Глава 2 Исход души из тела

1. Stories about the exodus of the soul from the body, drawn from the works of St. Gregory the Great. In the most ancient lives and tales of saints, Eastern and Western, we find the following pictures of the exodus of the soul. In the Life of Anthony the Great, compiled by St. Athanasius the Great, which in the 4th century was already translated into Latin (Evatrius, an Antiochian presbyter), gives a story about Anthony’s vision of “the soul of Ammonius of Nitria, accompanied by angels, ascending to heaven.” Blessed Jerome reports a similar vision of Anthony the Great - a vision of the soul of Paul of Thebaid ascending to heaven. About the death of Anthony himself, his life says that “the clarity of his face at the moment of death already indicated the presence of angels who had descended to carry his soul” (to heaven). Sulpicius Severus (IV-V centuries) in stories about the life and death of Bl. Martina reports that he had a dream vision; “It seemed to me,” he writes, “that a bl. Martin, in a white robe, with a fiery face, with starry eyes. In his hands I saw a booklet of his life, compiled by me; I bowed to him, accepted the blessing, and then he disappeared into the heights. A little later, along the same path on which I saw bl. Martin, his disciple St. Clar. Indeed, as it turned out, at this very time Bl. Martin left earthly life." Elsewhere, Sulpicius Severus adds to this story that long before the death of Bl. Martin predicted part of his death, and at the moment of death, seeing the devil next to him, he exclaimed: “Why are you here, you ferocious animal? You will not find anything in me; Abraham’s bosom accepts me.” The departure of souls to the afterlife is depicted in precisely the same terms in the stories of Gregory the Great’s “Conversations.” “Many of ours are from people close to us in time and in relationships,” says St. Gregory the Great, who, by pure faith and fiery prayer, cleansed the eye of their mind, repeatedly saw souls coming out of the body" (Dial. IV, 7) - and now, for the most part, he cites the stories-messages of precisely such persons, the stories of “self-witnesses” or those conveyed from their words by others... St. Benedict, whose life with such deep inspiration St. Gregory the Great outlined in the 2nd book. “Conversations,” this great ascetic, the “father and leader” of Western monasticism, had a vision of the outcome of the soul of Herman, Bishop of Capua. The circumstances under which the vision took place, and the very story about it by St. Gregory is captured with touching cordiality and the enchanting charm of the etiological style. “Servand, deacon and abbot of the monastery,” he says, “established within Campania by a certain patrician Liberius, used to often visit the monastery of St. Benedicta. Both of them were very close, since this man, like St. Benedict, was filled with the teachings of heavenly grace, and therefore they mutually nourished each other with conversations about eternal life and thus, at least in their hearts, tasted the sweet food of the heavenly fatherland, which they could not yet fully enjoy (being here on earth). When the hour of rest came, the Venerable Benedict went to the upper part of the monastery tower, and Deacon Servand was placed in the lower parts; there was also a passage staircase that led from bottom to top. In front of the tower, at some distance, there was a dwelling for the students of both. One day, while the brothers were still sleeping, Benedict got up for night prayer and prayed at the window to Almighty God; Suddenly, at the deepest midnight, he saw a light that illuminated the entire darkness of the night, which sparkled so much that the night became brighter than the day. An extremely amazing event followed this illumination: the whole world, as he himself said later, was gathered before his eyes, as if under one ray of the sun. The venerable father fixed his attentive gaze on this brilliance of heavenly light and saw in the fiery radiance the soul of Herman, Bishop of Capua, carried by the angels. Then he wished to have Servand for himself, repeating his name two or three times. Servand was immediately awakened by the unusual cry of this man, went upstairs, looked and saw only a small part of the world. He was amazed at the miracle, and the holy man told him in order what was happening, and immediately sent him to Capua to find out what was happening to Bishop Herman - it turned out that he had already died, and died at the very moment in which the holy man saw his ascension into heaven "... About the death of St. Benedict was also revealed in a miraculous vision to two of his disciples, who were in different places and far from one another: “On this very day (on the day of his death), says St. Gregory, - two of his disciples, one who remained in the monastery and the other who was away, had exactly the same vision. They saw how the road stretched, covered with clothes and illuminated by many shining lamps, towards the east of the monastery, up to the sky. A husband in light clothes appeared before each of them from above and asked whose road they saw. They replied that they did not know. The man who appeared said: this is the path along which Benedict, beloved of the Lord, ascends to heaven "... (book II, chapter 37, - Russian translation, page 149; cf. book IV, chapter 9). Sometimes people of righteous life foresee the approach of death and prepare for it in advance, or are notified of special miraculous phenomena that signify their afterlife. To prove this, St. Gregory gives a story about his aunt Farsilla, which he also reported in one of his conversations on the Gospel... “My father,” he says, “had three sisters, all three of whom were sacred virgins (in monasticism): one of them was called Farsilla, the other Gordiana, the third Emiliana. All inflamed with the same zeal, initiated at the same time, living under established supervision, they spent their lives outside the monastery, in their own home. And when they had been in this cohabitation for a long time, Farsilla and Emiliana began to grow in daily increments of love for their Creator and, being one flesh, pass in spirit into eternity. On the contrary, Gordiana’s soul began to cool from the heat of inner love through its daily losses and little by little return to the love of this age... One night, my aunt Farcilla, who was more honorable and superior to her sisters by the power of constant prayer, careful emaciation of the flesh, extraordinary abstinence and the importance of a high life, appeared, as she herself said, my great-great-grandfather Felix, the rector of this Roman church, and, showing her the dwelling of unceasing light, said: “Come, I will take you into this dwelling of light”... She fell ill and died on the eve of Christmas The Lord, and a day later she appeared in a dream to her sister Emiliana and said: “I came so that, having spent the day of the Nativity of the Lord without you, I would spend the holy day of Epiphany with you.” She, caring for the salvation of her sister Gordiana, immediately answered her: “If I come alone, then to whom will I leave our sister Gordiana?” Gordiana, our sister, is listed among the worldly..." This vision was immediately followed by a physical illness, and the day before the Epiphany she died." At the deathbed of the dying, various phenomena occur that signify the exodus of the soul, the onset of a new life for it, phenomena that are further accessible to the external perception of those around the deathbed and attested to by them in numerous stories... Thus, according to the words of one venerable man, St. Gregory talks about the death of Spey, a presbyter and abbot of a monastery in Nursia: “Being among the brethren whom he had called, he communed with the body and blood of the Lord, then began with them the mysterious singing of psalms, and during the very singing of the brethren, with prayer, he gave up his spirit to God. All the brethren present saw how a dove flew out of his mouth, which immediately, through the opening of the roof of the church, in the sight of the brethren, flew to heaven."... “One must believe,” St. Gregory notes on this occasion, “that his soul appeared in the form of a dove, and by this very sight God showed with what simplicity his departed husband served him...” About the death of another presbyter, who is not named, but who was known to everyone as a saint. ascetic life, Gregory the Great conveys the story (chap. 11), that “at the moment of death, surrounded by his loved ones and relatives, he began to exclaim: “Welcome, my lords, welcome!... But why do you honor me, your servant, with your visit?” And when those around him asked who he was addressing with the question, he answered: “Don’t you see that St. apostles? Don’t you see the first of the apostles, Peter and Paul?” Then, saying the words: “I’m coming, I’m coming!” gave up the ghost." Citing this and other stories about the appearance of the Lord Jesus himself, the Mother of God and the saints to the dying righteous, Gregory the Great says that “it often happens to the righteous, when dying, to see saints next to them, so that in their presence, without sadness and fear, they can be freed from the shackles of the flesh...” The minute of the death of the righteous, in addition to the indicated miraculous phenomena, is accompanied by many others - both in the righteous man himself (for example, insight into the future), as if anticipating the onset of a higher spiritual life, and so on in the external surrounding nature: an extraordinary shine of light, incense, earthquakes, storms. In confirmation of this, in book 111. “Dialogues” contains, among other things, a story about the death of Pavlin Nolansky: “When he was already in his last minutes, the earth suddenly shook, and the bed on which he was reclining shook, while the house itself remained unshakable.” The spirits of darkness, in the form of personal and terrible creatures of monsters, also appear before the beds of the dying, trying to take possession of their souls - in the form of “black people, Moors - Ethiopians”, or in the form of a “dragon”, with an open mouth, preparing to swallow the dying person. “A certain Chrysaorgius,” according to the story of a man close to St. Gregory, the abbot of a monastery - just before the soul left the body, with open eyes he saw black and terrible spirits who stood before him and were ready to grab his soul and take him to a hellish prison. He trembled, turned pale, loudly began to ask for a delay and in a strange and embarrassed voice called for his son Maxim... The whole family gathered, crying and trembling. The family could not see the evil spirits from which he suffered so much, but they learned of their presence from the patient’s confusion, pallor and trembling. Out of fear from their black faces, Chrysaorgius turned back and forth on his bed; I lay on my left side, turned to the wall, and they were everywhere. Constrained by them to the point of excessiveness, he despaired that he would not be free from them and began to shout in a loud voice: “Delay at least until the morning! At least until the morning!” But during this very cry, the soul was taken from the body."... Passing on this story, St. Gregory says that this vision served as a "warning for us, whom God's long-suffering still awaits," since for the dying man himself it could no longer be of benefit - his soul was taken from the body. According to another story, one dying man, for whom those around him fervently prayed that the Lord would forgive him his sins, suddenly shouted in a loud voice, interrupting the prayer: “Go away, go away, I was given to the dragon to be devoured, but he cannot devour me because of your presence. He has already swallowed my head; give him space so that he does not torment me anymore, but does with me what he wants. If I am given to him to be devoured, then why am I being delayed because of you?” Then the brothers began to say to him: “What are you saying, brother? Put on yourself the sign of the holy cross." With a great cry he answered: “I want to cross myself, but the scales of the dragon prevent me.” Hearing about this, the brethren prostrated themselves to the ground with tears and began to pray even more fervently for his deliverance. Suddenly the patient felt better, and he exclaimed in a loud voice: “Thanks be to God! The dragon that intended to devour me fled; driven away by your prayers, he could not stand here. Pray only for my sins, because I am ready to repent and completely leave worldly life.” Thus, the man who, as it was said, had already begun to grow cold in the extremities of his body, preserved for life, turned to God with all his heart; After that, having changed his thoughts, he labored for a long time with contrition of heart, and only then was his soul released from his body.” 2. The death of the righteous according to stories in letters of obvious witnesses a) The death of Novospassky Hieromonk Philaret, in the schema of Fyodor 4 On August 28 (1842) at 7 o’clock in the morning, this elder peacefully and holy rested from all his labors. God deigned me to serve him during his ten-day illness and to be a witness to many wondrous incidents, which I wish to reveal to you alone, as a spiritual friend. When the elder began to feel weakness, which was still painless, he said: “My death is near.” Metropolitan F. recognized these words and hastened to visit the elder. The elder told the bishop a lot of comforting and edifying things, who listened with tears to the words of the deceased. On the 29th, in the Assumption Cathedral, I learned that my father was very ill, and hurried to the Novospassky Monastery. And sure enough, I found him in the most painful state, he was moaning very heavily; for Antonov’s inner fire, especially in his bladder, began to burn him. On the 24th he underwent surgery, and from the severe bleeding he received some relief: his torment lessened, and he began to pray more vividly; with each of his breaths he repeated: “Jesus, sweetest Savior”; even when he fell asleep, the action of heartfelt prayer in him did not cease. On the night of the 26th, maybe at one o'clock in the morning, the elder suddenly became inspired; an invisible force lifted him up, he stood up and, pointing his finger at the door, exclaimed: “Here is the Savior, here is the Savior! To the Savior! His face lit up, and rivers of tears flowed from his eyes; he wanted to join. When the Holy Gifts were brought into his cell, he began to cry. After accepting them, he began to stretch out his hands; They brought him warmth, but he pointed his head to the chalice and, taking it in his hands, pressed it to his heart, began to kiss it and sob bitterly. After uniting with Christ, he began to pray even more vividly and, amid the every-minute invocation of the name of Jesus, he turned to us who were present and said: “Save yourself, save yourself.” Not only residents of Moscow, but also neighboring villages and cities came to worship the elder, for rumors of his illness spread everywhere. He remained in such a wonderful state of prayer for almost 50 hours. From the 27th to the 28th he apparently began to weaken, his breathing began to become interrupted; at the seventh hour they slowly began to read the prayer, and while reading the last verse, he peacefully and holyly gave up his spirit to the Lord God. For four days the crowd of people did not leave the monastery, the funeral singing did not cease, tears of love and gratitude watered the remains of the righteous man. The Metropolitan buried him; During the funeral service, he wept bitterly and several times, when parting, he reverently kissed the right hand of his husband, who had fulfilled the law of Christ and was filled with Divine grace. Until Vespers they could not close his graves, because perhaps 2,000 people sought to kiss his coffin and commit themselves to his intercession. b) The death of the Zadonsk elder Euphemia Grigorievna 5. Elder of God Evfemia Grigorievna, writes Fr. Zosima, died on January 15 (1860) at 9 pm, and on January 18 Fr. The archimandrite of the cathedral celebrated a late mass for the repose of her soul in the Kingdom of Heaven, and with 14 hieromonks in vestments, he sent her burial and buried her body. Her grave is in the chapel, next to the recluse George on the left side, and on the right lies Schemamonk Mitrofan, whom she also personally knew and visited with him, and used his advice and instructions. The deceased priest, the recluse George, and the Great Elder Father Hilarion from Troekurov, where the women’s community is now, ordered the place of her rest, so that she could be buried in the chapel. Yes, I myself loved her a lot, honored and respected her for 25 years; but mutually, she loved me tenderly, like a son, and cherished me like her soul. Spiritually, all my feelings and my heart were revealed to her from the Lord. Sometimes I neglected to do something about myself, but she would warn me and instruct me. At her own request, on Saturday, January 9, at 4 o’clock in the evening, I unctioned her with holy oil; on Sunday, the 10th, after early mass, I confessed her and communed the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ; on Thursday, the 14th, I also communed her with the Holy Mysteries and read the funeral service. On Friday, an hour before her death, I visited her, and all the time she was in clear memory and spoke. Four days before her death, she began to hear very well, having been strong in her ears for many years. She died as soon as she fell asleep. She stood in a warm room, but there was no heavy smell from her and she was not swollen, but on the contrary, while still dead, she had lost weight: her face was clean, pleasant and light yellow, like wax. She died after working in this world for 115 years. But the surprising thing is that the black hair on the head has not turned grey. She eagerly wanted to quickly move into eternity and often asked the Lord God for this. The life of the old woman was full of miracles in everything. She was kind of a holy fool, but not always, and this came over her temporarily. 65 years ago, when she was living in her village in a cell, suddenly there was a fire at night. It was winter; the alarm rang; She got up and ran through the village barefoot in only her underwear and, approaching the house, commanded the fire with authority, so fire, come here, burn this house: great sinners and unrepentant people live here. The fire obeyed her slavishly; Firebrands immediately flew from the scene of the fire, and the house caught fire, no matter how far from the fire it was. And so she swept away several houses, and she did it all outside herself. She came to her senses in the priest's house, and when she saw herself half-naked, she felt ashamed of everyone: she got dressed. This is a true story; she told me herself and many others" 6 c) In addition to the cases described, we will cite two more similar cases of righteous death according to the story of a reliable person. In the 1860s, writes Pr. F-th, in the city of Vladimir, a pious and long-suffering old woman, the wife of a priest, was dying. Before her death, she wanted to receive the blessing of oil. Two priests with clergy are invited. At the ceremony with oil, the sick woman repeated the irmos of the canon by singing after the clergy herself and accepted the whole sacrament cheerfully. After the anointing was performed, the priests (Fr. Maxim V. and N. F.) asked the patient: how do you feel? “I still have the same pain in my chest,” she answered, “but my soul is joyful, despite the illness. About two hours before your arrival, I saw here in front of the table (standing by the sick sofa) the Mother of God and in front of her the Rev. Zosima and Savvatiya." Two days later, after being singled out, the pious old woman reposed, having received the grace-filled consolation that is sought in the prayer to the Mother of God at the end of Compline: “Be present to me. Most Pure Virgin, Bride of God, Lady, and during my exodus, watching over my accursed soul, and driving away the dark pupils of wicked demons far from it.” By the way, let us add a note about the death of Elder Parthenius, remarkable for its time. Under the image of the well-known ascetic, Fr. Schieiro, monk Parthenius (Kyiv Lavra, nearby caves), a signature is drawn from the notes of the deceased: “Blessed, blessed and blessed be the day of the Annunciation of the Mother of God, my undoubted hope, from now 1845 until the end of time. Hallelujah! The Unbreakable Slave, Schemamonk Parfeniy.” The pious and unforgettable elder wrote down these words for himself, as a constant reminder of the miraculous appearance of the Most Pure Ever-Virgin to him, on the very feast of the Annunciation. It is remarkable that he died many years after the vision, on the feast of the Annunciation (see “Soulful Reading.” 1877, November). 3. Omens of the death of people from a time closer to us a) “In the fifties, my dear aunt Elizaveta Petrovna Smallan fell ill in Moscow,” says Mrs. T. Passek. Her illness, which at first seemed insignificant, developed somehow strangely. Without complaining about anything, the aunt grew weaker and finally went to bed. She was treated by a friend of our house, a famous physician, Konstantin Ivanovich Skologorskoy, one of the best people, a kind, religious man. The aunt’s illness intensified every day, and finally the patient began to fall into delirium and unconsciousness. Seeing her in this position, I once stayed with her overnight. It was during Christmas time. At the beginning of her illness, my aunt’s bed was moved from the bedroom to the living room, from which she, as she became ill, did not get up until her death. There was a large sofa against the inner wall of the living room, on which, as night fell, I lay down without undressing. At the other end of the sofa, leaning against the pillows, reclined my daughter-in-law, my brother’s wife. Near the sofa, on a bench, sat a young woman, Alexandra, who was in her aunt’s service, and a maid, a girl of about twenty-five. Masha, the daughter of her serf, who served with her aunt since her marriage. Between them on a chair there was a candle under an umbrella, so as not to disturb the patient with excessive light. The patient was unconscious, at times delirious, at times calm. Neither of us could sleep and talked quietly. From the living room a door opened into the hall, from the hall into the hallway, from there into the vestibule and onto the large courtyard. The house was wooden, ten rooms, one story. The street is quiet. A moment came in which we all somehow fell silent and suddenly heard an unusually loud knock on the door leading from the entryway to the hallway. There was something so strange about this knock that we involuntarily looked at each other. “Who could come at such a time and knock so hard,” I said. “Konstantin Ivanovich must have arrived,” said Alexandra, “I’ll go and have a look.” - And off she went. We wait, we wait, Alexandra appears with an amazed, upset face and says: - There is no one. I went out into the yard, a watchman was walking around the yard, the gate was locked, there was no one in the yard. I ask the watchman if anyone came or passed by the owners, whose large stone house was located in the depths of the yard. The watchman said that he never went anywhere and no one came to the yard. The night was quiet, the full moon was shining. It was freezing outside. It was as clear as day. We talked and talked and settled down as before. But as soon as they had calmed down a little, an equally defiant knock, or rather a crash, on the door was heard from the hallway into the hall, where Alexandra rushed, saying: And she immediately returned pale and upset. - There is no one. What is this knock? There is no one in the hallway or in the entryway. Silently we looked at each other. The patient lay unconscious, without opening her eyes, and at times uttered incomprehensible words. We sat down again. My daughter-in-law and I lay down on two opposite ends of the sofa, the maid sat down on the bench next to us, and we had just begun to talk when such a deafening roar was heard in the cornice right above the sofa that we instantly jumped up from the sofa; the cornice and ceiling seemed to be collapsing. Others also rushed from their seats; everyone was pale, everyone had an expression of horror on their faces. For the rest of the night, no one went to bed; we were afraid to approach the sofa. As the day approached, my aunt came to her senses, gave me some instructions in a weak voice, and by lunchtime she began to fall into oblivion again. One of the ladies closest to my aunt came up to me, saying: - You see, the end is near. It would be good to prepare in advance everything you need and what to put in it. You would go into town and buy it. “And she told me what to buy.” I immediately set off, and on the way I went into my house for a minute to look at the children and make some arrangements. But not even a quarter of an hour had passed before my aunt came running to me and said: - Don't go to the city. Katerina Petrovna went. Please come to us. I left immediately. I entered the courtyard and was struck by the strong smell of incense. In the hallway, in the hallway, the smell was even stronger. - Is it really over? – I asked the maid who came out to meet me. “No, they haven’t died yet,” she answered. - What kind of incense did you smoke? “We don’t even have incense in the house,” she answered. “But when you left, there was a smell of incense throughout the house and further around the yard, and we ourselves don’t know where this smell came from.” I went into the living room. There was a strong smell of incense throughout the house. Auntie lay in agony, with her eyes closed. Soon Katerina Petrovna, a deeply religious woman, arrived with some shopping and said to me: “You see how auntie suffers, but cannot die.” Probably someone's displeasure or oath weighs heavily on her. In our church there are prayers that resolve and reconcile. “Very good, invite the priest,” I answered. They immediately sent for the priest. In the corner of the bedroom, a small wax candle was lit on a small table. A deep silence reigned in the room, despite the fact that there were about ten people present. All that could be heard was the heavy breathing of the dying woman. An old priest came in with a prayer book in his hands, blessed the dying woman, stood in front of the icon and began to read conciliatory prayers. I heard them for the first time; they amazed me with the depth of their content and touched my soul with the simplicity and sincerity of love. The longer the priest read, the quieter the patient’s breathing became. With the last word of the prayer, her reconciled spirit probably flew off into eternity” 7 (“Rebus” 1887, No. 27). b) Miss Hatta Doughty, 21 years old, the eldest daughter of Mr. Doughty of Wayland, suffered for more than a year from a terrible illness called consumption in medicine, but she took to bed no more than a week before her death. I saw her every day, and sometimes several times a day, talked with her about various everyday subjects and was completely convinced that she was mentally normal and retained her mental abilities until the last minutes of her life. In religious matters she was somewhat skeptical and, as I heard, did not like to talk about theories concerning the afterlife. Throughout the morning of August 14, Miss Doty began to rapidly fade away, and her loving mother did not leave her side for a minute. Around noon she apparently weakened, and her many friends gathered around her bed, waiting every minute for her last breath. Profuse cold sweat covered her entire body, her large eyes became dull, her eyelids closed, her lips and fingertips became as cold as marble, and soon her pulse stopped and her breathing stopped. Thanks to the despair and grief of the relatives and friends present, who thought that everything was already over, no one noticed by the clock how long this state lasted. But suddenly Miss Doty opened her eyes, ran her hands over her face several times, sat up in bed and, turning her frightened gaze to her mother, said in a clear, distinct voice: – Where was I, explain to me, mom. I don't understand anything. Oh, why did I come back here! I don't want... I don't want... The sister was the first to ask her: “I was far, far away from here and saw a lot of people, many unfamiliar faces shook my hand, and they were so glad to see me. They removed my skin without any pain and I felt much better. Mom, I'll go back to them again. The mother objected - How can I part with you, Hatta? - Why break up? My spirit will always be with you, I will know everything you do. Then she asked to be given something to eat, ate a piece and washed it down with a sip of wine. They tried to ask her a few questions, but her voice was so weak that they couldn’t hear the answers. When her doctor entered the room, the patient asked cheerfully: - What do you think now, doctor? - Oh, everything is going great. You will get well soon. - Look, doctor. I breathe so freely, and yet not so cold, cold. Soon after these words, she raised the fingers of both hands to her ears and said: “I can’t hear what you are saying, doctor,” and after a minute she added: “I’m losing my sight, I can’t see you anymore.” The doctor, seeing that the end was approaching, came out to call the missing family member, and the dying woman, turning her extinguished gaze towards her mother, said in a joyful and unusually gentle voice: “I must now go to them, goodbye, mother.” Then one last breath, and she was gone. Who would dare to assert that the sick woman was delirious, and did not, by the mercy of the Creator, receive the opportunity to look into the world of bliss that awaited her and bring from there joyful news to comfort her grieving loved ones. The orphaned mother says that nothing eases her grief more than the memory of the last moments of her dear Hatti (“Ban. of Ligt”, vol. XLV, no. 26; see “Rebus” 1890, no. 45). c) In his notes (“Russian Archives”, No. 6 for 1897), Count Buturlin tells the following two remarkable cases: Around Maslenitsa or at the beginning of Lent in 1828, the Moscow guard Stepan Stepanovich Apraksin, still strong in his years, died under the following strange circumstance. He himself predicted his death several days in advance, because his long-dead friend appeared to him, promising (as Stepan Stepanovich assured) during his lifetime to fulfill such a warning at the appropriate time. This was told around Moscow at that time, and I remember that Yakov Fedorovich Skaryatin spoke about it in the Chernyshevs’ house when S.S. Apraksin was ill, but still alive. I knew about S.S. Apraksin’s expectation of the appearance of that face before his death from my childhood from the Maltsevs’ stories about it. Take it as you wish, but that's how it is. I sometimes visited Princess Elizaveta Rostislavna Vyazemskaya, the mother of my Pavlograd friend. Princess Elizaveta Rostislavna, nee Tatishcheva, the granddaughter of the famous historian of this family, told the following about the death of her grandfather. He lived in his estate near Moscow and, although he was already advanced in years, he enjoyed good health. Getting up one Sunday morning, he went to church and before mass he told the priest that he wanted to immediately confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries, because he had a dream that he was going to die on that very day, although he did not feel sick at all. Having fulfilled this Christian duty, he went home after mass, drank tea as usual, after which he made his final orders, called all his family and servants, said goodbye to them, lay down and sent for the priest to receive unction or read the funeral prayer over him, and soon then gave up the ghost. This was reported to me by the elder Natalya Fedorovna Krylova, who heard this story from Princess Elizabeth Rostislavna herself (“Russian Arch.” 1897, No. 6). d) The story below took place in France, in the city of Marseille, many years ago and is known among the local residents as a true fact. Its consequence was the fact that all the clocks in the city were moved forward an hour. In the vicinity of Marseille there lived a wealthy man named Valet. He came from an old family and married the daughter of the mayor of Marseilles, who was famous for her beauty and was nicknamed the “Rose of Marseilles.” From this marriage two daughters and two sons were born, and when the children began to grow up, the family moved to Paris to raise them. There they formed a large circle of acquaintances, and a cheerful social life required large expenses. After the owner’s departure, the Marseille estate of Valeta began to be managed by a certain Lebrun and, due to frequent demands for sending money, he oppressed his subordinates, which aroused hatred in them. If Jack knew at what high price his cheerful life was paid, he would probably change his lifestyle, but, suspecting nothing, he did not even think of changing it. One night, Knave has a dream of this kind; his steward, covered in blood, appears to him and says that he was killed by indignant peasants and that his corpse is buried under a tree, which he immediately describes in great detail. Le Brun asks Mr. Valet to immediately come to Marseille and bury his body according to Christian custom, since otherwise his soul will not have peace. At first this dream frightened the Knave and surprised him with its precise instructions, but then he convinced himself that all this was nothing and was not worth paying attention to. A week later, he sees the same thing: an angry Lebrun appears in front of him and reproaches him for not fulfilling his requests. Jack promises to do everything immediately, but when morning comes, it seems absurd to him to attach importance to a dream, and again limits himself to writing to his manager. Meanwhile, this vision is repeated again, and again Lebrun repeats his prayer for the reassurance of his soul. In conclusion, he makes a promise to the Knave, if he grants his wish, to warn him. Valeta, twenty-four hours in advance about his impending death, so that he does not die unprepared. Jack promised to fulfill everything and the next day he went to Marseilles, where he had not been for ten years. He told his family that he was going there on important, urgent business. It turned out that Lebrun was really killed, and his corpse was buried under a tree at the edge of the forest, as indicated in the vision. All his efforts to find the killers were in vain, but he became convinced of the plight of his subordinates and did not remain indifferent to their needs. The move of the entire family from Paris to Marseille followed his return home, and Valet again began to live on his estate and conduct business himself. Eight years passed, and when the estate needed restructuring, the whole family moved to the city to live with Mrs. Valet’s father. Knave himself has long stopped thinking about the circumstances that caused his move, and about the vision he once had. One evening, when the whole family was sitting at dinner and talking cheerfully, there was a loud knock on the front door. The footman serving at the table went to look, but found no one. The knock was repeated with greater force, and the eldest son of Valet himself went to open the door. But, like the footman before, he saw no one. When the knock was heard for the third time and even stronger than before. Jack remembered the vision he had and stood up with the words: “I will go myself; I think I know who’s knocking.” When he opened the door, he saw the ghost of his former manager, who whispered to him that the next night, at the same hour, that is, at midnight, he would have to leave the world. The jack returned pale and upset and, yielding to the general request, told about what happened to him eight years ago and what happened now. The family was terribly confused; his wife and children vied with each other to hug him and tried to calm him down in tears. Valet's father-in-law, a skeptic, wanted to turn everything into a joke and at the same time tried to come up with a remedy that could dispel the harmful effects of the fear of death and finally gave the order to move all the clocks in the city forward an hour. Thus, he thought, when the appointed hour strikes and the Jack sees that the fatal hour has passed and that he is not in any danger, he will calm down and everything will be in order. The next day, Knave set about putting all his affairs in order, took communion and was completely prepared for death. In the evening he was sitting with his family and saying goodbye to them when suddenly 11 o’clock struck. Everyone was silent. When an hour later it began to strike twelve, Jack stood up and said: “May the Lord have mercy on my soul, my hour has come!” He clearly heard the chime of all the city clocks. “Was it really a hoax?” - he said, finally, seeing that there was no death. “The spirit deceived you,” his mother-in-law said with mockery, “don’t think about this stupid story anymore.” “God's will be done! - answered Valet, “I will go to my room and thank God for my salvation.” Danville, his father-in-law, was glad that his trick had succeeded so well, and said goodbye to his son-in-law, not suspecting that he was saying goodbye to him forever. Jack had been in his room for about an hour when he suddenly remembered that in one of the cabinets an important document remained unsigned. On his way to the closet, he had to pass the stairs leading to the basement. Hearing some strange noise below, he headed down the stairs to the basement. As soon as he entered there, someone's hand plunged a dagger into his heart, and at that very moment the city clock rang out, striking one hour instead of twelve, predicted by the ghost. Thieves crept into the basement of Danville's house and when they saw that they could be discovered, they hastened to put an end to the unfortunate Knave. Thus, they turned out to be an instrument of fate (see "Rebus" 1899 No. 26). a) “A broken bell makes unpleasant sounds; it is necessary to pour it so that it sounds pleasant: so through sins a person came into discord not only with others, but also with himself; and now, through death, he is transformed into a better being, capable of a harmonious, pleasant life, which will come after the general resurrection of the dead.” (Kirill, Bishop of Melitopol). b) “What is the most terrible thing for a person? Death. Yes, death. Each of us cannot imagine without horror how he will have to die and take his last breath. And how parents are tormented when their dear children die, when they lie lifeless before their eyes! But do not be afraid and do not grieve, brothers, beyond measure! Jesus Christ, our Savior, by his death conquered our death and by his resurrection laid the foundation for our resurrection, and every week, every Sunday day, we triumph in the risen Christ, our common future resurrection, and we begin eternal life, to which the present temporary life is a short, albeit dark and regrettable path; the death of a true Christian is nothing more than a dream until the day of resurrection, or like birth into a new life. So, celebrating every week the resurrection of Christ and your resurrection from the dead, learn to continually die to sin and rise in souls from dead deeds, enrich yourself with virtue and do not grieve inconsolably for the dead; learn to face death without horror, as the definition of the Heavenly Father, which, with the resurrection of Christ from the dead, lost its formidability” (from the book: “My Life in Christ” by Archpriest John Sergiev of Kronstadt, vol. II, ed. 1. 1892, p. 178). c) Live in such a way that you are always prepared for death. “You see,” says Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, that the clock, wound up, moves incessantly and, although we sleep or are awake, do or don’t do, they have an incessant movement and are approaching their limit. Such is our life - from birth to death it constantly flows and decreases; whether we calm down or work, whether we are awake or asleep, whether we are talking with someone or whether we are silent, it constantly flows through its course and is approaching its end, and has already become closer to the end now than yesterday and the third day - this hour than the past. Our life is so insensitively shortened! Hours and minutes pass like this! And we don’t know when the chain ends and the pendulum stops striking. The providence of God hid this from us, so that we will always be ready for the outcome, whenever our Lord God calls us to him. “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, finds watching” (Luke 12:37). Damned is the one whom He finds immersed in a sinful sleep!” This incident and reasoning teach you, Christian: 1) that the time of our life is constantly running out, 2) that it is impossible to return the past time, 3) that the past and the future are not ours, but only the one that we now have, 4) that our death is unknown to us, 5) therefore, we must always be ready for the end at every hour, at every minute, if you want to die blissfully, 6) from here it follows that a Christian is in constant one must be in repentance, the struggle of faith and piety, 7) what one wants to be at the end, one must try to be like that at all times of one’s life, because no one knows whether the morning will wait for the evening and whether the evening will wait for the morning. We see that those who walked healthy in the morning lie on their deathbeds in the evening, lifeless; and those who fall asleep in the evening do not get up in the morning and will sleep until the trumpet of the Archangel. And what happens to others, the same thing can happen to you and me, for everyone is subject to all sorts of events” (from “The Works of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk”, ed. 2, vol. 2, p. 48). d) Why is the time of our death hidden from us? St. John Chrysostom, interpreting the words of the Apostle: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2), says: “If we want to know why this day is hidden, and why, “it will come like a thief in the night,” then I, it seems to me, will fairly tell you: no one would ever take care of virtue throughout his entire life if this day were known and was not hidden, but everyone, knowing his last day, would have committed countless crimes, and already on that day would have approached the font when he began to depart from this world.” And, indeed: if we, not knowing either the day or the hour of our end, despite the fear of waiting for it, decide on countless and serious sinful acts; What would we not dare to do if we knew that we would still live many years on earth and would not die soon? And since we do not know when, on what day and hour we will die, we must spend every day as if we were expecting death every day, and when the day comes, think: “Will this day be the last day of my life?” And when night falls, say to yourself: “Will this night be the last night of my stay among the living?” As you go to sleep at night, say to yourself mentally: “Will I get up from my bed alive? Will I ever see the light of day again? Or will this bed already be my coffin?” Likewise, when you wake up from sleep and see the first rays of daylight, think: “Will I live until evening, before night falls, or will the hour of death come for me during this day?” Thinking like this, spend the whole day as if you were already preparing to die, and in the evening, going to bed, correct your conscience as if you were to surrender your spirit to God that night. The dream of the one who has fallen asleep in mortal sin is ruined; the sleep of the one whose bed is surrounded by demons is also unsafe, waiting for an opportunity to drag the sinner’s soul into the fiery wilds; it is bad for the one who went to sleep without being reconciled with God, for if in the case when we have offended our neighbor in some way, the apostle says: “Let not the sun go down on your anger” (Eph. 4:26), then all the more should he who has angered God take care that the sun does not go down in the wrath of God, lest he fall asleep without being reconciled with God, for the hour of our death unknown: lest sudden death snatch us away unprepared? Don’t say, man: tomorrow I will be reconciled with God, tomorrow I will repent, tomorrow I will correct myself; do not put off your conversion to God and repentance from day to day, for no one told you whether you will live until the evening.” e) Death as a punishment for the first parents for committing sin in paradise was allowed by God not for punishment alone, but also for the benefit or benefit of fallen man. This idea is developed, by the way, by St. Theophilus of Antioch and St. Cyril of Alexandria. The first says: “God showed a great benefit to man by not leaving him eternally bound by sin, but, as if condemning him into exile, expelled him from paradise, so that with this punishment he would cleanse sin over a certain period of time and, having corrected himself later... could be returned... which will happen after the resurrection and judgment. For just as a vessel, when after its construction there is some defect in it, it is refilled or remade so that it becomes new and undamaged: so it happens with a person through death, because he is in some way destroyed in order to appear healthy at the resurrection, that is, pure, righteous and immortal” (“Exposit. in Psalm.” 6. p. 1). The Second Father of the Church says the following about this: “By death the Lawgiver stops the spread of sin and in the punishment itself shows love for mankind. Since He, giving the commandment, connected death with its crime, and since the criminal fell under this punishment, He arranges it so that the punishment itself serves for salvation. For death destroys this animal nature of ours and, thus, on the one hand, stops the action of evil, and on the other, it saves a person from illness, frees him from work, stops his sorrows and worries and ends his suffering. With such love for mankind the judge dissolved the very punishment” (On the Lord’s vision in the “Christian Reading.” 1847, part 3, pp. 171 and 172. Compare Grigor. called Orat., 38 p. 12, see “Experience of legal dogmas, theology.” Bishop Sylvester. Kyiv. 1884, vol. III, pp. 494–495). 5. Beyond earthly life 8 (Story). I had hope for recovery, although I had been ill for several years already, suffering from a painful chronic illness that could only be cured by time, a good climate and constant care. And now the doctors have told me that surgery is necessary to speed up my recovery. Although my parents were still alive, I was alone abroad. I lived in Switzerland for the mountain air and special treatment in a private sanatorium. The names of the canton and the town are indifferent to the reader, and they are not the point. It is easy to imagine that the message about the need for surgery was not particularly pleasant, but it was useless to fight the inevitable. The operation was serious. My prospects for recovery are not particularly bright with or without her. Therefore, I decided to neglect the risk of an unsuccessful or even fatal outcome, since the monotonous existence of a patient was becoming unbearable. The day appointed for the operation approached unusually quickly. I put all my affairs in order in advance, in case of a bad outcome. The operation was to be performed by a famous surgeon, a university professor. All my preparations were completed the day before. Having had a light dinner early in the evening, I began a long fast before the operation, which, of course, had to be performed under anesthesia. Before her, I no longer had to drink or eat. Although I was weakened by illness, I rarely had to stay in bed. Therefore, we managed to spend the evening quite pleasantly, in the living room, talking with friends - fellow sufferers. But while talking, I refrained from any hint about what lay ahead tomorrow. At ten o'clock I took a bath and then went to bed a little earlier than usual. Strangely, I felt neither anxiety nor apprehension. In the past I had to undergo a trivial operation under chloroform, and the memory of this experience rather served to calm me down. My sleep was undisturbed, and I woke up the next day at eight o'clock in the morning. It was winter; the day was dull and dark: the leaden sky hung heavily over the valley, the surrounding mountains were obscured by clouds that promised snow. When I opened the window, several snowflakes entered my room. The day was not conducive to cheerful thoughts, and now, for the first time, I felt that my good spirits were leaving me and something similar to anxiety was creeping into my soul. However, there was no time to lose. Putting on a robe, I began to wash myself and then returned to bed to wait for the arrival of the professor, whom I had not yet seen. At exactly nine o'clock I heard discreet talking in the corridor and the footsteps of several people approaching my room. The steps of two of them were familiar to my ear. I distinguished the limping step of the head doctor of the institution and the light steps of his young assistant. The other steps, hard and heavy, were unfamiliar to me. “So, this must be the professor who is to operate on me soon!” - flashed through my head. In the short period of time that separated the moment the doctors arrived from the first noise of their approach, I tried to imagine what the professor would be like, his appearance, his manners. But all thoughts were interrupted by a sharp knock on the door. “Come in,” I said and then looked at the celebrity with an attentive, long look. “Mr. V., Professor Reinheim,” said my doctor, introducing us to each other. The professor was a tall, athletic man, about fifty years old. His rather long hair was combed behind his ears. Under a massive forehead with deep furrows, behind shaggy eyebrows, gray, calm, intelligent and not devoid of kindness eyes looked. His jaw was quite well developed, but his mouth and chin were hidden by a thick mustache and beard. I shook everyone's hands. Then the professor began to examine me, listening to my heart with special attention, since the success of the operation largely depended on the latter. The results of the examination must have been satisfactory, and after a few questions and two or three encouraging words, the famous surgeon went down with the others to complete his final preparations. I was supposed to be called in half an hour. Nervous anxiety took over me. The possibility of death under anesthesia - every operation is accompanied by this risk - did not particularly bother me. But I was now in a state of comparative physical comfort. Although I was unwell for more than three years, my illness never caused me any sensitive suffering. My heart sank at the thought that from apparent health, without intermediate preparation, I should be plunged in a few hours into a state of severe physical pain, which could last for several days. These reflections, in connection with the unusual fast, resulted in my present depressed mood. With an effort of will, I tried to regain my composure, mentally discussing the situation and reflecting on my present and possible future. I succeeded so much that now I could wait for the operation with complete external calm. Still, my pulse beat faster than usual. The seconds of that half hour seemed to turn into minutes, minutes into hours. But, finally, the arrival of the sister of mercy, who came to call me into the operating room, ended the agonizing wait. Putting on a robe and shoes, I followed her down... All the residents of the hospital either went for a morning walk or went to the terraces to spend the morning on them, as was customary. Everything was exactly the same as always, and a feeling of loneliness came over me as it became clear to me how little the rest of the world was interested in my upcoming test. Although the latter was quite natural, nevertheless the unconsciously indifferent attitude of these people, relatively strangers to me, was painfully reflected in me. However, I was glad that we did not meet anyone as we walked through the stairs and corridors. One of the assistants just came into my reception room. He felt my pulse: one hundred beats per minute. “Don't worry, we'll give you something to calm your nerves,” he said. As soon as these words were spoken, I was given an injection of morphine in my arm. After a few seconds, an indescribable feeling of some kind of dullness and at the same time calm began to cover me, and the excitement subsided. I became strangely indifferent and began to think about what was to follow with sluggish curiosity: as if I were not about to undergo the most serious and dangerous operation, but to be present at an interesting scientific experiment! Following this, the professor came in to say that it was time. He was dressed from head to toe in white, and his strong, muscular arms, red from repeated washing and carbolic acid, were bare to the elbows. Standing before me in all his brute, manly strength, dressed in a robe and apron, he reminded me of an athletic butcher about to begin the slaughter. This unattractive mental comparison brought to my lips a mocking smile that surprised even myself. Really, morphine worked wonders! I was now in a bright, clean, airy operating room. In the middle of the room stood the fateful table covered with snow-white linen. Glass tables with an impressive array of shiny instruments, dressings, and basins were placed nearby; in the corner above the gas jet, other tools were boiling in a metal box. On a separate table I noticed a mask for chloroforming and a flask-dropper with anesthesia. The room was very warm, and the air was filled with the smell of carbolic acid and other strong drugs. Standing around were two clean Catholic nuns, sisters of mercy, the chief cameraman, and his assistants. I climbed onto the table and lay down. They covered me with a blanket and adjusted the moving parts of the table to make me more comfortable. The next moment, ordering me to breathe deeply and evenly and placing his fingers on my pulse, the assistant began to chloroform. The first drops gave me the effect of a strong blow to the nose and almost deafened me. Then the fog cleared again; I felt weak, I felt incredibly disgusted and sick from the strong, exciting, penetrating vapors of anesthesia. They seemed to creep into the very center of my brain, filling my limbs with an inexpressible feeling of weakness and languor. The drums began to beat rhythmically in my ears. I began to lose my ability to feel, although I could still hear and see. Then consciousness began to leave me. My ability to think seemed to be limited a space the size of a pinhead in the very middle of my brain. Suddenly I felt someone's hand lift my eyelid. For a moment, comparative consciousness returned to me, I made out the operating room; the same faces stood around; The sounds of a strange, continuously chattering voice began to reach my ears. The voice asked if the operation was over, how it went, followed by complete nonsense, a set of words mixed in several languages. At first I couldn’t figure out who was speaking, until suddenly the thought struck me that it was me and that the professor was threateningly ordering me to shut up and sleep. They put on the mask again, the last deafening beat of these terrible drums struck my ears, I felt everything float away, the last remnant of consciousness left me, and everything went dark. How long it took before I returned to consciousness again, I cannot say. But now, I came to my senses again. A strange feeling of lightness filled my being. I could neither see, nor hear, nor feel, I could only think, the latter, with a clarity never experienced before. This new sensation lasted no more than a hundredth of a second, and the next moment I again began to see and hear. Something strange and inexplicable appeared before my eyes. I was in the same operating room, the professor and his assistants were standing right there, but there was another face that I had not noticed before. It lay on the table and seemed painfully pale. I began to peer at him carefully from the elevated position in which I was. The facial features seemed familiar to me. Suddenly a numbing feeling of fear came over me: I myself was this person lying there on the table. I, or rather my body, showed no signs of life. A half-annoyed, half-distressed expression was painted on the professor's energetic face. He stood next to the body and felt the area of ​​the heart with his right hand, while in his left he also held some kind of instrument. The doctor who had previously chloroformed put his mask aside and whispered confusedly with the other doctors. The sisters of mercy stood right there, not fully understanding what had happened; one was holding cotton swabs in her hands, the other was holding a tub. - Heart paralysis! - said the professor. “This is very bad, gentlemen, but sometimes you cannot protect yourself from such an accident, no matter what measures you take!” The body still continued to lie motionless. A deep cut gaped in the right side of his chest. The tweezers that had pinched the cut arteries, which had not yet been tied, were in place. Several pieces of the removed bone lay on the side table. The sheets were slightly spattered with blood. For some time I could not figure out what exactly had happened, then the terrible truth became clear to me: death occurred under chloroform! What lay before me was my corpse. What I mentally called myself was my inner self-knowledge, in a word, what in the community is usually called the soul. During my life I was definitely a materialist. The unexpected discovery that consciousness exists after death stunned me, I was so unprepared for it, it was so contrary to all my preconceived views! But soon the full horror of what had happened became too overwhelming, and I felt that I was unable to look any longer at the painful sight. I wanted to hide from myself the picture of this cut-up body lying among people strangers to me, and a sad but irresistible desire to look at the faces dear to me took possession of my soul. Unconsciously, I wished to be transported to my distant homeland, to the United States, to the home of my parents. To my utter surprise, the real picture melted and disappeared, and our living room was revealed to my spiritual gaze. My mother was sitting in her favorite chair and doing embroidery, my father was reading a newspaper by the lamp, although the previous picture was illuminated by daylight, here it was evening. For a few minutes this was incomprehensible to me, but then I remembered that this was how it should be due to the huge difference in longitude. Looking at this peaceful and familiar scene, I forgot for a while about the change that had happened to me. I spoke to my mother, but my voice was silent and did not make any impression on her. The awareness of the inexorability of present reality returned to me with redoubled force, and I realized how useless my efforts were. But I did not want to give up without a fight and concentrated all my will in one desire to inform her of my invisible presence. A restless, worried expression crossed her face, and, turning towards my father, my mother noticed that she was worried about how I would get through the operation and whether a telegram would soon arrive informing me of its outcome. The father looked at his watch and said that he should expect a dispatch in three or four hours, but that he personally had no doubts about a successful outcome. But my mother was no longer at ease, and, saying that she was too nervous to continue her needlework, she took up the book, but could not concentrate on it. It was inexpressibly difficult for me to think that my parents would soon be struck by the news of my death and bring grief into their quiet life. The restless feeling increased in me, and I wanted to see my brother. He was a lieutenant in the fleet and at that moment was with our flying squadron somewhere in the Caribbean Sea, several thousand miles away. But I had already become somewhat accustomed to my position, and the distance was no longer an obstacle. The origin of a thought was followed by its execution with the speed of light. Again the scenery changed, as before, smoothly, without stopping or any push. This time I found myself on the captain's bridge of one of our large ocean cruisers. It was a moonless but quiet starry night. All around, behind the stern and bow of the huge ship, lay a boundless expanse of deep, blue waters, turning into black, where the horizon merged with the sky. The dark expanse was illuminated only by our distinctive lights, and sparkled with that phosphorous glow that is inherent in tropical seas. The ship, moving majestically forward, left behind a long path of sparkling, silvery whirlpools and foam, where the propellers churned the water. Walking economically, we cut through the water almost silently; no shaking reached our tower. From time to time the sounds of the deep, rhythmic pulsation of machines reached our direction. Black smoke curled slowly and lazily from the tall chimneys and stretched in a dark line for miles behind us in the still air. There was no wave, only the mighty, never-ending swell of the ocean imparted a uniform rolling motion to the huge cruiser. The tall masts, with their fighting tops, seemed like the pendulums of a huge clock. My brother stood in his raincoat near the wheelhouse and looked ahead. Only one watch was visible; the rest of the crew was below. I stood opposite my brother and again focused my thoughts on him. Suddenly he stepped back from the bulwark and passed his hand in front of his face, as if something was blocking his vision. I noticed how he turned pale in the light of the compass lamps. “It can’t be,” he muttered, “I must have imagined it!” And, after standing thoughtfully for a minute, he raised his night binoculars and again began to peer into the distance. The approach of dawn made itself felt by the sharp freshness in the air, as the brother, wrapping himself tightly in his cloak, began to walk along the bridge in silent thought... I continued to look at him for a long time... Four bells struck. A minute later the watch was changed, and my brother disappeared downstairs to take a well-deserved rest. I began to lose all interest in the things of this world, of which I was no longer a member. Then the sympathy and love for those closest to me began to evaporate, and I became more and more indifferent every minute. I was inexpressibly lonely and longed for some company. I would have been incredibly happy to meet a fellow spirit, but I was alone. My alienation from everything and everyone was complete and final, and the consciousness of it became more and more frightening. I was completely abandoned in the endless spaces of the universe, completely alone! The thought of existing in such an environment for years, centuries, eternity began to terrify me. This word “eternity” now had a terrible meaning that was previously inaccessible to me. I began to understand to some extent its significance. Peace was out of reach for me. How I longed for that oblivion that I had previously imagined beyond the grave and which I was so afraid of!... There is no way out! There is no salvation from yourself!... A wild thought of suicide flashed through, but immediately I realized its complete meaninglessness and absurdity. I no longer had a body from which I could take life! After all, I just left him! Turn to the Divine? In my despair, I tried to pray, but my thoughts refused to form any order, any consistency. I experienced mental torment that I would have previously considered impossible. What if I was completely mistaken in my previous concepts?! What if, in fact, I was wrong all along in my materialism?! What if everything that religion taught me as a child was true, if my later doubts were the result of some mental disorder?! What if my vaunted logic, of which I was so proud, was only the fruit of a diseased brain?!... Then a terrible thought appeared that my present condition, with an even more terrible prospect in the future, was a punishment sent down to me by the offended Deity, a punishment chosen specifically for me - an unbeliever! How it suited my case! In my boundless horror, I again tried to pray. My suffering was no longer describable. Everything was spinning in a dizzying whirlpool... - Give him another infusion! Where's the syringe? – I heard a distant voice. Then someone opened my left eye, and through the cloud I distinguished the professor and my doctor and realized that I was in bed... I couldn't figure out what happened. My head was spinning... - Yeah, the pupil contracts, he comes to his senses! – continued the same cheerful, strong voice. - Well, how do you feel? Pretty bad, huh? So, it was just a dream! I could not immediately comprehend the truth. I had already become so accustomed to the idea of ​​leaving the world forever that this unexpected return to life stunned me. - What's happened? – I asked. Then I remembered everything. – How did the operation go? Was she successful? Professor? – was my next question. “You can calm down,” came the answer, “you survived it well and will be on your feet in a few weeks.” I again fell into silence... Then, as consciousness returned more and more, I began to feel a dull, overwhelming, ever-increasing pain in my side, which became stronger and stronger with each passing moment. But the moral relief I experienced was immeasurably deep, and I felt that I could endure acute physical pain with complete calm, almost with pleasure. My recovery proceeded quickly and was eventually complete. But the vivid memory of my terrible vision—is it a vision? - remained imprinted in my memory for a long time, and until the hour of my death I will not forget those terrible minutes that I had to endure (“Rebus”, 1899, No. 1–2). 6. Life after cutting off the head. It has been said more than once that a person, when his head is cut off, does not immediately stop living, but that his brain continues to work and his muscles move until, finally, the blood circulation stops completely and he dies completely. "Mutter Erde" cites several cases of such deaths from the Middle Ages. King Ludwig of Bavaria in 1336 sentenced Dietz von Schaunburg to death along with four of his Landsknechts because they rebelled against him and thereby disturbed the peace of the country. When those sentenced to death were brought to the place of execution, Dietz von Schaunburg asked the king to put them all in a row, at a distance of 8 steps from each other, then start with him and cut off his head, after which he would get up and run: by whom he managed to run, let them be pardoned. The king, laughing, promised to fulfill everything exactly, taking this trick as a joke and in full confidence that a man without a head cannot run. Dietz von Schaunburg placed his Landsknechts in order one after another, the most beloved ones closer to himself, while he himself stood behind everyone and knelt down, awaiting the fatal blow. When his head was cut off, he quickly jumped to his feet and, running past all his landsknechts, fell dead to the ground. The Landsknechts were, of course, pardoned. A similar incident occurred with one medieval commander who saved 8 comrades by running past them with a severed head. One German newspaper of the 17th century reports an amazing incident that occurred in 1528 in the city. Rodstadt. One preacher monk was sentenced to first have his head cut off and then burn his body at the stake. He promised after his death to give some proof of his innocence. And indeed, after the monk’s head was cut off, he fell flat to the ground and lay there for three minutes without moving; then he slowly turned over with his chest up, put his right leg on his left, crossed his arms over his chest and did not move anymore. They were already afraid to burn his body (“Russian leaflet,” 1900, No. 34). 7. Psychology of the feeling of approaching death. It seems to me that as my active power decreases, I become more spiritual. Everything becomes transparent to me, I see the types, the basis of creatures, the meaning of things. All personal events appear to me only as private experiences, only pretexts for reflection, facts for generalizing them into laws, realities for transforming them into thoughts; life seems to me only as a document that needs to be interpreted, matter that needs to be spiritualized. Such is the life of a thinker; he becomes more and more impersonal every day. If he agrees to experience and act, it is only in order to understand better. If he wants something, it is only in order to know the will. Although it is pleasant for him to be loved, and he does not know anything so joyful, it still seems to him that he is only a reason for the phenomenon, but not its goal. He contemplates the spectacle of love and love remains a spectacle for him. He does not consider his body to be his own; he feels a whirlwind of life passing through him, which was given to him for a while only so that he could cognize the vibrations of the world. He is only a thinking subject and holds only the form of things, he does not ascribe to himself any material property, he demands only wisdom from life for himself. This mood makes it incomprehensible to everything that enjoys, dominates, and captures. He is airy, like a ghost that can be seen but cannot be grasped. I'm not dead yet, but I'm already a ghost. People seem like dreams to me, and I seem like a dream to them. The category of time no longer exists for my consciousness, and as a result, all the partitions that make a palace of a thousand rooms out of life fall for me, and I do not leave the primitive, single-celled state. I know myself only in the state of the monad, and I feel that my faculties are returning again to the substance which they individualized. All the benefits of animality are thus discarded, and everything that study and culture has given is also destroyed. The bird returned to the egg, the organism to the embryo. This psychological phenomenon is a prelude to death; it depicts the afterlife, a return to what I came from, or rather the taming of the personality, which, having cast aside all accidents, exists only in a state of inseparability, in a state of a point, in a state of potency, in a state of zero, but a fruitful zero. This nothing is everything... What is an acorn if not an oak tree, deprived of its branches, leaves, trunk, roots, that is, all its devices, all forms, all features, but which is concentrated in its essence, in its productive power, which can again conquer everything that it has discarded. This impoverishment, therefore, is only an external reduction. To return to one’s eternity means to die, but not to be destroyed, it means to return to one’s potentiality” (see the book “From Amiel’s Diary”, translated from French, edited by Count L. Tolstoy). a) What does bodily death consist of, does it constitute a necessary law for a person, where and how did it come about, and what significance does it have for humanity? Physical death is the disintegration of the union between spirit and body, or the separation of the soul from the body, the return of the latter to the ground from which it was taken (Gen. 3:19). When creating man, God takes the dust of the earth, a dead substance, subject to the law of destruction and change, like everything material, to form his body; but this dead substance is spiritualized by the vital principle - the soul, which God created spiritual and living, rational and free, which together with the body constituted one living organism of man. Now, if the soul, the vital principle in the human body, leaves it, then the person dies: a body without a soul is dead. In Holy Scripture, death is presented under different images, which are in relation to the moral state of the dying person. While for the unrepentant wicked, death seems to be a kingdom of horror, a mysterious and gloomy gate that leads him to the righteous Judge to hear the verdict of his fate, for a righteous person who died with repentance and hope for the mercy of God, death appears as a transition from a destroyed hut “to a house not made with hands, eternal,” which is in heaven (2 Cor. 5:1), as the abandonment of a destroyed bodily church, departure from this life and joyful transition to the future life (2 Tim. 4:6–8); as the transformation of this earthy and mortal body into a heavenly, incorruptible and immortal body (1 Cor. 15:40–54), as an enemy of Christ who will be destroyed by Christ (1 Cor. 15:26). From these places it is clear that bodily death is: a) a terrible cessation of earthly life for sinners and joyful for the righteous; b) after this life for the soul there follows another higher, eternal one, which will be bliss for some and torment for others; c) that death will one day be destroyed. Thus, death appears to be a temporary and abnormal phenomenon. b) Here another question arises: where does death come from, if it is a temporary and abnormal phenomenon that should disappear over time? Death is not a law established by God for man; death, no matter how we view it, is evil, and God did not create evil. On the contrary, he found everything that God had created beautiful: and “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). The very method of creating man, whose nature, spiritual and physical, forms one being - human, shows that death, as the dissolution of his two natures, was not originally part of God’s plans. According to God’s creative plan, the essence of a human being should consist not of one spirit and not of one body, but of both together, in indissoluble union and harmony: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). And Holy Scripture clearly shows that man, further and further in body, was created for immortal life, when he speaks of the tree of life in the middle of paradise, by eating from the fruits of which man would be painless and immortal in body and forever (Gen. 3, 19, 22). There is no doubt that the fruits of the tree of life mysteriously produced the most beneficial effect on the physical nature of man, protecting it from disease and the process of decomposition, or death. Further, the physical death of a person does not agree with the frank idea of ​​God as the source of life and light. “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:38). Then, from the first commandment given to our first parents in paradise, it is clear that death is not an inevitable law for man: if it were a law, then it could not be avoided. Meanwhile, God himself, giving the commandment to our first parents (Gen. 2:17) about not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil under the threat of death, thereby shows that people can avoid death if they fulfill the commandment given to them. This is how the Orthodox Church has always understood this commandment. So, for example, in the 123rd rule of the Council of Carthage 9 (418), whose decrees are valid along with the decrees of ecumenical councils, it is said: “It is recognized by all the bishops of the Carthage Church who presented at the holy Council, whose names and signatures are included in the Acts, that Adam was not created mortal by God. If anyone says that Adam, the first-created man, was created mortal, so that, even if he sinned, even if he did not sin, he would die in the body, that is, would leave the body - not as a punishment for sin, but according to the necessity of nature, let him be anathema." A similar thought is expressed by Blessed Augustine when he says: “among Christians who hold the true Catholic faith, it is recognized beyond doubt that even bodily death itself befell us not according to the law of nature, because God did not create death for man, but as a result of sin.” Finally, the truth that death is not a natural phenomenon is also confirmed by facts from the history of human life. It shows that death for all people, with the exception of a few New Testament righteous people, seems to be something terrible, something that contradicts our entire spiritual and physical organization. Throughout all centuries, complaints have been heard from the lips of people that there is no one on earth more unhappy than man, who, despite his strong thirst for life, must, however, die. 10 The greatest Old Testament righteous people fear the mere idea of ​​death (Ps. 88). Further, death is disgusting to conscience, because conscience requires limitless perfection, unattainable in this world: the will, which wants life and activity of the body and spirit: the heart, which is capable of eternal attachment to objects of love, separation from which inexpressibly torments it; to a mind for which death seems to be the greatest mystery, making it impossible to understand and recognize the relationship between our nature and its purpose. Thus, we repeat once again that death could not be part of God’s creative plans when creating man. By the will of the almighty and all-wise God, the entire bodily organization of man, if he had remained holy, could have become more and more refined, enlightened and improved, and finally reached such a spiritual body as appeared to Jesus Christ after his resurrection, the body of which did not need either food or drink, and was not closely dependent on space and time. Similar examples can be found in the ascensions of Enoch and Elijah. Finally, the New Testament teaching about the resurrection of the dead and the transformation of the living before the Last Judgment obviously leads to the truth that death is not necessary. Therefore, the opinion of those 11 who claim that death is an action of the life process, an inevitable law of human nature, in view of what has been said does not stand up to any criticism. So, for example, rationalists, relying on studies of the structure of the earth by geologists who, in various strata of formations that preceded man, find countless remains of living creatures buried in them, argue that death existed in the world even before the Fall of people, that geological research has destroyed the concept of death as a punishment for sin 12. What can be said against this? First of all, the fact that all the conclusions of geologists about the structure of the earth, about the duration and sequence of periods in its formation should be accepted not as an absolute truth, but as a hypothesis, more or less probable. The history of all sciences, except mathematics, shows that what at one time was considered to be immutably true, at another time, by other scientists, with new, more accurate and true research, was rejected as false. But then, against the indicated conclusion that rationalists draw from the research of geologists regarding death as a law of nature, and not as a punishment for sins, it must be said that all such discoveries of geology in no way undermine the biblical truth that death is a punishment for sins. This is because death is the punishment for the sin of man only, and not of all living beings who inhabited and inhabit the earth. Only man is a rational and moral being and for his crime could be punished in one way or another, for example, by death; further, only one person was offered a commandment with the threat of death for violating it; only the human body was accepted into the closest union with the human spirit, created in the image of God, which protected the body itself from corruption; finally, only one person received in the fruits of the tree of life a remedy against illness and death of the body. Regarding the animal kingdom, nothing like this takes place, and nowhere in the revealed teaching is it said that animals are destined for endless life in the body. Subject to the law of modification through decomposition or destruction of constituent parts and combination into new compounds, animals had to die or be subject to the universal law of the material world. True, this death of animals, before the fall of Adam and Eve and the curse of the earth, could not represent anything terrible. “On an earth not affected by a curse, creatures, losing their separate existence, would return to the general life of nature, or from one form of existence would pass into another, in a completely painless way, not like the real, terrible and fetid path of decay and decomposition of bodies, but in a way consistent with the primeval beauty and harmony of nature, just as, for example, today an earthworm is transformed into a winged a butterfly, or incense thrown on the fire, returns to the general life of nature in fragrances” 13. If, therefore, death is not the inevitable law of people, then the question is: where and how did it come about? The Word of God, to which we must now, as always, first of all turn, shows us that death is the natural punishment for the sin of our first parents, a punishment that first befell them themselves, and then all humanity descended from them. We said that death is a punishment and, moreover, a natural one, that is, one that naturally flowed from the sin committed by the first people, as its direct consequence, and was accompanied by the constant deprivation of their means for immortality in the body (i.e., the opportunity to eat from the fruits of the tree of life). That it is a punishment for sin for a person is clearly evident from the threat for violating the commandment: “in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17). This also includes God’s order to expel Adam from paradise and remove him from the tree of life, the fruits of which gave him immortality in the body (Gen. 3:22–23). And ap. Paul teaches: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). But death, as we said, is a natural punishment, which naturally flowed from the nature of the sin of fallen man, and was not artificially established by God. If a teacher gives instructions to his pupil not to eat unripe fruits, for fear of illness, then it is obvious that it is not he who establishes the disease as a punishment for disobedience on the part of the pupil, but this illness is a natural consequence arising from the structure of his body and only foreseen and prevented by an experienced mentor. This is the nature of natural punishment. From what has been said, it is clear that it was not God who caused death, but the sin of man that caused death, or death occurred as a result of the abuse of human freedom, which the unchangeable God could not take away once he had given it to man. God only established a strict correspondence between sin and death, which was only to be revealed when the sin was committed. Otherwise, this connection of sin with death for people, if they still remained saints, would, in all likelihood, not be known, like many other things that are in the plans of God: but, peering into this correspondence of sin and death, we cannot help but be amazed at the depth of the wisdom and goodness of God, who established in death as a natural punishment for sins a powerful means by which humanity was made capable of accepting salvation and could be reborn again to life. Death is a matter of the greatest wisdom of God, for what else but death can destroy the sinful activity of man, consisting of soul and body? Only the separation of the body from the soul, i.e. death can deprive a person of that organ with the help of which a person mainly sinned, that bodily composition which itself, permeated with sin in all parts - in flesh and blood, predisposed a person to sin. The very emergence of sinful desire in the souls of the first people did not occur without the mediation of those organs of the body with the help of which a person entered into a direct relationship with the world: sight (lust of the eyes) and the flesh in general (lust of the flesh). The deprivation of bodily composition, which occurs in death and through death, frees a person from many sinful movements, vices and passions. The human spirit, having been torn away from the bodily shell, is deprived of its most important sinful weapon. In the bodily death of man, the complete being, whose life and activity consists of soul and body, is contained in the wisdom of God and the great advantage of man over disembodied spirits - in the event of his fall. The first sins on earth primarily with the body, at least, and for man’s spiritual passions the materials are supplied from the world and the flesh; with the cessation of life in the body, sinful aspirations and the emergence of new sins cease; the second, disembodied spirits, some of whom, through their fall into sin, became evil spirits, being in their essence of one spiritual nature, which cannot die, sin spiritual sins that continue forever and are capable of endless development. That is why the sin of the devil, having arisen once and not being suppressed by him, developed gradually and reached such a terrible degree of evil that it became impossible to turn to God. In addition, a person’s sin, be it further of a purely spiritual origin (for example, envy, pride, etc.), is weakened by painful changes in the body that are a consequence of it, and finally, by death and does not reach the satanic degree of evil; the sin of the devil, not meeting barriers either in illness or death, develops ad infinitum; For the first, salvation is possible, for the second - not. c) Death is the greatest act of mercy and love of God for the human race. In fact, what would happen to a person if he, without receiving the punishment he deserved after breaking God’s commandment, remained to live forever? Wouldn't the hope of impunity have had the most disastrous effect on him? There is no doubt that he would have become bolder and bolder in committing sins and, finally, would have reached such moral corruption, such rebellion and bitterness against God, to which the once bright, high, disembodied spirit fell, and then became Satan. But, having received illness and death as his lot as punishment for sin, man humbled himself before God and called upon himself the punishing right hand of the almighty Creator. At the same time, with a short, albeit sinful life, he could not reach such a moral decline that would make it impossible for him to accept and assimilate the saving help that would one day be given to him by the all-wise and all-good God. Thus, death, as a natural punishment for sins, is closely related to God’s plans for the salvation of people. Its entry into the historical life of the human race, which did not occur according to the will of the all-good God and did not constitute a natural law for people, became in the hands of a wise providence, after the Fall of man, the most powerful means both to reduce the number of sins and the most powerful obstacle to their endless development" 14 9. Death is only a metamorphosis 15. We all treat death with fear, which is proven by the usual exclamation that involuntarily breaks out from us at the news of someone’s death: “Oh, poor thing, he died!” - we say, internally rejoicing from the knowledge that we are still alive, and that unfortunate man has stopped living. They hide from the dying person that his time has come: his loved ones carefully protect his peace, afraid to hint with a careless word at his impending transition there. The highest punishment imposed on a criminal is taking his life. Let's see how correctly we treat the fact that it is not in our power to bypass. Let’s see if we ourselves, some of us pondering this “terrible question” out of fear, others out of frivolity, voluntarily turn away from the “clearances” that from time to time let rays, albeit weak, but still pass through the thick “veil” that separates from our eyes the next stage of our existence, that is, from the “better world”, about the proximity of which most of us do not want to know anything. Indeed, one cannot help but be surprised at the carelessness with which almost all of us treat the most important question: to live or not to live after death? Only when the blow of fate takes away from us a creature dear to us, in our longing for him we first begin to ask ourselves questions: “Where is he or she now?... And in fact, does something exist outside the coffin?... Perhaps it’s all over?... And, in all likelihood, we will never see each other?! But, who knows, maybe not everything ends with death?... And if not everything ends here on earth, if the soul outlives its body, then how can one be convinced of immortality, and most importantly, that a dear being, continuing to live, remembers us there too?...” And so, the search begins. And the truth is revealed to those who themselves go towards it, vigilantly peering into the rays of light, which are not at all as few and rare as we believe. Let sincere seekers just try to listen and look closely at the hints that serve as proof of the close connection of that world with ours. The more closely we look, the more closely we listen to these hints, the sooner we will be able to become convinced of the great truth that the earth serves only as the first step towards the individualization of our eternal self. In the search for truth, first of all, we should understand that we are in vain accustomed to treat too metaphysically the “essence” that animates our mortal organism. This “essence” is a very real being, gifted with form and will; but, due to its extremely ethereal substance 16 belonging to objects so subtle that they cannot be perceived by our five earthly limited senses, it eludes our sight, like many other things that we do not see or hear, and which, nevertheless, exist in the economy of nature. This “essence” lives independently and with a more complete life after the roughly material body, which constrained its will and its movements, has fallen away from it. Having emerged from the mortal shell, adapted only to drag out its life, crawling on the earth, the “essence” turns out to be living in a different degree of being, in all respects more fully, more intensely than its earthly existence. Imbued with the fact that the “essence” is a real being, having an image and endowed with will, we will not smile so skeptically if we manage to see its manifestations in those cases when it finds it necessary and possible to somehow prove to us its closeness and thereby give full confidence in its afterlife existence, which is mainly the goal of ex-humans (i.e., deceased people), when they visibly or tangibly manifest themselves to us. At all times, ex-humans have appeared in human form. According to them, they can sometimes become visible to us, using the rules of their laws, unknown to us, earthly ones. Although ex-humans are in constant communication with us, 17 we, however, do not suspect anything about their proximity until the hour of visible proof of their close connection with the earth, which for various reasons continues to attract them, comes. Some, due to their materiality, still gravitate towards its rough joys and cannot rise to higher, more spiritual joys, which are not yet available to them. What keeps others around us is their attachment to us. The best of them, that is, those who “there” have already achieved a certain spiritual improvement, receive a mission to their loved ones who are still living on earth. I will give examples that clearly explain the wondrous metamorphosis that is commonly called death. Ex-humans, as well as somnambulists, talk about the triplicity of our being: 1) the visible, earthly body; 2) internal ethereal organism; 3) “spirit” - a divine immortal spark, an eternal principle that animates the entire being. With the falling away of the grossly material body visible to us, its inner ethereal appearance remains associated with the “spirit,” still forming its distinctive characteristic, constituting its individuality, isolating its self. Endowed with a special inner vision,” 18 people who are usually called “mediumistic,” or sensitive to the “supersensible,” sometimes seeing more than most of us, are clearly convinced of the transformation that occurs in a person’s being at the moment of death, when the inner spiritual organism is released from the dying, outdated body. The famous clairvoyant A. Davis has the ability to spontaneously fall into a trance (somnambulistic sleep). At the moment of the death of an old woman close to him, having immersed himself in a state of trance, in which a person gets the opportunity to see with “unearthly eyes,” he could observe the release of a vaporous substance from the dying body, which soon formed into an image, young and charming, although in every way similar to the facial features of the dying old woman. This new appearance, full of life, gradually emerging from the mortal body, still clung to it with a thin stream of light. With the last breath, this last connection between the unearthly and the earthly was broken. To the story of this wondrous vision of his, Davis attaches a drawing: from the crown of the dying woman a young form emerged, the legs of which, as it were, had not yet been fully formed and merged with a stream of something that was still connected to the head of the earthly organism. The publisher of Borderiand, Mr. Stead, publishes in his magazine several cases of visual evidence of the separation of the “essence” at the moment of its earthly “shell” falling away from it. Here is one such case: “This was communicated to me in writing by a writer friend of mine, who until then had no religious convictions. Sitting near the crib of her dying, dearly loved baby, her niece, she mentally said to herself: “If, in fact, there is a soul in a person, if there really is a “future,” may it be given to me to see how life leaves this little creature dear to me!...” The child shuddered with his whole body... The last breath escaped from his chest. He was dead. But at that very moment his aunt saw with surprise that a grayish, foggy cloud emerged from the baby’s head and, gradually taking on the shape and features of the deceased child, this more obscure, more ethereal appearance of him, smoothly rising to the ceiling, disappeared from view” 19. She ended her letter like this: “Whether you believe or not believe my story, it will be completely indifferent to me, since now I know that we have a soul: I saw it!” And here is another similar case; A woman doctor spoke about him at a rally several years ago: “I know that it is customary to say: “I believe in the continuation of existence beyond the grave”... As for me, I saw a “soul” separated from its body at the moment of death!” 20. These words were met with doubts; but she continued calmly and confidently: “Not so long ago, a complete stranger to me was brought to my medical institution, whose illness had already undermined his body so much that I immediately decided that there was not the slightest possibility of curing him. After another day or two, the patient faded away before my eyes, while I stood near his bed, immersed in heavy thoughts only about the fact that I was unable to do anything to help the unfortunate man. When it was all over and the last breath flew out of the deceased’s chest, I stood for a few minutes at his bed, thinking that I should have notified his family about his death, when I suddenly felt someone’s presence near me. Turning towards this sensation, I was struck, as if by a thunderclap, when I saw standing next to me the perfect likeness of a person who had just died. This appearance seemed not to notice me. He looked at his corpse with an expression of bewilderment, surprise and, as it were, annoyance. I also turned to the corpse, looking at the indifferent, dull expression on his face. Then she looked again towards the double, but he was no longer there; however, now I know that I saw the “soul” of a person! The closest listeners to the story, female doctors, fell silent for several minutes. Then one of them smiled contemptuously and, turning to the narrator, said: – You must be a spiritualist, aren’t you? – No, I’m not a spiritualist. But from the moment I saw the “soul” with my own eyes, life took on a completely new meaning and significance for me. Further, Mr. Stead gives the following story from Mrs. S., whose husband recently died: “In April, the suffocation intensified even more, and the situation of my patient so inspired fear for his life that I did not go to bed, spending the night near his bed. However, by midnight he felt some relief. Fluffing his pillows higher, I helped him lie down, after which he fell asleep soundly, almost in a sitting position, and I sat down in the part of the room far from his bed, carefully lowered the lamp shade and began to read the book, looking up from reading from time to time, watching my husband’s every move. So I sat until dawn. My dear sufferer continued to sleep peacefully, like a child. Having turned off the lamp, I slowly, on tiptoe, left the room to do the housework. Soon after returning, I was struck by the strange position of the patient, who had rolled off the pillows and was lying flat on the mattress. Having felt my heart and pulse, I was convinced that they had stopped beating and that death had occurred... In great grief, I rushed around the room, loudly saying: “R. My dear! How could you leave me without telling me a single word? more beautiful, more alive and now shining with unearthly delight He seemed enlightened!... Standing at a distance of about fifteen inches from the head of the deceased, this living form was united with this now lifeless head, as if growing out of it. Amazed, but not frightened by the phenomenon, I did not lose my presence of mind for a second and only asked myself: “Is this an illusion? Perhaps this is a hallucination?... I want to know if this is true or just a deception?” For this purpose, I went to the window, opened it and looked out onto the street: then I turned again towards the bed... And again I saw a dear, joyfully shining face, with a calm gaze fixed on me, full of an expression of satisfaction, reaching the point of rapturous, sacred ecstasy. Would you believe it if I say that even here I still continued to doubt: I touched my pulse, approached the lifeless body, still asking myself - am I a victim of my own imagination?... But, wherever I went, these eyes followed me and in the expression of my beloved face, so familiar to me, I read: “You see - death does not destroy consciousness! I’m still the same and I still love you just the same!” Having finally received complete confidence, I was overcome by an excess of feelings of gratitude, elation and tranquility, due to the now complete conviction that I. Indeed, I saw the “soul” of my husband, and in the fact that he received the right and opportunity to dispel my doubts. From the fullness of my heart my lips began to speak, and I exclaimed: “My dear, I see, I recognize you! There is no death! Thank you for not leaving me without greetings!... Go away now and wait for me there.” From the expression of affection that illuminated this spiritual face, I saw that he heard me. But gradually, as if melting away, the appearance disappeared, and I returned to consciousness of reality and went to make orders, announcing to the servants about the death of the owner of the house. Returning to the room, I saw that now only a lifeless corpse lay in front of me. Such obvious evidence of the emergence of the “essence” from its earthly shell should serve as a means to wean us from the false fear of death, revealing to us a completely different, correct understanding of this wondrous transformation that takes place in due time in the being of each of us. We should think not with horror, but with love about the moment of our transition to the afterlife. And, in fact, “there” there is no cold, no hunger, no physical illness, no disappointments of any kind, no separation: all these are properties inherent only in the earth: there, according to the image of St. ap. Paul, such great bliss was prepared for all the saints that the eye did not see, the ear did not hear, and the heart did not come to what God has prepared for those who love him. What are we really afraid of? We are afraid of the unknown, often not at all believing in the existence of the continuation of life after the death of the mortal body. We are afraid of non-existence. We all have a love for life, and therefore death, at the moment of which we in most cases cannot clearly grasp the separation of the soul from the body, seems to us to be the end of the whole being. But here are compelling facts of manifestations that prove that, in addition to the world visible to us, there really exists, and very close to us, another sphere of existence, elusive to our senses, but which, from time to time, bursts into our area in order to remind us that our life is endless and that, after the change that has taken place in our being, it continues, but in more improved conditions of existence. These proofs are given to us in different ways, but all these ways come from the same area, the inhabitants of which, from time to time and under convenient conditions, try to remind us, immersed in the material darkness of concepts about things, of a better world, of which we will inevitably become citizens. One of the openings that gives us a means to look “there” is somnambulism. In essence, a person is the same “spirit” as an inhabitant of a better world, with the only difference that we are still burdened with our coarse material shell. Those of us who have the ability to fall asleep in a “higher sleep,” i.e., somnambulistic or trance sleep (which is the same thing), in this state, in part, with their “spirit” are so much on the verge of the next, extramaterial stage of existence that at this time, as if the body is dead, they get the opportunity to see and hear something in the super-earthly realm, which they sometimes talk about in their sleepy state. Somnambulists are at the borderline of two worlds because, due to deep fainting 21, their body, being in a state close to half-death, to a certain extent gives temporary freedom to the “spirit”, which can then hear and see something in the superterrestrial region. Being in such a state of duality, a somnambulist sometimes becomes clairvoyant and clairaudient. Depending on the degree of temporary separation of the somnambulist’s “essence” from his earthly, gross material body, he is in greater or lesser contact with another world. Some somnambulists see only earthly objects, hidden from most people, for example, they can determine the disease hidden in a person and sometimes give remedies against illnesses, as if receiving higher knowledge of things. Some can “essentially” be transported over long distances and, seeing what is happening there, give us news about our distant friends, whose letters soon confirm what the somnambulist said during the numbness of his body. Others speak from themselves, seeing much more with spiritual eyes. During somnambulistic sleep, a person becomes higher than his normal state: he often then speaks, and sometimes writes (mediums) about things unknown either to himself or to the people present, and therefore there can be no question of “instilling” thoughts into him by the personalities around him. All experimenters in this most interesting area of ​​the “human spirit” 22 certainly come across the duality of the human being, on the basis of which they base their conclusions about the eternity of the human “spirit” and about its existence separately from the earthly body, after the death of this latter. “Revelations of Somnambulists” all agree with each other in the main features, but each subject speaks in his own language, in his own words, and to the extent that it is possible for everyone to express what they saw and heard in the superterrestrial sphere. It can be difficult for them to convey quite accurately what concerns unearthly things, which, however, should not surprise us if we understand that our words can express only earthly things, earthly feelings, for which these words are only adapted. Here is an example of a conversation with a somnambulist: “A Case of Vision of the Spiritual World” (translation from German). The author of the article is Pastor Werner. The conversation takes place between him and his subject R. 23 Werner. You say that magnetic sleep is close to death or similar to it. Can you explain to me what they have in common? R. “I can.” Magnetic sleep is similar to death in that the “soul” leaves the body in exactly the same way. How this is done, I cannot explain to you exactly now. I can only picture my feelings. In my current state, I treat my body as the dwelling of the soul, through the windows of which, in an awake, normal state, I can look out of one or the other of its windows. In a somnambulistic state, I feel that my soul left the “house” and closed the door of its abode behind itself: therefore, I now see you and my body the way a third person sees a group of people foreign to himself. I stand on your left side and look at you and at my own body, recognizing myself as a separate being from you and from him.” Q. Does this happen after death? R. “Absolutely so. The only difference is that then returning to the body is no longer possible: the “door” is completely closed. But since the “spirit” can never do without the “soul”, being connected with it like the soul with the body, it cannot completely rise without it... And the “soul” is not as easily separated from the body as the “spirit”, which is essentially divine: only as a result of efforts the “soul” leaves the body, having much in common with it. Loving the body, gravitating towards it, she, leaving it, takes with her its properties (not always of an exalted quality), because these properties have become familiar, akin, fused with her, becoming one with her.” Q. Can you explain how the spirit and soul are connected with the body? R. “I’ll try. The soul is the inner feeling of a person. Through it the spirit expresses its activity. He gives it the impulse to express its manifestations externally: but in order for the soul to be able to manifest the action of the spirit with external organs, something is necessary that serves as a conductor that sets the body in motion and gives it vitality. It is a very subtle substance that forms part of the soul; together with it it permeates and fills all the smallest particles of the earthly body and serves as its connection with it.” Q. Isn’t this the so-called “neuro-psychic force”? R. In thought this is correct. This is what gives the body vitality and strength to act. But it’s not about the name.” Q. Where does this “neuro-psychic” force go after a person’s death? R. Based on the very essence of the soul, this force, due to its constant influence on the body and close contact with it, becomes more akin to the body. It serves as a means for the external expression of the impulses of the “soul” through the organs of the body. When the soul leaves the body, this subtle substance follows it. If it remained in the body, the latter would retain its vitality, despite the fact that the soul left it 24. An example of this is the current state of my earthly body. After the death of the body, the “nervous-psychic force” gradually loses its coarseness, which it drew from the material organism, and. finally, it is completely worn out by the soul, whose destiny is to finally and completely merge with the spirit, achieving the same enlightenment as it.” Q. But why does this power remain with the soul?... What duty does it perform after the death of the body?... R. “It continues to be an accessory of the soul and. although it is incomparably heavier and rougher than it, it still does not lend itself to our earthly vision. Upon transition to its new state, the soul cannot immediately free itself from this rough particle of itself: each soul takes with it a share of its earthly properties and aspirations, which is why it is drawn and adhered to the abandoned earth by this neuropsychic force. Souls, still very earthly, love to clothe themselves with neuropsychic force and through it give themselves a certain materiality. With the help of only material substance they can make themselves visible and audible to the inhabitants of the earth. Through this force they also produce sounds in the earth’s atmosphere.” When dying, a person no longer suffers, because the main points of connection between the body and soul are severed by the dying illness; twitching in the face and members of the body occurs as a result of the spirit’s efforts to separate itself from its earthly shell, which at the same time mechanically shudders, similar to how the outdated skin of a worm shudders and shudders when it is pulled together by its living contents, preparing to slip out of this already dead shell, which gave it the image of a worm, and, having left which, the same subject appears in a new form, in the form of a cocoon, taking “life” with it. With the final departure of life from it, the skin of the worm stops moving, since it was set in motion by what hatched from it. The transformation of a worm into a cocoon, and then a cocoon into a butterfly, is, of course, only a weak semblance of the great metamorphosis that turns an earthly creature into an ex-earthly one, but nevertheless it is a hint that serves us as clear proof that individual life does not stop with a change in the shell. Everything living on earth goes through a series of transformations, of which death is the highest and final metamorphosis that takes place within the confines of the earthly region. Further changes continue to take place in the individual beyond what is accessible to us and serve towards greater and greater spirituality of a person who has received life to achieve complete bliss, but through his own efforts on earth, subject to living faith in God and our Lord Jesus Christ, hope in him and fiery love for him and our neighbors, and also subject to living unity with the Orthodox Church of Christ. So, the normal process of transforming a person into an ex-person occurs painlessly, but in the event of a violent death or death from drowning, when the disease has not undermined the connection between the body and the soul, the gap between them, at least at the moment preceding the onset of death, must be accompanied by terrible torment, of course, of the body, and not the soul, since the soul cannot experience physical pain. Events that take place among people who do not understand the full magnitude of the phenomenon are especially significant when the active instruments are small children, as, for example, the following incident that occurred among people who are already completely illiterate. In 1892, a certain Anna Stuzina lived among our village servants, with her son Kolya, who was not yet four years old. Anna, a young and healthy peasant woman, did all the menial work in the house, and she lived in the house with the cook, Makarovna, who fell in love with Kolya and always told me about how “smart beyond his years” he was. From these stories it emerged that big-eyed, with plump pink cheeks, Kolyushka was filled with “worldly wisdom” and, despite his tender age, already knew how to be cunning and flatter when he needed it. To lure out a sweet piece, he, caressing, whispered to the cook: “Makavna, I don’t like mom!” I love you!" And the heart of childless Makarovna melted, and a cup of cottage cheese or a piece of fried meat appeared in front of the boy, who was generally very prone to eating excessively. Kolya did the same with his mother: when he wanted to lure something out of her, he kissed her; assuring that “Makavna is not single, but mother is single,” and that he only loves her, mother. I tell all this to characterize Kolya. Admiring a healthy, beautiful child, I used to think: “This one will live a long time! Such children do not die - they are a lump of walking matter!” But in fact it turned out that Stickleback, having been ill for only one week, passed into another, better world that same autumn. At first the illness seemed not dangerous, but Anna, not listening to my advice, allowed her son, who was bored in bed, to go play in the kitchen, where the floor was stone and cold, and the outer door constantly remained loosely closed, letting in fresh air from the street, and the child caught an even worse cold and finally fell ill with a sore throat. Two days before his death, Kolya said to his mother: “Come on, see you, mom!” - Where, son?... What soul? – asks a surprised Anna. “And there she is flying!... She’s one of us - and I’m not afraid!” - Kolya answers and points his finger to the ceiling. Having heard from Makarovna about the vision of the little patient, I told Anna to ask Kolya again about this “soul,” and I stood behind the door, so Kolya could not see me, but I could watch him through the crack in the door. Anna, who had now become more affectionate towards her child, lay down next to him on her large bed where he was lying, and, stroking him, asked: “Son! Is the soul still here? - “No, she flew away!” - Kolya answered; but suddenly the boy smiled and, pointing his finger upward, joyfully exclaimed: “Here she has arrived again! She’s single!...See you, mom?” The question is, where could Stickleback get the idea of ​​a soul flying above him?! And also that “she is one of ours, that is, that she is not a stranger, but a creature close to their family?! Of course, neither Anna nor Makarovna could instill in him the concept of a flying soul, since neither one nor the other was distinguished by religiosity, and the boy could only learn from them swear words that these women, both of a perky character, often treated each other to, quarreling over the most insignificant reasons... and suddenly - such a vision!... This child was busy eating for whole hours; his mother, who was burdened by him, was pleased when Kolya, sitting comfortably on a low bench against the wall in the kitchen, was completely immersed in devouring a large portion of porridge with milk. Therefore, when a bright messenger appeared to the boy, who, as one might think, received an order to be present at Kolya’s awakening in their world, it became clear to me that the child would certainly die. In the next manifestation of one recently deceased woman, the intended goal is especially clearly visible - to give her abandoned husband on earth strong evidence that she continues to exist and that it was she who manifested. In 1874, my husband’s sister, Ekaterina Andreevna Shskaya, died in Paris. At that time, in our provincial city of Simbirsk, there lived a lonely old woman, Mrs. Uzatis, who enjoyed the patronage and some help from the gentlemen Sh-skys, but, due to weakness of vision, and most importantly, due to her poor literacy, was not in correspondence with them and therefore did not know about the death of Mrs. Sh-skaya that had just happened. One day, at dusk, Mrs. Uzatis sees someone entering her room. - “Is that you, Arisha?” - she asked, thinking that it was the woman who was serving her, but, not receiving an answer, the old woman began to peer at the person approaching closer to her and, recognizing the one who had entered, went to meet her, joyfully exclaiming: “My dear, Ekaterina Andreevna, how long ago have you arrived?!...” But the one to whom these words were referring backed a little back from the open arms of the old woman, almost touching her, and suddenly disappeared. Ms. Uzatis then told her vision to several people, describing the costume she “thought” E.K. Sh-skaya was wearing:... “A wide, swinging gray hood, trimmed with crimson... On her head was a white cap...” Some time later, the husband of the deceased, having an estate in our province, visited Mrs. Uzatis while passing through Simbirsk. When she began to tell him that, not yet knowing about the death of his late wife, she saw E.A. enter the room where there was no one except Mrs. Uzatis herself, and began to describe the deceased’s attire, Sh-sky abruptly stopped the old woman: - Here, in any case, not everything is true! - he said. - True, the deceased was dressed in a gray silk hood, indeed, trimmed with crimson, which, at her request, I bought her ready-made shortly before her death, but she always wore it with a sash bought with the hood, and the deceased was, of course, belted with it. If we assume that, indeed, it was she who appeared to you in the very clothes in which she was laid in the coffin (she was, indeed, wearing a tulle cap), then she should certainly be wearing a sash!… “I don’t know anymore why she appeared to me without a sash, but I saw her in a hood that was not belted and fluttered widely on her!” – Mrs. Uzatis stood her ground. Upon returning to St. Petersburg to his orphaned family, who moved there after the death of his mother, Mr. Sh-sky, who was nevertheless struck by the fact that his late wife appeared in approximately the costume in which she was dressed when she was already dead, turned to the maid who was with E.A. until the very last minute of her life: - Dunyasha, the hood in which you dressed the deceased had a sash, and you belted her with it, didn’t you? – he asked. A little taken aback, Dunyasha answered: “Yes,” there really was a sash... But... I forgot to put it on her. ?... I was so confused that I forgot about the sash... Please forgive me! - Where is this sash?! – more and more surprised, asked Mr. Sh-sky. Dunyasha went to the room where the chests with things were kept, and brought exactly that crimson silk cord with tassels, which was part of a hood that was quite familiar to Mr. Sh, acquired by him himself at the request of his almost dying wife, who suddenly wished to have a new dress, having temporarily felt some improvement, as happens with consumptives. At that time I was in St. Petersburg and heard this story from Mr. Sh. himself, who was then under the first impression of this fact, which greatly amazed him. The details of the toilet in this case are of great importance. If E. A. Sh-skaya had appeared in some dress familiar to Mrs. Uzatis, Mr. Sh. might have thought that the old woman had fallen asleep and seen his late wife in a dream. But the fact of the matter is that Ms. Uzatis knew nothing about the gray hood, the swing style, and, most importantly, the absence of a sash. These details of the toilet of the reappearing Mrs. Sh. served as true proof (they gave a test, as the English say) of the appearance of this particular departed one. The “sash,” no matter how insignificant it was in itself, played a big role in the life of Mr. Sh., whose views suddenly took a different turn, and he died fully believing that individual life has no limit. By the way, I will mention that a few days before his death, Mr. Sh. predicted the day and hour of his transition to another world, explaining this by the fact that his “Katya” promised him (he saw her in a dream) to come for him exactly then; and that, apparently, the deceased had fulfilled her promise, because, joyfully pronouncing her name, the dying man breathed his last. For those who live an outer life, who are exclusively occupied with everyday objects, all this will seem like “nonsense”, which is not worth dwelling on for a single second. Let them think like that for the time being. The “hour” will come for them too when their thoughts will take a more spiritual turn, and they will stop considering “nonsense” everything that does not relate exclusively to questions about their daily bread and earthly well-being. Having read about the appearance of the late E. A. Sh-skaya; readers have the right to object. “Why, instead of showing herself to the old woman Uzatis, did she not show herself to her husband, the closest person to her on earth?... Why not to her children?...” Former ex-humans do not reveal to us all the conditions of their sphere, since much must remain a secret to us, they say. However, from what they are allowed to communicate to us, we know that they can become visible only to those of us who are gifted with the ability that we call mediumship, that is, that special sensitivity that makes it possible to capture or perceive the manifestations of ex-humans. There is no doubt that the late E. A. Sh-skaya had the most ardent desire to show herself to her husband and that the purpose of her manifestation was intended precisely, one way or another, to influence the consciousness of Mr. Sh., but that he, not gifted with the ability to sense the presence of unearthly beings, she did not have the opportunity, was not able to directly influence, and therefore chose a different path, appearing to Mrs. Uzatis, who has the gift of perceiving manifestations “from there,” and so by, at least indirectly, declaring to him about himself and about a different life. As for why E.A. didn’t show herself to her children, she understood no worse than us how little importance is attached to children’s stories in general, not trusting their truthfulness. If she showed herself to her children, the elders would say that “they imagined it,” and would strictly forbid them to repeat “such nonsense,” fearing that “the children’s imagination would upset their nerves” and, in general, would affect their health. Manifestations of sensitivity and related facts of clairvoyance among illiterate people, by the solemnity of their revelations, serve as the best confirmation of the phenomena that from time to time burst into our dim earthly region to remind us of the existence next to us of a country where everything obeys the law of love, in its highest meaning. The village of Shishmarevo, stretching along a narrow river for four miles, recently belonged to my relatives B-m. Away from the peasant houses, on the outskirts of the village, in her cell, lived Matryona Ilyinichna, an elderly peasant woman who, from a young age, voluntarily gave up marriage, devoting herself to serving her family. Subsequently, having buried all her loved ones, she began to worry about how to be of help to every stranger. Her good deeds became known, since it is difficult to hide them in the village. At first people from surrounding villages came to her for advice, and then they began to come from afar. And not only ordinary people looked to Matryona Ilyinichna for moral support, since she was a real “doctor of the soul”: everyone left her comforted or, at least, reassured. Gradually, insight developed in her, which intensified over the years, to the detriment of her physical powers, especially vision: the weakened earthly body, while still alive, to some extent, at times gave freedom to her soul, freeing it from its bonds, allowing her to foresee the circumstances of those who visited her and predict the future for them; her predictions that were confirmed further strengthened her reputation as “pleasing to God.” The landowner himself, as well as the local priest, willingly visited the wise old woman, sitting with her for an hour or two, talking about religion and marveling at her natural intelligence when she talked not only about prayer, but also about everyday matters, the affairs of her admirers and acquaintances. Matryona Ilyinichna also had visions. She predicted to the priest of this village his imminent death, and he appeared to her after his death, talking with her about his new condition. She also predicted the death of the owner of this estate. But I want to tell you about one incident in her dreams. In the manorial estate of the village of Shishmareva, the old housekeeper Elikonida Markelovna, who had been living in retirement for a long time, was dying. For three days she had been without a tongue and lay with her eyes closed; only her rare breathing proved that life in her had not yet completely died out. Suddenly, the niece of Matryona Ilyinichna, who was serving her, came and, going up to the dying woman, bowed to her from the waist, and then said: “Auntie ordered to congratulate you on the arrival of dear guests - God's bright messengers!” The dying woman slowly raised her eyelids, which had already been closed for three days, and, to the surprise of those present, answered: “Thank you!... I see!” “Then she fell into oblivion again and soon gave up the ghost. Those who were present told me about it themselves. Now the questions arise: what kind of messengers are these?... Why did they come?... Where could this peasant woman have come up with them, if she had not been clairvoyant, and if the presence of missionaries, waiting for the moment of this soul’s transfer into their power, had not been the surest, greatest of truths. If “messengers” did not really exist, why would this God-fearing, pious old woman, who considered the slightest lie a great offense before the Almighty, invent them? Where does this identity of revelation come from if everything were just a figment of the imagination? Is this really “just women’s nonsense?” These repeating “glimpses”, always the same in meaning, don’t they serve as a bright ray of light in the darkness in which we live, suddenly illuminating the thoughts of those of us whose intellect is capable of perceiving and grasping this light. I repeat: I would very much like gentlemen materialists to put aside their arrogance for a while, at least for a while, give themselves the trouble to think, and then conscientiously answer the question: why in all corners of the earth, among the most diverse social situations, in the chronicles of almost every family there are memories of phenomena similar to those that I had the opportunity to observe? insect body, which scientists are working so hard to study. After all, we are talking about the continuation of our existence beyond the boundaries of earthly life, and a solution to this issue in a positive sense on the part of the luminaries of science would completely change the views of the majority, the moral level of which, due to complete disbelief in the future life caused by the one-sided explanation of the laws of nature by these same scientists, is currently so low that they have no other aspirations except the desires to please their physical and selfish motives. Is it rare to hear: “What is the desire, what is the need to break yourself and think about the so-called “neighbor”?!... Why your notorious self-improvement?! Why would I break myself and take care of my spiritual side, which, sooner or later, must die, since everything ends with death! The new generation would have lived completely differently, with tenfold energy, if they had seen a reasonable goal ahead for the fight against their selfishness! Let the deniers of our immortality, for example, Mr. Bitner, forced to acknowledge the phenomena, but without thinking long about their deep meaning, irrevocably decided that they are all explained by telepathy and the power of electricity saturating the human body (you will think that no one had thought of this before Mr. Bitner!) - and that soon it will be possible to completely discard any participation of “spirits” in these phenomena - let him use only electricity, one telepathy, that is, these unreasonable forces alone, without the participation of thinking beings operating them, would have sensibly explained to us where Elder Matryona Ilyinichna got the “bright messengers” from, and why she, living two miles from the master’s house, not two days or a day, but almost at the moment of the death of the old housekeeper, sent her niece to congratulate her on the arrival of dear guests? Why could a dying woman, who had already been lying like a living corpse for several days, open her eyes and say that she “sees them?...” The gentlemen “Bitners” authoritatively assert that “with death everything, everything ends,” and believe that they have a reasonable right, with one stroke of the pen, to solve an issue that they have never seriously delved into and have not taken the trouble to look “on the other side of the coin,” focusing exclusively on its external side. We cannot reject a fact just because we don’t like it, but mainly because we cannot yet accommodate it. Why compare yourself to a famous astronomer who did not want to admit the fall of aerolites, since “neither stone nor iron can fall from the sky!?” (Extracted in abbreviation from “Rebus” 1899, No. 13–17; 19–21; 23–24; 26; 28–30; 45; 47). From a letter from Prince D.K. U-va to the rector of the Kazan Seminary, arch. Platonov (after Archbishop Kostroma): written on September 10, 1842 From a letter from Zadonsk hieromonk Zosima to V.A.K. b dated January 21, 1860. For detailed information about her life, presented by A. Kovalevsky, see December. book “Soulful. read." 1871 As far as I remember, my aunt’s mother ended her life in displeasure with her. I loved my aunt very much; she was a remarkably intelligent, strictly moral woman, deeply respected by everyone who knew her. This story, the authenticity of which we cannot vouch for, is placed here as an excellent illustration of the feelings experienced during the transition to the afterlife. Prot. G. D-ko. Council against the heresy of Pelagius and Celestius. See for example Illiad 17.44 art.: Odysse. 18, 130. The opinion of the ancient Pelagnans and the newest rationalists. See op. Lekkn: “History of the emergence and influence of rationalism in Europe”, p. 220, etc. The Wisdom and Goodness of God, p. 235. See our historical, theological and philosophical study: on the preparation of the human race for the adoption of Christianity. Priest Gr. Dyachenko. Note from the compiler: the article by Ms. Saburova, distinguished by its extraordinary liveliness of presentation, and true in its main features to the main points of the Christian teaching about death and the afterlife, in particulars contains some extremes of spiritualistic teaching with which it is impossible to agree. This is the teaching about the astral body of the soul, received immediately after the death of the soul (instead of the glorified body after the general resurrection), such are the expressions: ex-man (v. spirit of the deceased), missionary spirits (v. guardian angels), etc. It is necessary to keep this in mind when reading this article. Here we are talking about the disembodied soul and the astral (ethereal) shell and what we mentioned in the note at the beginning of this article. An exaggeration, for only by the special will of God there are rare cases of apparitions of the dead. Prot. G. D-ko. This vision is inherent in all of us, but for the majority it is in a latent state, that is, it does not manifest itself in the “co-material”, earthly state of a person. The icons (of the Orthodox Church) of the Dormition of the Mother of God, where the soul of the Mother of God is depicted as a baby in the arms of the Savior, to a certain extent, and only to a certain extent, make this assumption somewhat plausible. Prot. G. D-ko. Let us note that some saints, for example Anthony the Great and others, were honored to see the souls of the dying in a sensual image. Prot. G. D-ko. The word “fainting” speaks volumes about the state of collapse of a person. From among them we will name: Dr. Kerner, Dr. Zhnbier, Baron Hellenbaz, du Prel. The article was written in 1847. Werner at that time was a pastor in the town of Beckelsbers-Stulz on the Rhine. It must be assumed that a particle, although small, of this vital force still remains in the corpse, judging by the fact that, while it has not yet decomposed, plant life continues to act in it: nails, as well as hair on a shaved face, are found growing a little on corpses that for some reason were dug up some time after their burial. You might be interested in: