Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
New Visions
You just died. So what happens to your soul?

You just died. So what happens to your soul?

Last updated on: June 28, 2024 at 9:12 am by Tom Rapsas

0 Comments

You just died. So what happens to your soul? 2024-06-28T09:12:40-06:00 Tom Rapsas

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Johannes Plenio via Unsplash

If you believe in life after death, where do we go when we die? Much has been written about the afterlife, and you’ve probably heard some of the numerous accounts of near-death experiences where people move to a light and are greeted by loved ones. But is this just wishful thinking?

In The Place We Call Home: Exploring the Soul’s Existence after Death, the late writer Robert J. Grant explores the afterlife topic via the teachings of the famed clairvoyant Edgar Cayce (pronounced kay-see). Cayce lived from 1877 to 1945 and has been called “the most documented psychic of the 20th century.”

According to his Wikipedia profile, Cayce has an interesting backstory:

At the age of 10, he read the Bible from cover to cover, twelve times over a two-year period.
At the age of 12, he was visited by “a woman with wings” who would appear to him at various other times in his life.
As a young adult, he began to see auras around people and hear the voices of departed relatives.

By the time he was in his 20s, Cayce had become a full-fledged clairvoyant, a person with “a supernatural ability to perceive events in the future or beyond normal sensory contact.” For more than forty years, he gave psychic “readings” while in what he described as an “intuitive sleep.” A stenographer would record what he said during these sessions, and it is reported that Cayce seemed to have no idea what he had said until it was read back to him.

Cayce’s readings included an ability to diagnose illnesses and prescribe treatments for the sick and ill (even when they weren’t present), uncover past lives, explain the meaning of dreams, and even access the Akashic records. But perhaps most fascinating were Cayce’s readings on the afterlife.

Cayce saw death as a transition from the physical world to a spiritual realm.

Cayce did not see death as an ending, but as a transitional period—that, through reincarnation, eventually led back to life. He saw death and life as interconnected, one leading to the other, our souls returning to earth over many lifetimes to learn and evolve.

Through his readings, Cayce provided descriptions of the various realms the soul traveled to after death. He had the seeming ability to travel to these realms himself and offered detailed descriptions of what he found there. Author Grant spoke with Cayce’s son who explained it like this:

He could withdraw from the physical body just as one withdraws at death … he was then free to move through many levels of consciousness … to touch the aspirations, purposes, and development of the soul.

It should be noted that there were (and are still) people skeptical of Cayce’s readings. Was he making it all up? It’s impossible to say, but Cayce’s “readings” don’t seem too far removed from what many with near-death experiences have said.

The Place We Call Home includes extended excerpts of what Cayce experienced in the other levels beyond physical death. I’ve lightly edited these excerpts and placed them in the narrative below.

Edgar Cayce: On the Soul after Death

Upon death, the transition involves a change of body. But this transition is as easy as walking through a door.
If a person is free from earthly attachments and desires, the soul awakens in a light-filled realm where they experience great joy, peace, and contentment.
But if a person is still attached to their earthly desires and longings, they are held in an earthbound state, inhibiting their ability to move on after death.
You will not pass through the death transition alone. You’ll gather with loved ones and souls of a like mind, just as you gather with friends and family during your physical life.
You’ll continue doing the things you started doing on this side, just in another dimension. You’ll carry with you what you have planned, what you desired, what you thought about.
The most important lessons you learned in life—your ability to love, to forgive, to grow in patience and grace—go with your soul after your physical death. These lessons are not physical, they are spiritual.
If a person has lived a life of malice, selfishness, and hate, they will be met with these things at death. But if it has been a life of love and self-sacrifice, then love will be the reward.
Your ability to love or not to love creates the fabric of your after-death environment. You create heaven or hell for yourself, based upon how you applied these spiritual laws during your earthly life.
The earth is a necessary school for learning and growth—but the unseen realm is the true home of the soul.
Physical death is, in many ways, a return “home” with the lessons you learned while on earth.
Each person is “rewarded” with the sum total of what they have built during their physical lives.
If your thoughts and intentions in the physical world were to act from a place of compassion, love, forgiveness, and patience, these virtues will create a light-filled existence after death. This is heaven.
If you have spent your life holding grudges and resentments, being prejudiced in your thinking, acting out of jealousy or malice or hate, these thoughts form the building blocks of a home in the shadowlands, the hellish realms.
It is your earthly accomplishments that move you to high realms after death, it is from loving and acting from the heart in all facets of your life.
It is a universal law. Your inner life during your waking hours creates the outer world of your existence after death. What you have cherished in your heart will have a great deal to do with where you find yourself after death.
How can you best find your way to the light after death? You need to find and recognize the light here and now, during your time on earth. If you don’t find it here, you will not find it after death. But find it here and there is no mistaking it after death.

For more stories on the soul and other spiritual topics, check out my new book Wake Up Call: Daily Insights for the Spiritually Curious, now available at Amazon.

Heaven

Life after Death

Edgar Cayce

The Place We Call Home

Previous Post

March 14, 2024

Is Marriage the Key to a Happier Life?

Next Post

March 28, 2024 Unveiling the Mysteries of Jesus' Resurrection

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"How?"

Craig

The Amazing World of Non-Speakers: Are ..."

"WoW Trey! This is a fabulous article just chock full of great insights and wisdom! ..."

I_Am_SheilaING

What a Guy Who Interviewed 500+ ..."

"I participate in a blog which reads theological works one chapter at a time before ..."

glen smith

The Amazing World of Non-Speakers: Are ..."

"this stuff has been disproven for a very long time. You can believe what you ..."

A fish with no hands

The Amazing World of Non-Speakers: Are ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 50+ Spirituality 60 Second Inspiration Activism Adversity Afterlife agape aging Aliens Angels Angels and aliens anger animism Astrology Atheists Attention Attitude Authenticity Awareness Awe Ayahuasca Balance Beginnings Being Present Belief Bhagavad Gita Bible birth of Jesus Blessings Bliss Bono Breathing Buddha Buddhism Calling cats Centered Centering Prayer Chakras Change Character Character and Aging Christ consciousness Christianity Christmas Church Civility commencement speeches commitments compassion Connecting with God Consciousness Contemplation Contemplative Prayer Contentment Conversations with God Coping Coping mechanisms Corinthians Coronavirus Covid creativity Daily practice Dalai Lama David Brooks David Frenette Death Deathbed visions Decisions determinism Discernment disconnecting Donald Shimoda Dreaming of the Dead dreams Drinking Easter Eastern religion Eckhart Tolle ego Elders Emerson Engagement Enlightenment everyday magic Everyday Spirituality Evil Spirits Expectations experience Faith fate Fatima Fear Feel Finding God Fitness Fulfillment Gandhi Gary Zukav Generosity Giving Gnostic gospels Gnostics God God's will Golden Rule Good & Evil Gospel of Thomas Gospels Grace Gratitude Grief Growing Older Guardian Angels gumption Gurus Halloween Happiness health health and happiness Heaven Helping others High Strangeness Hinduism Holiday Season honesty Honor Hope Humility impostor syndrome inner music Inner Work Insights insomnia Inspiration Inspirational intuition Investing Jeff Bridges Jesus Jesus Christ John Templeton joy joy of life Justin Bieber Kaballah Kabbalah Karma Kindness koans Law of Attraction Life Life after Death Life and death Life Balance Life Hacks Life Lessons Life Path Life Philosophy Life Plan life purpose Life Rules Life Tips Life's Big Questions Lindsay Lohan Listening Living Intentionally Loneliness Love Magic Mark Twain Marriage Meaning of Life Meditation mentor Mentors Mid-Life Crisis Mindful Mindfulness Money Monks Multiverse Mysterious World mystical experience Mysticism Mystics Mythology Napoleon Hill Near Death Experience (NDE) New Thought New Year New Year's resolutions Noise Oprah out-of-body experience Parables Peace of mind philosophy Plant Intelligence Pope Francis Positive Thinking Prayer prayers for the spiritual Preachers Premonitions presence Prophecies Prophecy Prophets Psalms Purpose Purpose of Life quietude Quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Trine Reconnect Recovery reincarnation Relaxation Religion resolutions Resurrection Ritual Rituals Rules to Live By sadness Sam Harris Sandy Second Act Seeking self Self Mastery self-help self-improvement Seneca sermon sex shamans Sickness Silence Silence of God sleep small voice Smiling Social Activism solitude Soul Soul and Spirit Soul Awakening Spiritual Awakening spiritual beliefs spiritual guidance spiritual journey spiritual living spiritual path Spiritual philosophy Spiritual Practice Spirituality Spirituality and work Spooky Spirituality Stillness stoicism stoics Storytelling Stress Relief Success Suffering Suicide Surrender tao Thanks Thanksgiving the afterlife the bardo the Bible the Blues The Election the Kingdom the secret the self The Soul Thomas Keating Thomas Merton Thomas Moore Time Tony Robbins tradition UFOs Uncategorized Universe Values visualization Voice of God Wake Up Call Wake Up Call book Walls Walt Whitman Well-being Winter Blues Wisdom words to live by Work work/life balance worry Yogananda Zen

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 July 2012 April 2012 March 2012 January 2012 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 December 2009 November 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I wanted a vineyard so badly that my wife arranged the owner's death through false witnesses. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Ahab Jezebel Naboth David

Books by This Author Books by Wake Up Call

See All Titles »