nevertheless, only God can decide whether to forgive a sin or not to forgive. You can only lighten the lot of your deceased husband. Do good deeds and deeds in his memory. Read psalms and prayers to his heart. Ask the Theotokos for protection for his soul, for justification and mercy from Her Son Jesus Christ, and your labors will not remain without God's reward.

Not only you, but also many of my readers ask me about the fate of the souls of dead people. No one can know everything, but I will say what my grandmother explained to me, what the holy elders, for example, Saint John the Larch, said: “When a person confesses, then through repentance the sins committed are destroyed and are not mentioned anywhere, not at ordeals (three days after death), nor at the judgment of God. Immediately, as soon as a person dies, light and dark angels come to him in order to determine which of them the person (his soul) should follow. The bright angels declare about his good deeds in earthly life, and the dark ones convict the soul of committing sins.

There are twenty ordeals of the soul after the death of a person. This is how Saint Theodora narrates about these painful steps: “After parting with the body, on the way to the Lord, the soul meets its first ordeal, where sins are presented to it: verbosity, idle talk, idle talk, profanity, ridicule, blasphemy, singing obscene songs, passionate hymns , outrageous exclamations, insolent laughter, etc.

Then the second ordeal: perjury, non-fulfillment of vows given to God, mentioning the name of God in vain, etc.

The third ordeal: the ascension of slander and slander against one's neighbor, as well as humiliation, dishonor, ridicule and mockery of other people, etc.

The fourth ordeal: breaking fasts, drunkenness and greed for satiety, gluttony, voluptuousness, eating food without prayer, etc.

The fifth ordeal: abandonment of prayer (not praying to God), neglect in serving God, parasitism, stump, etc.

The sixth ordeal: secret and hidden theft, theft and unlocking of one's theft, etc.

The seventh ordeal: avarice, money-grubbing, avarice, etc.

Eighth ordeal: covetous people, buyers of stolen goods, usurers, bribe-takers, appropriators of other people's goods, etc.

The ninth ordeal: unrighteous judgments, lovers to discuss other people's sins, sowing injustice, inciting quarrels, etc.

The tenth ordeal: envious people, hating those who live better, harming from their own evil, etc.

Eleventh ordeal: vanity, pride, self-greatness, not paying due honor to one's parents, not honoring spiritual and civil authorities, conceit (those who do not take into account other opinions), disobedience and disobedience to elders.

The twelfth ordeal: arrogance, vindictiveness, inability to forgive one's neighbor, rage, blasphemy, anger, etc.

Thirteenth ordeal: secret and open revenge on one's neighbor, rancor, threats, etc.

The fourteenth ordeal: murder, abortion, driving a person to suicide, etc.

The fifteenth ordeal: deception, seduction, introduction into sin, etc.

The sixteenth ordeal: voluptuous views, fornication from spouses in marriage, fornication of persons not bound by the sacrament of marriage, fornication in thoughts, thoughts, desires and deeds, defilement by touch, etc.

The seventeenth ordeal: the prodigal falls of those who have dedicated themselves to God, the fall in their faith in God, etc.

The eighteenth ordeal: unnatural, prodigal sins, sodom (depraved) behavior, incest (marriage between people related by blood), seduction into incest, etc.

The nineteenth ordeal: blasphemy, apostasy from the Orthodox faith, doubt in the faith and invocation against faith, the spread of unbelief in God, etc.

The twentieth ordeal: mercilessness towards the weak, mockery of the poor and the weak, mercy and cruelty, the use of their power against the weak, orphaned and defenseless, etc. "

All sources about the ordeals of souls come from the apostles, and we learn that all the ordeals take place on the third day after death. That is why the relatives of the deceased are in a hurry and the church to bring prayers for the soul going through ordeals, trying to make it easier with prayers, begging her forgiveness from the Lord. After all the ordeals, the soul receives permission from God to visit the abodes of all saints and experience the beauty of paradise. The walking of the soul in the holiest and purest places lasts exactly six days. A righteous and sinless soul, contemplating paradise and the abode of saints, rejoices with emotion and glorifies the Creator. At the same time, the soul forgets the sorrow that it could have known while in the body. The same soul that was sinful and did not have time or did not want to repent, at the sight of the pleasure and joy of pure souls and saints, begins to grieve heavily and reproach itself for the life lived in sin, and not in serving God. On the ninth day, the soul, after its journey through paradise, again, together with its Angel, ascends to the second worship of God. On the same, ninth day, the relatives and friends of the deceased person gather to commemorate his soul.

They pray for him themselves and ask the church to pray for the reckoning of the departed soul to the nine angelic faces. It is after the second worship that our Heavenly King and Lord commands his angels to show their souls hell and all hellish torments. The soul sees and hears the gnashing of teeth, the crying and groans of sinners, and so thirty days pass. All this time, having gone around all the circles of hell, the soul trembles in fear of being in this hell. And when the fortieth day of the separation of the soul from the body comes, she must appear before the Heavenly Judge for the third time. The fortieth day is the decisive day for determining the fate of this soul, where, in what place the promise is prepared for it before the general Last Judgment. On the fortieth day, commemoration takes place on earth. Memorial services are ordered, prayers for a sinful soul, relatives and close people gather at the table, who must necessarily serve as a prayer for the soul of the one who has reposed. Having the prayers of these intercessors, our Merciful Lord can have mercy on a sinful soul.

Here, my dear readers, I have answered your questions concerning the newly departed soul, who did not have time to repent before death. A very vivid example of caring for the soul of the departed is Xenia of Petersburg, who, in order to receive complete forgiveness for the soul of her husband, who died without repentance, turned her whole life into the service of this holy goal. I think everyone knows about her glorious feat.

While the souls of people, in a natural way, experience relief and even joy in that world, the souls of suicides, on the contrary, having got into that world, experience confusion and suffering there. One expert in the field of suicide expressed this fact with the following apt phrase: "If you part with life with a restless soul, then you will enter that world with a restless soul." Suicides lay hands on themselves in order to "end everything," but it turns out that everything is just beginning for them.

Here are some contemporary stories that illustrate the otherworldly state of suicide. One man who loved his wife dearly committed suicide when she died. He hoped to be so connected to her forever. However, it turned out quite differently. When the doctor was able to resuscitate him, he said: "I ended up not at all where she was ... It was some terrible place ... And I immediately realized that I had made a huge mistake" (Raymond A. Moody, MD, Life after Life, Bantam Books, NY 1978, p. 143).

Hieronymus Bosch. Fragment of the triptych "The Last Judgment" - right wing "Hell", 1504

Some suicides who were brought back to life described that after death they ended up in some kind of dungeon and felt that they would stay here for a very long time. They realized that this was their punishment for breaking the established law, according to which each person must endure a certain amount of sorrow. Having unauthorizedly overthrew the burden imposed on them, they must bear even more in the other world.

One man who survived a temporary death said: “When I got there, I realized that two things are absolutely forbidden: to kill myself and to kill another person. a gift. To take the life of another person would be to disrupt God's plan for him "(Raymond A. Moody, MD, Life after Life, Bantam Books, NY 1978, p. 144).

The general impression of resuscitators is that suicide is punished very harshly. Dr. Bruce Greyson, psychiatrist in the Emergency Department at the University of Connecticut, who has studied this issue extensively, testifies that no temporary death survivor wants to hasten the end of his life for anything (Raymond A. Moody, MD, The Light Beyond , Bantam Books, NY 1990, p. 99). Although that world is incomparably better than ours, the life here has a very important preparatory meaning. Only God decides when a person is ripe enough for eternity.

Forty-seven-year-old Beverly described how happy she was to be alive. As a child, she suffered a lot of grief from her abusive parents, who bullied her on a daily basis. Already in adulthood, she could not talk about her childhood without excitement. Once at the age of seven, driven to despair by her parents, she threw herself headfirst and smashed her head on the cement. During clinical death, her soul saw familiar children surrounded. her lifeless body. Suddenly, a bright light shone around Beverly, from which an unknown voice told her: "You made a mistake. Your life does not belong to you, and you must return." To this Beverly replied: "But nobody loves me and nobody wants to take care of me." “It's true,” the voice replied, “and in the future no one will care about you. So learn to take care of yourself.” After these words, Beverly saw snow and a dry tree around her. But here from somewhere warmth blew, the snow melted, and the dry branches of the tree were covered with leaves and ripe apples. Approaching the tree, she began to pick apples and eat them with pleasure. Then she realized that both in nature and in every life there are periods of winter and summer, which make up a single whole in the plan of the Creator. When Beverly came to life, she began to relate to life in a new way. As an adult, she married a good man, had children and was happy (Melvin Morse, MD, Closer to the Light Ivy Books, published by Ballantine Books, 1990. "To Hell and Back", 1993, p. 184).

Heaven and Hell

What is Heaven? Where is it? In colloquial speech, people mean Heaven "above" and hell "below." People who saw the state of hell during their clinical death invariably described the approach to it as a descent. Although, of course, "up" and "down" are conventional concepts, it would still be wrong to consider Heaven and Hell only as different states: they are two different places, although they cannot be described geographically. Angels and souls of the dead can only be in one specific place, be it Heaven, hell or earth. We cannot designate the place of the spiritual world, because it is outside the "coordinates" of our space-time system. That space of a different kind, which, starting here, extends in a new direction, which is not perceptible for us.

Numerous cases from the lives of the saints show how this other kind of space "breaks through" into the space of our world. Thus, the inhabitants of Spruce Island saw the soul of St. Herman of Alaska rising in a pillar of fire, and Elder Seraphim Glinsky - the soul of Seraphim of Sarov ascending. The prophet Elisha saw how the prophet Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire. No matter how much we want our thought to penetrate "there", it is limited by the fact that those "places" are outside our three-dimensional space.

Most modern stories of people who have experienced clinical death describe places and states "close" to our world, even on this side of the "border". However, there are also descriptions of places reminiscent of heaven or hell, about which the Holy Scriptures speak.

So, for example, in the messages of Dr. Georg Ritchie, Betty Maltz, the Rawling Matrix and others, hell also appears - "snakes, reptiles, unbearable stench, demons." In his book Coming Back from Tomorrow, Dr. Ritchie recounts what happened to him in 1943 when he saw pictures of hell. There the attachment of sinners to earthly desires was insatiable. He saw killers who were chained to their victims. The murderers wept and asked forgiveness from those who had been destroyed by them, but they did not hear them. These were useless tears and requests.

Thomas Welch describes how he slipped and fell into a river while working at a sawmill in Portland, Oregon, and was crushed by huge logs. It took the workers over an hour to find his body and retrieve it from under the logs. Seeing no sign of life in him, they considered him dead. Thomas himself, in a state of his temporary death, found himself on the shore of an immense fiery ocean. At the sight of the rushing waves of burning sulfur, he was dumbfounded with horror. It was fiery hell, which cannot be described by human words. Right there, on the bank of the fiery hell, he recognized several familiar faces who had died before him. They all stood in a daze with horror, looking at the rolling waves of fire. Thomas understood that there was no way to leave here. He began to regret that he had cared little about his salvation before. Oh, if he knew what awaited him, he would have lived quite differently.

At this time, he noticed someone walking in the distance. The stranger's face displayed great strength and kindness. Thomas immediately realized that it was the Lord and that only He could save his soul, doomed to hell. Thomas began to hope that the Lord would notice him. But the Lord walked by, looking somewhere into the distance, "He's just about to hide, and then everything will be over," thought Thomas. Suddenly the Lord turned His face and looked at Thomas. That's all that was needed - just one glance from the Lord! In an instant, Thomas was in his body and came to life. Before he could open his eyes, he clearly heard the prayers of the workers who were standing around. Many years later, Thomas remembered everything he saw "there" in all the smallest details. It was impossible to forget this incident (he described his case in the book "Oregon" s Amazing Miracle ", Christ tor the Nations, Inc., 1976).

Pastor Kenneth E. Hagin recalls how, in April 1933, when he lived in McKinney, Texas, his heart stopped beating and his soul left his body. "After that I began to descend lower and lower, and the more I descended, the darker and hotter it became. Then even deeper I began to notice the flickering of some ominous fires on the walls of the caves - obviously hellish ones. Finally, a large flame burst out and pulled Many years have passed since this happened, and I still see this hellish flame in front of me as if in reality.

Having reached the bottom of the abyss, I felt the presence of some spirit near me, which began to guide me. At this time, an imperious Voice sounded over the infernal darkness. I did not understand what he said, but I felt that it was the voice of God. The power of this voice trembled the entire underworld kingdom, like leaves on an autumn tree with a breath of wind. Immediately the spirit that pushed me released me, and the whirlwind carried me back up. Gradually the earthly light began to shine again. I found myself back in my room and jumped into my body, like a man jumps into his pants. Then I saw my grandmother, who began to say to me: "Son, I thought you were dead."

After some time, Kenneth became a pastor of one of the Protestant churches and dedicated his life to God. He described this incident in the brochure "My Testimony".

Dr. Rawlings devotes an entire chapter in his book to the stories of people who have been to hell. Some, for example, saw there a huge field on which sinners in combat without rest crippled, killed and raped each other. The air there is filled with unbearable screams, curses and curses. Others describe places of useless labor, where cruel demons depress the souls of sinners by carrying heavy burdens from one place to another.

The intolerance of hellish torment is further illustrated by the following two stories from Orthodox books. One relaxed, tormented by many years, finally prayed to the Lord with a request to end his suffering. An Angel appeared to him and said: "Your sins require cleansing. The Lord offers you, instead of one year of suffering on earth, by which you would be cleansed, to experience three hours of torment in hell. Choose." The sufferer thought about it and chose three hours in hell. After that, the Angel took his soul to the underworld places of hell. Everywhere there was darkness, crampedness, everywhere the spirits of malice, the cries of sinners, everywhere the same suffering. The soul of the relaxed fell into inexpressible fear and anguish, only a hellish echo and the bubbling of hellish flame responded to his cries. No one paid attention to his groans and roars, all sinners were busy with their own torment. It seemed to the sufferer that whole centuries had already passed and that the Angel had forgotten about him.

But finally an Angel appeared and asked: "How are you, brother?" “You deceived me!” The sufferer exclaimed. “Not for three hours, but for many years I have been here in inexpressible torment!” “What years ?!” the Angel asked, “only one hour has passed, and you have to suffer for another two, hours.” Then the sufferer began to beg the Angel to return him to earth, where he agreed to suffer as many years as he wanted, just to get away from this place of horrors. "All right," the Angel replied, "God will show you His great mercy."

Finding himself again on his painful bed, the sufferer from that time on with meekness endured his sufferings, remembering the hellish horrors, where it is incomparably worse (from the letters of Svyatogorets, p. 183, letter 15, 1883).

Here is a story about two friends, one of whom went to a monastery and led a holy life there, while the other remained in the world and lived sinfully. When a friend who lived in sin suddenly died, his monk friend began to pray to God to reveal to him the fate of his comrade. Once, in a dream, a deceased friend appeared to him and began to talk about his unbearable torment and how an unbroken worm was gnawing at him. Having said this, he raised his clothes to his knee and showed his leg, which was all covered with a terrible worm that was eating it. Such a terrible stench emanated from the wounds on his leg that the monk immediately woke up. He jumped out of the cells, leaving the door open, and the stench from the cells spread throughout the monastery. Since the stench did not diminish from time to time, all the monks had to move to another place. And the monk, who saw the hellish prisoner, all his life could not get rid of the stench that clung to him (from the book "Eternal Secrets of the Underworld," the publication of the St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos).

In contrast to these pictures of horror, descriptions of Heaven are always light and joyful. For example, Thomas N., a world famous scientist, drowned in a pool when he was five years old. Fortunately, one of the relatives noticed him, took him out of the water and took him to the hospital. When the rest of the relatives gathered at the hospital, the doctor announced to them that Thomas had died. But, unexpectedly for everyone, Thomas came to life. “When I was under water,” Foma said later, “I felt that I was flying through a long tunnel. At the other end of the tunnel, I saw a Light that was so bright that you could feel it. There I saw God on a throne and people below. or, probably, the angels surrounding the throne. When I approached God, He told me that my time had not yet come. I wanted to stay, but suddenly I found myself in my body. " Thomas claims that this vision helped him find the right path in life. He wanted to become a scientist in order to gain a deeper understanding of the world created by God. He undoubtedly made great strides in this direction (Melvin Morse, MD, Closer to the Light Ivy Books, published by Ballantine Books, 1990. "To Hell and Back," 1993, p. 167).

Betty Maltz, in her 1977 book I Seen Eternity, describes how she found herself on a wonderful green hill right after her death. She was surprised that with three surgical wounds, she stood and walked freely and without pain. Above her is a bright blue sky. There is no sun, but light is everywhere. Under her bare feet was grass of a color she had never seen on earth; every blade of grass is alive. The hill was steep, but the legs moved easily, without effort. Bright flowers, bushes, trees. To her left is a robed male figure. Betty thought, "Isn't that an Angel?" They walked without speaking, but she realized that he was not a stranger and that he knew her. She felt young, healthy and happy. "I felt like I had everything I ever wanted, was everything I ever wanted to be, went where I always dreamed of being." Then her whole life passed before her gaze. She saw her selfishness, and she was ashamed, but she felt care and love around her. She and her companion approached a wonderful silver palace, "but there were no towers." Music, singing. She heard the word "Jesus". A wall of precious stones; gate made of pearls. When the gate opened for a moment, she saw the street in golden light. She did not see anyone in this light, but she realized that it was Jesus. She wanted to enter the palace, but remembered her father and returned to the body. This experience brought her closer to God. She loves people now.

Saint Salvius of Albis, a sixth century Gallic hierarch, returned to life after being dead for most of the day, and told his friend Gregory of Tours the following; "When my cell shook four days ago and you saw me dead, I was lifted up by two angels and carried to the highest peak of Heaven, and then under my feet, it seemed, could be seen not only this wretched earth, but also the sun, moon and stars. Then I was led through a gate that shone brighter than the sun and into a building where all the floors glistened with gold and silver. That light is impossible to describe. This place was filled with people and stretched so far in all directions that the end was not visible. before me the path through this crowd, and we entered the place to which our gaze was directed even when we were not far.Above this place hovered a bright cloud that was brighter than the sun, and from it I heard a voice like the voice of many.

Then I was greeted by certain beings, some of whom were dressed in priestly robes, and others in ordinary clothes. My guides explained to me that they were martyrs and other saints. As I stood, such a pleasant fragrance enveloped me that, as if nourished by it, I did not feel the need for food or drink.

Then a voice from the cloud said, "Let this man return to earth, for the Church needs him." And I fell on my face to the ground and cried. "Alas, alas, Lord," I said. "Why did You show me all this just to take it from me again?" But the voice replied: "Go in peace. I will look upon you until I return you to this place." Then, crying, I went back through the gate into which I had entered. "

Another wonderful vision of Heaven is described by St. Andrew for Christ's sake, a Slavic, who lived in Constantinople in the ninth century. Once, during a harsh winter, Saint Andrew was lying in the street and was dying of the cold. Suddenly he felt an extraordinary warmth in himself and saw a beautiful youth with a face that shone like the sun. This young man took him to paradise, to the third heaven. That's what St. Andrey told, returning to earth:

"By Divine will I stayed for two weeks in a sweet vision ... I saw myself in paradise, and here I marveled at the ineffable charm of this beautiful and wondrous place. There were many gardens filled with tall trees, which, swaying with their peaks, amused my eyesight, and a pleasant fragrance emanated from their branches ... These trees cannot be compared in beauty to any earthly tree, In those gardens there were innumerable birds with golden, snow-white and multi-colored wings They sat on the branches of the trees of paradise and sang so beautifully that from their mellifluous singing, I did not remember myself ...

After that, it seemed to me that I was standing at the top of the heavenly firmament, and in front of me was a young man with a face as bright as the sun, dressed in a purple robe ... When I followed him, I saw a tall and beautiful cross like a rainbow, and around him - fire-like singers who sang and praised the Lord, crucified for us on the cross. The young man walking before me, coming up to the cross, kissed him and gave a sign to me to do the same ... Kissing the cross, I was filled with unspeakable joy and felt a fragrance stronger than the previous one.

Going further, I looked down and saw under me, as it were, an abyss of the sea. The young man, turning to me, said: "Do not be afraid, for we need to rise even higher," and gave me his hand. When I grabbed onto it, we were already above the second firmament. There I saw wondrous men, their joy that is not conveyed in human language ... And so we ascended above the third heaven, where I saw and heard a multitude of heavenly powers singing and praising God. We came to a curtain shining like lightning, in front of which the young men stood, looking like a flame ... And the young man who was leading me said to me: "When the curtain opens, you will see the Lord Christ. Then bow down to the throne of His glory." ... And now some kind of fiery hand opened the veil, and I, like the prophet Isaiah, saw the Lord Himself sitting on a high and exalted throne, and the seraphim flew around Him. He was dressed in a crimson robe; His face shone, and He looked at me with love. Seeing this, I fell on my face before Him, bowing to the Most Bright and the Throne of His glory.

What joy gripped me at the contemplation of His face, that cannot be expressed in words; Even now, remembering that vision, I am filled with inexpressible joy. In awe I lay before my Master. After that, all the heavenly host sang a wonderful and ineffable song, and then I myself do not understand how I found myself in paradise again. "

(It is interesting to add that when Saint Andrew, not seeing the Virgin Mary, asked where She was, the Angel explained to him: “Did you think to see the Queen here? Its holy place, but now there is no time, for you must return. ")

So, according to the lives of the saints and stories in Orthodox books, the soul goes to heaven after it left this world and passed the space between this world and Heaven. Often this passage is accompanied by intrigues on the part of demons. At the same time, the Angels always lead the soul to Heaven, and it never gets there on its own. Saint John Chrysostom wrote about this: “Then the angels took Lazarus away ... for the soul does not by itself depart to that life that is impossible for it. in the guidebooks the soul is plucked out of the body and presented to the future life. " Obviously, modern stories about light and places of wondrous beauty do not convey actual visits to these places, but only "visions" and "anticipations" of them at a distance.

A genuine visit to Heaven is always accompanied by clear signs of Divine grace: sometimes a wondrous fragrance, accompanied by a miraculous strengthening of all the powers of a person. For example, the fragrance so nourished Saint Savely that he did not need food and drink for more than three days, and only when he spoke about it, the fragrance disappeared. The deep experience of visiting Heaven is accompanied by a sense of reverence for the greatness of God and a consciousness of one's unworthiness. At the same time, the personal experience of Heaven is inaccessible to an accurate description, because “I didn’t see that eye, didn’t hear that ear, and it didn’t come to man’s mind that God had prepared for those who loved Him” and “now we see as if through a dim glass, fortuitously, then but we see face to face "(1 Cor. 2: 9 and 13:12).

Alexander Mileant,
From the book "On the Threshold of Life and Death".

Choose life with Christ!

"For God so loved the world,

that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life "(John 3:16)

"Choose life, so that you and your offspring may live, love the Lord your God, listen to His voice and cleave to Him; for in this is your life and the length of your days ..." (Deut. 30: 19-20)